Pete's Reviews and Sermons

Carol Service Sermon (@Christ Church 13 Dec 2011) "Christmas starts with Christ(?)"

2011-12-21T17:39:00.000Z

Christmas Starts with Christ - Pagan beginnings
At one level this is patently untrue. Jesus was most definitely not born on December 25, not in December at all. We have very little evidence when He was born, but the stories indicate that it was most likely towards the end of September. Then the weather would still have been good enough for Shepherds to be outside overnight. In December it was too wet and cold for that. So how did we get to December 25?
In the early Christian world there were many activities that we would find outrageous and entirely unacceptable . There was a winter solstice festival celebrated in ancient Rome called Saturnalia. The festival celebrated the return of the unconquered sun. The days had been shortening, now they were lengthening again, the sun was returning. It lasted a full week, ending on December 25th. In pagan Rome the law courts were suspended, charges of drunkenness, criminal damage, criminal injury and rape could not be made. The festival was characterized by naked singing in the streets. On the last day, someone was chosen as an enemy of Rome, they were fed generously then attacked and killed.
The early Christians were appalled at the excesses of this festival (along with much of the rest of life in Rome) and put an alternative festival on the day.
Much as we do on Halloween with our lights parties.
The birth of Jesus was a good choice – it picks up on the equivalent Christian symbolism. The son of God is born, the light of the world has come, sin and darkness will be banished forever, we celebrate the coming of brighter days ahead.
When the Empire became officially Christian the Saturnalia festival was still widely supported and the official celebration of Christmas encouraged, with much of the over indulgence of Saturnalia being left in place so as not to upset too many of the population.
Then, just as there is now, there was a tension between Christ at Christmas and the other festivities that take place at that time of year. Most of the traditions that go with Christmas have come from other pagan festivals from other times and other cultures, as Christianity spread throughout the world.

Christmas Starts with Christ - Times are changing
I've already use the title 'Light of the World' to describe Jesus. It's especially true that a new baby brings light and hope into our lives. When there is a birth among family or friends we make an effort to visit the baby as soon as we can.
I can remember visiting my sister when she gave birth to her first child (He's 30 now). I knew nothing about babies and was very tentative. I bent over the cot next to the hospital bed to get a closer look. A small fist shot up, and only because I was young and had good reactions did I avoid a black eye.
I remember when our God Child was born desperately trying to find the hospital in a strange town, and then struggling to find the maternity ward which seemed miles away. All that effort just to visit a baby, who will never have any memory of your visit.
We visit partly out of politeness , I'm sure, but also because babies represent our hope for the future.
We get a phone call and we go to visit, the shepherds went to worship, but then the announcement they received was somewhat more impressive than a phone call. The baby they were visiting represented hope for the future, not just for them and their families but for the whole world.
Most of us have about six months to prepare for the arrival of a new baby. That's when the expectation begins. What will he or she be like, what effect will they have on us and on the world around them.
We've heard the prophecies of Jesus' birth, they were hundreds of years before the birth. “ … the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
That's a lot to expect!
This child, though, changed the course of History. His death on the cross paid for our sins and allowed us to make peace with God, and even to have good will to all men.
For a baby like that you'd expect an impressive announcement when He finally does arrive and you'd expect a good attendance. That's just what Jesus got. Wise men – Magi – Astrologers from the east traveled for many miles, so far that they didn't arrive until He was described as a Child.
Christmas then began with Christ. There is biblical evidence for the celebration of His birth.

Christmas Starts with Christ - Today
Again it looks like it's just not true. Christmas, it seems begins with Marks & Spencer’s, and in September too – very appropriate! We must remember though that for many Christmas is a festival of gluttony and laziness, because they do not know what they're celebrating. So much mythology is incorporated into our tradition it's hard for someone who doesn't attend church to work out what's real and what isn't. They're in danger of throwing out the baby [pause].
If Christmas begins with Christ it is up to Christians to show that.
There's nothing wrong with preparing for a celebration and having everything ready in good time, but when it comes to the celebration we must be sure that it's Jesus we are celebrating.
When I first joined this church the group of friends I was among used to meet at the midnight communion and exchange presents after the service. The pattern was worship first and celebrate second.
When we first had our own children we continued the tradition. About 11pm we got them up, put them in the car in their pyjamas, dressing gowns and coats, and took them to church. The only babies, the only toddlers, the only children at midnight communion (in this church anyway). We continued the pattern of putting Jesus first – worship first, then celebration. Not only that NONE of them EVER got up early in the morning on Christmas day!
There are many things we can do during advent to prepare for the celebrations. Attending some of the special services, like the Carol service. Delivering invitations, keeping appropriate advent calendars, using an advent wreath at home. Whatever it is we must be sure that Christ is the focus, just as He should be in the rest of our lives. That way our Christmas really can begin with Christ – and end with Christ.

There's a Christmas song from the seventies you may remember: 'I believe in Father Christmas' by Emerson, Lake and Palmer the last verse reads:

I wish you a hopeful Christmas
I wish you a brave new year
All anguish pain and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear
They said there'll be snow at Christmas
They said there'll be peace on earth
Hallelujah Noel be it heaven or hell
The Christmas you get you deserve

If our Christmas begins with Christ and continues with Him, the Christmas we get will be far better than the one we deserve.

1 Thes 5:12-24

2011-12-17T14:20:00.001Z

Introductory Question
What does Christ Church Expect of us in terms of our behavior?
[Get Responses]
Reading 1 Thessalonians 5:12-24

Sermon
The Thessalonian church was a young church. Indeed all the churches we read about in the New Testament were young churches. This church was founded by Paul you can read about that in Acts chapter 17. The young Christians were learning fast how to live the Christian life. They had received praise for how well they were doing and were known as a dynamic congregation, {ref} but there was still a long way to go.
New Life / New Language
Tom Wright describes learning the Christian life as like learning a new language. As a young child learning languages comes naturally. Once you are older there is grammar to learn, which inevitable means learning rules, otherwise like Yoda you will always sound. After a while though these new rules become natural, you no longer have to think about them, so you no longer sound like Yoda.
It's similar with the Christian life, there are rules that make living the life easier, once you know them and are practiced in living with them they become natural and don't require thought.
Even with a new language, (or even with an original one) its often worth re-visiting the rules to see if you've fallen into bad 'abits.
So lets take a look at some of the things Paul says and see how well we did.
1Th 5:12 Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you.
The very first thing that Paul asks of the Thessalonians is that they have respect for their leaders. [Comment?] Those, he says are the ones that work hard among you. He says similar things in other letters too. To Timothy he says:
1Ti 5:17 The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honour, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.
Well, I would pick that verse wouldn't I? Of course it only works if you believe that the affairs of the church are well directed.
The author of the letter to the Hebrews says:
Heb 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for that would be of no advantage to you.
So we are to have respect for our leaders, but then there's that word 'admonish'. Not a word I hear in everyday conversation. According to thefreedisctionary.com it has three meanings:
1. To reprove gently but earnestly.
2. To counsel (another) against something to be avoided; caution.
3. To remind of something forgotten or disregarded, as an obligation or a responsibility.
I wonder how you feel about being admonished. My reaction is often very defensive “Who do you think you are?” “What gives you the right ...?” “Take the plank out of your own eye ...”. I may not say it, (although I might – and more!) but you can bet I'm thinking it. I can remember that my reaction was like that when I was spoken to by someone who I believed needed some lessons in moral living. It was a reaction and when I thought about it a bit more, and prayed about my anger, I realized there was some truth in it.
I wonder now who I would readily accept admonishment from. It depends, of course, on the issue and the approach – the key is in the first definition – to reprove GENTLY but EARNESTLY.
So let me leave that as a question for you to discuss over coffee.
Who would I accept admonishment from?
1Th 5:13b Live in peace with each other.
Peace does not mean we never have disagreements, but it does mean they must be settled with discussion and prayer. It also means that our disagreements must never turn into fights – that just leads to factionalism and beaks up the fellowship. Later, before communion there will be an opportunity to make your peace with any one you have anything against. That's what the time is supposed to be for – not just a general greeting to all around the church. I know it's said often – but that's because it's important and true – if you have anything between you and someone else in the congregation – make your peace BEFORE you take communion.
1Th 5:14 And we urge you, brothers, warn those who are idle, encourage the timid, help the weak, be patient with everyone.
One preacher I read calls these the “won't dos”, the “want tos” and the “can't do's”.
First the idle – the won't do's – what should we warn them about? I am a firm believer in 'every member ministry', or the priesthood of all believers, or whatever you would like to call it.
1 Peter 2:9 "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light."
Revelation 5:10, "You [that's Jesus] have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth"
I believe that everyone has something to offer to the rest of the body of Christ. If someone constantly refuses to take part in anything at all, then they are in danger of becoming detached from the congregation, and no longer being a part of the church. We would not want that to happen to any one, so we must warn them.
The timid – the want tos – are characterized by the phrase “I'd like to but I couldn't ...”, or something similar. I'm assuming that their response is the truth and not an excuse. Paul says that we should encourage these people so that they will eventually try something – and probably be a great success at it.
The weak – the can't do's – those that have genuine difficulty taking part in any type of ministry. These people need our support and help in doing whatever it is that are trying to do.
Be patient with everyone – let everyone travel on the road at their own speed – there is no minimum speed in the Christian life, the only need is to keep moving in the right direction. There are plenty of times when I haven't even managed that. Had I been condemned or rejected I would not be here now!
1Th 5:15 Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.
This is the recipe for living in peace, but it goes deeper than that. You've heard the expression “Don't get mad, get even”, I'm sure. In the Christian life neither getting mad, nor getting even is an option. When you accept Christ into your life any “rights” that you may have had in this area must be given up.
It means the end of the fear of reprisals, blood feuds and vendettas. It's the start of genuinely living in peace.
1Th 5:16 Be joyful always;
1Th 5:17 pray continually;
1Th 5:18 give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
How can I be joyful when I get out of the bed the on the wrong side, let alone when more serious problems occur in life. Here's a blog someone wrote on this verse, its called
“When God says always does He really mean ALWAYS?
Like ALL the time?
No matter what?
Without exception?
Every time?
Every circumstance?
Could He possibly mean THAT?
I mean- how is that even possible. Today I woke up with the remains of a migraine that will not quite go away and that has interposed on my sleep for two nights. Was I supposed to be joyful for THAT?
This afternoon I was ready to strangle someone I love very much. Someone I have cared and nurtured for many years. Was I supposed to be joyful THEN?
When I got home a car wouldn't start and we had to jump it. Was i supposed to be joyful THEN?
When I finally got inside, out of the cold wind (was I supposed to be joyful when I was cold?) and was met at the door with a "We have something to tell you" and the look from the supervising sibling that communicated that serious parental intervention was required. Then? Was I supposed to be joyful THEN?
REALLY?
Yes. Really! I was. Supposed to be that is. I wasn't. Joyful I mean.
How could God expect me to feel joy in all these circumstance? Uh- well- I guess He didn't command me to feel anything. He really just commanded me to BE something and He was gracious enough to tell me how.
Praying continually. Being thankful.
If I am supposed to be praying continually then it must mean that I am going to need a lot more of God and a lot less of me in order to be joyful.
And if I am "giving thanks in all thing" I am going to be awfully busy. In fact I will have little time left over for feeling sorry for myself or feeling angry at mistakes or envious of another's abundance.
So I think I better have a "do over" today- Thank you Lord for the headache: thank You that I have to slow down, and for medicine that can work, and family that cares that I am in pain.
Thank you Lord for the mistake of my child: thank You for the opportunity for a lesson to be learned, and thank You for ready solutions, and thank you for the opportunity I will have to apologize when he gets home, and thank You for love that covers a multitude of sins.
Thank You Lord for a car with a bad battery: thank You for a responsible son who doesn't expect me to fix everything for him, and thank You for jumper cables, and thank You for a car at all and that it still runs after 180,000 miles.
Thank You for the cold wind: I like sweaters.
Thank you Lord for my young child and her sins: thank You for the chance to share how You hate lies, and thank You that You hate lies, and thank You for creative ideas, and thank You for a big sister who cares for her younger sister, and thank You that I was with her for this valuable lesson.
Thank You that I do not have feel happy to BE joyful.”
1Th 5:19 Do not put out the Spirit’s fire;
1Th 5:20 do not treat prophecies with contempt.
Some of the men from Christ Church recently attended the CVM mens day called “Iron Sharpens Iron”. Carl Beech, who used to be at the Baptist Church, told a story that illustrates why we should listen to Gods spirit and never reject what He is saying to us.
He'd been doing door to door evangelism. At one house the woman had be very abusive and told him to get lost. You can imagine the language! Some time later he was walking down the same street and the spirit said “knock on that door”. Carl was not impressed, but he knocked on the door as an act of obedience. He received much the same response as the previous time. A while later, and walking down that same road again he heard “knock on that door”. This time the act of obedience was much harder to perform than the last time – but the result was very different. He was invited in! She explained that she had been preparing to kill her self when he first called and that God had been speaking to her about his next visit!
The Holy Spirit speaks into our lives in many different ways, recently, on our weekend away we were assured of God's love for all of us. This is prophecy – God speaking to us – it is intended to make a difference, just as predictions of the future are intended – mostly – not to come true!
1Th 5:21 Test everything. Hold on to the good.
Scripture!, Scripture! Scripture!
It's the only place we can go to find out if the messages we are receiving really do come from God, or whether the enemy is conning us.
My DIYers Bible contains everything you need to know to repair and improve your home – except mine doesn't talk about plastic water pipes because it was written in the seventies and things change.
People don't; God doesn't. The Bible was written 2000+ years ago and is just as relevant now as it was then!
1Th 5:22 Avoid every kind of evil.
Run Away!
This is the only thing the Bible tells you not to get involved in something.
1Th 5:23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Th 5:24 The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.
Jesus is faithful. He has already done it! He has made it possible for you to be at peace with God. Through His death on the cross our sins can be forgiven and our relationship with the Holy one restored. Through his resurrection we are shown the life to come.
1Th 5:23 May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Th 5:24 The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.

Sarah Millican @ Hammersmith (10 Nov)

2011-11-18T19:51:00.001Z

Having seen her on TV, it was generally agreed that it would be good to see her live. Our daughter duly obliged and booked some tickets. So off to Hammersmith we went. The theatre itself started it's life as a 1930's cinema. It's been through a lot, no doubt, but is now in need of a facelift. I do hope they remove the fly-paper floor coverings from beneath the seats.
Sarah starts slowly. I was beginning to wonder when she would really get going, but get going she does. By the time the interval arrived I'd all but forgotten the slow start. The second half started as the first ended.
Her subjects are relationships and bodily functions. Many of the jokes would keep an eight year old boy amused, but also work well with adults. She is different from her TV appearance character. The jokes are cruder, sometimes with a yuk factor thrown in. Most notably there is prolific swearing. She says she likes to swear. Personally, I don't care what she likes - what she does needs to be funny, that's why I came to see her. Swearing is NOT funny in its own right. With one or two exceptions it did not enhance the comedy at all - so should probably be left out. Especially in the second half there is a degree of audience interaction. This leads some of the more outgoing ones (drunk ones?) to think they can take on the comic. It really doesn't matter how she deals with this, insults, tirades etc all enhance the show - the audience in general is very much on her side, but the clever building of jokes against them is by far the best and really enhances the show. We had one excellent example of that.
So, if you don't mind the subjects and the style you will find the shows very funny. I'm glad I went, it was an enjoyable evening.

Reaching out - Ideas for Action (Luke 5:30)

2011-10-30T12:41:00.000Z

Reading Luke 5:30
But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and ‘sinners’?”
What did Jesus Do?
Instead of the question What Would Jesus Do, lets look at the question What Did Jesus Do?
I've made a short simple list of the things Jesus did while he was with his disciples. I doubt very much it is anything like complete, but I thought it would be good to get your ideas, so how would you answer the question “What did Jesus Do?”
[Get Answers]
Here's my list:
Preaching
Matthew chapters 5,6,7 – Sermon on the mount
Feeding people (5000+) Luke 9:10-17
Sacrificial love – death end of any gospel
Teaching – disciples and others (woman at the well) - John 4:1-42
Fulfilled prophecy (deliberately) – e.g. donkey Matthew 21
Friendships – Zacchaeus Luke 19:1-10
Time for people (non-Jews!) Luke 19:1-10 Luke 7:1-10
Prayer (did it and taught it)    Luke 11:1-4
Time with God     Early morning prayer    Mark 1:35
Prophesied    build the temple in three days     John 2:19
Studies / learns scripture    temptation Luke 4:1-13
Healing Luke 7:1-10 – The centurions slave
If we are serious about being more and more like Jesus, surely we should try to do all of these things.
Jesus led a balanced life and used his time wisely. I often think that I don't achieve that. Warner spoke last week about making time for the things in our lives that are really important – the people that we live and associate with. Today we are going to look at some of the strategies that may be used to make good use of the time that we freed up after last weeks talk. (OK, I haven't freed up any time yet – but I'm working on it!)
In my first talk in this series on making Jesus better known (September 10, 2011) I looked at what God thought of people, and found out that every person on the planet – every one of the seven billion of them - is important to God.
Guilty by association?Unlike God we can't know all seven billion, but we can get to know those around us. Many of the people that we associate with are not PLU's. Some of you may remember Carrie , our first youth worker teasing us in a sermon with the acronym PLU – does anyone remember what it means?
[Ask]
The answer is: “People like us”
The suggestion here is that we should be more involved with non-PLUs – people who are not so like us. But doesn't the Bible tell us to steer clear of these people. It certainly seems to:
James 4:4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
What about John, in his letter he says:
1 John 2:15-17
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
John, in his gospel said:
John 17:14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
Even Paul warns about contact with the world:
1 Corinthians 5:9-10
9 I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. 11 But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with anyone who claims to be a brother or sister but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or slanderer, a drunkard or swindler. Do not even eat with such people.
And in his second letter Paul says:
2 Corinthians 6:17 Therefore,
   “Come out from them
   and be separate, says the Lord.
Touch no unclean thing,
   and I will receive you.”
So are we guilty by association, or should we be looking at other scriptures to get a more balanced view?
Let's start with James: He has already said earlier in his letter:
James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
John in his gospel goes on to say:
John in his letter is speaking about the things of the world and the attitudes of its people. He is not talking about the people. I'll talk about this more later.
John 17:15-18
15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.
Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians is talking about Christians -people in the church – PLUs, not people outside in the world.
As an aside, do you know that the Barna group in America found that Christian faith has little or no effect on peoples behaviour. Only evangelicals stood out – along with those who are atheists or agnostics. Its clearly always been a problem – so perhaps the non-PLUs are not so different!
In his second letter to the Corinthians Paul is talking about close partnerships, like business partnerships and marriages. He is not talking about being friendly with the next door neighbour or the guy in the pub.
FriendshipPaul also said, in
1 Corinthians 9:22-23
22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
And finally we should look at what Jesus said
Luke 19:10
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.
Paul was able to pull off being like the people he was trying to reach so that they saw him as a PLU. That made it easier to befriend them. He managed that without compromising his faith in any way.
Jesus clearly believes that He is here for those who do not know God, those who are lost in their sins. So, if we are to engage in His mission, and make friends with those in the outside world we must be sure that it is us who are influencing them and not the other way around. We must not find ourselves in a position where we want what the world has to offer in preference to what Christ has already given us, neither must we allow behaviour to make us indistinguishable for the people we are friendly with. To ensure that it is our influence that prevails we must have an approach like St Paul:
2 Corinthians 10:4-5
4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
We can only achieve this when we have a balanced life and a group of people praying for us. But our perceived lack of knowledge or our fears that we are too far from God can also be an excuse to do nothing. There are many possible excuses. My favourite is that I have no idea what to do. Perhaps we should just talk about it some more
[Life_Of_Brian_PFJ_meeting_to_take_action]
Ideas for ActionWell, they will never achieve anything, but here are some ideas that might just help. They're not mine, they come from the Book “Becoming a Contagious Christian”.which our series is based on.
These ideas are not new, even in the book. The first is based on the verse before the one I read at the start of today's talk.
Luke 5:29. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them.
1. Mix it up a bit, get everyone you know in a huge hall and let everybody get on with it! You might have to brief the Christians before hand so that they know not to stand in a little huddle in the corner, or hide in the kitchen.
2. We could start a tradition – hold a party for our neighbours on a bank holiday – let's choose one when it's usually wet and cold (plenty of choice) that should give them less of an excuse not to come.
3. We already hold events and activities for children, but don't let that put us off doing similar things in different places, different ways and at different times.
4. Organise a sports training event and invite people from the local sports club or gym.
5. It might be as simple as holding a barbecue for friends and neighbours
6. or inviting people to our houses to watch some great sporting event. There will be all sorts of initiatives for the Olympics, but it could be for Wimbledon, or the FA Cup Final, or any other event that catches our interest.
7. Joins a sports club or take a friend and use the time to share something of our beliefs
8. Spend some time with people at work, if that's possible. Getting to know them better at lunch, or after the work day is over.
9. Make contact with some old school friends, but don't do it on Friends re-united. Contact them and get together face-to-face
10. Start to make an effort to talk to the people you meet in pubs, supermarkets, or restaurants where you go regularly, or even on the train station or at the bus stop.
ConclusionIt was Jesus' mission, Paul's mission and it is our mission also. We, like the evangelicals in the Barna survey, recognise that we have a responsibility to personally pass on our faith, after all Christ Church's tag line is “Knowing Jesus better and making Jesus better known”. If you accept that Jesus died for your sins and opened the way back to God - If you accept that His resurrection proves that we have eternal life then how can you not try to explain, convince or otherwise argue your point with anyone willing to listen – as hard as we find it!
I hope that what I have said today may help us find some more willing listeners.

People Matter to God

2011-09-10T16:09:00.001+01:00

Reading
Lk 15:10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
Introduction
“Becoming a Contagious Christian”
This morning we are starting a new series. We are going to be working through the book “Becoming a Contagious Christian” by Bill Hybels and Mark Mittleberg. I'm sure that we'd all like to be contagious Christians wouldn't we?
If you said 'yes' to that then this series is for you.
I have the privilege of the first chapter. It's title is “People Matter to God”, so I will use that as the title of this sermon.
Americans & Motivation
In the first chapter the authors start by talking about what motivates us. They are American, and have a different view of motivation than us English. I have worked for American companies for most of my working life and have been subject to their beliefs on motivation many times. One of my training courses gave some statistics on the motivational effects of pay rises. If I remember correctly people given pay rises work harder for just a few weeks, after that the motivational effect of the pay rise has passed. Motivation comes from within. What we are motivated to do is made up of our God given character and the cumulative effects of the experiences we have had over the years.
So there's nothing we can do to 'get motivated'.
No! That's not true, because God works from within. He can and will change our motivations, especially so if we ask him to.
Our motivation is shown by what we do or don't do. If something is important to you, you will be motivated to do something about it.
People matter to God
If people matter to God, then from what I have just been saying He should be motivated to look after them and care for them. We can see this is the case within creation. He has placed us in a world that is ideally suited to our needs. Life can be harder in some places and easier in others, but God knows that we need problems to solve and difficulties to overcome. He wants each of us to treat others the way that He treats them. After spending a few verses telling the Israelite that their sacrifices are unacceptable to Him because of their constant sin He goes on to say (from the end of verse 15 in Isaiah chapter 1) “Your hands are full of blood; wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.”
We see similar things in Jesus ministry. In Luke 8 there is the story of the man healed of demon possession, and Jairus' daughter whose healing he interrupted to speak to the woman who touched his robe. There are many other stories of Jesus concern for individual who he did not know.
The three stories in Luke 15
People matter to God.
These three stories that we had heard today show the lengths that God will go to to reach people. Lets take a look at them now and see what Jesus is getting at.
Lost sheep
Firstly there is the story of the lost sheep. Shepherds were considered to be the lowest of the low – all of them lying, idle, thieving cheats, but Jesus makes this shepherd the hero of the story. It does not begin well. The shepherd has lost a sheep – that's typical, they can't even keep watch over a few sheep. Then it gets worse. “Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it?” No! He doesn't! Not even a bad shepherd abandons the sheep that he has while he goes in search of the one lost sheep. The other ninety nine are left untended and are vulnerable to wolves and bears, and that's assuming that none of them will wander off.
The shepherd is mad!
But notice how it ends. The shepherd has a party saying to his friends ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’
It's an illustration of just how desperate God is to find the people he has lost.
Lost Coin
Then there's a woman who has lost a coin. The economy of the time was mainly based on barter. The poor would have had only a few coins for use in emergencies or for the rare things they could not make trades for. It's probable that the coin would have been part of her dowry and would have been kept on a necklace. If so, when she spotted it was missing she would have been very upset. She sets about sweeping the earthen floor until she hears the coin move or sees a glint of it in the light, then she knows she's found it. She has made a diligent and determined search for the coin.
This story ends in the same way. The woman has a party saying to his friends ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’
Lost Son
The last story is of the lost son. The son asks his father for the inheritance, which is duly given. The father would have been seen as at least as mad as the shepherd. No-one in his right mind would split up his estate before he was dead – it is economic suicide. The story follows the son, but it's not the son that we should be concentrating on, its the father. Unlike the shepherd and the woman he cannot go and make a search. He has allowed his son to leave, but he watches for his return – perhaps he does nothing else. Then in an act of compassion he runs to meet his boy.
He runs, so he would have had to lift up his full length robe and shown his ankles. This was taboo, like one of us running down the street naked to meet our son. Jesus' audience would, by now, have lost all sympathy for the man. He has no dignity left. His son is immediately re-instated – given a ring and sandals, which makes him one of the family again. Then there is a huge party.
As an aside, if you don't understand why the older brother is SO upset by his fathers reaction look at verse 12 “The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.” So where did the father get the ring, the sandals and the fatted calf?
3 Illustrations that people matter to God
We've just heard three stories that show how much people matter to God. He is the shepherd, the woman, or the father. Each of these characters cares so much for the thing that was lost that they go to extreme lengths to find it and then, when they do find it, they have a party to celebrate.
Just to be sure we have the point Jesus makes it clear for us in verse 7 he says “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” and in verse 10 “In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
We are the one sinner
Each of us, at some point, whether we can remember it or not – whether we know when it was or not, each of us has been that one sinner. God threw a party in heaven for us, because we turned away from our old way of life and accepted that Jesus died for our sins, and said we wanted to live for Him.
That's worthy of a party!
[Pause]
But do they matter to you?
People Matter to God.
You matter to God. That is why he sent his son to die for your sins. Now like the lost son you are restored to God's family and have already been allowed into heaven. As part of your restoration you said that you wanted to live the way God wants you to. That means being more and more like Jesus – who God sent us to show us how to live, as well as to die in or place.
How much do people matter to us?
How much do people matter to us?
[Read “An Eye-opening Interchange” p8,9, up to “A story about 'once-a-yearers' ending ... God doesn't have any use for them either.”]
How often do we make value judgements of people, perhaps just by looking at them. Perhaps we've even looked around at the people who come to midnight communion or to Easter morning and thought “Why do they bother, no-one really wants them here.” I've certainly read sermons that tell them to go away and never come back. It's a tempting message after all we have to change what we do to accommodate them on our most important festivals – perhaps we should just issue tickets for those services in the weeks before?
It's a tempting message … but it is just a temptation, one of the ways the devil has of getting us off track.
It happens time and again. We look at someone, the person on the bus or train perhaps, who is unattractive and may not be behaving well and assume that God doesn't care for them any more than we do. Nothing could be further from the truth. As we have seen in our three stories today they matter to God more than we could possibly imagine.
Choosing who we talk to
Who do we take the time to talk to? Only people like us? Only our family and friends?
Talking to people isn't easy.
I went on a training weekend run by Through faith Missions, the people who do “The walk of a thousand men”. One of the things we tried was pub evangelism. The idea was that in the pub you strike up a conversation with someone, and if they want to talk – you talk, and bring the conversation around to Jesus. You are helped by wearing a sweatshirt with “Walk of a thousand men” on it.
Who would you choose to talk to in the pub? The guy next to you at the bar is the most obvious – whoever he is. It is the most difficult thing I have ever tried and I failed miserably. I was not able to even try to start a single conversation. Some of us succeeded though.
I can start conversations with people in the bus queue or at the check-out, but those are generally too short to get anywhere – but you never know!
I am, of course, very happy to answer anyone's questions, if they come up to me and ask me something.
What would make it easier to talk about our faith?
What would make it easier to talk about our faith?
Now we have to come back to motivation. Most of us talk about things that really matter to us – our family, our friends, our work. If we were so close to God that our relationship with him was similar to our relationship with our friends and family things would be different. (I'm assuming of course that our relationships with our friends and family are good!)
So, in order to get us motivated, we need to get closer to God and have a better experience of Him.
We could also start by talking to our Christian friends about our experiences of God.
How much do we want an invite to one of those heavenly parties?
How much do we want an invite to one of those heavenly parties?
I have had the privilege of leading someone to Christ only once. It was an amazing experience, and my spirits were raised for weeks afterwards – much longer than they would have been by a pay rise. It is just like being invited to the party that takes place in heaven. I am certainly hoping that the experience will be repeated.

Exodus 3:1-14 Moses and the Burning Bush

2011-07-26T21:01:00.001+01:00

Introduction
Series – Encounters with God
Today we start our summer series. We will be looking at different characters from the Bible and their Encounters with God. We will see the effect it had on their lives and the lessons for us.
Moses & the Burning Bush
Establish Background / Life Story
Birth (Clip from Prince of Egypt 4:14-5:01)
Do these by Q&A:
Hebrew
Royalty
Murder (cared for Hebrews)
Midian –Zipporah, daughter of Jethro, a Midianite priest, two sons, Gershom and Eliezer (Exodus 2:11-22; 18:3-4) working as a Shepherd
Burning Bush
Back to Egypt
Escape from Egypt
40 years in the desert
Failed to enter promised Land - disobedient to God (Numbers 20:7-12)
The Burning Bush
Where was Moses immediately before the burning bush incident?
Moses was in the desert tending a flock of sheep for his father-in-law. He had taken the flock to Mount Horeb – the mountain of God, which today we call Sinai.
His past failures were behind him. Remember he had murdered to try to protect his people. Now he was content with life. He had a wife and two sons, and probably some daughters, but daughters were rarely recorded. He had a steady job and had settled down. He was an old man – 80 years old.
My Training
After meditating on the passage for a while I realised that in some ways Moses story parallels my own. Some of you will know that I dropped out of my first attempt at Reader training. I'd always said I'd try again sometime, when the children were grown up. I had settled into youth work and was helping with Carrie's outreach activities.
God's Call from the Bush
How God managed his little trick to get Moses attention is not important. The important thing is that Moses was intrigued and decided to take a closer look. When he did God spoke to him. “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” Moses knew who that was, and knew that to see God face-to-face was certain death. He hid his face. Then God reminded him to remove his shoes, and tells him the plan. You will go back to Egypt and rescue your people.
My 2nd call
God's message to me was not as dramatic as Moses, but looking back it was just as clear. Paul Hinckley caught me at the end of a service and said something like “It's about time you started your training again isn't it?”. That took me by surprise.
How do we respond to a clear word from God?
If you had a clear word from God like Moses, or even a wakeup call from your vicar, you'd just get on with it – right?
Well Moses didn't. He asked loads of questions, and pointed to his lack of abilities.
Moses – Right Qualifications / Doubts
Moses, though had all the right qualifications, he was brought up in the Egyptian royal family and knew how it worked and how to make things happen. He still had doubts. Mainly he had lost his self confidence. He was scared of going back to his own people. “Who shall I say sent me?” God reveals a new title “I am” and changes the way the Israelites think of Him forever. God also reveals more of the plan – step by step. Then he provides a still doubtful Moses with a number of signs, or 'convincers' –
(2:10-3:20) the staff turning into a snake and the hand becoming leprous and being healed.
Me – Delay
My response was no better, I tried to delay the start for a year. Even in my case there were 'convincers' during meditation on a bible passage. So after much discussion, I decided that it was right to go into training that year.
Moses – a great leader
Moses eventually followed God's and became a great leader, and that's where the parallels in the stories end. I'm not expecting to be leader of the Christian world.
What gets your attention?
What is it that gets your attention? It shouldn't have to be as dramatic as a burning bush. As Christians we are connected to God in a way that Moses never was. As Christians were have the Bible and can hear the word of God any time we open it. We can read and re-read the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus and know that He died for us and His resurrection means life for us. We can read the story of the giving of the Holy Spirit and be inspired by the apostles and all they did in spreading the good news of the resurrection. Perhaps as you read and meditate on these scripture the Holy Spirit (or the Angel of God) will make you stop and think.
It may be the word of another Christian that intrigues you and makes you listen carefully to God.
You may witness a miracle, or have a vivid dream.
What ever it is be sure to investigate, if it's God there will be an important message for you.
Once God has your attention all you have to do is listen and make sure you understand his plan.
Moses did, and it changed his life. I did and it changed my life.

Holiday in Winsham

2011-07-16T12:26:00.000+01:00

Sat 2 Jul 11
We drove to Squirrel Cottage, Laymore, Winsham, Somerset (5 miles from Chard).

From 2011_0702-09 Winsham Holiday

After long delays on M25 around M4. we stopped at Fleet – a horribly small services for lunch – and a dog walk(ish).
Went to Chard for shopping in Sainsbury's and left Brody tied up outside – he was OK.
After tea we drove to Bridport – West Harbour and walked along the stony beach – small uncomfortable stones but the cliffs are eroding so could also walk next to cliffs and avoid the stones. Brody went for a swim – Jo was not pleased, but it must have been cold – it woke him up and made him crazy.
He stole another dog's ball, and the ate something. Jo was shouting at me to put him on the lead. I was reluctant, but as we came closer to the beech parties there really wasn't a choice.

Sun 3 Jul 11
After a very disturbed night in which Brody was very unsettled, we eventually got going in time to miss the morning service at St Stephens. Walked into Winsham and diverted toward Ford Abbey, then across country and back to the B3162 and into Winsham, there is not much there, by the time we arrived even the Post Office, the only shop, had closed.
Walked around the church and kept the doors carefully shut, as requested, to keep the swallows out. We got back to the Squirrels Inn for lunch about 14:00. The carvery was just £5, even with drinks and sweet the total was about £26 for both of us. The meat was lovely, mainly pork, but one small piece of beef. The vegetables were over cooked and almost cold – the penalty for being almost last at the table.
After lunch we watched the Wimbledon mens final: Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal in 4 sets. I was relieved that Nadal didn't win again.
Around tea time we drove to Lyme Regis for a walk along Monmouth beach. There really isn't much of it, not enough for a proper dog walk. Brody had another swim. Even now his coat doesn't smell too bad. Then we queued for chips and had a wander around the harbour wall. Brody is an excellent conversation starter. Tried to find the Jane Austen garden, there were many sign posts but we could not find the garden.
Back in the cottage, the upstairs floor level window curtain rail fell down when I went to close the curtain Now it's time for bed, but the fretting dog needs his cage put up before he will sleep.

Mon 4 Jul 11
The day starts around 3am, Brody needs the facilities of the grass outside. Then it is almost dawn and its hard to get back to sleep again. Jo is very tired. Once again we were up late, not so bad today 9:00 ish. Went in to Chard and to the Tourist Information where the lady was very helpful, but they don’t take cheques any more and have no card machine so it has to be cash. The banks are easily winning the fight to remove cheques.
A little shopping in Sainsbury's, to cover the cost of the car park ticket, where we bought a meal for two for £10 (it's one of their deals) and back to Squirrel Cottage to make lunch. Then off to Chard reservoir for a dog walk.

From Holiday 2011 (July 2 - 9) in Winsham, Dorset

The area around the reservoir is split into different types of meadows and is great for dog walking. Brody almost immediately lost the ball in the long grass. He was fascinated by the meadow grass and went running through it and bounding about in it.
We had our picnic and then wandered on to the cycle trail for a mile or so, tuned back and walked down the road. As the reservoir is a bird sanctuary no dogs are allowed in. After a while we drove to Taunton to look for a dongle. None are to be had . We found PC World easily enough (amazing!). O2 and Vodafone have poor coverage of our postcode. Thanks to the excellent staff in PC world who checked their facts diligently and didn't try to sell an inappropriate product.   We left to try for Orange in the town. The Orange shop haven't got any dongles and won't be getting any. Phones 4U said that Orange only do monthly contracts, but I was after pay as you go- I only need it for a week. Finally, I tried the '3' shop. They checked the postcode and said no indoor reception – outdoor only – so I am off the net for a week. Difficult when so many of the leaflets refer to web sites these days.
The £10 meal was very nice – Sea Bass, leaf salad, a bottle of Pino Grigiot blush and a sticky toffee pudding. I'm quite ready for a blog, but no internet.   Josh (from work) texted me about a billing failure, but the signal is so poor texts take a while to get delivered (and I expect received as well) so I wasn’t much help. He said they had sorted it out though.

Tue 5 Jul 11
Another early start, taking Brody outside at just 12:30 (00:30) after only 2 hours of sleep.   The rest of the night was also disturbed by the dog. The weather was supposed to be poor and the rain had already started when we left the cottage. We went to Heale (near Corfe), which the Sat-Nav didn't know, but the OS map did, for a walk in the Black Wood Hills. As we parked in the road the rain finally stopped. We made our way back along the road to the bridleway and across the meadow. Full of corn flowers and daisies it was a beautiful sight. We made our way around Orchard Wood and then south to Staple Park Farm. From there we followed the road and joined the B3178 for a while, finally leaving it for a footpath that cut off the corner and put us on the road where we left the car. By now it had started raining again.
All the paths were well maintained and reasonably well signposted, the only exception being the first field we had to cross on the last footpath which was blocked by an electric fence. The way around was barely passable due to thistles and nettles. On the way home the rain got worse and it seemed as though we were driving through fog.
We arrive home and had sandwiches, then some rest. Later we drove the shop in Winsham and posted some postcards and brought some vegetables for tea.
After tea we drove towards Bridport to try to find Eype beach. Lower Eype was not on the Sat-Nav but we chose a place close by and followed the road signs. The beach is below a high cliff and is made up of larger stones deposited in tiers by the sea. The car park which costs £2 after 4pm and has an honesty box. Ours was the only car, we arrived after 6pm and were there for less that an hour. We paid a reasonable rate. From the car park, down the steps on to the beach we turned right (west) and walked to the end of the beach. Brody paddled in the sea, but was not sure of the waves which were breaking on the beach with quite a force.

Wed 6 Jul 11
We had up a number of leaflets with walks in the Blackdown Hills from the TI. This one was '6 circular walks in and around Stockland' Walk 3 starts at the Stockland village hall. We found it easily enough and confirmed with a woman about to play tennis that it was OK to park. The instructions are clear enough, so is the map. We passed the church, there is no footpath sign. There is a gap between two hedges that could easily be a footpath. We tried to walk down between the hedges. The hedges are high on both sides, the path overgrown with nettles and other vegetation almost up to my shoulder. It was muddy and stoney underfoot, eventually we turned back. As we were turning round Brody pushed past me and took my one stable leg from under me. I landed in the nettles after stepping on his paw. We returned to the car and drove off to try to find Walk 1 “Happy Valley and the Umborne Brook”. We found it after a few diversions and joined half way round. Before we started, the rain began, so we ate lunch and by the time we had finished the shower had passed. We were soon walking through the woods and following the stream. Brody spotted a pool that had been dug and was off down hill. We called and called but the only response was a loud splash. We continued calling and there were a couple of other splashes then it went quiet. I made my way down the hill and saw him swimming around. The pool was deep and the banks steep and high. All his splashing had not made the pool muddy. He looked a little bemused and was swimming in a circle – looking for a way out I expect. I found a corner where the bank was not so steep and attracted him with a dog biscuit. He came out, but it was a bit of a struggle. From then on I had a damp dog pushing past me every few hundred yards. On the way back we passed through a field of cows, who took a dislike to our dog. He had his best run in this field – and he needed to run – the cows were quite aggressive. On the final path back we were stopped by a local farmer and asked if the path was clear. He maintains the path – we were very pleased to hear that some of the paths are maintained.. As we got back to the car a lady on a horse asked us to keep the gate open. Brody barked at the horse and would not stop.   Once in the car the rain came again.
We drove back towards Chard and stopped at the Yarcombe Inn. Despite the sign outside, it was closed, but further along the A30 the was the Howley Inn we took a diversion and enjoyed a coffee. They even allowed us to take the dog in. We also bought some of their eggs. Then it was back to Chard for some shopping and back to the cottage for tea.

Thu 7 Jul 11
We decided earlier in the week that we would join the walk advertised in the Post Office. We arrived early only one person was there but he had arrived early as well. Soon there were about 15 of us. They are just a group of local friends who go for walks once a month. They were happy for us to join in. We had a circular walk around Winsham. We came around to almost the Squirrel Inn and then back to The Bell the pub where we had met. The walk lasted just over 2.5 hours.   We stayed for a drink and lunch. The walkers had pre-ordered lunch and there were some cyclists in, so lunch took a while. The pub gave Brody a treat and would have provided water if we had needed it.
After lunch we headed for the Wellington monument, an obelisk visible from quite a distance. We had hoped to get some good views of the area but there was too much undergrowth. Here we played with Brody for a while. The views were available from further down the road.
We came back to the cottage and cleaned up. Then headed to the Squirrel Inn (next door to the cottage) for an evening meal. Simple pub food, but well prepared and enjoyable.

Fri 8 Jul 11
After Brody trying out the shower (by now he did need a wash), we headed for Axminster where we visited the TI and followed the town trail. We passed possibly the grumpiest old man who had just left the cobblers and told Brody not to lick it (the glue he was carrying) and asked why he had to walk in the road to pass us. The answer I didn't give was “because you're too impatient to wait while the dog moves”. We then went to Seaton to ride on the tram line to Colyton. At Colyton, we wandered into town and brought ice cream and wandered back to the tram line. After a walk around Seaton we drove to Lyme Regis and parked at the top of the cliff. We walked into town and out toward the Jurassic coast. We only went a short way, the tide was coming in, Back on the sea front we had fish and chips, then more ice cream at Rinky Tinks. Finally we returned home to feed Brody at around 7:30pm.

Field of Blue '11

2011-04-25T11:47:00.000+01:00

Easter Sunday is an excellent time to go out and enjoy God's creation. Jo and I took Brody for a walk in Norsey Woods. It was a beautiful day - warm and dry, we have had quite a few of those lately, so the bluebells were near the end of their best. Nevertheless they are stunning. Each year there is a different place to look to get the best views of the carpet of blue. Norsey woods is managed and coppiced, so different areas are opened up each year to allow new growth. This year one of the best views was from the barrow. There we met a man sitting enjoying the view. Brody said hello and on his request I took a photo of him with Brody in the background. We discussed the state of the bluebells and agreed that this year was not as good as last year. I also noticed that my two previous reports on bluebells were both later in the year.

Field of Blue '11

Beside bluebells other things are also doing well in the wood, take a look at the album to see what.

We spent about an or so hour enjoying the woods, letting small children stroke Brody - who was much more interested in his stick or the tennis ball that someone had found and given him. We met a few people from church as we were leaving who had come to enjoy the woods.

Pilates most stressful day

2011-04-23T20:34:00.001+01:00

Introduction
As I first started preparing for this talk the “Christianity at Work” course was presenting the evening on stress at work. It occurred to me that Pilate had one of the most stressful days of his career. So I've called this talk “Pilate most stressful day”.
I'm going to read through the passage covering all of the interaction with Pilate. Every so often I will stop to make comment on the text and occasionally I will pause and leave you with a question to ponder for a minute or so.
First though lets refresh our memories about the two men.
Jesus
The story so far …
The word made flesh, born as a man, grown up and baptised in the spirit. He is on a mission. His mission is to rescue humanity, so that they can have a relationship with God and be saved from death. To do this he must take the blame for everything sinful we have ever done, and be put to death as a punishment.
His ministry has been running about 3 years, he has been teaching about the kingdom of heaven and teaching his followers so that they can carry on spreading the message about the Kingdom after he is gone.
In the last few days he has suffered betrayal by one of his closest friends. As a result he has been arrested by the Chief Priests. The rest of his friends have abandoned him. One of his three closet friends has publicly rejected him.
Now he is to be handed over to the Roman authorities.
Pilate
The story so far …
Pontius Pilate is the fifth prefect of the Roman province of Judaea. He has a reputation for being in-sensitive to the Jews and frequently having to suppress crowd trouble as a result. In one instance Pilate allowed his soldiers to bring effigies into the city. When asked to remove them he spent 5 days deciding what to do and then ordered his troops to surround the protesters and threaten to kill them. When the protesting Jews accepted their fate willingly he backed down and removed the effigies. In another similar incident he was censured by the Emperor Tiberius and forced to back down.
He is described as vindictive with a furious temper.
He's is about to have a very stressful day at work.
So lets have a look as Pilate's stressful day. We need to start in the last chapter (18) at verse 40 and move forward to the end of today’s reading. I'd suggest that you keep your bibles open and follow the text.

John 18:28-19:16

Jn 18:28 Then the Jews led Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness the Jews did not enter the palace; they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.
Jn 18:29 So Pilate came out to them and asked, “What charges are you bringing against this man?”
Jn 18:30 “If he were not a criminal,” they replied, “we would not have handed him over to you.”

Pilate seems to have overcome his insensitive ways. He knows that it is special festival for the Jews, he understands that they are not allowed to enter the house of a gentile (Roman), so he has come out of his palace to meet them and hear what they have to say.
The Jews though are evasive. Clearly they want something, but it seems that Pilate is expected to guess what at this stage.

Jn 18:31 Pilate said, “Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law.”

Pilate does not want to be disturbed – nor does he want the responsibility for settling an argument for the Jews. It doesn't look like a promising start for the Jews, but don't underestimate a well managed, manipulated crowd.

“But we have no right to execute anyone,” the Jews objected.

So we now know the sentence they want, but still we don't have the charges!

When do I make people play “Guess what I want?”, expecting them to do something without being straight forward about what it is I would like them to do?

[Pause]

Jn 18:32 This happened so that the words Jesus had spoken indicating the kind of death he was going to die would be fulfilled.
Jn 18:33 Pilate then went back inside the palace, summoned Jesus and asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?”
Jn 18:34 “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?”

It's a strange question! Where did Pilate get that from. He has obviously heard of Jesus, whether through reports of his actions with some Romans, or perhaps he has spies amongst the Chief Priests.
Jesus, of course gets straight to the point, and wants to know where the idea came from.

Jn 18:35 “Am I a Jew?” Pilate replied. “It was your people and your chief priests who handed you over to me. What is it you have done?”

Pilate is again dismissive of the Jews. He now gets straight to his point. It's a very direct question – he wouldn’t get employed as a detective. Perhaps he has already decided that Jesus will tell the truth.

Jn 18:36 Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”
Jn 18:37 “You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.”
Jn 18:38 “What is truth?” Pilate asked. With this he went out again to the Jews and said, “I find no basis for a charge against him.

Pilate is dismissive of Jesus claim to be speaking truth. He is the ultimate politician here, considering only what is useful to achieve his immediate aims. There is no thought of Justice for the accused, no concern for getting to the truth – Jesus is just the pawn he is fighting over. The conversation with Jesus has had no effect on Pilate at all, except to confirm what Pilate already knows: Jesus is innocent of any crime under Roman law.

Jn 18:39 But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release ‘the king of the Jews’?”
Jn 18:40 They shouted back, “No, not him! Give us Barabbas!” Now Barabbas had taken part in a rebellion.

Pilate is still trying to release Jesus. Not because he cares for justice, but because he wants the confrontation with the Jews to come to an end. He's had bad experiences with Jewish crowds before, and knows that it will not be good for his career to have another one. He decides to give the Jews a direct choice – when he would normally have asked them who they want. Do you want Jesus or Barabbas? We can assume that he chose Barabbas as his alternative because he knew that Barabbas was not popular amongst the Jews.
The crowds response must have come as a shock to him.

Jn 19:1 Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.

Perhaps if some punishment is administered that will placate the calls for a crucifixion. A Roman flogging was a serious punishment and usually left the victim disabled for life – if not dead from the flogging. The aim though was not to kill, it is to inflict long term suffering. A flogging would tear the flesh from a man's back. His muscles would be exposed and damaged, sometime his bones would be exposed. He could also be turned around and have the same treatment applied to his chest and stomach.
Compromise – giving a little to restore the peace
- it's not submission
- it must be copied by the other side
- sometimes it's just gestures (as the flogging was) and doesn't achieve anything
- sometimes that's the first step to reconciliation
- sometimes it's a step to far

What are my limits – what won't I compromise on?

When I do compromise do I understand the value of the offer I'm making?

[Pause]

Jn 19:2 The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe
Jn 19:3 and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they struck him in the face.
Jn 19:4 Once more Pilate came out and said to the Jews, “Look, I am bringing him out h to you to let you know that I find no basis for a charge against him.”
Jn 19:5 When Jesus came out wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe, Pilate said to them, “Here is the man!”

Jesus must have looked awful – barely alive. The soldiers have been mocking him and applying further punishment. Was Pilate now hoping that the Jews would lessen their demands. Had the flogging been enough? When he says “Here is the man!” Pilate has turned from being reasonable to being sarcastic. Here is the man you want crucified – look at him – he can barely stand. Look your king is wearing a crown of thorns.
Jn 19:6 As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, “Crucify! Crucify!” But Pilate answered, “You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge against him.”

“I find no basis for a charge against him”. Pilate has said this three times by now. Three times he has declare Jesus is innocent. Three times Jesus was rejected by the Jews (Peter), three times he is declare innocent by the gentiles.
As soon as they saw him they shouted “Crucify! Crucify!”. Nothing Pilate could do would satisfy them, but he STILL doesn't know the charges.
Jn 19:7 The Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
Jn 19:8 When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid,

Pilate believed in the Roman gods, today we might call that superstition, but then it was a recognised religion. He has already recognised something unusual about this man – perhaps he is a god and now the gods are against him as well.

Jn 19:9 and he went back inside the palace. o “Where do you come from?” he asked Jesus, but Jesus gave him no answer.
Jn 19:10 “Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”

Jn 19:11 Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you r is guilty of a greater sin.”

On the face of it Jesus has no power at all but who is really in control here? Perhaps only Jesus amongst all those involved realises the truth, God is in control, and God is in the room! Jesus also clearly puts the blame for his situation on the Chief priests. They are the ones who have lost sight of the truth they should be teaching, and have led their people into sin.

Jn 19:12 From then on, Pilate tried to set Jesus free, but the Jews kept shouting, “If you let this man go, you are no friend of Caesar. Anyone who claims to be a king s opposes Caesar.”

Now the Jews play their trump card in getting Jesus sentenced to death. “If you don't do as we say we will report you to Caesar. This is simple political blackmail. They have in their previous dealings identified Pilate's main weakness – his love of power, and have found a way to use it against him.

Jn 19:13 When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha).
Jn 19:14 It was the day of Preparation of Passover Week, about the sixth hour. “Here is your king,” Pilate said to the Jews.
Jn 19:15 But they shouted, “Take him away! Take him away! Crucify him!” “Shall I crucify your king?” Pilate asked. “We have no king but Caesar,” the chief priests answered.
Jn 19:16 Finally Pilate handed him over to them to be crucified.

Finally the Chief Priest deny everything they stand for. “We have no king but Caesar” whatever happened to the Lord God, the person they are supposed to worship, whose passover they will eat in a day or two's time.
Pilate's conscience has been bothering him. He knows Jesus is innocent and doesn't deserve the sentence he has just received. In Matthew's account Pilate washes his hand to try to say that he has nothing to do with it. It's a custom he borrowed from the Jews for this one occasion.

When have I denied the justice that I know I should support?

What do I do to try to quieten the voice of my conscience?

[Pause]

Jesus went through all that and much more so that you and I can have a fresh start with God. His unjustified punishment and death mean that our deserved punishment will no longer be applied.

Through Faith Missions training weekend

2011-04-11T20:45:00.000+01:00

On Friday I took a half day's holiday. I packed a rucksack with way more than I needed and headed to the train station to meet Warner. We were on our way to Woking to attend the Through faith missions training weekend for Walk West Dorset. My agenda was slightly different. I just wanted to understand what it's all about. There were two practical sessions in the training. One was Pub Evangelism, the other was door knocking. The polite way to put my feelings about taking part would be to say that I was well outside my comfort zone. Very apprehensive.
After a false start, I forgot my sleeping bag!, we made it to Woking in plenty of time. A meal at the Wetherspoons was very welcome and then it was off to Christ Church in the town centre for the training event. The church has rooms everywhere and is an ideal place for this type of event. There were 25+ of us in the room over looking the worship space. It was very comfortable - I wasn't. Plenty of tea and coffee and a very interactive training session. The clock ticks round and it was soon time to visit the pub - a process I usually look forward to. We are kitted out with 'Walk of 1000 Men' t-shirts and sweatshirts. As a novice - a first timer I was hoping to be paired with someone who had at least tried before. It was not to be. We were completely incapable of approaching people and talking to them. Eventually I buttonholed one of the more experienced guys and asked him to show me. Not really much success there either. The one of the leaders had a try. He managed a two or three line conversation with someone - and then I did learn something - but only with time for reflection later.
Bed involved sleeping on the floor. I had borrowed my daughters inflatable bed so I wasn't too uncomfortable. Sleep though eluded me for a long time. Too much to think and pray about. When I did start to doze there was free unscripted entertainment outside. Three times that happened. Then it was morning as day light began streaming through the roof even with the blinds down further sleep was impossible.
Breakfast was brought in by the local breakfast expert. Every church should have at least one! I enjoyed it as you can tell. Then more training, but this morning it was hard to concentrate after a poor night.
Lunch was served in the church, by the cafe staff. It was the first time for years I had eaten mince. In the rush to book the weekend dietary requirements had been omitted. I'm sure it was good, but I don't enjoy the taste as I used to.
Then to the door-to-door exercise. We take a survey. It is the warmest April day since ... records began. Most people are out. From about 20 houses we get 8 (I think) answers. A few are prepared to do the survey - two are from another local church. Only one person got beyond the end.
I'm not sure who was more nervous - us or the people we visited.
Reflecting on the experience now I have to ask if the results are a net positive. Does this approach put the people we visit under too much pressure? Are most the people we spoke to closer to making a commitment to Christ or further away? Is this an effective way to turn people around? I feel for two of the people I spoke to in particular. Jesus only put the leaders of the faith under pressure. With everyone else He was very gentle.
I don't have answers. If I ever get any I will, of course, blog about it.
Some of the other training elements were very positive for me. A chance to reflect on my testimony and see that it stops rather a long time ago was very useful. A testimony that says nothing about the now needs updating. There was also some practical training on schools work and the legal requirements that go with it which was very helpful. Then there's the manual to read ...
Finally, there was the interview. A check to see that the applicants are OK for the task they are being asked to do. There is a rule of life to sign up to, which I had to stop and read (ALWAYS read the small print - especially when God's involved.). I didn't have a problem signing that, it's pretty much how I try to live anyway.
So to the journey home. By now its latish on Saturday. By the time we get to Waterloo the Drain (Waterloo & City line) has closed for the weekend. Northern line trains aren't stopping at Tottenham Court Road (the next most obvious route), so its the Jubilee line to Stratford. The journey home much less comfortable than the outward one.
My interviewer had warned me that if I decided to do a walk I would come under spiritual attack. As I left the hall I had a pain in my right heel. I didn't think much of it until I was walking home from Billericay Station. Looking so see what was wrong I noticed blood on my sandals. When I got home I found a spike about the thickness of a staple, but sharpened to a needle like point had gone through the sole of my sandals and had repeatedly scratched and penetrated my heel. Very painful. Reminded me of Genesis 3:15.

Getting Heaven into us

2011-04-05T20:07:00.000+01:00

Introduction
Richard Foster said "The real issue is not so much us getting into heaven as it is getting heaven into us." So I have decided that the title for this sermon is: “Getting heaven into us”.
Getting us into heaven has already been done. Remember the Ribbons clip from last week. How Christ breaks all the ties we have to the things that are not good for us and frees us to be with Him.

1Pe 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.
He has taken away our sins, so that we can live for righteousness.
Its still a choice that we must take up. There can be no excuses now, sin is overcome. Jesus did that for us. Now we can choose to look at God and imitate his approach to life, as it says in

Eph 4:32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
If you thought last weeks message was hard with its call to purity, then I sorry to tell you that this weeks is harder. At least though the reading is not so full of prohibitions.
I've split these few verses into 3 headings, and I will try to concentrate on the positives.

Be Careful how you live – making the most of every opportunity
Understand the Lords will
Be filled with the Spirit

Each of these commands has its opposite, something we are commanded not to do. Christianity is sometimes accused of being a religion of prohibitions, in reality though for each prohibition God provides us with alternative behaviours.
Luke 11:24-26
24 When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.'
25 When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order.
26 Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.
For each evil we let go of, for each evil that we take out of our lives there must be something put in to replace it Without these we would simply find ourselves back in the sin we were trying to escape from. I'll talk a bit more about this later.

Be Careful how you live – making the most of every opportunity
In the days before modern harbours, a ship had to wait for the flood tide before it could make it to port. The term for this situation in Latin was ob portu, that is, a ship standing over off a port, waiting for the moment when it could ride the turn of the tide to harbour. The English word 'opportunity' is derived from this original meaning.
To take the opportunity to get into port the officers of the ship must make sure that it is ready at just the right time. They must understand the tides and the signs that tell them the water is deep enough. If its too soon they might wreck the ship, if the tide is too strong they might wreck the ship.
If we are to make the most of opportunities we must make sure that it is a priority for us to seek them out and follow them up. Each of us should have our own understanding of our personal priorities. Here's a simple list that I made, and have seen other use, many years ago:

1. Public Worship & Private time with God
2. Family – Spouse & children (Other family)
3. Work - Paid Employment
4. Recreation / Voluntary Work (including @ Church)
It's useful when we have conflicts to resolve. Like everything else it shouldn't be used slavishly, or to beat yourself up with when you fail.
Mary and Martha had different priorities, Martha was concerned about being a good host and making sure that everything was ready for her guests, Mary had different ideas. Here's what Jesus said:

Lk 10:40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” 41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Having established our priorities we must be careful not to over plan our lives. Someone has said “Life is what happens to you while you're making plans to do something else.”

The phrase “Carpe Diem” was made famous (as far as I'm concerned anyway) by the film Dead Poets society. It is often translated Seize the Day. Life is about Today, not tomorrow, and not yesterday. The full quote is Carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero – "Seize the Day, putting as little trust as possible in the future", It comes from Ode, by Horace.
In the film Robin Williams says "Carpe diem. Seize the day, boys. Make your lives extraordinary." Take the opportunities that you can see and live them to the full. - Ring any bells?
The Rabbis have another way of saying it:
"And if not now, when?"

Ro 13:11 And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light.
Here's a story that illustrates the kind of opportunities that may come our way:
Author Terry Muck tells of a letter he received from a man who used to have absolutely no interest in spiritual things. He lived next door to a Christian, and they had a casual relation-ship like neighbours often do. Then the non-Christian’s wife was stricken with cancer, and died three months later. Here’s the letter:
“I was in total despair. I went through the funeral preparations and the service like I was in a trance. And after the service I went to the path along the river and walked all night. But I did not walk alone. My neighbour - afraid for me, I guess - stayed with me all night.
He did not speak; he did not even walk beside me. He just followed me. When the sun finally came up over the river he came over to me and said, "Let’s go get some breakfast."
I go to church now. My neighbour’s church. A religion that can produce the kind of caring and love my neighbour showed me is something I want to find out more about. I want to be like that. I want to love and be loved like that for the rest of my life.”
What made the difference in this man’s life? It was that one Christian dared to make the most of the opportunity he had to reveal Christ to his friend.
http://www.sermoncentral.com/print_friendly.asp?ContributorID=&SermonID=31330

Understand the Lords will
God is in the business of rescue and nurture. His aim is to offer rescue to as many as are ready to receive it. The form of the rescue itself is as varied as the person being rescued. Sometimes all it will take is following someone all night. Other times it will be much more difficult, and perhaps a lot more dangerous. Once rescued we are to start the process of rescuing others.
Does anyone know what this is:
#threewordstoliveby
It's a twitter hash tag. Here's what twitter looks like.
The currently popular hash tags are listed on the screen when you log in. Have you worked out what is says yet.
Three words to live by
When I saw that I had an instant reaction. Three words were there in the front of my consciousness immediately. What would your response be? What are your “three words to live by”?
Mine was (and is) “Jesus is Lord”

To serve God we must put ourselves under his Lordship. Here are some of the things that the apostle Paul had to say about living under the Lordship of Christ.

Ro 8:18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
2Co 12:10 That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Phil 1:12 Now I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel.
It's not all bad as the disciples found out on the day of pentecost as as Paul alludes to in the verses I've just read, it is mostly very good.

Be filled with the Spirit
The command “be filled” in verse 18 is in the passive voice. That means that in order to be filled with the Spirit we must always be going through the process that leads to it.
[Torch illustration]
[torch = us; batteries = power of spirit, if you can't get the batteries in because of the rubbish already there you can't get any power. The torch (we) is useless]
use Gal 5:19. on a scroll in the torch.
Gal 5:19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.
http://www.sermoncentral.com/print_friendly.asp?ContributorID=&SermonID=46599
When we are filled with the spirit there is EVIDENCE in the way we speak and behave.
Evidence - Speaking
Verse 19 “speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit”
This is evidence that we have the holy spirit.
What do you see?
This is what I see:
We have done well in the last decade removing the negative – back biting etc,
now its time to put in some positive...
Evidence - Thankfulness
The next piece of evidence is in verse 20 “always giving thanks to God for EVERYTHING, in the name of Christ.”
You'll notice that that too is something that we keep doing, just we keep being filled with the Holy Spirit. It's a bit of a theme with Paul, he says a similar thing in his letter to the Thessalonians:
1 Thes 5:16-18
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray continually, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
It can be difficult. I never managed to say “Thank you Lord, that I've been made redundant, that I no longer have a job or an income...”, but that is not what it's about. It's about “Counting your blessings”, remembering and being thankful for all the good things you do have, not remembering (and moaning) about your current hardships.
Thanksgiving - Psychology
Psychologists today tell us that sincere gratitude, thanksgiving, is the healthiest of all human emotions. Hans Selye, who is considered the father of stress studies, has said that gratitude produces more positive emotional energy than any other attitude in life.
And a thankful heart will endear others to us and us to others.
Everyone likes to be thanked. What better way then to give Glory to God than to thank him for all that he has done for you?
For you see thanksgiving is not only good for the giver but also good for the receiver, and Paul notes that there is a downside to not being thankful.
Ro 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools
Conclusion
Be Careful how you live – making the most of every opportunity
Have your priorities sorted out and be ready to take any opportunity that presents itself.
Understand the Lords will
God is in the business of rescue and nurture. Once rescued we join Gods rescue efforts. This can be a dangerous business.
Be filled with the Spirit
Look for the evidence of the Holy Spirit within you:
speaking
Not just what we say, but the means we use to say it. Focus on God, speak to each other in Hymns, and spiritual songs and phrases.
Thankfulness
Count Your Blessing, be thankful to those around you and especially to God and the Lord Jesus.

Do you want to get well?

2011-03-20T14:21:00.000Z

Introduction

Missing verse 4

Has anyone noticed anything unusual about this bible reading? When I first read it I thought there was something missing. Looking closer – its verse 4. Its there in the authorized version, and in some modern translations, for example in the New American Standard Bible it says “for an angel of the Lord went down at certain seasons into the pool and stirred up the water; whoever then first, after the stirring up of the water, stepped in was made well from whatever disease with which he was afflicted”. It seems that this verse was added in the second century to explain what was going on around the pool. It's helpful, but its not in the earliest texts that are used as the basis for more modern translations – so its not in the NIV. They have left out the verse number to stay in line with those bibles that keep the verse – primarily the Authorised version (The King James Bible). There one thing that Melvin Bragg missed in his program on the influence of the KJV.

Pool at Bethesda

Before the 19^th century scholars suggested that the pool at Bethsaida described here could not exist. The gospel they said must have been written by someone who had never visited Jerusalem. In 1888 an archaeologist names Schick discovered a pool near St Anne's church just in the place described in John's gospel. In 1964 further digs confirmed that this was the pool John mentioned. This is a cautionary tale about our use of scripture. Just because it's not obvious to us now, in the modern era, doesn't mean that it wasn't obvious to the author, nor does it mean that parts of the Bible are the results of someone's over active imagination.

To Know

The next issue I need to bring to your attention will change the way we think about the passage a little. In verse 6 the NIV has “When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been ...” Most translations have 'knew' in place of 'learned' The root greek word (already a second language for the author remember) means to know, to come to know, or to understand and is the same word used in the phrase 'Then Adam knew Eve, and later Cain was born'. The text does not require that Jesus and the man had a conversation before the question “Do you want to get well?” was asked, neither does it prevent that as a possibility.

The interaction with Jesus

Jesus walks into the area around the pool. He sees many disabled and sick people there. They are begging and waiting. If they were successfully begging then we must assume that there are plenty of fit and well people there also – it's a busy place. Jesus looks around and then approaches one man. I wonder what he saw in this man? Perhaps he was the one in the most need. Perhaps he was the one who was most ready to be healed, why pick only him? Perhaps this is only one of many healings that happened that Sabbath day, and this one is reported because of the trouble that resulted later when the authorities found out. You can read about that in the next 10 verses.

Life of a beggar

Most of the disabled people there would have been begging. You could make quite a reasonable life as a beggar. You wouldn't get rich as some allege that beggars do today, but you could survive. There was no responsibility – you didn't have to do anything, just sit and wait. Then there's the sympathy from your friends and family – some people thrive on that sort of attention. So its possible that they weren't all there trying to get into the pool and be healed, some may have just found a good 'pitch'.

It reminds me of the beggar in the 'Life of Brian'. Michael Palin looking unusually fit and healthy as the beggar. He not sitting and waiting, he's bouncing around saying “Spare a talent for an old ex-leper, sir.”

B: Did you say – ex-leper?

X: That's right, sir. (he salutes) ... sixteen years behind the bell, and proud of it, thank you sir.

B: What happened?

X: I was cured, sir.

B: Cured?

X: Yes sir, a miracle, sir. Bless you.

B: Who cured you?

X: Jesus did. I was hopping along, when suddenly he comes and cures me. One minute I'm a leper with a trade, next moment me livelihood's gone. Not so much as a by your leave. You're cured mate, sod you.

Look, I'm not saying that being a leper was a bowl of cherries. But it was a living. I mean, you try waving muscular suntanned limbs in people's faces demanding compassion. It's a disaster.

Of course we know that Jesus would NEVER just cure someone without being sure they wanted to be cured.

That's one of the reasons Jesus asks the question “Do you want to get well?”

Checking the want

It may have seemed a silly question. Who wouldn't want to? but I hope by now your starting to see that it was really important and incisive question. Jesus is really saying “Are you prepared for this?” The man's life will change. When he is well he will have to get up and find a proper job. There can be no more excuses for his condition or his failure to alleviate it. No more blaming his friends and family “I don't have anyone to ...”. Once he is well there can be no ducking of responsibility for his own life and future well being.

Pr 10:4 Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.

That's what he'll have to live by.

Jesus wants to know of the man “Will you embrace this change in your life, leave your old begging, excuse based existence behind?” Do you want to take on these responsibilities?

“Are you up for it?”

In this case the man did not know who Jesus was (v13), which makes it all the more remarkable that he took any notice of him at all. When Jesus said “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk” he must have felt something happen in his body or he would have laughed at Jesus – because on the face of it “Get up!” is a ridiculous thing to say to someone who hasn't stood for 38 years. He will barely have enough muscles left to keep his bones together.

The first step.

If the man had said to himself “What a stupid thing to say” he would not have been healed. If he had thought “Great, I'm well”, but stayed on his mat, he would not have been healed. He had to take the first step. No, that's not right, before that he had to make the first move. He had to get up and stand. Jesus had done the work, the healing was complete, but to benefit from it the man had to be involved, had to be 'up for it', or had to 'get up from it'.

Our Healing

Its not always physical healing that we need, sometimes the physical condition is caused by sin, sometimes it is just sinfulness itself that needs healing. Later on from our reading today Jesus goes to find the man he healed and tells him to stop sinning or worse may happen to him. (v14)

Healing is not only physical

Tony Campolo tells a story about being in a church in Oregon where he was asked to pray for a man who had cancer. Campolo prayed boldly for the man’s healing. That next week he got a telephone call from the man’s wife. She said, "You prayed for my husband. He had cancer." Campolo thought when he heard her use the past tense verb that his cancer had been eradicated! But before he could think much about it she said, "He died." Campolo felt terrible.

But she continued, "Don’t feel bad. When he came into that church that Sunday he was filled with anger. He knew he was going to be dead in a short period of time, and he hated God. He was 58 years old, and he wanted to see his children and grandchildren grow up. He was angry that this all-powerful God didn’t take away his sickness and heal him. He would lie in bed and curse God. The more his anger grew towards God, the more miserable he was to everybody around him. It was an awful thing to be in his presence.

But the lady told Campolo, "After you prayed for him, a peace had come over him and a joy had come into him. Tony, the last three days have been the best days of our lives. We’ve sung. We’ve laughed. We’ve read Scripture. We prayed. Oh, they’ve been wonderful days. And I called to thank you for laying your hands on him and praying for healing."

The healing we need is not always physical, indeed the physical problem is sometimes irrelevant.

(http://www.sermoncentral.com/print_friendly.asp?ContributorID=&SermonID=51889)

Are you ready to accept healing?

The conditions are the same for us as for the man in the scripture today. If we are to be healed we have to want it. We have to be prepared to take the first step / to make the first move, to make the healing real.

Suppose you have an addiction – any sort of addiction. To a substance, to anger, to gambling, to shopping, to whatever it is that causes you to sin. You pray for healing. Healing is given. If you don't then stop taking the substance, if you don't remember your healing and continue to get angry and abusive, if go straight out and buy a lottery ticket or head for Blue Water and a shopping spree, the healing is worthless. You are back with your problem, back in your sin before you ever managed to leave it..

Are you prepared for the changes that your healing might bring?

Are you ready to give up your past life of blaming others for your condition, or your continued condition?

Are you ready to stand up in your new life and take responsibility for your future?

Are you ready to stand out from the crowd – the rest of our congregation. If you are healed you may become a minor celebrity – which brings its own challenges.

Recognising the source

A woodpecker was hammering away at a tree when suddenly a lightning bolt split the tree in two from top to bottom. Initially the woodpecker was thrown from the tree but once he had recovered he looked back and saw what had happened. Immediately he flew away and found the other woodpeckers he knew and brought them back to the tree. “look what I've done” he said.

Your healing, your salvation, are nothing that you have done.

(http://www.sermoncentral.com/print_friendly.asp?ContributorID=&SermonID=32654)

When the man was questioned by the Jewish authorities about carrying his mat on the Sabbath he said “The man who made me well told me to”.(v11) That is at least some sort of witness that Jesus had healed him.

It sounds a bit begrudging. We should not be like that. Paul says in Galatians 6:14 “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ”. When we are healed we must be prepared to give all the credit to God.

If the man Jesus healed at the pool became a good runner he cannot say “I've trained hard and I can now beat most of you in the 100 yards dash”. Without Jesus and the healing he would still be on his mat. He can only say “Jesus healed me and I can now beat most of you in the 100 yards dash”.

Do you want to get well?

Ps 103:2 Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits - 3 who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, 4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, 5 who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Let's Pray

http://1stholistic.com/Spl_prayers/prayer_prayer_of_healing.htm

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for you are my praise.

I praise you, mighty Father.

You forgive all my iniquities, and you heal all my diseases.

Thank you, Lord. When I am sick, you send your Word, and it heals me and delivers me from all destructions.

Your Word is life to me, and it brings healing to my flesh.

Thank you for the healing power of your Word, Father.

I will never let it depart from my eyes.

I will keep your Word deeply implanted within my heart.

Praise your name, holy Father.

I love you, and I thank you for healing me.

Facing the Cannon: Jackie Pullinger

2011-02-16T20:17:00.000Z

J.John is doing a series for UCB (channel 586 on Sky) called Facing the Cannon. Warner found this event and got the tickets so on St. Valentines day we travelled to St Andrews Chorleywood. J.John is a very entertaining and Godly speaker. We have recently run his 'Just 10' series at Christ Church and it was very well supported. This series interviews a number of well known Christians. Today it was Jackie Pullinger. Wikipedia has an outline article. To get a better idea of why she's famous read her book Chasing the Dragon. It was one of the first books I read as a young Christian. Jo and I have seen Jackie once before, and looked forward to hearing from her again.

She told some her story, mainly the beginning. At the age of five she had already decided to be a missionary, not that she had any idea what a missionary did. She was advised by a vicar to get on a boat and see where God told her to get off. That was Hong Kong, which she'd seen in a dream. She started work among the poor and eventually among the drug addicts in the Walled City. She has seen many addicts freed of their addiction. They pray and are prayed for and do not suffer withdrawal. She tells of her early attempts at speaking in tongues saying she just felt silly and didn't feel any different afterwards. It helps you to get more in tune with God and you don't really notice that happening. She speaks constantly about God's kindness. After loosing her husband of seven years she speaks of Gods kindness to them both, and to her for allowing her to have seven years with him. By God's kindness she has been shown that this is not a lost generation of Christians. There are young people out there quietly doing mission away from the spotlight and the Christian press. That is the tone of her conversation.

I'm naturally a sceptic, I struggle to believe in the hype, the latest greatest invention or discovery, miracles that people say have happened. I'm always looking for the alternative explanation. It's hard to remain sceptical when there's a lady sitting talking about it in a matter-of-fact way. There's no hype with Jackie, seemingly no agenda, although she does love telling people about Jesus by her own admission. She just sits there and talks about her experiences like I talk about my bus journeys. Except with Jackie God's kindness shows. In Sunday's sermon I asked "if God is bigger than us and inside us does he show through?" (see the previous blog entry). I had no idea that I would be given such a clear demonstration of just how God shows through.

If, like me, you've ever thought there must be more to the Christian life than you're experiencing right now, here is a superb example of what that more may look like. There is more - lots more, always lots more. I know that because it's in scripture - the reading I've just preached on (Ephesians 3:14-21). I have seen it too because I have seen Jackie and listened to her story. Of course, I'm not five and I've never felt called to be a missionary. In my life it will look different - but not that different.

After the show was recorded there was a word in tongues, and an interpretation. Somewhere in that I heard the words "Its not too late". It's never too late - that's the exiting news for me as I prepare to pass five for the eleventh time.

Ephesians 3:14-21

2011-02-13T16:51:00.000Z

Introduction

The passage this week starts with 'For this reason …'. Just like last weeks reading, but this time Paul has nothing else to distract him. So we have to look back to two weeks ago when Warner spoke to us on chapter 2:11-22. In that section of the letter Paul is describing his amazement that He can see God bringing together the former enemies – Jews and Gentiles. The fact that it happening in Ephesus, the centre of the cult of Diana is even more amazing.

Paul knows that this is all part of Gods plan. The fact that he can see it happening he finds humbling, so rather than pray as he normally would, standing and looking up to God, he is on his knees.

We've heard a lot recently about the pressure on and persecution of the Coptic church. I wonder if we are seeing God's plan for strengthening them as we witness the amazing scenes in Egypt this week.

Living for Christ

Paul did not found the Ephesian church but he has spent a couple of years building it up, so he knows it well. He knows that it is not all goodness and light and is encouraging the Christians there to think about what it means to follow Christ. He wants them to think about what Christ has done for them, who Christ is and how they should live in response to that.

In our reading today he prays specifically for two things for them.

I'm going to look at the two parts of Paul's prayer separately, although there are significant overlaps.

1^st Prayer

.^{Eph 3:16} I pray that out of his glorious riches^e he may strengthen you with power^f through his Spirit in your inner being,^g

^{Eph 3:17} so that Christ may dwell in your hearts^h through faith.

Paul has already spoken of the riches of Christ in verses 8, 9. In Romans he explains a little more of what he means:

^{Ro 2:4} Do you show contempt for the richesⁿ of his kindness,^o tolerance^p and patience,^q not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?^r

So Paul is talking about God's grace and asking that the Ephesians may receive power through the holy spirit that is in them.

What is the power for? - “So that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith”.

After Jesus had cursed the fig tree and the disciples had seen it die, Jesus said in Mark 11:22-24

“Have faith in God,” Jesus answered.

“I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.

Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

If Christ is to dwell in our hearts then, it is something that we must be continually praying for – then we will get the power of God.

Connected to the Power?

Sometimes I get up in the morning and wander bleary eyed down stairs to get a cup of tea. The kettle is filled with water, the cups are taken from the cupboard and have tea bags put in them. I let the dog out and watch him stretch and smell the fresh morning air. I go back into the kitchen and all is quiet, the kettle is still cold. Then I realise – it's not plugged in. It's not connected to the power, so it will never heat up.

Continue to Pray

If we do not continue to pray we will not stay connected to God and the power to have Jesus dwell in our hearts will not be there. We must stay connected – not by a cord but by prayer.

My Heart Christ’s Home

What does Paul mean by Dwell?

In his book “My Heart Christ’s Home”, Robert Munger pictures the Christian life as a house.

(http://www.gtpres.org/My%20Heart%20Christ%27s%20home.pdf) Jesus comes into the house and goes from room to room. He goes into the library of the mind and begins to clean up the trash found there. He replaces it with His Word. He enters the dining room of the appetite and finds many sinful desires listed on a worldly menu. He replaces things like materialism, pride, envy and lust with humility, love and purity. When he finally comes to the closet, the owner of the house hesitates to open the door to all his dark and secret sins. He can’t bear to have Jesus look inside. But Jesus does come inside, but only after He’s invited, and cleans it up. Jesus then settles down and feels at home.

Do you have some rooms in your life that you haven’t allowed Jesus into? Let Him come into every area of your life and do some cleaning with his penetrating holiness and matchless grace.

Jesus dwells in our hearts through faith. Our faith in Him means that we invite Him to do some housecleaning. We put our faith in Him so that He can do the needed renovations in our life.

So Christ is in us, but Paul normally talks about us being 'in Christ'. There are about 90 references to 'in Christ' in Paul's letters.

Does God show through - Story

A little girl turned to her mother after church and said, “Mummy, the sermon was confusing today.”

The mother asked, “Why is that?”

The little girl answered, “Well, he said that God is bigger than we are. Is that true?”

“Yes, that’s true,” the mother replied.

“He also said that God lives within us. Is that true, too?”

Again the mother replied, “Yes, that’s true.”

“Well,” said the little girl, “If God is bigger than us and He lives in us, wouldn’t He show through?”

Does God show through your life?

It's a good question, one that I will leave you with as I move to looking at the second part of Paul's prayer for the Ephesians.

2^nd Prayer

Carrying on in verse 17: And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,

Eph 3:18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ,

Eph 3:19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge —that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now the Ephesians are firmly rooted in the love of Christ, Paul goes on to pray that they may know just how big the love of Christ is. We sang 'God is so Big' at the start of the service this morning. God is big, strong and mighty, and so much so that we need his power within us just to be able to get a sense of how big, strong and mighty God is. I'm not talking about the size of the universe -awesome though it may be, it can be seen 'easily' with a few telescopes and a bit of technology. I'm talking about the love of Christ – you can't see it, you can only see its effects.

I loved those boys

In his book Chicken Soup for the Soul, Eric Butterworth tells of a college sociology class that was sent into the Baltimore slums to take case histories of 200 young boys. The students were required to write an evaluation of each boy's projected future, and in virtually every case, they wrote, "He hasn't got a chance."

Some twenty-five years later, another professor came across the earlier study and decided to do a follow-up study. With the exception of twenty boys who had died or moved, the study revealed that 176 of the remaining 180 boys had gone on to surprising success, with many becoming lawyers, doctors, and leading businessmen.

When the men were asked for the reasons that contributed to their successes, they all pointed to one particular teacher who had influenced them. The teacher was still alive, so the professor went to visit her to ask how she had influenced boys seemingly destined for poverty and crime to become such success stories.

"It's really very simple," she responded. "I loved those boys."

That's the effect of the love of a teacher.

Love is ...

Paul says

Love is patient,^v love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.^w

^{1Co 13:5} It is not rude, it is not self-seeking,^x it is not easily angered,^y it keeps no record of wrongs.^z

^{1Co 13:6} Love does not delight in evil^a but rejoices with the truth.^b

^{1Co 13:7} It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.^c

^{1Co 13:8} Love never fails.

This is the love that has a long term effect on people. You can know about this love, you can listen to my words and hear the stories. But you will never really know it until you experience it. That's what Paul means when he say that the love of Christ surpasses knowledge. Christ's love can be understood, but only by receiving it, by being rooted and established in it, not by reading case studies.

Full measure of God

Only then can we be filled to the full measure of God.

[Fullness demonstration fill a jarv with stones, get people to agree its full (it isn't). Top up with water, and add a little too much]

In Psalm 23 we read: You prepare a table^g before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil;^h my cupⁱ overflows.

Jesus says in John 10:10 that we should have 'life to the full'. Life, of course that can only be had by following him.

Does the fullness of God in your life overflow?

Benediction

The prayer ends with a benediction

Eph 3:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, Eph 3:21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

What would you ask of God? What situation would you ask him to resolve?

In Acts 3 a lame man asked Peter & John for money as they went to pray in the temple. They didn't have money, so they said, “In the name of Christ – WALK” and he did.

What he got was beyond his dreams or his imagination.

The words translated in the NIV as Immeasurably more are more literally translated Super abundance. God's riches, His grace, His power, His willingness to love us are all given to us in super abundance, more than we could ever dream of or imagine.

Conclusion

I started this morning by saying Paul wanted the Ephesians to think about what Christ has done for them, who Christ is and how they should live in response to that. That is also something we should think about. So as I finish this morning I will remind you of the questions I have asked.

If God is bigger than ua and inside of us does he show through?

Does the fullness of God in your life overflow into the people around you?

With all of Christ's riches available to us, what are we going to imagine that He could do, so that He can surpass our dreams?

[repeat questions]

Let's finish by saying the words of verses 20 and 21 together.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

2010-12-27T11:45:00.001Z

I'm assuming that you all know the story, so if you don't see the film (or better, read the book) then return.

My recent experiences of Cinema attendance meant that it was quite a long time since I was last at a Film Theatre. We again attended the 'Empire' in Basildon. It was not quite as bad, still popcorn on the floor. How about not filling the buckets to overflowing? Being boxing day there were not that many people there. No box office either, so if you went without credit/debit cards you would not have got in! We had deliberately avoided the 3D option. Screen 8 is an odd shaped theatre. I must have been in it before but I don't remember the screen seeming to be set at an angle, so the right side is further away than the left side - a very strange experience, especially during the sailing scenes.

The film itself was better than the cinema experience. A long time ago I read the book and my memories of the story are not that clear. Eustace I remember, and the general plot, but Eustace as a dragon I don't. However, Will Poulter who plays Eustace is undoubtedly the star of the show. I began to dis-like him almost immediately. Watching his transformation from a horrid little boy always relying on his doting parents to someone of more mature character, indeed even courageous was the best part of the film. The cause of the change is 'the annoying glass is always half full person', as he is described by Eustace, of Reepicheep. An animated mouse, voiced by Simon Pegg, whose tail was given to him by Aslan. Which brings me to the special effects. Always unobtrusive they, in many ways, bring the film to life, but that is what they are for - magic can only occur this way. I'd like to know how real the Dawn Treader was. If it was part of the special effects it was VERY good. Some were a little tired though. When the invisible mansion appears, it seems to build itself, like so many reconstructions of the Colosseum or similar ancient building you may watch a documentary on.

The story is better, on film, than Prince Caspian - much better. It moves at a constant pace, sometimes forgetting to pause for thought as we move from island to island and closer to the source of all evil. It does though slow for the final (well until the last book) goodbye to Narnia for the Pevensy Children, and also the parting of Reepicheep and Eustace.

The story has a clear Christian basis and this is not eroded by the film. The morals are still there, some easier to see than others, but all still intact.

My verdict: Well worth a visit to the cinema to see it.

Joseph, an obedient servant

2010-12-19T17:18:00.000Z

Joseph @ the school Nativity - illustration
At the school nativity play a boy desperately wanted to play the role of Joseph. He didn't get the part – he was to be the inn keeper. Instead the part of Joseph went to his greatest rival in the class. He was very upset. All through rehearsals he was planning what he would do. On the first night of the play when Joseph knocked on the door, the Inn keeper opened it. Joseph asked if they had any room. The Inn keeper said “Of course, there's plenty of room, come in.”. There was a bit of a silence and you could see the confusion on Joseph's face. Finally he moved forward, looked in the Inn and said to the Inn keeper “Never mind, no wife of mine is staying in a dump like this!” Turning to Mary he said “Let's see what's round the back”. The nativity was back on track.
Introduction to Joseph
It seems that there's something special about playing Joseph. Sure, Joseph's part is probably seen as the staring role for boys in the Nativity play. Although he is in many of the scenes, his only lines are with the Inn keeper – who has a similar number of lines.
Perhaps there is something deeper going on. Could it be that playing the role of the father is still seen as important. Perhaps it is something about being the father of God that makes the role attractive.
Last week Jo and I went to the Baptists Church to see Star Wise – the story of the Visit of the Magi set in a science fiction genre. There the star ship captain, who represented the modern sceptic, got to play hide and seek with the baby Jesus. Quite a lot was made of it, as it was the point in the play where the Captain began to change his mind. What was it like to play with Jesus as a toddler?
I'm sure Joseph enjoyed playing with the young Jesus as much as any father enjoys playing with his son. The reality though is that in the Bible Joseph has a bit part. The focus is on Jesus – exactly where it should be, of course. Joseph doesn't have a single word recorded. He is a silent witness but we do have a record of his actions. As my mother constantly reminded me “Actions speak louder than words”. Lets take a look through Joseph's story to see what he did, to see what we can learn about him and from him.
1st Century BC marriage
When we meet Joseph he is already being described as Mary's husband. In the first century BC the Jewish marriage process was nothing like ours. The system was based on arranged marriages. Joseph's parents and Mary's parents would have made an arrangement between them. When Joseph was old enough and established enough to support a wife the wedding would take place. This would probably have been the first time the couple met. After the wedding celebration the couple would return to their own homes. The period known as betrothal had started. During this time Joseph and Mary would get to know each other and begin the process of learning to live together. From the point of view of the Jewish law they were married. If anything happened – such as the death of one of them the other would be a widow, or widower. The divorce law also applied.
One of the most serious sins a woman could commit was to be involved with another man during the time of betrothal. The penalty was death by stoning.
Deuteronomy 22:23-24
If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the girl because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.
We have no idea what Joseph thought of Mary – we cannot tell whether he was in love, or whether he even liked her, but the reading tells us that he was a righteous man (v19). So when it became clear to him that his wife was pregnant and he knew that he couldn't be the father, he knew he must end the marriage.
Joseph righteous
Joseph was righteous – meaning that he kept the Law as best he could. So he could not complete the betrothal. He could not be married to someone who did not start out a virgin, and especially someone in a relationship with another man.
By Jesus time the practice of stoning was not so common, although it was still an option. He could have called for the full force of the law to be applied and made a public denouncement of Mary. Being righteous does not mean you lack compassion. Psalm 112:4 links the characteristics together:
Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man.
Well Joseph was certainly in a time of darkness – perhaps as dark as it gets. His decision was a compassionate one. He will just get Mary out of his life by getting a certificate of divorce and then start again on finding a wife. After all there was plenty of evidence.
The plan is made, but before it can be put into action God intervenes.
V20 “... an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”
Is this one of the things we can learn from Joseph – always act on your dreams? Does God still guide through dreams?
There are some significant differences of opinion. One preacher says “If you remember your dreams then God is trying to speak to you” I can't agree with that. Most of the dreams I remember are nightmares that wake me up and make getting back to sleep difficult. They are disjointed and frightening and do not seems as though God is there in any way.
Others will tell you that the promise in Joel 2:28-29 that Peter quotes in Acts 2:17-18, is not for our time, but for the time of the apostles or the time after Jesus return.
Here's what Joel says:
“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”
Neither position really makes sense to me. It's true, of course that God will not and cannot act in ways that He has said He will not act in. It's also true that the prophesies are hard to understand, and can be looked at in several ways.
All I can say is that in the one or two cases where my dreams may have come from God the message has not contradicted my understanding of scripture and has reminded me to help people or pray for them.
Joseph clearly knew the difference between a dream sent by God and an ordinary nightmare. To him this message is clearly from God – it fits with prophecy:
Isa 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
Remember the words from the dream:
“Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Who is the father?
OK, the baby is God's and that's very important, but there is still an earthly cost to consider. Families with bastard children were considered to be evil. They had broken the law and would be shunned. It would affect Mary as she brought up the family, and it would affect Joseph and his business. People may have thought that they just couldn't wait. People may have asked who the real father was. Channel 4 made a whole program on a rumour that starts around 150 AD that a Roman soldier called Panthera was the real father. There was speculation even before Jesus was born, and there has been ever since.
If Joseph had heard and believed the rumours things would be very different. Mary would have been divorced and unmarryable. Jesus could not have been David's descendant and the prophesies would not have been fulfilled. If Joseph heard the gossip he certainly didn't give it any value.
Joseph is not only a believer, but he is also faithful and obedient. Once he knows that the message is from God, he obeys. I'm sure he considered the cost. Righteousness goes deeper than simply following instructions. For Joseph righteousness means being open to follow God's commands as they arrive, it means knowing God's voice and following what it says.
Jesus says in John 10:3-5
“The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”
I wonder if he got that idea from Joseph?
We see how obedient Joseph is after the visit of the Magi, where another dream tells him to take his family to Egypt. In Matthew 2:13-14 Joseph wakes from his dream and the family leave immediately.
If you are to know someone’s voice then you must spend time with them. Dogs are generally reckoned to be more intelligent than sheep. Some of you will know we got a dog in June. He was about 18 months old, and it took him a few weeks to get used to our voices. Even a couple of months ago he wasn't entirely sure and went chasing after someone else whistling for their dog. If it takes the dog months, how long will it take the sheep.
Conclusion
Joseph is an excellent example of the character God is trying to develop in each of us.
If we are to be obedient to God, in the way that Joseph was obedient we must get close to God and listen to the Holy Spirit speaking to us. We will then be prepared to understand not just the message, but the urgency of it too. That way we can respond accordingly. We also learn from Joseph that our response to situations in the world must be loving and compassionate, just as God is loving and compassionate with us.
Joseph has a lot to teach us, not bad for the Bibles Silent Witness, Joseph son of David, the man who taught God.

Star Wise @ Billericay Baptist Church

2010-12-12T15:06:00.000Z

Billed as a modern musical for Christmas 'Star Wise' follows the story of the Magi (Wise Men, Astrologers) on their journey to find the baby born to be King. As the title and especially the picture suggests it is set in the Star Wars / Star Trek science fiction genre. The Magi must hire a star ship to get from their planet to the Judean system, through the occupying armies of the Augustinian Empire. The captain, known as 'Skip' Tickle, of the star ship provides the sceptical voice of the non-believer of the present day, to balance the story and fit it to modern times. The Judean system is ruled by a megalomaniac Herod to whom the Magi take an instant dislike. There they must find the right planet so that they can worship the King. On Beth 3M they find the Baby with his mother Mary, and Father Joseph, and we hear some of the prophecies from Daniel and from Simeon in the temple. They return by another route and witness the prelude to the slaughter that Herod initiates.
The whole performance is backed by video clips, showing the controls of the ship, recorded messages (captains log ..) from the chief of Magi - Melchior, and outer space. The programme contains a list of the films and TV series that the ideas came from, and there are a few tributes to shows whose ideas have not been used - 'Blakes Seven' even gets a mention. The songs are mostly very clever. One I particularly likes was about faster than light travel and contains a line something like 'go out in the morning, come back the night before'. Scientific rubbish, of course, but entirely true to the genre.
Remembering that the cast are complete amateurs and most (if not all) are not regularly involved in drama they did a very good job. The few minor glitches and hesitations are easily forgiven. The show is quite long at around 2 hours, but there is an intermission when refreshments are served. The baptist church itself was really too small as a venue, but I doubt they had much option.
Star Wise was put on to raise money for "Door of Hope".
Jo and I had an enjoyable evening. Our thanks go to Peter White, the author, the cast and crew and the Baptist Church down the road.

I hope that this was a very successful outreach activity. It had all the main points of the story, and the script showed some attempt to explain who the Magi were and where their beliefs came from. God is referred to as 'The Uncreated Creator' most of the time and our captain gets to play hide and seek with the son of God. Even the captain has the dream warning of the danger of returning to Herod. At least it should certainly produce lots of questions for any who saw it and were not believers.

Keep Calm and Carry On - a sermon for Remembrance Sunday 2010

2010-11-14T15:46:00.000Z

“Keep Calm and Carry On” This poster was initially produced by the Ministry of Information in 1939. It was intended to strengthen morale in the event of a wartime disaster – an invasion. Two-and-a-half million copies were printed, although the poster was distributed only in limited numbers. Quite what the reaction to it was in 1939 I have no idea. It was rediscovered in Barter Books, a second-hand bookshop in Alnwick, Northumberland in 2000. While never intended for this age it seems to have captured the imagination of the British people. Perhaps they have recognised something in their character.
[Slide 5 – Keep Calm and Carry On Products]
There are T-Shirts, mugs and posters and much more. I don't believe this is all marketing, after all if you make these things and don't sell them they soon disappear.
Its pretty much the same message that Jesus is giving his disciples as he talks about the End Times. He is saying that nothing much has changed in the world as we moved from BC to AD. There are still going to be Wars and revolutions, just as there had been in the past. Nations will fight and try to destroy each other. It was not new then and it is not new now. There are still going to be earthquakes. There are still going to be famines, There are still going to be epidemics or even pandemics.
[Slide 6 – Shoemakerlevy hits Jupiter]
There are still going to be great signs in the heavens. This picture shows the comet Shoemakerlevy as it collides with Jupiter. In Jesus time the interpretation of comets and other events in the night sky was very different from the interpretations we have now. Something like this would have been seen as a sign of something important happening on earth. Just like the star (whatever it was) that led the wise men to the new king of the earth shortly after his birth. In the mind set of the people of the time you could not have such an important person born without there being a sign in the sky.
All these things must happen before the end comes. Jesus' disciples are not to be frightened by any of this, but are to accept it calmly as inevitable and part of the process that God is going through in order to complete His redemption plan.
Perhaps we could put it another way:
[Video – Corporal Jones – Don't Panic]
Jones, of course is talking to himself as much as those around him. The message remains the same from popular culture whether you are in the seventies or the eighties.
[Slide 7 – Hitchhikers Guide – Don't Panic]
“Don't Panic”
Its an important message for for people to receive in times of disaster. When a bomb lands on the bank during the war, or when your world is being destroyed panic will only cause things to get worse.
I'm sure there have been many times throughout your life when it has looked as though your world is falling apart. Sometimes that has been at a personal level – when you loose someone important and don't know how you can continue to cope without them. Sometimes that will have been at a national level, when you see a threat to your whole nation.
Some of you here will remember and have been involved in WWII. You will have been through the times when it looked like the Germans might bomb London to a pile of rubble.
[Slide 8 – St Pauls, Blitz]
You will remember the heroic efforts to keep St Pauls from being burnt down. You will remember the famine that resulted from the war, rationing and the fears that you might starve to death. You will remember friends and family who gave their lives in the fight, or who were killed by enemy action over our heads. These were no doubt some of the low points of the war for you.
I've recently finished a book called 'Bomber Boys' about the young men who volunteered to fly in the RAF bombers that bombed Germany. The statistics are appalling:
2/3 of Allied bomber crews were lost for each plane destroyed, it was higher for the RAF, who flew the more dangerous missions.
6 bomber crewmen were killed for each one wounded
Tour Of Duty% KIA or MIA
Fighters (300 combat hours) 24%
Medium bombers (50 missions) 48%
Heavy bombers (30 missions) 71%
Many of them, whose writings are recorded, believed in what they were doing, and believed in the ultimate success of the whole venture.
There have been other wars since, of course. Most notably for me the Falklands war. I remember thinking at the time that it was nothing more than a skirmish and would be over in a few days. How could a country like Argentina defeat Britain – with its professional, well trained and equipped military services. So imagine my shock when I heard on the radio of the sinking of the HNS Sheffield by an Exocet missile.
[Slide 9 – HMS Sheffield, burning]
It took me a while after that to regain my composure, to calm down and to carry on. There was a real chance that the task force could be defeated and I had to come to terms with that.
It was the low point of the conflict for me.
There have been other wars since, and I know that I am very fortunate. I have not been involved in a war in my life time. I sincerely hope that I never am, and the same goes for my children.
[Slide 10 – Black]
We must remember though that although we are not involved in a physical war, we are most definitely involved in a spiritual one. When Jesus is talking about the end times He did not start by saying that war is a normal state of affairs on the earth. He started by warning us not to be deceived by the many who will come in his name claiming to be the Messiah. Many have come, here just a few that are recent:
David Koresh - Born Vernon Wayne Howell, was the leader of a Branch Davidian religious sect, proclaimed that he was "the Son of God, the Lamb."
Ariffin Mohamed – Also known as "Ayah Pin", the founder of the banned Sky Kingdom in Malaysia. He claims to be the incarnation of Jesus, as well as Muhammad, Shiva, and Buddha.[1]
Laszlo Toth – Hungarian-born Australian who vandalised Michelangelo's Pietà in 1972.
Arnold Potter - Schismatic Latter Day Saint leader; called himself "Potter Christ".
Thomas Harrison Provenzano[4] – convicted murderer who possibly was mentally ill. Provenzano compared his execution with Jesus Christ's crucifixion.
Georges-Ernest Roux – Founder of the Universal Alliance, claimed to be Jesus, then God, called the "Christ of Montfavet" or "Georges-Christ".
Ahn Sahng-hong – South Korean man worshipped by World Mission Society Church of God
John Nichols Thom - Cornish-man who claimed to be the reincarnation of Jesus Christ and his body temple of the Holy Ghost. He was killed by British soldiers at the Battle of Bossenden Wood, on May 31, 1838 in Kent, England.
Sergei Torop – a Russian who claims to be "reborn" as Vissarion, the returned Jesus Christ. He founded the Church of the Last Testament and the spiritual community Ecopolis Tiberkul in Southern Siberia.
Ernest Norman, founder of the Unarius Academy of Science, was allegedly Jesus in a past life.
And that takes no account of the Moonies and other such sects. People are easily deceived and there are plenty of people ready to deceive them. Jesus tells his disciples not to be one of them. Whatever they say, Jesus' instructions are “Do not follow them”.
How not to be deceived?
That's the first and perhaps the most important thing. Then at the end of today's reading is a section where Jesus talks to his followers about what their life will be like. He starts in v12 with “But before all this”. Before there are wars, natural disasters, pandemics and famines there are more immediate problems that you will have to overcome.
Persecution.
Persecution can be very minor, like the rather ridiculous attack on Ian Duncan Smith for using the word 'sin' in a speech. Mostly though it is far from minor, and as Jesus says here it often involves the courts. In many countries courts are not involved at all, the targets of persecution are beaten up, and their churches or houses burned. None of the persecutors cares if some of them die as a result – there is no justice.
How many Christian Martyrs do you think there are in a year?
[Slide 11 – The Christian Martyrs last prayer]
[get some answers]
Perhaps your view of Christian martyrs is shaped by stories from Nero's Rome, and that leaves you with the impression that it doesn't happen today.
According to one estimate it is about 171,000 per year world wide.
[Slide 12 – Christian Martyrs of the 20th century]
In 1998, 10 Statues were added to Westminster Abbey. (Yes, I know there are only six in the picture!) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/129587.stm)They commemorate 10 Christian Martyrs from the 20th century. You may recognise some of the names and know their stories. Some you may not have heard of – neither had I. Each lost their life because of their faith in Jesus Christ. They are only 10. There are thousands that we will never know anything about who have made the same sacrifice. Jesus predicted as much in His words to the disciples (v 16).
Today, as we remember those who have given their lives to fight for our country, let us also remember those who have given their lives to fight for our faith. They died so that we may live our lives in peace and in freedom.
Perhaps the most shocking persecution of Christians that is happening today is causing Christians to leave the middle eastern countries in droves. It is being described as a new exodus. Christians in the past few years have left Iraq, Palestine, Egypt, and The Lebanon. In the case of The Lebanon they were not that long ago the majority population, now they are down to under a third. Islamic fundamentalism often gets the blame but the causes of this are unclear. The disruption and hardship caused to the thousands of families forced to leave their homes is obvious.
Will you or I end our lives as martyrs? - It's possible. I have no idea where Jesus will take me next, and I doubt that you do either.
If we do have to face the ultimate sacrifice, or any kind of persecution Jesus says that we should not worry about what we will say beforehand. His promise is that the Holy Spirit will give us the right words when the time comes. Verse 15 “For I will give you words of wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict”.
Keep Calm and Cary On.
We know that many awful things must happen before the end comes. We are not allowed to know when that will be, but we are given some clues and told to watch for signs. Jesus warned his disciples to leave Jerusalem and head for the hills when they saw the armies advancing. In AD 66 Titus Flavius Vespasianus led the Roman army against Jerusalem. By AD 70 the seige of Jerusalem was broken and the vast majority of it's inhabitants slaughtered by angry Roman soldiers. Josephus estimates that 1.1 million were killed, while only 97,000 survived. If only they had followed Jesus' advice and fled. Instead they followed the common wisdom of the time – that it was safer inside the walls of the city than outside.
Keep calm and Carry on does not mean that you ignore the signs that are so carefully put there as a warning for you.
Peter, one of Jesus' three closest disciples says in chapter 4 of his first letter “7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. 8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” and in Chapter 5 “8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
Our reading today ends with the line “but not a hair on your head will perish. By standing firm you will gain life”. He says this immediately after telling the disciples that some of them will be put to death. This ONLY makes sense if you are expecting another life after this one. Jesus had not demonstrated Eternal Life when he said this. Now he has!
Now we have so much more than the disciples had, but like the people Peter is writing to we must be alert to the signs and stand firm in the faith.
[Slide 13 – Keep Calm and Carry On]
Keep Calm and Carry On
Carry On deepening your faith, be alert look carefully for signs, be sure you know how to read them. Some of them will be awful and may disrupt life as we know it. Some of us may end our lives as martyrs. We cannot correctly interpret and respond to signs – even if they are as clear as an unexploded bomb, if we are in a state of panic.
Carry On standing firm and you will gain life.

Praying for the Kingdom - Luke 18:1-8

2010-10-17T16:56:00.000+01:00

Introduction

What is this passage really about? It seems straight forward enough until you get to that last verse. Until then its simply an illustration of Praying – and never giving up until you get what you're asking for. That's easy – right?

But then we get the last part of verse 8 where Jesus says “However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

What does Jesus mean, and how does it relate to the parable?

Looking back to the Chapter before our reading today, Jesus is responding to a question about the Kingdom of God. He uses that question to talk about his return. From chapter 17 verse 30.

“It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night two people will be in one bed; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together; one will be taken and the other left.”

The widow in the parable wants justice. We must ask ourselves why there would be a call for justice at the second coming. Christians across the world are hated by those they live among. As a result they are treated badly – persecuted. Sometimes that is simply a form of discrimination but at other times and in other places it is much worse. We are fortunate because we can worship without threat at the moment. There are many places in the world where just going to a Christian meeting would endanger your life. So we can see that there is a great need for justice.

Revelation 6:10 tells us why. 'They called out in a loud voice, “How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?”' That is the same prayer as the prayer of the widow.

In the parable Jesus is saying that we should be praying for the Kingdom of God – for its establishment, its growth, and finally for justice for its members. He teaches the same thing in Matthew 6, where there is an outline for prayer. Its one of the scriptures that make up the “Lord's Prayer”.

Mt 6:9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “ 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name,

Mt 6:10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Mt 6:11 Give us today our daily bread.

Notice that praying for the Kingdom is something that is to be done before even asking God to provide for our most basic needs – our daily bread.'

Praying for the Kingdom includes anything that helps to build Gods Kingdom on Earth:

For people to come to Christ
For people to grow closer to Christ
For strengthening and healing those who are already engaged in spreading the gospel.

Ernest Persistent Prayer

For these things we should pray and never give up. I was trying to think of an example of a time when Christ Church has prayed together for the same thing. A time when we had prayed with a similar sense of persistence as shown by the widow in the parable. That was when Warner was off work in 2008. We met together in the church room each week to pray. Not that many of us, it is true, but enough of us to make a difference. Perhaps, if I had held those times in the church, more people would have come. We prayed like this for about three months, if I remember correctly. Then one night we met for a half night of prayer, and stayed in church praying until midnight.

And it worked!

Looking back now, though, we weren't that committed to what we were doing.

Kefa Sempangi lead a church in Uganda during the Amin dictatorship. His church would call the leadership together to pray whenever there was a serious need in the church. They would pray right through the whole night, expecting an answer in the morning.

When was the last time that the leaders of our church were called together to pray?

A look at Prayer

Request

Lets take a look at what these prayers might be like.

First we must remember that we do not make demands of God.

Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

C. S. Lewis wrote: “Prayer is request. The essence of a request, as distinct from a demand, is that it may or may not be granted. And if an infinitely wise Being listens to the requests of finite and foolish creatures, of course He will sometimes grant them and sometimes refuse them.”

Sometimes we are not praying for the right thing, as Ruth Bell Graham, the wife of Billy Graham once said, “If God answered every prayer of mine, I would have married the wrong man seven times!”

Our prayers may not always be the best things for us, or for those we are praying for. We must be sure that we are close to God, so that we do not waste our efforts praying for things that are never going to happen.

John 15:7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.

We may have to wait what seems a very long time to us. Patience and faith are important.

Patience

2Pe 3:8-9 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

In a German prison camp in WWII, unknown to the guards, the American prisoners managed to build a makeshift radio. One day news came that the German high command had surrendered, ending the war—a fact that, because of a communications breakdown, the German guards did not yet know. As word spread, a loud celebration broke out. For three days, the prisoners were hardly recognizable. They sang, waved at guards, laughed at the German shepherd dogs, and shared jokes over meals. On the fourth day, they awoke to find that all the Germans had fled, leaving the gates unlocked.

God, of course doesn't suffer communications breakdowns, but has His reasons for not answering our prayers immediately. Our patience is required.

Faith

Faith is required too.

English preacher George Mueller wrote these words about praying: “The great point is never to give up until the answer comes. I have been praying for 63 years and 8 months for one man’s conversion. He is not saved yet, but he will be. How can it be otherwise? I am praying.” George Mueller died in 1897 and the man was still not saved. But as they lowered Muller’s casket into the ground, the man repented of his sins and trusted Jesus as his Saviour.

George was famous for his prayer life, and is reputed to have read through the Bible 4 times every year.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

Sometimes though our certainty in the things we do not see fails us and doubts begin. This is especially the case when we have been praying the same prayer for a long time, and the person that we are praying for seems completely unaffected by our prayers.

Doubt

When you walk into a room and switch on the light an nothing happens you don't say “Oh, that Thomas Edison had no idea what he was talking about. This electricity thing just doesn't work.”. No, you check that there isn't a power cut, then replace the bulb or the switch.

When doubts occur, don't assume that God isn't listening or isn't going to answer your prayer. There are many reasons why God hasn't answered the prayer right NOW.

Closeness to God

If we can stay close to God it will help us to trust Him, then we will be less likely to doubt. Regularly reading the Bible, (4 times through every year is great, but I don't think I will ever manage that!) and spending time just talking to God about your day will help. John 15:5 says “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” We have to stay connected to God if our prayers are to be any use in building the Kingdom.

Faith on Earth

The parable was told to encourage the followers of Jesus to pray and to keep on praying for the Kingdom of God, and in this case for justice for each of its members. This call for justice is echoed John's vision in Revelation 6:10 where the martyrs question God about how long they have to wait for justice. They have been working for the Kingdom of God against the powers of the world and have made the ultimate sacrifice.

At the end of the parable Jesus wonders whether He will find any faithful followers on earth when he returns. Will He find anyone who can stand up the threats of the world and continue to pray for the Kingdom until it comes, or until their time on earth is complete.

Will that be us, or will we succumb to the world and its enchantments?

Thankfulness

2010-10-10T21:18:00.000+01:00

Boy & Orange Story

A small boy was given an orange, which he took willingly. His mother said “What do you say?”. The boy looked at the orange and though for a moment, then said “Peel it.”

That wasn't what his mother wanted or expected. When Jesus healed the lepers he didn't get what he wanted or expected either. Maybe you can easily forgive a child, but with adults you expect a better understanding.

I will be Concentrating on Gratitude this morning. I hope we can get a better understanding of what it means to be thankful.

Background to passage

First though we must take a look at the scene we are presented with and understand what is happening here.

Verse 11 says that Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem. We are approaching passover, but there is a long journey yet, and lots of teaching to get through before we arrive. He would be travelling roughly southbound, from Galilee to Jerusalem, but Sameria is between the two. Jesus was going around the region of Sameria, instead of through it. Jews and Samaritans have a common ancestry, but separated after the Babylonian exile. Both sides believed they held the truth about God. Under normal circumstances they do not mix, but leprosy is a special case.

As he was entering a village some lepers called out to him. They had to call, they were not allowed to get too close. They had been excluded from their villages and were not allowed to make contact or come within a certain distance of the healthy population. That meant they were not allowed in the Temple or any other place of worship. It meant they were not allowed at a place or work. All they could do was beg. It was a sensible public health measure. Leprosy was (and still is) a horrible disease, and only since the 1930's we have had a cure. The description of Leprosy in the Bible covers many different types of skin disease – but you couldn't be too careful.

The rules for determining what is and is not a skin disease that makes someone 'unclean' are set out in Leviticus 13.

They asked Jesus to take pity on them. Leprosy was seen in Jesus' time as a punishment from God. They believed that God's mercy would make them clean again.

Jesus told them to go and show themselves to the priests. Jews and Samaritans had similar rules and systems for determining if someone had recovered. It was the priests job to examine the person and determine if he was well. As they obeyed Jesus they all realised that they were cured. Their skin became normal.

One of them, just one, turned back to thank Jesus for the miracle. It turns out that he was a Samaritan.

What of the other nine? Why didn't they come back? Here's one preachers ideas:

One waited to see if the cure was real.
One waited to see if it would last.
One said he would see Jesus later.
One decided that he had never had leprosy.
One said he would have gotten well anyway.
One gave the glory to the priests.
One said, "O, well, Jesus didn’t really do anything."
One said, "Any rabbi could have done it."
One said, "I was already much improved."

May be. May be they did think like that. It's almost impossible for us to know how we would have reacted. All I can say is that, for me, I think I would have been so excited about being able to go back to my family, back to my community, to live my normal life that I may well not have thought about my duty of thanks. Of course I would be thankful, but would not have expressed it to the very person that I should have expressed it.

Parallels to our situation

The social effects of Leprosy has parallels with the effects of sin. As Leprosy separates people from their community so sin separates us from God. It puts us outside the community that we would prefer to be inside. It breaks our contact, and leaves us in a position where we can only beg for mercy.

Gratitude

So we have a lot to be thankful for. Jesus has already answered our call for mercy. Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Before any of us had any concept of our need Christ had already died for us, so that we may not be separated from God.

What do we have to be thankful for?

There's much more than that to be thankful for though.

Rudyard Kipling

“Rudyard Kipling lived from 1865 to 1936. He was English, yet born in Bombay, India. He wrote poetry and is the author of books like Captain Courageous, How the Leopard Got His Spots, and The Jungle Books.

Kipling’s writings not only made him famous but also brought him a fortune. A newspaper reporter came up to him once and said, "Mr. Kipling, I just read that somebody calculated that the money you make from your writings amounts to over one hundred dollars a word.”

The reporter reached into his pocket and pulled out a one hundred-dollar bill and gave it to Kipling and said, “Here’s a one hundred dollar bill, Mr. Kipling. Now you give me one of your hundred dollar words.”

Rudyard Kipling looked at the money, put it in his pocket and said, "Thanks!"

Some things to be thankful for.

I'd certainly say “Thanks” for £50, and I bet most of you would too.

Here are some other things that you might be thankful for:

-If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep, you are richer than 75% of this world.

-If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish somewhere, you are among the top 8% of the world’s wealthy.

-If you woke up this morning with more health than illness, you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week

-If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation, you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.

-If you can attend church meetings without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death, you are more blessed than three billion in the world.

-If your parents are still alive and still married, you are fairly rare.

[What else might we be thankful for?]

A different perspective

Perhaps we just need to change our perspective to see what we can be really thankful for.

Jewish Story – (of the goat)

There is an old Jewish story that illustrates this point. There is a man who goes to the rabbi and complains, "Life is unbearable. There are nine of us living in one room. What can I do?" The rabbi answers, "Take your goat into the room with you." The man in incredulous, but the rabbi insists. "Do as I say and come back in a week." A week later the man comes back looking more distraught than before. "We cannot stand it," he tells the rabbi. "The goat is filthy." The rabbi then tells him, "Go home and let the goat out. And come back in a week." A radiant man returns to the rabbi a week later, exclaiming, "Life is beautiful. We enjoy every minute of it now that there’s no goat -- only the nine of us."

The situation was the same as at first, but now his perception had changed. He realized that he was blessed to begin with.

Why be grateful?

Does that help to make you think of the things you can be thankful for?

Sometime though, it takes a doctor or an expert to tell us what to do, before we will change our habits.

because it's good for you!

Here's and extract from a book called “Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier”

By Robert A. Emmons

"We discovered scientific proof that when people regularly engage in the systematic cultivation of gratitude, they experience a variety of measurable benefits: psychological, physical, and interpersonal. The evidence on gratitude contradicts the widely held view that people have a "set-point" of happiness that cannot be reset by any known means: in some cases, people have reported that gratitude led to transformative life changes. And, even more important, the family, friends, partners, and others that surround them consistently report that people who practice gratitude seem measurably happier and are more pleasant to be around."

Now Robert is saying that you actually have to do 'being thankful', not just think about what you might be thankful for. He's saying that the act of thanking changes your life.

That is surprisingly exactly what the Bible says.

Philippians. 4:6 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

Colossians 2:6-7 "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving."

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Part of living with Christ, of being a Christian is that we practice thankfulness.

Farmer and Pig Story

An old farmer once had an ungodly relative visit him. After the farmer had bowed his head and thanked God for the food they were about to eat, the relative rudely said, "What did you do that for? There's no God. We live in an age of enlightenment." The old farmer smiled and said, "There is one on the farm who doesn't thank God before he eats." The relative sat up and said, "Who is this enlightened one?" To which the farmer quietly replied, “My pig.”

Let's end with a prayer

"Thank you, dear God
For all You have given me,
For all You have taken away from me,
For all You have left me."
(unknown)

Time for a Celebration - Luke 15:1-32 @St John the Divine

2010-09-12T12:48:00.000+01:00

Lost

[Act Lost Credit Cards]

Oh, the last time I did that was on the morning we were to go on holiday. What a panic! I looked everywhere for hours and hours. Eventually I gave up and phoned all the companies to cancel the cards. When you have joint credit cards they cancel both of them, so even Jo's were no good. It's horrible being on holiday and having nothing spend. When we got home from holiday the cards were waiting for me on the dining table. I had dropped them in my son's car while moving it off the drive the night before!

When you loose something, especially something important a horrible panic sets in and you search wildly trying to find it. When its a person – a friend or relative the sense of anxiety is much stronger and in some cases searching will do you no good at all.
While we're talking about loosing people, do you remember being lost as a child. Try to remember the panic and fear of it for a moment. We will come back to that later.

Nature of God

We are created in the image of God, so its no surprise that God also keenly feels the sense of having lost someone. You wouldn't expect God to panic, but you would expect him to search. We can see from the stories that Jesus told in our reading today that God does search.

God searches urgently: The shepherd leaves his sheep to search for the one that is lost.

Would you? Would you leave 99 healthy sheep out in the wilderness, where wolves and bears could easily find them? Would you leave 99 sheep out in the wilderness where any number of them could wander off? Just to find only one that was missing?

We may answer 'Yes' quickly to this question, that's because you know the passage, but it's likely that Jesus hearers would not have been quite so positive. Jesus is showing us that God exceeds human expectations.

God searches diligently: A peasants house would have had a low door and no windows, so the woman who lost her coin would have needed a lamp to have any chance of seeing a coin on the floor. Her best chance, even with the lamp lit was to sweep the earth floor carefully until she spotted something move that was not dust. The coin may have been part of her dowry and would have been very valuable.

God waits patiently: Just like the father waiting for his son to return home God waits for his lost people to return to him. When someone has left of their own accord there is not much point in searching, they probably don't want to be found and would just go further away if you did find them. It is better to wait patiently, always on the lookout for the person to return. Just like the father is our passage today.

The Ungrateful Scorpion (found on http://desperatepreacher.com/bodyii.htm)

This is the story of an old man who used to meditate each day by the River. One morning he saw a scorpion floating on the water. When the scorpion drifted near the old man, he reached to rescue it but was stung by the scorpion. A bit later he tried again and was stung again. The stings made his hand swell up and gave him much pain. Another man passing by saw what was happening and said to the Old Man, "What's wrong with you? Only a fool would risk his life for the sake of an ugly, evil creature. Don't you know you could be killed trying to save that ungrateful scorpion?"
From desparatepreacher.com

The old man calmly replied, "My friend, just because it is in the scorpion's nature to sting, does not change my nature to save."

It is God's nature to save. We are his treasures – He does not want to loose us. Despite all our best efforts to get ourselves lost God is always there ready to save us.

Urgently looking for an opportunity to rescue us. Diligently searching for a way to make us turn to him.

Patiently waiting for us to respond.

Celebration

When we do there is a celebration. Did you notice that each of the three stories ends with a celebration – a party to mark the occasion.

I heard on the TV the other day that the average wedding costs £17,000. It scared me a little as Karen is talking about getting married. It's an important day in anyone's life. What you do on that day changes you life, so it's worth making an occasion of it.

I've heard that some Jewish families preparing for a Bar Mitzvah have the whole house redecorated and then have a huge party. It must cost a fortune, but marking you son's move from childhood to adulthood is important. His life will change from that point onwards.

There's even a huge party after a christening – when we thank God for the arrival of a new life and commit to bringing the child up in the Christian faith.

What do we do when someone who we've been praying for for absolutely ages becomes a Christian? How do we mark the day when their life changes, indeed when their life really begins?

Our Response

That's all very well, you say, but I've been a Christian for ages, and I didn't get a party! Well if you are thinking like that, let me remind you of the lost son's brother. He is usually condemned for his churlish attitude.

The real question you should be asking is what these stories mean for us as Christians. How should we respond to Gods searching for the lost people in our world?

We are supposed to be God's agents on the earth, so we should join in with his efforts. I'm really assuming that you know that and already have relationships with non-Christians and are praying for them.

Take a moment to remind yourself who they are.

[pause]

The first thing to do is to make sure that no-one else gets lost. I was in a meeting with Warner the other day when someone said they hadn't seen one of our parishioners for a couple of months. Other said the same. He wrote the name in his diary and said he would give them a call to see how they were.

Is there someone who you haven't seen in a while? - Give them a call when you get home and tell them they're missed.

So the first response we can have is to keep in touch.

Remember that feeling of being lost as a child. People are lost in the big wide world. They may never have known anything else. So often people are looking for something more in their lives and don't even realise that it is available. Until they meet someone who has that something. Perhaps someone like my daughter Liz, who some of you may know. When she was at University the people she was living with refused to play games of chance with her. She kept winning and they believed that God was on her side, so they didn't stand a chance. They could only make this assumption because Liz was very open about her faith and didn't compartmentalize it. She talked quite naturally about her relationship with Jesus.

So the second thing we can do is be natural. Peter calls it being prepared to give an answer for the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15).

Think carefully about those you are in touch with. What would make them more interested in God. What can you DO to show them who God is and how much He loves them. Be sure it's something that will help them, and not just you.

So the third thing we can do is work diligently at showing people who God is.

A guy’s car was stalled at a green-light. Cars behind him would honk and honk. Out of frustration, the guy got out of his car, tapped on the window of the person behind him and said,"My car will not start, would not mind trying to start it, while I will sit back here and honk your horn for you"

(http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/finding-lost-passion-for-lost-people-ryan-johnson-sermon-on-evangelism-how-to-43916.asp)

I've been told that the average time taken from first interest to full conversion is three years. That is certainly true for me. I also know that a number of people were praying for me long before I showed any interest.

So the fourth thing we can do is be patient. Don't try to hurry people, trust that God is more concerned about their salvation than you are.

Finally, when they have accepted Christ, make a thing of it, hold some sort of celebration. Make the occasion important for them and for you. Something to remember to mark the start of a new life. You'll just be mirroring what's happening in the heavenly realms.

The Shack by William P. Young

2010-09-10T22:40:00.000+01:00

So many people (well, OK, one or two, but that's unusual) have asked me about it I thought I should get a copy and read it. As usual I read it mainly on the bus to and from work. The loss of a child is a difficult subject to think about and read about. The emotional reaction that results is not really suitable for the bus. There are plenty of those too if you follow the story through.
The book attempts to provide personal answers to the problem of human suffering caused by other humans. To meet its purpose the author provides various characterisations of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and uses the parent-child relationship to explain what is going on. Humans have standard reactions to situations, so for example, when they are wronged they want revenge. God, it seems does not have the same reactions, but loves us all - all the time. (This is of course an unreasonably short summary - but it is precisely what I was struggling with as I arrived at work one morning, 5 minutes after getting off the bus.)
Some of the images of God are helpful, some are not. There are a few other books where you can check the theology that The Shack proposes and provide some biblical comparison. Two longer reviews with more on this are:
http://www.challies.com/articles/the-shack-by-william-p-young
http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001788.cfm

I nearly stopped at the start. The forward and early chapters are technically too difficult for a story. Things improve once we get to the centre of what's happening - the encounter with God. The ending is also difficult and the plot device used to 'cover up' God's intervention into his world is not dealt with particularity well. There is a lack of detail and a paling of characterization in the last chapter as we try to understand the visible effects that the encounter has had on the main character and his relationships. For me this should have been the bulk of the story.

After reading it and reacting to it, remember that it is FICTION, and doesn't make a claim to be anything else. The god described in the pages bears a resemblance to the God that I know, but sometimes not a very close one. For me, at the end, it could never be transformational, but it is (mostly) a good, well written story and very thought provoking.

Matthew 5:17-20 "The Laws of Life", an introduction for Just 10

2010-09-05T12:49:00.000+01:00

Reading – Matthew 5:17-20

I'm going to tell you two short stories from my past by way of introduction. Then, I'll tell you why I told them.

Many years ago I was sent on a training course. I was staying is a nice hotel , backing on to a river – probably the Thames – but I don't remember. I met someone there who I hadn't seen since school. He was on the fringe of the group of people I'd done my best to avoid at school, but he greeted me as an old friend. We had a couple of drinks together and at the end he threw his beer glass as far down the river as he could, making some comment like 'beat that'. I said that I couldn't be asked, it was all too much effort, and dumped the glass over the edge of the pontoon we were sitting on. He went one way and I the other. I'd hardly left the pub when a little old lady approached me – caught up with me might be more accurate. She gave me a good telling off for my behaviour, and let me know that she knew I knew it was wrong.

That's the first, now for the second.

I was going to pick up Jo from her job at Marks and Spencer. It was the end of a typically busy Saturday, but by the time I arrived most of the shoppers were long gone. There was a bus stop on the other side of the road where I needed to be, so I nipped across and parked there. I started to look around for Jo. There was a tap on the window from the other side. Turing round I saw a policeman. I wound down the window and received a stern talking to about my driving and parking.

Both those stories are from about 30 years ago, but even then I was used to the pattern. When I decide to do something that I know is wrong, however trivial it may seem to you, there is ALWAYS someone there to tell me that I shouldn't have done it.
I used to think it was a curse before I was a Christian, but now I believe its a blessing. Either way I've learnt that its how my life works. As I grew up I learnt a series of rules that define how my life works. There are probably still many to learn.
The good news is that the rules of life are written down. The Jews call it “The Law”. I'll call it the “Law of Life” just to be clear what we are talking about.
A couple of weeks ago we went to the British Touring Car Championship races at Silverstone. There we found small groups of men doing their very best to understand the laws of Physics. They understand lots about friction – they call it grip when it applies to tyres on the tarmac. They know about aerodynamics, they call it down force, it helps with the grip, but if they have too much down force the car will go slower. If they don't have enough the car won't go round corners. They are working within the Laws of Physics – well most of them. Only one member of each team tries to break the laws of Physics. They have a name for him. They call him the driver.
The Laws of Physics are constant, they do not change with time. The Laws of Life are the same – they do not change over time, that is why Jesus says “not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law”. The I's have been dotted and the T's crossed, there are no more changes needed – the document is perfect.
The Laws of Physics can't be broken. When you try that in a racing car, its the car that gets broken. We saw some spectacular skids, a few collisions and one quite serious crash. The Laws of Life work in a similar way. They cannot be broken. If you try to break the Laws of Life its you that gets broken. Just like the driver in the racing car tries to go too fast, or turn too quickly, we try to do things with our lives that they were never meant to do. That's what Jesus means about fulfilling the Law – he came to show us how to live without trying to break the Law of Life and getting hurt as a result.
In 1687 Isaac Newton published “Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica” which set down some of the very basic Laws of Physics. We've been discovering more laws and more about how they work ever since. The Laws of Life have been around the same amount of time as the Laws of Physics, but we've had much longer to understand them.
I think we've done a worse job understanding the Laws of Life. So starting on September 15 for 10 weeks we've got an opportunity to look at them in a lot more detail.
If you haven't signed up already, it's still not too late. Speak to Warner, or the Office and book your place.
It's an opportunity to learn how to live in harmony with the Laws of Life, or the Laws of Love as J.John calls them, instead of trying to break them all the time.

Eight Bells and Top Masts: Diaries from a Tramp Steamer

2010-08-25T21:26:00.000+01:00

by Christopher Lee

published: April 2nd 2002 by Headline Review (first published 2001)

isbn 0747264201

Initially I had a problem with this book. The style is off-putting. The diary entries are interspersed with commentary. The commentary refers to the person writing the diary as 'the lad'. I know when I look back at myself 35 years ago I'm not the same person, but actually I am. The Lad, the author growing up, on his first job chose to work on a tramp steamer as the era of the tramp steamer was ending, to be replaced by containers and bulk carriers. It is (eventually) an engaging tale of growing up, and the diary entries show the development and growth of character as the story progresses.

There's the drama of life aboard, brief visits ashore and the problems of living in very close quarters with strangers.

This type of life can no longer be experienced so it is a view into another world. The author should have been out of place in this world with his bright observations, but he wasn't and we benefit from that.
The book ends with a few pages on the history of British Shipping - very interesting, but I would have preferred a postscript on what the lad did next.

Leave here vindicated (Luke 18:9-14)

2010-08-15T14:25:00.000+01:00

Introduction

What do you think this passage is about?

Prayer? Well, yes Jesus uses the way people pray in his parable, so there are some important lessons about prayer.

Arrogance? Pride? Humility? There is certainly a lot in the parable about arrogance or pride and humility.

Final judgement? The previous parable is certainly about justice, and notice how this one ends – The tax collector 'went home justified before God'. His sins had been forgiven.

Pharisees

The Pharisees had grown up as a response to Helenism – the spread of the Greek empire. They were Jews who were keen to make the point that they were different and hold to the ancient traditions. They were responsible for the traditions that were later written down as the Mishnah, which is a commentary on the Talmud.. They separated themselves from the rest of Judaism and dedicated themselves to living life as they believed the Torah said it should be lived. There is nothing wrong with their aims. In Jesus' time they were generally looked up to by the rest of the Jewish people. “I'd love to have a faith like theirs”. The description of the Pharisee in the parable is fairly typical of Pharisees. They gave a tenth of everything they received, not just everything they earned. It was said of them that “they even tithe their herbs”. The Torah calls for fasting only on special festivals, but the Pharisees fasted twice a week – on Monday's and Thursday's. They have been described as the keen church goers of their day, the equivalent of attending every Sunday, Monday Prayers, a home group every week, never missing any of the courses, always helping with Alpha and giving 12% from gross (before deductions) income.

Tax Collectors

At the other end of the religious scale were tax collectors. They made their money by collecting as much as they could in taxes from the people. Each had an area and a target amount to be returned to the Roman Revenue service. They also had to live, and any extra they collected they kept as their pay. No-one likes paying tax, but paying it to a foreign government that is occupying your country is even worse. They were the Muslim Jehadists of their day. Don't associate with them, or even go near them, unless you absolutely have to. They have no respect for you. You are just one of their targets.

What went wrong with Pharisees

These are the stereo-typical views that would have been in people's minds as the parable was told. We know that stereo-typical views are not always realistic views. People do not conform. They don't behave the way you expect and believe that they will. Many Pharisees had become proud that they lived their lives to the difficult rules that their religion demanded of them. As a result they considered themselves better than other people who they thought didn't even try to follow God or keep to His law.

What goes wrong with Church people

It can happen to us too. We go to church regularly. We follow the law of the land. We pay our taxes. We follow the rules of the Church. It's easy to see that we're better than all those skiving benefit fraudsters who we're subsidising, isn't it!

White Cottage

(http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/the-peril-of-proud-praying-david-dykes-sermon-on-parable-pharisee-56700.asp)

A man bought a cottage in Scotland on the side of a glen, in the middle of nowhere. The cottage was painted white. Where ever he was in the glen the owner could always see the white walls of the cottage gleaming in the sunlight. Even on dull days the cottage stood out against the dark greens of the hillside. He was very proud of his cottage. Then winter came and the snow fell transforming the glen into pure white undulating slopes. When the man looked back at his cottage he realised how dingy it was against the brightness of the snow.

White Cottage Interpretation

The snow was whiter than white. The colour of the snow represents Gods standard. By that standard none of us are white enough. None of us are able to blend in with God.

All of us have our own colourful personalities. These colours make us anything but pure white, anything but holy. Rather we like to do our own thing, and run our own universe.

Planet Pete – The lie

On Planet Pete things would be very different, I can tell you. There are so many things I wouldn't put up with. My justice would be so much swifter, and the punishments would fit the crime. So we wouldn't have to put up with all these drug addicts and thieves. I would be in charge and I would be GOOD!

That's essentially the same lie that Eve swallowed and Adam accepted willingly. I can be like God – I can do a better job.

That's where the Pharisee was. He was so taken up with his own goodness that he had forgotten what goodness really is. Instead of loving God and his people he was boasting to God of all the good things he does for his religion, and then just to be sure God got the point, comparing himself to the tax collector. In the process of the comparison the tax collector was rubbished.

It's so easy for us to become like the Pharisee.

Pharisaical Traits Check list

(http://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/dealing-with-pride-lynn-floyd-sermon-on-sin-general-49397.asp?page=3)

Here's a brief check list to see if you're on the slippery slope.

Prayer Life – How will you know Jesus if you don't speak to him regularly. If your prayer life is intermittent you could be in danger of becoming like the Pharisee.

Tiredness – If you're too busy and always tired, ask who you are doing it all for. It probably isn't God.

Anger – If you loose you temper with people you could be trying to take over how they run their lives, something that even God wouldn't do.

Criticism – Are you critical of others? Does that make you look better?

Defensiveness – How do you react to criticism, are you defensive or dismissive. If you can't laugh at you mistakes and failings with someone else. You could be in danger of becoming like the Pharisee.

Success – Is the success you have all yours, or is it attributed to the God who gave you your abilities and supports your life?

Impatience – at having to listen to, or wait for others because your time is too important to waste.

Exclusivity – Unwillingness to associate with people you consider lower than you.

Any of these thing could indicate that you are on your way to becoming like the Pharisee.

[pause]

What went right with the tax collector

The tax collector on the other hand would not even look at God. He hung his head in shame at the way his life was lived. He beat his chest, as if to punish himself, and begged for mercy.

The tax collector knew that he was not whiter than white, that he was not even white at all. He knew that the only approach to God was to admit his failings and ask for mercy.

It is a very biblical approach:

Pr 20:9 Who can say, “I have kept my heart pure; I am clean and without sin”?

Ps 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.

Jer 9:24 but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares the LORD.

These the tax collector would have known, these have been written for our benefit since:

1 Jn 1:8 If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

1Jn 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

1Jn 1:10 If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.

Jas 4:6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

The tax collector knew God and had the right sense of perspective, as it says in

Isa 57:15 For this is what the high and lofty One says — he who lives forever, whose name is holy: “I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.

The result

Now we come back to the theme of justice. The right attitude to have before God is to recognise that you are guilty and your only hope is that the judge will be merciful.

If you plead for mercy and nothing happens then you've wasted your time, but it was still worth the effort. It isn't like that with God. Those who are repentant – truly sorry for their failings and determined to do better will be the beneficiaries of God's mercy. Those who plead with God will be forgiven.

Like the tax collector they will leave the court vindicated and fitted for eternal life.

Turn with me to Psalm 51, and lets say the first six verses together.

Page ____ in the Red Bibles

Page ____ in the Black Bibles

Before we say these verses think back to any of the check list that caught you ear and determine with God to put them right. [pause] Then you too can go home justified before God. Vindicated in your plea for righteousness.

Lets say together:

Ps 51:1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.

Ps 51:2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

Ps 51:3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

Ps 51:4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.

Ps 51:5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

Ps 51:6 Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.

Guard against Greed (Luke 12:13-21)

2010-08-01T16:25:00.001+01:00

I wonder what you're thinking right now?
I hope you're quite relaxed and are ready to listen to the things I am going to say and hopefully listen also to the promptings of the Holy Spirit as I speak. Perhaps though it's not quite like that. Perhaps you're thinking 'How long is he going to go on this morning?' or you're thinking about what you will do this afternoon, or tomorrow. Those thoughts can be quite fleeting – gone in a few seconds, but perhaps you have something more pressing on you're mind. What ever it is has become an obsession. It's all you can think about. That's the problem that one of Jesus' hearers had at the start of our reading today. He hadn't listened to a thing Jesus had been saying, instead he had been thinking about his brother. No that's not fair. True his brother was the obstacle, but what he had really been thinking about was his inheritance. Why else would you say “Teacher tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me?”
There's clearly a sense of injustice here. The Jewish law is quite clear.
[Slide 3] – Law on inheritance (Deut 21:16-17)
“when he wills his property to his sons, he must not give the rights of the first-born to the son of the wife he loves in preference to his actual first-born, the son of the wife he does not love.
He must acknowledge the son of his unloved wife as the first-born by giving him a double share of all he has. That son is the first sign of his father’s strength. The right of the first-born belongs to him.”
So if there are three sons the eldest gets half and the other two get a quarter each.
We do not know anything about the man who is trying to get his inheritance. If the inheritance was very small it was normal in Jesus time not to split it up, but for the brothers to continue to work the farm as their father had done – with the eldest in charge.
Whatever the arrangement this man was involved in Jesus is not going to be drawn into his problem. When he says “Who appointed me judge or arbiter over you?” he is not denying that he is God, just recognising that the legal role that is required is not one that he has or wants. Village elders had the job of resolving these types of disputes. Jesus mission is to teach the people about the Kingdom of God and how to live in it, and that is just what he does with the story he tells next.
Helpfully for us, he introduces the parable by telling us what it is about.
[Slide 4] – Mr Greedy
when he says “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Jesus then goes on to tell the parable.
[Slide 5] – Head Line - God calls time on Barns Plan
“The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ’ “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’ “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”
[Slide 6] – What the parable Doesn't say:
Wealth is bad
There are some very good examples of wealthy people who are generous towards God. The most notable example that I can think of is the Viz-a-viz barn. It's an old barn that is converted to be a training centre for young people. It is a very nice place to be and has its own car park. As far as I'm aware the owner has given it free of charge.
Growth is bad
God is not against growth in business, indeed it was seen as a blessing in the old testament.
Investment is bad
God is not against investment in the future. In the story of Pharaoh's dream in Genesis 41 where the 7 thin cows eat the 7 fat cows the interpretation is that the Egyptians should save the excess in the good times so that they do not starve in the bad times. There is no reason why the same cannot be true for us. I have seen this parable used to say that paying for insurance and saving for pensions is unchristian. That is definitely not what the parable is about.
Comfort is bad
God is a God of love. That is central to Christian belief. God would not wish an uncomfortable lifestyle on any of his people.
[Slide 7] – What the parable does say ..
The parable tells us that greed is a sin. The greedy put themselves first, to the exclusion of everyone else. God is not considered, his people are not considered, his creation is not considered. It is not the activities that the farmer plans because he has such a good crop that are sinful. It is the attitude behind them that is sinful.
[Slide 8] – Types of greed.
Greed for money and greed for food are the types of greed we most readily think about.
Lets take a look at the video clip from “The Robin Hood Gang”. This guy has just completed a bank robbery lets see his reaction …
http://www.wingclips.com/movie-clips/the-robin-hood-gang/love-of-money
I love that last scene where he kisses the case full of money and shows what he really loves. That scene is a very typical view of greed, but greed can cause serious problems:
She owns a string of hotels. She owns the Empire State Building. She is a billionaire. Yet, in September 1989 Leona Mindy Rosenthal Helmsley was convicted of 33 counts of tax evasion, for which she spent time in prison. According to Time magazine, she emerged as a penny-pinching tyrant who tried to stiff just about everybody. No amount of money was too small to fight over. After the sudden death of her only son at age 40 in 1982, she sued and won the lion's share of his estate, $149,000, leaving his four children with $432 each and his widow with $2,171.
Greed affects us all.
What would you be willing to do for a very large sum of money, they say that everybody has their price, so £5 million? What would you do for £5 million? Or do you need even more?
[Slide 9] What are you willing to do for $10,000,000?
Two-thirds of Americans polled would agree to at least one, some to several of the following:
Would abandon their entire family (25%)
Would abandon their church (25%)
Would become prostitutes for a week or more (23%)
Would give up their citizenships (16%)
Would leave their spouses (16%)
Would withhold testimony and let a murderer go free (10%)
Would kill a stranger (7%)
Would put their children up for adoption (3%)
OK, those were Americans, but they're not so different from the rest of us.
When you've finished being shocked ask yourself “Would I do any of those?”
Now we are beginning to see the destructive nature of greed.
[Slide 10] - Blank
Leo Tolstoy once wrote a story about a successful peasant farmer who was not satisfied with his lot. He wanted more of everything. One day he received a novel offer. For 1000 rubles, he could buy all the land he could walk around in a day. The only catch in the deal was that he had to be back at his starting point by sundown. Early the next morning he started out walking at a fast pace. By midday he was very tired, but he kept going, covering more and more ground. Well into the afternoon he realized that his greed had taken him far from the starting point. He quickened his pace and as the sun began to sink low in the sky, he began to run, knowing that if he did not make it back by sundown the opportunity to become an even bigger landholder would be lost. As the sun began to sink below the horizon he came within sight of the finish line. Gasping for breath, his heart pounding, he called upon every bit of strength left in his body and staggered across the line just before the sun disappeared. He immediately collapsed, blood streaming from his mouth. In a few minutes he was dead. Afterwards, his servants dug a grave. It was not much over six feet long and three feet wide. The title of Tolstoy's story was: How Much Land Does a Man Need?
Not only can greed harm others, it can also harm the greedy person, but some would say that there is a positive side to greed. The following quotes come from http://www.philforhumanity.com/Greed_is_Good_and_Bad.html
He says “For instance, greed is good, because it is the most important incentive for people to work hard, get a good education, start a business, or invest in a company. This makes people productive and contributing members of society. And in return, people are paid a salary, become more educated, and (hopefully) build wealth so that they can in return live a prosperous, more comfortable, and full life.”
I have to completely disagree. The incentive he is speaking of has nothing to do with greed. Greed is characterised by the accumulation of wealth, or whatever, for its own sake and to the exclusion of all else as indeed he says towards the end of his article:
“Greed is typically considered the accumulation of wealth for personal satisfaction. It has no useful purpose except to become rich and to continue getting more wealthy. It is a strong desire in each and every one of us that is extremely difficult to overcome. Only through continuously contributing and donating to society can we find true rewards that are far greater than the illusion that greed provides.”
Well the first part is fine and he is right that greed is difficult to overcome. He doesn't expand on the 'true rewards' which make it difficult to understand just what he might receive if he overcomes his greed.
It's a secular web site, so I can't expect him to get the point. His thinking will be along the lines of the worlds thinking in general - “get as much as you can while you can – because you can't take it with you”.
Or as Malcolm Forbes is supposed to have said “He who dies with the most toys wins.”
That is Jesus' main point in the parable. “You can't take it with you”. Who will get all your riches after you're gone?
If someone asks at your funeral “How much did (s)he leave?” The answer will always be “Everything”.
[Slide 11] - Ecclesiastes 2:13-23
Ecclesiastes puts it this way:
For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune.
What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labours under the sun?
All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless.
The problem has been clearly stated, but so far we haven't looked at any alternative. Here are some passages that give us a clue to attitudes that might help us avoid being greedy. Of course, they are all about putting God and his people above your personal desires.
Prov 11:24-26
24 One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. 25A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. 26People curse the man who hoards grain, but blessing crowns him who is willing to sell.
Prov 11:4
Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.
James 4:13-16
13Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.
Conclusion
Jesus said “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” We have seen how catastrophic it can be for us and those around us if we fail, and give in to the temptations that world offers. We have seen that it is ultimately of no benefit. If we succeed and keep ourselves free of greed, then there may be something left of value that we can take with us into eternity.

Falmouth Holiday Second Week

2010-07-30T21:46:00.000+01:00

Sat - “Falmouth water torture” - dripping tap

From 2010_0612-26 Falmouth

Tintagel Castle is one of the places associates with King Authur. Exactly why anybody would want to build a castle in such a reomte location is something I cannot fathom. It doesn't appear to have any strategic value at all. Nevertheless its an interesting old ruin. I remember visiting Tintagel as a child, and later when my own children were young. From the town, we walked down a long road, there is a Landrover if you can't make it down or back. It is definitely not the entrance I remember. At the bottom, almost on the beach are the entrance ticket booths, toilets and a visitor centre. On the other side of the ravine there is a café, a little further up the hill. We watched the film in the visitor centre. The history certainly undermines the myth. After the film we walked out on to the headland – up and up narrow steps until we got to the top quite puffed out. Then we wandered about through the broken and abandoned walls, visiting settlements that had been there over hundreds of years. We were looking for the arched window that we both remember Andrew running towards, down hill at great speed. Our memories are slightly different, Jo remembers a tunnel, I do not. We saw various pieces of building and watch young couples take pictures of each other . It's a lovely place in the summer, but I imagine very cold and windy in the winter. Down again and across the narrow cliff – crumbling fast and soon to be gone completely but for the work of English Heritage and a lot of cement. Up, and up again on the other side to what was the church. Here I found what I am convinced was the original entrance, and could picture the path to the car park on the other side of a hill. So eventually it was time to go down again, and we decided to eat at the café. Good, simple food, but slightly expensive, we sat outside looking up at the cliffs. After lunch we walked away from the castle along the Cornwall coastal path for a while. When we eventually stopped we spent some time watching a Kestrel hovering over the undergrowth, diving, and then moving on. Hovering again, its head stationary, but its body moving just enough to keep it in one place, riding the wind. We walked back via a different foot path and came into Tintagel another way. Then we walked the length of the town and spent some time in the Tourist Information / visitor centre. Finally for Tintagel it was back to the 'Old Post Office' – a strange little house, one of the oldest buildings, with a well in the garden. It had only been a post office for a short time. There were pieces of old furniture in the house to give an idea of what living there might have been like. Very Spartan, with no running water and few possessions- still the idea has its attractions! Next door was an exhibition and sale (of needle craft mainly) and we had a chat about the green credentials of linen nappies verses disposables with the lady minding the stalls.

Then it was off to Boscastle. We mainly remember Boscastle because of the miracle of 16 August 2004 when a flash flood destroyed much of the village, but no-one was killed. There is evidence of the work that has been done to limit the effects of a similar incident happening in the future. The river bed has been lowered and the car park next to it raised. We also saw the new bridges across the river. We spent some time in the visitor centre reading about what had happened and the history of the area. Then went to the Riverside Restaurant where they were still (only just) serving the day time menu. Through the restaurant across a bridge and on to the decking on the other side of the river. Here there is the odd gull, but the jackdaws are the birds to beware of! So there we were eating soup (very nice , home made soup – orange and fennel, if I remember correctly) on quite a hot day. The sweets – from the evening menu were huge and very enjoyable. I also tried a pear Rattler – its a perry really.

After eating we strolled up the river for a mile or two, sat on a bench listening to the birds, and then returned to the car for the long drive back to Falmouth. It was fairly late and we soon went to bed. As were relaxed Jo heard the sound of dripping. I couldn't hear it a first, but then after listening more carefully there it was. One of us had not turned the tap off completely. We had been almost asleep and were now almost away “Falmouth water torture” I joked as Jo returned to bed. It's the best I could manage.

Sun - “Bad food day”
So far the breakfasts have been lovely, with the occasional kippers, or just beans, tomatoes and mushrooms. Not a full English but there are limits that I have to keep within. This mornings was not so good. A small part of the kippers was not cooked. I ate the parts that were OK and left the rest. It was the only time I had the slightest concern about the breakfasts.
We made our way up the hill to Emmanuel - Falmouth Baptist Church. The service was similar although the minister preached. Fro other parts of the service other people lead. There was also the welcome of a child. (Baptists do not Christen people, that has to wait until they are old enough to so “I Will” to following Christ for themselves. After the service we walked into town for lunch. It was pretty busy, being Fathers Day.

Eventually we went in the Quayside pub to get a roast lunch. It looked a bit run down on the outside. When we got in I now realise I should have known better. There were flies circulating around the middle. We ordered food, even that took a long time as the system for ordering failed to be operated properly, and the girl on the till started doing drinks. Someone else was assigned to that and had already served me with mine. As I returned to the table I was told of some of the others around us receiving the wrong order. If I hadn't paid, I have left then. Eventually someone came to our table and took our order again, the computer had failed. Staff were apologising to just about everyone around us. One man responded “Never mind, it happens”, the waitress said “It happens a lot here”. Which we already knew to be true. Our chicken roast dinners arrived. Another apology was immediately forthcoming – they were pork, not chicken. After another short wait our Chicken roast dinners arrived for real. I should think the chicken had been cooking since 10:00 am. Even so it wasn't exactly hot. We ate what we could and followed the advice of the mother and son (I assume) on the next table as the elderly lady said “lets get out of here quick”.

From 2010_0612-26 Falmouth

Wondering if our stomachs would survive the night we walked through the centre of Falmouth and out the other side as far as the Green Bank Hotel. It looked like the sort of place I where can't afford the entrance fee.
In the evening we had tickets to see The Miracle Theatre Company's production of Romeo and Juliet (To die for ..), or at least we had booked tickets.

From 2010_0612-26 Falmouth

So we decide to try to find the place a little early and look around. We found it easily with the Satnav, so we drove around local villages and came across one of the strangest place names I've ever heard of – Praze-an-Beeble. Back at the house where the performance was to be given we were shown into the garden and invited to start a new row of chairs – as the second row, so we had an excellent view. Here is a scene from the play, taken from the web site. The play we saw had a temporary two story stage. The six actors played many parts each. It was a mixture of Shakespeare and modern. All the classic lines were kept. At times the play spilled over into the audience and the rest of the garden. It was very well done, particularly to by a stand-in who had to read his lines from a script, carry his props and climb about on the stage!
A very enjoyable evening. By the time we left it was getting dark and quite cold. We were glad we had brought winter coats – they were needed.

Mon - “A friendly cat”

From 2010_0612-26 Falmouth

Trebah gardens are lovely. From the top where the house is the gardens goes all the way down to the beach. There are some wonderful old trees and some very nice views - not just from the top, but from the bottom up to the hose, and from various places in the gardens. We wandered around enjoying the view and the shade on a very hot day. At the beach there is a shed selling ice cream where the seller clearly had no idea of the prices of his goods and tried to over charge us. I really hate this approach to selling. The sales people can read the price list as easily as I can. Walking back up to the house we made friends briefly with a cat (or did we just happen to be going the same way?) and at the top had some lunch. The restaurant was very modern and the food very nice. We also discovered Helford Creek apple juice – some of the best cloudy apple juice I have tasted. After lunch we looked at the parts of the gardens we had not yet seen then drove to Portlevan we parked in the car park. The single ticket machine was out of order. I decided to try to pay by phone, but when the message told me the fee would be paid because of the convenience I enjoyed paying by phone I declined. We left the car with a note and hoped. As it turned out the guy who said “No-one cares, I've been here all day” was correct. We decided to walk along the beach, it was horribly stony, with tiny stones that were very uncomfortable to walk on. We got a fair way along the beach and over a couple of rocky breakwaters. All the time looking back and trying to decide whether the tide was coming in – it wasn't, but even the local lady I asked didn't seem sure. We had walked past a few restaurants and decided to try Amélies at The Smokehouse. The waitress had an accent that reminded me of Calypso in the Pirates of the Caribbean films, but didn't look anything like her (of course). She gets a mention here because she was very helpful and skilful, carrying the 'Hake Tower' I ordered all the way from the kitchens to our table outside in the corner. Amélies is another restaurant that is well worth a visit.

Tue - “Walking Day”

From 2010_0612-26 Falmouth

We drove to the church of St Just in Roseland. We had heard that Jesus visited the place. While this seems unlikely, it is not impossible as we know little of his life when he was growing up. The church sits almost on the edge of a small natural harbour and is surrounded by a steep graveyard where the graves are set to form 'steps' up the sides of the hills. The church is probably more notable for the windows in the roof that let in light and give the church a better atmosphere than the darkness of some old churches. Inside we were met by a guide who spoke to us about the church and the developments they are planning. The church needs a new roof, and with all such things it will be difficult for the small congregation to raise the funds. The are also planning a visitor centre, where they will be able to serve refreshments, but is must be a little way away from the church to avoid ruining the peaceful atmosphere. To get to Roseland we had used King Harry's Ferry – a chain ferry to get across the river. There are only a few of these in England. According to the Sat-Nav its top speed on our crossing was 2.8 mile per hour. We parked in the car park (free) in the village and walked the half mile down a steep hill to the church. This was not a good idea, as you have to walk back up the hill later.
After our visit to the church we drove into St Mawes and after lunch at the Café Roseland in the Tourist Information bought a pack of walks around the area. We declined a sweet course and set out of Walks one and two. Two being an extension to One. We walked along the coast from St Mawes to Just-in Roseland and back along the top of the hill – to the Café Roseland, where refreshments were greatly needed – a distance of about 5 miles.
Later we visited Veryan, where I walked around the Church of Saint Symphorian which has a swan on its notice board (Jo had had enough walking and took a rest). We were looking for somewhere to eat, but the local pub did not look appetising. We also visited Portscat but finally found the Punchbowl & Ladle on the way home. It looks like a very old inn, and the ceilings were quite low. We had to wait for a table and only got one just as the party that had booked the area we were asked to wait in arrived. The food was very good when it came, but the service was slow everywhere – even for drinks. They do serve Tribute, which is a very good ale.

Wed - “59 games all, final set”
We set off on the longish drive to the Lost Gardens of Heligan. The gardens have seen some development since we were last here in the 1990's. Still there are the vegetable gardens with all their unbelievably large vegetables and the other pieces of the formal gardens. It is a lovely place, but even in June is quite busy. Some of the paths can be steep, especially out of the main gardens on the estate. The restaurant is expensive, but the food is good enough. We emjoyed our time in the gardens and again appreciated the shade they provided.
After the gardens we went to Mevagissy, where many years ago as seagull stole my chips. Here we also came across more Cornish Car Parking madness. Arriving at 5:40 you must pay for a full day's parking (£3.50) and if you are staying after 6pm you must pay a full evenings parking (£2.50). I save a foreign tourist from getting his ticket a 2 minutes to 6. We had our evening meal at Blue Café Bistro. There are only eight tables in this tine shop. Most of them were reserved, but one was available. The two ladies in the café cook and serve. It's almost like being in your aunties lounge. The food is cooked in sight of the diners and has a genuine home-cooked quality. It is cheap too, compared to the prices we had paid elsewhere! We had a lovely meal, and as we left two others arrived to take our table – still the only one not booked. Tonight was another England game in the 2010 World Cup. The result: England 1 – 0 Slovenia. Amazing, they'd done it and were through to the next round. A more unbelievable sporting event was on the radio as we travelled back to Falmouth. Isner was playing Mahood in the Wimbledon Tennins Championship. The score stood at 59 Games All, in the Final set as play was suspended for the day due tyo failing light.

Thu - Return to Eden
The Eden Project is a sight to see. Three plastic domes at the bottom of an old quarry. Inside the domes are a tropical region and a Mediterranean region. As we entered we were asked to complete a survey, and then repeat it at the end. It was to test the projects effectiveness at communicating the environmental message.

From 2010_0612-26 Falmouth

Inside the tropical zone are plants from Africa, Asia and South America. There is also lots of information about the damage we are doing to our world and some suggestions about how to improve things. The real question was not addressed though. The planet Earth cannot support an ever increasing population. In truth it probably cannot support more than about 3 thousand million of us comfortably. IF we are ever to address the problems of climate change and environmental destruction we must first reduce the population. Until we do we will have problems sharing scarce resources.We had passed the Norway Inn on many occasions as it is alongside one of the main roads into Falmouth. We'd both said it looked nice and that it was probably expensive. The food was indeed excellent and the prices were also quite high.
Isner beat Mahood 70-68 in the final set

Fri - "Back on the train"
A driving free day was required as tomorrow the holiday is over and I will be driving back home. We walked the short distance along the coastal path to Swanpool, a nature reserve. Swanpool is a unique mixture of salt water and fresh water. This is a rare habitat and is now carefully protected. The roads around Swanpool have a 20mph limit and it is 'give way to ducks'. Once round the pool was probably a waste of time as there isn't much round the 'back'. The we set out across country, eventually returning to a built up area we found ourselves at Penmere Station and decided to get the train back to Falmouth. We then had take-away fish and chips, but it was nowhere near as nice as the food we had eaten in the restaurant. In the afternoon we had tea in the shop run by the town centre church. The two ladies on duty fussed around the customers and each other, there were a reasonable number of people there. What will England be like when the older generation is finally gone – when it's our turn to be old? Sandwiches for our evening meal and for the journey were bought from Tesco and the day ended quietly as it should.

Sat - "Homeward bound"
Traffic news on the radio is a marvellous invention. The program we were (sort of) listening top is interrupted and some other channel tells you that the road ahead is blocked and there is a 5 mile tailback. We stop for a dring and program the Sat-nav to take us via Crediton. Thus avoiding the A30/M5 junction and the traffic jam. It was a lovely cross-country drive. After three breaks and just over 6 hours 30 minutes we are home.

What must I do to achieve Eternal Life?

2010-07-19T21:33:00.000+01:00

This story that Jesus told has so ingrained itself into our psyche that there is even an organisation that has taken the name. The Samaritans are there to help, to provide a listening ear for the most desperate people who have nowhere else to turn. That's the power of simple stories with a clear point and Jesus was the master story teller, so it is no wonder that his stories stick in our minds.
At the most basic level the story is simply one of compassion. Someone is beaten, robbed and left for dead. Those you might expect to help – in this case a priest and a levite – walk by on the other side of the road to avoid and contact. It is the Samaritan who goes to his aid, and makes the extra effort required to save his life.
I am going to look at the circumstances around the story to try to understand its deeper meanings, but we will look at the story too as there are some important lessons in it for us.
Jesus told the story for a reason. Luke is the only one of the gospel writers who has this story. Both Matthew and Mark make the same points, but the story is not included. It is placed after a private discussion with the returning 72 who had been out on a mission to local villages, so we don't know exactly where the story took place. It must have been in public, and Jesus must have been speaking to many people, because the story starts with the Lawyer standing up to ask a question. We are told that his intention was to 'test' Jesus. It doesn't imply that he was hostile, just that he was trying to assess Jesus' theology. Is he OK, or might he be a heretic? So the question he asks is

“What must I do to inherit eternal life?” - What a strange way of phrasing the question! If his question had been “What must I do to inherit great aunt Maud's collection of grand masters?” then perhaps you could understand the use of the word 'inherit'. You only inherit something when it's owner dies. Perhaps without realising it he was on to something! His question though is centred on himself. - “What must I do?”
Jesus is having none of it and turns the question back on to the expert in the law. “What does the law say?” he asks, “How do you interpret it?”. The answer is easy for the expert, indeed it would be easy for any Jew.

The passages he quotes are Deuteronomy 6:5 – Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. and Leviticus 19:18 Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD.
Both these verses are use as a regular part of Jewish worship. They are very well known. Jesus has used these quotes before, when he was asked which commandments are the most important.

Mt 22:35 One of them, an expert in the law, i tested him with this question:
Mt 22:36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Mt 22:37 Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 96 j
Mt 22:38 This is the first and greatest commandment.
Mt 22:39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 97 k
Mt 22:40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” l

So it is no surprise when Jesus says “Correct – Do this and you will live”.
No doubt at this point there were some in the crowd who thought “That was a bit too easy!. You'd have thought he could come up with a better question than that! He's supposed to be an expert” Perhaps there were even murmurings or groans. Maybe it was just the experts own view. He was expecting a debate and he got answered in a couple of short sentences. Perhaps he just wanted to complicate things – as some experts like to do. Whichever is was he felt the need to justify himself, so he asked a supplementary question.
“Who is my neighbour?”
and Jesus tells his story.

A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
Lets take a look at the story and try to understand why it has made such an impact.
The first thing to note is that the story is set in a real place – one that was well known to his hearers.

The road from Jerusalem to Jericho drops 3600 feet, the photo is taken about 2/3 of the way down the hill from Jerusalem. As you can see it is a very desolate place. The journey is 17 miles. Travelling from one city to another was always dangerous in the first century. On this road it is especially so, so much so that it was known as "The Way of Blood." .
Although we are not told anything about the traveller, we can assume that he was a Jew. That would have been the assumption of Jesus' audience.
Samaritans claim that they are the true Jews, the one left behind at the Babylonian exile, they retained the original Abrahamic belief that were altered by the Jews who later returned. Jews have hated Samaritans for hundreds of years. The name Samaritan derives from a Hebrew word meaning 'keeper'. Specifically Keeper of the Law. So perhaps that's why Jesus chose to make the hero of his story a Samaritan.
Another assumption of Jesus's audience would have been Jews are good, Samaritans are bad. Imagine the impact the story would have had. Had it been set in the second world war it would have been called “The Good German”, or during the Falklands war “ The good Argentinian”. Various modern interpretations of the story have used different groups of people to get the same impact, one I particularly liked was “The good punk rocker”.

The Samaritan:
- used his own cloths as bandages
- used his own wine as disinfectant
- used his own oil as lotion
- used his own donkey as transport (he then walked)
- used his own money to pay for care and shelter
and promised more!

So if you haven't worked it out yet one answer to the question that our expert asked “Who is my neighbour?” might be “Anyone we come across who's in need”
The story shows us and Jesus' listeners the real requirements of the Law. It is easy to put human limits on such things. It was common in Jesus time to say “Do no harm” - it still is! but that was never enough and never will be.
Are there times when you have fallen short of this standard? If you've never come across someone who has been beaten to within an inch of their life, think of some less critical situation. The Law does not say you can do nothing just because the need is less. Whatever situation we find ourselves in we must respond as completely as the Samaritan did in addressing our neighbours problems.
If you fail to meet this standard on any single occasion you will never achieve eternal life. That ruled out everybody that Jesus was talking to.
For us it's even harder.

Here's some excerpts of a speech that Caroline Spelman gave to The John Ray Initiative (connecting Environment, Science and Christianity) before the Iraq war, when she was in the shadow cabinet.
It is a good and pertinent question for us today. With increasing globalisation people are brought closer together. Images of life in very poor countries are beamed into our homes, and images of our comparative affluence are beamed, well maybe into the old TV set in the street corner café.
As Shadow Secretary of State my job means treating everyone as my neighbour so let me introduce you to a few.
Meet the Tajik widow I got to know in the Jalozii refugee camp on the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. She looked ancient crouched beneath a tent made of sacks roughly stitched together. In fact she was my age with 5 children to feed. She rifled through my briefcase looking for food. "What good are you to me?" she said, "You come, you look, you go and I am no better off. She's right and I made sure to bring her food next time. I did not realise till I visited this camp of 60,000 people that there are two types of camp. The official ones set up by UNHCR and serviced by aid agencies, and unofficial camps like this one where supplies of food were intermittent. "The problem", said the widow "is that I do not have a man to fight to the front of the queue for me and by the time I get there there is none left."
Throughout the Bible, we are urged to 'plead the case of the widow' as Isaiah puts it (1:17). With so much conflict there are many female-headed households who struggle to provide for their families.
You can read the remainder of the transcript at http://www.jri.org.uk/resource/whoismyneighbour.htm
For us the question of who is our neighbour is wider than just those we come across in the street, for us it must include those we come across through the media. It is not acceptable for us to see images of the starving and the homeless and take no action to help.
If we fail to meet this standard on any single occasion we will never achieve eternal life.
That rules out everybody here too.
The answer to the expert on the law is, of course, different for us. When that conversation was taking place Jesus had (obviously) not yet given His life for us. Now, as I speak to you today, He has.
We can rely on God's grace, and our belief in Him, to get us to eternal life – the life of the kingdom of God.
As the expert asked “What must I do?”, the answer for us is believe.

Believe that it has already been done for you. Everything that is needed has been done – all of our greed, all of our wilful failures, all of our careless omissions – it has all been dealt with.
That doesn't mean that we have any less responsibility for our neighbour. As James says
Jas 2:14 What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? n Can such faith save him?
Jas 2:15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. o
Jas 2:16 If one of you says to him, “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? p
Jas 2:17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. q
Jas 2:18 But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, r and I will show you my faith s by what I do.

So the commands still stand
Deuteronomy 6:5 –“Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” and Leviticus 19:18 ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD.
We still need people who behave like the Samaritan.
We still need to be people who behave like the Samaritan.
When Jesus finished his story he asked the expert “Who do you think was a neighbour to the man?” The expert, unable to give Samaritans the credit answers “The one who had mercy on him”.
Jesus then told him “Go and do likewise”. That is His message to us today “Go and do likewise”.

Falmouth Holiday First Week

2010-07-06T22:01:00.019+01:00

Saturday - “The Night of the Bleeding Chicken”
The journey was uneventful, it took about six hours, including two short breaks or about 30 minutes each. Esmond House seems OK, we are on the first floor and have our own balcony, something we haven't had before. In the evening, after unpacking, we walked along the waters edge up to the Princess Pavilion. We decided to eat in the bar, I should learn that when a place is empty it is not a good sign. We ordered Chicken and chips. After a short time it arrived, when I cut into my chicken it bled onto the plate. Jo's was not quite so bad but still clearly uncooked in the middle. They readily replaced the meals and gave gave us the sweet course as compensation. Otherwise it was very quiet. Fortunately we did not suffer any long term effects. After we had eaten we took a tour of Falmouth churches to decide which one we would go to the following morning. They all seem to start at 10:30, so we would have to choose and stick with it. I have to say they all looked rather dead. The Anglican church, in the town, even had its gates locked so we couldn't get to the porch to see what the church was really like. The last one had a graffiti board with Jesus written in large letters (see below). That was the one for me, it was also the one closest to the guest house.

Sunday - "Fish fortnight begins"
Sunday started as each day during the holiday would. Up about 7:30, in the shower. The shower was rather small and the curtain did not have weights, so tended to move in at the bottom and wrap around you as you turned. Still there was plenty of hot water. Then down to breakfast for 8:30. A full English breakfast was served if you wanted it. I had cereal followed by beans on toast with tomatoes and mushrooms most days.
We met Delwyn and enjoyed his light hearted chatter. After breakfast we went back to our room and sat on the balcony, enjoying the good weather and reading bible note and a book. Jo did some of her cross stitch. After 20-30 minutes it was on with the sun cream, collect up the supplies for the day and make our way to the first event.

Today's first event was Falmouth Baptist Church, about 10 minutes up the road from where we were staying.. Ship of fools has a pretty accurate 'Mystery worshipper review'. We were lucky enough to have a visiting speaker who was very good. The songs were mostly known to us, and the style was very familiar. The only difference seemed to be lack of a general confession.
After church we walked down a long hill to Swanpool, a nature reserve next to the beach. We had lunch at the beach cafe (rolls and a drink), then walked back along the coastal path to Esmond House. We watched the F1 Grand Prix, and in the evening returned to Swanpool, this time by car, to eat at Indaba on the beach. Indaba is a seriously nice restaurant, although it looks nothing special on the outside. I started my 'fish fortnight' here.

Monday - "Doctor!, Doctor! When will it get better?"
It's Monday and we need supplies, so our first event is to go shopping at Sainsbury's. We bought sandwiches for lunch, lots of water and various other 'goodies' to help us through the week. Then it was off to Lands End. What a strange place! Partly and exhibition centre partly a nature reserve (of sorts) and partly the End of the Land. We wandered round and visited the RSPB hide, we watched the birds on the cliff for a while. There was a strong wind, despite that visibility was poor!. We went to visit the Air-Sea rescue 'ride'. It was OK, but it could have been so much better, and we visited the Dr Who exhibition. This was largely based on the first of the new series and features Christopher Ecclestone and Billy Piper. As exhibitions go it was OK, but by now a little out of date. There are some animated Daleks, the video of one of them is here. In the full display you are surrounded by Daleks, but I didn't find that out until I'd persuaded a small frightened girl that she really couldn't miss hearing them say "EXTERMINATE!"

After lunch and a wander round the rest of the site we decided to visit Sennen Cove. There is a lovely beach, which we walked along until the sea would not let us go further, and then we stopped in the tea rooms on the way back.

We decided to drive to Lizard point. When we go there we walked down to the Light House but by then it was getting late and the lighthouse was closed, so we returned to the town. We stopped at 'The Witch Ball' for tea, and ate in the Garden. Fish (Fillet of Brill), chips and a local ale, in the company of your wife – what more could you want? It was a very pleasant evening when we started but got cold towards the time to leave.

Tuesday - "Creamless Tea"
The piece of water between Falmouth and St Maws at the sea, and up to Truro is known as the Carrick Roads. There is an excellent picture on wiki. We took a ferry from Falmouth to St Maws. The water was calm, and the ferry was much larger than I expected. The journey was pleasant with the crew giving the odd pieces of commentary on the crossing. On arriving at St Mawes, we walked up the road to the castle. Even from the entrance there is a lovely view – it is immediately obvious how important the castle is for defence. We walked around the castle following the English Heritage Audio Guide as it took us all around and explained what they knew, and in some cases what they didn't. The problem at St Maws is that the castle is not at the top of the hill. That makes ground defence difficult. We had our lunch, which we had brought with us, in a seat overlooking the Carrick Roads. The sun was warm and there was almost no-one about. Just occasionally the sound of a boat's motor on the water in the distance. It was very peaceful. After lunch we returned to St. Mawes and caught the ferry back to Falmouth. We returned to Customs Quay, which was a different point from our departure, but we knew Falmouth sea front well enough by now.
We went into a very small tea rooms, on google street view its called “Citrus Cafe”, but the name doesn't ring a bell. It's on Arwenack St near the Church Street End. Jo ordered a cream tea, I ordered a cream-less tea. Either way the food and the tea was very nice. WE like the place and their commitment to local supplies. After that we did the Falmouth Town Trail, which we had picked up in the Tourist Information. Then we had our evening meal at Harbour lights. It is a huge Fish restaurant, at the rear it overlooks part of the harbour. It was quite full, but we were lucky enough to get a seat at the back. They have a webcam on their website, follow the link. The food was brilliant and the environment was good.

Wednesday - "A cold night on a Cornish cliff"
As we approached St Michaels Mount we came across Car Park signs far earlier than I expected. We parked the car and paid out fee (£2 for the day, if I remember correctly). It was quite a long walk to the mount. As the tide was in we would have to take a boat to get to the 'island'. Don't buy a return though as the causeway will be open later and we can walk back. Some of the literature seemed to suggest that visiting this place was going to be very expensive. That turned out not to be the case, although it was not cheap. St Michaels Mount is just what it says, and very steep in places. We started by walking around the gardens. In places they are spectacular but in other places the paths are barred, probably because they are crumbling. The map we were given did not seem to match the gardens, and we missed some of it. We had some lunch in the National Trust Cafe. A long building, with rows of long tables, which seat about 16 people, so you have to share at some point. The food was very good and the portions quite generous. We both enjoyed the meal.
Then there was the long climb up the hill to see the castle. Up and up and up some more. There is the legend of the giant, at least with his long legs he would have got there quicker. People still live in the castle but most of it is open. It would have been nice to have an audio guide here too. The castle and the associated church are stunning, as are the views from the top of the mount. The picture shows the causeway, back to the mainland.

.. and a sculpture of the act for which St Michael is famous:

We had tea at a little tea rooms and beach shop. It was only a snack, but they didn't have anything that was on the diet list. In the end I had a toasted ham ciabatta. They did not seem to want to cater for anything non-standard, then they wanted payment up-front – which I dis-like intensely. It was close to closing time – that can be their only excuse.

In the evening we had decided to see James and the Giant Peach at the Minack Theatre, so we made our way to Porthcurno. We visited the theatre box office and purchased our tickets. Then we parked the car and and walked down to the beach. It is very sandy, although rather small. There is another beach around to the left but the tide was too far in to get round to it. Walking near the waters edge my feet (and sandals) got wet for the first time this holiday, the water was very cold.. Finally it was time to return to the Minack. In the car we changed from our summer clothes into something more suitable for a clod night on a Cornish Cliff, and joined the queue for the theatre. Imagine our surprise when we were told that our tickets were for tomorrow! - and they were, we hadn't even checked them. Fortunately it was soon sorted out and we were allowed in. We walked down the steps to our seats, and placed the 'seats' we had hired on the rock/grass where we were directed to sit. Some very loud Americans soon began causing trouble, but we realised quickly that they were the cast and then enjoyed the fun. It was a superb production of a very simple story. “There really is a giant peach” we had heard said, and there was. An excellent 'summer pantomime' ideal for children and the young at heart. The cast of the Illyria company did an excellent job with almost no scenery and very few quite inventive props. It did get quite cold and we were glad to be back in the car and driving back to Falmouth as the last rays of sun disappeared from the sky.

Thursday - "Smuggling Days"
Pendennis castle complements St Mawes. Between them they cover the entrance to the Carrick roads. To get a ship past you must first disable one of the castles. We took the scenic route up to Pendennis castle past the Falmouth dock yards where they build and maintain large expensive yachts. They also do work for the military, and we looked on as the workers did things to an anonymous grey ship. There were one or two lonely looking men taking photographs – I wonder if they were spies? Pendennis is larger than St. Mawes and easily defended from land, but perhaps more vulnerable from the sea. English Heritage have done a good job of making the castle 'come to life'- the gun room is impressive, even down to the rat!

Back in Falmouth later we had lunch at Rick Steins Fish and Chips. This along with the Tesco where we bought much of our food is in a recent development similar to Cardiff Bay – but a lot smaller. This is another place where excellent food is served but again somewhere where I have to choose carefully. Traditional beer batter is not on my menu, sadly. After all the walking in the morning we decided something more relaxing was in order – a boat trip to smugglers cottage. From Falmouth, up the Carrick Roads towards Truro. A very pleasant trip. Smugglers cottage is now a public house, so a pint was most welcome as we relaxed waiting for the return trip. Around Falmouth the water is very deep. All the way up here ships that no longer have a use are stored. It makes for an ugly backdrop for the cottage, but no-one seemed to mind. We sat on a terraced bank and consumed our refreshments discussing how the 'ship situation' might be resolved, not that it was anything to do with us!
On our return we visited Tesco and purchased some sandwiches and fruit for tea, which we later ate on the 'beach' near the guest house. While we were eating the tide was coming in. Both Jo and I kept a careful watch on different parts of the beach, and when the water reach a certain point decided that it was time to move. Eating on the beach was nice, but we were accompanied by a very determined sea gull. I tried to dissuade him by throwing an occasional stone in his general direction, but it was really a pointless exercise.

Friday - "Flight of Fancy"
A very early start today. We are booked on the 7:30 flight from Penzance to St Mary's one of the Scilly Isles. Our hosts had provided some breakfast for us the night before, and we ate it in our rooms before we left. We arrived at Penzance just in time. It was the first time either of us has been on a helicopter. The fare was not cheap and we may not have done it if we had not received a gift some time ago. This definite counts as one of the '25 things' plan which has been so disrupted by my accident. One of the first things you notice about a helicopter is the noise. It is something you notice all flight. We walked from the gate to the helicopter, past the hot, unbreathable exhaust gasses, under the still spinning rotors and up the steps. It is a relief to get inside, but the noise doesn't stop. I've been describing a helicopter ride as a slow motion theme park ride. You can never tell what it will do next. At the start of the flight it went straight up, stopped , turned 90 degrees right, stopped, the front tilted down, and then back to level, the turn continued to full circle, or thereabouts, the nose went up and the helicopter move away from the airport, gaining height. The outward journey was at about 3000 feet, the return at about 1500 feet. No point in going higher than you need to. St Mary's was soon on the horizon, the flight only lasts 20 minutes, and we are back on the ground. The helicopter company have a very efficient taxi service to town and back. They dropped us outside Lloyds bank, and picked us up again in time to be back at the airport for check-in.

Once on St Mary's we have to decide what to do. We were there only a couple of years ago, so we know the layout. First, visit the Co-op and buy some lunch. Then visit the Tourist Information, where they are just about open, and are chalking the days activities on their black board. A guided history walk around Star Castle caught our eye. We had not bee able to get in the Castle before – it is a hotel now. So we paid our £5 each and our knowledgeable guide walked us around the castle, inside the grounds, around the battlements and back into town. We finished at the lifeboat house. That just left us a couple of hours to wander round before we were due back at the bank. The helicopter was late arriving for the return journey, so we ended up back at Penzance later than expected.
We decided to go to St Ives for tea. Here's where Cornwall starts to get a little mad. We were directed to the park & ride. There were no other useful sign posts. Arriving there and talking to the bus driver we found that the buses stopped soon, well before we would be back. Other passengers told us that they get a taxi back for about £3. The park and ride itself was £3.50 and the bus would have been a further 75p each. We drove around a bit and found another car park, quite close to town for £2.50. No bus required.
The parking story will get worse.
It is the night of England vs Algeria in the Football World Cup. England are expected to win easily. The town and the pubs are full – very full - overflowing - there are people in the streets. We found a pub – it looked a little dismal from the outside, but there appeared to be some room inside. We went in, and were informed that there would be about an hour's wait for food. We decided to stay put. We couldn't see the T.V. So had no idea on the progress of the match – only that there were no loud cheers or groans. The food arrived, a little inside the hour. The grilled mackerel was the best of the holiday, better than Harbour lights (which was very nice).
England drew nil-nil, a disastrous result. We walked around St. Ives and watched the 'killer' gulls. Well they didn't kill anyone, but there were so many warnings not to feed them I felt I was in a Hitchcock film. Fortunately I had brought the Sat nav with me, because we were lost, and couldn't remember where the car park was. Our guess though was good, we were just one road away and soon back at the car.

Romans 5:1-5 - Your Standing before God

2010-05-30T17:22:00.000+01:00

Our passage today starts with the word 'Therefore', which gives us a clue that there is a discussion that has already resulted in some sort of conclusion. As a result of which we have the passage in front of us today. It is also Paul at his difficult best. You can almost hear him having thoughts and getting them down on his paper. He didn't have my luxury of word processing, once it was written it was written, no going back and changing it. When a new thought comes along that really fits somewhere further back it must be recorded and dealt with there, he can't go back and re-do the last paragraph or two.
So, before we deal with the therefore lets try to get sense of what Paul is saying. I sat down and tried to re-write the thoughts, it helped me to get closer to the text. See what you think, if it helps you too – great, otherwise, just ignore the next slide.
[Slide 3]
We are standing in Grace and we are at peace with God because we have been justified by our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So we rejoice in the hope of the God's Glory. We continue to rejoice even when that faith brings us troubles, because we know that those troubles produce perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character hope.
Our hope does not disappoint us because we have God's love, brought to us by the Holy Spirit, who, himself was given to us by God.
Now that may or may not help you. It certainly won't if you don't understand all the theological language, so we will take a look at some of those words later, as we try to get a better understanding of exactly what Paul is talking about and what it means for us.
First, though lets go back and take a look at how Paul arrived at the 'Therefore'. We have to go back to Romans 3:21 to see what Paul is talking about.
[Slide 4] – Romans 3:21-26
Ro 3:21 But now a righteousness from God, b apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. c
Ro 3:22 This righteousness from God d comes through faith e in Jesus Christ f to all who believe. g There is no difference, h
Ro 3:23 for all have sinned i and fall short of the glory of God,
Ro 3:24 and are justified j freely by his grace k through the redemption l that came by Christ Jesus.
Ro 3:25 God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, 16 m through faith in his blood. n He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished o —
Ro 3:26 he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
In verse 21 Righteousness (being right with God) came from following the Jewish law – completely and perfectly. Now though another way of righteousness has been revealed. Before Jesus people couldn't have known about what he would do, unless they had studied the scriptures very closely and listened carefully to God speaking through them. No-one had, although some had come close. Now though righteousness comes through faith in Jesus – whether as a Jew you have tried to follow the Law, or as a Gentile you had no knowledge of the Law.
'There is no difference' Paul says at the end of verse 22, for all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God.
[Slide 5] – Tin rolling demonstration – ask for a volunteer.
[Slide 6] – Tin rolling explanation.
The tin represents us. However hard we try we cannot keep on the straight and narrow. We will always fail, get distracted from our purpose, or change our focus.
Jesus said
Mt 7:13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
Mt 7:14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
Paul then goes on to explain that righteousness under the Law is not possible and justification is only available by faith – even to Abraham. Being Paul he does this in great detail, you can read it later, the key thing for us to understand is that God knows that righteousness is impossible for us living in a fallen world.
[Slide 7] – Bible Passage
Coming back to today's passage lets take a look at some of these technical words and try to get a better understanding of them all.
[Slide 8] – Bible Passage
Justified    verse 1
Faith        verse 1
Peace        verse 1
Grace        verse 2
Hope        verse 2
Suffering    verse 3
[Slide 9] – Justified
Justified can be easily explained, it simply means put right. You can remember it by saying “Just as if I'd”.
Here's just about the best illustration of justification that I've ever come across.
There was a man in England who put his Rolls-Royce on a boat and went across to the continent to go on a holiday. While he was driving around Europe, something happened to the motor of his car. He cabled the Rolls-Royce people back in England and asked, "I'm having trouble with my car; what do you suggest I do?" Well, the Rolls-Royce people flew a mechanic over! The mechanic repaired the car and flew back to England and left the man to continue his holiday. As you can imagine, the fellow was wondering, "How much is this going to cost me?" So when he got back to England, he wrote the people a letter and asked how much he owed them. He received a letter from the office that read: "Dear Sir: There is no record anywhere in our files that anything ever went wrong with a Rolls-Royce." That is justification.
Dr. Roy Gustafson
So lets see how that might relate to you and God. What would he write back to you, if you wrote asking what the cost of your justification was? [Ask the question]
[Slide 11] – God's response.
[Slide 12] – Faith
The second word I want to talk about is faith
It may seem fairly obvious what faith is, but sometimes the obvious does not really get to the point.
[The Chair illustration. - get someone to sit on a chair]
That shows faith, but is is a very simple faith, God expects more from us than that.

The following letter was found in a baking-powder can wired to the handle of an old pump that offered the only hope of drinking water on a very long and seldom-used trail across Nevada's Amargosa Desert: "This pump is all right as of June 1932. I put a new sucker washer into it and it ought to last five years. But the washer dries out and the pump has got to be primed. Under the white rock I buried a bottle of water, out of the sun and cork end up. There's enough water in it to prime the pump, but not if you drink some first. Pour about one-fourth and let her soak to wet the leather. Then pour in the rest medium fast and pump like crazy. You'll git water. The well has never run dry. Have faith. When you git watered up, fill the bottle and put it back like you found it for the next feller. (signed) Desert Pete. P.S. Don't go drinking the water first. Prime the pump with it and you'll git all you can hold."
Keith Miller and Bruce Larson, The Edge of Adventure.
Desert Pete's faith is much stronger. He has faith that unknown people will follow his instructions, and be good enough to replace the water, so that his instructions can be followed by the next person.    People in these extreme situations are usually a lot more careful and responsible than people are in normal daily life. His faith is tied in with the things he has done – but that's another sermon.
There is a deeper faith still – the sort of faith that God wants us to have
When Shadrack, Meshack and Abednego were ordered to worship the Babylonian gods they refused, so the King threatened to put them in his furnace. This is their response:
[Slide 13] – Faith
Da 3:17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue n us from your hand, O king.
Da 3:18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up. o ”
Faith here remains, regardless of the actions of God.
Can you and I say that. We believe that God will answer our prayer, but even if he doesn't it will not change what we believe about him or the quality of our belief in him?
[Slide 14] – Peace
Take a look at the images – someone asleep, a mountain brook, friends enjoying food together, soldiers with a white flag, a pile of money, a couple of hippies.
What do they say to you about peace?
Sleeping peacefully, the peace found in the wilderness, being at peace with your friends, the peace of having enough not to worry about the future, the peace of a very relaxed   way of life.
God's peace is different, although it incorporates all of these things. The peace mentioned here is peace with God. It's the peace that comes from being totally secure in the company of someone else, it's the peace of always wanting and doing the same things, of being in agreement. It is not in-action, although rest is certainly involved.
[Slide 16] – Peace - Shalom
The biblical word is Shalom, but that is also another sermon.
[Slide 17] – Grace
In the words of the song “Grace is when God gives us the things we don't deserve”
[Slide 18] – Grace spells Gods Riches at Christ's Expense
Through God's grace all the rich blessing of God are availabe to us because of the death of Jesus on the cross.
Charles Spurgeon and Joseph Parker both had churches in London in the 19th century. On one occasion, Parker commented on the poor condition of children admitted to Spurgeon's orphanage. It was reported to Spurgeon however, that Parker had criticized the orphanage itself. Spurgeon blasted Parker the next week from the pulpit. The attack was printed in the newspapers and became the talk of the town. People flocked to Parker's church the next Sunday to hear his rebuttal. "I understand Dr. Spurgeon is not in his pulpit today, and this is the Sunday they use to take an offering for the orphanage. I suggest we take a love offering here instead." The crowd was delighted. The ushers had to empty the collection plates 3 times. Later that week there was a knock at Parker's study. It was Spurgeon. "You know Parker, you have practised grace on me. You have given me not what I deserved, you have given me what I needed.
[Slide 19] – Hope
A man sentenced to death obtained a reprieve by assuring the king he would teach his majesty's horse to fly within the year--on the condition that if he didn't succeed, he would be put to death at the end of the year. "Within a year," the man explained later, "the king may die, or I may die, or the horse may die. Furthermore, in a year, who knows? Maybe the horse will learn to fly."
Bernard M. Baruch.
That is very much like saying, before you've seen the forecast, “I hope it will be a warm dry day tomorrow.” If you're talking in June, then your hope may be reasonable, if you're talking in February it is probably not.
We though have a more solid hope. We rejoice in the Hope of the Glory of God, yet to be revealed, just as in the days before Jesus the Jewish hope was in the Messiah. The Messiah came, although for many it was thousands of years in their future. For us it may also be thousands of years in the future, or it may be that God's Glory will be revealed today.
We KNOW its coming, even if some of the Jews may not have Known the Messiah was coming.
We KNOW its coming, because God has given us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit not only marks us as God's, but continually reminds us that God is there working inside us and brining us closer to God's Glory day by day.
[Slide 20] – Suffering
You may remember that when I re-wrote these verses to try to help me understand them better I did not use the word suffering. I used troubles. This is because when you make peace with God, you immediately undo any peace that you had with your fellow human beings. You are no longer one of them and they will try to undermine your faith. This may be subtle, or it may be quite direct. One way or the other it will go against your new found peace with God, they will try to deceive you, or force you to deny your faith.
This testing of you faith is allowed by God and it is sometimes quite unpleasant.
God has promised though that we will not be tested to breaking point.
There is a purpose to this testing, it is to develop your character, so that you will become more and more like Jesus.
[get someone to identify coal]
[Slide 21] Coal
What happens when coal is put under extreme pressure for millions of years?
    Diamonds
[Slide 21] Coal & Diamond
The pressure, or trouble that we are subject to changes us, so that our characters are built, until we are diamond – fit for heaven.
Conclusion
Paul is reminding his readers, or perhaps explaining to them for the first time how they stand before God. The passage also describes how we stand before God. We are able to have a relationship with God because we have accepted as true that Jesus was the Messiah the Jews were expecting, and that he suffered and died, taking the consequences of our sins. So we can rejoice in the hope of the Glory of God that is yet to be revealed. Even when our beliefs get us into trouble with others in the world we will continue to rejoice. We can do this because we know that the trouble that come our way are for a purpose – to develop our God-like character. This gives us hope, which does not disappoint us because God has given us his Holy Spirit so that we can know his love.
We have sung about it this morning when we sang “In Christ Alone”
All this for simply believing that Jesus died for you.

A Dog called Demolition

2010-05-25T21:42:00.001+01:00

I was given this book as an introduction to Robert Rankin. I read it. That's probably the best that can be said. It's a nice science fantasy idea but the execution of the no beginning, middle and end story just doesn't work. I didn't really get to care about any of the characters, except perhaps the one who died near the beginning (at the end of the beginning?)
Some of the 'music hall' humour was out of place, some of the other humour has already dated. The ending was more Monty Python than a fantasy story, and so hugely disappointing.

Billericay Hustings

2010-05-01T13:28:00.000+01:00

Three candidates attended the hustings: John Baron (Conservative), our MP; Mike Hibbs (Liberal Democrat); Alan Davies (Labour). The decision was taken not to invite the BNP, and I'm not sure what happened to UKIP. I would like to have seen them all. I believe that not inviting the BNP is dangerous precedent and an attack on freedom of speech. It didn't work with Sinn Féin for Margaret Thatcher, and it won't work now, it just lets them 'skulk in the shadows' as John Baron said, picking up disaffected unthinking voters. My church disagrees, apparently the C of E synod has ruled that they are not allowed to be given a platform. So they were not there to condemn themselves.

The debate was structured around some introductory pre-notified questions, and then questions submitted on entry by those attending, sorted into categories. So here are some of the comments I recorded (it is not a transcript in any way):

About Yourselves
John: Started his career in the army, and entered politics with a desire to help people
Mike: Started as a sales assistant at a builders merchant and is now an architect, and entered politics because of the importance of community and to give people hope that things can improve.
Alan: Started at Marconi's, and is the only one of the candidates to have been born in the constituency.

Personal Passions
Alan: Stamp collecting, trainspotting (as a joke?), and his Christian faith.
John: Family, Politics
Mike: Sustainability, Young people

The questions from the floor followed:
NHS & Basildon Hospital
Mike: Too many managers. Some with over inflated salaries. Reduce and re-invest the savings
John: Basildon Hospital is doing good work and improving, they have met their cleanliness tragets
Alan: Only has good things to say about the hospital, and reminded us that Labour created the NHS.

NHS Parking Fees
Alan: Opposed
John: Uncomfortable with the idea and wants to understand where the money goes
Mike: OK, so long as it doesn't disadvantage the poor or those in long term care. Wanted to look at other ways to travel to the hospital.

Integrity
John: Has not always been in tune with his party, and is his 'own man'. There is a need for honesty in public service
Alan: His faith produces honesty and integrity.
Mike: Politics is the problem. The Liberal Democrats make their policy at their conferences and it is agreed democratically.

Gordon Browns 'Bigot' comment
Alan: He apologised face-to-face immediately. It can be forgotten.
Mike: He apologised face-to-face immediately. That's that!
John: It was an unfortunate word. Gives insights into the traits of the man. Immigration is a real issue which must be addressed by politicians because it is a real concern for many people.
Alan: Responded by talking about the BNP.
Mike: less than 4% of non-British origin in this constituency. The problem is we don't really know where the immigrants are as border controls have been abandoned. Must ensure that the discussion is based on facts.

Education and the chance of getting a job at the end of it
Alan: Primary schools are at a reasonable level, spending has been doubled, training to 18 will be offered.
Mike: Phase out university tuition fees (when the economy can afford it). Look at schooling outcomes and try to improve the areas with poor outcomes.
John: Voted against tuition fees. Will give extra help to business to improve employment prospects.

The Equality Law and the problems it has caused for those of faith
Alan: Ask What Would Jesus Do?
John: Was involved in the defeat of the most invasive provisions of the bill.
Mike: Expressed concern over religious groups causing unrest.

What is the one thing that would make people vote for you?
Alan: Is a local and a Christian with a socialist voice.
John: Is dedicated to public service, helping people and improving government.
Mike: represents the best chance for real change in the way we are governed.

Did it change who I will vote for? - No, but:
It gave me a much greater insight into candidates, and their beliefs and motives.

Who won on the night?
John clearly 'won' on the presentation front. He understood the issue behind the question, and knew how he would answer it. He should have - he's had nine years of practice.

That was my first ever hustings - and a very interesting and stimulating evening it was.

Bomber Boys

2010-04-21T20:50:00.000+01:00

ISBN 978-0-00791215-1
Bomber Harris I'd heard of, but I knew little, if anything about the men under his command. This book puts that straight. It is written about those who actually flew, the pilots, navigators, bomb aimers, rear gunners. Most of the recollections are take from their letters. This is because the Bomber Boys formed the front line of WWII. That meant the death rate was appalling. You cannot get away from the sense of loss - although there is a chapter dedicated to death the spectre of it is on almost every page.
We are taken from the start of the war, through the volunteers (all of them were, even if they'd been conscripted) selection and early training. The RAF mechanism for putting crews together - not what you'd expect. On to the operational flights, problems with the aircraft, and good things about the aircraft. Here some of the main characters begin to appear.
In later chapters their friendships are examined, in particular their loyalty to their crew. A special closeness develops very quickly when under fire from flak and fighters in the dark at 15,000 feet., Their personal relationship are also covered and some time is spent on war time romances. Some of these come from letters kept by girlfriends for the remainder of their lives.
For the most part the Bomber Boys believed in what they were doing, even though they were regularly the target of propaganda, they were not so easily fooled. That Nazi Germany was waging total war, and the combined efforts of the Allies were only just enough to turn the tide. So when you hear about Dresden, don't only think in terms of revenge for Coventry, remember that when the raid was made it was not clear that the war had only months to run.

I bought this book towards the end of my unemployment in 2008, and have just finished reading it. Without that episode I would never have considered such a topic. I'm glad I did. It is not an easy read - you just start to get to know someone only to hear they have been killed, or are 'missing', or taken prisoner. Patrick Bishop has done a brilliant job of bringing the Bomber Boys to life, and latterly showing how little their achievements and sacrifice have been officially recognised.

There is only really one criticism. The campaigns, or battles, for the Rhur, Berlin, Hambourg etc are spread throughout the book and it is a little difficult to keep current with just where we are in the war as the topics change. However there are extensive indexes, references., plane schematics and the like to keep you busy once the reading is done.

The main part of the book ends with:

Went the day well,
We died and never knew,
But well or ill, Freedom,
We died for you.

--- which Oh, so many of them did.

Jesus expects ... belief (John 20:19-31)

2010-04-11T12:52:00.001+01:00

Introduction

There are many things in this passage that we can see Jesus expects for his followers from the things that he says in this passage.

“Peace to be with you”

It's a greeting, but it is also something that Jesus expects for his followers.

“I am sending you”

He expects us to go – where ever we are able, to the people who he doesn't yet have a friendship with

“Receive the Holy Spirit”

He expects us to live together with the Holy Spirit, so that we can discern Gods will in any situation.

“Forgive or not forgive”

He expects us to know enough about what is happening to be the gate keeper for heaven. Those we forgive are in, any that we don't forgive are not.

“Believe”

He expects us to believe in Him, in what He has done for us and especially in His resurrection.

be blessed

This one applies to us, those who have believed without seeing, more than it does to the disciples that Jesus is talking to in the upper room. -

“Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Activity

Tell people in an unbelievable way that you have some treasure in the box. Find out who believes and who doesn't.

Get one of the non believers to come and take a look. - Then tell the others what he has seen.

Illustration – Belief

“The Easter story is nothing but a myth,” Tom’s high school teacher announced to his class a few days before Easter break. “Jesus not only didn’t rise from the grave,” he continued, “but there’s no God in heaven who would allow his son to be crucified in the first place.”

“Sir, I believe in God,” Tom protested. “And I believe in the resurrection.”

“Tom, you can believe what you wish to, of course,” the teacher said, “However, the real world excludes the possibility of miracles like the resurrection. The resurrection is a scientific impossibility. No one who believes in miracles can also respect science.”

Then the teacher proposed an experiment. Reaching into his refrigerator, he produced a raw egg and held it up. “I’m going to drop this egg on the floor,” he said. “Gravity will pull it toward the floor that the egg will most certainly break apart.” Looking at Tom with a challenge, he said, “Now tom, I want you to pray a prayer right now and ask your God to keep this egg from breaking when it hits the floor. If he can do that, then you’ll have proven your point, and I’ll have to admit that there is a God.”

After pondering the challenge for a moment, Tom slowly stood up to pray: “Dear Heavenly Father,” Tom prayed, “I pray that when my teacher drops the egg, it will break into a hundred pieces. And also, Lord, I pray that when the egg does break, my teacher will have a heart attack and die. Amen.”

After a unison gasp, the class sat in silent expectation. For a moment the teacher did nothing. At last he looked at Tom and then the egg. Without a word he carefully put the egg back into the refrigerator. “Class dismissed,” the teacher said, and then he sat down to clear his desk.

The teacher apparently believed in God’s existence more than he thought, or perhaps just doubted his non-existence enough. That teacher wasn’t willing to bet his life that God didn’t exist.

About Thomas

Thomas has had a bad press. There is just this one incident in the scriptures where he is shown to doubt, and as a result the phrase “Doubting Thomas” has entered our vocabulary.

The other disciples had also been doubtful, Peter and John you could say were even scornful.

Lk 24:11 But they did not believe d the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.

Thomas is unlucky enough to have had his words recorded when in front of Jesus. So before we write Thomas off as some sort of archetypal sceptic lets take a look at what we know about him.

He's listed in the names of the 12 Apostles, by Matthew

Mt 10:2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John;

Mt 10:3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;

Mt 10:4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him. c

… and Mark, and Luke. He is listed as one of the disciples present when Mattias is chosen to replace Judas in Acts chapter 1. He mainly features in John.

At the end of John we find Thomas going fishing with Peter, James and John, and Nathaniel, so its reasonable to assume that he too was a fisherman.

When Jesus decided to go to see his friend Lazarus, who had just died, the rest of the disciples were worried that they would be stoned – the Jews there had tried to stone him on his last visit, but in John 11:16 we read: Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Whatever we think of Thomas' beliefs, we cannot doubt his loyalty.

When Jesus was describing Heaven in John

^{Jn 14:1} “Do not let your hearts be troubled.^w Trust^x in God⁷⁰ ;^y trust also in me.

^{Jn 14:2} In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there^z to prepare a place for you.

^{Jn 14:3} And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back^a and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.^b

^{Jn 14:4} You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas responded:

“Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

It was one of those situations. There they all were listening intently, but probably not understanding very much of what Jesus was saying. This can easily happen when there is a very strong visionary leader. The followers really don't have a clue, but they are all so frightened of demonstrating their ignorance that they just sit there and nod in agreement. Anyone who's ever been in a meeting at work with a very senior manager, many rungs above the normal level that you have to deal with will have experienced the same thing. He will be talking about things you don't understand properly. Everyone is sitting there willing someone else to ask the first question. I remember sitting in a hall of about 250 people, at the end of the presentation the global director asked “Any questions?” There were plenty in my head, and also in everyone else's, but who would be first to ask. My immediate boss, who had quite a stutter, stood up and began to phrase his question. His manager would often explain what he was trying to say over his stuttering, but not this time. Everyone was so relieved that someone was starting the questioning process.

That's exactly what happened here. Once Thomas asked a question, Philip felt able to follow up with his own question.

Thomas, it seems to me, is a genuine sceptic, he's not happy just with words,he needs to understand their meaning. Its important to him that he has the message right. So we can't deny his courage here either.

The question that must be asked of Thomas is where was he? Why was he not with the rest of the disciples.

I suspect that Thomas was more badly affected by the events around the crucifixion than the others, perhaps that's because he really believed in Jesus, even though he wasn't always sure what Jesus was on about. If so, then deserting Jesus, running away from the arrest and not supporting his friends and leader, at the most critical time of his life would have hurt Thomas. He would be upset and ashamed at the way he behaved. He may even have been in hiding from the disciples.

Being a realistic person, he would have realised that he could not stay apart from his friends for long, so one week later he is back. The scene with Jesus is played out.

Thomas' reaction when he finally meets Jesus face to face, and in the flesh is “My Lord and my God”. It is the clearest statement of who Jesus is in the entire new testament. Nowhere else and no-one else, neither Paul nor Peter make the statement as starkly and straightforwardly.

You will note that the scripture we read today does not support the picture that Caravaggio painted. Thomas may have said “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.” When offered the chance he didn't need it. He saw straight away that it was Jesus – something about the tone of voice perhaps underlined to him exactly who it was.

Belief / Faith

How we decide what we think is true is a very complicated subject. Evidence is certainly important but a lot of the time we do not have the knowledge to evaluate the evidence. Sometime there is just not enough evidence or contradictory evidence. An alternative strategy is to develop trusted sources – we call these people friends, in case you're loosing me. What friends say is taken much more at face value than what strangers say.

For Thomas, seeing his friend alive was enough to convince him that everything that He had said before his death was true. He had indeed risen from the dead, and the visual and oral evidence was overwhelming.

The same is not true for us. None of us have seen Jesus alive. That is why Jesus says “blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”. Our belief is based on faith, which Hebrews 11:1 describes as “Faith is being sure of what we hope for. It is being certain of what we do not see. “

Sometimes our faith, or our belief is stronger than at other times. Sometimes it can be next to non-existent. This can have a number of causes, but there is only one cure. Just as Thomas' doubts were overcome by an encounter with Jesus, so must our doubts be. In our case that will probably be with the aid of another person.

It was probably the first time my faith had waned. After all I had only been a Christian a few years. I didn't understand what was happening. I thought perhaps I was no longer a Christian. I worried about it. No, of course I didn't speak to anyone. I just drifted along, attending church, but not really being there, and wishing I was somewhere else. My avoidance wasn't good enough though. Captain Ron (remember him?) asked me to give my testimony at some outreach event. I tried to get out of it, but (it seemed to me) I was put under quite a lot of pressure. So I agreed. I reluctantly sat down to prepare. All I had to do was tell the story of God in my life, but I wasn't sure of God, in my life or anywhere else.

I went through a process of remembering all the things that had happened. Each discussion I'd had, each argument. Each time I'd told someone that a God was unlikely, only to find out eventually that a God was really quite likely – because there was good evidence He had been here. I wrote, and later spoke, about the small steps that I'd taken from being a sceptical agnostic to a believer.

In the preparation I had a fresh encounter with Christ, and a few days later, when I spoke my testimony I was no longer wondering how and why I had ended up in the church.

Last week Warner spoke about praying, if your faith had died. I was in a position where to pray was ludicrous. More was needed, and I am thankful to God and to Captain Ron that the more that was needed was available.

I'm not one of those people who never has any doubts. I find their certainty can be quite frightening. I have always found that having doubts has helped to build my belief in the long term. Asking questions, proposing solutions, and doubting the answers, until I arrive at something that seams reasonable and sensible to me, has worked well for me so far.

It works to strengthen my belief and my faith.

It worked that way for Thomas too, he went on to found the church in South India.

ASUS & Windows 7 Pro - 64 bit (Software List for Implementation, including the experience as I do it)

2010-03-21T17:17:00.001Z

A new computer is an ideal time to stop and work out what software you really need. I consume the stuff like sweets and end up with more than I can possibly ever use. So here's my list of the essentials! (The exclamation mark will be obvious if you get to the end.). First of all the browser. The 'browser ballot page is not a mandatory patch in windows update on Windows 7 pro!! - very naughty of Microsoft.

Firefox
Certainly better than IE, but mainly has the edge because of the extensions:

Adblock Plus - get rid of a lot of the annoying adverts that ruin the browsing experience
British English Dictionary - for the spell checker in English English
DownLoadThemAll - quick download of pictures, by right click
FastestFox - for the autoload of the second google page as you scroll down, and the ability to highlight a phrase and search based on it.
Flashgot - an easy way to download from YouTube and the like
Tab Mix Plus - better use of tabs - indicators for visited pages etc.

Migration of the bookmarks will be required: easy - export to html / import, but remember to restart the browser for the full effect!)

Thunderbird - email client
The only mainstream e-mail client that I've found that supports IMAP properly. IMAP keeps your mail on the server, its what webmail clients are based on. this is a great improvement on outlook express or windows live. Add-ons here bring the functionality up to outlook standards for the work I do

British English Dictionary (see above)
Lightning - for calendaring - I'm still learning about this
Signature Switch - for multiple signatures

Migration of:

the address books (export / import via LDIF - easy!)
the local folders (still TBA)
the message filter rules (Thunderbird message filter import/export is the only thing I can find. I tested it on Vista to the old XP - perfect! In real life though - Vista to Win 7, it complains that the import is to a different folder structure I'm using IMAP, they can't be different, they're copied from the server!!)

Office Software - text documents, spreadsheets, presentations etc
OpenOffice.org 3.2. Once possibly the poor relation, but since version 3 the functionality is there for everything I regularly do (except macros - which are much harder to understand in OOO). The office suite of choice because it doesn't cost anything.
Microsoft Office 2007 - because I have an enormous investment in macros that I can't easily replace, and open office has driven the price down to a reasonable 3 licenses for £70.00

Desktop Publishing - PagePlus from Serif
Its easier to use than publisher, and I've yet to find anything open source that comes close.

Picture Management - Picasa

Picasa is great and integrates well with the PicasaWeb for publishing and sharing on Blogger.

Picture Editing - Paint.Net and The GIMP

Paint .Net is simple and easy to use for most basic needs - cropping a picture, adjusting the levels.
GIMP is loaded but rarely used, its there for the more difficult stuff. It can be hard to understand.

Media Player - VLC
For me a media player must just get on with the job and not bother me for codecs, it must also play my youtube clips without any converters being required. VLC does a great job on both fronts. It also plays CD and DVD adequately.

Podcasts - ITunes
Chosen for its ease of subscribing and playback.

Web Site build and maintain
Nothing here! I used to use Namo Web Editor 4 - but that was a while ago - I'm still looking for something that works and doesn't cost a fortune. After all I only have 1 site and about 10 pages to maintain.

Instant Messaging - Yahoo
Chat clients seem to be a dying breed since the advent of FaceBook and the like, but they still have their uses. I have Yahoo messenger for no better reason than that the guys at work use it.

Compression - 7ZIP
7Zip is free compared to WinZip and WinRAR which are both shareware (try before you buy). It also achieves better compression in its native format. It processes the other compression types well. The only downside is that the GUI can be a little fiddly.

PDF Writer - CutePDF / doPDF
To emulate a printer and create a PDF (Portable Document) is now a basic requirement. Cute PDF does a good job and often produces a smaller file than the embedded function in the application. doPDF is a good alternative.

System Tools - Many and varied
Anti-Virus, anti-Malware, system watchers
Its good to have a combination here. The system came with Trend Micro anti-virus trial, so I'll let that run its course and see how it does. Then it will most likely be AVG as that seems to work and is easy to manage.
Spybot - Search and Destroy and AdAware together seem to provide good anti-Malware protection. As a final safeguard there is WinPatrol which informs you of changes made to key areas of the system and allows you to revert them.

System Management
CCleaner - to keep the rubbish off the system - it deletes old un-required files and tidies up the registry. I've had many registry cleaners, most do OK, but occasionally cause problems. CCleaner seems more reliable in that area.
MyDefrag (formery JKDefrag). Plenty of options or straight forward simplicity. Will defrag the disk properly, unlike windows (at least in vista) which ignores large fragments!
Bulk Rename Utility - by Jim Willshire - this is a slightly quirky interface, but it is very comprehensive.
Backup - Cobian Backup - There have been many problems with Cobian and Vista. It still just about runs, but I haven't found anything better at providing simple file backups.
Version Checking - PSI helps to ensure that I have the latest security patches on the system.

Development - VB 2008 - a microsoft freebie. The visual development environment installs automatically and provides excellent development and debugging. As I live in windows what else is there. .Net provide good protection (mostly) from the oddities of the various environments.

Then there's the specialist applications
For our Camera's
For our Phones
For the printer/scanner - Epson SX200 (don't buy one)
For the external network disk - Freecom 500Gb

Family Tree - Family Tree Legends
Bible Study - Pradis
Thought Organisation - Freemind
Project management - again, nothing of note has been found, but its a while since I looked
Song Projection - EasiSlides and OpenLp, until we decide which.

That's just the software. It must be configured and in some cases scripts will be required. So lots to do .....

Gideon and Ananias in Conversation with God

2010-03-09T20:41:00.003Z

Slide 2 – Gideon's Story

War with Midianites 6:1-9

About 50 years have passed since the story of Deborah in Judges 5. Under the Judges Israel is a loose confederation of tribes – coming together when required, but mostly independent. In the last half century they have drifted away from God and once again are worshipping the gods of those around them.

The Midianites were the forerunners of the Bedouin. They had been attacking Israel like swarms of locusts and destroying crops and livestock. This had been going on for seven years. Israel had been largely defenceless, and now suffering extreme hunger they had cried out to God to save them. God sent a prophet to remind them of their past – all the amazing things that God had done for them. Especially reminding them of the Exodus miracle.

Slide 3 - An Angel 6:10-24

Then and Angel of the Lord comes to see Gideon while he was in hiding, threshing wheat. The Angel introduces himself with the phrase “The Lord is with you mighty Warrior”. We'll come back to that statement in a minute. Gideon looks back to the past wonders, and just assumes that God has abandoned them. The Angel does not argue, but responds “Go in the strength you have and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. Am I not sending you?” Gideon reminds the Angel who he is - “My clan is the weakest” and “I am the least”. This time the response is more direct “I will be with you” Now Gideon begins to realise that this is serious, and asks for a sign so that he can believe that he is talking to God.

He prepares a offering – a young goat. An offering of this nature would represent a considerable expense. There has been war for seven years, and Israel is short of food. Gideon remembers his history - he has certain expectations of the outcome. After Moses offered a sacrifice in Lev 9:24. “Fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell face down.”. So fire consuming the offering was essential now, or Gideon would not believe that it really was God.

Whether Gideon knew it or not he had made the sacrifice for the unintentional sin of a leader. It's detailed in Lev 4:22-26. Before anything can be achieved with God it is essential that the sin of the people involved is first forgiven.

Once the sacrifice is accepted Gideon thinks “I have seen the face of God – I'm a dead man”. - in Exodus 33:20 God says to Moses “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”

A sacrifice & a step forward 6:25-32

The next sacrifice will be a test for Gideon. Now he has to take some action. This is the point of no return. Ripping down the alter to Baal is going to get him noticed. Taking one of the prize bulls as an offering will also get him noticed. Gideon is fearful and still unsure of God. So he does this all at night, where it will be unseen and unchallenged until it is complete. In the morning he is as ready as he will ever be to face the music.

How would you react do you think if you had arrived at church this morning and found the building in ruins, the communion table smashed, and the building set up for another faith.

You can understand why there might be a lynching about to happen, but Joash comes to Gideon's rescue, and he escapes to fight the fight that God has planned.

He is now known amongst the people as one who is against Baal. He has made a very public statement and has set the course of his life in a particular direction for now.

Gideon starts to assemble his army. It is just in time, the enemy is gathering. All Israels enemies – the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples – have come together. He is still unsure that God will save Israel through him, so asks for more proof.

If I put out this fleece overnight let the dew only form on it, and the rest of the ground stay dry. OK – that worked.

If I put out this fleece overnight keep it dry while the rest of the ground is covered in dew. OK – that worked too.

Slide 4 - More 'proofs' from God 6:33-40

Slide 5 - The Army is too big! 7:1-9

Now the army is ready, Gideon has no doubt worked hard to convince people that God will deliver them from their enemies. He has assembled a large army.

God, as ever, has other ideas.

Many of them would rather not be there. Twenty two thousand did not have to be offered the chance to leave twice. By various processes the Army is reduced to just three hundred. Why did God do this? “In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her” God wants there to be no room for doubt that it was His actions and His actions alone that save Israel.

Karachi Prayer guide – asks us to pray for change in Karachi that is so dramatic that it can ONLY be caused by God.

Slide 6 - Midianites scared and routed 7:10-25

The Lord wakes Gideon in the night and says “get up, go and attack the Midianites” Gideon must have been hesitant, but his thoughts are not recorded. So, God tells his to sneak into the enemy camp, and listen. There he hears of a dream of defeat, and realises it is the right time to attack. The Midianites and their allies were routed and the heads of the leaders brought back to Gideon.

Aftermath 8:1-35

There is some political fallout from the battle as some of the peoples were not included in the original army. The people wanted Gideon to become their King, but he would not permit it, instead he took from each of them a golden earring, and with them he made ephod and Israel worshipped it.

So that is the story of Gideon

“The Lord is with you mighty Warrior”

There are a couple of things worth noting from Gideons conversations with God.

The first is that Gideon did not know God in the same way that you and I can know God. In the Old Testament the Holy Spirit came upon people to enable them to complete a specific task for God. Jesus, through His death and resurrection make the Holy Spirit available to all of us all the time. So we can get to know God in a way that was impossible for Gideon.

When God first approached Gideon the angel called him “mighty Warrior”. Clearly in the passage Gideon is nothing like a warrior. He's in hiding, doing the threshing in a wine press. Threshing is an outside job. You need the wind to separate the grain from the chaff. Gideon is indoors.

God sees the potential in people rather than where they are now.

I wonder how good you are at spotting potential in someone, or even yourself?

Bernard Shaw played the "What If" game shortly before he died. "Mr. Shaw," asked a reporter, "if you could live your life over and be anybody you've known, or any person from history, who would you be?"

"I would choose," replied Shaw "to be the man George Bernard Shaw could have been, but never was."

The question for us is not “What could you have been?” but “What can you become?” I wonder how many of you had a sense of what this person could become when she first stepped on the stage?

Susan Boyle Clip

When Michelangelo was ordered to decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel, he refused. He had never done any work of that kind, and said he could not do it. But he was told his refusal would not be accepted. When he discovered that there was no alternative without unpleasant consequences, he mixed his colours and went to work. And thus came into being the world’s finest painting.

It is not just our God given talent that determines what we can be, whether we realise we have it or not. It is being available to do Gods work and to respond to his voice that is the key to determining our true potential.

“Go in the strength you have … Am I not sending you?”

I found the statement “Go in the strength you have” intriguing. We are always told to go in God's strength, but here Gideon is told to go in the strength he has – presumably already has.

What can God be saying. “Off you go Gideon you have enough strength for the task” - no it can't mean that, at the time that would have meant certain death. Gideon was not ready to lead an army. Any way later on God is concerned to reduce the size of the army so that it cannot be said that the Israelites did it in their own strength. Perhaps God is just trying to get Gideon started. Verse 16 say “I will be with you.” If God is planning to be there there will be plenty of strength available. So Gideon will have God's strength when he needs it. I think that is what the clue in the last five words is telling us. “Am I not sending you?”

If you are sent by God, that is power enough. So Gideon goes and builds his massive army. That is the strength he has, and it is the wrong sort of strength for God, who then carefully reduces the size to an unreasonably small number.

Slide 7 – Annanias

There are two people named Ananias in the Book of Acts. One appears in chapter 5 and is soon dealt with. The other appears in Chapter nine and has one of the most important and difficult jobs to do in the whole of the book.

Imagine the situation. You are a member of a minority sect. The authorities do not like what you have to say, nor do they like the fact that so many of their followers are becoming your converts. There is one young man, a rising start amongst the high priests who is particularly determined to wipe out this new sect before it can get a proper foot hold. In the capital he has already engineered the stoning of one of the deacons and a good deal of persecution followed for everybody. Many were forced to leave their homes, and travel to other places. Anywhere they might have relatives where they can go and live their lives. So many have gone and settled elsewhere that there is now almost no-one left for the authorities to pursue.

The town you are living is has received very many of these refugees – that's because it isn't that far from the capital. Now everybody knows that the young priest is coming here to continue his mission. Some no doubt are already planning to move on, to try to keep on step ahead of the persecution.

Slide 8 – Straight Street (1)

Anannias is not one of them. He is going about his business as usual. During a time of prayer he has a vision. In the vision Jesus says

“Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying.”

Slide 9 – Straight Street (2)

Acts 9:12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”

“Surely not, That can't be right. God would never ask me just to walk to my death”, and yet that was what he was being asked to do.

Had he heard correctly, had he misunderstood somehow? I'll bet he was hoping he had. But no!

So Ananias puts in a question. He tells Jesus what he knows, that he is expecting to be arrested at best, if he goes.

Then he gets more instruction “Go! Because I have already delivered the other half of the vision to your persecutor and he is expecting you!” “I have chosen him to spread the Good News through out the world.”

Now I must just take a minute to deal with the issue of the nature of God here. In “The Message” Acts 9:15 starts with the words “Don't Argue!” There is no sense of that in the NIV, NKJV, AV or the Amplified Bible. The sense of the word “Go!” in all of these seems to be closer to Hurry. We have seen from Gideon that God is patient with people – in Gideons case we might say he has the patience of a saint! Even if that is a slightly strange way of putting it. There is certainly no evidence here that God is in anyway trying to stop the conversation and force people just to do as he says.

So back to the question facing Ananias “Would you go?” Even with the additional information I'd certainly have put up more of a fight than Ananias.

Ananias does exactly what is asked of him. He goes to Straight Street, he finds Judas' house, and he goes in. No turning back from that point onwards. He knows and understand his mission, just as Jesus promised that we all would. John 15:15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

He even manages to call Saul 'Brother' when he lays his hands on him. He completes his mission by the passing on of the Holy Spirit.

Slide 10 – His Masters Voice

From Ananias we see how conversing with God has changed between the old and the new testament times. Ananias knows God's voice when he hears it. He makes time in his day to listen. He has trained himself to hear what God is saying. What Ananias is asked to do does not take any special ability. He does not have to be ordained, or have studied theology – he just has to be available and willing. Oh yes, and have supreme courage and trust in God. We saw how Gideon was carefully prepared and taken step by step into putting his full trust in God. That was necessary because Gideon did not know God. Ananias does and he is ready to respond. Look at the detailed message he received. Here's the post code for the sat nav, you'll find the house easily, inside there's someone expecting you … his name is Saul.

Both Gideon and Ananias achieved great things with God. Neither of them had the skills they needed, and each in his own way responded to what God was asking. They listened to the messages they received and took the necessary care to ensure that they were hearing the right thing from God. Then most importantly they took the action that they were asked to take.

Listening is the first thing to do.

A former park ranger at Yellowstone National Park tells the story of a ranger leading a group of hikers to a fire lookout. The ranger was so intent on telling the hikers about the flowers and animals that he considered the messages on his two-way radio distracting, so he switched it off. Nearing the tower, the ranger was met by a nearly breathless lookout, who asked why he hadn't responded to the messages on his radio. A grizzly bear had been seen stalking the group, and the authorities were trying to warn them of the danger.

Joan of Arc was mocked with, "She says she hears God's voice; why, I don't hear His voice!" Joan replied, "Don't you wish you did?"

If you don't hear the message you will never be able to take the right action.

Ananias was give very specific instruction, and so was Gideon. I have to say that I have never received anything from God that was anything like as detailed. Indeed most of the things I hear God say are difficult to understand at first and never include the How. If you are hearing God voice it may be for a specific task, or it may be for something more long term. I first heard God saying I should become a Reader in 1982. It took me a long time to get here.

If you have something like that going on with God, then the vocations day is the place to start.

Slide 10 - Vocations Day

It will allow you to speak to someone about whatever is going on, without getting to the point where you have committed your self by smashing an alter or entering someone else's house.

Lets take a couple of minutes to be quiet and listen for the voice of God reminding us of the things he has been saying to us recently.

Silence

Thunderbird 3 and Lightning

2010-02-27T15:37:00.001Z

A 'problem' from my ISP saying that I've got too much e-mail prompted a look around to see if there were any good archive extensions for Thunderbird. I'd looked a long time ago and not found anything that was really close to what I wanted. I read the feature was in version 3, so decided to upgrade. I use thunderbird because it the only e-mail client that seams to support IMAP properly. Using IMAP, instead of POP3, means that my webmail client has everything in it when I go to look at my email somewhere else.
The upgrade itself was smooth enough, but I was rather surprised that it started all new folders and downloaded all my e-mail again. Still not to worry - that is a one off process.
Not all the changes in Thunderbird are immediately obviously useful. The main one you will see is the combined in-box, sent, deleted, spam/junk, archive folders - if you have more than one account. I haven't got used to this yet. Its especially annoying when I try to empty junk or deleted folders. The folder must be opened and each deleted folder cleared separately, this is true for the others as well. The 'tabbed browser' approach, rather than separate windows make it consistent with the browser which is a good thing, and the buttons for reply, forward etc. are an excellent idea. The search capabilities have been improved and with them comes the penalty of indexing. Indexing is intrusive and stops the client responding while it is occurring.

As to the archiving - I will be looking for an extension. The message is move to the archive - no problem. It is not put in a year folder - as suggested by the documentation, neither is its source folder structure respected, so I will just have one enormous archive. Not as good as it should be.

One oddity I have noticed - the address book and the message filters do not open in tabs but are still put in separate windows.

One problem I've had is the constant requests for my IMAP password. This has improved with the 3.0.2 upgrade, but is still occurring.

I've tried Sunbird in the past - to try to get a calendar - like Outlook and Lotus Notes. It was OK, but a bit clunky and I wasn't sure that the development was occurring. Now I have installed Lightning. The pretty calendar view that is on the extensions webpage is accessible from a small icon that appears to the right of the tabs - which is not immediately obvious - and the the calendar opens in a tab. I haven't tested it with outlook yet. That will come next week - so I may add to this review then.

btw - the picture is NOT the thunderbird logo - its just my sense of humour

Song Projection Software - a review of some available packages

2010-02-20T16:32:00.001Z

This artice was originally published on 20 Feb 2010.

I will make updates and note them here as the project progresses.

A Christ Church we have a new projector and now also a new laptop - with Windows 7 64-bit. We decided that our ageing SongPro (version 3) also needs replacing. As the new SongPro (version 4) is expensive we decided to look at alternatives.

Requirements
To project songs on to an external projector, and manage the projection from the laptops screen.
To re-order songs (start with the chorus or verse 1 for example) without editing the text.
To display the copyright license (CCL number)
To import our Songs of Fellowship words.
To display video on the projector and retain control from the laptop screen
To manage song lists (orders of service)
To report on usage

Desirable Features
To display Bible and Liturgy in the same way as songs
To display notices in the same way as songs and auto cycle through them
To take a webcam feed to the projector
To play a DVD from the Laptop to the projector
To display power points
To display open office presentations
To provide some 'branding'

Of course all these pieces of Software must also run on our new Windows 7 Laptop.
What follows is a review of each of the pieces of software I have tried. There is a matrix of features and tests at the end.

SongPro3 (we are using on the old system)
SongPro 3 is a fully featured environment. It is reasonably easy to use and provides most of what we need. Some of the finer controls are fiddly - you have to know when to right click and what to do with the subsequence menu. The major issue with SongPro is stability. Too often it cannot cope with the simplest tasks. Powerpoint integration almost always causes a restart to be required. We have taken to running powerpoints from windows, but even this can cause SongPro to hang. Some of the 'features' have never worked reliably. Screen blanking is the most obvious. Blanking the screen is unreliable, but worse, un-blanking it is even more unreliable.

Openlp.org
Openlp.org starts in full screen mode and presents 4 columns - Media Manager (the song library and Bibles, presentations, video and audio are here), Preview, Live and in the final column Order of Service and below it the Theme Manager.
Orders of service are set up by dragging from the Media Manager across to the Order of Service n the far right. The preview and Live Screens can be adjusted to make this easier. A button is also available. Tool tips are provided when the mouse hovers over a button.
Openlp.org performed well in the display test.
Import is available from CCLI SongSelect - files and website (both are untested by me)
Export is only to an SQLLite Database.

General look and feel and usage is good, but there remain questions about reordering
verses and there does not appear to be a way to get from verse 1 to 3 without showing verse2.
I cannot find anything on usage stats.
There are tools that can be added, but they are not compatible with Windows 7 64-bit.

Openlp.org occasionally fails on shutdown - this is annoying but doesn't appear to affect subsequent operation.

EasiSlides
Initially additional work was required to get this package to run on Windows 7 64-bit. The software opens in three columns, with the available songs, bibles etc. on the left above the Worship Service (order of service). Followed by a preview and live column. Its primary purpose is to provide interleaved languages, a feature I have not tested. The interface is richly featured, clear and largely intuitive for the service operator - it is the clearest one I have evaluated.

There are a few problems with easislides:
Some screens drop off the right hand side of the monitor on my test screen, but not on the projector. This was the only piece of software that did not faithfully reproduce the preview screen on the monitor, although the problem was not apparent on the projector.
There also seem to be problems with the importer, although I'm still trying to build the files to import the words.
Some of the less obvious features are difficult to find, and will require instructions to be produced.

SongView
SongView has a very simple interface. It does not appear to allow the preparation of orders of service. The Help does not appear to function. It does however have the widest range of import options available, but the export is limited.

OpenSong
Starts with the tag line 'Church Lyrics and more'. The 'more' includes Bibles (KJV) and a 'Slides' feature, which looks remarkably similar to the Song Editor, and an image feature. It is quite basic and has a rather 'old fashioned' look and feel, with help information for each function appearing in a bar at the top of the windows form. The help information itself is extremely basic. Import seems to be only from the CCLI website, but a message informs you that the site has changed and the function is currently broken. The version I have is 1.5.1 (2007r2).

SNAP Projection
SNAP has a friendly looking crocodile for a n Icon.It has no songs provided. Lists of songs can be managed. and songs typed into the system. There does not appear to be an import / export function. Powerpoints can be displayed, although this has not been tested.In single screen mode there was some difficulty removing the display. There were also frequent failures (GPF's) during testing.

The following matrix summarizes the features:

	Openlp.org	EasiSlides	OpenSong	SNAP Projection	SongView	SongPro 3
Feature
Windows 7	Yes	Requires modification for W7 x-64 – applied OK	Yes	Yes*	Yes	?
Help	by .pdf	Yes		by .pdf	Not working?	Yes
Import SoF CD	No, but from the CCLI website	No, EasiSlides format inc XML or Access	An importer is required and can be downloaded	No	Yes, via the supplied RTF files
Service Order	Yes	Worship Lists	Yes, via sets	Unclear whether there is more than one	No	Yes
Verse order and repeat	No	Not directly, but the capability is attached to the song and does Not require the words to be edited.	Yes, by presentation order	No	No	Yes
Bible Display		Yes, but only small set of versions supplied – No NIV	Yes	No	Yes, NIV included	Yes
Usage Stats	No	Yes	Yes, song activity log	No	Yes	Yes
Branding / Styling	themes	Yes	Yes, by presentation order	Yes, via backgrounds	Yes, via Backgrounds	Yes
Display Preview	Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes	Yes
Screen Blanking	Yes	Yes	No	Yes – test screen	No	Yes, but Non-functional
Video Camera Display	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Video File Display	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No
DVD	No	Yes	No	No	No	No
Embedded PowerPoint	Not tested	Not tested	No	yes, Not tested		Yes – some versions of ppt

Conclusion
That brings me down to two - EasiSlides - the favourite and Openlp.org - if I can get the import from the CCLI website working.

Blood River - Tim Butcher

2010-02-01T22:31:00.000Z

ISBN 978-0-099-49428-7
The book is sub-titled A Journey to Africa's Broken Heart. It is the story of one man's obsession. Tim Butcher was obsessed with the Congo. I knew next to nothing about it, and bought the book because it looked like an interesting story. His obsession is not just with the Congo River, but also with the question "What is wrong with Africa?" The Congo has gone from a Belgium colony, made famous by the film "The African Queen", to probably the most failed state in the world today. It is a huge country in the middle of Africa, and the river flows across it from east to west. Tim decides to re-create Stanley's (Sir Henry Morton) journey across Africa, down river from the source on lake Tanganyika to the Atlantic ocean. The current state of the Congo meant that the journey is even more dangerous than it was when Stanley tried, and (just) succeeded, and claimed the Country for the Belgian King. There are any number of groupings of 'rebels' - we'd call them terrorists anywhere else. The government is only in control of a small part of the country and to do anything there are government officials to get approval from, and to pay bribes to. Bribes are the only wages many of them get. The only real 'authority' lies with the U.N. peace keepers and aid workers - who seem to spend most of their time behind closed doors - or better concrete walls.
The book is split into chapters with sketch maps of the parts of the river that each chapter deals with. Tim sounds like a real expert on Congo history - he may possibly be the only non-resident in the world with such a knowledge. In each chapter we get not only the story of the people who he meets but also some of the history of the area. Almost all the histories involve massacres of some kind. It has to be said that they do rather merge into one as you read through the book. There are one or two that stand out as being unusually horrific even by Congo standards. There are time when he has weapons pointed at him, and when he is in fear for his life. The contrasts between these people, the aid workers, and some remaining missionaries, and a few locals is one of the great high lights of the book. There are many people struggling to make their own and other peoples lives work better in a situation that can rightly be described as hell on earth. Their stories are fascinating and leave you wondering why they bother and how they can stand the strain. Then there are those who are there for power and money. Some of those are even helpful to Tim.

Perhaps the most telling passage for me is a few paragraphs on a conversation with a peace keeper from Malaysia. His country was colonised and brutalised, but after independence it is now developing - "we even have a Grand Prix". While Africa, and in particular the Congo is going backwards. So you cannot put all the blame on the European colonists. No solution is offered, but paths are suggested in the last chapters. If you think you have a solution then after reading the book you may well change your mind.

It is not a page turner, not for me anyway. I had to stop a number of times - just to think a little about the horror and the squandering of human life.

Did he succeed in recreating Stanley's journey - you'll have to read it to find out ...

Happy Families - Colossians 3:18-4:1

2010-01-31T21:03:00.000Z

Reading: Colossians 3:18-4:1

A Typical Roman Family

This week we move on from Rules for Holy living aimed at the individual, to look at rules for living in a Christian family. It is almost as difficult to describe a typical Roman family in the first century as it is to describe a typical English family in the 21st century. The Colossian church would have had a mixture of
families from many different backgrounds, just as the Billericay church does today. So what was the Roman equivalent of '2.4 Children'? There would have been:

Father

The role of the father was very different to the role that fathers have today. The father was the head of the household. He had absolute authority over everything that happened in the household.

Mother

She was the subject of her husband. She had few rights, and could not divorce her husband except in the most extreme circumstances. Divorce would only be possible if, for example,if the husband caught leprosy. After giving birth she would take the new born and put it at her husbands feet. If he picked it up, the baby
would live. If he didn't it would be taken away to die.

Children

Children were the property of their father and could be sold, or discarded
as he saw fit. If sold they would be sold as slaves.

They would most likely have had 6 Children, but only 3 would survive to
adulthood.

If the sons were grown up, their wives would be living in the house.

Slaves

There were not many slaves that had a life as good a Lurcio. (That's
Frankie Howard from Up Pompeii, if you don't recognise him.) Slaves were usually prisoners of war. The Roman Empire was always fighting somewhere, and the prisoners were brought back to the centre of the empire and sold as slaves in various locations. This meant that slaves often came with useful skills, or from what we would now consider to be professional backgrounds. As a Roman, if you needed a teacher for your children you could buy a slave who had previously been a teacher somewhere else.

Slave revolts were a relatively common occurrence as many slave were badly treated. It has been estimated that at the height of the Roman Empire up to 50% of the inhabitants were slaves.

Think for a moment about the kind of world that Paul was writing in. It is almost impossible for us to understand the concept of owning another human being, or being
owned by some else. By owning, I mean having the power of life and death, and by being owned I mean that your life depends entirely on your master.

God's Transformational Instructions

Jesus is referred to as Lord six times in this short passage, and Master once. When we chose to become Christians and accept Jesus as our Lord we put ourselves under His authority. If we are serious about living God's way – living under the authority of Christ, then it WILL change the way we live.

Now lets read the scripture again as we try to focus our minds on the type of life that we might have lead in 1^st century Rome:

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.

Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord.

Fathers, do not embitter your children, or they will become discouraged.

Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favour, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Anyone who does wrong will be repaid for his wrong, and there is no favouritism.

Masters, provide your slaves with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven.

These instructions are so radically different from the way society operated at the time it id difficult for us to believe that they could ever have taken hold.

Obligation – Authority

Notice that in each of the pairs Paul speaks firstly to the person with the obligation, and secondly to the person with the authority. The implication being that if you are carrying out your obligations it is easier for the person in authority to behave as they should. Notice also that each obligation as it is mentioned is in some way linked to your faith in Christ.

Wives submit (as it is fitting in the Lord), husbands love

Children Obey (because it pleases the Lord), Fathers encourage (or at least don't discourage)

Slaves Obey and work honestly (they are serving the Lord) – Masters treat them fairly – because they too have a master.

I'm now going to look at each of the roles in turn, but don't switch off while I'm talking about a role that you can't take. If you can't take the role, you can be on the other side of it.

Our obligation – all of us – is to please the Lord.

Wives

Gen 2:18 The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

Wives, before you as 21^st century women get upset at what Paul is saying, lets try to take a look at just exactly what he is saying. It is important that we don't get stuck on the first word, as some do. Submission is 'to your husband' not 'to any male'. Chambers dictionary says submit means “to surrender; to give in, especially to the wishes or control of another person; to stop resisting them”. It comes from the Latin 'sub' meaning under and mittere meaning 'let go, send'. It has the meaning “refer to another for consideration”.

Submission places no value on the person who is submitting, it does not imply that they are in any way inferior, and it is not slavery.

So it seems to me that Paul is saying that the wife should refer to her husband for consideration anything that she thinks will materially affect their lives together.

That means that the leadership of the family is the Husbands responsibility, not the wives.

Gods model for all of our lives is authority and submission, without this approach there will be no leadership and chaos will result.

Children

The command here is quite simple 'Obey'. In Ephesians it is slightly more complex. Eph 6:2-3 "Honor your father and mother"—which is the first commandment with a promise— "that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.

How this command is interpreted really depends on the age of the Children. You would not expect older children to have to be given simple commands that young children are given. The message to Children though is 'obey', because that's what God wants from all His children.

Children cannot see the point of view of their parents, as Mark Twain noted “When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”

Slaves

Largely due to Christianity there are no legally owned slaves in the world today. As Paul was writing though, the entire society was built on the use of Slaves. I have already noted that about half of the people in the Roman Empire were slaves. There are some other instructions to Slaves that are worth a look:

1 Peter 2:18 – Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, the good and considerate, and also to the harsh.
1 Tim 6:2 – Serve believing masters better than non-believing ones.
Titus 2:9-10 try to please them; don't talk back; don't steal from them, show you can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Saviour attractive.

The nearest we can get to understanding the meaning of this is to look at how what is said might affect our employment.

Work is worship we heard last week. We work for Christ first, and the boss second. We do the job that the boss has given us to do, but we do it for Christ. We do not have to turn our workplace into our own personal mission field, our responsibility is to get the job done and done well. In doing that we demonstrate our faith in Christ – whatever sort of boss we have.

Many years ago I had an interview with a mainframe support company as one of their operating system experts, if I had been offered the job I would have been working for this company at various other companies. I was asked what I would do if I was given trivial work to do. I don't remember my answer. What they were looking for was that I would do as I was asked, but would tell them and my management that the work they were giving me was not the work they were supposed to be giving me. The key thing here for today is that I should do as I was asked by the people asking. Whatever work you are asked to do – do it and do it to the best of your ability. That way you can bring glory to God.

Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote: "Smiting an anvil, sawing a beam, white-washing a wall, driving horses, sweeping, scouring, everything gives God some glory if being in his grace you do it as your duty."

William McDonald has written that Christian slaves brought a higher price in the slave market in the first century. The same is said of Christians in Soviet Russia. Christians were known for their honesty and their hard work. As a result many employers protected them and kept quiet about their employees activities.

Even today we can have an effect on the workplace by being honest and hard working, and may well have gained the respect of people there for our efforts.

Husbands

Most of the instructions in this passage relate to the men who are Husbands, Fathers and Slave Masters (or Managers in out case).

The story is told of a father of 5 who came home with a toy, he summoned his children and asked which one should be given the present. "Who is the most obedient, never talks back to mum and does every thing he or she is told to do?" He inquired. There was silence as the children looked around at each other, and then a chorus of voices rang out: "you play with it daddy!"

Paul recognised God's intention that the man should be the Leader in the household. Many of the problems that we have in our society today are the result of men not understanding the role of leader, or not being permitted to perform it. There are few, if any, good public role models of the Husband / Father leader.

The word that is translated love originally meant 'love of a spouse or family, or love of an activity'. It is not romantic or sexual love. Roman marriages were arranged marriages, and did not involve the couple choosing each other. It was used by early
Christians to describe God's sacrificial love in Christ for His human family.

The word Husband replaced the old English word wer which means married man, husband means head householder. Husbandry comes from husband, and relates to peasant farmers providing for their families.

In Hebrews 12 in a section about discipline it says in verse 15 “See to it that no-one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.”

This I think, sums up the challenge for Husbands and Fathers, as they seek to model Christ to their families.

Fathers

A little girl once said to her mother, “Mummy, if Father Christmas brings our presents, and God gives us our daily bread, and the Prime Minister gives us Social Security, why do we keep
daddy around?”

Its a good question. When we listen to our politicians trying to describe a family in the recent debate on supporting marriage, we hear all the old messages about not disadvantaging people who live in one parent families. No-one seems able to say that God's
design is the best. That a man should be a husband of one wife for life and should be the leader of his family. Even though there is some evidence to suggest that children do better in this model.

Men, if you're doing the job properly and to the best of your ability a lot is asked of you. You must find time for God, your wife, your children, your work and your self.

A father had three very active boys. One summer evening, he was playing cops and robbers in the back garden after dinner. One of the boys "shot" his father and yelled, "Bang! You’re dead!" He slumped to the ground and when he didn’t get up straight away, a neighbour ran over to see if he had been hurt in the fall. When the neighbour bent over, the overworked father opened one eye and said, "Shhh! Don’t give me away. It’s the only chance I’ve had to rest all day."

Fathers, you have to be ready to be the ultimate place of appeal for your children. There used to be a saying “Wait 'till you father gets home!” Then maybe a request would have to be denied, or some punishment given.

A little girl was being punished by eating alone in the corner of the dining room. The family paid no attention to her until they heard her pray: “I thank You, Lord, for preparing a table before me in the presence of my enemies.”

You have to be ready to deal with the consequences of any punishments you might apply too.

Through all this you must remain a Dad, and not become a Dictator.

There's more at stake than just your family:

Confucius said, “the
strength of a nation is derived from the integrity of its homes.”

Masters (Slave Owners)

To follow these instructions in the Roman world would have been difficult. Being fair to slaves was not considered. Nothing was considered about slaves except that they do their work. They were the equivalent of our machines, and disposed of as easily as a
broken washing machine. Being fair would be seen as laughable, and a threat to your credibility.

Nevertheless many Christians did treat their slaves reasonably and even better than that. As a result the practice of owning slaves in a Christian Roman Empire reduced to such an extent that the trade was undermined.

Managers must strive for fairness in the workplace. That means fair pay for all, but more than that it means that employees should be treated with respect, they are after all making money for the company in one way or another.

It does not mean that standards can be allowed to slip, once again we as managers are to do our job well, and expect the same from those we manage.

Conclusion

All that I have been talking about today can be summed up in the Love of Christ or the Grace of God. It requires us to act in the same way.

That requires us being ready to forgive.

At a conference with their wives, two businessmen who had been room mates at university crossed paths. They sat in the bar all night talking. They knew they would be in trouble with their wives. The next day they happened to see each other. "What did your wife
think?"
"I walked in the door and my wife got
historical."
"Don’t you mean hysterical?"
"No, historical. She told me everything I ever did wrong."

Whether our role is as Father, Husband, Child, Mother or Wife none of us will fill it perfectly, neither will we ever meet anyone who will fill the other matching half perfectly.

We must be ready to forgive each other and ourselves for our failings, just as God has forgiven us.

Christianity has had an amazing effect on society over the last 20 centuries. Each small change has been caused by people - individuals like us - determining to follow God's way of living their lives, and slowly others have followed, until we have moved from seeing women as possessions to seeing women as partners, from seeing children
as objects to seeing children as our future, from seeing slaves as non-human to seeing everyone as equal.

But we are not perfect yet...

Pete's Reviews and Sermons

Carol Service Sermon (@Christ Church 13 Dec 2011) "Christmas starts with Christ(?)"

1 Thes 5:12-24

Sarah Millican @ Hammersmith (10 Nov)

Reaching out - Ideas for Action (Luke 5:30)

People Matter to God

Exodus 3:1-14 Moses and the Burning Bush

Holiday in Winsham

Field of Blue '11

Pilates most stressful day

Through Faith Missions training weekend

Getting Heaven into us

Do you want to get well?

Introduction

Missing verse 4

Pool at Bethesda

To Know

The interaction with Jesus

Life of a beggar

Checking the want

The first step.

Our Healing

Healing is not only physical

Are you ready to accept healing?

Recognising the source

Facing the Cannon: Jackie Pullinger

Ephesians 3:14-21

Introduction

Living for Christ

1st Prayer

Connected to the Power?

Continue to Pray

My Heart Christ’s Home

Does God show through - Story

2nd Prayer

I loved those boys

Love is ...

Full measure of God

Benediction

Conclusion

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Joseph, an obedient servant

Star Wise @ Billericay Baptist Church

Keep Calm and Carry On - a sermon for Remembrance Sunday 2010

Praying for the Kingdom - Luke 18:1-8

Introduction

Ernest Persistent Prayer

A look at Prayer

Request

Patience

Faith

Doubt

Closeness to God

Faith on Earth

Thankfulness

Boy & Orange Story

Background to passage

Time for a Celebration - Luke 15:1-32 @St John the Divine

Lost

Nature of God

Celebration

Our Response

The Shack by William P. Young

Matthew 5:17-20 "The Laws of Life", an introduction for Just 10

Eight Bells and Top Masts: Diaries from a Tramp Steamer

Leave here vindicated (Luke 18:9-14)

Introduction

Pharisees

Tax Collectors

What went wrong with Pharisees

What goes wrong with Church people

White Cottage

White Cottage Interpretation

Planet Pete – The lie

Pharisaical Traits Check list

The result

Guard against Greed (Luke 12:13-21)

Falmouth Holiday Second Week

What must I do to achieve Eternal Life?

Falmouth Holiday First Week

1^st Prayer

2^nd Prayer