God's Greenhouse

 Preached at St Mary the virgin, Little Burstead on 27 March 2022

The Greenhouse

It’s the time of year when the seed trays are filled with special compost, seeds are sprinkled or perhaps carefully placed and covered, and the trays are gently watered. Once they have been prepared, they are placed in the greenhouse to protect them from a late frost – which can occur even in this age of global heating.

Then they are regularly and frequently checked to ensure they are moist enough, and we wait. For tomatoes, which I mainly grow, it’s normally about 7 days before the first two green leaves appear. Then there is even more attention required, as the trays must be turned so that the plants do not bend too much in one direction. Eventually the real leaves begin to grow, and by the time there are two or three of them it’s time for the plant to be moved out of the greenhouse to the grow-bag to do its real growing and to produce the fruit that we are waiting for.

Joshua

In our Old Testament reading this morning, the Israelites have celebrated their first passover since wandering in the desert for 40 years. (Ex 16) During that time God has provided them with ‘Manna’ every morning – He has been looking after their physical needs on a daily basis and no work has been required of them to produce this food. All they had to do was collect it. If they collected too much it could not be eaten the next day, except on the day before the Sabbath, when they collected twice as much, and it lasted two days.

This was also a test to see if they could be obedient – many of them could not.

Nurture

God has been carefully nurturing them – getting them to a point where they can ‘stand on their own two feet’. On Mothering Sunday, we should remember that God’s character is as much mothering as it is fathering.

They have effectively been in God’s greenhouse.

Now, they have been moved outside. Now they have to do the work – they have to work the fields, herd the sheep, prepare the food, build their houses, and eventually finish occupying the promised land.

Only then can they produced the fruit that God is looking for. That is for them to be a blessing to the nations of the world, as God promised Abraham they would be. (Gen 12:1-3)

Conversion

We, too, can be in God’s greenhouse. Think back to that time when you had just said your first prayer, giving your life to Christ. Not everyone will have had that experience, but it was true for me. After that, prayer was easy, and I seemed to get ready answers to most of my prayers. I could soak up bible verses like I was a sponge. Everything fun, and relatively easy. I’ve heard others report similar experiences. What was that time like for you?

Of course, it didn’t last very long, but by then I’d learnt so much and my outlook had changed from being a very sceptical agnostic to being a quite sceptical believer.

Growth

I’d grown a lot, in a very short space of time – perhaps only 6 months. Then there was the start of a calling, and I was quickly given things to do by those around me. That meant work, study, preparation, meetings, discussions and more work.

Nurture

I wasn’t on my own for any of this, there were older more mature Christians around me helping me to see where the Spirit was, or wasn’t leading, and helping me to learn in practical ways too.

Blessing

After all, we have essentially the same mission as the Israelites, to be a blessing to the people around us. To do that, it’s important to know what you believe and have some ideas about how to communicate it to others.

Real World

To be useful in the real world, in Jesus’s mission to save people from judgement and death, we have to be clear about verses like those in James 2:14-17

What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? ¹⁵ Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. ¹⁶ If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? ¹⁷ In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

We don’t want to be like the Corinthians, where Paul says to them:

I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.

Or to continue my greenhouse analogy, we don’t want to stay in the greenhouse for our entire lives, but to get out into the grow-bags, and have the ability to produce some real fruit.

Mistakes

Of course, it is not all plain sailing, there will be mistakes along the way. Well, I say mistakes, there is only really one mistake. We see that in our New Testament reading.

The son leaves the father and goes to do his own thing.

That’s the mistake we make, in many creative and inventive ways, time and again.

The son realises his mistake, just in time, before he starves to death, and decides to return to his father. He is genuinely repentant, and willing to accept the consequences of his actions, only expecting to be employed as a labourer.

Re-instated

But that is not what his father has in mind at all. Instead of placing him among the workers, his father re-instates him to his position as son. To be sure that the errant son knows that he is completely forgiven, a celebration is held, and no expense is spared on the party.

The celebration is an act of nurturing and restoration. It is important not only that the son is restored, but that he knows he is restored. So, in my analogy, the son is given a little time in the greenhouse to recover, so that he can begin to grow again in the outside world.

Shows us God’s ways

This parable is showing us God’s way of dealing with us when we make the mistake of leaving Him, realise our error and return, accepting our mistake and the consequences it brings. When we do that we are restored to our former position as sons (or daughters) and are allowed, or perhaps I should say, expected, to carry on the work where we left off -consequences permitting, of course.

The other Brother

The parable has three characters in it, the father, his eldest son and his youngest son. The eldest has been faithful, and he has been working towards his inheritance all his life. If I’ve understood the inheritance laws correctly, he is to get two thirds of the estate, while the youngest gets one third.

As the Elder Brother

We should try to put ourselves in the place of the eldest brother. How do we react when new people arrive in the kingdom, with gifts and abilities which dwarf our own, and wild stories of a life we have never lived? Do we welcome them, nurture them, and celebrate their joining in with what is frankly a huge workload?

How do we react when people stray from the faith and then return?

Do we rant about how little pleasure we’ve had and all the hard work we’ve done?

It’s as though the elder son is jealous of his younger sibling's adventures, instead of being sorry for him that he left his father in the first place. I wonder if he can ever see his mistake, because in his rant, he has left his father just as surely as the younger one did earlier.

He also needs some time in the greenhouse to calm down and get his focus back.

Round-up

To round-up our thoughts about God’s greenhouse, there is just one other thing that I need to share with you this morning. Remember what I said earlier about the time immediately after conversion, when everything in the garden was rosy? (sorry, to mix the metaphors)

Looking back

I’ve known people who look back longingly at that time as some sort of ‘golden age’ in their lives. But living in the greenhouse only allows us access to a tiny part of the world, and limits our space to grow and therefore our potential achievements for God.

Looking Forward

The Bible reminds us that there is much more to come, and much more to receive from God:

Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

I believe these verses, and others, tell us that we should look forward longingly to what God will graciously give us, outside the greenhouse, not look back at the little we have already received while in it.

Amen.

Where is your faith?

Preached at Christ Church, Billericay on 20 February 2022

Readings: Luke 8:22-25

​Storm Eunice

Well, storm Eunice was a bit more than a squall, wasn’t it. I hope you have not suffered any major damage, just a slightly broken fence panel and a plastic shed window for me. That’s because we were warned, and got everything tied down. Bad weather can be frightening, did you see the news, and the woman standing in front of her crushed car saying she thought she was going to die?

​Story

I’m going to start by telling you a story from my past, then I will reflect on it based on the passage in Luke.

​Sought Out

The story does not involve me directly and comes from a time before the great storm of 1987. Where I worked then, the Data Processing programming teams were split into two. I worked for the sales team, the other was the manufacturing team. Each team had its own manager. The work was very different, and although we were in the same office, there was very little interaction. One lunchtime, I was on my own in the canteen- an unusual event in itself, when the manager of the manufacturing team asked if he could join me.

​Manager’s Story

He talked about various things, mostly his recent holiday. He had been on some sort of trek, I don’t remember the details, and had reached the top of a mountain. The weather had changed suddenly, from being a pleasant day it became cold, foggy and stormy all at the same time. They could no longer see their path, where they had come from, or where they intended to go. They were cold and very wet. They felt stranded and were fearful that they would not make it safely off the mountain. Then they prayed. I’m not sure if they knew who exactly they were praying to or cared at that point. Quickly, the weather eased enough for them to make some progress, and eventually they made it down the mountain and no lasting harm had occurred.

​Only Christian

As the one and only Christian in the office, I’m guessing that I had been sought out and that this was a report of God’s good work and possible some sort of thanks.

It was an interesting conversation to have when you have been a Christian for only a couple of years.

​The lake

Try to keep that story in mind while I do a little scene setting for the bible passage.

The sea of Galilee is 13 miles long, 8 miles wide and 33 miles in circumference, at its deepest it is 143 feet deep. Its surface is between 705 and 686 feet below sea level, and is the lowest freshwater lake on earth. It is surrounded by hills, which leads to some unpredictable weather at times, and squalls are common.

​Peter – not prepared

Peter, though, had previously made his living as a fisherman on this lake, so he should have been aware of the weather and mostly been able to see it coming. One of the common threads that runs through my story and Luke’s is that there was no advanced warning. They weren’t prepared for what happened, nor was there a way that they could have been prepared. Life is like that. Things happen that you cannot prepare for or have any inkling that they were about to happen.

​Two ways

It is Jesus though that plays the central role in the story, and we can understand the story in two ways depending on what we think was happening with Jesus.

​Hard Day

In the first approach, Jesus has had a hard day, and perhaps a bad night the night before. He gets in the boat, and knows that the disciples will do all the sailing, so he relaxes and the gentle rocking of the boat sends him to sleep. Being tired, and absolutely confident in His Father in heaven, nothing needs to disturb his sleep – he knows they will get to the other side whatever happens.

​Be Still (1)

So when the disciples wake him up, and he sees what’s happening he calms the storm for their sake – to bring them comfort, and to show a little more of his power.

​What were the disciples expecting?

Just as an aside here for a minute, let’s ask the question “What were the disciples expecting him to do?” In the Matthew version of this story they are recorded as saying “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”

That would imply that somewhere deep down they expected Jesus to calm the storm.

​Just one of those unpredictable things

If we assume that the storm was just one of those unpredictable things that happens, and that God can overcome them when we ask him, then we will think like I did as a young Christian. It will lead to questions, though – why doesn’t God answer prayer for everyone like this? Why didn’t the storm that the programming manager experienced clear up completely, so they could get down the mountain easily?

​Another way

There is another way of looking at it, though. Jesus plays an even more central role in this view than He did in the last one.

In the second approach, it doesn’t matter so much whether Jesus has had a hard day or not. He gets in the boat in the same way. He knows that the disciples will do all the sailing, so he sits in the boat and relaxes.

​Sleep

The gentle rocking of the boat sends him to sleep, just as he intended it to. This is the only record in the Bible that Jesus ever slept, although, being a man, He must have done so every night. Here, He sleeps so that the disciples in the boat can experience the storm without His immediate presence.

The storm arrives exactly on schedule, it is a sudden violent squall just as He wanted. The boat will be overwhelmed unless the storm abates.

​Be Still (2)

So when the disciples wake him up, he already knows what’s happening. He calms the storm for their sake – to bring them comfort, but more importantly to teach them an important lesson about relying on God in all circumstances. Now the question “Where is your faith?” becomes a question designed to start a conversation to see how much the disciples are really learning.

​God’s Storm

If we attribute the storm to God specifically, rather than saying that the evil one was permitted to send it, or that it is just one of those things, we get a different view of what God is doing in our lives – and we get a different view of God. We are acknowledging His sovereignty.

In this view, God has much closer control, He is in charge of the storms that arrive in our lives and their length and intensity.

We know he can do this because we have already seen him calm the storm. If He can do that with a few words, he can just as easily cause one.

​God in control

So, with God in control of all things, when the hikers on the mountain are caught in the storm, God is sending it to push at least one of them to go and talk to at least one professing Christian.

God doesn’t have to wait for a scheme of the evil one which He allows, and then work to bring good from it, rather he sees the good that we need and creates the situations that will drive that good. The good here is not our comfort, but our growth – the character building and faith building that is the purpose that He has for us in preparing us for Eternal Life.

​All Things ...

This view also helps me to understand how “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28

​Saying

There’s a saying popularised by John Lennon, but its original author is not known. “Everything will be alright in the end, if it isn’t alright, it isn’t the end”.

Billy Graham was known for saying he’d read the Bible to the last page, and everything was alright in the end.

God is preparing us for the end, but we may have to go through more difficult trials, that He will not rescue us from.

There are thousands of Christian martyrs that God used to bring others to faith, they will get their reward in heaven. Here are just two of them:

​Ridley and Latimer

In October 1655, two of the great people in the history of Anglicanism, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer, were burned at the stake together. As the fires were lit, Latimer cried out,

“Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man. We shall this day light such a candle by God’s grace in England as I trust shall never be put out!”

​Where is your faith?

So, we must answer the question, “Where is your faith?” Is your faith in the God who made you, and all men and women – as we saw in the Genesis reading -, or is it in some sort of balance of good and evil? With God permitting schemes of the evil one. If the disciples had realised who Jesus was – the word present at the creation – they may not have been panicked by the deadly squall.

So, “Where is your faith?”

​Prayer

Father,

We may never face the fate of Latimer and Ridley, but help us to grow in faith and love, just as the disciples did. That we are prepared to face any trial, knowing that you have already saved us and have a secure place for us in heaven.

Amen.

Reading the bible should be exciting

Preached at Christ Church, Billericay on 23 January 2022

Reading: Nehemiah 8v1-3,5-6,8-10

​The book of Nehemiah

I’ve always loved the book of Nehemiah. The story of how a minor official in the Babylonian empire persuades the king to allow him to return to his home city, and the struggles he has to get the walls rebuilt. The image of building the wall with a sword in one hand and material for the wall in the other shows the struggles they went through defending themselves from the surrounding cities, who definitely did not want to see Jerusalem become a strong city again.

​My View of Nehemiah

I’ve tended to think of the book as the story of what can happen when one man understands what God wants, and will go to any lengths to achieve it. For me, Nehemiah is a hero of the faith. He has a clear vision, and he works in many ways to make it happen. He carefully plans his approaches to the king, so that when he finally leaves, he not only has permission to go, but the king's backing for what he wants to do. When he gets back to Jerusalem, he sees the city and tries to get the people organised. He faces opposition from his own people, but eventually the building starts. Then there’s the surrounding cities trying to prevent the work taking place. Nehemiah organises the people so that they can build and defend themselves. Eventually, the wall is completed in just 52 days! Then there is a big celebration.

It’s an excellent story and would make a great Netflix miniseries – I’m surprised it isn’t up there with the films about Moses and the promised land.

​Today’s Reading

Today’s reading shows that there is a lot more going on than just a simple “Hero rebuilds city” story. So let’s take a look at some of the detail and see if we can work out what is really going on here.

​Background – Exile

In 597 BC, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, took many from Jerusalem into exile. This followed a long siege and the kings of Judah paying tribute for 3 years. The city was destroyed, but resistance continued and further groups of people were rounded up and taken into exile. Babylon was defeated by Persia under king Cyrus in 539 BC. After that, the people were allowed to return. As with being taken into exile, the return was a slow process with many phases.

​Background – Return

Some had returned with Ezra the priest, before Nehemiah arrived. The exile is reckoned to have lasted 70 years. The important thing to note here is that none of those exiles could have returned. Those who returned would be their children or grandchildren.

​Ezra Reads the Law on the Feast of Trumpets

The first day of the seventh month (which was in early October), was also the civil new year. It was celebrated with the feast of Trumpets (Nu 29:1 On the first day of the seventh month hold a sacred assembly and do no regular work. It is a day for you to sound the trumpets.) So the traditional practices of the Jews are beginning to be restarted. The people have gathered in the square in front of the Water Gate – one of the repaired gates of the city.

​Ezra Reads

The people have told Ezra the scribe to bring out the book of the law of Moses. This is presumably the Torah, the first five books of the Old Testament. So we know that the reading of it is going to take a long time. All the people were there – men, women and older children, anyone who was old enough to understand, and they all listened attentively for about 5 hours. Of course that’s not enough time to read the whole of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.

​People Hungry for Scripture

Most of those listening had never heard the law read before. Their belief in God had been passed to them from their parents and grandparents. No doubt they had heard the story of Abraham and his first encounters with God, the story of Moses and the Exodus, including the giving of the commandments and probably some of the exploits of King David. They had been told about the laws that God had made for them, but they had never heard them read from the actual book. It would have been a time of enormous excitement that they would have been eagerly anticipating.

​Excitement at God's Word

I have to say that I didn’t notice an atmosphere of excitement today as the service started. There didn’t appear to be a great amount of anticipation of the hearing of scripture. To us, it has become routine. We have a nice three-year pattern in the Lectionary which takes us through what some people somewhere have decided is a good sub-set of our scriptures, so that Sunday by Sunday we cover the high lights and follow the seasons. If you read the passages in the Lectionary every day, you will eventually get most of the Bible, but I haven’t checked to see that every verse is covered. If you have a Bible reading plan and are conscientious, you will cover the whole Bible in however long the plan lasts. But the question is how excited do you get in your readings?

​Familiarity breeds contempt

Perhaps we are suffering from familiarity breeding contempt? Unlike the assembly in front of the water gate, we’ve heard the readings before – probably more than once. It becomes a bit of the same old thing. It’s always available. I have Bibles all over the house and on every piece of computer hardware I own – my phone, my tablets, my PCs – it's always available. I read small passages quite frequently, but longer ones require a special occasion. For me, that would be part of my preparation for home group or preaching, or for some other study that I am involved in. I remember reading each of the four gospels straight through on successive weeks for the Course in Christian Studies. This approach give a different view and helps get across the overall picture of what’s happening.

​Hearing is better than Reading

Perhaps hearing God’s word read to us, as Stuart did a few minutes ago, is better than sitting and reading it ourselves. Certainly someone who reads well can help the passage come to life, I can even listen to someone reading the verses for me on my computer now. I wonder how many of us would be prepared to stand and listen for 5 hours, though – that’s how long it is from first light until noon in Jerusalem in October.

​Interpretation

Maybe we need a little more than just hearing, though. Look at verses 7 & 8.

The Levites — Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan and Pelaiah—instructed the people in the Law while the people were standing there. They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people could understand what was being read.

The explanations may have been interpretation, or simply translation, as the language may have been unfamiliar to the returnees, or the book may have been very old. Imagine how hard it would be if the only scriptures we had were in the original Greek or Hebrew.

​Response

So, the Levites had made the meaning clear. The people understood, and were upset by what they heard. After generations of ignoring God and being unfaithful to Him, this generation has heard what He has to say, and is happily turning back to Him, but first they are mourning for what they have missed.

Ezra reminds them that this is not the right time because today they are supposed to be celebrating. Nehemiah sends them away to enjoy the party that some have prepared, and reminds them to share with those who have nothing prepared.

The next day, if we read on a few verses, we find that the heads of families have begun to understand more about the festival they are celebrating and have learnt more from Ezra and the Levites.

​Excited by God's Word

The returnees have been excited to hear God's words as recorded in the book of the Law. As a result, they are already changing the way they have been living their life. That is our challenge too. Each of us has heard the gospel – the good news about Jesus, the son of God who gave His life for our sins, so that we can have eternal life with God. It’s nothing we have done, it’s the grace of God. Even if we’ve heard it many times, it is still amazing news that we should get excited about. If we do, we will want to respond, just as the returnees to Jerusalem did. We will be sorrowful for our old ways, and want to live as He directs.

​What He wants

And this is what He wants from us:

Mic 6:8 He has showed you, O man, 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.

Or as Jesus says in John 13:34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

That’s hard, but it also makes a difference, so it is definitely something to get excited about.

 

Amen.

One Giver, Many Gifts, Common Good

Preached at St. Mary the Virgin, Little Burstead on 16 January 2022

Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

​Gifted - Emma

Some people we see are just “gifted”. They manage to do amazing things at a very young age. This year, we saw Emma Raducanu win the US Open tennis championship. She was the first singles qualifier in the Open Era to win a grand slam tournament. This was only her second Grand Slam tournament, and she holds the record for the fewest Grand Slam’s before winning a title.

These people are sometimes called “child prodigies”, and during the celebrations on TV, I remember seeing a recording of her at a very young age, knocking balls back across the net, when her peers could barely hit the ball with the racket.

​Gifted – Mozart / Michael Kearney

It’s not only in the field of sports, they can occur anywhere. Mozart learned to play the piano at the age of four, and began composing at five.

Michael Kearney, the youngest ever university graduate, completed a degree in anthropology at the age of ten. He is known for winning the million dollar grand prize in an American TV show called “Gold Rush” in 2006.

​All Gifted

Child prodigies are very rare, they are the exception to the normal rules of growing up, and their amazing gifts do not necessarily lead to success in later life. We though, like everybody else, are just average.

In our passage today, Paul says that each of us are gifted in different ways. So, if you’re sitting listening to this thinking “I don’t have any gifts”, think again, because God does not agree with you. Paul also tells us what that gifting is for. It is for the benefit of the whole community.

​One Giver, Many Gifts, Common Good

My sermon today is called “One Giver, Many Gifts, Common Good”. You’ll have to imagine me standing in front of one of those lecterns with the three messages on the front, that we see so often these days. Let’s take a closer look at exactly what Paul is saying.

​Now about …

The passage starts ‘Now about’, Paul is answering questions for the church he founded in Corinth, you can read about that in Acts 18. The Corinthian church, since Paul’s departure had become factionalised and divided, and had begun to misunderstand the things of God. They had many questions, as they struggled to work out their salvation. Chapters 12, 13 and 14 of this letter are devoted to spiritual things.

​Things

The literal translation of ‘spiritual gifts’ in verse one is ‘spiritual things’. Paul is taking them back to a time before they were Christians to make it clear to them the differences that have occurred in their lives. In their pagan beliefs, they were influenced by idols, and led astray. Now, they are influenced by the Holy Spirit, and this has a marked difference on them.

​Jesus is Lord

Verse 3 says:

Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.

It is possible that some of them were becoming ‘super spiritual’ and thought that that may have superseded Jesus, so Paul is being quite clear with them, that this cannot be the case, they cannot be saying “Jesus be cursed” and still consider themselves Christian. On the other hand, “Jesus is Lord” was probably the very first creed, so said and believed was the first test for whether or not someone had really changed from their pagan ways and accepted the Lord Jesus as their saviour.

​Sum up the sermon

The next four verses sum up what Paul is saying in this section of his letter, and they are also the core message of this sermon. I’ll read each verse , then comment.

​Verse 4

1Co 12:4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit.

Paul will go on to list some of the different gifts in the following verses, they are:

• the message of wisdom

• the message of knowledge

• faith (not saving faith, but faith for specific needs)

• healing

• miraculous powers

• prophecy

• distinguishing between spirits (discernment)

• speaking in tongues

• interpreting tongues

this is by no means an exhaustive list.

​Hierarchy

There is no hierarchy of gifts here, none are set above or below others. It is thought that in the Corinthian church there were those who were seen as more spiritual than others. Maybe those with the gift of tongues were thought of as more spiritual because of the public way that the gift was manifest. Paul is keen to point out here that all gifts have value and that all believers are spiritual.

​Other lists

Other lists of gifts can be found in

verses 28-31: apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, healing, helping, guidance, tongues. In this list, the gifts have a hierarchy, and Paul encourages his readers to desire the greater gifts. This is immediately before the greatest gift of all:

And in chapter 13: Love

Romans 12:6-8: prophecy, serving, teaching, encouragement, giving, leading, and showing mercy.

There’s also another list in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, that I won’t risk repeating myself too much by reading.

There are many gifts, but the same giver.

One Giver, Many gifts.

​Verse 5

1Co 12:5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord.

The gifts result in service. If a gift is given, it has to be used, or it is useless and pointless. All the gifts mentioned provide something for others, not for the person with the gift. The gift, then, is not for the benefit of the one who receives it, instead it is for the benefit of those the recipient will apply it to. So, if I have the gift of preaching, it is meant to be for your benefit, not for mine. Of course, you may not agree that that is one of my gifts. Either way, the service that is offered is for the Lord. So when I act on my gift, I am acting for the Lord Jesus, and someone else is benefiting for my acts.

​Verse 6

1Co 12:6 There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.

Service requires work, or effort, which requires power, which gives results. Our power, our ability to work, comes from God, through the Holy Spirit, who provides us with all that we need to achieve the results that He is directing us towards.

​Trinity

These three verses have also demonstrated Paul’s understanding of the Trinity. The ‘same Spirit’ in verse 4, the ‘same Lord’ in verse 5 and the ‘same God’ in verse 6.

​Verse 7

1Co 12:7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

And finally, in verse 7 we see that the manifestation of the Spirit occurs for the good of everyone. That is not to say that each manifestation, is for the good of everyone, but that all the manifestations are for the good of everyone. As each benefits for the operation of a gift of the spirit, so the whole body of Christ benefits together.

One Giver, Many gifts, Common Good.

​Common Good

Our churches, which are so often like the Corinthian church, with factions following different leaders, are not then using their gifts for the common good. Each of us should look carefully at what we do with the gifts that we are given and be sure that our motive is to be serving Christ, and not supporting a church leader. That way, we will contribute to the common good.

When the Body of Christ benefits, so do those in the wider community, and this helps us in our mission to spread the good news to those we meet. People who are being helped, respected, and encouraged are much more likely to listen than those who are despised and rejected.

​Not child prodigies

We may not be child prodigies in the eyes of the world, but with our faith in God and the gifts that he has given us through the Holy Spirit, we can serve Jesus and one another. Then we can build up the body of Christ for even greater acts of service, and the common good of all believers.

Remember the words on the front of the lectern (even if they are not actually there):

One Giver, Many gifts, Common Good.

Amen.

God's Children

 Preached at Christ Church, Billericay on 2 January 2022

Readings: Jeremiah 31:7-14, John 1:10-18

​Introduction

I’m going to look at each of these readings separately, then think a little about the common theme they both express – “Children of God”.

​Jeremiah – prophet of Doom

We don’t hear a lot about Jeremiah in our regular lectionary readings, so it’s worth a quick recap. Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry began in Judah in 626 B.C. His prophecies ended in 580 B.C. and occurred during the reign of Josiah (640–609) Jehoahaz (609), Jehoiakim (609–598), Jehoiachin (598–597) and Zedekiah (597–586). This was the time of the rise of Babylon, and the destruction of Assyria. Josiah was sympathetic to Jeremiah and listened to him, but the following kings were hostile. That maybe because Jeremiah was known as a prophet of doom. He had heard from God what was coming and relayed it faithfully to the leaders, it was mainly an unpopular message.

​Not this time

That’s not true of our reading today. It starts “Sing with Joy for Jacob” because the scattered exiles are coming home. God is bringing his Children home. There is quite a debate about the ‘land of the North’ in verse 8. Some say Babylon, because although Babylon is to the east, the armies would have approached Israel from the north. Some say that it’s Assyria, because Assyria is at least in the stated direction, and it generally fits better with the timeline than Babylon.

​Favour Assyria

Another reason to favour Assyria is the following words, “Among them will be the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labour”. The Assyrians, in particular, had been exceedingly cruel towards pregnant women: now the women with child, and those in labour, joined the great throng of returning exiles. God is redeeming the specific hurts that the Israelites have suffered.

​Abundance and Joy

The main message of the passage is one of redemption, and the promise of a better life. This is what God wants for his children. It was promised before as ‘a land flowing with milk and honey’. It’s a similar message here in verse 12 “they will rejoice in the bounty of the LORD— the grain, the new wine and the oil, the young of the flocks and herds. They will be like a well-watered garden, and they will sorrow no more.”

In this war torn land there is to be an extended time of peace. You cannot benefit from the fruit of the vine until the fourth year according to Jewish law, so that gives about five years of peace.

When the time arrives, these things will be a great cause of celebration and joy.

​Start of John

The start of John’s gospel is completely different to the start of the other three. Instead of the readers finding out who Jesus is by following his birth stories, John sets it from the very beginning. There it is in verses 1 and 2 “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.”

Straight away we know that Jesus, the Word, is God. Two thirds of the trinity is already established, and one of the biggest questions of the other gospels, - ‘who is this man?’ is answered. Then we are introduced to John the Baptist, a man who John’s readers may have heard of, so that the gospel is set in a time and place that the readers can relate to.

​How to recognise God

Then we come to our reading (v10-11) “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”

How would you recognise someone in this world, who had made this world? It seems obvious that you couldn’t.

​Discworld

In Terry Pratchet’s Discworld novels, there is a planet made by the wizards called round world – it’s supposed to be planet earth. It is kept in a glass dome in the Unseen University, where it is looked after by one particularly incompetent wizard. In one story, they need to make some changes to the way the society on 'round world' is operating, so they magic themselves into the round world. They, of course, look just like the people there, and no one knows who they are. Needless to say, the wizard's attempts are hilarious and disastrous. It’s an entertaining story.

​Atheists invent God

Don’t you just love the way that atheists have to invent God to make their view of the universe work – but that’s an aside, the point is the ‘natives’ of 'round world' cannot spot the gods (small g) who are invading them.

​Real world

In 'real world', where we are, our real God has the same problem. He needs to adjust the way things are going, and to do that He needs to be here. The difference is that Pratchet’s gods did not want to be known, but our real God does, because He knows that the only way to affect real change in His world is to go and show the ‘natives’ (us) how life should be lived.

So, he has a problem, how will He be recognised, as He will have to look just like us, but behave just a little differently.

Well, God has been speaking to people the whole time, through prophets, like Jeremiah, trying to direct them in the way they live, and in the way they relate to other nations. So there is plenty of evidence (the whole Old Testament, and some other writings) for the people at the time of Jesus’s arrival to recognise who he is.

​If you know …

If you know what God is like, if you’ve read the scriptures carefully and prayerfully, if you have understood how He wants you to live to get the best out of your existence, you should recognise Jesus for who He is. And some did.

​v12-13

“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”

​Adopted Children

Paul says that “those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.” Sonship is a term referring to the full legal standing of an adopted male heir in Roman culture, and applies to all those who recognise Jesus.

​Grand children

I have seven grandchildren:

• one that is starting to have more adult conversations;

• one that is becoming a good mimic;

• one that is the class clown;

• one that is empathetic, even with my dog;

• one that has a world of their own and invites me in;

• one that has just come running up to me for the first time with arms in the air saying ‘grandad’;

• one that just smiles and grins and smiles.

​Delight

I delight in each one of them, in their own different ways, I look for them to grow and to flourish in whatever they enjoy doing and encourage them as much as I’m able. I’m sure that I’m not unusual in that respect, so if I can know and delight in my grandchildren that I see relatively infrequently (especially recently), just imagine how God, our creator and adopter delights in each of us, whom he knows intimately. This is where we put ourselves when we recognise Jesus as the son of God, which He is because John says “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (v14)

​Jeremiah 31:9

In our Old Testament reading, God describes Himself as Israel's father, and Ephraim as his firstborn son. The picture is the same as in the reading from John. God has always cared for and delighted in His children.

That should be an encouragement to us, and is a good reason for us to celebrate, as we head into an uncertain 2022.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism says, “Man’s chief purpose is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” So, if you’re making new year’s resolutions, try something like “This year I’m going to enjoy God’s love for me more and more”

Then we will truly begin to understand what it means to be a child of God.

Amen.

Preparation, Anticipation

Preached at St Mary the Virgin, Little Burstead on 28 November 2021

Preparation for Christmas

On one of my Facebook groups, the Friday question two weeks ago was “When is it OK to put the decorations up for Christmas?” or something like that. There were already hundreds of responses. Some were enthusiastic and had already started, while others had a fixed date in mind, often the 1^st December. Some were for an even later date – Christmas Eve.

So When do you put up the Christmas decorations?

[pause]

Well, if I’m honest - I don’t. That’s something that Jo does, and it will happen probably in the next couple of weeks – certainly before our family arrive on 17th.

Decorations

Once the decorations are up, it feels like Christmas, even if Christmas itself is still weeks away. Many people like that atmosphere – the busier streets, lots of additional events, lots of lights to brighten the long dark evenings, and perhaps even the beginnings of ‘good will to all men and women’. It adds to the excitement and perhaps recalls a childhood time when Santa is on his way and all is right with the world.

We are all, slowly, or maybe not so slowly, preparing our selves for that time.

Now, I know that some are preparing themselves in quite a different way, because Christmas for them is a difficult time, perhaps with sad memories, or a time when they find the endless party atmosphere difficult.

Either way, preparation is required.

Book of Kells

Tom Wright tells the story of visiting the Book of Kells. It’s an illuminated manuscript containing the four gospels among other things and is on display in Dublin. It’s one of the top visitor attractions. I’m glad he saw it, because when we went to Dublin for a long weekend, that exhibition was closed! Anyway, here’s what he says:

“The people who arranged the exhibition don't let the public see the gospels themselves straight away, Wisely, they lead you first past several other very old books, which prepares you step by step for the great treasure itself. By the time you reach the heart of the exhibition, you have already thought your way back to the world of early Celtic Christianity, to the monks who spent years of their life painstakingly copying out parts of the Bible and lavishly decorating it. You are now ready to appreciate it properly.”

That’s what I am trying to do today, help us to get into a good mindset for the rest of Advent and particularly Christmas. That’s what Luke is trying to do in the early part of his gospel – help those who read it get into the mindset they need, so they will better appreciate what’s going on and how to interpret events when Jesus arrives. He’s started by telling a story which sets the scene, and shows his hearers how the world was.

Zechariah and Elizabeth

So let’s take a closer look at the first part of the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth. They are both elderly and are both descended down the priestly line. He is a priest, in one of the 24 divisions of priests that were set up by King David. He is in the eighth division, the division of Abijah. Each division was led by one of the sons of Aaron. You can read about the priestly divisions in 1 chronicles 24.

Of course, there is not a clear line from Abijah to Zechariah because all that was disrupted by the exile when the Babylonians conquered the Israelites. On the return, everything was reconstructed as well as it could be, but the records were no longer available.

Elizabeth, too, is a descendant of Aaron, but we are not told how.

Blameless

Verse 6 tells us:

Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly.

“Upright” and “blameless” is high praise indeed, it means that they were faithful to God and had been serving Him for their entire lives. That puts them up there with the likes of Noah. It doesn’t make them sinless, though, but it does mean that they would have made all the appropriate sacrifices at the appropriate times.

Childless

So, it is a surprise, really, that they are childless. A faithful Jewish woman, at that time, would have seen children as a blessing. No doubt, when she was young, Elizabeth would have hoped to one day give birth to the Messiah as so many young women did in those days.

It was the expectation of the society that all women would have children, and it was though that those who didn’t were somehow cursed by God. The lack of a child bought shame on the couple.

So we can reasonably assume that it was Elizabeth's greatest wish to have a baby, but they are both old and that time has passed. They could easily be excused for thinking that God had forgotten about them.

A priests life

The priests served in the local community among the people they lived with. Twice a year each division would serve in the temple for a week. They would travel from their village to the temple and lodge in the temple precincts.

Yesterday (27 Nov 2021) was the first day for the priests of Abijah to serve. So the descendants of Zechariah’s division would be serving in the temple today – if there was a temple!

Zechariah’s lot

Each day a lot is cast to see which priest will go into the inner courts to offer incense. On this day it was Zechariah’s turn. This was a once in a lifetime activity, so no pressure. It’s just a normal day in the temple, Zechariah has been there hundreds of times before. All the worshippers have gathered and are at prayer. In he goes. Not expecting anything to happen, perhaps looking forward to seeing inside the inner courts, and making sure he has a good memory of what’s happening – something to tell to the villagers on his return.

Angel

Suddenly, there is someone in there with him. In verse 12 it says he was startled and gripped with fear.

I’m not surprised. I remember being in Christ Church late one night, with little or no light, when we had the scarecrows for the harvest celebration. Even though I knew they were there, I jumped each time I caught a glimpse of them as I moved about the building.

A message from God

Gabriel, like almost all angels, starts with “Do not be afraid”. Yeah, right! Of course, he’s afraid – he’s terrified. He must gain his composure quickly. The angel has a message. This is more important than making memories. This is God intervening in the world. There have been no prophets since Malachi, about 400 years ago. God has apparently been silent for the whole time. Now God is speaking again, and the message to Zechariah is, “your prayer has been heard”.

Zechariah and Elizabeth’s Prayer

I expect Zechariah and Elizabeth had been praying for a child since they were very young. As a faithful couple, their prayers would have been a regular part of their daily lives. Since they had become old and Elizabeth had passed the age of child bearing, I wonder how prominently that prayer had featured. I can imagine it might have been less regular than it once was, as they slowly began to think that perhaps God did not want them to have a child.

Angel’s message

The Angel Continues:

Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Doubt

That’s a lot for a still trembling Zechariah to take in. Not only will Elizabeth give birth in her old age, but the child will be a powerful prophet – he’s going to lead a revival. It’s understandable that he has his doubts. Is this really an angel or is he just having hallucinations, perhaps like Mr Scrooge he thinks the vision is more to do with a poor meal. “You may be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato.”

As a priest, though, he should know his scriptures. This is one of the ways that God works – Remember Abraham and Sarah, and the birth of Isaac. Remember Elkanah and Hannah and the birth of Samuel. These special babies are not just born, much prayer and longing is involved, and sometimes the wait is beyond what seems possible – but with God nothing is impossible.

Charades

Gabriel is not impressed with Zechariah’s doubting of his message, and sentences him to silence until the baby is born. Now Zechariah has a real problem. He has been inside the inner courts for far too long. The worshippers outside are going to start thinking that the old man they sent in had died, and will begin to wonder what they are supposed to do about that. Instead, Zechariah eventually leaves the inner courts and now has to find a way to explain himself.

So channelling your best Lionel Blair, just how would you explain “I saw an angel, and he promised me a son, who is going to bring Israel back to God”?

If anyone would like to demonstrate?

[pause]

Back to normality

So, now it’s back to normality for the priestly family, but it will never be normal again, God’s intervention has seen to that. They return home and Elizabeth becomes pregnant.

Elizabeth’s response

Her response is to go into hiding for the last five months of her pregnancy. She doesn’t want the villagers watching her, perhaps willing the pregnancy to fail. She doesn’t want to hear any gossip that may be going around. Instead, she spends her time focussed on God and the baby. Until at the end the horrors of her life are over, no longer can anyone say anything against her – she has her child.

She recognises that this is all God’s will, God’s plan. Her response:

“The Lord has done this for me. In these days he has shown his favour and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

It is the response of a devout, lifetime servant of God. There is only faith and love for the Lord.

Hope

So, Luke has reported the first part of the story of how the world was redeemed. At last there is hope, and it has come through an ordinary couple who have been living a devoted life for many years.

God has acted right there in the middle of everyday life. Something had begun, a revival is promised, but the changes that are coming are, as we know, way more important and far-reaching than a mere revival.

Advent

Through the season of Advent, we remember these events as we look back on the events leading to the birth of the Messiah. We also look forward to the final victory of the Messiah, on His return and to the completion of our redemption. Through the cold, dark, winter things are looking up, great things are coming. And the Christmas we are all preparing for is just the start.

Amen.

Patience and Confidence in the Lord

 Preached at Christ church, Billericay on 14 November 2021

The Temple

For us to begin to get a grasp of the impact of what Jesus says to four of his disciples, we must first understand a little about the temple.

The original temple had been destroyed by the Babylonians. After the return from the exile, a second temple was built, but it was not a patch on its predecessor. Herod the Great (that’s the Herod that the wise men met) had decided to build the Jews a new temple. He had been very careful to ensure that it was built in accordance with all the Jewish requirements – even going so far as to train priests as stonemasons so that the ground would not be defiled. Most of the work was complete by the time of Jesus’s birth, but some work continued until about AD 64.

Herod’s Temple

Herod’s temple, as it became known, was a magnificent building and its courtyards had been extended using rubble from the previous destruction, most probably, to make it cover an area of about a third of the city.

Disciples View

From the disciple's point of view, the Temple was a fixture – it had existed for their entire life. They had never known its predecessor. It was also the most magnificent building in the Roman Empire for at least 200 miles. So, it would have been the most impressive building they had ever seen. It was also somewhere they would have visited, at least annually and possibly quite a bit more often, as Jewish festivals were all centred on the Temple. It dominated the city, and was a clear representation of the presence of their God. Josephus tells us that “Whatever was not overlaid with gold was the purest white”.

​The Question

What was the disciple who asked the question expecting as a reply, I wonder? Something about the Glory of God in His Temple, perhaps?

What they actually got must have come as something of a shock. It’s interesting that neither Matthew, Mark, nor Luke identify the questioner.

They all have the same answer though. “Not one stone will be left on another”.

​AD 70

The prophecy came true in AD 70. The Romans, finally fed up with Jewish revolts, laid waste to Jerusalem and obliterated the temple. They were so efficient in their task that there is no archaeological evidence to support the various reconstructions of the temple that have been attempted at various times by various people on the sparse record keeping and observational reports that survive.

Literally, “Not one stone was left on another”.

St Peter died between AD 64 and AD 68.

St James died in AD 44.

St John died in AD 100.

St Andrew died in AD 60.

Three of the four didn’t live to see the prophecy come true, and John was by then a very old man living many hundreds of miles away.

But I’m skipping ahead.

Attention Disciples!

So the threat of the loss of the temple really got the disciple's attention. The way Mark tells it, it seems they were afraid to ask and selected the four senior disciple to go and talk to Jesus later.

So, Peter, James, John and Andrew bring their concerns to Jesus once they have crossed the Kidron valley and arrived at the Mount of Olives. There is a good view of the temple from there.

They want to know when it’s going to happen, and how they will know that the time is approaching.

Jesus’s Answer

“Don’t Worry guys, it won’t happen for another 40 years”. Well, that’s probably the answer they would have liked, but it’s not what they would ever get. Because that answer would not achieve Jesus’s goals.

So instead they get a number of warnings, many more than are in our reading this morning.

So, I’m only going to look at those we heard.

Warning 1

The first warning is, “Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many.”

Our reading takes place after Jesus has entered Jerusalem in triumph to the cheers of the crowd, so the disciples should be well aware that their time with Jesus is coming to an end. I’m not sure they ever really believed it until the crucifixion occurred, but Jesus had been preparing them for that and for His return.

No doubt there were many who tried to take His place even before AD 70, there have certainly been plenty in recent years. They have all had their devoted disciples, and many times the result has had a tragic ending. Gamaliel mentions two in the book of Acts, in chapter 5:

Theudas, and Judas the Galilean. Both were killed and their followers dispersed.

If we are careful and remember our scriptures, we will not be deceived.

Warning 2

The second warning is “When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.”

The fury of the Romans, when they attacked Jerusalem in AD 70 left more than half the population dead if reports at the time are to be believed. In those circumstances it’s hard not to be alarmed, indeed it’s hard not to be terrified. Of course, the disciples couldn’t know what would happen, but there must have been stories of rampaging Romans going on a merciless killing spree. Those are after all the sort or stories that come out of every war, whether they are true or not.

I haven’t had to live through a war, but listening to some of the experiences that people had, I cannot imagine how they could be anything other than alarmed, at best.

But Jesus tells us not to be alarmed!

​Warning 3

The third warning is “There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines.”

We’ve certainly heard of our fair share of those, and I’m assuming volcanic eruptions are included, even if they wouldn’t have made a lot of sense to Jesus’s audience.

There is no call for calmness here, just a simple statement of fact.

Birth Pains

Then Jesus says, “These are the beginnings of the birth pains”.

You may think that this is rather a strange statement for a young single man, talking to other young single men, to make. That just shows how different our society is from the first century. Now, with small families, and births mainly in hospitals, it is easy for young men to have little or no appreciation of what birth pains are like. In the first century, large families lived in small, often single room buildings. It was impossible to easily shield children from the birth of their younger siblings. Jesus and all the disciples would have been very aware of what birth pains meant, and how serious they could be.

There was an expression at the time to describe the difficult times they were going through. “The birth pains of the messiah.” It was kind of comforting, whenever there were hard times, to see this is just one more contraction on the way to the birth of or the arrival of the messiah.

Just the beginning

This is just the beginning, birth pains can go on for days. This should help us to remember that the Messiah will come back, but it may not be for days, weeks, or even generations. But His prophecies hold true, remember Peter, James, John and Andrew didn’t see the disaster that befell Jerusalem, because it occurred so long after they were told about it. We know they passed the message on, because we have the documents they wrote.

End of Reading

There, our reading for today stops, and we are left wondering why Jesus is trying to frighten the life out of the disciples. But, if you read on, the troubles get more worrying and more personal. When I preached on the Luke equivalent reading on Remembrance Sunday in 2010, I called the sermon “Keep Calm and Carry On”, after the WWII poster.

How to KC&CO

But how can we keep calm and carry on, in the face of a raging pandemic that is still killing people, and the threat that we will literally burn the earth up by causing the atmosphere to overheat. This process will reduce the usable land area and undoubtedly cause wars for both land and water. It’s already happening. In Central Africa, nomads are being forced into towns as there is nowhere to graze their goats. Some of them are being radicalized and are joining in radical groups whose aim is to destabilize their countries.

Psalm 16

Our Old Testament reading tells us how we can remain calm, and get on with the job in hand. Only by fully focussing on God and having total confidence in Him can we avoid the panic and despair that might otherwise overtake us.

1&2

Verse 1 & 2: Keep me safe, O God, for in you, I take refuge. I said to the LORD, “You are my Lord; apart from you, I have no good thing.”

There are many Psalms where God is described as a refuge, a place of safety when things get too difficult. Here the psalmist recognises that God is the only source of good things, so will not seek them anywhere else.

8

Verse 8: I have set the LORD always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

Whatever happens, with God beside us (‘at our right hand’) we can never be shaken, wars and rumours of wars will not deflect us from His path.

Conclusion

So, to sum up. Some very bad things will happen, but they are all a necessary part of the process of getting to the return of the Messiah. Hearing about them should not deflect us from the things we have been called to do – whether they happen soon, or are delayed beyond the future we can see. None of these things should cause us to have doubts – we will not be shaken.

Let us then make the last three verses of the psalm our own.

⁹ Therefore, my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, ¹⁰ because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

¹¹ You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Amen.