Can’t make it to church? Sunday 28 October 2018

I always struggle with those who stand in the way of those seeking the attention of Jesus so today’s Gospel causes me a challenge in the shape of the ‘many who rebuked’ Bartimaeus the blind man before we even get started.

I fear that many in the Church, especially it seems those called upon to preach and/or lead services, fail to preach about Jesus; His love and sacrifice; His reconciling us to the godhead; His enabling and life-giving words and works; and the enabling and indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit.

Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. Know Him, love Him, follow Him, and He will set you free for you sins, from the things that separate us from God and those around us and yet so many of us ignore this to talk about rights, oppression, politics and, using words of power as we occupy our places of privilege, the poor – we place a cordon around Jesus and restrict the access to the very people who need to be in His presence!

We place stumbling blocks before those who are ‘far off’ and smile benignly (a word often associated with unwanted growths!) as we, the Church, place that red rope around Jesus in the hope that He won’t be distracted by those who aren’t us. Now I know Jesus was only human like us and so got tired and needed protection (remember when they get His family to step in with the result that it’s said He’d gone a but mad?) but nothing separates us from the love of God now or when that love was made man and walked upon the earth.

To silence those burying out to God is to oppress them and oppose God. Our job is to make the voices of the blind, the poor, the oppressed, the marginalised, the stranger in our midst, heard and acknowledged and blessed and healed. And in our story today the voice of a blind man was heard, and Jesus calling for him asks him what he wants Him to do for him!!!

Now I don’t know about you but if I was there I’d have probably sighed a little and said to anyone who could hear, “What does He think he wants Him to do?”

But here is a lesson for me – a lesson I need to hear so very often – the obvious need is not always the most pressing need. What you see isn’t necessarily the problem that demands our attention so before you dive in and seek to be part of the solution, ask what the need is!

Today the obvious need (blindness) was thing that stood in the way of this man’s well being and yet, even so, Jesus asked. That’s a top tip from Jesus to take away.

And as I struggle with all those frustrating priests and priestesses who minister at the altar of their own passions, prejudices, campaigns and posturing I am drawn to the words from our Hebrews passage regarding a priest – our High Priest – who ministers eternally and without bias. A priest who is always ready to hear and to intercede (which means to act and to pray) for us before the Godhead.

“A High priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.” A high priest who offered, once and for all, a sacrifice for our sins once and for for all when he offered himself. How good it is to realise that we can look away from those who stand between us and Jesus and instead look into His eyes and be made whole.

That has to be worth a ‘Hallelujah’ I reckon!

And we all look to that joyful homecoming when the blind, the lame, the pregnant and all the people will be redeemed and mourning will be turned into gladness and sorrow into joy.

Even so, come Lord Jesus and redeem Your people. O Lord, make it soon.

The Collect
Merciful God, teach us to be faithful in change and uncertainty, that trusting in your word and obeying your will  we may enter the unfailing joy of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Jeremiah 31:7-14
This is what the Lord says:

“Sing with joy for Jacob; shout for the foremost of the nations. Make your praises heard, and say,
  ‘Lord, save your people, the remnant of Israel.’
See, I will bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the ends of the earth.
Among them will be the blind and the lame, expectant mothers and women in labour; a great throng will return. They will come with weeping; they will pray as I bring them back.
I will lead them beside streams of water on a level path where they will not stumble, because I am Israel’s father, and Ephraim is my firstborn son.
“Hear the word of the Lord, you nations; proclaim it in distant coastlands:
‘He who scattered Israel will gather them and will watch over his flock like a shepherd.’
For the Lord will deliver Jacob and redeem them from the hand of those stronger than they.
They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion; they will rejoice in the bounty of the Lord—the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, the young of the flocks and herds. They will be like a well-watered garden, and they will sorrow no more.
Then young women will dance and be glad, young men and old as well. I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow. I will satisfy the priests with abundance, and my people will be filled with my bounty,” declares the Lord.

Hebrews 7:23-28
Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
Such a high priest truly meets our need—one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. For the law appoints as high priests men in all their weakness; but the oath, which came after the law, appointed the Son, who has been made perfect forever.

Mark 10:46-52
Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging.

When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.”

So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.
The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

“Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

Post Communion Prayer

God of all grace, your Son Jesus Christ fed the hungry with the bread of his life and the word of his kingdom: renew your people with your heavenly grace, and in all our weakness sustain us by your true and living bread; who is alive and reigns, now and for ever. Amen.

Can't make it to church - Sunday 31st December 2017,

We start the proceedings today with a bit of praise and worship -  and why not? After all it's the first Sunday after Christmas so how on earth could we not be doing some really OTT rejoicing?

Of course, it wasn't Christmas when Isaiah wrote the words we begin with today for Jesus was some 600 years away, which raises the question: “Who was wearing the garment of salvation – wearing a robe of righteousness and taking delight in God’ and as we move on, we have to ask ourselves what righteousness appearing like shoots in a field (i.e. 'sprouting') before ALL nations was all about too. Add to the imagery of bridegroom and bride and we can see so many parallels for the ‘then’, the Bethlehem bit and the ‘now’.

It should come as no surprise that the first part is the closing hymn of praise for God  comes from self-same passage that speaks of Jubilee – the year of the LORD’s favour – the ‘good news’ that sets captives free, gives sight to the blind and all that good stuff.

The second part turns from self to many as Zion and Jerusalem feature in the voicing of the need to speak out until salvation and vindication are apparent to ALL nations and glory will be their realities  and become a sign of God’s power and glory. One voice for a collection of voices that are one corporate body – just like Church is the bride of Christ and and yet is full of individuals.

Isaiah speaks of the hope that is found, and made real, in the promises of God for His people - and that hope comes together, and is made real, in the person of Jesus - so Jesus is the fulfilment of the promises of God (cool or what?).

There’s a lot here and as we ponder it, Christmas and the second coming, collide with the ‘then’ of Isaiah in an amazingly special way: And there’s Jesus in amongst all the noise picking up the scroll and reading it in the synagogue (someone turn the oven off – its going to be a long service!) to a people who have been waiting for six hundred odd years. But why the wait and how do we make sense of the promises and the love of God that creates this recuse plan?

The Galatians reading comes in handy here for it tells us that after all the waiting, when the right time had come - God sent his Son - born of a woman, an exceptionally unexceptional (none of this immaculate conception stuff for her please) woman – to save an equally unexceptional humanity; the very people God had made exceptional before sin removed that truth and exchanged it for separation from God and a life that was a lie!

Paul puts it straight for those under the law could only be redeemed by one also under the same law – and this law of sin and death translates as ‘fully human’ (cool isn’t it, so lets get back to the sermon).

And through His death on a cross and the indwelling of God’s Holy Spirit all humanity had before it the ability to see God as someone they could have a personal relationship with – and this is the power of the ‘ABBA’ word – for it’s not a childish ‘dada or daddy’ utterance but one that acknowledges, confers and accepts relationship with God. This is the most amazingly wonderful affirming life-changing good news that (outside of the words, “You are forgiven!”) you will ever hear! We are one with God and have become His heirs. The fact that we can celebrate a relationship, and I mean Family,  that recognises the Fatherhood of God makes ABBA something marvellous - how can you not be excited about that?

And that's the thing - the promise and the design and the sacrifice and lives that were forfeit being returned to the owners so that they can become God family and heirs of all He is and has. That has to be the most wonderful Christmas gift of all and realising that we need to ask what else there can be to say on the subject, especially when all we have left is the Gospel reading with some angels, Shepherds and a Christmas past?

And yet these Extraordinary, extraordinarily smelly shepherds are exactly what Jesus is coming to the world to reconcile to the Godhead. The excitement of the angels and the shepherds on that first Christmas – the excitement of our early Christmases as children, the excitement of Christmas as believers: Do we still have that? The added dimension that Christmas took on when we realised that this was the beginning of the Easter story - the joy, gratitude and the humbling awareness that Jesus comes to do it all for us, individually, so we might be reconciles and redeems and set fe to be exceptionally exceptional heirs of God. How can we not be 'clamourously foolish' ('hallel') as our we sing our 'hallelujahs'? Our OTT loves songs to God fr all we have been shown, given and promised?

A clergy colleague recently told me how they wished they could preach something else at Christmas because it had, "All become so ‘samey’ and ‘hackneyed’, " is this the reason for the lack of passion and commitment I see these days? Too many people have stopped following Jesus, the Christ, and instead merely go to church - a place where all is safe and nothing ever changes (aside from the candles on the birthday cake perhaps).

Perhaps our inability to be passionate and excited about following Jesus and making Him known if the root cause of the intermittent attendance and low numbers when events are put on in our towns, our churches and elsewhere?

Have we forgotten our first love and the joy we had in Christ and not only stopped living with Him but also stopped working with Him too?

What do we see when we encounter Jesus I wonder - perhaps this is a question we all need to asking ourselves as we enter a new year and decide whether we're part of the mission of Church or the miserable state it seems to be in so many places?

Perhaps we need to be like the Shepherds and 'rise up and follow' Jesus, the Christ!

The Collect

God in Trinity, eternal unity of perfect love: gather the nations to be one family, and draw us into your holy life through the birth of Emmanuel, our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Isaiah 61.10 - 62.3

I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the soil makes the young plant come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.

For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet, till her vindication shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch. The nations will see your vindication, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow. You will be a crown of splendour in the Lord’s hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

Galatians 4.4-7

But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Luke 2.15-21
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise the child, he was named Jesus, the name the angel had given him before he was conceived.

Post Communion
 Prayer
Heavenly Father, whose blessed Son shared at Nazareth the life of an earthly home: help your Church to live as one family, united in love and obedience, and bring us all at last to our home in heaven; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.