Dave's Sofa

Genesis 2:4-25 WHO ARE YOU?

2009-03-16T11:04:00.005+11:00

“Who are you? Why are you here?”

If I gave you a pad of paper and five minutes, it's be interesting to see what sort of answers we'd come up with. Why are you here? Because God willed that I should read blogs? Good Calvinist answer. Because it appeared in my in-box? Good honest answer! But if we moved onto the who-are-you question, things get a little harder. It's not as easy for some people to define who they are.
This is one of the most important unanswered questions for so many people today. That fact that they remain unanswered questions goes some way to explaining why there is a massive statistical blip in fatal single-vehicle car accidents involving men between 17-25.

Why cutting and self-harm is such a feature of the culture of young women between 14-25.

Why successful men and women turn to unfaithful sex and excessive alcohol.

Why kids join gangs and do whatever it takes in the hope of forging an identity with this new-found family.
Who are you?
Why are you here?
Simply lacking an answer can have a devastating effect on people.

John Calvin said it really well – “Our wisdom, insofar as it ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.”1
We need to have a knowledge of God before we can begin to understand ourselves – but just as importantly we need to have a knowledge of ourselves so that we can see our place in God's world and in God's great heart.

We need to understand something of God's holy justice and righteousness before we can understand why He cannot and will not tolerate our sin.
We need to get a grip on how much God loves us to understand how hurtful that sin is to him. And we need to understand our place in his heart and our own helplessness in sin before we can understand how painful and expensive grace is to God the Father...

We need a knowledge of God to begin to understand ourselves. And we seriously need to have a knowledge of ourselves if we're going to understand God better.
I think we need to hang on tightly to that thought when we read Genesis 1-3.

Genesis 1 gives us some knowledge of God. We see God exercise His power, His authority, his creativity. We saw that last week. There's no chaos, there's nothing random. You are not an accident – he made it all, he controls it all.
Genesis 2 gives us some knowledge of ourselves – as we should be. This is one of the very few places where we see man and woman exactly as they were made by God – sinless, blameless, walking with no barrier between man and woman, no barrier between man and God. Naked, not ashamed. We get to learn some things about what we were supposed to be.

Genesis 3 is where we learn about God and man when evil, temptation, sin and separation rip up the picture. It's where we learn how we blew it all to hell.

Genesis 2, however, hides in a bit of a valley between the mighty picture of creation in Chapter 1 and the blackness of sin's presence in Chapter 3. But it should be looked at on its own terms. Let's go to chapter 2v 4.
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.
When no bush of the field was yet in the land and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up - for the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground, and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the whole face of the ground - then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
For me, this is one of the most beautiful images that I've ever read. It's all virgin land, it's well-watered, even though there's no rain. And God descends upon His newly created earth, stoops low and scoops, moulds and forms with His hands... a human. Back in Chapter 1 we see a change in God's language – instead of let there be..., He says let Us make.... And here He makes.
He formed the man of the dust from the ground. And then God does the most extraordinary thing. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life... and the man became a living creature. Not like mouth-to-mouth, from one equal to another. This is how you resuscitate a tiny baby... breathe into the nostrils. This is a really tender picture. Man's first-ever breath was the breath of God. The word for breath – ruach in the Hebrew, pneuma in the Greek – is exactly the same word for Spirit. Man's first breath is the Spirit of the Living God.

Think about the sense of smell for a second. Smell is the unsung gift, the unsung sense. It is the sense most keyed to our memory. A baby instinctively bonds – and knows – its mother and father by smell.

My dad has been fixing aircraft all of my life. He'd come home from work, reeking of burnt jet-fuel and hot oil and metal and hydraulic oil... and there's something in that smell that still – all these years later – still stirs me, subconsciously but physically stirs my heart. If I have to drive any of you to the airport, you'll see me do it. I'll wind down the window and get great lungfuls of the air. It makes my heart feel good – that smell of my father still has an effect. Took me ages to work that one out – I just thought I was a mad pyro with a thing for kerosene – but the smell of my father still has an effect.

And with this strange and beautiful act, the first thing that Man ever smelled was the breath – the Spirit – of the Living God. Man is born by the breath of God. And when we read this, our memory should be doing a little tap-dance now...
Flesh gives birth to flesh but Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying You must be born again. The wind blows where it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is blowing. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.2

Wow. Every time I read it. Wow... Our first birth was when God first filled our lungs – and our being – with His breath, His pneuma, His Spirit, and we became living beings. We must be born again... no longer dead in sin but alive – brought back to life, resuscitated like that tiny baby – in Christ, by the Spirit, to God's great glory. Wow.

Genesis 2 tells us about us. We are most highly treasured in God's heart. We are made – fearfully and wonderfully made,2

and the breath of the Almighty has given us life. Who are you? Nothing less than that. Nothing less than that.
This is how God loves the world, Jesus says to Nicodemus. He sent His only Son... on a rescue mission that would see His only Son murdered, butchered, slaughtered... so that whoever believes in him will not perish.. Don't ever, ever forget that. That's how much God loves you. We are made – fearfully and wonderfully made, and the breath of the Almighty has given us life.

And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.4
God has already made plants and animals, but for His most precious creation He plants a garden. He does the ultimate Backyard Blitz, and gathers together such a collection of botanical wonder... not just to provide this human with physical provision to keep him nourished and alive, but to please the man. Not just in taste and smell, either - pleasant to the sight and good for food. How strange. I never noticed that before – pleasant to the sight. He didn't make it just for His own pleasure, but for the man's pleasure as well! He designed us to... be pleased, to be able to be happy, to be content, to be stimulated by beauty. I wouldn't have ever thought of that.
But it makes sense, doesn't it? One of the things that I love about being a daddy is when Fiona and I do something (make a wading pool, build a bike, set up the Christmas tree – whatever) and then stand back and let the kids just discover. Their faces tell enough of the story... and watching them totally encompassed in that wheeee!!! kind of joy is priceless. Is that how God feels when we enjoy His goodness? Wow...

Who are you?

Why are you here?

We're here to enjoy every good thing that God has willingly, gladly, generously given us. God has given us the ability to feel happiness, to love beautiful things, to taste and go WOW, to smell and to smile. God's master plan was for us to be a happy people, and to KNOW that we're happy. And that our outrageous happiness brings a pleasure to His heart.

A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of tat land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It os the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
We get a little geography lesson here. There are two familiar names, the Tigris and the Euphrates. They both, of course, flow through Iraq – Baghdad is built right over the Euphrates. Doesn't look much like Eden now, does it? What a strange, bitter irony that these two rivers of the Paradise would later be the rivers of Babylon, where the children of God's covenant promise would weep for the memory of a promised home.

The Tigris starts up in the Ararat Ranges, the Euphrates flows through Turkey and Syria before it gets to Iraq. So what's this about the four rivers coming from a common source? And where are the other two rivers? The Pishon and the Gihon are lost to us – either metaphorically or physically, or both. There are lots of opinions in lots of commentaries, but the truth is, we don't know.

What we do know is what we see, and what we're told. We get a reminder that it's not just Eden where the goodness is – nothing has spoiled creation yet, so we get the geographic reminders that there's good gold and onyx and bdellium (a kind of resin related to myrrh). These are all very valuable trading commodities in the Ancient Near East. There are things of great value outside Eden too. Four rivers going out from Eden, downstream of the trees of righteousness, going out into the whole world. And – that said – there's the sad, wistful reminder that we'll never find Eden until there is a new heaven and a new earth; Eden is lost to us.

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.7
Before there was sin, before there was labour, before there was slavery and bosses and exploitation and mortgages to repay... there was work. There's an enduring image of Eden being some sort of luxury nudist retreat for people with access to a lot of hair-conditioner. And that is a fiction. Adam gets his hands dirty – but that's okay, because so did his Creator. God makes the earth, God comes to earth, God makes Adam out of the earth, Adam works the earth – he tends it and takes care of it. Remember verse 5? We had a hint – no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth, and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain and there was no man to work the ground... The language is actually quite agricultural: fields, work it & keep it – tend and keep would be closer translations. So what does this say?
Adam worked – not for food, because all the best food in the world was at his fingertips; the Lord had surrounded him with food.

Not as God's slave – the God who made the universe and made Adam and made the Garden of Eden for Adam's pleasure doesn't need anything that man can make by work.

Not for a wage, not to repay a debt to his Creator... God gave Adam authority, responsibility and satisfaction. And that's an odd one to talk about, because our society's idea of Paradise is sitting on a cloud eating Philly cheese, or lying on a beach at Surfers... but, either way doing absolutely nothing.
I like mowing the lawn. I love the lawn-mowing etiquette here, too. (I was a bit concerned how early was too early to fire up the Victa – but I figured when the neighbor across started in with an angle-grinder, I was probably right to go...) I'm not a huge fan of having grass being blown up my nose and sneezing like the dickens, or stone-chips whacking me on the shin. But there's a pleasure, a satisfaction, a good feeling inside when I switch the mower off, have a short shower and a long icy-cold bath... then go back outside with a cup of tea and go aaahhh! Watching the birds come and eat, smell the new-mown smell. There's satisfaction in work that we're not remunerated for. Sometimes it's something physical, sometimes it's donating time to help a neighbor or a good cause... and that satisfaction is a gift from God. God's now given Adam authority, responsibility and satisfaction.
The curse that we'll see in Chapter 3 wasn't being made to work. The curse wasn't being turned out of a five-hundred-star lazy-town resort. The curse wasn't being made to work. Adam was a worker from the start. The curse was having to survive by his labour – which we'll see clearly in Chapter 3 – not the work itself. God wanted Adam to be a fulfilled, content, satisfied man.

Almost all of the unemployed people that I've talked to in the last couple of years would give pretty well anything to get employment, and not just for the money. I suspect that one of Satan's dirty tricks is to keep some people from being fulfilled, content and satisfied by denying them the opportunity to work. There's something to think about next time you find yourself muttering about the unemployed.

Who are you?

Why are you here?
We are made – fearfully and wonderfully made, and the breath of the Almighty has given us life. Nothing less than that.
We have been made in God's image, in God's great pleasure to enjoy – to enjoy the good things that God has been so pleased to make for us.
Do we feel like we're getting some answers to these two big questions?
Okay. Last stop.

Then the Lord God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.' Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of he heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whateverthe man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not a helper fit for him.8

Last week we saw that at the end of each phase of his creation, God looked and declared that it was good. 1V4, the light was good. V10, land and sea was good. V12, the veggies were good. V18, sun and moon – good. Birds & fish & animals & creeping things – good, At the end of the sixth day, v31 – VERY good.
So what's this? 2v18 It is not good... It sounds out-of-place, doesn't it? What went wrong? I've made enough things from beds to bikes to rebuilding 747 engines. You follow the instructions, you stop every now and again and check it and say “OK – that's good.” Then you finish, look at it and say very good. Then you find seven bolts, a packet of washers some weird springy things that you swear you've never seen before... you look at the instructions, look at the engine and say, “oh. Not good.”

What had God left behind? What did he skip in the IKEA make-a-world kit?
It is not good that the man should be alone. I think that God is signalling very loudly that he hasn't finished yet. He declared things good in chapter 1 when they're completed – and when it's ALL finished, it's very good.
But at this point, it's not all finished, is it? There's all the plants and creepy-crawly swarmy things, birds, and beasts – all being paraded before Adam, and Adam having to come up with names for them all...
Note that carefully, by the way. That's the first demonstration that God meant it when he gave man dominion over the creatures. We saw it last week – God naming Day, Sky, Sea, Earth, because he had the authority to give things names. He bestows that authority to Adam, and Adam begins to take up that responsibility that God has laid on him.
After he's seen all the animals there is to see, there is still no animal that is a fit companion, no animal suitable as a helper – no animal to match Adam, the human that has been hand-crafted in the image of God and filled with the Spirit.
I think it's a mistake to read it & think that what God does next is... some kind of filling-in a gap in his plan, of God scratching his head & saying, 'I should really do something about that.' No. Adam has just seen how unique he is in God's plan, in his own design, in the authority given to him alone, and now he knows it.
I think that it's also a mistake to think that Adam as getting lonely or bored or in any way dissatisfied. I don't think Adam was going up to God, saying “that porcupine I tried to hug – it's not working out so good. Worse than the jellyfish...”

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of the ribs and closed up the place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

He brought her to the man. Not an afterthought, not an improvement on the original design (despite what the funny emails say). Not made from the clay that Adam's walked on, but made from Adam. Made from the bones that hold his heart. Shaped, like Adam, by the hands of God. And He brought her to the man. Who gives this bride away?
And the man knows instantly who she is, where she has come from, and the words are of such longing fulfilled; This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh!
At last! One flesh! One flesh – it's not a yucky kind of morph, it's not a euphemism for sex, it's completion. Bone of my bone. Flesh of my flesh. The two become one flesh. It's completion, it's fulfilment, it's the delight of God to give his most precious creatures this happiness beyond expectation and experience... but such a perfect creation that Adam knows her straight away.

Who are you?
Why are you here?
We are made – fearfully and wonderfully made, and the breath of the Almighty has given us life. Nothing less than that.
We have been made in God's image, in God's great pleasure to enjoy – to enjoy the good things that God has been so pleased to make for us. We have been made to revel in His creation, in His company. There's that great cliché that we're made for relationships, but it's absolutely true – we are! We're made for a relationship with God, we're made for a relationship with each other, we're made for one unbelievably special relationship with another human being.

Genesis Two is a glittering gem. Remember kaleidescopes? I always wanted to get inside it and be surrounded by it all, I wanted to live in a kaleidescope. I was a strange kid... but this is our kaleidescope. I want to live in Genesis Two, I want to go there, I want to stay there. But I can't, can I? Something happened that resulted in Eden being hidden from us. Eden's gone. We'll deal with that next week.
Here, we get a picture of God creating perfection. One day at the end of days, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, and they will be made perfect, and those whom Jesus rescued will be with him, praising God for ever and ever. This earth has still got so much beauty, but it is so tainted, so poisoned that it's hard even to hold the image of Eden in our minds without a little bit of cynicism “It can't be that good” “What's the catch?” It is that good. There is no catch. This is what God intended all along, and this is what he wanted us to be, and this is what he WANTS us to be.

I want it.

I keep hearing that phrase “the church is the bride of Christ” and now I finally see its intimacy! Bone of his bone. Flesh of his flesh. Brought to Christ by God, and enjoying each other forever in the love of the Father.

That's who I am.

That's why I'm here. Genesis 2 is where God tells us about us – and it's a love song.

And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.

All Scripture taken from the E.S.V. - the one my church lovingly calls the Eastern Suburbs Version.
1 John Calvin; Institutes of the Christian Religion, I.i.1
2 Psalm 139:14

3 John 3:6-8

4 Genesis 2:8-9

6
7 Genesis 2:15

8 Genesis 2:18-20

Photo taken from http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_H4_M-eC-Cb0/SE6YG72UzBI/AAAAAAAAAEU/fu0ggA5hK2s/s1600-h/Lonely.jpg

Mark 4 Mission: Impossible

2009-01-12T07:51:00.003+11:00

Mission Impossible. It’s a good phrase, even if the movies were all pretty confusing. I saw the first two, and I honestly couldn’t tell you what happened. The original TV series was really a lie… of course they weren’t impossible missions; the good guys completed the missions, the missions were just hard enough to be over in time for tea, and that there were enough gadgets in the cupboard to overcome the opposition. So really, if I’m paying attention to the movies, there’s no such thing as Mission Impossible. There’s Mission Difficult, Mission Expensive, an awful lot of Mission Unfeasable, one or two hundred Mission Stupid and 3 Missions That Require Tom Cruise Or We’d Simply Lose Interest.

One thing that we get taught in the movies is that nothing is impossible. We don’t even have the expectation of an impossible mission. We know the ending, we just want to know HOW it’ll get done. If you sweat hard enough, pull faces and show off your perfect teeth, have a hard-enough body… you can do anything. If you’ve had a massive car crash, you can still run like a maniac, correctly dial a number on a [product placement] iPhone, and use a pistol. Fall through the roof of a building while having a fight? No problem. I slipped in a bath a few years ago and I nearly snapped my leg in half. Obviously I’m not buff enough, because instead of wrestling my bath with my bare hands and throwing it clear through a wall, I just… fell over and clutched my leg like the wuss that I am. I howled – it hurt! It hurt for a few days! My wife asked me if I was alright, and then she laughed when she thought I couldn’t hear!

I like the real Mission Impossible stuff that I find in the Bible. Things that are absolutely impossible in real life. Things that Hollywood won’t touch, because they’re just so unbelievable.
Mission Impossible for a man named Gideon – he is given the task, by God, of gathering an army to defeat the Midianites. He raises an available army of 32,000 men, going up against an army that is evidently much, much larger. God says to Gideon - “Your army is too big.” Now we know that Israel is probably outnumbered here, because Gideon turns to his army and says “if you're scared... go home.” Twenty-two thousand people ran away. Basically a Super-Dome full of people did the bolt. Gideon is down to ten thousand men, God says to Gideon - “Your army is too big.” Gideon reduces the number of people in his army from ten thousand to three hundred – the details are in Judges 7 – before God is happy with the numbers. Three hundred soldiers. At a squeeze, we can get three hundred people into this building. So – have a look around. You’re up to fight a sellout crowd at the Olympic Stadium. And it’s full of angry Bulldogs supporters.

The story gets even stranger. As Judges chapter 7 unfolds, we see the army of not only Midian, but also the Amalekites – and all the people of the East lay along the valley like locusts in abundance, and their camels were without number.[1]

Anybody seen the movie 300? Having 300 soldiers set against a mighty army looked fantastic, didn’t it? Here’s Gideon’s army (a thousand years before the Battle of Thermopylae) – swords and shields at the ready? Here’s what they faced the enemy with… left hand holding a clay jar with a candle inside, and the right hand holding a trumpet. How would the movie look now? Gerard Butler passing out candles and musical instruments, like it was Carols in the Park! Now does it look like Mission Impossible?

We know how the story ends, don’t we? Question – did Gideon complete his Mission Impossible?
Did Gideon defeat the Midianites and the Amalekites and all those camels? No – Judges 7 makes it clear, over and over again, that the Lord alone would have the credit here. The enemy literally chopped itself to destruction, and only when the remnant fled did Israel give chase with weapons.
Sometimes we know the story so well that we miss the Mission Impossible. We remember the story, but we miss the workings of God.
We remember the story, but we miss the workings of God.

I wonder sometimes if we take this attitude with Jesus, with his Gospel, his euaggelion, his Good Message. I wonder if we acknowledge that yes, his mission was a Mission Impossible – but because we know the end of the story so well, we again miss the workings of God.

How do we see Jesus’ early ministry? How do we consider the first year or two of Jesus’ teaching and preaching? I think what often comes to mind is the series of miracles – some spectacularly public, some quiet and intensely private.
I think what often comes to mind is the series of brilliant teachings – Matthew 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord’s Prayer, Luke 6, John 3 – being born again, Nicodemus, John 3:16.
We often see the high points – and that’s good, because they really are high points. But what we can do is miss how much of a Mission Impossible it was.
· Matthew 8:34 And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him they begged him to leave their region.
· Matthew 12:14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
· Mark 3:6 The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
· Mark 3:21 And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
· Luke 4:29 And they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they could throw him down the cliff.
· John 5:18 This is why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him
· John 7:20-21 “Why do you seek to kill me?” The crowd answered, “You have a demon! Who is seeking to kill you?”
· John 7:25 Some of the people in Jerusalem therefore said, “Is not this the man whom they seek to kill?”
· John 10:33 The Jews answered him, “It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God.”

Here’s a mission, should you choose to accept it.

Go to a place, as a missionary. Tell people that you are the one that the great prophets spoke about. Tell people that the Bible was written specifically to point the way to you. Tell people that you are THE way, THE truth, THE life. And just to make it all the harder, tell all this to a people who know their Bibles inside out, firmly believe that they are doing the right thing by God, are very wary of false teaching, and have a very real sense of how wrong it would be to take the name and the Word of the Lord God in vain.

In other words, people a lot like us.
If somebody came through the doors at the back, came up to the lectern, flipped open the Bible to Isaiah 61, read aloud, sat down and then announced that he was the fulfilment of that prophecy… how many people here would be likely to go “oh, cool – we’ve been waiting for you”? How would you react? What would you say to such a man?
Mission Impossible – to preach the coming kingdom of God to a people who think they know all there is to know about God’s justice, mercy and wrath.
Mission Impossible – the rescue of humanity from itself.
Mission Impossible – turn hearts around and save them from the wrath that is to come.
Do we begin to fathom just how difficult the task that God gave to Jesus really is? Do we appreciate how hard Jesus worked, how much he preached, how constantly he spoke, appeared, walked, taught, preached, chatted, lectured, told stories, healed, argued, persuaded, debated… for people to begin to understand how his teachings were not only different from all the other itinerant preachers that were also around, but that his words were the words of God? Do we get it?

We sometimes say – very easily and quickly – that Christ died for my sins. We rarely say that he walked, exhausted himself, taught, taught, taught and taught… so that I might understand what it is that he’s saying… so that I might KNOW that he died for my sins.

One thing that we see over and over and over again in Jesus’ early ministry is how much preaching he did, how the Devil got in his way wherever he preached, and how determined he was to keep on preaching non-stop.
Matthew 5:23 And he went through all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom of God.
Mark 3:20 Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they [Jesus and the Twelve] could not even eat.
Luke 4:42-44 And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and would have kept him from leaving them, but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” And he was preaching in all the synagogues of Judea.
No highway, no car, no public transport, no hotels overnight. No marketing campaigns, no radio ads, no guest appearances on breakfast TV.
No microphones, no public-address systems, no pre-recorded messages.

No internet to post blog-notes. No iTunes, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter or (gasp) email, no laptops, no typewriters, no printing presses. Just a pair of feet covered by leather sandals, the message of the Lord God to stir up the hearts and minds and souls of men… and this.
The Bible.
This is what Jesus taught from. The Bible – what we call the Old Testament. The Scripture. God’s Word, given to us by men through inspiration.
Paul knew exactly what the Old Testament was for.
2Tim3:16 says… what? All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness. Good – now, what about the verse before it: the purpose of Scripture is to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.
That’s what it was for, and that’s still what it’s for.

One thing that we see over and over again, as Jesus preaches and teaches, is that the Scriptures are constantly on his lips – the Law, the Psalms and the Prophets and the Wisdom literature. It’s all through his speech, his answers are rooted in the Scriptures, his wisdom – which all the Gospels tell us is one of the things which is making him famous – his wisdom is recognised by others because it’s embedded in the Word, and he teaches the scriptures with authority.

We’re kinda used to using scriptures to back up our positions, or our arguments, or our moral position on things – and that’s not a bad thing… is it? Here’s the problem. We can have a tendency to concentrate on one verse, and make that one verse the proof-text. Is the verse in context? Is it out of context? How is the person I’m talking to going to be able to tell?
Malachi 3:10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. It’s a very popular verse in certain circles, and it’s often quoted before a collection or an offering. And – as it stands – it sounds like a very generous offer: give your tithe, and God will bless you abundantly and more-than-abundantly. Well, that sounds right - why shouldn’t I use that as a proof-text to show that if you give, God gives. It’s there – it’s in the Bible. Why not?

Because of what the rest of the book says. The verse before Malachi 3:10 shows a very angry God – You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. I don’t intend to exegete the whole of that Malachi text – we’re running short on time as it is – but the message of Malachi is that God’s people are not doing what the Lord requires of them [call it disobedience]. Be obedient, willingly obedient, and I will keep the covenant I set with Abraham, the covenant I set with Moses and the covenant I set with David. God had already promised over and over again that he would bless his people abundantly, and that blessing comes ONLY because God is faithful – not because I’ve stopped short-changing the collection-plate. Certainly not because my faithfulness.

And yet it’s being used to encourage people to give – in the hope that they’ll gain some special blessing from God’s hand over-and-above. See the difference?

You see why it’s so important to know this thing as well as you can? Reg keeps saying it until he’s blue in the face. Stu Crawshaw’s been saying it for as long as I’ve known him, and that’s longer than some of you have been alive. Read your Bible every day! Study the Word, and study it well, so that even these words can’t be twisted around. Satan is brilliant at twisting God’s words, getting us to question what we’ve been taught.
Genesis 3 – right at the very start of it, Genesis 3:1 He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” Well, no, God didn’t actually say that, as Eve points out, but it’s enough to get the conversation rolling. And he gets Eve questioning God, and His motives and His purposes, until Eve has actually forgotten what God said in the first place.
Did God actually say “You mustn’t have sex?”
Did God actually say “You must not cheat on your 2009 tax return?”
Did God actually say… you get the idea. As we saw in the Gospel reading – which Tim Beilharz is going to preach in detail on in two weeks – we see Satan using fact and Scripture. We see Satan using the Word of God against the Son of God.

Crazy but true – all of the things Satan tempted Jesus with had a foundation in Scripture. Stones into bread is a clear-cut reference to manna provided by God for His people in the wilderness. When he said to Jesus that the world had been given to him [Satan], there was truth in that - John 12:31 Satan is called the ruler of this world, I John 5:19 the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. And finally, Satan quotes a Psalm of David… to the Son of David.

The replies that Jesus gives to Satan all come from the book of Deuteronomy, which is very significant in and of itself. Why is it significant? Tim will tell you in two weeks. Tune in. I’m not going to snaffle his sermon – but go back to the idea of how quickly Jesus turns to the Law. We see it over and over and over again in the early Galilee ministry.
We see it in the Sermon on the Mount – Matthew 5-7 – as Jesus firstly declares that he isn’t removing the Law, he isn’t abolishing the Law, he isn’t in any way watering down the Law… he is fulfilling the Law. Secondly he holds up the Laws that cover murder, adultery, divorce, lying, revenge, hatred, charity, prayer, fasting… he holds them up, then holds up the human heart next to it.
He shows how obedience to the letter is useless, because the human heart is too damaged to willingly obey the Law.

We see it as Jesus specifically confronts the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law over two issues – the Sabbath, and the forgiveness of sins. These two are issues of authority, and Jesus has to show them that their understanding of the Sabbath was flawed, and that he has the authority to mend people’s hearts as well as their bodies. Why do you think that Jesus’ healings were often coupled with teachings about the Sabbath and about forgiving sins? He has the authority to mend peoples’ hearts as well as their bodies.

Jesus came to God’s people, those who knew the Law, those who thought that they knew God. And he showed them where they stand in relation to the law, how far away from obedience their hearts truly are, how that even in their rigid obedience to the letter of the law they constantly broke it in their hearts and minds. John nails it absolutely at the start of his gospel – He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

Mission Impossible. We know the ending, we talk about it every Easter, we make movies like The Passion about it. We know the ending so well that we can miss the working of God. As Jesus’ mission is terminated, we see eleven men who knew Jesus more than any other men. We see eleven men who should have understood, who should have grasped it all… but fled in horror and terror and let their Master and their Lord be executed and be hanged on a cursed tree.

The Mission is impossible for men, and every man that knew and loved him had vanished. But nothing is impossible for God. Those men who ran away took hold of the saving gospel of Christ crucified and risen. They were given the Spirit, and they went forth. The Jewish leadership tried to beat the Gospel into submission – it grew and spread. The Roman leadership classed it as a dangerous cult and tried to stomp it to death – it grew and spread, and within three hundred years a Christian emperor sat on the Roman throne.

Mission Impossible. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is simply this. Preach Christ crucified and risen to the whole world.
Preach Christ crucified and risen to the whole world.
It’s impossible. So what?
Two questions – who do we say that Jesus is? Who do people outside these walls say Jesus is? Until those answers agree, we’re on mission. We’re on a mission that is just about impossible. It’s a mission that might take us anywhere. Two years ago, the notion of preaching the risen Christ would have scared me senseless. The thought of preaching Christ in Penrith would have... scared me a lot more. Some of you will be taken further than that, to places that you have no normal earthly desire to go. But you’ll know, and you’ll go, because your heart will burn.
Burn with the love of Jesus
burn fiercely for the hearts of those who don’t know him
burn because the Spirit set it on fire.

That’s when you don’t care about the impossible mission. That’s when the ending doesn’t matter. Mission impossible, should you choose to accept it. Take the saving message of God’s grace and Christ’s love to the whole world.

Your time starts now.

[1] Judges 7:12
Image from http://flickr.com/photos/dragonden/250835204/

A Little Bit of Tradition

2008-12-31T15:15:00.004+11:00

Gymea Anglican Church

Service of Lessons and Carols

Christmas Eve, 2008

The Service of Carols and Lessons has an interesting history - it began, like Christmas itself, in a barn. As the town of Truro (Cornwall, England) had no cathedral at the time, a temporary wooden shed was having to serve in its place. A man by the name of Edward White Benson devised the service, with the main aim of keeping men out of the alehouse on Christmas Eve.

Below is a quick run-through of the Service of Lessons and Carols that we recently celebrated in Gymea Anglican. Sing the carol if you wish... and bring a Bible to the table (for the night we used the ESV). Everything else is pretty well how it was.

Be warned - with eight readings it's a long entry, even with no song lyrics attached.

Welcome, and thank you for coming – Welcome to Gymea Anglican's Christmas Eve Carols and Lessons service.
To anyone visiting, good to have you here - please make yourself at home. You're among friends tonight.

Let's pray; Loving, Heavenly Father, thank you. Thank you for today, thank you that you are the Master of the day. And thank you for this time of the year – and the opportunity to freely and safely honour the birth of your Son, Jesus. Be with us as we sing, as we pray and as we remember this day as we read your word. In Jesus’ name… Amen.

The Lessons and Carols service has been a traditional way of celebrating Christmas since 1880, but the faithful gathered long before that to sing together and to remember, and to once again adore Christ the Lord. Let’s stand and sing our first carol...
First Carol: O Come All Ye Faithful

Ø In The Beginning
In the beginning, God spoke. And as he spoke, the world was made… and as he spoke, it was bought to order… And then he stooped low, and out of the red, rich soil he shaped, moulded and made man in his own image. He breathed his breath, his spirit, into the man’s nostrils, and man became a living being. God gave the man a partner, and gave them both everything that he had made, except for the one thing that the man was not ready for – knowledge of good and evil.
But the man and the woman forgot God. They listened to the quiet whisper of another voice who said “you will be like God.” And so, forgetting God and yet wanting to be like him, they ate…
First Lesson… Genesis 3:7-13
And so we were exiled – exiled by our own desire, and thus exiled from the perfect presence of our Maker. God’s people kept failing, over and over again. And yet he still loved them. The Lord established a kingdom for his people, with a wise and loving ruler in King David, and yet within two generations, that kingdom was broken apart before crumbling, conquered by surrounding empires and all but forgotten by the world.
Exiled by their disobedience, exiled by their desire to have their way and to be ruled by none but themselves. Just like us…
And yet even in the depths of exile, even when at the furthest distance from His presence and his heart, God has sent the voices of hope. In the words of Isaiah and Micah we hear the Lord beginning to reveal his great plan to rescue and redeem his lost children, and to bring peace to them all.
Second Lesson… Isaiah 9:5-7, Micah 5:2
The announcements of the prophets would soon be made by angels, heralding the coming of the King. Let’s stand and sing together,
Second Carol: Hark the Herald Angels Sing

Ø Son of David
Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ the Everlasting Lord. Wesley and Whitefield had a gift for words, didn’t they? Who would be this Christ? Who would be this Messiah to bring God’s people to himself?
Through another prophet, Nathan, God promised David that his kingdom would be eternal. He made covenant with King David:
“When your days are fulfilled,” he said, “and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom… I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a son.”
The kingdom of David faltered and failed, to the point that it would be very hard to imagine how this great promise could be kept. But although the kingdom faded, the offspring didn’t.
Matthew opens his account of Jesus, his Gospel, with a genealogy that stretches from not just King David but Abraham – the man whom God also made covenant with, and promised that the world would be blessed through his descendents. Abraham is at the start of Matthew’s line. It finishes with a man named Joseph.
Third Lesson: Matthew 1:1-24
Here we see Joseph, from David’s line, about to travel to the city of David’s birth… but that’s another story. Remembering the promise made to King David, let’s stand and sing
Third Carol: “Once in Royal David’s City”

Ø Son of God
A king of royal blood can often unify a people. A king descended from kings can raise an army to overthrow the occupiers, repel the invaders and re-establish powerful dynasties.
But that’s not what God’s people need rescuing from. We need rescuing from ourselves.
What king can do that? Where must a king be descended from to have that sort of authority?
The Pharisees understood it well. They would say that only God can forgive sins, only God has the authority to forgive sins. It needs more than God’s authority vested in a king to be able to do that.
Fully God. Fully Man.
Let’s hear what happened.
Fourth Leson: Luke 1:26-38
Son of God, love’s pure light. Let’s stand together and sing a song that turns 190 years old today:
Fourth Carol: “Silent Night.”

Ø The Birth
When Queen Elizabeth II visited Australia in the early sixties, she travelled with a great retinue, including support aircraft. My dad first saw Australia when he came out with one of those aircraft – and, fortunately, he fell in love with Australia. But wherever the Queen went, vast crowds came to see her.
Royal visits, state occasions, pomp, ceremony… for the monarch of an empire that had peaked in Victoria’s day and was waning. What grandness should accompany the arrival of the King of the world? What would be the most fitting way to celebrate the arrival of the King who would rescue his people?
Let’s hear as Luke tells us how this mighty King arrived.
Fifth Lesson: Luke 2:1-7
A manger. A cow’s foodbox. That’s how King Jesus came. Not in displays of wealth and influence, but in a way an Indian beggar would be familiar with.Close your eyes and picture it as we stand and sing together:
Fifth Carol: “Away In A Manger”

Ø Witnesses High and Low
We still have a tradition, don’t we? It’s an odd one – if there’s an important document to sign, we need witnesses – so that all parties know that this really happened.
CNN and BBC and Reuters news services are the best at what they do, because their reporters and cameramen go to places to see what’s happening, to report… but we can see that they’re there. We know that they are witnesses.
Angels are the messengers of God. They travel with the word of the Lord, and they make His announcements, as we have already seen a couple of times.
Now they come to proclaim, to break the news, to bear witness. And who receives the news first? Emissaries of Herod’s royal court? Diplomatic envoys for the Roman Emperor Augustus?
We Aussies should love this – the people God chooses to tell first? Sheep farmers.
Let’s hear Luke tell us how God told them.
Sixth Lesson: Luke 2:8-21
There’s only one carol fitting here, isn’t there?
Sixth Carol:“While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night”

Ø Honours Bestowed
On the birth of a son of an emperor, or a king, protocol had it that ambassadors to various countries would approach the palace and offer their countries good wishes to the King. They would then send a dispatch to their own country to let their own rulers know of the happy event.
Matthew shows us something very unusual. Nobody knows who they are, where they came from or where they went. But people came – first to the palace of the Roman-appointed King Herod, then to the birthplace of David, the birthplace of Jesus. Were they sent? Did they come of their own accord? We don’t know.
But they knew whom they sought. And they bestowed honour fit for a king to a child born in poverty. And they never hesitated.
Let’s hear how Matthew records it:
Seventh Lesson: Matthew 2:1-12
Let’s sing about those strangers, who gave such honour to King Jesus
Seventh Carol: “We Three Kings”
This is our collection song (no irony intended)

Ø In The Beginning…
In the beginning, God spoke. And as he spoke the world was made… and as he spoke it was bought to order… And then he stooped low, and out of the red, rich soil… he shaped, moulded and made man in his own image. He breathed his breath, his spirit into the man’s nostrils, and man became a living being. God gave the man a partner, and gave them both everything that he had made, except for the one thing that the man was not ready for – knowledge of good and evil.
But the man and the woman forgot God. They listened to the quiet whisper of another voice who said “you will be like God.” And so, forgetting God and yet wanting to be like him, they ate…
But... but... But before all this, God had seen it all. And He knew. In the beginning was the Word.
Eighth Lesson: John 1:1-17
This is Good News This is the Gospel, the Good Message that brings joy to the world – That from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace; that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Let’s stand and sing together our final carol tonight:
Eighth Carol: “Joy To The World”

Photo sourced from http://www.crystalxp.net/galerie/img/img-wallpapers-candle-light_water-priyadarsh-sarwade-7769.jpg

Lk1:39-56 FAITHFUL

2008-12-21T20:49:00.008+11:00

Sermon

Gymea Anglican

7:45am, 9:30am

Through Luke’s narrative we’ve looked at some very strange happenings, and we’ve kind of contracted the timeline in a way so that we can find our way through some crucial issues that sit around the edges of what we normally associate with the "Christmas Story." We’ve seen an angel sent by God find Mary, a virgin engaged to a man related by birth to Israel’s great King David. We’ve listened to the angel’s announcement, that this child, this boy that Mary shall bear is nothing less than the one that the Lord God will hand the throne of King David to – “The child to be born will be called holy – the Son of God”[1] We’ve watched Mary’s reaction to this news that’s both wonderful and troubling, and we’ve seen her great servant’s heart and her obedience to the Lord her God. And we’ve seen Isaiah’s great prophecy fulfilled.

At the same time we’ve read about the very strange origins of John the Baptist. His father was visited by an angel while he was in the middle of the Temple, and the angel told the old man that he and his elderly wife were to have a baby. Not just any baby, but one who would be marked from birth as a man with a mission.

There are traces of a deeper story here – traces of great pain as Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth have gone from newlyweds to old age with no children. But in Gabriel’s opening words, he tells Zechariah before anything else… do not be afraid, your prayer has been heard…[2] and that even though it would be to God’s great purpose, their prayer of pain would be answered.

Mary hurries from Nazareth to find Elizabeth with plans to stay a fair while. I don’t know whether she went to help Elizabeth through the final three months of her pregnancy, or two ladies with remarkable stories needed to spend time in each others’ company. They were related – how they were related isn’t specified – and I’d imagine that if anybody that I knew had been through what either Mary or Elizabeth had been through, they would welcome the chance to talk to someone with a shared experience.

They make a very interesting contrast, don’t they? Out of the two, Elizabeth is the one we recognise the most from other places in the Bible. Although we don’t get the specific details, we know that she’s not young – she’s well out of child-bearing age. We know that it has been a matter of great pain to her and her husband Zechariah, and it’s a matter that they’ve both constantly brought before the Lord. And in this, we see a reflection of some others throughout the Old Testament.

Sarah heard the Lord’s promise to her husband, that he would father a mighty nation. And – more like Zechariah – she was the one who had trouble believing. Paul tells us that Abraham believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness. Even when he was ninety-nine years old, not only did he believe what the Lord had promised him, he circumcised himself – and then went on to be a father (now that’s one tough cookie!).
Sarah, however, was more realistic, and when she overheard the Lord and Abraham talking she couldn’t picture it: “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?” [3] But the Lord honoured His promise to Abraham, and Sarah gave birth to Isaac.

Isaac’s wife Rebekah was described as barren for twenty years, and again we see Isaac praying on behalf of his wife. She gives birth to the famously-struggling twins, Esau and Jacob.

Jacob had two wives – two sisters, in fact. And from what Genesis 29 and 30 mention, all the problems that go along with that. But Rachel remained barren for a great amount of time, while almost everyone around her was having children by Jacob. Genesis 30:22 shows that she was not forgotten in her misery, though: “God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and opened her womb.” And she gave birth to Joseph. Rachel had one more child, Benjamin, but died after childbirth.

In the book of Judges we see an unnamed woman, the wife of a man called Manoah, described as sterile and childless. The angel of the Lord visited her and gave her instructions very similar to those given to Zechariah, physically marking out the child into God’s service from birth. The child’s name was Samson.

One that we should be familiar with is a woman by the name of Hannah, and we’ve been walking with Hannah and Elkanah through the Old Testamant readings. In the opening verses of I Samuel we see a pretty painful story, and we get a taste of the pain of barrenness. It’s still an issue loaded with great pain today, and I would hesitate before saying something as insensitive as “it was more painful back then.” There isn’t any easy way of living with it. There isn't.

Just to add to this horrible burden, Hannah is placed under the mocking social hammer. On top of the normal burden of wondering what is wrong with her physically is the weight of social judgment – she lives in a world that views barrenness as punishment from God. There must have been something that she had done, some sin committed, that had given God cause to punish her in this manner... It didn’t help that she had a husband that just didn’t get it.

Elkanah loved her very dearly – we see that he favoured her, that he tried to look after her and comfort her… but he just didn’t get it. Part of me feels a little sorry for Elkanah as he attempts to soothe his grieving wife: “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?” Wrong answer, buddy, thanks for playing... I can’t imagine that helping… but there are certainly times where I don’t get it, and I open my yap, and I get shot, and deservedly so… but the terrible fact is, as much as we husbands try to help our wives with burdens and deep pain, there will be things that we just don’t get, and that won’t be from a want of trying. That’s not a get-out-of-jail card for us husbands, incidentally… but there will be times where a burden is so intensely personal it can only really be dealt with between the carrier and the Lord.

Here’s one of the most painful lines in the Bible. I Samuel 1:10; “In bitterness of soul, Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord.” That’s hard, isn’t it? “In bitterness of soul.” I know that a lot of people have the most enormous trouble praying when they are in the bitterness of their soul – it’s the last thing that they want to do. But Hannah pours out her pain before the Lord, in the house of the Lord.

And finally we have Elizabeth. The opening lines of Luke’s narrative pretty well give us her story, and we’ve seen Zechariah and Elizabeth last week. “Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly. But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years.”

The Lord is faithful. The Lord God is a speaking God: a God of words, a God of the Word, and a God who keeps His word. We remind ourselves of that every Sunday, we gather and pray corporately – together – for all manner of things… as the Prayer Book says, for all sorts and conditions of men. And in churches and in our Bible-study groups and home groups and men’s breakfasts… it’s a wonderful thing to say loudly, and to remind ourselves and each other of this great fact; the Lord is faithful.
But what about when we’re alone?

When we’re in a hospital corridor, waiting to hear a door open and someone to emerge with news?

When we’ve prayed for something for days and weeks and months and years – what then?

When you’re going on months of broken sleep and the kids just won’t stop for twenty minutes?

When nobody calls to see how you’re going, and you just can’t bear to call anyone else and burden up someone else?

What about then? Can we say, with clear mind and straight back, that God is faithful?

There’s one thing I love about the Bible, even though it’s a hard fact, and a hard thing to confront. It is absolutely unflinching when it comes to dealing with pain. We don’t see these women as success-stories - far from it. We don’t see these families as being richly and over-abundantly blessed by God for their obedience or their good prayers or their good works. We see them in their pain, we are privy to their misery, we hear the bitterness or their soul.
Looking at these women of devotion, their long-term prayer, their years of weary endurance, of praying in bitterness of soul… it makes me very wary of people who try to tell me that if you do the things that please God, he will bless you with every blessing that the world can offer. That if you pray believing that it will happen. An American preacher, Mark Driscoll, phrased it pretty well – it’s like Jesus is a big piñata, and prayer is a big stick – and if you bash Jesus hard enough with the stick, lots of goodies will fall from heaven. And your blessings are just such a marvellous sign to others of how pleased God is with you.

I just don’t find it in the Bible. What we do find in the Bible is… people like us. We see that unflinching picture of our own lives. I read these stories and I think of my grandmother, who prayed every single day for years and years and years for her boy and his family to come to the foot of Calvary. Her prayer was always going to be answered – always – but, to be sure, not in the timeframe that would have best pleased my grandmother. And I’m pretty certain that there was an element of suffering in that wait. I pray that there will never be a day when I pray for my kids to come back to the Lord – but if there is such a day, I know that I’ll pray in pain until that prayer is answered.

And that prayer will be answered. God is faithful. But we have to understand that He is faithful to His own plan, His own timing, His own reasoning. And that’s not easy.

For all the years that Abraham and Sarah waited and waited and waited… God honoured them, answered their prayer… but He did it in His time, as part of His plan. And thousands of years later, Paul holds him up before the world in the letter to the Romans as a shining example. “It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be the heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith… Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed – and so became the father of many nations.” [4]

For all the years of Hannah’s enduring barrenness, she gave birth to Samuel at exactly the right time – the man who would be the last judge of Israel, prophet, and the anointer of Israel’s first king, Saul, and her great King, David.

For all the years of Elizabeth’s pain, this wasn’t because she had committed some great sin that God was punishing her for – to the contrary, Luke makes it clear that she and Zechariah had found favour in the Lord’s eyes. But the time and the timing and the purpose and the plan of God was critical. He was faithful, He answered her prayer, but in His time.

And we see it here in Luke 1:41; “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leapt in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.” Even before birth, the last great prophet before the coming of the Christ begins stirring in the presence of the unborn Messiah, the King who will save God’s people from their sins.

In all of this, Mary is almost the complete opposite, isn’t she? Rather than long periods of barrenness before producing a champion of God or a great heir, she has the holy Ghost come upon her before she’d even been with Joseph. Whereas so many of these people as a married couple prayed constantly to God over many years – in the bitterness of their souls – Mary is made pregnant at a time such a thing would hardly have been socially acceptable. Nothing convenient, nothing that you would normally associate with great joy.
So Elizabeth’s Spirit-filled words of prophecy and blessing must have felt like cool refreshing rain to Mary. “Blessed are you among women – and blessed is the child that you will bear!” There are very few things in the world that beat being told that your kid is good, or smart, or funny, or even polite. But when someone would pray over Fiona’s “bump”… and pray God’s blessing on the belly… well, that was a whole different ballgame. Heck – Mary had hardly put her bags down before Elizabeth opens up. I don’t even know if Mary’s had a chance to tell Elizabeth that she’s pregnant too, before Elizabeth comes out with this extraordinary statement… “Why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Already, the unborn child has been identified as Lord – by the mother of the one who will prepare his path.

Here’s something I always find strange – it’s the kind of healing that God’s Spirit brings. A lot of people I know who have suffered long-term pain tend to be very guarded, and spontaneous bursts of joy aren’t always an obvious feature. And yet Elizabeth sounds like she’s jumping up and down on the furniture in her excitemet and her joy. The Lord has given her joy back.

And Mary said...

"My soul glorifies the Lord

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has been mindful

of the humble state of his servant.

From now on all generations will call me blessed,

for the Mighty One has done great things for me—

holy is his name.

His mercy extends to those who fear him,

from generation to generation.

He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;

he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

He has brought down rulers from their thrones

but has lifted up the humble.

He has filled the hungry with good things

but has sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,

remembering to be merciful

to Abraham and his descendants forever,

even as he said to our fathers."

It’s a bit like those scenes in the run-up to the American election, with Barack Obama quietly, gently, asking people in the audience what they, as people, could do. And the great optimistic answer would come back, quietly whispered, but determined; “Yes we can.”
Matt asked the question – “Can we trust God and His Word?” Yes, we can.
Last week the question was – “Do we trust God and His Word?” Yes, we do.

The question worth asking as we look at these great heroes of the Bible – not great warriors or mighty kings, but extraordinarily faithful prayers and women of unimaginable endurance and strength – the question is really – “How can we trust God and His Word?”

With prayer. With endurance when we cannot see the end. With hope even in places and times where there is no hope that we can see. With sure and certain knowledge that God is sovereign, God is in control of everything, and that all things happen according to His plan – even when we’re tempted to think we’re bad planners. But with prayer. Pray when you’re tired, weary, exhausted, frightened, angry, frustrated at the Lord because nothing appears to be working out right… but pray.

The Lord our God is faithful. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

His steadfast love endures forever!

[1] Luke 1:35
[2] Luke 1:13
[3] Gen 18:12
[4] Rom 4:13, 18

Image courtesy of http://flickr.com/photos/ingegoesbroadway/2577268694/in/set-72157605088609705/

Lk1:26-38 THE HERALD ANGEL

2008-12-17T00:31:00.006+11:00

Sermon
Gymea Anglican Church
7:45am, 9:30am

Christmas is one of the increasingly rare times of the year when there's actually a good level of public awareness of the back-story behind one of the big events of the year. In general, people know more about the Bible's narrative of Christmas than any other story in the Bible. Kids in particular know that baby Jesus was placed in a manger. They mightn't know what a manger is, but they know Jesus was in one.

They know that there’s a big, bright star, that angels come and shepherds go, that the wise men come (let's leave off how many for a moment), and they all come to worship the baby King Jesus.

That’s a huge piece of Gospel truth right there, embedded so deeply in our culture we almost miss it altogether. The kids know it better than the adults – King Jesus. Isn’t it strange? We wise, knowing adults are ready to question almost every aspect of that great Christian legend of Christmas, whereas the kids are the ones who show us how to hold the truth. No wonder we see Jesus, later on in Luke’s Gospel, saying; “I praise you, Father, Lord of Heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.” [1]

We’re looking at part of the traditional Christmas story, and it's a traditional time to talk about it. But in reality, this is something that (of course) happened a good nine months before Jesus was born. For those who follow lectionaries and church calendars, the Annunciation (the announcement by the angel Gabriel) is celebrated on March the 25th, exactly nine months before December 25th. So this is 8 ½ months late. Sorry.

Before we look closely at Luke's acount of this event, it's worth having a look at the chunk beforehand. [2] In that twenty-verse chunk there was another story involving the angel Gabriel. And, as Luke notes, that happened six months previous to this… so, figure about fourteen months before the birth of Jesus.

The angel Gabriel appeared to a man by the name of Zechariah. Zechariah was a priest, and on this day his job was to enter the Temple and burn incense before the Lord. Lots of people were outside, but only Zecariah would have been allowed inside. An angel was suddenly inside with him, in the smoke – and Zechariah’s reaction tells us something about angels… Luke 1:12 – “He was startled and was gripped with fear.” The Greek puts it slightly more – “and seeing him, Zechariah was terror-filled, and fear fell on him.”

Ditch the normal mental picture of pretty wings and halos and wearing white pillow-cases. Angels aren’t cute, pretty or delicate. They aren't likely to sit gently on the top of a Christmas tree. Nor are they likely to dance on the head of a pin. Angels are supernaturally powerful, immortal beings. They’re terrifyingly real. And they speak with authority, because they carry messages directly from the Lord God Almighty himself. There’s something about the physical presence of these creatures that is intensely intimidating, too. Gabriel’s first words sum up the human experience of angels right through the Old Testament… “Do not be afraid.”

Gabriel tells Zechariah that he and his wife will have a child. Zechariah asks just one question – “How can I be sure of this?” It's worth noting at this point the startling ability of men to ask the dumbest questions… how can I be sure of this? Because she’ll get a really big tummy, swollen ankles, a frightening temper and a desire for garlic ice-cream at three o’clock in the morning?
Gabriel’s response puts the priest in his place. “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news.” And Zechariah is struck dumb for his doubt, never to utter another word until he has obeyed the Lord's word in full.

Angels generally don’t announce babies, notwithstanding what the gift-card industry suggests. The Word of the Lord hadn’t been heard in the land since the prophet Malachi, four hundred years earlier. So why here? Why now? What was so extraordinary about this child that the Lord God would send an angel? Gabriel indicates to Zechariah that this baby would grow to be unique, filled with the Holy Spirit from birth, like Samuel a child dedicated to God from birth, to become a man who would “go on before the Lord, in the Spirit and the power of Elijah… to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” [3] This was to be one child marked from birth. And when Zechariah emerges, stunned and speechless from inside the Temple, we’re told that everybody realised that he’d received a vision. When his time of service was completed, he returned home. And Elizabeth became pregnant.

Luke 1:26 – “In the sixth month God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendent of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.”

News travels through families very quickly, doesn’t it? I think any time there’s a pregnancy, there’s a sense of managing the news before the news just escapes and runs away. So when Gabriel comes before Mary and greets her as one highly-favoured, and tells her the Lord was with her, I’m not surprised that she was a little edgy... especially if she's heard that it was an angel that took Zechariah's speech (and, as a side-thought, possibly his hearing as well; look very closely at Luke 1:62). So we see in verse 29 – “But Mary was greatly troubled at his words, and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.” Gabriel again tells her not to be afraid, and repeats that she has found favour with God.
It’s amazing how the world completely turns on just a couple of words. Simple sentences. “Will you marry me?” “I have your medical results back.” “We’re going to have a baby.” “It’s a boy.” Some of life’s most profoundly moving moments come in the simplest of sentences. The entire world’s orbit is changed forever as the coming of the Son of the Most High, Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel is announced…

But it’s announced quietly, to an audience of one.
In response to her question, Gabriel explains in verse 35 what will happen to Mary – that the Holy Spirit will come upon her, and that the power of the Most High will overshadow her – so the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. He reminds her of Elizabeth’s case, pregnant in old age, and reminds her that nothing is impossible with God.

Here’s a thing. Zechariah asks the angel a question - How can I be sure of this? Mary asks the angel a question - how will this be? Why is one question punished harshly, and the other answered so openly and gently?
Zechariah’s question comes from a place of disbelief. He’s a priest, in the temple, and God speaks directly to His priest through a herald-angel. Zechariah has no excuses, as far as Gabriel is concerned, for his disbelief. He should be prepared for the Lord to speak, but clearly is not – and the poor old man is dealt with, in a way that would be recognised very publicly. Big warning-sign… do not doubt the Word of Yahweh!
But what about Mary’s question? “How will this be since I am a virgin?” Is that a question coming from a place of disbelief? How is it possible for a virgin to remain a virgin and yet give birth?
Her question says something of her honour – she certainly wasn’t prepared to break that law, even with her husband-to-be, before it was right to do so. Pre-marital pregnancy was beyond shameful – it would disgrace Mary and her family, as well as Joseph and his. It makes her final word all the more amazing. Verse 38: “I am the Lord’s servant – may it be to me as you have said.”

That’s obedience, isn’t it? She knew full well that she faced the possibility of rejection by her husband, ostracism from society in general and her family in particular. And yet she takes it on.

I realize that I’m going against the trend at the moment. I’m being a highly unfashionable preacher. The current trends, as far as I can tell, is to leave the whole matter of the Virgin Birth alone. It’s an odd thing, it’s outside any scientific paradigm, it’s something that people find hard to believe…
And at points like this, at points where there are difficulties, at points where belief is hard, we are actively encouraged to put our faith in these things aside. "Oh, it’s too difficult. Don’t strain yourself trying to get your head around these things that are too hard. God wouldn't really do that, would he? The Virgin Birth is a legend – a myth. The resurrection isn't really believable... the authors of these books are hardly credible historians, are they?" Sadly – tragically – shamefully - these cries are coming as much from pulpits and bishops as they come from the world outside. Be careful.

So why is it so important? Why make such a big deal out of it?
Matthew records Jesus saying “Anyone who receives you receives me, and anyone who receives me receives the One who sent me”. Matthew records Jesus saying “All things have been committed to me by my Father, and no-one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him”. And, crucially, when Peter declares to Jesus “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”, Matthew records Jesus saying “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man but by my Father in Heaven”.

What are we to make of these claims that Jesus makes of himself? If, as more and more people are content to believe, he was the son of two humans (no matter how remarkable they were), where do these outlandish claims take us? Certainly, Jesus' sayings and parables show that he deserves titles like “a great teacher” and “influential philosopher” and “wise man.” And, to be sure, most people today are more than happy to accord Jesus that honour.

But can he still be called a great teacher as he makes these claims of himself? Can a teacher be half-wise and half-delusional? If he is a liar, should we trust any of his wisdom? Next question, by logical extension… If this book, these accounts, this Bible, is full of half-truths instead of the truth… can I trust the God that I find in these pages with my soul?

How will this be, since I am a virgin? Can a Virgin Birth be proven? Can I give you scientific, rock-solid, absolutely irrefutable evidence that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit instead of by normal human agency?
In an age of science and reason, where scientists declare that if it can't be proven it cannot be said to have happened, I have to say... no. There is no scientific, rock-solid, absolutely irrefutable evidence that would satisfy these criteria that I can provide for you.
What I can do is point to the Scriptures. And there are one or two things that should be considered here. Even the harshest secular literary scholars agree on one thing. If these writings about Mary and Joseph and Jesus' miraculous birth were an invented myth, devised by the early Church... they shouldn't look like this.
* It's not myth – certainly not in the classical vein of mythology. Remember, Luke was writing to Theophilus, and whereas most of the classical mythical writers (like Homer) wrote highly-stylised poetry or lyrical stories for oral story-telling, Luke and Acts bear all the hallmarks of a written factual account in documented form.
There were certainly many myths concerning Greek and Roman gods who used all sorts of tricks to sleep with humans – and often in these stories a child happened afterwards. Traditionally, the resultant unwanted child would often become a nemesis to the father (look up the origin of the word nemesis!). Luke and Matthew make it completely clear that there is no accident – the direct will of God the Father brings forth the Son of God in flesh. The Father loves his Son, and the Son remains obedient to the Father - even to his death. That flies in the face of any mythological pattern that I can recall.
*It's overly simple One of the greatest arguments in favour of the truth of these Gospel accounts is, quite simply, that they are so simple. Matthew and Luke simply state what was. If it were a literary invention, there would be far more explanations attached, and a far-larger back-story. The thought that it was a First-Century addition actually creates more problems... why would you add such a strange, outrageous, unproveable, unbelievable portion?
The old 1662 Book of Common Prayer puts it just as simply. Being of one substance with the Father – who, for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. There is simply nothing remotely like this anywhere else. Matthew and Luke don't give any stylised details of how this might have happened. It was enough to note that it occurred. The how is utterly irrelevant to them.

The why becomes apparent as you read the Gospels – only the Son of God has the authority to forgive sins. The Pharisees were absolutely right about one thing – only God can forgive sins. Only the Son of God can take every sin and place it upon himself. Only His blood, shed at great cost and pain, can atone for me and my rebellion against God the Father. Only the Son of God can save... me.
That’s why the question is so important. That’s why we bother working through the difficult bits. That’s why.

Mary’s reply to all of this amazes me every time I read this. Verse 38: “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” Simple belief, despite the enormous impact that this will have on her life. Great risk, great cost. I look at the difference between Zechariah’s terrified disbelief and Mary’s quiet, thoughtful, understanding acceptance and obedience. I find myself wondering what I’d do, what I’d say if I found myself in Zechariah’s place. Would I do any better?

*Here’s a question. If you were visited by a herald angel, what would you do? Would you freeze with fear? Would you do what Zechariah did and have great trouble believing the message of the Lord? Would you be like Gideon, who needed to see proofs before he’d believe that the angel spoke the word of God?
Because that, in essence, is the choice that we're given when we approach the Word of God. We read it. We study it. Sometimes we are perplexed by it, sometimes we don’t understand all of it. And that’s fair enough – I don’t think that there are too many people who would be brave enough to put up their hand to say “I understand all of the Bible.”
But here’s the real question. Do we trust it? The question isn’t “Can we trust it” – Matt looked at that one last week – but “do we trust it?” Do we accept what this book says about Jesus, what it says about God, what it says about us as fallen men and women? Do we trust it?

Children around the world are poking at Nativity sets, either in churches, front lawns, living rooms or in shopping centres. They know Santa, and they probably know the names of all the reindeer. But…
They know that the shepherds came to Bethlehem to see the baby King Jesus.

They know that the wise men came with gifts and worshiped King Jesus.

They always know which one the Virgin Mary is, and that Joseph stands right beside her.

And they know that in that little nest of straw lies King Jesus. They don’t see the irony of the King of heaven and earth lying in a cow’s feed-box. But they know who the King is.
The most important question we can possibly ask as we approach Bethlehem through this week and the next, is “do we know the King?”

“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

[4] Let me encourage you over the next couple of weeks... be childish this Christmas!

Amen.

[1] Luke 10:21
[2] Luke 1:5-25
[3] Luke 1:17
[4] Luke 18:16-17

Beauty? ...or Beauty?

2008-11-21T21:32:00.005+11:00

(I'm making a little room on the Sofa for my beautiful wife, Fiona. She was invited to speak at a women's breakfast in Drummoyne... so I'm going to shuffle off the Sofa for a couple of minutes. Fiona's turn, now.)

I rediscovered something recently – I wonder if you can guess what it is?
Like an Amex card, some of us won’t leave home without it...
Some of us bring it out for special occasions only...
Sometimes we play it down, sometimes we want it bold and dramatic...
We use it to define and enhance. And sometimes we may even use it as a mask, something to hide behind...
Has anyone guessed?
MAKEUP!!!
Oooh, I’ve been having fun – trying colours and different looks, buying tools of the trade, learning how to apply it. Do I want a quick 5 minute job? Or do I want the full-face 30 minute, knock-your-socks-off, drop-dead gorgeous look?

They say that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So when I behold myself in the mirror do I see myself as beautiful?
There are days when I look in the mirror and think, ‘You look a bit of alright today’. I can put on my Sunday best and do my makeup, look at myself and I feel perked up. Yep, even beautiful.

Beauty attracts. We’re drawn to beautiful things: a beautiful landscape can move us, the rose in our garden cries out for us to smell and touch it. The vast night sky makes us stare in wonder…
God’s not silly, he knows what we’re like – he created us, after all. He knows we’ll be attracted by the beauty he created so that, in that attraction, we may question… Who is it that could masterfully piece together our beautiful earth in the midst of this universe? Who is the Source of beauty?
And yet, the Bible says that this earthly beauty is fleeting and will vanish like smoke (Psalm 37:20)
So the nature of aesthetic beauty is to fade, to disappear. I guess we know this in our society, and that’s why all manner of beauty treatments, fitness classes, diets and cosmetic surgeries are popular. We want our aesthetic beauty to last.

My Gran used to say before she went out, “I’ll just go and put on a bit of face.” I loved watching her apply her powder compact over her web of laughter lines, pursing her lips into perfect pinkness and yet, even had she no makeup on, I still considered her beautiful.
So what defined her beauty in my eyes? It was who she was, what she stood for, the words, the gestures, the laughter, the fun, her honesty – her spirit.

You know, I was hard pressed looking for other illustrations of beauty this week.
This week I certainly did not feel beautiful. We all suffered from a virus. I felt more like a sweaty, wrung-out dishrag than beautiful. And the icing on that cake was getting my periods. So you can imagine how beautiful I was feeling.
Did I look beautiful sitting there covered in the vomit of my 18 month old with my unwashed hair and unbrushed teeth?
Did I sound beautiful when I yelled at my husband that he cared more for others than he did for me, even though he had patted me mid-vomit then flushed the evidence away?
My husband has been beautiful this week…
In the middle of his yearly exams, in his first year of theological college, feeling under the weather himself… he’s cleaned up after 2 sick kids and his wife, organised a 3rd child, went shopping, got dinner, bought lucozade and lemonade, cleaned the kitchen and held his tongue when I haven’t held mine.
He showed his beautiful spirit.

My husband is studying Greek as part of his course. In the Greek there are two meanings for beauty. One is aesthetic beauty. The other is ethical beauty. We know what aesthetic beauty looks like.

So... what does ethical beauty look like?

That which is good, right, proper.
That which is fitting, better, honourable.
That which is honest, fine, precious….beautiful.
This is the beauty I saw reflected in my Grandma and my husband. The beauty reflected in their choices, their behaviours, their character.
So what does the Bible say to women about ethical beauty?
‘Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewellery and fine clothes. Instead it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.’
(1Peter 3:3,4 NIV)
So what is this unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit? What does it look like?

A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.
Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.
She brings him good, not harm, all the days of her life.
She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.
She is like the merchant ships, bringing food from afar.
She gets up while it is still dark; she provides food for her family and portions for her servant girls.
She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.
She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks.
She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night.
In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers.
She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.
When it snows, she has no fear for her household; for all of them are clothed in scarlet.
She makes coverings for her bed; she is clothed in fine linen and purple.
Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies the merchants with sashes.
She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.
She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.
She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:

“Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.”
Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

Give her the reward she has earned, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate. (Proverbs 31:10-31)

A virtuous woman. A woman of strength. She’s certainly industrious. Efficient. Organised. Busy. Yet, in the midst of her busyness…
She’s wise, faithful, nurturing. Her husband trusts her.
Her children openly praise her. She reaches out to those in need.
She’s wise in investing in her family’s future. She’s dignified in how she conducts herself.
She’s outwardly beautiful and inwardly beautiful.
So, what’s the key to her success?

She first fears, gives reverence to, God. He’s her Lord, her Boss. She recognises her Creator and places him above all things because she’s wise enough to understand that he has made all things and knows all things and that he just might know how to help her.

The other thing that happens when we put God first is he gives us his Spirit, so we can actually reflect his character.

The Bible says the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. (Galatians 5:21-23)

Are they good, right, proper, fitting, better, honourable, honest, fine, precious?
Are they beautiful?

Jesus was involved in a bold act perpetrated by a beautiful woman. This woman was an outcast, a sinner. Yet she had heard the Good News – her sins could be forgiven.
Attending to him in humility and thankfulness she approaches Jesus.
In a profound act of beauty she breaks open an alabaster jar of very expensive imported perfume. Perhaps her only possession of worth. It contains enough for one application only. Yet she chooses to pour the perfume on Jesus’ head. Anointing him, blessing him, thanking him for setting her free.
Now some folks there tried to put her down but Jesus – he stands up for her. Listen to what he says.
“Leave her alone. Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare me for burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her.” (Mark 14:6-9)
Her good act... her fitting act... her honourable act... her precious act... her beautiful act is honoured now and forever by Jesus. He sees her beautiful act, compelled by the unfading beauty of her gentle and quiet spirit. And she is given GREAT worth by God. She’s remembered, she’s forgiven, she’s loved.

The Bible says, “For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1Sam 16:7)
So if God looks at your heart, my heart, what does he see?
Does he see a beautiful woman, trusting him, relying on his Spirit to change us daily to become a beautiful reflection of him?

And if those around you look at you what do they see?
A beautiful woman, styled hair, great shoes and your face on?
Or do they see someone wise, trustworthy, generous, kind, patient, good, faithful, gentle, honourable...
A woman of beauty?

Let me pray.

Father in Heaven,
Thank you for the beauty of your creation. Thank you that we – the women gathered here - are part of that beauty.
Lord, you know our hearts, restore them to beauty. Let us not rely on our outward beauty but prompt us to seek You and all that You consider beautiful.
Thank you for the beautiful gift of your Son Jesus that we might find forgiveness and restoration with You.
Renew Your Spirit within us that we may exhibit the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.
For those who don’t know you Lord but want to know more about you, gently guide them in love and understanding to your Truth.
Bless us all now as we spend time together and share our beauty with each other.

We ask in Jesus name,
Amen.

Matt6:19-36 FAITH TRUST CONFIDENCE Part 3

2008-11-03T12:59:00.007+11:00

Part of the "Design of a Disciple" series

2nd November, 2008

"If you’re not trusting in Jesus here, you will either fall to greed or fall to anxiety. And both of those are absolute markers of our society today." From Part 1

"What’s the mark of a follower here? What’s the design of a disciple look like? Faith, trust, confidence. Someone who trusts God with everything… even money. And that’s not easy. It’s downright scary." From Part 2

For those of you who are still at home with Mum and Dad, please… recognise that, especially in times like today, this whole money thing is incredibly, incredibly stressful for them. If you ask your mum or dad for something, and they say no, we can’t afford it… please – honour you father and your mother by not fighting back on that one. As a dad, let me tell you – it hurts when I can’t provide Grace with something that she has asked me for. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that if I could afford it I’d buy her whatever she asks… but not being able to is heartbreaking.

For those of us who have to pay the rent or the mortgage, find money for the groceries, struggle desperately to figure out what we’ll have to miss out on to make sure the kids don’t dip out… How do we do it?

How do we look at Jesus saying do not worry and stop ourselves going – yeah, right in our souls? How do we obey the command do not worry?
For some of us, it can feel irresponsible, it can feel like poor stewardship, it can feel like very poor management. When I told my in-laws that I was leaving my job to pursue full-time study at Moore College, it was pretty hard for Fiona’s mum to completely hide her feelings. She tried, but you could see her trying so hard not to say that’s unbelievably reckless… and, by the way, that’s my daughter and my grandkids you’re dragging through the hedge. And you know what? I really could see her side of that.

For some of us, the trust and faith and confidence to be able to not worry is going to be as alien as breathing underwater. It feels all wrong.

I got a SCUBA licence eight years ago. Now – I’ve always loved diving and snorkelling, I’ve done it most of my life, and to me using a snorkel is the most natural thing in the world. (Fiona, on the other hand, finds it totally freaky to stick a bit of rubber in her gob and stick her head underwater… it seriously gives her the willies thinking about it.) I’m used to it, though.

But the first time I used an aqualung – an air-tank and a regulator - I couldn’t trust myself to breathe any lower under the water than when I used a snorkel. Until I was totally committed to moving lower and lower and lower – and still trusting this thing in my mouth to deliver my air and keep me alive – I was never going to be able to leave the surface. But once I did… and was able to move down and down and around and down, the world changed forever.

When I dive, I have a couple of gauges – a compass, a pressure gauge and depth gauge, and I use a watch so I know the limits of my air and a few other things. It means I’m careful of my resources, I’m conscious of them, I have a requirement and a responsibility to be planned and disciplined.
But I still need to trust enough to breathe normally. If I’m too anxious I’ll never leave the surface. If I’m too greedy and dive outside my limits, I’ll run out of air really quickly, and I’ll set myself up for a whole heap of very real and very horrible dangers.
If I trust what my instructor says, if I breathe slowly, deeply and constantly, I’ll be able to move in one of the most amazing environments that God has made. And it’s beautiful.

Jesus asks a lot of us here, make no mistake. In the most troubling times he says trust God. But he says trust God because these are the most troubling times. Do not let your hearts be troubled, he told his disciples. Trust God, trust also in me. Where was Jesus when he said this? In a room at the end of a Passover meal, a few hours before his arrest, torture and execution. But despite this – really because of it – his words ring with the warmest of comfort. Have a listen… In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you... and if I go there to prepare a place for you, I will come and receive you to myself, so that where I am you may be also. You know the way that I am going.

You know what I really love? In amongst this hard, hard teaching that we find in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus points us irresistibly to the beauty that His father – our heavenly Father – has made. I’m going to close by letting Jesus’ words reassure us, by letting what Jesus says about our Father assure us that we can place our trust and our faith and our confidence in the living God. Let’s eavesdrop in…

Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Matt6:19-36 FAITH TRUST CONFIDENCE Part 2

2008-11-03T12:38:00.007+11:00

Part of the "Design of a Disciple" series
2nd November, 2008

"It is, I think, impossible to grasp Jesus’ command to not worry without understanding that he is asking for us – as people of God – to put our faith and our trust and our confidence in him. Alone...
"Here we come down to faith, down to trust, down to confidence... if you’re not trusting in Jesus here, you will either fall to greed or fall to anxiety. And both of those are absolute markers of our society today." (From Part 1)

Matthew 6:19 Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. Let’s not misunderstand this. It’s not saying we should have nothing to do with money. It’s not saying that the holiest thing we can do is to swear vows of poverty and give it all to the church. It's not saying that putting money in the bank or superannuation account is wrong.

It is saying this. If you’re stockpiling, ask yourself why. You only stockpile things that you trust – nobody stockpiles junk. Be wise, be shrewd, be careful and responsible stewards with what God has given you – the Bible’s very clear about that, too. But don’t hoard out of a lack of trust in God. Don't hoard, fearing that the Lord will suddenly stop providing for you.

Moving on a mite – Matthew 6:22 The eye is the lamp of the body. Now this bit used to puzzle me. Good eyes, bad eyes, evil eyes, black eyes… all a bit Halloween, really. It feels pretty random, here in a patch about treasure, money and trust. It sounds like something that should be over in Chapter 5 (with the eyes being plucked out and tossed away). And this is one of those passages where critics point to, and say it's evidence that what we’ve got here in Matthew 5-7 wasn’t really a sermon – it's a chopped-up mash of teachings, put together by a sloppy editor later.

But here’s something really interesting – they’re wrong. It’s right where it should be. A Jewish Christian by the name of David Stern did a commentary on the New Testament[1], and he made this observation: “In Judaism, having a good eye (ayin tovah) means being generous, and having a bad eye (ayin ra’ah) means being stingy. That this is the correct interpretation is confirmed by the context, greed and anxiety about money being the topic in both the preceding and following verses.” A good eye means being generous, a bad eye means being a miser. In that light, look at verses 22-23 again.
The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. So if the light in you is darkness - how deep is that darkness!
If you’re generous to others, if you trust God enough to let go of some of your money to help other people, then you glow! Go back to a verse Matty talked about three weeks ago – Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works and praise your Father in heaven. And you know what? That sounds like it fits there just fine. Doesn’t it?

Next step in the same thought. No-one can serve two masters. Now, if you’ve just been told that the darkness in you is great, if you’ve been described by Jesus as having a bad eye, as being stingy…are you in control of your money, or is the money in control of you? Who’s working for whom? Are you in darkness or are you in light? Remember what we saw when Jesus talked about murder, adultery, righteousness…
What he’s talking about is the real state of the heart, the real heart that drives actions – not actions designed to cover up the heart.

Here’s a quiet little test to subject ourselves to… is my view of money, is my treatment of money, driven by anxiety and fear of it running out? Is it driven by greed for more, envy at what others have, for a little more luxury and comfort? Or is it driven by a genuine understanding and trust that God is in control? No-one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

What’s the mark of a follower here? What’s the design of a disciple? Faith, trust, confidence. Someone who trusts God with everything… even money.
And that’s not easy.

It’s downright scary.

Next: True Trust

Image from http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/3041/1ingodwetrustzv1.jpg
[1] For more information on the work of David Stern visit http://www.messianicjewish.net/jntp/index.html

Matt 6:19-34 FAITH TRUST CONFIDENCE Part 1

2008-11-03T12:11:00.005+11:00

Part of the "Design of A Disciple" series

2nd November, 2008

I love YouTube. I get to find old things. The Muppet Show, old David Attenborough documentaries, Star Wars bloopers. I am a nerd at heart.

I re-discovered Bobby McFerrin the other day. Who remembers Bobby McFerrin? In 1988, this really simple a capella song turned up in the soundtrack of a movie called Cocktail. It was called Don’t Worry, Be Happy.

It was a great song. It really made you smile. Some of it had to do with the fact that McFerrin is a very, very gifted musician and composer. But the other part was that 1988 was a very worrying year.

In October 1987 the world stock-markets took a massive hit, and for the first time since 1929 people began to seriously lose confidence in the whole financial system. Unemployment figures grew wings, inflation figures inflated, the Australian Treasurer, Paul Keating, did the unthinkable and called it for what it was – "the recession that we had to have" – and all over the country, everyone was frightened stiff about something they couldn’t really see, hear, touch or smell…
And in waltzed this song… Don’t worry, be happy.
You couldn’t help yourself. You had to smile. It really was a breath of fresh air, and… people smiled a lot. It was the circuit-breaker.

So here we are. 2008.

The world stock-markets have taken a massive hit, and for the first time since 1987, people are seriously losing confidence in the whole financial system.

Inflation figures haven’t started showing it yet, but how many people have noticed prices rising on even the staple things? There’s still a drought that hasn’t really broken, there are leaders from all around the world trying desperately not to mention the “R” word.

And all over the country, everyone is frightened stiff about something we can’t really see, hear, touch or smell…

And it’s at times like this when we feel like we need a circuit breaker. How do you feel reading Jesus’ comments here… Therefore I tell you do not worry about your life… Do not worry about what to eat and what to drink and what to wear… therefore do not worry about tomorrow… It’s a pretty good circuit-breaker, isn’t it? It can come across as being like Bobby McFerrin – Don’t Worry, Be Happy.

It’s nothing of the sort.

It’s one of Jesus’ hardest teachings. Listen to the difference. If you prefer Bob Marley's famous Three Little Birds, "don’t worry about a thing, Every little thing’s gonna be alright…"
Matthew 6:34 Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Don’t worry. Do not worry. As a word of command, Jesus’ words are… odd. Unsettling. They are a command, they are active orders. Do Not Be Anxious. There’s evil out there today, there’s evil in tomorrow. As for you, do not worry. And that, I think, is a whole different kettle.

We’re looking at Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, we’re looking at how Jesus defines a truly righteous life, a life defined by grace, compassion and forgiveness – the design of a disciple. What does this tell us?

It is, I think, impossible to grasp Jesus’ command to not worry without understanding that he is asking for us – as people of God – to put our faith and our trust and our confidence in him. Alone.

Here we come down to faith, down to trust, down to confidence.

Here’s irony for you. Money works purely on faith, trust and confidence. I asked someone yesterday how much he thought $100 note was worth. He screwed up his face for a second before coming up with the answer of 0.005c. Now before you assume that this anonymous gentleman had lost his mind from too much happy-18th-birthday-Riley-cake… he’s probably about right. A sheet of polymer, with some odd inks, cut into lots of little pieces, chances are that each note would be about that. So I said to him, “If it’s that worthless, how would you feel if I took any that you had.” And, to be fair, his face said it all… just try it! But… why do we believe that a piece of paper, which probably is worth no more than 0.005c, is actually worth $100? We… just believe it is.

Faith, trust, confidence. I have faith that this paper is worth what it says it is. I trust that if someone is paying me in this form, I’ve actually been paid. Confidence that, when I go to Coles or the petrol station or Smiggle or St Vinnies (best place for t-shirts!), I can redeem the value of my labour and obtain goods and services. And while all is well, that works.
Here’s the problem.What happens when something goes wrong?

If faith in the value goes out the window, we get something like what’s happening in Zimbabwe, with 231,000,000% inflation, and a 100 billion dollar note has been issued – it’s got the buying power now of 20c.
If confidence is rattled, people want to hang onto their money, just in case. Money doesn’t get spent, other people down the line don’t get paid… unemployment, bankruptcy and economic paralysis.

Money is a dangerous, dangerous thing to put faith and trust and confidence in.

But more dangerous – far more dangerous – than any of these horrifying economic situations, is what happens to a heart if our faith, our trust and our confidence rests in money. If you were here on Thursday for the confirmation service, you might have picked up on what Al Stewart was saying, and I think he was right on the pulse there – if you’re not trusting in Jesus here, you will either fall to greed or fall to anxiety. And both of those are absolute markers of our society today. Greed or anxiety. Advertisers know those two buttons, and they push them. Hard.

Next: What does Jesus say? Money, treasure, trust...

Image from http://arcc4life.com/020314_1375_0051_lsls.jpg

Lk 10:25-37 NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH

2008-10-28T12:43:00.005+11:00

There’s a whole genre of movies that basically aim to re-tell history – to tell the untold story behind the well-known tale. The most recent that comes to mind is one with possibly the longest title I’ve ever heard: The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. There’s something pretty appealing about looking at a familiar story in a very different light.

Jesus was a master storyteller. In Luke’s Gospel, we see one lawyer on a mission to test him, and Jesus turns the tables on the lawyer – simply by not giving a direct answer. I’m pretty sure the lawyer blinked hard a couple of times at that. It’s what lawyers are famous for, isn’t it?
“Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“In the Law, what has been written? How do you read it?”
The lawyer is suddenly answering his own question. And he’s good with the answer, too. His reply comes from two different books of Moses’ law – widely spaced but equally recognized by Pharisee and Sadducee. Deuteronomy 6:5 “You will love the Lord your God with all your heart and your soul and your mind and your strength.” Leviticus 19:18; “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus twists the lawyer’s tail a bit, too – “You have given the right answer; do this and you shall live.” The lawyer, out to trap, gets his own answer approved by his target.
The lawyer’s been considerably embarrassed. Jewish society put a lot of store in word-plays and cleverness with language – and a lawyer should be at the top of his game. Jesus has just flipped him, though, and he’s wearing a little egg.
It’s hardly surprising that his next question is put out there to justify himself. “'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ And who is my neighbor?”
At this point, Jesus tells a rather surprising tale. We’re all used to it, we’ve known it since Sunday School or Kids Church or Scripture – the Good Samaritan. My guess is that if you all had a sheet of paper, you’d be able to scribble the main line of the story down pretty quickly, and maybe even word-for-word.

Here’s a surprise. Jesus’ listeners would have been able to do the same (well, those who could write), and their answer would be longer than yours. It wasn’t called the Good Samaritan, but it was a well-known Greek story. And Greek stories were popular, even in Jewish Palestine.

There was a guy, and he was really down on his luck. He was walking from Jerusalem to Jericho, and the one thing guaranteed to happen to a guy down on his luck… happened. He got robbed, stripped, beaten to within an inch of his life and left for vulture-bait.
Man number one walks past and does exactly the right thing – he gives him a wide berth. Jesus adds the element that he was a priest who ran the risk of becoming unclean. An unclean priest would be as welcome in Jerusalem as one of Bob’s breakfasts – so he does the sensible thing. Jesus’ audience would have approved. A Levite does exactly the same thing, for the same reason. Good call.
But along comes the stumblebum – Jesus adds a local touch for good measure; the stumblebum’s a Samaritan. This guy is the butt of more jokes than a Kiwi sheep farmer. He’s actually considered an unperson – worse than a Gentile. He’s the idiot, he’s the fall-guy of the story.

As evidence of his stupidity, he is filled with compassion at the sight of this beaten-up man lying on the road. He does some field first-aid with oil and wine and bandage, picks up the man, slings him over the donkey, takes him to an inn, and pays for the guy to stay until he’s better.

Familiar? Sort of…

The well-known story would continue. Bad luck was contagious. You never went to help someone who was unlucky enough to be robbed and left in the nude. You only lent an out-of-luck person a tiny bit of money. Bad luck was actively contagious, and would – at this point in the story – literally jump from the victim to the Samaritan, and the audience would cheer as a good storyteller would pile on the misfortunes that would follow the idiot that stopped to help. This was the turning-point in the story. Not just for the Samaritan, either. The guy who was beaten up would wake up in a hotel, fully paid-for, and would stay a long, long time. His bad luck had left him! Free holiday!
This is the point in the story when everyone would be leaning forward, listening in for the catalogue of woe that was about to descend on this Samaritan’s head. But Jesus is no ordinary story-teller. Right at the climax, he chops the story dead.

Right at the point where the Samaritan leaves himself open to be financially fleeced – “Take care of him, and when I come back I will repay you whatever more you spend” – Jesus shuts the story down, turns to the lawyer.

“Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”
He said, “The one who showed him mercy.”
And Jesus said to him, “You go, and you do the same.”

And twice the lawyer has the question come back at him. Once gently, and once with a lot of force. Who is my neighbor? Wrong question, champ. Who is that person’s neighbor? Who is that person’s?

The one who shows him mercy.

You go, and you do the same.

Reg has been encouraging us to begin to start praying for our neighbors – to pick three neighboring families, and to pray for them. Not just pray for them, but pray that they will be receptive to the Gospel, receptive to the moving and powerful Word of God, receptive to the saving love of our Saviour. I think that that’s one of the best things that we can do – long-term, planned prayer for our neighbors so that their hearts will be softened to the Good Message of our Lord’s grace.

But they’re not the only ones, are they? When we go out that door, we’ll re-enter the world of men, and the world of men is a place where the bruised and the mugged and the robbed and the crippled are lying on the ground. Occasionally physically, sometimes chemically, mostly spiritually. We know who they are.

We know that the wisdom of the world hasn’t changed. Leave them alone. Stay focused on your career – a workmate with a tarnished reputation can harm your own image, and these days your image is your worth. Step around them, do what you must do, but do not pity. It’s weakness, and it’ll be seen, and the bad luck will flow. You’ll lose value in the transaction. Save your reputation, only spend when there’s something in it for you.

The true, untold story of the Good Samaritan hasn’t stopped. It still rumbles on. If we listen, it’s very, very familiar – particularly in the world of men.

Jesus has marked out our place. Who is our neighbor? Wrong question. Who is that person’s neighbor? And that person’s?

The one who shows him mercy.
We go. And we do the same.
In Jesus’ name...

Amen

Artwork: Gustave Dore: Arrival of the Good Samaritan at the Inn (Woodcut) taken from http://reformedfaith.wordpress.com/2008/06/06/is-the-good-samaritan-no-more/ which is an interesting story, too...

Note: Scripture quotes from the UBS4 Greek.

Matt 5 (Part 4) THE UNBELIEVABLE

2008-10-22T08:47:00.011+11:00

Real Righteousness Part 4

Part of the "Design of a Disciple" series

Sunday 19th October, 2008 7pm service

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, life for life.[1]

Sounds like a pretty brutal code, doesn’t it?
It’s actually pretty natural. It’s how we naturally measure justice. And it’s all scriptural.

We know instinctively that if someone does wrong, they must make some sort of restitution - they should pay. Whether it’s a criminal through the judicial system or a bully getting expelled, there is some visceral satisfaction in the knowledge that the guilty have been made to pay... something.

Getting even means exactly that. Levelling the score means exactly that. Adding insult to injury means exactly that.

Jesus quotes it, again, as an example - but it's an odd example, isn't it? Particularly in light of what he advocates next - the total abandonment of any thoughts of vengeance. So why remind the people of an eye for an eye?

That law was intended to be more than a guide for punishment in harsh crimes. It was also a limiter - and a very effective one, too. It was a governor, embedded in the Laws of Moses, to ensure that punishment was kept appropriate to the crime, and that justice would not descend into vengeance. Because that's a natural part of our view of justice, too - that the payback includes a little interest. That the pushing-back is a little more forceful than the first shove.

Jesus quoted the scriptural mandate that limited punishment, and then avocated something utterly alien.

I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil.

The idea of simply standing still when someone’s taking a shot at us is… well, it’s stupid. Certainly, in the eyes of anyone around us, it’s a sign of weakness, an opportunity to invite further attack and exploitation.

Make no mistake, there is nothing natural about anything that Jesus is suggesting here. Look at verse 38. If someone smashes you on the cheek – physically assaults you – your natural instinct is to either flatten them or run away (possibly to find someone who can flatten your attacker for you). But Jesus says no – do no harm to your enemy. If anything, give him further room to have at you again.
Verse 39 – if someone tries to take the shirt off your back (and, incidentally, there were laws to stop an Israelite suing anyone out of their clothes, so this person is seriously out of line and deserves a clocking), give him more. Context – your coat's gone, your cloak's gone – you’re in the nuddy, now. You have given your enemy everything that you physically have.

That’s madness!

It’s irresponsible to the rest of your family and loved ones!

And it’s what Jesus asks.
Verse 42 – someone once said to me that if someone borrows $50 off you and you never see them again, it was probably money well-spent... Wrong motive, of course. Turn nobody away. Lend what you can to someone who needs, give when you're asked

Matty said it last week. This gets down so much into who we are. It’s so much more than what we do. Unless a genuine, Christ-centred love for our enemies is part of who we are, we’ll never be able to do this.

Unless a genuine, Christ-centred, Spirit-fuelled, God-inspired love for our enemies is part of who we are, we'll never be able to do it. As a matter of fact, we’ll never be able to understand it.

You want to weigh your heart? Ask yourself a question – do you want to see the person who has wronged you the most – cut you the deepest – ruined your world… do you want to see them in Heaven with God the Father and the risen Lord Jesus?
There’s nothing amazing about loving your friends. There's nothing wrong with that, but... it's what everybody does. How we take care of our own hardly sets us apart from the world.

Jesus' suggestion sets us apart massively. There’s nothing easy about loving your enemy, and sometimes the only assurance we can possibly have in this is... simply this.

It's exactly what Christ did. He loved His enemy. I'm not talking about the crucifixion, although he was the perfect model of to what extreme his love would physically go. Forgive them, Father, for they don't know what they do. But that's not the enemy I'm talking about.

I'm talking about another enemy.

An old enemy of God.

A rebel, an insurgent against his Father's rule. A usurper who wanted no sovereign hand over me… an enemy of God.

But Jesus loved His enemy.
Me.

Let me take you to Rome, when Paul’s letter was being read out. I want you to feel the force of these words: For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us! Much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, [then how] much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life! And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.[2]

Jesus asks us to do the unbelievable. Jesus asks us to do the completely unnatural. Jesus asks us to be a people whose lives are visibly defined by his grace. Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Here's the challenge.

Look at Michael Hart's observation of Christians as a whole, in their relationship to Jesus' words:

We do not normally practice love for our enemies, we do not expect others to practice it, we do not teach our children to practice it. Jesus’ most distinctive teaching therefore remains an intriguing but basically untried suggestion.[3]
It's not. It's not an untried suggestion. As hard as it is, and as poorly as we often do at this, we can keep our Master in our eyes. Because he did it first.

But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us!

Amen

[1] Exodus 21:23-5

[2] Romans 5:6-11

[3] Michael H. Hart, The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History. London: Simon & Schuster; 1993. p 21

Photograph [ via The Associated Press] appeared in a CBS news clip. The article itself is worth a read. Click onto

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/02/01/world/main2420546.shtml

Matt 5 (Part 3) MURDER ONE TWO THREE

2008-10-22T08:27:00.008+11:00

Real Righteousness Part 3
Part of the “Design of a Disciple” series

Sunday, 19th October, 2008 7pm service

"There’s a big difference between the righteousness of being compliant and the righteousness of being joyfully obedient." From Part I
“The fact is, adultery is a promise-breaking sin. It’s an act that breaks vows, and that’s something that flies hard in the face of God’s character.” From Part II

After chewing on something as heavy and as serious as adultery, we’re going to move back a few verses to find a lighter topic.
Murder.
Matthew chapter 5, verse 21… You’ve heard that it was said to the people long ago, “Do not murder”[1], and “anyone who murders will be subject to judgment”.
Knowing the nature of the internet, I’m not going to make the assumption that everyone who will ever read this has kept Commandment Number Six. But it would probably be fair to assume that the majority hasn’t broken it. That law hasn’t been broken by that many people. Well done. There’s that line again, the righteousness of obedience.
But what leads up to the line? Let’s listen to Jesus’ words again:
Whoever murders will be subject to judgment” – but I tell you that…
· Anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment;
· Anyone who says to his brother Raca [2] is answerable to the Sanhedrin [3];
· Anyone who says you fool will be in danger of the fire of hell.
That’s quite a sliding-scale, isn’t it? In the eyes of God, whoever is angry with his brother is on an equal footing with a murderer – judgment is coming.
Call a brother brainless, you’re up before the Supreme Court.
Call your brother a fool – you’re standing on the edge of hell...
Now that just plain frightens people.

There’s something here that makes me squirm, though. I think what really makes me uncomfortable is that we live in a culture where, even when we’re being friendly – actually, especially when we’re being friendly – we regularly couch our language in terms of contempt or derision. We use some pretty deadly terms as affectionate name-tags, but they’ve got an edge to them. You’re such a loser… Mate, that’s just so gay… lame… I haven’t even started, have I?
Here’s a measure of the depth of this world’s corruption. Even when we speak with love and affection, our language is absolutely shot through with terms of contempt, arrogance, poison. We don’t have to be angry with someone to do a killing job on them.
Be careful. Even among our closest friends…
Part of our knockabout culture is that brand of fun that hooks into the whole paying-out thing. You know how it goes… somebody makes a mistake, commits some social faux-pas, says something the wrong way, wears a pink shirt or the wrong clothes or whatever…
and we just mercilessly pound that person for days, weeks, months. And the worst part is that if the poor sucker is actually hurt, he can’t say much – because it’s only a joke, right? We’ve made a really sharp hook for a brother or sister to hang off, and we’ve left them with no way to get themselves off. We’re pretty free with saying “it’s just a joke” – or, even more callously, “it’s nothing personal”. Really?
It’s not that far a jump from talking to a brother or a sister like that to the beginnings of secretly holding them that way in our heart – even if it’s a little bit. If we’re comfortable with using that language to each others’ faces… maybe we’ve got some quiet contemplation and repenting to do.
I do. I find the whole paying-out thing pretty easy, and pretty fun. I’m good at it – really good at it – and I have absolutely no right to be proud of that.

Jesus then gives us two practical demonstrations, two ways that show how righteousness happens, what righteousness looks like. In the first example (Matthew 5:23-24), he puts us in a position where we’re in conflict with a brother or a sister.
The other (Matthew 5:24-6) is a situation where we’re in conflict with someone who is most definitely NOT a brother or a sister.
Here’s the trick – Jesus very quickly sketches two pictures, and in both scenarios he cleverly gives no suggestion at all that we’ve done wrong.
There’s no suggestion that we should repent, or that we have anything to repent of. For all we can tell, we’re the ones being falsely accused.
So when you are offering your gift at the altar, if you remember that your brother or sister has something against you [notice, not that I have some outstanding issue against my brother…] leave your gift there before front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.

Whether or not I’ve been wronged, Jesus has made it my responsibility to make things right. Sacrifices to God can wait – says God – until the heart is right. And here, again, is righteousness that exceeds beyond. See it?

Again, looking to the other example; if someone wants to have a crack at us – whether we deserve it or not – Jesus has made it my responsibility to do everything to make amends. Before I get taken to a place where others will judge between the two.

What’s that got to do with murder?
If I’m penalised unjustly, how hard is it going to be for me to think compassionately of my accuser? Or am I likely to languish in that prison, growing a little plant of bitterness? You have heard it said by the ancients, “You shall do no murder” – the righteousness of the Pharisees, and the line of the law – but I tell you that everyone who is angry with his brother is in danger of the same judgment as someone who has gone and murdered.
The righteousness that God requires of me means that I have to keep my heart so far away from that place. Not just a matter of keeping on this side of the line that the law describes, but keeping our hearts in a way that the line isn’t even approached.

Blessed are the peacemakers.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake.

[1] Jesus’ quote can be found at Exodus 20:13, Deuteronomy 5:17
[2] Aramaic word – basically, Raca means emptiness, with the implication of an empty skull.
[3] The Jewish Council in Jerusalem – we’d call it the Supreme Court.

Matt 5 (Part 2) SEMPER FIDELIS

2008-10-21T20:17:00.009+11:00

Real Righteousness Part 2
Part of the “Design of a Disciple” series

Sunday, 19th October, 2008 7pm service

“There’s a big difference between the righteousness of being compliant and the righteousness of being joyfully obedient.
There’s a big difference between the righteousness of the Pharisees and the righteousness that God is asking for.
If we can separate mere compliance from loving righteousness, we’re on our way to understanding…” From Part 1

Now that we’ve had a look at the way Jesus has separated mere obedience and real righteousness, I’m going to jump over to Matthew 5:27
You’ve heard it said that that “You shall not commit adultery”[1].
Well, that’s pretty easy to figure out if you’ve crossed that line or not, isn’t it? Excellent – we shouldn’t have any problems, then. No worries...
You know better. Adultery’s one thing we’d rather not talk about that much. But, just for the record, this is how seriously Jesus takes it. Listen to his language.

You have heard that it was said to the ancients, “You shall not commit adultery.” But I tell you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, tearit out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.[2]

That’s pretty extreme. And that’s twice he’s talked about hell.

In the Greek, his choice of words adds some graphic richness to the picture here – the word is Gehenna.
Gehenna is often used as a nickname for Hell. It was also a real place.
It was the garbage-dump outside the walls of Jerusalem. It’s where the dead horses and dead dogs and dead humans ended up, along with everything else. This is a city with no flush-buttons and no rolls of soluble toilet paper, and hot dry summer days. Things caught fire and smouldered for days. It was famous for its flies. Get the picture?
It's a clever picture, too – there's a word-play here. Throw your eye into the garbage before your whole body ends up being tossed out with the trash. If you have to, throw your hand into the garbage before your whole body ends up there… and if your body does end up there, it’s because you’re dead. You’re out there with the flies.
I’m not advocating that we physically start hacking off pieces of our own bodies like something out of a SAW movie. But… that’s still a hard-core, violent picture that he paints, isn’t it?

If something is going to drag you into sin, get rid of it. Get it out of your life. Lose it. Chop it off, pluck it out, unplug it, de-program it, cancel the account, get a new SIM-card and number for it if you have to…

This is serious, Jesus uses deadly-serious language, and we need to pay serious attention to just how seriously Jesus comes out swinging against adultery.
Let’s get something straight – Jesus isn’t talking about a situation here where somebody walks by, and our eyes catch a glimpse, and little bits of us go… hey! The Lord God made man, and He made woman, and He stood back and saw that it was good… Genesis 1:31, it was very good. The first time I saw Fiona, my Adam’s apple just about did a cartwheel.(Still does, too!) Okay, that’s one thing.
There’s a difference between that, though, and what Jesus is talking about here. Again, going to the Greek is pretty helpful… everyone looking upon a woman with a view to desire has already committed adultery in his heart.
A view to desire… That implies more than a casual glance, doesn’t it? This is a different kettle altogether.
Let’s not be mucking around here. If there’s something that constantly provides a pathway for you to sin here… to slide from merely being tempted to being a promise-breaker…
Because that’s the worst bit about adultery. That’s the violence of adultery. It’s not just about the sex or the misuse of sex. There’s that line again. There’s the righteousness of the Pharisees. This goes beyond sex.

The fact is, adultery is a promise-breaking sin. It’s an act that breaks vows, and that’s something that flies hard in the face of God’s character.
You’ve made a solemn vow and promise to your wife or husband – and you’ve made that promise in the presence of God.

God is a God of promises, and a God of faithfulness to promises. You want to know how highly God thinks of marriage and the strength of those promises?
How often does God use the language of marriage when He describes Israel, His people, His church, His Son…? The relationship between God and Israel is often described as a marriage in the Old Testament.

And some of the most ripping, most painful language that you can find is used by God when Israel is unfaithful. Homework – read the book of Hosea. Read the front end of Jeremiah. They are two frighteningly painful books.

And if you’ve been the victim of adultery, or if you’ve had someone cheat on you, Hosea’s prophetic message just resonates with pain, anguish and raw, howling anger as the people of God abandon Him for others. You feel the rage and sorrow; it’s almost a physical force.

You’ve made a solemn vow and promise to your wife or husband – and you’ve made that promise in the presence of God. God is a God of promises, and a God of faithfulness to promises. If you’ve made a promise to someone in God’s name, then for God’s sake, keep it.

Semper Fidelis. It’s the motto of the United States Marine Corp. It means Ever Faithful, and it’s a great motto to take for ourselves. Ever faithful to our partners. Ever faithful to our children, to our families. Ever faithful to our Lord, who is always and forever faithful to His Word and His promises.

For those of us who haven’t made those promises to another yet… let me say this. Take this seriously, too. Yes, you need to be married before you commit adultery. But you need to understand exactly how important, how sacred, how precious God considers this bond. Treat it with that level of respect. Don’t even begin to approach that line in anyone else’s promise. Live like you’ve already made a promise to a beloved one.

If you can master these temptations now, while you’re still young, you’re on a path that will set you up well for later. It won’t be easy. The world will not let you have it that easy. But if you can master the temptations now, you’re on the way.

Obedience – compliance – says “you shall not commit adultery”.

Righteousness says that you are an example to the world of what faithfulness looks like. Both godly faithfulness to each other, and the kind of faithfulness that marks God Himself – the faithfulness of God to His word and His people.

Semper Fidelis. Ever Faithful.

NEXT - MURDER ONE, TWO, THREE...

[1] Jesus' quote can be found at Exodus 20:13, Deut 5:18

[2] Matthew 5:27-30
Photograph was sourced from http://i187.photobucket.com/albums/x149/nappiejean/blacklove3.jpg I cannot find a credit for the photographer; it has appeared in several blogs. Originally located via Google Images under "old love"

Matt 5 (Part 1) RIGHTEOUSNESS EXCEEDING BEYOND

2008-10-20T21:14:00.013+11:00

Real Righteousness Part 1

Part of the "Design of a Disciple" series.

Sunday 19th October, 2008 7pm service.

A few years ago a man called Michael Hart wrote a book called The 100. He attempted to rate the 100 most influential people in history. It got quite a reaction, because, against everybody’s expectation, the winner wasn’t Jesus.
His choice was Mohammed.
The runner-up wasn’t Jesus – he chose Isaac Newton.
Jesus Christ, the only and unique Son of God, the defeater of Satan, sin and death, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world… came third.
Second place wasn’t hard to justify, because gravity is pretty important stuff. But Mohammed? First? My gut-reaction was, quite simply, tell him he’s dreamin’.

Here was the kicker, though. Michael Hart looked at how followers follow. From his viewpoint, Islamic people today are far more faithful to the teachings of Mohammed than Christians are to the teaching of Christ. Here’s what he says. He’s referencing Matthew 5:43-48 – specifically, the command to love ones’ enemies:

These are surely among the most remarkable and original ethical ideas ever presented. If they were widely followed I would have no hesitation in placing Jesus first in this book. But the truth is that they are not widely followed. Indeed, they are not even actually generally accepted. Most Christians consider the injunction to love your enemy as at most an ideal which might be realised in some perfect world, but one which is not a reasonable guide to conduct in the actual world we live in.
We do not normally practice love for our enemies, we do not expect others to practice it, we do not teach our children to practice it. Jesus’ most distinctive teaching therefore remains an intriguing but basically untried suggestion.[1]

That raises a pretty valid question. What does it look like to be a disciple, a follower, a Christian? What should the design of a disciple look like?

Matthew records Jesus teaching his disciples and a huge crowd, and it’s famously known now as The Sermon On The Mount. And that’s a pretty good place to start.

Matthew 5:20 – Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Greek here is even more emphatic – Unless your righteousness exceeds beyond that of the Scribes and Pharisees…

We’re pretty comfortable with that. We’ve seen the movie, and we know that the Pharisees are the bad boys. Weirdie beardies with big robes and a scowl... Not quite…
The scribes and the Pharisees were seen as the standard of righteousness – they were famous for it. That was their job. People listening to Jesus would have looked to these scribes and Pharisees to see what righteousness looked like, to see the design of a good, obedient, godly person.
Much to the peoples’ surprise, Jesus says that their righteousness is insufficient – it’s not good enough. So the obvious question that Jesus’ listeners would have asked now is: “what’s the difference between righteousness and righteousness?” The Pharisees were all about obedience to the law. Is there a difference between righteousness and obedience? Good question.

Let’s say I drop a glass by accident. There’s lots of glass on the floor. Being an old glass, it’s shattered into slivers, and it’s gone into the carpet. That makes it very hard to find the pieces. That’s not good, because I have little kids. So I say to them, don’t come into the room.
Benny is three. He looks at me, and I say Danger really carefully. He blinks, says danger, and goes away. He goes and watches Maisy, counts frogs, plays with his Thomas the Tank Engine train-set (thanks, Mum and Dad).

Grace is nearly seven, smart and a real livewire . And she’s still there. And she edges right up to the doorway… Now, I know Grace – she'll push the line, so I have to make a line for her. She edges up to the door. I tell her there’s glass in the carpet, gorgeous, and it’ll shred her feet. I want to help you, Daddy – she goes and gets a pair of shoes. No – it’s too dangerous. Don’t come into the room. But I really know my daughter. I need to tell her don’t go past this line. And she needs to know, too. And she’ll wonder – and ask – if on the line counts as being over the line… you get the picture.
She doesn’t physically cross that line. She’s obedient in form, she’s obedient to the letter… she hasn’t disobeyed me.
But it’s all about the line. The glass – the real danger – is nowhere in her mind. There’s a difference between the righteousness of Grace and the righteousness of Benny, who’s just gone okay, Dad and toddled off.

There’s a big difference between the righteousness of being compliant and the righteousness of being joyfully obedient.

There’s a big difference between the righteousness of the Pharisees and the righteousness that God is asking for.

We live in a world where compliance is the key. We’re not by nature lovers of law, and the idea of loving the law is very alien to us. We live right on the edge of the law in so many ways... speed-limits and taxes, for instance.

King David’s passionate love of the Law of the Lord that we read in the Psalms just seems so bizarre to us.
But if we can separate compliance from righteousness, we’re on our way to understanding.

Next week....
REAL RIGHTEOUSNESS PART II: Semper Fidelis

[1] Michael H. Hart, The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History. London: Simon & Schuster; 1993. p 20-21

Image from an article on Pro-Boolean software. Available at www.cguu.com/.../il_probool_glass_shatter.jpg

2Cor 5:21 BLOOD & SUBSTITUTE

2008-09-24T22:08:00.010+10:00

"For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." 2 Corinthians 5:21

By way of explanation...

Saint Brian is a great guy - he's one of those natural evangelists. He can't help himself, and he never wants to stop. He's got a bunch of guys studying the Bible - even though they aren't believers. Yet. And he asked me to help out with a question that came out of their last meeting.

"Can you explain something to the guys next week?" said Saint Brian.

Sure, I said. No worries. What did they ask?

"They want to know what it means when we say that Jesus became sin."

So the following is a very rough outline of where the night went. We covered a lot of other ground, too. So this blog might expand later to cover more op the questions, answers and digressions.

CHRIST... BECAME SIN.

“A stumbling-block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles.”
That's how Paul describes the idea of Christ crucified.

The Jews couldn’t understand how Jesus could possibly “take away the sin of the world.” Gentiles could not imagine why an immortal God would choose to become mortal – and willingly die. The idea, by the world's logic, was strange.

The idea that Jesus died for our sins, that he had “become sin”, still needs some explaining today. Because, like way-back-when, it's a strange idea to say the very least.

Please understand this – what we’re tackling is NOT EASY. If you don’t get it by the end of tonight, don’t worry. It doesn’t mean you’re slow. Please remember, though, that it equally doesn’t mean that there’s actually anything wrong with the idea (which we usually call a doctrine).

It DOES mean that it isn’t an easy concept. It still causes controversy, even between people who have studied this What we’re going to investigate is this odd thought: “CHRIST BECAME SIN FOR US.”
Understand this, too. The Lord God is – at the same time – a loving God, a God of mercy, a God of justice, and a holy God. Sin is an offence to God that separates us from God and breaks our fellowship with Him. He is a holy God and sin cannot be where the presence is that of a pure, perfect and just God.

Substitution... for a person
If the offering you bring as a sin offering is a sheep, you shall bring a female without blemish. You shall lay your hand on the head of the sin offering; and it shall be slaughtered… The priest shall take some of the blood… and put it on the horns of the altar… and pour the rest of its blood at the base of the altar… Thus the priest shall make atonement on your behalf for the sin you have committed, and you shall be forgiven. Leviticus 4:32-35
Blood is very important. The pouring out of blood graphically tells the repentant sinner that his sin can only be paid for with blood. God instructs His people to lay the sin on the animal. The animal becomes sin, and is killed, and its blood is poured out.

Something really worth knowing here is that the man, when he realises that he has offended God, produces one of his own animals - he didn't just go to the shops and buy a sheep. A year-old, unblemished sheep is a pretty valuable animal; the sort of animal that makes wool, milk and and (most importantly) more sheep. The man would bring forward the animal, lay his hands on the animal - here his sin would be placed on the animal - and he would feel the animal die. He would understand that the sheep was a substitute for himself.

Why Blood?
For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it to you for making atonement for your lives on the altar; for, as life, it is the blood that makes atonement. Leviticus 17:11
Blood, as far as God is concerned, is sacred. He forbids His people from eating blood (which is one of the things that defines a kosher product), because the blood is the life. This is the life, poured out in the place of the blood – the life – of a sinner.

What did Jesus do?
For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God I Peter 3:18
Jesus willingly obeyed his Father, who sent him to earth. When Jesus was executed, God placed on him the sins of the world.

Everyone. Everywhere.

Just as the sins of an individual would be placed on the animal, the sins of the whole world were laid upon Jesus. And Jesus died, carrying with him the punishment that those sins should bring to us: death, and separation from God the Father. As the perfect, sinless Son, he was the only one who could do this.

Paul phrases this clearly;
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, for it is written 'Cursed be every one who hangs on a tree' Galatians 3:13
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:21
So that we might become the righteousness of God. We are, once again, without blemish or defect. We are able once again to be in the presence of a holy God. We can come home to our Father, because Jesus took our sins upon himself. Miraculously, he did this while we were still enemies of God:
God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, we will be saved through him from the wrath of God Romans 5:8-9

What Does This Mean Now?
We were made by a perfect and holy God, and we were made in His image. But we corrupted that image with our sin. Our sins, now removed from us by Jesus Christ the Righteous, are no longer the barrier between us and our Lord.
[Jesus] was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification. Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 4:25 – 5:2
This is why Jesus came;
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

Artwork taken from http://www.leelofland.com/wordpress/?p=301

Mark 3:7-19 FOLLOWING JESUS

2008-09-21T16:04:00.008+10:00

A few weeks ago there were a couple of events put on by churches. Mark Driscoll’s Burn Your Plastic Jesus series saw ten thousand people come to the Entertainment Centre, and another event organised by Sydney’s Asian Christian community, called RICE, gathered about four thousand. They were both pretty successful, but I suspect that they paled in comparison to Billy Graham’s campaigns through the 1950s.

In your Bulletin this week, Reg's letter has given us a reminder of that 1959 Crusade, and just how many people came – and how many people came to follow Jesus.

"The final meeting in Melbourne was at the MCG and drew 143,750 people. [Just for some perspective, that was a record – the next-highest attendance figure at the G was for an Aussie Rules grand final; 21,000 less people went to a Grand Final than went to hear the Gospel] The final meeting at the Sydney Cricket Ground was linked to the Showground with over 150,000 people attending and another estimated one million people hearing by radio or landline. In the campaign period more than 130,000 signified commitments to Christ."

I scored a few books at the Spring Fair (much to Fiona’s horror - although she has forgiven me for bringing more into the house). One of them was about the 1957 New York Crusade. Billy Graham ran it over 110 days. 97 meetings in Madison Square Garden. On average nearly 18,000 people attended EACH meeting. Over two million people from that one city attended. 56,000 people came forward to publicly accept Jesus. 22,000 of those were under twenty-one.

That’s some big numbers. Even better than just the numbers, I love the idea of that many people physically taking themselves somewhere to hear about Jesus. Not just hearing about him on the radio, or reading someone’s John 3:16 bumper-sticker, but being prodded by the Spirit enough to physically get up and GO!

In our Gospel reading this morning, we see a massive crowd. And they’re chasing Jesus. Have a look at the opening verse from the reading - chapter 3 verse 7: Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the lake, and a large crowd from Galilee followed. It’s not the first time – and it won’t be the last time – that he’s chased by a crowd.

In Mark’s account, we can see where people have come from. And, because Mark’s a good writer, he uses an expanding pattern. He starts at the edge of the Sea of Galilee and moves out.
Galilee: relatively local. They might have walked from across the road, or skirted the lake, or come from an area within a 20-kilometre radius. That’s like a walk-in from Bundeena (road, not ferry), or Bankstown just to hear Reg preach. (You’d go, wouldn’t you? Course you would…)
Judea – try walking from Parramatta or Stanwell.
Jerusalem – think past Kiama, Woy-Woy, Blackheath.
Idumea – up to 180km.
Across-the-Jordan and Tyre & Sidon: actually a lot closer, under a hundred kays. But they were foreigners, heathens, Gentiles and, worse, Samaritans...

And here they come.

There’s something edgy and dangerous about a large crowd. If you don't believe me, go to Auckland. Go to an All Blacks game. Wear a Wallabies jersey. There's something dangerous about a large crowd. We can see Jesus instructing his disciples (verse 9) have a boat ready for Him, to keep the people from crowding Him.
Crowds can be dangerous beasts, and the fear that the crowd might literally squash him to death is not an exaggeration.

This is a crowd that wants something.In Mark 6 we get this picture: Having crossed over onto the land they anchored at Gennesaret. And as they came out of the boat, people immediately recognised him. They ran around that whole region and began to put the sick onto mats. And wherever he went – villages, cities, countryside – they were putting the sick into the marketplaces and were begging him that even the hem of his garment might touch them. The chaos is growing in intensity. And, what’s worse, it’s getting in the way of what Jesus had come to do – preach!

Back at Mark 1:35 we see Jesus up in the hills before dawn to pray in solitude – only to be chased down by an edgy Simon: “Everyone is looking for you!” Now immediately before this, we read that a great mob had invaded Simon’s own house: 1:33, the whole city gathered together at the door, and Jesus healed many who had diseases and cast out many demons. So Simon’s pretty anxious to find Jesus – everyone is looking for you… in my lounge-room!

How did Jesus reply? “Let’s go somewhere else.” As important as healing the sick and throwing out demons is, it’s getting in the way of what Jesus had come to do. “Let’s go somewhere else – to the nearby villages – so that I can preach there also. That’s why I’ve come.”
What was Jesus preaching? Mark 1:15 “The time has been fulfilled – the Kingdom of God is approaching – repent and believe in the Good News.”

Time. Approaching. Words with urgency… I think Satan, who couldn’t get a win out in the desert, was trying a new distraction.

Thousand and thousands are following him. Some thought he was raising an army to overthrow their Roman oppressors and the corrupt kingship of Herod. John records that after the miraculous feeding of five thousand men, they began to say “this one is truly the Prophet, the one coming into the world!” Jesus, having known that they were about to come and seize him and make him King, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. Is that helping him preach or hindering? How is one man going to preach so everyone can hear?

Jesus had a better plan. Back to our reading: Mark 3: 13. Jesus went up on a mountainside, and called to him those he wanted – designating them APOSTLES. What’s the difference between disciples and apostles? The terms seem to be interchangeable when the Gospels speak about these people that Jesus chose. So what sets these twelve disciples apart from what Luke 6 calls “the great crowd of disciples”?

Well, they were still very much disciples. They would spend much of the next couple of years at the feet of their Master, learning. But they were different.
Apostello - . It's the Greek word that means "to send out." Apostolon - is "the sent-out ones". Envoys, designated messengers. And certainly we’ll see them later, through the book of Acts, as the ones sent out, as messengers in His name; the Sent-Out ones with the Good Message. He appointed twelve – designating them apostolon - that they might be with him, and that he might send them out to preach and have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed:
He laid the name Peter on Simon; to James the son of Zebedee and John his brother he laid the name Boanerges, which means Sons of Thunder; Andrew; Philip; Bartholomew; Matthew; Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus; Thaddeus; Simon the Cananean (or Zealot), and Judas Iscariot who also betrayed him.

Twelve good men and true – well, nearly. Judas Iscariot we know enough about.

Simon will grow in prominence as being the one most likely to say something rash and regret it instantly. He'll swear to defend Jesus to the death, and will be the first to deny him in front of men.

The sons of thunder, James and John – we’ll see them scrapping and arguing for prominence, which will reach a dreadful climax when their own mother goes to ask Jesus if her little boys can sit at each side of him in heaven... for all those who were ever embarrassed by Mummy wiping their dirty face with a hanky in public, this one's for you...

I doubt very much if these guys would get past initial interviews in most companies –with the exception of Judas (perfect executive material) I doubt that any of these guys would survive a job interview for the lowest levels of management, much less run a business.

But Jesus knows people better than people know people.

Simon... Peter – upon this rock I will build my church. He says this to someone that most of us would regard as pretty unstable, and he says this with a total lack of irony.

Jesus knows people better than people know people.

To the one who denied him again and again and again, Jesus has that painful, beautiful conversation on a beach:
Simon son of John – do you love me? You know that I love you. Feed my lambs.
Simon son of John – do you truly love me? Yes Lord, you know that I love you. Take care of my sheep.
Simon son of John – do you love me? Lord you know all things; you know I love you. Feed my sheep.
And the last thing that we hear Jesus say to Simon Peter is the first thing we hear him say… Follow me.
Jesus knows people better than people know people. And I'm so thankful for it.

There were thousands and thousands of people who followed Jesus, and there are so many more who follow Jesus today.

Some follow Jesus because… well, it’s traditional. Mum and Dad did it. It's a bit like voting Labor or Republican... It's what we do 'round here...

Some follow Jesus because, tragically, they were told that Jesus would make all their dreams come true and all the bad bits go away.

Some follow Jesus because that’s what good people do, and church is where kind people go, and they like kind people.

Most people, though, follow Jesus for far better reasons than that – and this church is blessed with so many saints that have not only heard the Good Message, they clung to it for dear life, surrendered their old self and their old life at the foot of the Cross. They heard Jesus say follow me. They’ve heard someone like a Billy Graham, or a Jack Derrett, or a Keith Thompson, or a Cath Robertson, or an Alf or a Wilma, or an Alan Watson, or an Al Webb or an Al Robbo, or a Dr Bonamy, or a Bill or a Norma Andrews... or any one of you saints explain what Jesus meant when He said I am the way, and the Truth and the Life. It’s with gratitude that they see the Father’s grace and mercy and it’s with a glad heart that they say thank you that He has chosen them, called them, elected them, said Follow me..

So – time for the hard question. Where are the crowds? Where are the swarming hordes? Where are the vast crowds that we saw fifty years ago in Sydney and Melbourne and New York? What’s changed? Why is it that we call it a miracle to get ten thousand Christians together for one night? What’s changed? What happened?

We’ve forgotten the urgency.

While he was out for the Burn Your Plastic Jesus event, Mark Driscoll dropped into Moore College and gave a lecture. He actually gave us – us being modern 21st Century evangelical Christians – a pretty big serve.
We’ve lost all sense of evangelistic urgency. And we’re not expecting much. And I think he’s right.
Example? If someone like Stu or Matt Redmond or myself told you that we were going to attempt a revival like the Billy Graham crusade… in six months’ time… I wonder how you’d react. If we said that we wanted to win 217,000 souls for Christ… Would you think we were over-ambitious? Delusional? Or just plain nuts? (Strangely enough, we’re working on a plan… true story!)

As 21st Century Bible-believing, Jesus-loving evangelical Christians, we’ve lost all sense of evangelistic urgency. And we’re not expecting much.
Do you believe John 3:16? That God so loved the world that He gave His only Son? That whoever believes in him will not perish? That, Mark suggested, will make all the difference in the world.

We know so well that God will save His elect, but we think that somehow it’ll just happen, that God will just choose someone to go to those people who are part of that elect but who don’t know it yet… We have a hard time seeing ourselves as people God has chosen to go to them… that’s someone else’s job. Like mine. Or Reg’s.

No! It’s not Reg’s job, it’s not Stu’s job, it’s not Matt’s job or Tim’s job or Jai’s or Fi’s or Tracey’s or my job… it’s OUR job.

We ALL get to preach the Gospel. We all get to tell people that great word from Romans 10:12-13; The same LORD is LORD of all, and richly blesses all who call on him, for “everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved”.
But read on… grab your Bibles. Check this. Get to know it. Get this one into your hearts. Paul absolutely nails it. Romans 10:14 and on. You need to know this if you've read that marvellous promise.
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in?
And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard?
And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
And how can they preach unless they are…

Are what? Apostello’ed. Sent.

Evangelism isn’t just huge Billy Graham crusades. Preaching doesn’t just happen at lecterns like this. Sermons might, occasionally even good ones! But preaching... where does preaching happen?

Preaching happens when someone has enough care and concern and love for another person that they’ll show them how Jesus has saved us from the wrath to come. Paul again – 1 Corinthians 15:3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance [there’s that urgency]: that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scripture… (By the way, if anyone hasn't done their homework and thought about a very brief Gospel outline, there's a great cheat-sheet...)

A lot of the people who went to those 1959 Crusade understood the urgency. They went out and built churches (people and buildings) from scratch, they started home Bible-studies, they evangelised their families and their friends.

A lot of our young people understand that. I got a text message on Thursday night from one of the guys in Year 12 – he’s got a huge sense of urgency, because he’s only got a couple of weeks left to go. And he’s charging hard. He's talking to a hundred guys in his high school about Jesus. Another four just committed their lives to Christ, and a lot are curious.

Preaching happens when someone has enough care and concer and love for another person that they'll show them how Jesus has saved us from the wrath to come.

Guess what? You're preachers.

And you guys are the bridge-builders. You’re surrounded by workmates, employers and employees and customers. You meet with other young mums, you meet people in shopping-centres and sales conferences. There’s – what? Well over a hundred people here this morning to whom He has given His Good Message... How many souls can be touched by the Gospel carried by a hundred?

And when those thousands carry that Good Message onward?

In 1959, Billy Graham’s 130,000 people listened to the Gospel of Christ crucified and raised, as one man told it, and committed their life to Him.

There’s just under 217,000 people living in the Shire – a little less than double than that 130,000 landmark. So we have the advantage. A little less than two people each…

There are so many people who need to hear – to hear that great Good Message of God’s great love and that amazing grace of His Son Jesus the Christ – so that they can hear him say follow me, to come home to our Father in Heaven.

The first thing Jesus said to Simon the fisherman is follow me. The last thing Jesus said to Peter – the rock, upon whom he truly built his church - was follow me. And then… there was a life filled with getting other people to do likewise.

May it be so with us.

Amen.

Photo of Billy Graham Crusade meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, 1958. Sourced from http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/images/PFs/BGEA-1958-Charlotte/006.jpg

Luke 15:11-32... LOUDER THAN JETS

2008-09-18T05:49:00.007+10:00

MEN'S BREAKFAST
16th September, 2008

St Bede’s Anglican Church in Drummoyne meets in a magnificent old building. It’s a 1930’s design, built with very solid dark brick; the place is toweringly tall-ceilinged, with a pipe organ that you almost need abseiling gear to reach. It was about half-way through a service there on Sunday when two other features became apparent.

Acoustics. And location. St Bede’s is right under a flightpath.

A big old 747 with a full fuel-load makes one heck of a din. And the noise inside a big old church just echoed and boomed around the high brickwork. It was like listening to a V8 in a washing machine. One of the skills you need at St Bede’s is the vocal power to out-shout a Boeing.

I love the picture we find in the Gospel of Luke – chapter 15 – of one man who would’ve shouted louder than a jet. The father of the Prodigal Son. He’s never joking when He roars in joy, “Let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost and is found.” And here we are – a collection of sons who were dead, and are alive again.

It’s one of the best-loved stories in any of the Gospels, and rightly so. I think most of us can see something ourselves and our walk in that parable… sad and badly battered, finally remembering our Father and attempting to find our way to fall at His feet… only to realise that He’s already come running up the driveway to us, he’s scooped us up and kissed us, and in his great love and mercy and grace He lets the world know – loudly – that we live again..

We can feel the combination of humiliation and gratitude when we realise that. We know what it feels like to be given our lives back. We know that great and awful cost that Jesus paid so that we who were desperately lost can come back home with our Father.

When we step out the door this morning, we’re going to walk out and into a world of Prodigal Sons. Thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands… I think most of us can recognise some of them by instinct. We can see the great, great heartbreak when someone realises that they are sitting with the pigs, looking at the slops, wondering what happened to the world that they were enjoying so much of just a couple of weeks or days ago. We recognise them, and our hearts do go out to them, and we pray for them – even when there’s not much else that we can do.

Confession – I hate calling the parable “The Prodigal Son.” It’s about the only time we use the word prodigal at all. It means “The son who spent a lot,” and that’s true enough. But it doesn’t quite cover it. We’re almost too familiar with the story to realise what a horrendous picture He was painting.

When Jesus told this parable, he picked out one of the worst social situations that anyone in that day could imagine. This would be a disaster. A son – a younger son at that – actually had no right to ask for his share of that inheritance. He had a duty to his family. But this arrogant little upstart quite deliberately decided to shed himself of all responsibility. Get the old man to cough up his life savings, then simply walk out. This was a family’s nightmare. There would be shame on the family, that a son of theirs could do such a thing.

Because there would be no mistaking what the boy was doing. He was showing utter contempt for his father. There’s an obvious question for the father - what kind of son did you raise? A father of that kind of son really had only one option in the face of such contempt, and that would be to turn his back on the boy and disown him. Completely. That was understood, and – certainly in the society that Jesus was speaking to – it was the expected, respectable thing to do.

Even worse, the boy went to a far country – in with the Gentiles, in with the heathens. And he blew it all – the wealth of his father’s hard work. He blew it all to hell. Smoking it up, drinking it up, screwing it up. To people listening to Jesus, this son has pretty much spat in his father’s face, turned on his heel and walked.

Here’s the dangerous part. We live in a society that really encourages our young sons and daughters to follow this son. This is… pretty normal these days. It’s an expected story, and very much the Australian experience.

In one sense, it’s considered part of growing up. The Aussie rite of passage. Schoolies week. Three months in London that suddenly turns into three years of working in a pub to try to buy a ticket home. Moving out of home to get a party-flat and a Commodore ute and a job to pay for the beers…

I honestly think that the most dangerous part for us is how we look upon the Prodigal Sons (and Daughters) out there who are having the time of their lives. Especially when we’re doing it tough, especially since we’ve had to grow up a bit, especially since we’ve got kids and a hard job, and we can’t afford to play anymore… And, of course, we’re now good sons of our Father, so we can’t play like that anyway…

How easy is it for us to both quietly despise them and envy them at the same time? To wait quietly for them to have The Crash? Even though it’s happened to us, and we’ve had our Father run out to us and embrace us and kiss us… how easy is it for us to find ourselves with a heart like the older brother in that parable?

There’s a word in German that doesn’t really have an English counterpart. Schadenfreude. Look it up. Sound familiar?

I can guarantee you one thing. If we’re looking at someone with a heart like that, it’s going to be pretty hard to pray for them. It’s hard to pray for someone to be welcomed back by our Father when part of us feels that they deserve to stay with the pigs. It’s pretty hard to lay a table for them here when part of us actually still wants to be out there in that heathen place with them.

As we go out the door into the world of men, I want us to keep an eye out for those Lost Boys and Girls who haven’t come to grief yet, who haven’t had to hire themselves out to feed the pigs. Guard our hearts from thinking like men. Pray that we remember how to think like a rescued son. Pray that as we’re dealing with people today, that we’ll never think that they’re too far away for our Father to love. Pray that we’ll hear God shouting with joy in that great voice that’s louder than jets: “This, my son, was dead – and is alive again!”

Painting: Charles Mackesy, The Prodigal Son. Charcoal and gouache on board
http://www.artnet.com/artwork/425274646/132476/charlie-mackesy-the-prodigal-son.html

Romans 12:1 FATHER'S DAY...

2008-09-02T10:29:00.007+10:00

ROMANS 12:1
MEN’S BREAKFAST

2/9/2008

We’ve survived winter. It’s the second day of spring. The mornings are getting lighter. Summer’s on the way... you can tell; only one of Bob’s chefs had a beanie on this morning… And it’s Father’s Day on Sunday. I like Father’s Day. I love Father’s Day. I’m hardly a veteran of these things – Grace is only six… but Father’s Day gets better and better each year.

Which is really odd, because the presents are getting worse and worse.

It goes like this. Gracie is getting older. As she’s getting older, she’s able to make some choices and some guesses as to what makes a good present. She’s able to make cards all by herself. So now, instead of either a really funny card or a really poignant card (and my wife is brilliant at finding exactly the right card), I get a yellow bit of paper with a strange wild scribble in the middle. That looks like a cross between a wombat and a tyrannosaurus. That’s a drawing of… me, is it? Okay, she might be better at portraits than I gave her credit for. But for Father’s Day, do you really want to be reminded that you’re a large and hairy dinosaur? Do you really think the truth will set you free?

That’s just the cards. The presents are going to get worse, too. I promise you, they are going to get worse. My fault – I’ve been spoiled; my wife is one of the best present-buyers ever. Girls know about buying presents, because they listen and remember. If us guys think they only have brilliant memories for grudges, keep this in mind – they store plenty of good information, and they’re better at it than we are.

But my wife won’t be doing the buying. Gracie will be. And then the other two kids will when they get old enough. So presents like really good obscure books and CDs, and underpants and socks (I actually LIKE getting socks and underpants! A sock should only have one hole, and undies should only have three. Mine end up with enough holes to keep a squid comfy) – they’ll start to disappear. And be replaced by pretty strange stuff that Grace has seen in a shop and thought “Daddy would love that”. Probably in pink, too.

But… but… I’ll love it. It’s something that I really look forward to. And when Benny and Maggie get started, I’ll get more strange things. I asked my dad; what the strangest Father’s Day present that I got him? Apparently I made him a pottery ashtray. Shame he hadn’t had a smoke in ten years…

You see, part of the charm of kiddies and their presents is that they give us something that they see as great. They haven’t tried to calculate what will appeal to us the best. They’re better than that. They give us their heart. And we wouldn’t have them any other way.

Grace is bringing me a present. She knows that whatever she brings for me is going to make me smile. She wants to please me. She loves me, and she loves telling me.

Grace isn’t getting me a present because I need a present. She’s not giving me a present in the hope of making me love her more. She’s giving me her heart.

I wonder what we’d give God if we could give Him a Father’s Day present. What would we give? I’m not talking about money – I want to get that straight. But I am talking about what we bring before our Father in heaven. If you could give God a Father’s Day present… why am I asking a bunch of blokes about giving presents, anyway? We’re terrible at presents! Shops love us guys at Christmas time – because we panic, and when we panic we bleed money. One Christmas I had no idea what to buy my wife. I went into one store with my hands raised and said “HELP! I’m a stupid male!” And I was in a panic because I knew Fiona had dropped a couple of really big hints…

So – guys – here’s Fiona’s guide to present-buying. It starts with “listen”. She listens to what I say I want, even if I wasn’t actually asking. And she’ll drop hints near certain days, and she’ll let me know it if I’m not listening. So she should…

Has God dropped hints? What does God say that He wants? The Book of Malachi is the last book in the Old Testament, and it’s about bringing God the wrong present. I’m going to make a really strong suggestion. Before you get to Father’s Day, read Malachi. It’s a really short book. Four chapters. Two-and-a-half pages. Read it.

But what is the right present? Not the easiest question! What do you get the man who has everything? What do you bring the One who not only has everything but has made everything? It makes it pretty hard to know where to start.

Paul picks up on how ridiculous this notion is, and he collects a line from the Book of Job: “Who has given a gift to Him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through Him and to Him are all things. (Rom 11:34) So what can we give our Lord and Master?

God provided an answer through the Old Testament; sacrifices. But even then, the sacrifices were really a demonstration of a state of heart. Whether a man was truly thankful or repentant was how God saw how acceptable the sacrifice was. Look at Cain and Abel, and the tragic consequences. I did a really quick survey last night on the word sacrifice, and what came up, over and over again, was… well, you pick up the theme.
1 Sam 15:22 – Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice.
Ps 40:6 – You do not delight in sacrifice and offering…
Ps 51:16-17 – Were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, God, thou wilt not despise.
Hs 6:6 – I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Jesus picks up this quote and hurls it at the Pharisees twice in Matthew. Go and learn what this means; “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.”

As he so often does, it’s Paul again who gives us the answer – what a good present for our Heavenly Father is… I appeal to you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Romans 12:1 – right after he’d noted the silliness of trying to offer God a gift.

Is it adequate? No – it’s like a present that Grace buys and hand-wraps. It’ll never look anything like a DJ’s catalogue, but it’s all that she has, and it’s all she can do, and my heart sings.

Is it adequate? No - but, really, it’s all we have, and it’s what God wants. And it makes His heart sing, because finally – finally – we start to do the thing we were created to do. To worship.

We’re not giving ourselves to God because He needs us to. We can’t calculate a way to please Him so we can sneak into His good books – there was only ever one way that could be done, and Jesus did that. We never could, and we must never think that we can.

But - We do it because we love Him.

So this Father’s Day, as we think about what to get for our dads – or as we get given things… look at the heart behind the present. And take the time to talk to our Heavenly Father about Father’s Day.

Artwork from http://shop4men.com.au/catalog/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=13&products_id=55&osCsid=a78131efc77e1c1d5fef240bb5c154d7 I won't complain if anybody sends me some.

Proverbs 30:8-9 OUR DAILY CHOCOLATE...?

2008-08-14T20:55:00.007+10:00

Proverbs 30: 8-9, Philippians 4:19

I love bananas. I don’t actually eat that many of them myself, but they are brilliant when you have kids. It’s one of the few things that my little Ben isn’t allergic to, it has its own wrapper, and it’s pretty easy to mop off the furniture when the kids decide to copy Jackson Pollock’s artwork on the lounge. I love them. So it came as a shock last year when the price of bananas went from about $4 a kilo to (at least at my local shop) $16 a kilo.

Cyclone Larry blew through Queensland in March 2006, and in a 12-hour period wiped out 80% of their banana industry. As a result, the supply of bananas evaporated within a few weeks, and the prices rose unbelievably – to the point that the Federal Government of the day blamed the first interest rate rise in years on banana price increases. I doubt that the nation's economy will be plunge into the abyss because of bananas, but it does point out one of the big fundamentals of the world: demand and supply. Are bananas a want, or are they a need?

One of our greatest problems is that society, as a whole, has no idea what needs are anymore. There's a non-stop, high-intensity war being waged by marketing departments. The side-effect is the pressure that's put on us by a world that demands that we appear a certain way, eat or drink certain products, buy certain clothes. The pressure demands that we spent money to do this. Strange to say, with it comes the sad fact that we are almost forced to think that it could never be any different.

Here in a nutshell is the distortion that that we must consider:

*Needs are considered as rights, or entitlements. If your needs are not met, then somebody is to blame – someone has fallen down on the job.

*Wants are considered to be needs. Mobile phones are now so much a part of society that most of us would have trouble functioning socially without one.

*Luxuries are now wants. Look no further than iPods. Basically it’s the new Walkman – it plays music. It’s no better than most other MP3 players, twice as expensive, requires its own software in order to work (now making a computer a necessity to simply program a luxury device)… and it’s about the most desirable electronic device since colour television. It's so desirable, and so well-packaged that it's really re-defined the term must-have.

*Absolute extravagances are marketed as “you deserve it” indulgences and rewards – high-end sportscars, resorts to cater to your every whim and first-class accommodation to fly you there.

Marketing gurus earn their keep by making things that are not, strictly speaking, NEEDS into can’t-live-withouts. That’s their job. And the cleverest ones hit us right on the envy button. Basically we know we’ll feel a little better once we have it – whatever it is. And (here’s the subtle and dangerous bit) we won’t quite be as happy as we were… until we have it. Avarice is congratulated and praised as ambition.

We live in a world of demands and wants – but we live in a world of needs, too. It’s one of the most amazing and ironic things that two of the best-known Bible passages outside the Church contain a REAL need and the answer…

“Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins… and deliver us from evil…”
“The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down…”

Along with John 3:16, these are probably the two most-turned-to passages in Scripture; one is a request so stripped of anything other than raw need, and the other contains God’s answer.

Praise to our wise Lord who knows us – really knows us – and knows our needs better than we do. We need to pray earnestly that we can tell the difference between our needs and our wants. Personally, I need to trust His wisdom when He doesn’t supply all my wants. Daily bread is far better for me than daily Mars Bars. And – and this is a big and – I need to pray that the Lord will teach me how to be content when He provides what He deems to be my needs.

The world actively encourages a spirit of discontentment, of dissatisfaction. Never, it says, be satisfied with what you have, where you are, what you are given, who you are, the quality of the things you do, or the quality of your life. Strive for more. Never settle for second-best… with the implication that best is always ahead of us, not yet – perhaps never – within our furtive graspings.

Until we allow God to disconnect us from the world’s irrational rationale we will never really find comfort in the beauty of Psalm 23. He knows our needs, and he will supply them. He knows we need rest and nutrition and hydration – He makes us lie down, He leads us to green pastures and to quiet and still waters. This is what the Good Shepherd does. And He reaches beyond the physical needs of our mortal bodies to give us the things our spirits need – safety, deep security… “He restores my soul.” But right up front is the unsaid condition that so many crave: “I shall not want…”

And yet… and yet we insist on choosing our own path. We chase our own desires, and fool ourselves into thinking that satisfaction is just a hill away… the grass is just that bit greener over there… and then we wonder how on Earth we got ourselves into the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

Humans crave satisfaction. We don’t want to be little Mick Jaggers complaining that we can’t get no satisfaction (we can’t get no grammar lessons, either). But we need to be able to be satisfied with HOW God provides for us. That’s so hard when the world has trained us to be unsatisfiable. It will take a transformation to renew our minds like this!

I have a favourite verse tucked away in Proverbs, and it popped up again when I started gathering thoughts for this – and it amazed me (again and again) how the question and the answer come so brilliantly. Testament ping-pong! Here’s one of the best prayers I’ve ever come across, one that I’ve tried to use as a prayer guide for myself:
“Two things I ask of you, O LORD; do not refuse me before I die: Keep falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor wealth. Yes, provide me with just the food I need today; for if I have too much I might deny you and say ‘Who is the Lord?’ And if I am poor I might steal and thus profane the name of my God.” Proverbs 30:8-9 (Proverbs of Agur)

James Macbeth sent the answer as a text message a few months ago (which makes me reconsider the cell-phone - maybe it's a need after all...), and I chewed on this for ages;

And here’s the answer – “My God shall supply all your needs, according to His riches in glory by Jesus Christ.” Philippians 4:19. His riches – not my riches, or riches that any accountant, billionaire or government can begin to comprehend. God’s riches are so vast that meeting every possible need could never dent the supply… and, if we consider the old law of supply and demand, God gives us priceless gifts freely.

Sometimes it is not so easy to see the answer – to see God supplying the need. Not so long ago, our one-year-old, Maggie, was injured. Our boy Ben was playing around, and he threw a video case - and it hit Maggie by accident. But it hit her right on the eyeball. She screamed - and kept screaming. We rushed her up to the Children's Hospital at Randwick, and the doctors there found a great rip across her cornea. And right then and there, we realised how horribly close she was to losing sight in that eye. At the very least, she was looking at a life of compromised vision.

What I wanted was – well, I wanted it to un-happen, I wanted everything to be all right if I clicked my fingers or prayed hard enough. What I needed was to be a support for Fiona, a calm one in a crisis, and a comfort to the rest of my little family who were getting very distressed with all the noise. In short, I needed to be a husband and a father. What I wanted to be was a super-hero. And you know what God supplied… It’s very easy for me to say that my needs aren’t being supplied – but I have to take the time to work out that most of what I want… I want, not need. And I need to be thankful.

Because that’s one of the things that must mark us as men defined by grace – that we are thankful. In a world of dissatisfaction and discontentment, we who are satisfied, contented – and thankful – stand out like a clean green oasis in the middle of the desert. And you won’t believe how an oasis will draw every creature that craves water. Whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life, said our Lord, and our job is always to take people to the water. Let’s go into the world today, being thankful, trusting that God will always do as he says He will in supplying all our needs.

Artwork: Detail from School Of Athens, Sanzo Rafaello. From http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Heraklit.jpeg

It's The End Of The World...

2008-08-14T20:40:00.008+10:00

MEN'S BREAKFAST
October 2007

We are in the world but not of the world.

It’s a sentence of ten words, but it powerfully places us. And it gives us quite a few headaches along the way. Where is the dividing line between IN and OF? Should we be monks? Residents on the planet’s surface, but totally removed from any corrupting influence of modern society? Should we be right in the middle of the fire, at constant risk of smoke inhalation, doing our level best to insulate our souls while attempting to save others around us from burning too? That’s pretty well where we men are at the moment. Suburban Australia is truly the belly of the beast – worldly in ways both overt and subtle.

In the world but not of the world… and we know that the world as we know it will end. Strange as it sometimes seems, the world has realised this too. Climate change is the biggest “hot-button” topic going. Everyone is looking at ways to save the world… and here we stand, trying desperately to tell anyone who will listen that we CAN’T save it.

Going green has now become the greatest priority – at least in political and corporate Australia, the greatest priority is to be SEEN to be going green. We are encouraged to mind our carbon footprint, to pay an extra couple of bucks so that we can “carbon offset” our purchases.

It’s the end of the world as we know it. And I feel fine. I’ll borrow the song title from REM for a couple of minutes, because it reflects rather loudly what people see as the Christian response to the increasing worldwide panic surrounding global warming.

Here’s what we know. Christ will come again. There will be a new heaven and a new Earth. So we take it as a given that the Earth will pass away – and we look forward to this day. And so we should.

Strangely enough, the world around us finds this to be a terrible reaction.

Don’t you care what happens to the planet?

It’s a double-edged question, and we can cut ourselves on the answers. Don’t you care?

If we think about a new heaven and a new Earth, and if we assume that God is the Lord of His creation (and we put our trust in His ability to keep the world running until the return of His Son), we can honestly say “no.” I’ll invite you to think about the repercussions of that response…

Let’s be honest, now – it’s how the world sees a Christians response at the moment, and it only reinforces the view that we are all old, neo-conservative hypocrites living in the past with our heads buried in the sand. And, most likely, our views on everything else will be considered just as irrelevant. This is not very helpful when we NEED to talk to them about Christ in order to save their lives…

Don’t you care?

If we consider that the Lord has given us dominion over the Earth and all of His creation that’s in it, and we want to be excellent stewards of His resources, and we answer “yes,” then the next question (logically and rightly) will be “well, what are you doing about it?”

And here is the problem. The Church as a whole appears to be just plain confused. On the one hand, George Cardinal Pell (Catholic Archbishop of Sydney) said this –
I am deeply skeptical about man-made catastrophic global warming, but still open to further evidence. I would be surprised if industrial pollution, and carbon emissions, had no ill effect at all. But enough is enough. A few fixed points might provide some light. We know that enormous climate changes have occurred in world history, e.g. the Ice Ages and Noah’s flood, where human causation could only be negligible.
(Column, Sunday Telegraph 18/2/07)
He also said in his 2007 Easter message that Jesus said nothing about climate change.

At the national Anglican synod in Canberra on October 24th, 2007, the Anglican Bishop of Canberra, George Browning, attacked Cardinal Pell.
“I wrote him a letter saying Jesus had an awful lot to say about the rich taking what belonged to the poor and about the heritage of the children, and as he spoke about both of these things he spoke about climate change.”." He concluded his Synod address by saying that “I want all of you to leave the synod today believing this is our core business, it's not something [that just] greenie Christians do."

And Christians like me can attack both points of view, and very quickly, too.
But in making my own reaction public, I merely demonstrate that I can argue too. I haven’t improved anything, and I’ve just proven my own point… the church looks confused in the face of something that, for the rest of the world, is a deadly serious threat.

So what should we do? What should we say?

As with anything, the first thing we must do before we have an answer for all men is to pray. People who ask need to hear God’s wisdom, not our own.

Ask the Lord for the right reply – a reply that not only answers the question accurately, but a reply that opens the way for the saving Gospel. I have no set suggestions for this – we should all take the time to get acquainted with the problem enough to give a reasoned, clear and cogent answer.

The first part of our answer is in how we live our lives – what we are seen to do, how men see how we live. We need to be above reproach in our word, our morals and our actions.

There are several things to consider;

We have been given dominion over the Earth (Genesis 1:28-30), but that still implies a great deal of stewardship. It is still God’s creation, over which He has ultimate sovereignty. Further, many of Jesus’ parables were focused clearly on stewardship – it is an issue clearly in God’s heart. How we use our money – and for that matter, any of the Earth’s resources – must be seen in this light. It is NOT ours to use, abuse and discard. It doesn’t matter whether we call it “reducing carbon footprints” or simply wisely (not wastefully) using whatever resources God has provided for us.

Think before we buy an overpackaged item. Buy what we NEED rather than what we WANT or DESIRE. Be conscious of how much petrol we use. Switch off the lights in rooms we’re not in. Don’t waste, don’t spend frivolously, don’t be mindless consumers. Buy clothes or cars because we NEED them, not because they are due to go out of fashion at eight o’clock next Wednesday. Andrew Cameron pointed out in one of his excellent Social Issues Briefings (#69) that living frugally used to be a recognised hallmark of a Christian life, at least until recently.

Is this saving the planet? No – but it is reducing the damage caused by excess waste, as well as freeing up God-given resources to accomplish His work. Reg raised a lot of these points to consider a couple of months ago when he brought John Wesley to our attention, and he didn’t bring it to our attention for reasons of saving the planet. It’s unbelievably ironic that the lifestyle that the Green Movement now encourages has already been championed by Christian reformers. It’s unbelievably sadder that the world sees us uncaring because we’re lagging behind.

But above all we must use this opportunity to show people how to be saved from the end of the world. Our friends and family around us, our workmates, neighbors, protesters on street corners, people carrying surfboards or chairing boardrooms are beginning to wake up to the fact that the world is going to die – and they are beginning to get serious in their anxiety. How long have we been praying for an opportunity to talk to these people about Christ and His salvation? What better opportunity can there be to show them the only way mankind can be saved? This is the Ultimate Inconvenient Truth – there is nothing that Man can do by his own efforts to save the Earth, or himself.

Like the Philippian jailer in Acts, the world has felt the first tremors, and is in dread of a great earthquake. The world is genuinely scared, and is rightly asking in a trembling voice “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” And, like Paul, our answer has to be both unexpected and bold; “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, both you and your household.”

Very unfortunate photo taken from http://officespam.chattablogs.com/archives/forklift-bomb-thumb.GIF

Matthew 1 - THE GOSPEL'S OVERTURE

2008-08-11T12:17:00.006+10:00

SERMON

7:00pm

I've got a confession to make. I love classical music. I've got to say I love music generally – I listen to almost anything from 12th Century to Tchaikovsky to Trent Reznor and back again. I don't do country. Or Western. Or Jimmy Barnes. But... I love classical.
Overtures, for those who don't listen to classical music, are pieces of music at the start of a long opera or a symphony. They're designed to prepare the listeners for the music that is coming. An overture proclaims the content. Ludwig van Beethoven was a genius with the overture. He took the idea to another level completely. Instead of a summary of the music, he would set up simple themes, but those themes were so rich in themselves that it would take an entire symphony to tease them out fully.

All of the Gospel writers knew the idea well, and their opening chapters are all like excellent Beethoven overtures. They all have introductions that tell us, clearly, what their great themes will be. Luke writes “an orderly account for you, the most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught”. Mark wants his readers to know, before anything else, that this is the Gospel (literally, the euagge;lion, the good message) about Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God. John wants us to see, even before we see Jesus the man, that he is the Word, and was with God at the beginning of everything – and that “through him, all things were made”.

Matthew, meanwhile, begins... strangely. It's such an odd beginning that we often skip it – we miss it out completely. We take little bits of it for Christmas cards – the three Wise Men and their equally-scriptural camels – but we overlook a lot of the way that Matthew opens his Gospel. Which is a shame, because one of the very important characters in the Gospel narratives is found here. Here's the story of Joseph, the son of Jacob, the husband of Mary, the father of Jesus the Son of God.

Father of Jesus the Son of God. That sounds a little odd, doesn't it? We'll come back to this in a second.

The story begins eighteen verses previously. Matthew really begins with a roll-call of forty-nine names covering forty-two generations. And I think that's one of the reasons why we ignore the beginning of this book. Who wants to read out a roll-call?

I suspect people who set out to read the Bible from cover to cover glaze over when it comes to the big genealogies. If you don't believe me, here's a good one – read the first nine chapters of 1 Chronicles. In one sitting. With no coffee. Aloud, so you don't skip a verse...

But... the genealogy at the beginning of Matthew's book is part of his overture, part of his great theme, and part of how he wants us to see this man Jesus. What does Matthew want us to know about Jesus?

Verse 1 - “a record of the genealogy of Jesus, Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham”. Three titles. Here is one of Matthew's themes; Jesus is the Anointed One, Meshiach in the Hebrew, Christos in the Greek, “Christ” in the English. Jesus is also the Son of David, and the Son of Abraham. A Son of David can trace his roots all the way back to David, the second King of Israel. A son of Abraham can trace his lineage all the way back to Abraham, who was the grandfather of a man named Isra'el. This is important for Matthew, because Matthew is writing with an audience in mind – a Jewish audience, people who knew themselves as the children of Israel.

So the first eighteen verses – as boring as we find them – are the first credentials that Matthew offers. And they're gold-plated credentials, too. The lineage covers some major characters in the history of the Jewish people, from the man who first entered into a covenant agreement with God, to great men of power and influence, through men like Boaz who were pretty ordinary but had an influence on the future direction of Israel.

To a First Century Jew, these credentials were very important. Lineage was very important – not for “good breeding” or for “class” but because they recognized authority that came through family lines. Anointed authority could be hereditary (the Levites, for instance). God had entered into covenant with King David, that he would establish David's kingdom forever through his offspring. Matthew has put in this enormous family-tree to establish Jesus' credentials to be known, the right to be known, as “the Son of David”.

Matthew now turns the spotlight on the birth of Jesus, at least according to the heading in my Bible here. I'm not sure if that's totally fair, though. Truth be told, calling this a Christmas story is a bit of a myth. Almost all of it happens a good nine months out from Christmas. It might be the story of the origins of Jesus, but it's really Joseph's story. Matthew, as we have seen, has successfully linked Joseph to David, and to Abraham. What Matthew now sets out to do is to link Joseph to Jesus.

Of course, it wasn't quite that easy-peasy. As a matter of fact, it looks, at one point, very unlikely to happen. Let's look at Joseph's story. It's not an easy story – if anything, it's an uneasy story. He is betrothed to a young lady named Mary. Betrothed is a little bit more serious than an engagement today – it implied that one was, legally, married to the other, but not yet living together or enjoying the full riches of married life. It was a done deal – literally. It would have involved a contract.

Mary becomes pregnant. And while the narrative tells us that “she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit”, I think it would be safe to assume that the only one who really knew this at the time was Mary. I have no idea how the conversation would have played-out between Joseph and Mary, but I cannot imagine that it went that well. Because his next decision is to divorce her quietly.

That's an unusually decent move. The options, under Israel's laws, that Joseph had available to him ranged from quietly annulling the contract to having this obviously promiscuous woman stoned to death. Joseph's choice tells us a lot about the man. "Because Joseph was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly." This is a man of mercy and compassion, even when something as sacred as their sexual integrity is in question... and would remain in question for a long time to come – for the next two thousand years, in fact.

How painful would it be to Joseph? In all that pain, he chooses the gentlest possible option. Mercy, compassion, righteousness. He had in mind to divorce her quietly. The connection between the unborn Jesus and Joseph rests on the edge of a knife.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. The effect of the dream is pretty immediate. And it's probably safe to say that it was more than an ordinary dream. Dreams can be very strong every now and again. I've had a dream more than once where I've done something that went terribly wrong. I crashed a car in a dream, and when I woke up, the dream was so strong that as I was showering and getting changed, I was trying to re-plan my day by public transport. But at some point, I was able to realise that it was... just a dream.

This dream is very different. Joseph acts immediately and obediently after his dream. And to a point, I'm not surprised – he was visited by an angel of the Lord.

Ditch the normal mental picture of pretty wings and halos and wearing white pillow-cases. These angels are supernaturally powerful, immortal beings who work as the personal servants of God. The first one we see is in Genesis, and he was effectively the bouncer at the gates of Eden. Through the Old and New Testaments, the first things angels often need to say to people is “do not be afraid.” Samson's parents wanted to sacrifice to an angel, so powerful and god-like was his appearance. The shepherds in Luke's nativity passage are “filled with fear.”
These things are powerful, and they are terrifyingly real. And they speak with authority, because they carry messages directly from the Lord God Almighty himself. Verse 20 An angel of the LORD appeared to him in a dream, and said, “Joseph, son of David [notice that the angel greets Joseph in exactly the way the genealogy defines him] Joseph, Son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.”

You are to give him the name Jesus. This is massively significant on two counts. The name of this child is more than just a name – it is a signifier of what parents wanted and wished their child could be. You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. Jesus. The English translation of the Greek Iesous. The Greek is a transliteration of the Hebrew Yeshua. And this means, literally, the Lord saves. You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. Matthew shows us the value of names as he quotes the Isaiah prophecy that is being fulfilled – Immanuel, which means God with us. It's pretty rare for people these days to call Jesus Immanuel, although quite a few 19th Century writers do – often. Anyone who does Spurgeon's Morning And Evening will be pretty familiar with it. In this case, the truth of the man gives the name – not the other way 'round. God with us.
Verse 22
All this took place to fulfil what the Lord had spoken by the prophet;
Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
And they shall call his name Immanuel (which means, God with us).

We've got a problem. It's not hard to spot the glaring error in Matthew's logic. The skeptics of the world could (and do) pick a great big hole in this one. And here's one of the places why some people think that the Gospels can't be trusted. This is one of those areas where many smart and well-spoken people will nod mournfully and say that the Bible is inconsistent. The problem's big enough to drive a boat through. Matthew insists on a Virgin Birth. He is insistent –verse 25, he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. Mary is not related to Joseph; if there was a connection, it would have been mentioned in his careful genealogy.

And even granting a Virgin Birth, how can this child claim descent from David and Abraham? Matthew has used those credentials to establish Jesus' temporal authority. That's one great strain in the overture. He uses the Virgin Birth to establish Jesus' heavenly authority – the other great theme. Lord of Heaven and Earth... here's one of the things Matthew wants his readers to understand. But logically, how can he have it both ways? He has to have it both ways, because if you only have one without the other, you've significantly reduced the authority that Matthew is trying to claim for this man Jesus. How on earth can the great strand from Joseph meet with the great strand from Mary if Joseph had no biological part to play?

And at points like this, at points where there are difficulties, at points where belief is hard, we are actively encouraged by the world to put our faith in these things aside. God wouldn't really do that, would he? The Virgin Birth is a legend – a myth. The resurrection isn't really believable... the authors of these books are hardly credible historians, are they? Christianity is an inclusive religion. There must be a misunderstanding when Jesus said that No-one can come to the Father without him. You Christians don't do your religion any favours by reading all of your Bibles... much less believing it...

Which is harder to believe? That Joseph was related to everyone in that genealogy? Or that “before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit”? In an age where more and more theologians and bishops are encouraging Christians to not worry about believing in the hard things, this is a vital question that we MUST be prepared to wrestle with. Because at stake, right now, at the start of Matthew's book – at the start of the New Testament, in fact – is the truth of what Jesus says about himself in this Gospel. The most dangerous myth surrounding the Virgin Birth is that “it doesn't matter.”
Matthew records Jesus saying “Anyone who receives you receives me, and anyone who receives me receives the One who sent me”. Matthew records Jesus saying “All things have been committed to me by my Father, and no-one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him”. And, crucially, when Peter declares to Jesus “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God”, Matthew records Jesus saying “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man but by my Father in Heaven”.

What are we to make of these claims that Jesus makes if, as more and more people are content to believe, he was just the son of two normal humans? There are so many of Jesus' sayings and parables that he certainly deserves titles like “a great teacher” and “the most influential philosopher” and “a wise man.” And, to be sure, most people today are more than happy to accord Jesus that honour. But can he still be called a great teacher as he makes these claims of himself? Can a teacher be half-wise and half-delusional? If he is a liar, can we trust any of his wisdom?

But that's not all of it. Jesus isn't the only one claiming this. Matthew makes an outrageously strange claim. Verse 18 – Before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Luke makes a similar claim. There we find an angel telling Mary the same things that were revealed to Joseph in his dream; “He will be great and called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.” Mary's response was simple - “How can this be since I am a virgin?”

How can this be? Can a Virgin Birth be proven? Can I give you scientific, rock-solid, absolutely irrefutable evidence that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit instead of by normal human agency?

No. In an age of science and reason, where scientists declare that if it can't be proven it cannot be believable, I have to say... no. There is no scientific, rock-solid, absolutely irrefutable evidence that I can provide for you. I can't be Grissom from CSI and say - “Here's the evidence.”

What I can do is point to... this. The Scriptures. And there are one or two things that should be considered here. Even the harshest secular literary scholars agree on one thing. If these writings about Mary and Joseph and Jesus' miraculous birth were an invented myth, devised by the early Church... they shouldn't look like this.

It's not myth. This was written for a Jewish audience, and any hint of a mythological writing-style would render this document as blasphemy – unreadable. The idea that the Holy Spirit would simply make it happen is so unprecedented that if it was a literary invention, there would be far more explanations attached, and a far-larger back-story. The thought that it was a First-Century addition actually creates more problems... why would you add such a strange, outrageous, unproveable, unbelievable teaching...without explaining something about the process?

One of the greatest arguments in favour of the truth of these Gospel accounts is, quite simply, that they are so simple. Matthew and Luke simply state what was.
There certainly were many myths concerning Greek and Roman gods who used all sorts of tricks to sleep with humans – and often in these stories a child happened afterwards, and in these mythological stories, the resultant unwanted child would wreak vengeance upon the father as he grew up. But they were very elaborate tales; they were stylised legends.

There is, in the whole of mythology, nothing like this. A God, through a woman, sending His Son to earth. The Son working in perfect obedience and harmony with the will of the Father. The old 1662 Book of Common Prayer puts it just as simply. Being of one substance with the Father – who, for us men and for our salvation came down from Heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man. There is simply nothing remotely like this anywhere else. Matthew and Luke don't give any stylised details of how this might have happened. It was enough to note that it occurred. The how is utterly irrelevant to them. The why becomes apparent as you read the Gospels – only the Son of God has the authority to forgive sins. Only the Son of God can take every sin and place it upon himself. Only the Son of God can save me.

We are still left with the two great themes. From the line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, King David and Joseph will come the Son of David. From the Holy Spirit and Mary will come the Son of God. The two strands still haven't met. Yet.

I said earlier that Joseph naming the child “Jesus” was massively significant in two ways. Here's the second way. Back to verse 21 – YOU are to give him the name Jesus... If Joseph does this, Joseph will be claiming this baby as his own. A child becomes a man's son not so much because of blood and straight genetics, but from the acknowledgment on the part of the man. Matthew's Jewish audience would understand this more quickly than we do. I may have to explain this further.

My have a name. My father's name is part of that - a big part. He, also, carries a man's name. Now something unusual happened when my dad was a young lad – my grandmother separated from her husband and re-married. Dad was given the option – retain his old surname, or take up the new name. He chose the latter. It's an irrefutable fact that there is not a drop of his new father's blood in my dad's veins. There is absolutely no biological or genetic connection between my grandfather and I.

And yet...

He was always Grandpa to me. And I remain with my name. My wife changed her name nine years and one week ago. And this morning, Bishop Reg Piper held my youngest daughter in his arms and asked me to name this child; I publicly named my little daughter. With my family's name.

There is more to life than genetics. Blood might be thicker than water, but love beats blood any day. I know several people who have been adopted, and I know the people who adopted them, and there is no doubt in my mind that they are family.

Joseph was a merciful, compassionate, righteous man. There was nothing easy in this story for him. I cannot begin to comprehend what he must have thought as he dealt with the news that his wife-to-be was pregnant. To be ordered in a dream to not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife. To accept a child that is not, technically, his. To name this child and claim the child as his own. His world must have turned completely upside down. Joseph is one of the Bible's least-praised heroes. He doesn't swing a sword, he smites no enemies, but he's a giant.

For those with long memories, the genealogy began with Abraham. At nearly a hundred years old and childless, Abraham was promised by Yahweh that he would be the father of nations. And, says the writer of Genesis, Abraham believed the Lord, and God credited it to him as righteousness. Throughout the Psalms we see David desiring, chasing, aiming at righteousness – and mourning when he missed. We see righteousness in Joseph. And because Joseph is a compassionate, merciful, obedient and righteous man, he gave him the name... Jesus.
“To us a child is born. To us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne, and over his Kingdom, establishing it and holding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.”
These were the words of the prophet Isaiah, hundreds of years before. And as these two great strains meet, the son of Joseph, the son of David, the son of Abraham, the son of God... is born.

And Joseph gave him the name... Jesus.

Matthew has closed off the overture. It's time for the first movement. What happens next? You're going to have to wait until next week.

Can we bust all the myths? It'd be good, wouldn't it? I'd love to say we can. But the truth is, there are things in this book that will, from time to time, give us all difficulties. The Bible will throw up all sorts of things that challenge our perception of reality, our perception of God, our ethics, our actions, our morals, our identities, ourselves. And we will come to meet other people who are finding difficult things in here. This is really important to know... there's nothing wrong with that. It is not an easy book. It will, when we dig away, force us to ask all sorts of questions. And that's okay. God has given us questioning, curious, intelligent minds.

Having said that, I urge you to never give up looking for the right answer. Just because we find a few different ideas that don't seem to align, it doesn't necessarily follow that the Bible is inconsistent. It might just be that our vision's faulty. Never give up. Never give up reading the hard bits. And never give up trusting it. The Word of God is something we can trust, even when we don't understand it all. I doubt Abraham understood God's purposes when the Lord promised him that he would be the father of nations. But Abraham believed the words of the Lord, and it was credited it to him as righteousness. Joseph had no rational reason to stay by his betrothed-but-pregnant Mary; but Joseph was a righteous man, heard the words of the Lord that were announced by an angel in his dream...

and... he gave him the name Jesus.

Photograph of Herbert von Karajan from the official 100th birthday site, available at http://www.karajan.org/jart/prj3/karajan/main.jart?rel=en&reserve-mode=active&content-id=1190897372625&foto_kat_id=1192273236199&fotos_id=1190

1Thess 4:13-5:11 - I HOPE...

2008-08-11T10:59:00.006+10:00

1 THESSALONIANS 4:13 - 5:11

SERMON - 7:00PM

Let's Pray; Our Gracious Heavenly Father, thank You that You are a God of Your Word, and for giving us Your great Word. Thank You that Your Word is always true, always trustworthy, always the great guide. Help me to speak clearly, to speak Your Word clearly, and for all of us to understand Your good and perfect Word more clearly.
In Jesus' name Amen

Moore College puts on a Mission Week every year, where the College is emptied of both students and staff – and everyone is sent to churches around Australia to help those churches. I was in a group sent to Haberfield, where they had only just re-opened a church that had been boarded-up for a decade. St Oswald's is a turn-of-last-century church – high-roofed, hewn-stone,stained-glassed, with that smell that old churches all used to have. I noticed one of the stained-glass windows; it had some lovely artwork in it, but it also had an inscription carefully cut into it below; “In Memory Of Our Church Warden, Who Fell Asleep...” They did things pretty tough on their poor wardens back then...
Fell asleep. I think it's one of the most beautiful, most expressive ways of describing our passing. If we fall asleep, we have the expectation of waking up to a fresh, new day. Right at its roots, the use of the phrase fall asleep is loaded with hope. It's the active acknowledgement that death is not the end for us.

But it's an expression that also has the capacity to puzzle or confuse, and it didn't sit easily with people at first. If we cast our minds back to Lazarus' death, we can see that the expression puzzled those around Jesus. John chapter 11; “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.” His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” So then He told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sakes I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Jesus had to explain the phrase fallen asleep to them.

Paul faced a different misunderstanding as he wrote to the Thessalonian church. They knew that Jesus had power over death, because he had returned from the dead. And they believed that Jesus would return for them. But they thought that 1) He was coming back any hour now, and that 2) he would return before any of the believers had died.
This seems to have led to a couple of problems. Some of them, in the belief that Christ's coming was absolutely imminent, had given up work and all their other earthly responsibilities so that they would be prepared. More seriously, they were becoming distressed that some believers had died before the promised coming of Christ the Messiah. They had two huge questions... What happened to them? Where was Jesus now?

What does happen? Where is Jesus now? It's one of the most natural questions to ask in the middle of tragedy and grief. It's a question we ask ourselves, for reassurance and comfort. It's a question that Paul is happy to answer – and the way Paul answers it is beautiful, full of the truth and grace of God, and full of the comfort that the Spirit brings. And he writes specifically to bring comfort and encouragement. Twice he says to encourage each other with these words. There are other versions of the Bible that translate this phrase as comfort one another with these words; both translations are accurate. The word Paul chooses is one of the most beautiful in the Greek language – parakalew, parakeleo. We still use it to describe the Holy Spirit as a comforter, the Paraclete. Encourage and give comfort to each other with these words. And so we should.

Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who have fallen asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men who have no hope. Paul doesn't say that it's wrong of us to grieve. There is nothing wrong with grief at all. Grieving the loss of loved ones is incredibly painful. In Genesis we learn that a man will leave his mother and father, and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. Anything that parts either union here – between husband and wife, between parents and children – is and always will be incredibly painful. The Lord God, whose own Son was executed by men, knows the pain of loss. To mourn is right and natural. Paul wants to bring comfort, though, and he does. We don't need to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.

And it's true – our grief as Christians is very different. We know that our loves are not lost forever – though the parting is painful, we will meet together in the love of the Lord. And even in the midst of our great pain, here is great, great comfort. Encouraging comfort – parakalew comfort. We have been given the Great Hope.
Paul goes on to give further encouragement and comfort. He wants his readers to know with absolute certainty and assurance that those who have died will not be forgotten by the Lord, will not be left behind – they are still very much in the Lord's mind. We believe that Jesus died and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in Him. The way Paul uses this expression fallen asleep in Him is so beautiful – it reminds me of my own kids, totally secure and trusting in Fiona and I enough to put their cheeks on our arms and... fall asleep. According to the Lord's own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of our Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep... the dead in Christ shall rise first! Those who have gone before us are not only remembered, they are spoken of as being just as alive as Paul is himself. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever! In the air! Free from the earth, free from the world... truly on the wings of eagles, and with the Lord, uncorrupted and incorruptible forever! Oh, boy. Comfort each other with these words? You bet. Encourage each other with these words? You bet.

For here is our great hope, our beautiful and glorious hope. Here is why our Lord Jesus Christ died – why He was condemned by the leaders of His own people, coldly and brutally executed by foreign soldiers at a foreigner's order. Here is why Jesus came in the body of a man, suffered all of the things that man could suffer... so He could take our place, take our sins, take the justice that should by rights fall on us, take our punishment... so that when the Lord himself comes down from Heaven, those who have died in Christ will - will! rise first, and we who remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Sinless, blameless, with our Lord and each other forever.

Here is our great hope. And it's probably a good point to clarify what we mean by hope. But... but... as I was reading and writing this, I had a sneaking suspicion that somewhere along the line something had happened to hope. I checked quite a few dictionaries over this one, and I was right – something has happened to hope, or at least to what we understand by the word.

The formal definition is straightforward – the old trustworthy Oxford Dictionary defines hope as expectation and desire combined. The almost-as-good Macquarie Dictionary notes that it is expectation of something desired; desire accompanied by expectation. But both dictionaries also noted that these days we don't use that word with rock-solid certainty as much as we used to. Words like probability and more or less confidence appear a little further down as they examine the ways in which we use the word these days. And, sad to day, that's true enough. These days, if we say that we hope for something, there's almost a hidden implication that what we hope for... might not happen. I hope the train comes on time... I hope that the weather will be fine for the wedding... I hope the sermon won't take too long... We have a nagging, nasty sense that what we hope for might not come to pass. And so even in our language now, we as a society slip from a hopeful people to a hopeless people. It tarnishes the way people read the word hope in the Bible.

Thank God that we can understand that we can trust fully and unconditionally. That we can trust Him with our life. That we can hope, knowing with absolute assurance – not more-or-less confidence, but absolute assurance – that this is true. What was that brilliant old hymn? My hope is built on nothing less / than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame / but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ, the solid rock, I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Our hope is secure. Our hope is assured. Our hope rests in the Word of the Lord, and His Word will never, never fail.
Therefore, encourage each other with these words.

Paul moves on, and it seems as though he's covering familiar ground with the Thessalonians. Now, brothers, about the times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. It's an assumption, but a fairly sensible one, that Paul had taught them about the coming of the Lord, and what Jesus had said concerning His return. He seems to be reinforcing this teaching – that nobody, not even Christ himself knows when God the Father will send him. Matt 24:36 –

Nobody knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Matthew's record continues in v.42 – But understand this: if the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and not let his house be broken into. So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him. Paul reinforces Jesus' teaching once again – while people are saying peace and safety, destruction will come on them suddenly.

Paul knows that there's no point in speculating when the Day of the Lord will come. And we know that to be true. Even in our own lifetimes there have been people who have made great noises announcing that they have discovered the date of the Coming of Christ. The year 1000 brought all kinds of speculation. The year 2000 brought all kinds of speculation. There are still those Russians holed up in a cave waiting for a very certain date. And speculation about end-times and tribulation and Daniel / Revelation prophecies have caused no end of anxiety for many, many Christians. But they all fundamentally ignore Paul's very, very important message throughout these times and events – Encourage and comfort each other with these words...parakalew each other. We don't need to scare each other silly, or to have anxiety within ourselves.
I know that some people look at how Paul describes this meeting in the air, where those asleep in Christ rise first, those who remain come after and we meet the Lord and each other in the clouds. And that might be literally how it will happen. I know that some look to the prophecies in Daniel and the Revelation, and they interpret them in various ways, and in what order things will happen, and what signs will occur before... and they might be right, too. I'm not going to go into the whole landscape of end-times, parousia, and rapture – and neither does Paul, because Paul's purpose in discussing death, the dead in Christ and His return is to give comfort, to give assurance, that Christ has the power over death – and that through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. How important are the details and the mechanics of how it will all occur? What does Paul say?
Well, this is where Paul shifts focus. Actually, he really re-focuses attention to what he has been saying to the Thesalonians. He broke the focus to look specifically at their concerns about death, and now he brings it back to living for the Lord.
Verse 5 – You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or the darkness. We are different. We are different. There is no mistaking the differences between night and day. We have everything to live for, every good and perfect thing to look forward to. So we cannot be like others, who are asleep, who do their things in darkness. Paul motivates and encourages the Thessalonians, telling them why they must live godly lives. He doesn't chastise them, he encourages them, so that they will be encouraged. Remember at the start of 1 Thessalonians – Paul told them that the Lord's message rang out throughout the area as they became models of Christian living.
Paul spurs them on and on, urges them on and on. It's what Stu said last week, Paul the Frenchman. He's like a French Tour de France spectator, madly urging on the cyclists, even if they're in the lead. They are different from the rest of men who have no hope.

What a terrible, terrifying expression – the rest of men who have no hope. I talked a few moments ago about the way the word hope is beginning to lose that sense of iron-clad faith. I guess using a phrase like “I hope the train comes on time” demonstrates the point a little bit – there's a lack of certainty there, and (if we're talking about trains, anyway) that lack of certainty is based upon a past disappointment, a past expectation unmet, or a past breaking of faith. But it's worse than that, and the thought of a world without hope surrounds us every day. We can hear it when we talk to so many people. No trust in justice, no belief in lasting love, no surety in marital fidelity... it's like there's the background expectation that anything that hope can be put in will fail. And that's crushingly sad.

There's a British musical group who released an album last year. During the couple of months it took to make the record, a member of the group had a baby. Partly in response to this, they asked people at random what their great hope for their children was. Here's some of their answers...
I Hope... you understand what fear is before you have to feel it.
I hope my neuroses don't rub off on you.
I hope you always have enough to eat.
I hope you're never bullied, and I hope you never bully others.
I hope you find love. I hope rejection doesn't stop you loving.
I hope you don't blame yourself for things that aren't your fault.
I hope you'll visit me when I'm old.

The most heartbreaking thing I found in this song was that the band saw these as being the best things that we can wish for our children. The best hope they would wish for them was that their own ghosts would not follow the next generation. What a terrible thing to be without hope.

How great is our God who, by His grace and the blood of His own Son, has lifted us from this crushing darkness – this night of the soul – and made us sons of the Light. Paul says it loudly and clearly – For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.

The great theme that resonates through the letter is that Christ will come. The Thessalonians needed the words of Paul to encourage them in their waiting. Paul's encouragement is good for us, too, as we wait for the day of the Lord. But Paul injects something else into this letter, and as we wrap up our look at 1 Thessalonians, I want us all to grasp this firmly. Paul doesn't leave this as a standing instruction book. Paul doesn't want this church to hear his words and merely go-and-do. Twice in our passage here he leaves a living, breathing instrucion. 4 verse 18: Therefore encourage one another with these words. 5 verse 11: Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. It's not just a case of reading Paul's words, or listening to them, or even patiently listening to a sermon on them. Therefore encourage and comfort – parakaleo – each other. Take these great words of comfort, courage and assurance, and use them!

Especially, use them when our families grieve. Especially, use them when our brothers and sisters in Christ grieve. Have it in our minds when we talk to our neighbors who may be men without hope. These great and powerful words that Paul was given by God for the Thessalonians still resonate with the power of the Living God. But most importantly, we all need to re-discover HOPE, we all need to remember that hope placed in the Lord our God, His Spirit the Comforter, and His Son Jesus is secure hope! Trust in His hope -
For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with Him.
He who has called you is faithful – AND HE WILL DO IT! Amen.

Photo available from Stock.xchng, a site of stock photography (www.sxc.hu) Photographer is EIRincon, photo ID is 717386

2Thess 3:1-5 JESUS IS... LORD?

2008-08-11T08:45:00.007+10:00

SERMON
10.8.2008
7:00 service

We have a swear-jar at Moore College… you know, us Bible students are a caring swearing bunch. Not surprising – try learning Greek and you’ll be amazed what you WANT to say… No, the swear jar has been introduced by a lecturer, and a word each week is set up as “The Unspeakable Word”. Say the Unspeakable Word, put 20c in the jar, all funds raised go to Church Mission Society.

This week the word was “Saved”.

Not just saved, but any word using the root word. Salvation, for instance. Just get into your mind the picture of a theological college, with 115 first-years trying desperately looking for ways to NOT say saved, saving, salvation, Saviour... CMS is going to be financially independent by the end of 2009, and a third of all the students sound like they have a terminal stutter.

Still, it’s not as hard as the week before – the week before, the Unspeakable Word was LORD.

Which raises an interesting issue, doesn’t it? How do we use the word Lord? Have we become somehow immune to a word? Who do we think of when we use the Unspeakable Word?

Jewish tradition held – and still holds – that the name of the Lord of Heaven and Earth is itself so pure and holy that merely speaking the name would somehow tarnish it, or defile it. We generally think that this is probably extreme, but it must be said that we’re probably at the other extreme. We might well have forgotten that the God who wanted no statues made of Him also didn’t need to name Himself. Remember Moses? Exodus 3:13 “ ‘When they ask me “what is his name?”, then what should I tell them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites – I AM has sent me to you’ ” There’s a statement of absolute power.

And yet we are so free and easy with the name of God that it’s now a pretty acceptable part of our language to invoke His name with no thought. I wonder if the blasphemy isn’t in saying “oh, God” but in saying with no thought.

The NT word for Lord is kurios. A slave calls his master kurios. A tradesman calls a nobleman kurios. The kurion, the Lord, was the city ruler, the head of a country, or the Emperor.
For just a moment, I want us to consider how alien Paul’s words would have sounded in Thessalonika – a Greek city with heavy Roman connections and temples to a hundred gods. Listen again to the strangeness… from the Greek transliteration...

1v1 Paul, Silvanus, Timothy – to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father of us and in Lord Jesus Christ. Just God – and calling a Jewish man executed in faraway Judea – Kurios – the Lord.
1.2;Grace and peace to you from God the Father of us, and from Lord Jesus Christ.
2.1With regard to the coming of the Lord of us, Jesus Christ…
2.14;… that you might share in the glory of the Lord of us, Jesus Christ
3.6; In the name of Lord,Jesus Christ, we command you… [and if that doesn’t sound like a commander invoking the authority of the Emperor I donj't know what does].
3.18; The grace of the Lord of us, Jesus Christ. [Again, an Imperial pardon was issued because of the grace of the Lord, the Emperor].
Calling this man Jesus kurios – Lord – is a big, big call.

Keep the strangeness of this in mind as we keep digging through Paul’s prayer request that we read in 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5. And keep in mind that "the Lord" – at least in this passage – should be understood as the Lord Jesus.

Paul has written a follow-up letter to address a couple of problems. In it, he assures them – several times – that they are constantly in Paul’s prayers.
1v3; We ought always to thank God for you, brothers, and rightly so…
1v11; With this in mind we constantly pray for you…
2v13; But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers loved by the Lord…
That would be unbelievably encouraging to this young, flourishing church – knowing that the man, who brought them the Good Message of the cross and the rising of Jesus, still kept them in his constant prayer. I know that there are a couple of people who pray for Fiona and the kids and I, and they pray every single day. They are some of the most godly people you could bump into on a very long walk. That’s pretty encouraging, let me tell you. I have no doubt that the Thessalonians would have smiled the widest smile as they read how Paul still held them up to God in prayer.

Now he himself asks for prayer.

James Macbeth said this a long time ago, and it’s an interesting thought – a lot of a person’s heart can be seen in their prayers and what they ask others to pray for. Let’s look at what Paul asks for.
1. Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honoured, just as it was with you.
Paul isn’t shy about asking for prayer. But he immediately deflects the focus of the prayer – pray for me that the message [word] may spread. Again, it sounds odd when we give it a little thought. He doesn’t ask for prayer so he can have success in getting the word of the Lord out, although that will be the result if the Lord answers their prayer. But Paul’s doing a little teaching here too, and focusing the Thessalonians’ attention onto who will be answering the prayer. And why.

And why? That the word of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honoured – just as it was in you. Spread rapidly; literally to course like a great river. Honoured; the word Paul uses is a luminous word - doxazetai. Honoured, glorified… but there’s also a sense from the Greek word of glowing fiercely, of shining out in the dark.
And that’s exactly how it had spread in Thessalonika; an unstoppable flood. “The Lord’s message rang out from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia – your faith in God has become known everywhere,” Paul wrote in his first letter. Now Paul wants them to pray that the miracle that occurred in their life – in their city – will never stop happening.

How’s the swear-jar looking? – I’ve said Lord four times (the message / word of the Lord). Whose message or word? God the Father or God the Son?

Verse 2. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith.
Following his baptism and first preaching, Paul manages to avoid an assassination plot. He flees to Jerusalem – and then has to run to Tarsus, because of another attempt to kill him. He’s expelled from Pisidian Antioch, escaped a stoning at Iconium, didn’t escape a stoning at Lystra, publicly stripped and flogged before being jailed in Philippi, evacuated by night from Thessalonika, escaped from Berea… Those stoning and flogging episodes, by the way, were very often fatal.
Pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith.

Do you think that Paul should have prayed for this a little earlier? Or maybe prayed a little harder? I’d be surprised if he didn’t pray this every day. Considering that, to the best of our knowledge, he was executed – beheaded, tradition tells us, in Rome – do you think he was delivered from evil and wicked men? Did those people with no faith finally get him? Was this prayer answered or ignored? For that matter, here is the man who spearheaded the first ever persecution, who was complicit in the mob-execution of Stephen. Paul, at one stage, WAS one of the wicked and evil men he asks the church to pray against.

Pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith.

It may help us to see the request more clearly if we look at Paul’s prayer request a little closer. I think that the end phrase is pretty important, and it again shows us the heart of Paul. See, I don’t think that Paul was afraid of faithless men at all.
If I take that phrase and attach it to the first verse – pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honoured, for not everyone has faith – well, that’s a little different. Read the two verses as one request. In other words, pray that the message pours forth, and that nothing hinders people without faith to hear the Good Message of Christ. That makes more sense. And that’s more like the Paul who sang hymns after being flogged.
Deliver us from wicked and evil men, because they delay the progress of the message of Jesus to people who have no faith. Pray that nothing gets in its way.
Paul is on a mission. He wants the Good Message of Christ crucified and risen to be absolutely planted before he leaves the earth. He understands why Jesus rescued him, called him and chose him. Besides which, he’s quite comfortable with the thought of leaving the world behind…
Phil 1:20-24 shows Paul’s thoughts here; … but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or death. For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labour for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two; to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.
A man thinking that won’t be too worried about the wicked and evil men for himself – but he will be praying that they never get in the way of the Word. Get out of its way – it’s got a world to get to.

The next few verses he spends doing something he spent a lot of time doing in his first letter – encouraging them, building them up spiritually.
Verse 3. The Lord – the Lord Jesus, remember – is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. It’s a bold, confident statement. There’s no uncertainty, no hesitation – not even an easy “I’ll pray for…” He WILL strengthen and protect you from the evil one. No doubt at all.
Verse 4. We have confidence that you are doing, and continue to do, the things we command. I used to get a little worried when the principal said that. It made me think he had eyes everywhere. And he had the unnerving habit of saying “I have every confidence…” about things that, well, confidence should not be placed in. Paul uses his words far, far more positively than a principal – and it’s good motivation; out-loud confidence in their future protection and obedience.
Verse 5. May the Lord (Jesus) direct your hearts into God’s love, and Christ’s perseverance. Direct… guide – kind of like a rudder guiding and directing a boat into a safe harbour. May Jesus steer your hearts into God’s love, and Jesus’ perseverance. Good encouraging statements, something that Paul spent a lot of time doing throughout 1 Thessalonians.

The phrase “deliver us from wicked and evil men” kept on coming back to me over and over. It’s a haunting phrase, possibly because these days we don’t think about too many people as being wicked or evil. I suspect that one of the attractions of fictional villains is that we just don’t see people in this light anymore. Sometimes the only way we think of them is through movies.
In Schindler’s List, Ralph Fiennes played a real-live wicked and evil man – Amon Goeth, the Nazi commandant of a Polish concentration camp. I haven’t seen it yet, but the reviews for Heath Ledger’s Joker keep on and on saying that his ability to play a psychopathic, evil anarchist – and to play him so darkly and menacingly – is just brilliant. I wonder who it says the most about: a man who can be considered a genius for portraying a wicked and evil man, or a paying public – i.e. me, when we get right down to it – who are really just a little bit fascinated by them…

Deliver us from wicked and evil men. Paul’s teaching would indicate that this is also an excellent thing to pray for ourselves and each other. So… What do we mean when we pray it? I think it’s something that we should give a little thought to.
I suspect that if most of us found ourselves in Paul’s position, we’d consider the circumstances pretty evil – being beaten to within an inch of our life, publicly flogged, people trying to kill us by hurling boulders at us, being hounded out of cities and countries, deported to a city, shipwrecked and eventually executed. It’s a pretty unhealthy CV there.

I suspect that if we found ourselves in the middle of a persecution – our homes torched, being jailed, families threatened, beaten, property confiscated by law, killed for our love of Jesus… we would find ourselves wanting deliverance from evil. I certainly would.

Paul’s thinking is almost completely the reverse, though. Again – to live is Christ, to die is gain.

Declaring the loyalty of our life… will demand our life.

Declaring the loyalty of our life… will demand our life.

When we read Paul’s incredible statement from Philippians, we see a man who understands what it means to call Jesus Kurios – Lord.

We are not of an age that easily recognizes the lordship of others. One of the reasons, I suspect, why democracy works so brilliantly in some countries and is such a disaster in other countries is how people view authority. And it has to be said that democratic countries like the US, Britain – and certainly Australia – generally hold authority in barely-concealed contempt. As a generalization, we see the law as necessary for confining others, but an infringement of our own rights. Most of the time we obey either the law or company policy or school rules because they are convenient for us to live by, but when it’s inconvenient we immediately start resenting that authority. French philosopher Pierre-Joseph Proudhon summed up the logical extension of this: “Whoever puts their hand upon me to govern me, is a usurper, a tyrant and I declare them my enemy.” And that’s a pretty close fit for today.

What are we, with such an appalling attitude toward authority, going to make of a man who desires to be Lord over us? We call Jesus “Lord”. We call God the Father “Lord”. Have we thought about what we’re saying here?
Can we, in a society that intuitively rejects any authority placed over it… can we (not merely passively) describe Jesus as LORD – can we accept the terms of his lordship?

Calling Jesus “Lord” today doesn’t sound as strange as it did when Paul wrote to the Thessalonian church – but that’s only because we’ve made it a cliché and a bumper-sticker.

Because it’s not merely naming him. Matthew 7:21 – “Not everyone who calls me Lord-Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven”.
The reality of declaring Jesus’ lordship over our lives is no less shocking and confronting. It means that everything else comes… last.
Listen to what this man Jesus said: Luke 14:26; “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters – yes, even his own life – he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.”
Spouses, children, mates, girlfriends, boyfriends, money, music, sex, fashion, literature, movies, shopping, driving… everything about how we live and who we are…
All collected, taken out, and laid at the feet of… our Lord.

Can we do that? Can we really do that? Can we hold those terms of his lordship in a world that makes exactly the same claims over us? At the end of the day, we have to make that choice. Being passive – and not choosing – is itself a choice.

But know this about the one who wants us to call him Lord. He is the best one to have as our ruler and our King and our Lord. Listen to his words, and weigh them against anything else that can claim our life. Jesus says of himself –
· “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me – for I am gentle, and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matt 11:28-30
· “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst” John 6:35
· “God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have life everlasting.” John 3:16

Can you think of a better one to have as your Lord?

Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honoured, just as it was with you – And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men – for not everyone has faith. But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.
We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing – and will continue to do – the things that we command.
May the Lord direct your hearts into God’s love and Christ’s perseverance.

Amen

Artwork: detail taken from Caravaggio, Jesus & Thomas

1Ptr 2:1-3 A MATTER OF TASTE

2008-08-08T11:18:00.003+10:00

1 Peter 2:1-3, Psalm 34:8

MEN'S BREAKFAST

5th August, 2008

I’ve had a great breakfast. Tasted great. Thanks to Bob and the boys again!

My little girl Maggie generally has a bit of brekky at about two in the morning.
Maggie’s one, and she still has a few bottles of formula. She knows that the milk isn’t just nice, she knows without thinking that it’s good for her. She knows that it’ll pack her out and make that empty feeling go away. And I can tell you something that Tim Beilharz is going to find out fairly soon, and Phil Glendenning might be learning right now… if you don’t get the milk to her in a reasonable time, she’s going to insist… and they can do that loudly. There’s nothing polite about it – they long for it, and that word – long – has a fair bit of force behind it. Especially at two in the morning.

LIKE NEWBORN BABIES DO, LONG FOR THE SPIRITUAL, THE PURE (lit. the guile-free) MILK, SO THAT BY IT YOU MAY GROW INTO SALVATION – IF [INDEED] YOU HAVE TASTED THAT THE LORD IS GOOD.
Sometimes a verse needs very little explanation – this one has a mental picture that’s so vivid… at least to anyone who’s had to deal with a hungry baby at two in the morning. Peter was telling some of the churches in Asia Minor – call it Turkey and you’ll get a rough idea – how to live. To them it was news; to us, it’s not exactly news, but it’s still pretty challenging stuff. Put away things that we used to feed off. Put away things that the world outside sees as food…
PUT AWAY… ALL MALICE AND ALL GUILE AND HYPOCRICIES AND ENVIES AND ALL SLANDER.
Malice – I was reading a biography of the Whitlam government, and I’ll never forget a description of an old politician by the name of Vince Clair Gair – a good hater. That was an attribute that political parties would encourage and nurture, and I’m pretty sure it’s still something that’s fostered – we just call it a killer attitude.
Guile – the art of using truths to tell a lie, and presenting lies as the truth. An essential in any office if you don’t want to bleed to death.
Hypocricies – Envies – resenting the success of others…
Slander – lit. evil speakings, or as Paul Barnett translates it, “bad-mouthing”.
Food for the world. If you want a guide - not to get ahead in the world, but to merely hold your own – here’s one right there. And here are foods that, when they get into our spiritual life, when they get into our church life, when they get into our family life, will pretty well kill us.

Peter looks at this list of food, and says “scrap it”. Put away – get rid of it. Detox. And instead, look at a newborn baby. . Like newborn babies do, LONG for the spiritual, the pure - literally, the guile-free – milk, so by it you may grow into salvation. There’s a couple of times where milk gets mentioned, usually by Paul, and it tends to mean gentle teaching to people who’ve just come to a knowledge of Christ. Peter wants to give us a different mental picture. Do what babies do, he says. Desire this pure food, this milk. Desire it, want for it badly, loooong for it. In maternity wards, they really encourage breast-feeding, because that’s the best possible food for babies… So that by it you may grow into salvation…

But what do newborn babies really need? They don’t scream for hamburgers or water or coffee… they absolutely need the milk, because the milk gives them everything they need. I wonder why we don’t hunger and ask for our milk too often… I wonder if we’ve forgotten what it tastes like. We live in a world that has a flavour for any possible appetite… but no nutrition. It’s like we’ve forgotten what purity tastes like.

I spent six weeks in the Solomon Islands after I left Year 12. And you know what I missed the most? Mars Bars. Here was a place where an organic shop would be useless – this food was some of the freshest on the planet. And I wanted what? It took me a while to lose my cravings for Mars Bars, though. Until one thunderously hot day fixing roofing, and someone went to get a bucket of rainwater. It was monsoon-time, and the water was as fresh as water gets – straight out of a pollution-free sky. And that water was the best thing I’ve ever, ever tasted. It didn’t just replace lost fluid. It didn’t just quench a hard-earned thirst… it satisfied, and satisfied deeply. It was beautiful. And it tasted… can’t describe that.

Long for this milk – if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. Peter lifts a line out of Psalm 34; taste and see that the Lord is good. It’s an odd phrase; taste and see that the Lord is good We’ve tasted. We’ve seen how good He is. And when we stop eating the world’s junk food, we will long for the spiritual milk – and to get others to drink deeply, too.

I love what Wesley wrote about this verse, and I’ll share it with you in closing;
The milk of the word - That word of God which nourishes the soul as milk does the body, and which is sincere, pure from all guile, so that none are deceived who cleave to it. That you may grow thereby - In faith, love, holiness, unto the full stature of Christ.

Photo of my daughter. Taken by my mum. Great, isn't it?

AFTER THE APOLOGY...

2008-08-07T12:27:00.002+10:00

Toward a response to the Commonwealth Government of Australia's Indigenous Peoples.

(Originally written Feb 13, 2008)

The formal text of the Parliamentary Speech can be found at

http://www.pm.gov.au/media/Speech/2008/speech_0073.cfm

Photo from http://www.transit-port.net/Galleries/Australia/images/Parliament%20house.jpg

It was quite an extraordinary sensation. A hundred first-year theological students sat in silence, listening to a small portable radio. We listened intently as the Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, tabled the historic motion that both recognised the brutality of, and apologised for, the policies and actions that led to what we now refer to as the Stolen Generations. His speech made no excuses, and it brought up raw and shameful aspects of Australia's past.

Several reactions were evident in the room. There was great relief that this apology had finally been made. There was sadness that such a horrific and heartless policy was still in action so recently (Prime Minister Rudd noted that the forcible separation of children from their mothers was still occuring in the 1970's – pointedly noting that there were some sitting Members of Parliament who had been elected during this period). There was great optimism that this symbolic gesture would become as significant a milestone as the passing of the Referendum recognising Aboriginal people as legal, voting citizens. And there was heartfelt thanks to the Lord that this country's leaders' hearts had been softened enough for this most important statement to be made.

One of the reactions that moved me the most was from an Aboriginal student. As we discussed the meaning and implications of the Apology, he said that it brought to his mind the Old Testament story of Mephibosheth. King David's extraordinary act of mercy restored the honour of the last surviving member of Saul's family; a better Biblical example of the true nature of reconciliation between former enemies would be hard to find.

So far, so good. But tomorrow – and the next day and the next – what should our response be? We truly need to expend thought here. We must, as Christians first, also make our own apologies. And we need to commit ourselves to true repentance within our own hearts.

For the times that we have listened to racist talk (and in many cases watched racist action) and done nothing, we must apologise and seek repentence.

For the times when we have seen, read or heard commentators in the media who have deliberately sought out the worst examples of Aboriginal cruelty, abuse and violence to fellow Aboriginal, explicitly denigrating their ability to be members of “our” community – without holding the rest of Australian society to the same harsh judgement – and we have never sought to give voice to the injustice of this treatment, we must apologise and seek repentence.

For the times when we have ignored, forgotten or turned a blind, apathetic eye to the conditions that past generations and governments have condemned our country's first inhabitants to, we must apologise and seek repentence.

And, in our hearts, we must also recognise that the goal of “reconciliation” is both a poor and inaccurate goal to aim for. The very word “reconciliation” implies a bringing-together of peoples who were once united but then divided. Such a word is appropriate for David and Mephibosheth. It is appropriate for America following the Civil War, or, perhaps in a modern context, for the Sunni and Shi'a communities of Iraq. But from the first arrival of European discoverers until today, we must acknowledge that our two communities have never been close enough to call united – ever.

We must think in terms of uniting, not reuniting. To consider it in other terms will still hide the gulf that has always separated us.

What then? I suspect that our proper response, for the immediate future, is to say no more. And to listen. We must not assume that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities will simply, immediately and unconditionally accept these apologies as they stand at present. For that would be just as arrogant as never apologising in the first place.

We must listen. If there are loud voices from the Aboriginal communities raising the issue of monetary compensation, we must listen. If there are loud voices from our own communities complaining about the issue of compensation, we must insist that they be quiet and listen.

We need to wait, prayerfully and anxiously, for the leaders of the Aboriginal communities to represent their people as they reply. We must not simply make plans to “improve their lot” until we have heard the reply. We must demonstrate that we consider their views not just worthy of listening to but absolutely critical to begin the process of healing.

And then? One thing at a time. There have been moments of national significance in the healing process between black and white. The Referendum. The election of Aboriginal Senators and Members of Parliament in both State and Federal Government. The appointment of Aboriginal judges to the High Court. The recognition of native title. And yet the separation between our two communities is still shamefully apparent. By any measurement – from infant mortality to life expectacny, from rates of diabetes to literacy levels – the division between black and white is an indictment upon our inability to match words with deeds. Faith without works, we recognise, is dead. And there have been, sadly, few enough reasons for the Aboriginal community to place faith in anyone else.

Prime Minister Rudd's address contained an echo of the apostle Paul, when he noted that words without actions are like a clanging gong. We need to amplify the echo from 1 Corinthians 13. Without love, even the best of actions and intentions will come to ends both incomplete and manipulable. For our part, we need to demonstrate that love. Before that, we need to have that love for them. Do we need to remind ourselves about love? That famous passage is read out enough times at weddings, and it may well be that 1 Corinthians 13 is the most appropriate text to meditate upon as we seek union – for our two communities to finally become one flesh...

Jn 3:16 - NICODEMUS & ME

2008-08-07T11:45:00.000+10:00

Sermon

4th August, 2008

John 3:1-21
LET’S PRAY…
God our Father, you have given us Your thoughts and Your heart and Your Word in the Bible. We pray that as we explore it today you will open our eyes to the very familiar, that you will help us in the renewing of our minds, that we may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of Yours. Help me to speak clearly, to speak Your Truth clearly, and for us all to understand your good and perfect Word more clearly.

One of my little indulgences is a monthly magazine called “Wheels.” You will, I know, be very surprised that it is all about cars – almost all forms of new cars. From supercars made from unobtainium to cheap and cheerful lunchboxes on wheels, the magazine test-drives everything it can on the Australian market. But there’s one tiny column that appears every month, called “Trainer Wheels.” Famous drivers, designers and bosses of major car companies are asked about their first car – what it was, what they loved about it, and what happened to it.

And there is one common thread here… everyone falls madly in love with their first car. Even if it’s not a good car (and let’s face it, not very many first cars are much good, in the grand scheme of things), they almost universally speak luminously about the joy of their first car. The new freedom it gives them, how it opened up a whole new world for them. They remember that car with great fondness, even when they recall the way that it never started reliably, or very reliably stopped in rain, traffic, hills and for no reason whatsoever.

My first car didn’t last very long – it lasted three weeks before I went through a GIVE WAY sign and nearly straight through another car. Ouch. I suspect Brad Busch can remember that one, too. So my next car was the one that helped me discover the world. It was a Mitsubishi Colt, and it was… terrific! It hated hills, had the weirdest gearbox I’ve ever seen, but it took me places. It took me through the National Park at a speed I shouldn’t advertise, it took me down to my grandmother in Kiama, it took me to Canberra non-stop, and we discovered the magic of the Kings Highway, the road past Jindabyne and so many other great places.

But it also took me to work and back every day, and did the mundane things as well. Shopping. Picking up friends. Just… you know, the usual things. And after a while, it became… an appliance. It was unbelievably reliable and white, so after a while it only got washed when people got dirty leaning on it, and it only got maintained when weird noises happened. Eventually I just sold it, and there was very little sentiment when I did.

What happened there? Had the car deteriorated or let me down? No – it stayed pretty bulletproof right up to the end.

BUT WHAT HAPPENED…?

We can do this with our Bibles.

We can do this with Jesus.

We can, if we are not very careful, lose our great love and passion. We can live with Christianity for so long it’s like skin – but we don’t notice our skin at all unless there’s something wrong with it. Bible verses that rang like sonar in our hearts become… what do they become? We don’t disbelieve them all of a sudden, we don’t forget them… they just become part of the furniture; old, comfy, useful when needed but utterly unseen when we’re not looking at it? First-car syndrome? Is that it? How did that happen?

How did my favourite book become an appliance?

One thing about the Bible, and those phrases in it, is that they never ever lose their point, their effectiveness, their relevance, their wisdom or their God-breathed purpose. It’s the Word of God. But we humans can take the most amazing things and just... normalise them. What’s a novelty or a revelation one week is incorporated into normal life the next.

Sad, in a way.

Sadder when it happens to our Bibles. How many people were persecuted and burned, like Tyndale, for attempting to publish a version that anyone could read? How many people still die in the attempt to take it to all the corners of the map? A couple of months ago Michael Newman told us about people determined to bring the Gospel to North Korea... and they staged their operations out of communist China. China is very hostile to the Word – North Korea is mortally opposed to it. This extraordinary book drives people to do the most extaordinary things... and yet we are entirely capable of reading it all without hearing a thing.

We’re going to look at a verse that is instantly familiar to almost all of us, and we’re going to have a look a guy who knew his Bible inside-out, but still had trouble understanding the importance of what God was saying in the Scriptures that he knew so well.

Here it is. John 3:16. How does it go again?
For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

It’s a diamond – it captures the Gospel of love and salvation so simply. If you wanted a simple summary of the whole of Jesus' purpose and God's intent, here it is. It sounds like something that would turn up in one of Paul’s letters, or possibly John’s.

But here’s the odd thing; it wasn’t written by someone looking though the life of Christ, needing to distill the essence of the Gospel message's simplicity.

Jesus said it, and he said it right at the beginning of His ministry.

Jesus had an extraordinary conversation with Nicodemus, and we’ve eavesdropped in on that conversation this morning already. I’m not going to dive into the whole conversation. It’s so rich and full of fresh wisdom that we could spend weeks in there. And if I take too long, I’ll be in trouble… babies need feeding, nappies need changing – and that’s just MY kids. But I would really encourage you to go into John Chapter 3 this week and spend more time eavesdropping in on this conversation again.

What I want us to consider for the next few minutes is what Nicodemus heard – and what it must have done to his head.

Before we do that, we probably need to be introduced to Nicodemus. We actually know very little about him – he only turns up in John’s gospel, we only see him very briefly on three occasions, and only hear his voice twice. We know that he was a Pharisee, and a ruler of the Jews… by that we can probably infer that he was a member of what we would term the Supreme Court in Jerusalem – the Sanhedrin.

Now we know about the Pharisees, right? They were the bad guys, weren’t they? My mum and dad spent four years all-up in Singapore, and they wrote in a letter once that going to the movies was quite an experience. The local audience would loudly cheer the hero, and really give the bad guys a big booo! And we get that same quick response when we hear the word “Pharisee” – booo! They’re bad!

It’s not quite that simple, though. Most people in Judea saw them as the good guys. They appeared about 200 years before, and they essentially opposed the corrupting influences of the outside world. Since the return to Judea from exile there were armed invasions in which terrible atrocities had been committed, the Temple had been defiled, and the territory was governed from overseas. But there were more subtle invasions – Greek society itself had arrived in Palestine, and the way people lived was changing dramatically. By the time Jesus began his ministry the language of the street was Greek, business was conducted in Greek fashion, entertainment had a very Greek flavor, and it was getting harder and harder to maintain Jewish customs, Jewish morality and Jewish thought.

The Pharisee’s job was essentially this – to remind God’s people, Israel, how to keep being God’s people. They reminded Jews how to stay Jewish. Much as Jewish people today will remember the Nazi atrocities for hundreds of years, the Jews of Jesus’ day had their own horror that they remembered – the Exile. They believed that they were dragged into exile as punishment for disobedience against the Lord God (and there is much in the Old Testament that confirms that this was the case). And they were determined to never ever place themselves in that position again. From the first reading in Nehemiah 8 (and I’m sorry for all of those names in there – that’s a hard reading) we see the people of Israel, returned from exile, re-opening God’s word, weeping as they understood it again, then being joyful, “because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.”

They were going to obey God, obey his Laws to the letter, and ensure that there was never a chance that they COULD disobey. A couple of hundred years later, the Jewish people were waiting anxiously for the Messiah to bring the Kingdom Of God, and the last thing that they wanted to be was disobedient. And, a couple of hundred years on, the Pharisee’s main task was to make sure that it stayed that way.

The Pharisees were like lawyers. The people made inquiries as to the Law, to everyday activity, to find out whether a particular act would be sinful where the written Law was unclear. And the Pharisee’s job was to advise how God’s law could be interpreted in the context of a modern, rapidly-changing society and culture.

One of the ways that they did this was to thoroughly immerse themselves in the Law; they had read it and found 613 commandments in the Books of the Law - 248 were positive laws (you shall do this) and 365 were negative laws (thou shalt not), Around these laws they made a “hedge” of restrictions – the idea being that if you didn't go over the hedge, you wouldn't be ABLE to break the Law itself.

In theory, it was a great idea – but by the time of Nicodemus, these hedge-laws had in themselves become so restrictive that the real intent of the Law was becoming lost. There were now 39 specified prohibited acts on the Sabbath. Keeping the Law was not just about an individual doing the right things – it was a matter of national security. The idea of being obedient to God as an act of love was disappearing.

And in stepped Jesus.

He had already made a stir for miraculous signs – as well as assaulting the business of the money-changers in the Temple. Nicodemus met Jesus at night. We don’t know why night – whether he was afraid to be seen in alliance with a potential trouble-maker, whether he had been sent by the Supreme Court to quietly see what this man was really about, or simply because night-time was the only opportunity to meet Jesus one-on-one.

Whatever the reason, Nicodemus came to Jesus.

“Rabbi,” he said, “we know you are a teacher that has come from God. For no-one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” A good way of introducing himself, and he probably waited a similar reply. Jesus doesn’t do this – his reply cuts straight to Nicodemus’ heart. For a man charged with helping Israel prepare for the coming of the Kingdom, Jesus’ opening words must have been shocking.

“No-one can see the Kingdom Of God unless he is born again.” Ouch. I can see Nicodemus in at least mental shock. Born again? What about observance? Obedience? What are you talking about? “How can a man be born again?” he asks. Nicodemus had dedicated his entire life to preparing people for the Kingdom of God, to be told that... maybe he was wrong? “How can a man be born again?”

The commonly-used Greek word for “again” is “Palin.” If I asked you to say something again, I would say “Legete Palin.” This isn’t the word that John records Jesus using. The Greek word used here is “athonen” – which also means “again,” but also carries the sense of “from above.” How can a man be born again – from above?

So Jesus explains something about birth – and while we’re here, we might just have a look at one of our other clichés for a second before we pass along. We all know the expression “Born-Again Christian”. Sometimes it’s a derogatory term, given to us by people who find Christianity a bit weird. Sometimes it’s a term we give ourselves, particularly if we have come to Christ and have had a great change in our lives. But Jesus explains exactly what he meant.

“Flesh gives birth to flesh, but Spirit gives birth to spirit – you should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’”

Do you remember when we were first born? Nicodemus should have remembered it well, and so should we. Right up the front end of the Bible, in Genesis – that book that Richard Dawkins and John Spong and so many others want us to ignore – back in Genesis, we read mankind’s birth notice.

God stooped low, scooped up the rich soil, and made Man. Then He breathed into the clay man’s nostrils, “He breathed the breath of life – and the man became a living being.” The Spirit of God gave birth to the spirit of Man. In either the Greek or Hebrew, the word spirit – p'neuma or ru'ach – has the same sense of dynamic, moving, living energy; breath, wind. “He breathed the breath of life – and the man became a living being.” “You must be born again.” “Spirit gives birth to spirit.” We could spend a long time here – but the nappies are waiting. Let’s move on.

Nicodemus was really under the pump, now; he looked at Jesus and said, “How can this be?” Jesus looked at him. “You are Israel’s teacher, and you do not understand these things?” And Jesus shows Nicodemus His authority to say what He is about to say next; I'd love to linger through here as Jesus throws down credential after credential, but we don't have time today – it is important, though, because what Jesus says next was so profound and so earth-moving that nobody without those credentials could have said this.

“For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Jesus just changed the orbit of the world.

What did Nicodemus hear? Let's stand by Nicodemus for a moment. Now there are several things that Nicodemus would have been familiar with – for a start, the value of sons. They were, in those times, the future of your family. An eldest son would not only provide for you in your dotage, but they would carry all that you had – and all that you were – into the future. Sons were your life into the future, they were your continued existence. Eldest sons were your treasury, your bank of wealth and knowledge. Only sons were doubly precious... they were irreplaceable; in many ways completely priceless. If an only son died, there would be precious little that would survive past your own life.

Nicodemus would also have a knowledge of sons in the Bible – particularly when sons were given to God. He would recall the story of Abraham taking Isaac up a hill with a knife and a rope. Remember that? He would know about Samuel's mother, Hannah, enduring barrenness for years, praying to the Lord in the bitterness of her soul, having her desperate prayer answered... and finally physically handing the toddler to God; “I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over for the Lord,” said Hannah. The cost of giving God one’s only son is massive. These people loved God so much that they gave their one and only sons… This is something that Nicodemus could understand. And Nicodemus is the first to hear of the price God is prepared to pay for His world, His people. Can you imagine his shock? I think that idea would take some time to chew over.

I’m a father. I love my children, and I would do almost anything to protect them. If someone broke into my house and threatened my family, would I lay down my life for any one of them? I pray that I never have to find out, but I would.

If my youngest daughter, Maggie, develops a terrible condition that requires me to donate a kidney, I’d do it in a flash.

But what if she needs both of my kidneys? What if the cost of sustaining her life was my own possible death? I can’t imagine a more horrible choice – either choice would leave unendurable pain. Her or me.

One step closer...

What if the only possible donor was my little two-year old, Ben? My gorgeous little red-headed smiling tornado… could I make that choice? To save my daughter’s life, could I willingly give away my son?

One step closer...

But… would I be willing to give up one of them for someone who didn’t deserve it? If Osama or Amrozi or Adolf could be saved by a transplant that could only be obtained from my Benny? Would I even allow the thought? There is no way that I could possibly contemplate this.

And here is where we find grace. Another one of those words that we as Christians use over and over till we’ve almost lost touch with the meaning. Grace. Grace is expensive, horribly, horribly expensive. Grace is unutterably painful to God our Father. It is completely unnatural, it is an utter reversal of logic, and it IS the full love of God.

Back to Nicodemus. How is he doing? His shocks aren't over yet. Before his ears have recovered, the second one comes. “Whoever believes in him will... have everlasting life.” Jesus announces that God’s gift is not just for the salvation of the Jewish race alone – the people who knew that God had set them apart – but for everyone. “Whoever” must have been a terrifying word to Nicodemus. He would have spent his adult life protecting his people from the influences of the whoevers. God's Chosen people were set apart from the whoevers

What was Jesus saying? Where could Nicodemus go from here?

We know very little about Nicodemus. John's picture never tells us how Nicodemus reacted to this news. We don't see him as we see the young rich man walking away from Jesus with a sad heart. We don't see him outraged at the outrageous teaching. We don't see him casting everything aside to join His disciples. We only see him twice more. At the tail end of John 7, we see him with the chief priests and the Pharisees. They are all hostile towards Jesus, His message, and the mob that follows Him. Only Nicodemus' voice is raised in concern regarding their summary judgement of Jesus. And our final glimpse is of him accompanying the broken body of Jesus, wrapping the corpse and laying Him in an unused tomb.

There are quite a few similarities between Nicodemus and us. A lot of Nicodemus' thoughts and fears will be very familiar to us. Like him, we are mostly familiar with our Bibles. Like Nicodemus, we live in a world of corrupting influences. Like the Jewish people of his time, we wait anxiously for the Messiah to bring the Kingdom Of God, and the last thing that we want to be is disobedient. Nicodemus considered himself living in the Last Days. So do we. So many of Nicodemus' day-to-day concerns are dilemmas in 21st Century life in Australia – and even in the Shire. How do we remain obedient to God in a world which mocks our Lord, which discourages Christian ethics, which encourages greed and selfishness and immorality? We go to our Lord in prayer, and we look to our Bibles – just as Nicodemus would have done.

How, then, do we react to our Bibles, to these volatile and dangerous ideas that this strange man Jesus brings into the world? We can despise and reject them utterly, which some do. We can take little chunks that we agree with and discard the rest as irrelevant – window-shopping through the Bible for the nice bits without having to scare ourselves with the hard teachings. We can even study it so intently that we know the Bible backwards, understand its historical significance, wrestle with the ancient manuscripts, and study and learn it much like a scientist dissecting a new species of animal... and yet be completely untouched by anything of what we've read. We can look for all the rules, the do-and-do-not lists, assure ourselves that we are living a life in accordance with Scripture – and yet have a heart so cold and an attitude so bitter that nobody around us is even remotely interested in our religion in case they become the same.

We live very much in the world of Nicodemus' heart. So how do we deal with John 3:16? How do we deal with the hard bits? Because there are hard bits there for us to deal with, and we may well struggle with the same thoughts as Nicodemus.

“Whoever”is a big word. Do we really want the “whoevers” to be saved? How do we deal with the horrible and cruel people we regularly see on the news? The fraudsters, murderers, brutal dictators? Do we hear about them on the radio and join in the calls to condemn them? Do we laugh when we hear about the shamelessly stupid exploits of the Britney Spears' and Paris Hiltons of the world? Or do our hearts go out to them in the hope that somehow they, too, will not perish but have everlasting life? Is there anyone here who's prayed for Paris Hilton? I'll confess – I never did until I started writing this.

The “Whoevers” are the bosses that don't care for their employees if it gets in the way of a profit. The “whoevers” are the people behind counters who give us poor, shoddy service. The “whoevers” are the drunks wandering past our windows at three in the morning. Can we accept that God loved these “whoevers” so much that He gave His only Son? Can we accept that and praise God for his strange, unnatural and painful grace? Or do we find ourselves with a heart like the brother of the Prodigal Son, resentful that people who rightly should be condemned are also in the Lord's heart?

Here's the beauty of God's Word. It always challenges us – even the very familiar bits. So how do we stop the familiar bits becoming those cliches, those appliances like our first cars? My nature and my natural instinct is sometimes to hear it or read it, and just nod and go “uh-huh, I know that...” How do I overcome my proud, human nature?

I don’t think I can.

But I think God can.

I think that ONLY God can work against my nature and my natural instincts, and ONLY God can light up my eyeballs when I come across a verse that changes the world. Paul wrote to the Romans and said, “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” Reading the Bible will often require our minds to be transformed, because it isn't an ordinary book.

We read so much for entertainment these days. Some of us want a good story with racy plots and blood all over the place. Some of us look for exquisite literature of the highest order, and we love to read authors of wit and erudition. Some of us crave inspirational books – books that show us how to live our lives to its fullest potential. And some of us just need a book to read before the light goes out at night. And you will find all of this and more here.

But if that's all we seek, if that's all we think we need, we're going to blind ourselves to so much of what God wants to say to us. Because this is how God has chosen to speak to us. He is a God of words, He is a God of His word, and a God of the Word. “In the beginning,” John tells us, “was the Word; and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” In the Greek, the emphasis is even more dramatic; The Word was with God, and God was the Word!

Reg and my father often give me exactly the same advice. “Read your Bible and say your prayers.” Dad still adds “brush your teeth,” which Reg has never seen a need to do yet. But it's our communication with God. Praying without reading the Bible is a one-way monologue. Reading the Bible without praying regularly is pretty much the same.

A German Bible translator called Martin Buber once wrote this about our Bibles; “Read the Bible as if it were something entirely unfamiliar, as though it had not been set before you ready-made. Face the book with a new attitude as something new. Let whatever may happen occur between yourself and it. You do not know which of its sayings and images will overwhelm and mould you.”

Over the last four weeks we've looked at four very familiar verses. Last week James took us through Matthew 11, the yoke being easy. Jai walked us through John 6, food that doesn't perish. James started the series with Matthew 5, “Blessed are the meek.” You know what? It doesn't matter how familiar we are with any of it – this book is so rich that a verse that you've read a thousand times can suddenly throw you a very great surprise.

Read it afresh every time. Take nothing for granted. And we need to let God renew our minds in this. Pray as you read it.

We need to let the Lord renew our minds every time we read...

“In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God... and God was the Word!”

We need to allow God to show us the potency of His Word all over again. For His sake. For our sake. Every day.
Amen.

Eph 6:13 ...TO STAND!

2008-08-06T21:30:00.001+10:00

EPHESIANS 6:13

MEN'S BREAKFAST,
May 2007

For some reason this Anzac Day seemed to be more prominent than others of recent memory. Perhaps it was the release of Charles Bean’s diary and archived photos of the Gallipoli shoreline. Whatever reason, the public paid attention… and, rightly, paid deep respect.

One of the almost-forgotten stories of the campaign on the Western Front came to light very recently in an ABC poll of the 20 greatest speeches ever made. Although it wasn’t voted into the top 20, quite a few commentators mentioned “Bethune’s Orders.”

A Tasmanian minister who signed up for the First World War, Lieutenant Frank Bethune found himself and his seven men in a horribly exposed position in a place called Passchendaele. He was no stranger to war at this point – he had received the Military Cross, had been wounded twice and gassed once. His orders were to hold this position. And this is what he told his men:

1. This position will be held, and the section will remain here until relieved.
2. The enemy cannot be allowed to interfere with this programme.
3. If the section cannot remain here alive, it will remain here dead, but in any case it will remain here.
4. Should any man, through shell shock or other cause, attempt to surrender, he will remain here dead.
5. Should all guns be blown out, the section will use Mills grenades, and other novelties.
6. Finally, the position, as stated, will be held.

Eighteen days later, the seven men of Number 1 Section, 3rd Machine Gun Company were finally relieved. Lieutenant Bethune’s orders summed up courage, tenacity and dedication to the mission so vividly that they were rapidly circulated through Allied France, and were formally embodied in British Army Orders until 1940. Following Dunkirk and Churchill’s “We Shall Fight” speech, the six points were reprinted millions of times on leaflets and posters – “the spirit that won the last war” was held high for all to see. The Australian War Memorial has Lieutenant Bethune’s hand-written original, torn from his gridded notebook – that’s in front of you now.

It raised a couple of questions in my mind… partly because it is so dramatically different to the pre-battle speeches that I’ve grown up with in books and movies. Homer gave his characters elegant and eloquent speech, and today Gibson, Spielberg and Bruckheimer excel here. One of the important ingredients in the formula is the Inspiring Speech as the men prepare to commit themselves to combat. Screenwriters truly earn their crust at this point, but – if Bethune’s orders are any guide – they are more fictional than we’d like to believe.

The biggest question that came to mind was simply this. What would I say to someone about to enter the battlefield? What would you tell a man before he faces the certainty of great injury and loss? Soldiers generally know what they have to do, where they have to be, when they have to begin the fight – the tactics have been worked out and rehearsed and trained already, so you’re not going to be giving them anything new there – but… What would you say if they were your men?

Well, you’ve said it; you’ve been sitting next to men who are about to do exactly this. As we go out of that door into the real world each of us will step onto a battlefield, and unlike the troops of the 3rd Machine Gun Company we will not have the luxury of comrades at our sides. We go to war, gentlemen. It isn’t a war of our making, we didn’t declare war. Soldiers don’t declare war, but we do fight.

Paul wrote to the Ephesians, and along the way he uses the language of war. Reading Bethune’s orders aloud reminds me very much of this passage:

“Put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.”
Ephesians 6:13

I talked to an old man not long ago. He was looking for a piece of leather thonging, to replace one for a necklace. He showed me what was hanging round his neck. One bullet, and one shell casing. The bullet flew out of the bushes from a Japanese Arisaka rifle, and lodged in his thigh. The shell casing came from his own rifle – he sent a bullet back into the bush, heard a yell – but he never found the sniper that tried to take him out. He retreated along the Kokoda Track with the brass in his body. He never heard another shot the whole way, but walked the 96 kilometres never knowing if he had stopped his enemy, or if his enemy was lurking in the bushes waiting for him again. Somehow he found this just as terrifying as combat itself. And yet… at the end of that long and deadly walk, his proudest achievement was being able to… stand.

And to me it sums up our war. Paul phrases it well – and he doesn’t use the war language of massed troops standing shoulder-to-shoulder with our comrades. All we have is the armour that the Lord offers us and the prayers and support of each other. Our enemy knows the rules that we live by, and fights with no rules to restrict him. He fights dirty. We get attacked by surprise, by ambush. At work we have the battles of office politics, of little lies, of compromise, of putting self-interest above truth. But we, like the men of Number1 Section, must stand our ground – and after we have done everything, to stand.

Some of us find the battle outside relative easy to fight, only to find that the insurgency has put a roadside bomb in our minds. Again, Paul:

“For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my own body, waging war against the law of my mind…”
Romans 7:22-3

And some of us in the room will find this one the hardest one to fight. It’s my hardest battle. God has blessed me with a good job and a work atmosphere like a large family. God has blessed me with a beautiful wife, and a household that (on May 9) will definitely be a large family. So where does the landmine go off? Exactly.

I have no doubts that Paul was describing the battle that a lot of mature Christians go through, and the battlefield where a lot of good Christian men bleed and lie broken.

So make no mistake. We go to war. But… we go to war, knowing well that the war is won, that the victory was made possible by the death – and the return from death – of our Lord Jesus. No matter how bloody the battle, we are saved by shed blood and by love and by grace. But it’s still our job to help each other stand, to listen to each other, to talk and to pray with and pray for each other. The author of Hebrews phrased this beautifully:

“Exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin”
Hebrews 3:13

“While it is called Today” - what a great phrase. The word exhort… well, it’s an older word. Most translations give encourage, and that’s a word that we’ve wussed-up over the years. Encourage isn’t like “Little Timmy played his first game, and mum gave him lots of encouraging smiles.” To encourage here is to give courage to each other. It’s a muscular word. Give Courage! Now! Churchill used to look over all sorts of minute details and plans throughout the length of both world wars, and if he saw one that required some urgency, he would belt it with a big rubber stamp – “Action This Today.” Giving each other courage is one of the most important things that as Christian men we can do for one another. And this is something that we must stamp heavily with “Action This Today.”

This is why I love mornings like this – this is where we get to meet, to share with other men how our battles have gone, to ask for prayer and to pray for each other before we go back into the fray. It’s like a cease-fire, a break from battle. And it’s where we give each other strength, and get strength from each other. It’s not just coming to listen to James or Tim or myself speak, and it’s not just about having a warm, hearty breakfast. So thank you for coming! Mornings like this help me to stand, and they help to bring peace.

Because, although we go to war, we go in peace. We go to a fight but we bring love. The world of men demands ruthlessness and cold efficiency to get results (or at least achieve satisfactory outcomes) – we bring mercy and forgiveness to the battle’s floor. I’ll finish, again with Paul, who wrote some of the best mission orders to hear before battle:

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other, and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”
Colossians 3:12-17

Action this today!

Gen 2:7 INSPIRATION

2008-08-06T21:27:00.001+10:00

“… then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Genesis 2:7

MEN'S BREAKFAST
March 2007

What a beautiful beginning. The Lord, the One who had just used might beyond our imagination to create this planet and everything in it, stoops low, scoops up the red earth and begins to sculpt. And when He had formed Man, He went one step further and brought His masterpiece to sentience by breathing into his nostrils. Not mouth-to-mouth as an adult rescuing an adult – but into the nose, as one would do giving life back to a tiny child.

Consider the sense of smell for a second. James has alluded to the sense of smell a couple of times – encouraging us to get a fistful of loam and SNIFF, and to go forth and reek.
Smell is the unsung gift. It is the sense most keyed to our memory. A baby instinctively bonds – and knows –its mother and father by smell. And with this strange and beautiful act, the first thing that Man ever smelled was the breath of the Living God.

INSPIRATION is an old word, and it means, simply, to inhale – to breathe in. Adam, the first Man, was, in the most literal and intimate sense, inspired by the Living God. And, as the sons of Man, so should we.

I want us to think very carefully about who we allow to be our inspiration. As men in a world of men we are encouraged to be inspired by many people. There’s an enormous industry in providing inspiration to others, ranging from framed photographs with quotations about being winners to self-help literature to lengthy (and expensive) seminars. People who are seen as winners in the world are held up before us as people who should inspire us and motivate us. The Steve Waughs, the Jack Welches, the Lance Armstrongs, the Anthony Robinses…

I wonder if there’s a very subtle danger to this. In allowing others to be our inspiration, are we allowing others to take the place of the One who gives us the oxygen for our day? Are we allowing men to usurp a place that God alone should have?

Look very carefully. By all means, read the books – take all the ideas that will work for us in business, learn from the examples given, use the models that are suggested… but be very careful who we allow to inspire us.

Look very closely at the captains of industry, politics, entertainment – and ask yourself if they are really fit to be giving us the mental air that we need. Do they fit this model?

“Lovers of themselves… boasters, proud… unloving, unforgiving… headstrong… haughty, lovers of pleasures…having a form of godliness but denying its power” (excerpts from 2 Tim 3:2-5). These were traits that Paul spoke of, before adding this injunction – “From such people turn away!”

And yet clearly these are traits that are celebrated as traits of winners. The last of Paul’s list of traits is the one that should ring the most alarm bells as we look at the inspiration revolution. Much is now spoken in spiritual terms – the power of your dreams, unleash your spirit… and the most hollow message of all; believe in yourself.

As men of God we know better. We know to “trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight.”

Of course, the other thing about breathing is that once we breath in, we must breathe out. And what we breathe in – what we allow to inspire us – we will also breathe out. Again, look at Paul. Note Acts 9:1; a man who drew the oxygen of passionate, zealous Judaism was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord ” What do the men who surround us in the office, the golf-course, the classroom – what do they think of what we exhale? Does our speech carry the freshness of the Breath of Life? To be inspired by nothing but God will be a good guard against lying, half-truths and the art of office politics.

How do we survive office politics? We cannot ignore it, and we cannot wish it away. It will remain as atmosphere around us, whether we’re actually in an office or not – and ignoring it is not an option. It is gossip, and worse than the gossip that we all-too-frequently think of as a female issue. It is gossip with the added surge of personal gain. If we allow ourselves to be inspired by the words and actions of men, we’ll be pretty slick at this – but where does that leave us as Christ’s ambassadors? How do we help our brothers to the foot of the Cross whilst stepping on their fingers?

But if we take our inspiration from the Living God – and, knowing our own weaknesses, pray for the wisdom and strength that we haven’t got – we won’t have a choice. We’ll find ways of discouraging gossip and putting little credence in personal slander. We’ll find ways of defending those who aren’t there to defend themselves. We’ll be able to counter evil with good. We will be able to replace foul air with clean oxygen. Doubtless we will also be seen as weak, because the world of men doesn’t recognize our strength. We will be mocked, shunned by the main movers of the office power-play. And often we won’t be recognized for our moral courage, integrity and honesty until someone gives us a retirement speech.

But… we might just leave a trail of oxygen. And if the Lord moves others around us to crave the oxygen instead of the pollution…

“These are the things that you shall do: Speak the truth to one another, render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace, do not devise evil in your hearts against one another, and love no false oath, for all these things I hate, says the Lord.” Zechariah 8:16-7

Go to today inspired, and inspired by the One who gave us life, and then gave our lives back to us.

Matt 11:28 ...AT HIS WORD

2008-08-06T21:24:00.001+10:00

" Come to me, all ye who are heavy-laden..."
Matt 11:28

MEN'S BREAKFAST
August 2007

I’ve said before that I love mornings like this. I love a morning where men encourage men, where men give courage to each other. I love the encouragement and challenges that James regularly gives us. And I’ve loved the opportunity to be able to occasionally do the same.

Let me share a little secret. It’s hugely daunting when you prepare something like this… and it just doesn’t come together. The Lord has led me down some brilliant paths that actually never make it this far – He teaches me so much in these preparations. But sometimes everything in the world throws itself in the way, any distraction that can knock me off my train of thought has come my way.

Generally I write backwards – decide what I’d really like to walk away with, then reverse-build around the conclusion. It didn’t happen this time. I thought that in a fortnight in which a certain Bishop Spong was swanning around the country, I thought it would be too easy.

Wrong.

It’s been a very hard fortnight, and every single time that I’ve tried to collate some thoughts for this Breakfast, I’ve been knocked off track. Whether by strangely interrupting kids or by just getting distracted by nearly anything in the house, I’ve been knocked off track. So I’m going to share a bit of my fortnight with you.

We’ve just opened up a shop in Dapto; I’m driving straight back there after this. Normally if we hire a new person it takes about three months – I’ve had three weeks to get two people ready to run it. One of them is the most corrosive gentlemen I’ve ever encountered. He’s profoundly profane, arrogant and selfish. He has an acid tongue – and just to endear him even more to me, he’s quite loudly atheist. Nevertheless, both as his trainer and a fellow human, I have tried to deal well with him. He was interested to know about my mother’s website, picked up and played with a church bulletin… but something happened through the week that really burned me.

I honestly have no idea what happened. This man said something, and it was pretty funny. I laughed – and he turned to me with a sneer.
“Your mother might be a Christian, but you’re not – not really.” I stared at him for a second and said “what?”
“There’s no way that a Christian would laugh at that. You’re not one of them. Not really.” I was about to reply, and he just put up a hand. “Don’t – don’t say anything.” And with a quiet little snicker he walked off.

Pretty hard to find me lost for words – not this time. I was speechless. I dropped it for a time, basically because we needed to get back into training. But this was like a really violent carpet-burn. It stung some when this flew out of his mouth, but that night it kept coming back and back and back to me. Somehow or other in this man’s eyes I’ve denied my Lord. By the time I got to bed I began to understand some of the shame that Peter felt. I felt like I was waiting for a cock to crow.

I’ve said it before – Satan fights dirty. I don’t think that I’ve felt that much pain as a Christian. As an ambassador of the Lord Jesus I’d failed. As someone who could possibly influence this man positively for the Kingdom of God, I’d utterly got it wrong – who knows? Possibly to the cost of this man’s soul.

But the worst of it was this – I felt too ashamed to bring it to God in prayer in any form at all. And it continued to burn. It worked like a cheese-grater on my soul.

Guys, it’s the worst thing I could have done. By not taking this to God,
by carrying around this awful mess in my heart I’ve let it grow and grow. Like John Bunyan’s character Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, the burden on my back just got bigger and bigger. I was too ashamed to pick up my Bible, and so I missed the words of Jesus that Matthew recorded:

“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30“For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Matt 11:28-30

I was too ashamed to phone a friend or get word to my Blood Brother and ask them to pray over me. It eventually took Spurgeon’s pages to make me wake up to myself and go to God’s Word, and read it once more as God’s Word and to take God at His Word.

Because that is what the Bible is. The Lord is a God of words, and he is a God of His Word. Reg touched a little on this on Sunday morning (and I did note the subtle digs about knowing my Bible better – reading, marking, learning, inwardly digesting – you wouldn’t believe how close to the bone you can get!).
In Old Testament times and as the Gospel spread beyond Palestine, God’s people were surrounded by fake gods represented by the most impressive statuary, sculpture and architecture that man could devise. In ludicrous contrast, God has no interest in being represented by a statue – His word and His Name is sufficient. God is a God of words, and because of this, I must rely on my Bible. Not just to read, but to trust that what I read is His Own words. And when I read about grace, about God’s loving kindness, about forgiveness, I must put my unquestioning trust in it.

I think that is what makes me so mad at people like Bishop John Shelby Spong. Once upon a time I would have very little concern about a man like Spong. What he preaches will ultimately count for very little, and it will not stand any test of time. Next year, people will remember very little about James Cameron’s documentary about the bones of Jesus. This year, very few people talk about Dan Brown’s The da Vinci Code. I doubt that the teachings of Bishop Spong will carry any weight in the future, but if his preaching puts the seed of doubt into one Christian… If one Christian has a fortnight like I’ve had and feels he can’t go to his Bible and the Lord on account of this man… James was right to pray for Bishop Spong the other day.
But enough about this man. Back to truth. Before James comes up and prays for us this morning, I want to share with you what I found in Spurgeon’s Morning And Evening devotional. He focuses on Mark’s story of Jesus healing a leper – and that’s on your note for the fortnight.

In reading the narrative in which our morning’s text occurs, it is worthy of devout notice that Jesus touched the leper. This unclean person had broken through the regulations of the ceremonial law and pressed into the house, but Jesus so far from chiding him broke through the law himself in order to meet him. He made an interchange with the leper, for while he cleansed him, he contracted by that touch a Levitical defilement. Even so Jesus Christ was made sin for us, although in himself he knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. O that poor sinners would go to Jesus, believing in the power of his blessed substitutionary work, and they would soon learn the power of his gracious touch. That hand which multiplied the loaves, which saved sinking Peter, which upholds afflicted saints, which crowns believers, that same hand will touch every seeking sinner, and in a moment make him clean. The love of Jesus is the source of salvation. He loves, he looks, he touches us, we live.

Pr 4:20-1 iPREACH...?

2008-08-06T20:54:00.001+10:00

“My son, be attentive to my words, incline your ear to my sayings.
Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart.”
Proverbs 4:20-21

MEN'S BREAKFAST

July, 2008

My wife was playing with her mobile phone yesterday, and she made a little discovery. You can play music on it! There's a little MP3 device somewhere inside its tiny guts. It's a clever little widget. It plays high-quality music (at least, it plays music well – I won't vouch for the music that some people load into them). It can hold a lot of music, too. An old record collection that weighed twenty kilos can now fit into a device smaller that the toy telephones Maggie plays with. You see them on trains all the time – people can listen to just about anything on the train, and they do. Occasionally you can hear them twittering away, like some tiny band of ants trying to play Led Zeppelin covers.

They're also getting popular at Moore College, I've noticed. I was really surprised to learn that what a lot of students are listening to is not music, but... sermons. They're listening to sermons! Deliberately!There are a few of these things – no, a lot of these things – around at Moore College. The curious thing is that a lot of guys and girls aren't listening to music at all. They're listening to sermons. Deliberately! They're downloading sermons from some of the world's best preachers. Mark Driscoll, John Piper... Reg Piper... I wondered if the world had gone completely mad... was there a top-of-the-pops for preachers now? Sermon Top 20?

But it led me to consider one question... it's a question I've wrestled with, and most of my fellow first-year student will all wrestle with this year. And the question is this: How do we measure effective preaching?

Particularly in today's benchmark-obsessed environment, where there are ways of empirically measuring almost anything to see how cost-effective, how efficient, how effective things are, it could be considered a fair-enough question.
Let's look at one of the men we hold up as a great preacher – Saul Paulus of Tarsus. He was one who certainly earned the label euangellion - Evangelist. One who took the euangelion, the Good Message, around the world. I wonder what a preacher can learn from Paul's example?

And then I looked back over 1 Thessalonians. It's a book that we've spent a couple of Sundays in at the 7:45 and 9:30 services, and it's the book that has the Christian farewell that Reg has got us to memorise so well. Paul preached to the Thessalonians, we find in Acts 17, and while he was there he preached in the synagogue for three Sabbaths. Quite a few people came to accept the good message of Christ before Paul was forced to leave. But when he left, the most remarkable thing happened.

The Gospel flourished! It went bananas! By the time news could get back directly from his off-sider Timothy, he had heard reports from all over Macedonia about these Thessalonian Christians. News had spread all over the place, but so had something else; (1 Thess 1:8 “Not only has the Word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith has gone forth everywhere.”) Paul explains in here that they had imitated him and Timothy, and the Lord – but they then became examples to everyone around them.

I wonder, then, if we scared little first-years are asking the wrong question? Should we be asking how we measure effective preaching, or should be asking what real preaching is?

What Reg and Stu and Matt... and quite a few people in our church do... is to help teach and explain the Bible... and, traditionally, that's preaching. But there's another form of preaching, and that is, simply, teaching by living our lives as God would want us to live. The best preaching, really, starts in our houses. Being godly men to our families, to our wives, to our children, to our brothers and sisters and parents. Reg said something the other day that struck me; he said that his first job, before anything else, was to make sure that his wife and his children will be in Heaven with the Lord – nothing else was more important than that.

I've talked to people this week whose biggest problems with Christianity and Christians were... their fathers. Fathers who claimed Christianity, but in no way acted as imitators of Christ, have frightened so many of their children from Christ. And the really frightening thing is that it's not that hard to do!

I know, for me, one place where I can be the least Christ-like is at home. After a long day, when all the kids are wound-up, when there's bathing and nappies and dinner and washing-up and homework and garbage and chasing kids into bed... with visions of essays and Greek and research and history and exams... it is unbelievably easy to think that once the door is closed, and the world outside can't see...

Does my speech echo Christ? Do I love my wife as Christ loved the Church, sacrificing all for her? Do my children see me as an imitator of my loving Heavenly Father? At this point – as the father of my house, am I serving them and being an example to them that they can follow? Or am I a cranky, tired, short-fused man who (even if I don't say it out loud) demands to be left alone until I need something from one of them? I would love to tell you which one I am to my family... and I know which one I can be so often. If there's one area of weakness that the devil can attack, there it is – for most of us. When we're tired, when we're not so guarded with our mouths and our lives...

To a point, we're the iPods of our family – when the door's closed, all the outside noise is deadened, and what we speak and how we live still matters! Our little verse to carry around for the week is a bit of a reminder. It's from Proverbs. The writer says “My son, be attentive to my words, incline your ear to my sayings. Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart.” The thing that we have to remember is that, whether we like it or not, our sons (and daughters, and wives, brothers, sisters, parents...) do incline their ears to our sayings. The next verse in Proverbs 4 tells us what our words should be – They are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh. And if that's not telling us that we need to be imitating Christ as we talk with our families, I don't know what is.

Let's go this week broadcasting the love of Christ to our families in our words and our lives. Let's be imitators of Christ so they can imitate us.

Gen 2:7 BREATHE AGAIN

2008-08-06T20:48:00.001+10:00

Genesis 2:7

MEN'S BREAKFAST
22 July, 2008

We get all sorts of hard questions at Moore College. I don't mean in the tests, although asking me for the time of day in Greek will probably kill me. One of the ones I still find strange (and surprisingly hard to answer) is this... “What's your favourite Bible verse?”
You want me to narrow this down to one verse? How many people actually have a favourite? Let's try... just raise your hand if you can honestly say that you have one favourite? I'm not going to ask anyone what they are...

I can really narrow it down to four, myself...
● GENESIS 2:7 THEN THE LORD GOD FORMED THE MAN OF DUST FROM THE GROUND AND BREATHED INTO HIS NOSTRILS THE BREATH OF LIFE, AND THE MAN BECAME A LIVING CREATURE
● JOHN 3:16 FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY SON, THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHOULD NOT PERISH BUT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE
● MICAH 6:8 HE HAS TOLD YOU O MAN WHAT IS GOOD; AND WHAT DOES THE LORD REQUIRE OF YOU BUT TO DO JUSTICE, AND TO LOVE KINDNESS AND TO WALK HUMBLY WITH YOUR GOD?
● PROVERBS 30:7-9 TWO THINGS I ASK OF YOU; DENY THEM NOT TO ME BEFORE I DIE: REMOVE FAR FROM ME FALSEHOOD AND LYING; GIVE ME NEITHER POVERTY OR RICHES; FEED ME WITH THE FOOD THAT IS NEEDFUL FOR ME, LEST I BE FULL AND DENY YOU AND SAY 'WHO IS THE LORD?', OR LEST I BE POOR AND STEAL AND PROFANE THE NAME OF MY GOD.

I started philosophy yesterday, and philosophy is (to a point) the art of asking the right questions. And our Philosophy lecturer opened proceedings with one question on the whiteboard... WHY ARE WE HERE? He gave us five minutes to discuss this one.

Well – the answers were all pretty interesting, because they all depended upon other things; who's WE? Where's HERE – the lecture theatre, Moore College, Sydney, the earth? For that matter – who's asking? Would we give a different answer if our friend asked us the question quietly than we would to a lawyer asking the same question. But -

But – here's the thing, our lecturer pointed out. The question should be answerable, and the fact that a group of clearly intelligent people couldn't come up with a clear answer is good for humour, but the fact remains that a large percentage of males between the age of 16 & 24 struggle so hard to find a sensible answer that this one demographic ends up as a massive bulge in the statistics of single-car accidents... females under the age of sixteen struggle with this simple question so hard that they take a horrible fascination with sharp knives and their forearms...
He had our attention at this point...

And it's true – as a society, it's a question that we really struggle with. Individually, it IS a question that occupies us: WHY ARE WE HERE? What are we doing here? It takes some thought.

It's one of the reasons why I love Genesis so much. It's why I love the opening chapters of the Bible so much. Because this is where we see Yahweh the Creative, Creating God at his labour of love. By his powerful spoken Word, everything came into existance. Light, water, land, soil, vegetation, animals... everything except one.

GENESIS 2:7 THEN THE LORD GOD FORMED THE MAN OF DUST FROM THE GROUND AND BREATHED INTO HIS NOSTRILS THE BREATH OF LIFE, AND THE MAN BECAME A LIVING CREATURE.

How powerful is this picture? God, stooping low, scooping the red soil and beginning to sculpt. The only one of His creation not spoken into being, but hand-made. Made not by the strange impersonal evolutionary accidents that the Richard Dawkinses of the world wants us to finally accept, made not by trial and error, but formed in the image of The Lord God Himself.

I think I've told this story before – a friend took me in to the Australian Museum for a debate about evolution vs intelligent design. Not much of a debate; there was no-one on the side of intelligent design. But I was introduced to a retired scientist beforehand, and (as I was introduced as “someone from Church”) he was very keen to hear ANY point of view away from the accepted norms, and if I acepted either side blindly, or thought it out. I simply said that I draw huge comfort from the knowledge that I am a masterpiece, fearfully and wonderfully made – and that in itself gives me far more solace when I'm alone than the thought that I'm the product of a billion accidents that went right.

WHY AM I HERE? Because, simply, the Lord God wants me to be - here. Of course, there's far more to it than that. But what a beautiful starting place.

The birth of Man was when God breathed into our nostrils the breath of life. And when Nicodenmus meets Jesus, Jesus tells him “You must be born again.” Nicodemus is obviously confused by this, so Jesus explains that “unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh, but that which is born of the Spirit is spirit”. Here's a funny thing. The Greek word for spirit – pneuma – is the same word for wind and breath. The Hebrew word for spirit – ruach – is the same word for wind and breath. Jesus' words take us right back to our first birth... the breath of the Lord God in our lungs, giving us life. And Jesus goes further – “for God so loved the world that he gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him might not perish but have everlasting life.”

Why are we here? Because God loves us. Because God loves us so much that he gave us life, and then he gave our lives back to us. What gives our lives purpose? Our love for our Lord and His Son. “If you love me you will obey my commandments,” he said, and so we do – at least, we try to as best we can. Certainly, we're here to do His will, but we do it willingly. We love Him – but we love Him because He first loved us.

This is the Good Message that the world outside these doors desperately needs.

So here's a little bit of homework. And I'm going to do the same myself, as much as I find it a hard one. Find one verse – not just a favourite passage – but one verse that, for you, answers the question WHY AM I HERE?
Write it down.
And on the same piece of paper, write down a verse that might answer the question for someone at work, a neighbor, a mate – someone who you would love to see saved.
Write them down, and then LEARN THEM. Take the trouble, take the time. It might take some searching through, to find the best verse, but do it. Don't be satisfied with the first quick answer that comes to mind... really go to town on this.

And then use them in your prayers for that person. We've got to go out of those doors to work now, but let's also get to work for the Kingdom, for the Lord, and for the people He also lovingly made.

Ps 104 THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME

2008-08-06T20:45:00.001+10:00

Psalm 104

MEN'S BREAKFAST
May, 2008

Taken from a devotional by
Keith Condie at Moore College, Chapel 20-5-08

When I first started coming to church in 1979 – 1980, there was a song that was very popular in church (and, I should imagine, in churches). Some of you may know it. I wonder how much of the song we can sing? "Jehovah Jireh – my provider” "My God shall provide all my needs..." "He gives his angels charge over me..."
"Jehovah Jireh cares for me..."

Is this true?
Can you sing the song? Would you sing the song?
Think of the desires of your heart – the real desires, the closely-held ones that we don't share... When a loved one is hurt, when we are badly hurt, right through the flesh into our bones and the marrow beneath...

What happens to us when we bring these things – on bent knee, with bent heart, with bent strength – what happens when we bring these things before our God... and all we get is silence? How do we handle the silence?

Psalm 104 praises God as mighty – and mighty well beyond the cliché we Christians use so often. A key word for the whole canon of the 150 Psalms is Kingship (possibly because they were, at least in part, written by kings). In Psalm 104, we start with the image of a king of unbelievably powerful king.

God goes forth as the Warrior – His achievements are matched by what he does on earth – v sees the chaos of waters do what they're told. To the ancient Hebrews (and even in Jesus' time) the chaos of the water was a thing of dread, and a terrifying reminder of the smallness of man next to real power. Remember the horror of helplessness in Jonah? We see the fear in the eyes of the disciples as the storm lashes their boat... and their absolute terror of the Man who masters and subdues the monster of chaos... with a spoken word. Y'know what hits me? How effortless this all is for Him.

God does it easy. How powerful is He? Look back to Genesis 1, and the sheer ease at which God does it all... Rolls Royce motor cars have a strange gauge on the dashboard, and it indicates the percentage of torque used.
The idea is that as you cruise along at 110km/h you can see that it's only using 10% of available power. Even if you overtake a truck at speed, you might still be using 35% of available power. As you ram the car from 160 to nearly 200km/h, you can see that you still have 50% of what the engine is truly capable up your sleeve. A powerful motor indeed.

But a man in a boat that speaks to the screaming wind... be still... a God who speaks to the blackness... Let there be light... there's power.

The Psalm isn't about Mother Nature - there's no such thing. It's all God.

"O Lord my God you are VERY great..."

And why does He do this? The writer tells us that one of the purposes of this might, this massive display of power is... to provide. In v10 and 11, the chaos of water is suborned for a very good purpose - to provide. To provide shelter, grass for animals. We see the rhythms of the planet and space (v19-23) set so that beasts – and man – can eat and rest. All this power, to just provide...

But... we keep coming up against the same question over and over again... if this mighty, unimaginably powerful God does this for cows and badgers and goats... why, why, why does He stay so silent when I shout to him in agony, in need, in great profound distress? Why is the Sovereign Lord incapable of simply replying?

Sooner or later, we'll be faced with people in this genuine distress – or we will face it ourselves. How do we deal with it? Will we sing about “My Provider?”

The Bible doesn't give the easy pious answer. King David wrote of his unbearable pain in Psalm 22. We all know it as the one that Jesus quoted on the cross, we know Eloi eloi lamech sabach-thani. But read on. (Read V2 – 6 )

Where do we go from here?

James Macbeth sent me a quick textie yesterday, urging me to read something. Yesterday's entry in Spurgeon's Morning and Evening held a really crucial thought. Let me quote:

Anxious worry often leads to acts of sin. He who cannot calmly leave his affairs in God's hand, but will carry his own burden, is very likely to be tempted to use wrong means to help himself. This sin leads to forsaking of God as our counsellor, and resorting to human wisdom. This is going to the 'broken cistern' instead of the 'fountain'; a sin which was laid against Israel of old. Anxiety makes us doubt God's loving-kindness, and thus our love to Him grows cold; we feel mistrust... our prayers become hindered... and our life one of self-seeking. Thus want of confidence in God leads us to wander far from Him.

Spurgeon continues... “but if through simple faith in His promise, we cast each burden as it comes upon Him, and are worrisome over nothing because He undertakes to care for us, it will keep us close to Him, and strengthen us against much temptation.

In Psalm 22, we see that David, never once, says that his burden just disappeared. But we see him – in the middle of his anguish – stop and ask for God to not be far away... to come quickly.

If we KNOW that God is our Provider - it frees us up. Frees us from worry – and allows Him tp gladden and sustain our hearts.

Sometimes this is the daily bread we need to ask for.
Life can be hard - and yet permeated by happy moments, too. Let's not forget that.
He is sovereign, and he does GOOD.

Take the two Psalms with you through the week. When you've got some time to sit and let them sink in, sit and let them sink in. He loves us. He who moves mountains and water for the benefit of goats and hyraxes loves us! And he treasures us more than birds or hyraxes.
“He who calls you is faithful – and He will do it!”
Jehovah Jireh cares for me.

1Cor 1 APRIL FOOLS' DAY

2008-08-06T20:32:00.001+10:00

MEN’S BREAKFAST
April 1, 2008

We love fools. We have a soft spot for idiots, don't we? I think that's one of the great attractions of Australia's Funniest Home Videos. And for that matter, other shows like Jerry Springer or The Footy Show. We have a secret bit of us that likes to see people being really, really stupid. My guess is that, on the inside, it makes us feel a little better about ourselves - “I can't believe that they did that... I would never have done that...”

I was given a great book for my birthday – History's Worst Decisions, and the People Who Made Them. It summarizes fifty episodes from history, starting with Adam and Eve and finishing with Robert Mugabe and Enron.
The beauty of the book is how the author walks through the decision-making behind each of these worst decisions, and how obvious the mistakes were. Of course, the magnitude of the mistakes is what really makes the grade here.

One example – the Lee-Enfield rifle. Nothing wrong with the gun itself. The original took one .303 cartridge, which had to be manually loaded. This involved biting off the greased end of the cartridge. Again, not so bad, and was much safer than any other rifle going.
The problem was that in 1867, the British forced the use of the Lee-Enfield and its cartridges onto the local army, which was made up mostly Hindu and Muslim conscripts. The grease that the cartridges were packed in was made of pig-fat and beef fat...

The Sepoy Rebellion that followed this resulted in 11,000 British troop deaths within a year, and probably triple that in Indian deaths, a great famine and massive debt.

At the same time, we do tend to venerate wisdom where we can. Lists of the 100 most influential people will generally have people like Voltaire, Confucius, Gandhi, Jesus (you know, that famous philosopher) and Plato. More and more people in the West look towards Buddhism, Islam and Eastern new-age philosophies because they seem to have a good measure of wisdom in them.

Nobody wants to be a fool. And the wisdom of this present age is, constantly, improve yourself! Get wise! So people enroll in very expensive Anthony Robins classes to “unleash the power within.” People go on life-enhancing courses. And people look for pleasure and satisfaction, promotion and prestige, wealth and influence... you name it.

What do we believe? That there is nothing that we can do to save ourselves. We believe fully the words of a first-century Jew who said he was the Son of God and was executed. We believe in a man who – contrary to every piece of financial advice I've ever read – said, emphatically, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth,” “do not worry about tomorrow,” and “be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men.” In a world where donating to charity is an excellent marketing tool, financial security rides on being able to correctly read the stock market and financial security will only come from a carefully-managed portfolio spread, this is nonsense. This is complete irresponsibility!

The world tells you and I that we must be assertive and combative, ready to defend what is ours by rights. What fool is going to follow the teachings of this Jesus who instructs us to not resist the evil person. Listen to Jesus' words in Matthew 5... [read aloud Mt 5:39-42]

The morals and ethics of the world outside of these walls is getting further and further away from the morals and ethics of being a follower of Christ. At the centre of what we believe is the death and resurrection of our Lord, Jesus Christ. But we even have church leader around the world – in an effort to be so inclusive and loving to everyone – telling people that this is both unnecessary and untrue. If anything is a stumbling block to your faith, it must be wrong. Homosexuality and lust are what make us human, and it would be a cruel and unjust God that would deny us these things.

This is what the world wants to hear. The world doesn't want to hear from fools carrying on about sin and repentance. The world doesn't want us to open our mouths and say stupid things. Because what we have to say is just so... foolish!

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1...

"I know very well how foolish it sounds to those who are lost, when they hear that Jesus died to save them. But we who are saved recognize this message as the very power of God. For God says, “I will destroy all human plans of salvation no matter how wise they seem to be, and ignore the best ideas of men, even the most brilliant of them.”

Make no mistake; we are fools. We do stupid things, in the eyes of the world out there. they've never said it to either Fiona or myself out loud, but I suspect that there are a few people who think I'm a bit stupid going to Moore College – I've walked away from a good job with a respectable company into a future with little probability of great financial security... they see it as being irresponsible.

We have almost all faced mockery for our faith – some have faced great hostility in the workplace. When my uncle came to Jesus in the mid-eighties, his wife left him. Blessedly, as the result of years of prayer (and his unbelievable capacity for forgivenness and a spirit that would never give up) they reconciled, and they both spend half the year in the Philippines as missionaries to the poor who live in the local slums and cemeteries.

I wish all of our stories have happy endings... and you know what? They will. Every one of us following this foolish gospel of a slain and risen Jesus will have a happy ending. One day. But in the meantime...

The ultimate wisdom of God inverts the logic of the world. Grace... it's so unnatural! A God who loved the world so much that he would give his only Son that whoever would believe...

God, in His great love, compassion, mercy and grace, has let us see past what the world sees. We know where the real wisdom lies, and we know the lies of the world. As we go our ways today, I want us to encourage each other in our foolishness. It's not easy. It can be draining, it can be exhausting, it can be downright depressing when workmates and classmates dismiss us out of hand because we have chosen to follow the slain and risen Lord. But it's the best thing that we could ever have done.

I want us to encourage each other on April Fools' Day to be strong in our foolish belief, making foolish ethical decisions and foolish choices that benefit the Kingdom of God and not our own security.

I want us to encourage each other to keep being fools for the rest of our lives. As Reg said in a sermon a while ago - “I'll stake my life on it.”

Happy April Fools' Day.

1Tim 6:6-11 THE PURSUIT OF UNHAPPINESS

2008-08-06T19:31:00.001+10:00

MEN'S BREAKFAST
APRIL 29, 2008

My grandparents used to have an old Labrador called Honey, and she used to go out onto the golf-course at Yass with them. She knew her golf-etiquette (stayed well behind everyone until they'd all tee'd off, didn't move while people were putting etc etc) but she loved to chase birds. Now Labradors aren't particularly fast, so the chances of her catching one were pretty remote... until she chased one certain magpie. Thing is, the magpie didn't move. Honey pounded down the fairway, and the magpie turned and... glared at her. The closer she got, the louder she barked; move, you stupid bird! You're supposed to FLY now!! And the magpie just looked at her. And suddenly Honey realised that she may well actually catch a bird... and it might just be a really bad thing if she did. In the last six feet, she went into a four-paw skid, orbited the magpie and belted back up the fairway, looking very very embarrassed. Didn't know dogs could blush, did you?

Honey was pretty smart, as far as dogs go. She could see the future, and in this case the future promised a lot of pain if she so much as bent a feather on this bird... So she changed tack pretty fast and retreated as fast as paws can – even if it meant people laughing (which they certainly did). All of a sudden, chasing the dream was a pretty stupid idea. Honey was a lot smater than some people I know...

The world out there promises us lots of things that are worth chasing after; more money, promotion, influence, nicer clothes, better social standing, a more exciting girlfriend, a better-looking wife. It screams these promises unrelentingly, consistently – advertising, the real-estate lists, car magazines, movies, literature, the success of colleagues and neighbors. The weekend sections of newspapers often feature the success-stories, and how-to-succeed advice; one from a month or so ago loudly advocated the advantages of cheating on your spouse.

But the world is remorseless and unforgiving when the chase is over, and the troubles have started. Again, flip through the very same newspapers – how many of the stories have a tone like a moral from one of Aesop's Fables? He got caught, he was punished, he deserved it... I don't remember too many occasions when media editors are ever accused of having moral double-standards; we willingly accept that they have no moral standards at all, and yet we still get saturated by their product without really questioning this in any way whatsoever.

In 1776, the writers of the American Declaration of Independence noted that “all men... are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. And I think that phrase has inadvertently captured exactly what the problem is. Even though in Australia we don't have these words exactly framed in our constitution, we still have a society where these rights are paramount... we have, under the law, the freedom and the right to do whatever we please. And the only restraint upon this freedom is that it doesn't unfairly impact upon other people's rights to do exactly the same.

We are encouraged to seek happiness. Happiness is... a new home, no matter how crippling the debt. Happiness is... the rush of a pokies win, no matter how rarely that occurs – or what gets sacrificed to that false god. Happiness is... the lifestyle that only a Lotto win will be able to get you.

We get caught in the pursuit, the chase for happiness, but more importantly we assume that happiness is our birthright. Logically it flows that if we are unhappy, we need to change our circumstances to be able to get happy. If happiness is a right, then it is, logically, right to take action to make us happy or preserve this happiness. Even if the action does not bring happiness to others (and, somewhere along the line, it will almost certainly be at the expense of others), if it brings happiness to you, then it is right to do so. It's logical, it's the basis of several systems of philosopy... and at the end of the day it begins to explain why the ultimate end-point of this logic is unhappiness, dissatisfaction, sadness, anguish, pain.

Nobody is exempt from this temptation. We all face it, and it is by no means unusual for people and families within churches to be torn up, either by the pursuit of happiness, or because someone else's pursuit has been at a cost to us.

The Teacher in Ecclesiastes noted rather drily that “all the toil of a man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied... better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the appetite”. (Ecclesiastes 6:7)

Well, fine. Easy enough to say, but how exactly do we do that? The quick-and-easy answer is that we need to be content with what we are given... but again, how do we achieve this contentment? How do we help each other in this? How do we take this to our families? Our wives? Our workplaces? Our church?

Because that's the bigger challenge, isn't it? This idea that the pursuit of happiness is what it's all about is the one that has morally crippled Western society. The antidote is going to have to be bigger than just me, or just you – it begins when we can pass on the antidote to our family, our wives, our children, our communities.

A Christian family that has a common aim here is like a well-designed building, or an aircraft – the internal strength comes from the structural members sharing the load, and for the load to be absorbed by the combined strength. And we just don't have that strength by ourselves. I seriously doubt that, even linked together, a God-loving couple can absorb the load without God as the great weight-bearing part of the structure.

As he so often does, Paul has some suggestions here. One of his strongest statements about this dire problem and its antidote is found in his First Letter to Timothy;
“Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from their faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.” I Timothy 6:9-11

There's a reversal. The pursuit of happiness? Or flee from it? The pursuit of happiness... or to pursue righteousness? The pursuit of money, or to pursue gentleness? All the qualities that Paul tells Timothy to pursue are... hard. They're not fun. Godliness is one of the hardest things to attain. All of the qualities that Paul charges Timothy to chase hard... they're qualities that can't actually be used by yourself. All of those characteristics only shine as we walk with other people, as we walk in the world.

This is something I can't do by myself. And maybe, just maybe, that's why it's part of the antidote – because Paul's shopping list for Timothy lists qualities that cannot be individual, whereas the pursuit of happiness is, ultimately, an expression of pleasing the self alone.

I know I can't do this on my own; I've proven that to myself over and over and over – sometimes at horrific cost. It took a long time for Fiona and I to work as a couple towards this end. And even together, we can't do it – and we've proven that to each other over and over, and yes, that has come at a cost as well.

The only way we've managed to start to get it right is to sit together, regularly pray together, ask forgivenness of each other, open Bibles and read to each other... if you like, to do church together as a congregation of two. We've both had to schedule time together to make this commitment stick.

It's not perfect. But it's the firmest foundation that we've ever had. And my biggest regret is that for the majority of our nine years of married life, we haven't done this. That's been a loss to the two of us – but there's no time to mourn those losses. There is time to start again, and so we do. Four nights out of seven, we start again. Once the kids are in bed, we stop – doesn't matter how much washing-up there is, doesn't matter how much homework or Greek study I have. We stop, and we come together – to learn together, to read together, to pray together.

Does it answer all of the problems the world throws at us? Not entirely – nothing will, until we find ourselves at the end of one pursuit or another. But it's less hard for two people to pursue righteousness together, pursue peace together, chase after gentleness together. For those of us who are married, this is where Bible-believing, God-fearing church community starts... in the home. For those of us who aren't married, here's why it's important to read the Bible and pray with others, as well as by ourselves. Here's where the antidote starts.

Reading God's Word and praying will help us realise when the bird that we're chasing is a big and nasty magpie. And God will help us find the wisdom and the strength to turn tail and flee back down the fairway.

Let's go out into the world this morning, hot in pursuit... not of happiness, but the things that bring our Lord and Master happiness.