Monday 1 October 2018

Can't make it to church - Sunday 30th September 2018


Last week we were faced with Jeremiah and his ‘lament’ as he struggled with those around him and their complaining and rejection. Today, winding back the clock a bit we find Moses struggling with the people God has placed under his care as they moan about the lack of meat on the exodus journey. They were fed up with manna. They wanted fish, cucumbers, and other stuff. God was angry – after all hadn’t He done the miraculous with the plagues and the passage through the waters to get them free from the Egyptian oppression and yet here they are moaning about cucumbers!

Moses is beside himself, frustrated at the people and their demands and wondering what he had done to be lumbered with them. “What have I done to you God that I should end up with this lot?” he cries. (A not unfamiliar cry from those in leadership.

So God has Moses set apart seventy of the elders so that they can be anointed and filled with the Spirit and help in leading the people of God in their journeying. They were going to have meat, so much meat that it will come out of their nostrils!! Now Moses is a bit doubting here and so God asks him whether he really believes the Lord’s arm is ‘too short’. 

This is a ‘Watch this moment’ as the elders gathered and the Spirit fell upon them – two who remained behind in the camp (Eldad and Medad) were also filled with the Spirit and were prophesying so Joshua rushes off to tell Moses. He wanted Moses to stop them but instead of stopping them he was glad that they had been gifted and filled with the Spirit. Not only that but he tells Joshua that he wished everyone was in the same place!

This is true leadership, the goal of all who minister (or it should be) that they should be filled with the Spirit and as gifted and effective as them. But it's a sad truth that many leaders seek to limit those under their care in case the surpass them - and this is one of the reasons that church is so often so very limited I reckon.

Mind you, others will just blame satan for all the problems before they look in the mirror!!!

James is great as he tells us to praise God when we are happy and doing well. He tells us to pray - because he expects us to be praying just as he expects our faith to bring about good works. The sadness is that so few of us do really little real prayer (other than to pray that I'll shut up and do a short sermon perhaps).

James goes on to show us that the calling out of a spiritual eldership is important. Not just important, it's essential and it is about more than giving out badges and positions of power. The elders of the Church are in a ‘doing’ role. What's more it is a spiritual doing role - the elders should be out praying and anointing the sick, the broken and the crushed. 

Those called to have positions of authority should be spiritual and righteous and filled with prayer and faith – and the prayers of a righteous person are indeed powerful and effective. And who is called? We all are!

We are called to restore those who have fallen into sin. Not only to restore them but to restore them gently (Galatians 6). This is important because if we treat those around us wrongly; if we act and proclaim wrongly then we place stumbling blocks in the path of those who are far off from God with the result that they may never come into the light and love of God.

So how you doing so far with today’s readings? 

Have you been set aside, called out, to do the stuff?  

The answer is ‘Yes’ even if that’s not your reality or your expectation. 

Do you call upon God when there’s troubles and sing praises to Him when there’s not? 

When you’re sick do you seek to be anointed with oil?

Today a BBC news item looks at the UKs attitudes to miracles. A quick summary is this:

62% of British adults believe some form of miracle is possible today

75% of those aged 18-24 believe some form of miracle is possible today, the largest age group

43% say they have prayed for a miracle

37% of British adults who attend a religious service at least monthly say they believe the miracles of Jesus happened word for word as described in the Bible

19% of that same church attending population say they have prayed for a miracle and had it answered as they’d hoped it would be. YET 37% of that same church attending population have never prayed for a miracle (almost twice as many as have prayed for one!).

Another survey conducted recently claimed that some 20% of those who considered themselves to be Christian and attended church services were unsure about Jesus being an actual historic figure and had doubts that He did the miracles the Bible claims.

These last two claims can only be laid at the feet of those who lead our churches. Some appear more concerned with their political campaigning than they are with the preaching of the word of God and making the facts about Jesus commonplace in their congregations. They're more concerning with looking like the world with their watering down of Biblical truths and their accommodation of things the Bible would never accommodate to actually preach the fundamental truths of our faith it seems. 

When Moses was told of the two men prophesying he was glad. In our Gospel reading when John tells Jesus about a man who is casting out demons and how they told him to stop, Jesus’ response is “Don’t stop them!” His rationale is this: If someone does a miracle in Jesus’ name, then how can they do or say something bad regarding Him with their next breath?

Jesus utters the reverse of the zealot’s cry: “whoever is not against us is for us.” Would that the Church would pick up this mantra and live in in rather than try to win them over by watering down and capitulating to the zeitgeist before us.

We need to ensure that we do not cause others to stumble, for not only will we be judged harshly because of it  but this is as sure a way to make impotent the love of God in the life of the unbeliever.

In this Gospel passage we find the 'If you’re right hand offends then cut it off' passage. This isn’t about amputation or poking our eyes out but it's there as a calling to us to recognise the seriousness of our causing others to fall short and become separated from God by our words and actions.

You are the light of the world – you are the salt of the earth. But is you are dimmed then you’re no used to illuminate the path or enable others to clearly see God’s Gospel of love that is Jesus. If you have no flavour then you are no use to the world and the peace and presence of God is lost in the Church.

So what are you going to do? 

Seek the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit and become salt to the bland world around us and a light to those in darkness?

Will you be filled with God’s Holy Spirit and do the miraculous in and through God’s amazing love as shown through the cross of Jesus, the Christ, in your own life and the lives of others?

Open your hands and receive God's Holy Spirit.

Open your hearts and be filled. 

Peach God’s love, proclaim his salvation and expect miracles. Be transformed and change the world around you today.



The Collect
God, our judge and saviour, teach us to be open to your truth and to trust in your love, that we may live each day with confidence in the salvation which is given through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Numbers 11:4-29
The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”

The manna was like coriander seed and looked like resin. The people went around gathering it, and then ground it in a hand mill or crushed it in a mortar. They cooked it in a pot or made it into loaves. And it tasted like something made with olive oil. When the dew settled on the camp at night, the manna also came down.

Moses heard the people of every family wailing at the entrance to their tents. The Lord became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled. He asked the Lord, “Why have you brought this trouble on your servant? What have I done to displease you that you put the burden of all these people on me? Did I conceive all these people? Did I give them birth? Why do you tell me to carry them in my arms, as a nurse carries an infant, to the land you promised on oath to their ancestors? Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.”

The Lord said to Moses: “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you. I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.

 “Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The Lord heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the Lord will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month—until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it—because you have rejected the Lord, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”

But Moses said, “Here I am among six hundred thousand men on foot, and you say, ‘I will give them meat to eat for a whole month!’ Would they have enough if flocks and herds were slaughtered for them? Would they have enough if all the fish in the sea were caught for them?”

The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s arm too short? Now you will see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”

So Moses went out and told the people what the Lord had said. He brought together seventy of their elders and had them stand around the tent. Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied—but did not do so again.

However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp. A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.”

Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!”

But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”The rabble with them began to crave other food, and again the Israelites started wailing and said, “If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt at no cost—also the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic. But now we have lost our appetite; we never see anything but this manna!”

James 5:13-20
Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

Elijah was a human being, even as we are. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops.

My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins.

Mark 9:38-50
“Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”

 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.

 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where “‘the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ Everyone will be salted with fire.

 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”


Post Communion Prayer
We praise and thank you, O Christ, for this sacred feast: for here we receive you, here the memory of your passion is renewed, here our minds are filled with grace, and here a pledge of future glory is given, when we shall feast at that table where you reign with all your saints for ever.  

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