A chance to repent?

Preached at Christ Church, Billericay  4 Oct 2020 10:00

link to online sermon https://youtu.be/B5hLMAOi394

Vineyards

Both our readings this morning reference vineyards. They are common in Israel, everyone would know what a vineyard was and probably quite a bit about how they operate. They are increasingly common in this country too, probably due to global heating. So for once the scriptures might be getting easier to explain than harder. When we are on holiday, we like to visit a vineyard or two, because the tours are interesting, and there are usually samples included. If you do a vineyard tour you will soon be aware that looking after a vineyard is hard work, in England they need a south facing slope, with the right type of soil, careful selection of the grapes to be grown and at harvest time a lot of human labour.

Vineyard in Isaiah

Some of the places we visit also have their own presses, just like the vineyard described in the Isaiah reading. That represents a significant investment, so the owner must have been convinced that there would be a good crop. The vineyard is protected from the worst of the weather by a hedge (v5) and the ground has been cleared of stones. Nothing should prevent a good crop. Now if this were a real vineyard, perhaps we would talk to Monty Don or Bob Flowerdew, but it isn’t, it is an analogy for the state of Israel.

“The vineyard of the LORD Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of his delight. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.”

God had done everything possible to ensure a good crop – a healthy society where justice prevails, but what he found was no different to anywhere else. It remained like the ‘wild west’ to use a completely different analogy, where the poor were taken advantage of and the leaders did as they pleased.

So, He will let it go back to the wilderness it came from.

And He will do something else.

The something else

In the NT reading, the something else that God will do, is in progress. Jesus is telling them a parable, to help them understand where they are as a society in God's plan.

He uses the vineyard as His analogy. This should have connected His listeners to the OT passages that they would have been so familiar with, like our reading from Isaiah.

The parable.

In the parable, the landowner is God, He planted a vineyard, the Israelites, and protected them from the surrounding peoples, gave them a good land with all they needed to prosper. He rented the vineyard to some farmers, the leaders of the Israelites, the chief priests and Pharisees, and sent his servants, the prophets, to observe and ensure there was good fruit to collect. But the leaders beat them and killed them. So He sent more, and they suffered the same fate. Finally, He sent His Son. “They will respect my son” he said.

They didn’t.

Jesus, here, is predicting his death, and also, indirectly, claiming to be God’s son. “So they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.”

Then what will God do?

The crowd in the temple courts are loving the drama, and are responding like the best pantomime audience. Surely they are aware that Jesus is talking about their leaders, if they are, this isn’t for fun, this is for real.

““He will bring those wretches to a wretched end,” they respond. And He will find decent tenants.

Capstone

Jesus changes direction a little, but is still addressing the chief priests and the Pharisees. He quotes Psalm 118:22-23. The psalm is most probably about Israel, rejected and hated by all those around them, yet chosen by God to be the most important nation, in bringing His ways to the world. The fact that God has done this is truly marvellous.

However, the leaders will be aware that they have not and are not doing the things that God expects of them. They are not producing fruit, either within Israel or outside it. Their only concern is for themselves and their religious practices. As a result, the kingdom of God will be taken away and given to others, who will produce fruit.

The stone – Daniel

Verse 44 may refer to Daniel 2:35 which is the end of the description of the King’s dream “Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace. But the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.”

The iron, clay, bronze, silver and gold, are other kingdoms overrun by later kingdoms, but finally the stone is God’s kingdom that fills the whole earth and is not defeated.

How to react

The chief priests and the Pharisees understand all this and much more, they know that Jesus is talking about them. How will they react? How would we react in their situation? There is a chance here for repentance. God has been patient with the nation of Israel over many centuries as their leaders have repeatedly abandoned Him and ignored His ways. Now there is another chance, perhaps a final chance.

Perhaps in the ‘street theatre’ setting repentance is difficult, but once away from the public gaze a change may have been possible. Nevertheless, they choose to continue in their ways and as a result bring the rejection of Jesus and His death that He has just predicted closer.

Debating with the chief priests and Pharisees

Throughout the gospels we read of many similar ‘debates’, if that is the right word, between Jesus and the Israel’s leaders like the one we have looked at this morning.

One sermon I read suggested that Jesus kept on with these because He was hoping that they would eventually repent. God has been patient with them, and under the circumstances kind to them.

Paul says in Romans 2:4 “do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?”

Subjects in the Kingdom of Heaven

Most of us would count ourselves as followers of Jesus, or subjects in the Kingdom of heaven, or those saved by Jesus from our sins.

“If you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”, it says in Romans 10:9.

So, if we count ourselves as subjects in the Kingdom of heaven, then these passages should act as a warning to us. When have we not shared the fruit that we have produced with others, or when have we produced bad fruit. It’s no longer enough to blame our leaders because Peter says (1 Peter 2:5) “you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

As the prophet Micah says:

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

So let’s take a moment to reflect and see where we have ignored God, produced bad fruit, or kept the good fruit we should have been paying to the owner.

Amen.

The God Who Notices – The call of the first disciples

 Preached on-line and in church on 30 Aug 2020

Opening Prayer

Father, may these spoken words be faithful to the written word and lead us to the living Word, Jesus Christ our Lord

(from https://ramtopsrac.wordpress.com/2013/05/30/what-do-you-pray-aloud-before-a-sermon/)

What really happened?

The reading that John read for us gives very little sense of what really happened. If we look at the other Gospels – Mark, Luke, John, we begin to see a little more detail, but it’s still only a sketchy outline. In Luke there is a miraculous catch of fish which persuades the disciples to follow Jesus, in John, they spend a day with him. It’s not difficult to put all these things together, but when we do, we still get only a slightly bigger, better understanding. Much more must have happened than is recorded for us.

There are some clues as to why the disciples followed Jesus, after all the gospels were written so that their readers would follow Jesus, so we would expect that. There really isn’t anything that answers the question we are looking at this morning – Why did Jesus pick these particular people?

Why Peter, James & John

What was it about Peter, James and John that made Jesus think – they’re the ones, they will be great at leading the church?

Was it their willingness?

- After what they had seen and done, they were certainly more than happy to follow Jesus

Was it their holiness?

- There is no evidence that they were particularly holy, indeed some of the others that Jesus called were positively and clearly sinful.

Perhaps it was their sinfulness, then?

- Maybe Jesus wanted to demonstrate the amazing change his followers undergo? This is unlikely, everyone is a sinner, and everyone changes when they come to Jesus. It wouldn’t be a factor that made them special.

Perhaps it was their theological prowess?

- I doubt it, common fishermen would not have studied theology

Well, perhaps they were just his mates as he grew up?

- When Jesus started His ministry he was around 30 years old, most commentators believe the disciples were in their teens, certainly no older than very early twenties when they were called. So that doesn’t really work either.

What do we see in people?

Perhaps we can get a better idea of what Jesus noticed in them, if we think about what we notice in people. Catherine said near the end of her sermon last week that we must be the watchers.

CYFA group

I have led CYFA, Pathfinders and Explorers in my time at this church, sometime I have spotted things in the youngsters, probably before they see it themselves. There was one CYFA meeting where we were looking at the strategies of Satan. Everything went wrong that night. The cassette player ate the tape I wanted to play. A curtain rail fell off the wall – completely of its own accord. We didn’t need to do the study, we were living it. At some point I said something like “Satan always overplays his hand”, and I watched as one of the young people suddenly understood something. They went on to work for Youth for Christ for many years. In that moment I had seen a disciple in the making. Those qualities that make a good youth worker – a dedication, a longing for the things of God and a longing for the lost to know Jesus were beginning to be visible. We would say that the Holy Spirit was at work – which means that God had ALREADY noticed.

CCS Group

But it isn’t just the young that God notices. A few years ago, I helped lead a CCS group. If you’ve attended the Course in Christian Studies, I believe that God has already noticed something in you and wants to grow it. There was one person who was already retired, who had not studied since leaving school, at a much younger age than they do now. Their work was hard to read and difficult to mark, but as the course went on, it got easier to read and a pleasure to mark. They went on to become a pastoral assistant. Jesus had noticed something in them, and the Holy Spirit brought it out into the open.

God is watching

God is watching all of us all the time, and noticing those little changes – do you spend longer reading scripture and praying that you used to? Is your language more guarded and more positive than it was? Are you becoming more generous, not just with your property, but in your spirit? Do you care more about the life of the church and the life of the lost than you once did?

All these little changes God sees and encourages. We too, as God’s agents in this place, must look, see, and encourage those around us. I think Christ Church is good at that. Look back and count the number of people who have gone into some sort of ministry from this place – there are a few vicars, even one who has become a bishop.

It’s not just vicars, though, and it's not just ministries that the diocese licences that count. Everyone who goes and does something positive in God’s name has been noticed and called to do what they do.

Conclusion

Jesus noticed something in the disciples He called – they were just ordinary fishermen, but whatever it was Jesus saw, it meant he called them away from that life towards something different. They ended up founding the church, because they continued to follow Jesus.

We can never know, when we see something in someone, whether it will go anywhere. But we should keep encouraging anyone who we see has any sort of interest in Jesus, the church or even just theology, because we can’t see where it might lead - BUT GOD CAN.

Amen.

Go Out ... Spread the Infection ... Save the World

Preached for Christ Church, Billericay Sunday 7 June 2020. Video here: https://youtu.be/VQyUvh5_O24

Trinity

Today is Trinity Sunday, in our reading we hear the instruction to baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  That wasn’t the part of the passage that stood out to me when I first read it, so I’m sure that you’ll be pleased to hear that I’m not going to talk about the Trinity.  It’s an important concept, but the passage speaks about something much more important.

Make disciples

The phrase that stood out was “make disciples”.  Jesus says to his disciples that they should “go and make disciples of all nations”. This is a new commandment.  In other places in the Gospels, Jesus reminds his followers that none of the commandments in the scriptures are to be superseded, he repeats them in different forms in various places.  He summarises them, down to simple sentences that are easy to remember:

• ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
• ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’

This summary is from Matthew 22.
I can only find two commandments that are really new:

• “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” from John 13, where the quality of love for our fellow Christians is to be so different and so far on a higher level that we stand out to the world and they recognise who we are.
• The other is “Make Disciples”, which we are looking at this morning.

Making Disciples

Each of the eleven who received this command from Jesus did exactly that.  They went, eventually to all sorts of places, Europe, Russia, and India. It is a dangerous job, making disciples, at least 10 of them were martyred for what they were doing. We also know the the apostle Paul suffered the same fate.

How to Make Disciples

There are plenty of clues in the gospels and in other places about how we should go about making disciples.  Paul is an excellent example to follow, because so much of what he did is written down and we still have it.
I’ve tried to extract the basic principles, here they are as 3 ‘T’s.

Tell

The first thing disciples must do if they are to make new disciples is tell anyone and everyone about what they have experienced with Jesus. We are His witnesses, we just have to give an accurate report.  Paul, in Romans 10:14 says: “how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?” Opportunities will present themselves all the time, it’s simply part of life.  We should be like an open Wi-Fi connection, willing and prepared to let anyone access our network and discover the great message we have.
There are times though when the opportunity is not there, and Matthew warns us to ‘not cast our pearls before swine’, so that our message is not crushed underfoot and lost to those who need to hear it.
There are also times when I am appalled by the church as it seeks to prevent the message being told.  Samaritan's Purse delivers Christmas presents to needy children all over the world, they include books with bible stories, and I regularly hear clerys - yes clergy - saying that we mustn’t do that because it might brainwash the children.  Well better they are brainwashed into the kingdom, rather than out of it.

Teach

Telling is one thing, that is the easy part.  The harder part is the teaching.  Jesus said - ‘teach them to obey everything I have commanded you’.  There’s a lot to teach, and much of it is unpopular in our world.  The primary lesson though must be about love.  We know that Paul spent years living with the churches he established, teaching them the commands Jesus left, and teaching them to love one another.  If we are teaching someone we must be there for the long haul. Teaching love may have some hard lessons.  When Peter got things wrong Jesus had stern words for him - “Get behind me Satan”.  That must have hurt, but by this time Peter already trusted and respected Jesus, and Jesus didn’t give up on Peter.  He would make worse mistakes later, even when he abandoned Jesus, Jesus still didn’t give up on him, and restored him to the position he had been promised.

Try / Trial

When people are learning the new faith, they will have to be given opportunities to try out what they have learnt.  Luke 10 records a trial for 72 of the disciples that were following Jesus at the time.  They were given strict instructions and limited in what they could do.  “3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves. 4 Do not take a purse or bag or sandals; and do not greet anyone on the road.”  Wouldn’t suit me - I like my sandals!  - But the restrictions didn’t end there.  After the try out verse 17 reports: ‘The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”’
Years ago, Warner took me on a weekend of evangelism training. The idea was that at the end of it we would go into the local pub, with very limited funds and try to engage people in conversation. Warner, of course, was a natural, I was even more terrible at it than I thought I would be.  Those who did end up having conversations mostly reported amazing results, although no-one came to faith that evening.
We need these experiences to help us to understand our calling, it doesn’t matter how they go, so long as we learn more about ourselves and our relationship with Jesus.

Go out … Spread the infection … Save the World.

For my title I used the phrase “Go out … spread the infection … Save the World”.  Obviously the amount of going out we can do is limited - for some of us very limited.  We don’t need to necessarily physically go out, but we do have to be out there with our faith.  The infection that we have to spread, is an idea, a truth that is hidden from the world, that Jesus came to die for our sins and through His resurrection restore our relationship with God, and gain us eternal life.  A promise that is sealed by the giving of the Holy Spirit - God in us.  Our infection also requires a R number of greater than one, or it will die out.  It spreads at different rates in different generations.  We can see through the history of the last 2000 years how it has slowly made the world a better place to live in. 
Be a super spreader!

Amen.

References

https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/the-great-commission-bruce-shields-sermon-on-great-commission-126147?ref=SermonSerps
https://www.sermoncentral.com/sermons/the-great-commission-davon-huss-sermon-on-sharing-my-testimony-49709?ref=SermonSerps
http://www.clker.com/cliparts/9/p/9/h/t/P/free-wifi-sign-hi.png
https://www.abc.net.au/reslib/201407/r1308729_17984331.pdf
https://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1-300/whatever-happened-to-the-twelve-apostles-11629558.html

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The Jesus Way

Sermon preached for Christ church, Billericay youtube service.  The sermov is here : https://youtu.be/VMelI-9k5lU, the service it is part of is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iZSmLFvi-0

	Prayer Father, may these spoken words be faithful to the written word and lead us to the living Word, Jesus Christ our Lord
	The Farewell Discourse Part 1 Our Gospel reading, this morning comes at the start of three chapters that are known as the Farewell Discourse. Part 1 of the discourse is often sub-titled “Joy and Peace”. Jesus tells the disciples he is going away. Even after all the teaching they have had they do not understand what He means – How could they? In the first verse He tells them to trust him, in the same way that they trust God, a theme He will return to later.
	Many Rooms He is going to prepare a room for them. The top picture shows what houses might have looked like in ancient Jerusalem. Away from the city, where there is space, a room would simply be added as needed. When one of the sons was married, he would bring his bride to live with the extending family in the new room. Place of rest Rooms were places of rest, they weren’t living spaces as they are for us. Life was lived outside, there were no jobs that required people to sit at desks and work on computers. The house – the room – because most of them were a single room was the place you returned to after a long day in the fields, or a long night in the boats. Mansions The translation here is sometimes “In my Fathers house are many mansions”, so perhaps the bottom picture is a better image of what heaven will be like for us. Which ever you prefer, I thought that these few verses imply that there will be time to rest in heaven – it won’t be loudly praising God 24x7 for eternity – there will be time to enjoy His presence in peace and quite too. Prepare Jesus has to go to prepare these rooms. When we have the American wing of the family come to visit, there is lots to do to prepare the rooms. Beds need changing, repairs need carrying out and a thorough clean is required. We have to spend time making the rooms just like home, or even better. That’s what Jesus is going to do.
	The Way Jesus promises to come back and get them, and assures them they know where he’s going. Of course, they don’t, because they haven’t got the enormity of what he’s talking about at all. Walk I’ve always enjoyed walking. Quite often, on holiday, we set off across the countryside to head somewhere, sometimes we have a destination, sometimes we don’t. On our honeymoon we were walking down the side of a mountain in Austria, following the road back and forth as it snaked down the hill. I spotted a shortcut through the woods, and dragged my new bride down a steep path. The path was difficult, but the compensation was that we saw an Ibex at close quarters. Another time we were given directions by a local before we set out, and the hill he warned us of, was just a steep and more slippery than we could have imagined. The only safe way down was to sit and slide carefully. Sometimes we’ve got lost and had to ask the way. We’ve often got good instructions, but so far no one has said – follow me, I’ll show you. That’s exactly what Jesus does here - “I am the way, the truth and the life”. You don’t know where you are going – follow me – live your life my way. It’s the ONLY way to God the Father. “If you knew Me, you’d know Him as well.” Jesus says. That confused Philip, and gave Jesus the opportunity to explain that He and God are one, that He has done nothing except what God has given Him the authority to do. “If anyone has faith in me”, Jesus says, “they will do what I have been doing, they will do even greater things, and can ask anything and I will do it” That should be quite a comfort to them – and to us.
	Peace Jesus then promises them the Counsellor, the Holy Spirit, and promises to leave them peace. On Friday, we celebrated the end of war in Europe in 1945. VE day. Peace returned to Europe. There was still a lot of work to do to re-build society, and it is a tribute to those who began that work that the peace has survived for 75 years. The peace that Jesus gives is not the absence of war, it is more than that. In the time of Corona Virus COVID-19, there is not peace. We are disturbed, worried, scared, because we do not know what will happen to us, our health, our livelihood, our loved ones. It’s hardly surprising then that there are reports that 1 in 4 people have tuned into a religious service during the outbreak. Our on-line services have provided a way for people to connect to God, even if they don’t know who He is yet. At times when food is unexpectedly short, or loved ones are ill, our peace is stolen from us. It’s then that we need the reassurance that Jesus gives that God is still in control, and whatever happens in this world our destination is still the same. That will return our peace. Amazing Promises The promises in the passage are amazing. It is quite difficult sometimes to believe that they can be real. But we know they can because we have an example of them in our reading from Acts.
	Stephen Before the passage that was read today, we read that the disciples had a problem. The early church had problems right from the start, just as all churches do. In Acts 6:1 it says “the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.”. So the disciples delegated the task to seven men – all Grecian Jews, judging by their names. Stephen was foremost among them. He was described as “A man full of faith and the Holy Spirit” and “A man full of God’s grace and power” He was opposed, set-up and arrested. He preached a long sermon, which, starting with Abraham spoke of the coming of Jesus. He spoke against the Temple, say God does not live in houses built by men. He accused the Sanhedrin of killing the Messiah and breaking the Law of Moses. This made the Sanhedrin absolutely furious and they stoned him. Like Jesus Just like Jesus he prayed for his murderers. Compare his words with those of Jesus: Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34 Stephen said “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” Luke 23:46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” Stephen said “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” We say, and we pray that we will be changed and be more like Jesus. Stephen is our witness that that is true and possible. Even as he was being murdered, he had God’s peace. So that he could pray for his murderers that they would be forgiven. As I close this morning, my pray is that we can all have that peace. Because we know where we are going, our destination is ready, and we know the way to get there.

here

Celebrating the second part of our lives

Preached for Easter Day 2020 (12 Apr) for Christ Church, Billericay video service

Service: https://youtu.be/BkH9RkGHyME
Sermon: https://youtu.be/Rla946RTm-g

Most important

Today we celebrate the most important event in the whole of human history – the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We’ve heard a short extract from the story of what happened that day, which we will look at in more detail in a minute.

BCE / CE

This event splits history in two. It is common for preachers to say that history is splits by BC and AD, but even if we ignore the religious labelling of the epochs and use the current scientific labelling – B.C.E and C.E. - Before Common Era and Common Era, there is still a split.

The Common Era largely exists because Christians are called to spread their faith across the world, with it they took their scientific understandings, their ways of measuring things, including time, and established some commonality between cultures across the globe. OK, I know there are lots of other elements in that, but it started with the one event – the resurrection.

2000 years on – Story still going

How many other events in history can you think of that are still being celebrated, still being remembered and whose story is still being told 2000 years later?

The Bible is still the best selling book of all time, it is still the book that has been translated into more different languages than any other. More people have the chance to hear about Jesus than about anyone else.

Jesus – John Lennon

Jesus is the single most important person in human history, not just because he’s best known, although that’s probably true. John Lennon was wrong, he was never more famous than Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the single most important person in history because of who He was – and also because of what he did.

Predictions

This event, which is always linked to this person, is also the most predicted event of all time, there are over 300 clues in the Old Testament that look forward to Jesus, his death and resurrection.

In terms of accuracy, these predictions are better quality than anything else – think of the ‘predictions’ of Nostradamus, for example.

[pause]

Personal level

On a personal level, the same things are broadly true – Jesus and His death and resurrection split my life in two – there is a time before I believed, when I was living in my sin and destined to death and judgement (even if I didn’t know or care about that at the time!).

Now, I’m in the second part of my life. I am alive in Christ, and loved by God. My sins are forgiven and I can look froward to avoiding judgement as my sins are already taken care of.

Answer to Prayer

I’m an answer to prayer, I hope you are too.

Perhaps I should explain that. I now know that friends had been praying for me for years before I made my commitment. I assume that is true for most people too, so that makes us an answer to prayer.

What happened

Now that we are part of the story, it’s important for us to know what happened. We heard a little of that this morning – in the Acts reading we heard Peter explaining what happened to Cornelius a Roman Centurion. He gave quite a brief overview. In the New Testament we heard a little of the Apostle John’s account of that first morning. The confusion about where Jesus’ body had gone and the realisation about what had happened.

Facts

All the little facts he tells of in the story help us to understand. Finding the grave cloths in separate places (in verses 6 and 7) seem to be what triggered John’s understanding that Jesus had risen.

3 Years with Jesus

At that stage though, even having spent 3 years with Jesus they did not understand that all this was predicted in scripture. Jesus had been telling them repeatedly what was going to happen, and now it had, but it would be a while before they really understood the enormity of it.

If we know this story well we will be able to help others understand, but that alone may not bring them to faith.

Me

For me it wasn’t the resurrection that brought me to Jesus, it was the people who were telling me the story. It is a long time ago now, but I still remember that these young people, the youth group at Christ Church, were different. I didn’t understand the hows or whys, but I wanted to know more, to become like them.

So, it wasn’t the resurrection that brought me to Jesus, it was the effect that the resurrection had already had on others. I imagine that that is true for lots of us.

There is a time and place for the story, it must be told. Here’s my overview:

Jesus was deserted by his friends.
He was put to death on a cross.
There’s no doubt that he really died.
His body was put in someone else’s tomb.
When the women came to prepare his body for burial it had gone.
He appeared to the disciples, he ate with some of them, so he was not a ghost.
He appeared to many others.

We don’t have to tell the whole story in all its detail, just enough to respond to peoples queries.

Most importantly though is for us to show the new life we have in Jesus openly to other people – as hard as that can be now.

I now know that the difference I saw in those young people was the love of God shining through them. It affected me, and it has been affecting people for at least 2000 years.

So, this morning as we celebrate the resurrection, we are also celebrating the start of the Common Era, when our God is reaching out to every one in the entire world.

Amen

Crowds and Connections

Preached for Palm Sunday for the Christ Church, Billericay video service.

Full service here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEYxUgdU7jU

Extracted sermon here: https://youtu.be/xcZjfHPTI3c

This is the day …

“This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Well, I don’t know about you, but it feels more like “how shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land”. That’s from Psalm 137:4 and was the Jews response to being exiled to Babylon.

WE/US

Let US rejoice, how can WE sing – It’s always about groups or crowds – do you remember what they are?

Crowds have there own mood

Our NT reading is about crowds. Crowds have a nature all their own.

- Atlanta Soccer – party

Time before last when I was in America we went to see Atlanta United play soccer (that’s football to you and I). The crowds there are VERY friendly. They arrive early, they play ball games in the car park, and eat their picnics, it’s a wonderful day out.

- Ipswich Town – edgy

When I occasionally visit Ipswich Town, the crowds there are friendly too, but for some visiting teams there is a bit more of an edgy feel. We’ve seen crowds turn and the violence that causes and we’re getting to that edge.

- Poll Tax Riots

In the 1980’s as Jo and I walked through the Poll Tax riots to a company function we certainly felt the edge, it was quite a frightening experience. The crowds were friendly with each other but suspicious of outsiders.

Crowd around Jesus has found its King

The crowd around Jesus had found their king. They were headed to Jerusalem cheering and praising God, making lots of noise. So far it was a friendly crowd.

‘stirred up'- Who is this man (Jesus)?

As they entered the city it says that the visiting crowds were stirred up and were asking “Who is this man? Presumably once they found out they joined the celebrations.

They have expectations

The crowds were expecting certain things to happen, when Jesus and the crowd finally got into the city those things didn’t happen and they were disappointed.

We have expectations too

We have expectations too – we were supposed to be parading round the church with palms or whatever green branches are available, having a great celebration. We are disappointed too.

next week

We’re going to be even more disappointed next week when we can’t take communion on Easter Day.

New ways to stay connected

We will have to find new ways to stay connected.

Fortunate us

In a sense we are fortunate – all of us, because we have technology that at least lets us see other people’s faces and hear their voices. In past times this sort of isolation would have been so much more difficult.

Bishop and spiritual communion

Bishop Stephen has proposed that we use a service of Spiritual Communion. He talks about the Woman who reached out to Jesus and touched His cloths. She wasn’t practising social isolation, and we can’t even get that close.

Holy spirit and connectivity John 15:4 & 5

Frankly I was disappointed by his response. I would have expected him to talk about the connection we have to God through the Holy Spirit. In John 15:4 & 5 Jesus says ‘If you remain in me, I will remain in you.

He says it twice, just to make sure they get it.

- bucket in ocean

How can we be in God and He in us. Think of a bucket in the ocean, perhaps a leaky bucket. The bucket is in the ocean and the ocean is in the bucket, but remove the bucket from the ocean and the ocean soon leave the leaky bucket.

Close Connection to God

The point is that we have the most intimate possible connection to God, and we should use this time of isolation to improve that connection. That is partly what Lent is about anyway.

Know the end of the story

We can have this connection because of how the story ends. We know the end. The following day the crowd turned on Jesus, because He had disappointed them. As a result he was crucified, just as He planned.

Because of His death our sins are forgiven and we can be properly connected to God, just as He planned.

Nothing separates us from God

His resurrection proves that. Now we know that we are safe in His hands. Whatever may come from this pandemic, nothing, neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

That’s how we rejoice

“This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

Did you see the Sign? - So What?

Sermon preached at Chrich Church, Billericay 8 March 2020

Reading: John 3v1-17

Recording: https://youtu.be/v1T5jVDLaMA

Did you see the sign?

Did you see the sign this morning? What sign? The one in the foyer, the strange picture. No, go take a look later, if you didn’t my introduction is ruined. If you did, did you understand what it meant?

Nicodemus and signs

In our gospel reading this morning Nicodemus had seen signs and he wanted to know what they meant. Now, we are only 3 chapters into John’s gospel, and the first miracle that Jesus did was turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana. The second chapter only covers Jesus Clearing the Temple, and the Jews demanding a miraculous sign – which Jesus promised them, but then completely failed to understand what Jesus was saying. Clearly more than that had been going on because Nicodemus says “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

Pharisee

Nicodemus is a Pharisee and a member of the Sanhedrin. Pharisees and Jewish leaders are often painted in a very negative light in the New Testament. But here, Nicodemus comes to see Jesus and is very respectful. Jesus is addressed as Rabbi. Rabbi meant something like “My great one” in Jesus time and did not have the context or official standing that it does today. Nevertheless, it was not a term that was used lightly, especially by a member of the ruling council.

At Night

Nicodemus met with Jesus at night, there are endless theories why this might be – perhaps he was trying to meet Jesus in secret and was scared of the other council members, or perhaps he just wanted to avoid public gaze and not get into one of the big debates in front of a large audience.

It’s possible that he was just busy and the only time he could find was in the dark. Amazing things had been happening, especially the incident in the temple and he wanted answers fast. Before artificial light, work could not be done in the dark, but meetings and one-to-one conversations were possible.

He says ‘we know you are a teacher...’, implying that he is not alone in wanting to know more. It would be wrong though, to assume that ‘we’ implies that he was sent by the council to interrogate Jesus.

Jesus’ response

That’s enough about Nicodemus for now, let’s look at Jesus’ response. “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” or, the footnote says “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born from above.” The word has either meaning. There are lots of word plays in this little passage, we will come to another one in a minute.

Nicodemus Response to Jesus’ Answer

It’s a bit too much of a stretch for me to follow the commentaries that suggest that Nicodemus is being anything but literal here. My reading of the sense in verse 4 would start with the words “Don’t be ridiculous ...” so “Don’t be ridiculous how can a man be born when he is old?” Whether that was really Nicodemus’ tone we can’t tell, but we can be sure he didn’t understand what he heard at all.

Spirit (Breath of God)

“I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.” says Jesus. The word for spirit is more usually translated breath or wind. Jesus may be referring to John’s baptism of repentance when He mentions water, and when he mentions spirit or breath he may be referring to Genesis 2:7- “Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

Then He would be saying no-one can enter the kingdom of God unless they repent and have God’s life breathed into them again.

Flesh

Flesh, our sinful selves, can only give birth to flesh. We cannot recover the spirit of God that Adam and Eve had before the fall, that life is ruined, broken and destroyed we cannot regain our innocence, we cannot unknow the wrong that we so easily do. Only God, the pure and holy one, untainted by sin can do that for us.

Nicodemus and Jesus

So there they are, Nicodemus and Jesus, sitting in the dark. If this is soon after sunset as seems likely there would most likely have been a gentle breeze. Jesus picks this up (not literally!) and uses it to help Nicodemus understand. In verse 8, He says “The wind blows wherever it pleases.” That’s the same word again – spirit, breath, wind. “You hear its sound” - in the trees, perhaps whistling past your ears, “but you can’t tell where it has come from or where it has gone” - That’s how it works when you have God’s breath – God’s life inside you.

Nicodemus still doesn’t understand

Nicodemus still doesn’t understand and Jesus does not attempt another explanation. Instead He shows Nicodemus how far from the things of God he is and tells him in a rather oblique way what His mission is.

There are some things to mention in those verses to ensure we have a good understanding.

Snake in the Dessert

The snake in the dessert (in verse 14) refers to Numbers 21:8-9. The Israelites were on their journey to the promised land, and complaining bitterly about the miserable food and lack of water. Then they began to be attacked by venomous snakes and some of them died.

Nu 21:8 The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.

It was, in a way, a test of belief. Jesus is saying that anyone who looks to him when he is lifted up, on the cross, and believes that He can save them, will be saved – will be given eternal life.

Creation is loved

In verse 16 we see that God loves his creation, the word translated world, can mean universe, world, or people of the world. So God loves His creation so much that He has sent His only son to put right all the things that His people have made wrong, not to condemn it as a lost cause. That requires that his Son will be crucified.

There are a few verses concluding what Jesus said to Nicodemus that we are not going to cover, but we have enough here to get most of the flavour of what Jesus is saying.

Nicodemus’ other appearances.

We might think that Nicodemus would have been given a lot to think about by a man who he recognised as being from God, but it does not appear that Nicodemus became a follower – certainly not at that time.

Later in Chapter 7, when the Jewish leaders have failed to arrest Jesus, Nicodemus tries to defend Jesus, but he fails and then the scene is set for Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion later on.

We don’t hear of Nicodemus again until after the crucifixion, where He is supplying myrrh and aloes as Jesus’ body is prepared for burial.

I suppose I would say that Nicodemus was a sympathiser rather than a follower. There isn’t a strong tradition of Nicodemus in the early church either. So it is clear that miraculous signs alone do not make converts, and that to become a follower you really do need to be born again.

Born Again

Many people will see the signs, whether that is within creation, or through the people of the church. Many will make enquiries and want to know what Jesus is about. This can be a first step towards being born again, or it can be the last step in a process that leads nowhere.

In the song “Son of the World” on the Adrian Snell album “The Passion”, Mary sings “Your ways are strange, your people change”. It’s that change that is the evidence of new birth.

That change will be different from person to person, but it will include at least some common elements:

• Sin will begin to decrease, many of the old ways of behaving that we were so comfortable will go.
• Love for scripture,
• Love for the church,
• and mainly love for People will increase.

Immediately after the experience of being born again many will report seeing the world as fresh and new like they have never seen it before. Others will not even realise that it has happened, but their lives will start to change anyway.

People may go in all sorts of unexpected directions – the wind blows where ever it pleases you can’t tell where it came from or where it is going, it is like this with everyone born of the spirit.

Michael Emmet

Here’s an example of a miraculous healing, though it isn’t even claimed as such.

Michael Emmet is an ex-prisoner who was interviewed by the Church Times in 2007, among other things he said: “It was the start of a journey. I had to change. I stopped the drugs overnight. (It’s amazing what you can get in prison.) But it’s a gradual process, really. I’ve always had real problems with women, money, and drugs, and it’s not been easy to sort. There have been some white-knuckle moments.”

Charles Colson

Another example leads to the foundation of a new charity:

Charles Colson was known as president Richard Nixon's "hard man, the 'evil genius' of an evil administration." He has written that he was "valuable to the President ... because I was willing ... to be ruthless in getting things done". Nixon's White House Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman described Colson as the president's "hit man". He was the first of the administration to be jailed by the Watergate trials.

His conversion in 1973 meant that his life changed direction completely, and he founded Prison Fellowship.

Lastly, and much less dramatically a terminally shy 20 something who couldn’t speak in front of three managers at work, after his conversion, felt called to Reader Ministry, it took another 20 years, but here I am.

Signs

The signs, miraculous, or simply visible changes, are there for all to see. Noticing the sign, enquiring about it, even talking to Jesus about it doesn’t make you born again. Only belief in Jesus, His death and resurrection, will do that. Then the changes in your life will become a sign for others. We must be prepared to talk about those changes openly and honestly if and when we are asked, so that those who are questioning us, can in turn believe in our Lord and saviour.

References
https://interruptingthesilence.com/2014/03/17/daytime-lives-and-nighttime-lives-a-sermon-on-john-31-17/
https://provokingthegospel.wordpress.com/2017/03/07/a-provocation-the-second-sunday-in-lent-march-12-2017-john-31-17/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneuma
https://sermonwriter.com/sermons/john-31-17-losing-your-religion-howard/
http://daledamos.blogspot.com/2012/07/arlene-kushner-on-romneys-tisha-bav.html
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/how-i-became-saved ??
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Colson
https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2007/16-november/features/interview-michael-emmett-ex-prisoner
https://www.biblestudynote.com/blog/my-born-again-experience/
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/how-i-became-saved
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