Idol Christians? (Can’t make it to church? - Sunday, 4 August 2019)

Today’s readings provide more than a little challenge to those listening to the sermon and to those delivering it too. It's not an easy read :-)

The Old Testament writer proclaims that, “Everything is meaningless - it's all nothing but vanity and so is worthless!“ We spend our time, “Chasing after the wind!” These are views that I reckon resonate with many (if not all) of us as we pass through this life of ours.

The reading continues with: ”I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labour under the sun. For a person may labour with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labour under the sun? All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.“

We struggle to master ‘wisdom, knowledge and skill’ and then we leave this life and another gains what we leave behind, and though they might act wisely with it, then again they might not!

A rich man I knew built his company from nothing and toiled hard to ‘make it’. He became a multimillionaire and as he aged he realised his children were (in his own words), “Worthless, spoilt wasters, who would spend and enjoy rather than continue the firm.” Everything he had worked for would be thrown to the ground making his life’s work ‘worthless’

The Bible tells us not to store our treasures here on earth where they rust, break and get stolen but to store them up in heaven where they will be safe for ever - and where the things we value (treasure) are, that's where our hearts will be found (Matt 6.19-20)

So often we can let the things we possess possess us. We put so much store in things that we lose sight of people and relationships. We make the pursuit of knowledge so all-encompassing that we never learn what is important. We store our treasures up and in doing so live like paupers.We develop skills that can create amazing things and then hide or ‘protect’ them from others.

The reality is that life is about love and living to the fullest extent not filling our homes with treasures which we will lave behind. Don’t struggle to have lots to leave but work hard to put the things that matter into heavenly places. And if we are looking at heaven then we are looking at where God is - and if we are not, then who are we serving? Could it be that our labours and legacies can deny God? If this is true the ‘Protestant work ethic’ sets our face against God and becomes something hat diminishes our relationship with Him! What a thought that is :-(

In the Gospel reading brings a rich man into a conversation with someone who wants his brother to share an inheritance. Jesus tells the man to be careful: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” I’m glad He does this because it fits in with what I’m thinking and supports the words of Ecclesiastes too.

So we hear a story of a man and a huge harvest and the man’s plans to build even bigger barns to accommodate them and have even more than I have now so I can ‘take life easy; eat, drink and be merry’. But God says to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?”

Who will get what you leave - and what will it be that you have left?

The Bible tells us that, “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” (1 Tim 6.10). Money can be a great tool but it can also, like all possessions, turn our hearts from God and from the things that matter. If we make idols than we deny the one true and living God. Are we making idols that deny God and our relationship with Him?

I know clergy whose idols are to be found in the size of their church congregation or their giving - I know this is true because they so crave this ‘success’ and the approval of ‘senior clergy’.

My own idols can be found in the pursuit of knowledge - a noble cause which all approve of - but what does being an ‘academic’ or a ‘theologian’ bring us if we know everything about God except who He is? What is of more value, knowledge of something or someone or the knowing someone as Saviour and friend?

For some of us our idols are found in things: Cars, houses, holidays and the like - but when they make enough noise that we no longer hear God, they have become idols. But we, as Christians, having died to sin and the things of this world need to look to Jesus, the Christ, and life with Him and for Him. We are call to put off the old things and become something new: And this means looking to the heavenly things and making them real in the here and now and sharing, and storing, the treasures in those around us with storehouses filled in heaven.

It’s not wrong to leave things for those who follow us, but it is wrong to avoid heavenly things stored up because of our pursuit fr the physical, earthly things.

“Woe unto you when people speak well of you!” (Lk 6.26) Isn’t this a nod toward the realities of life? Don’t we all like to be ‘buttered up’ and approved of? Bu what if our good works are merely ploys to be approved of by man? Shouldn’t we be seeking God’s approval.

Bottom line: Don’t be idle and don’t have idols!

Our final reading from Colossians leads us in the right direction as it shows us the way to live:
“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”

Put away the idols and look to the things that bring peace so that the fruit of God’s Spirit might be seen in us (these are found in Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”)

The Colossians passage continues:
“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.  But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”

The problem with being a Christian is that it is so easy to understand what we need to do to store up treasure in heaven - just love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul, strength and possessions - and so blinking difficult to do.

The Collect
Generous God, you give us gifts and make them grow: though our faith is small as mustard seed, make it grow to your glory and the flourishing of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Lord help me to see the things that get in the way of You and me. Lead me into that place where contentment is found in being one with you and showing your love to those I meet change my heart and the things I treasure. Take away the idols I have and consume me with love for You. Amen.

Ecclesiastes 1.2,12-14; 2.18-23
“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”

I, the Teacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. I applied my mind to study and to explore by wisdom all that is done under the heavens. What a heavy burden God has laid on mankind! I have seen all the things that are done under the sun; all of them are meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labour under the sun. For a person may labour with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labour under the sun? All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

Colossians 3:1-11
Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

Luke 12:13-21
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”

Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.”

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’

“Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain. And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’

“This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.”

Post Communion Prayer
Lord God, whose Son is the true vine and the source of life, ever giving himself that the world may live: may we so receive within ourselves the power of his death and passion that, in his saving cup, we may share his glory and be made perfect in his love; for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever. Amen.

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? 27 December 2015

We've celebrated the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem and for many people that's Christmas done and dusted and it's time to take the lights down and move on; well that seems to be the case where I am. The reality is that we are just getting into Christmas, the twelve days beginning with Christmas Day, not ending. The end comes on the day before Epiphany – the day we celebrate the Wise Men visiting Jesus – which is the fifth of January.

So what do we have before us today?
In the Old testament we begin with a family making their annual visit to the temple to visit their  son, Samuel, In the Gospel we have another family, also making their annual visit to the temple and losing their son.

Two gifts in the Temple: Both given - one from and one to God

Two men with God in the forefront. Two men, both gifts one (Samuel) to God and the other (Jesus) from God. The first was desperately wanted and yet, when he came, was given to God by his mother Elizabeth. The other, well she was young and unmarried, probably wasn’t what Mary wanted, but obediently she bore the child and bore Jesus, God’s gift to the world.

Both were given to serve God – Samuel in the temple, Jesus, in the world – Samuel the man of God and Jesus the God made man. What a great contrast to start the conversation off with. Two gifts – two women of grace obediently serving their God. I’m not sure which is more difficult, wanting a child and when eventually one comes along, giving him up or being called upon to have a child as Mary was. Two great heroes of the faith – two obedient and blessed women acting as examples to us all.

Stop for a moment to think about these two men, their mothers and the ministries they exercised. Think about giving up a child and then think about what it was for Mary to be given one.

Now of course, everyone focusses on the fact that just like the Prime Minister a few years back, the family arrived and found that one of the kids were left behind. This is what happened to Mary and Joseph, for they too assumed the boy (Jesus) was with one of the family. This is the first account we have of Jesus getting out their and ‘doing His Father’s business’ – listening to, and questioning the teachers in the temple (and in doing so, stunned them). Two men learning their craft and preparing for quite amazing ministries in the service of God and man. A real challenge to us as we wonder (we do wonder don’t we) about how we too might serve god and man.

The New testament reading is a tough call, for referring to us as ‘God’s chosen ones’ we are called to be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, and patient. Now I don’t know about you but that makes me feel like packing up before I start. What a list! I can do some of them, but to do them all, who does God think I am. To make it even harder I have to be those things with people who are a pain in the behind! But these traits are essential if we are to forgive people.

Some time back I found myself in a position where someone was portraying things as they really weren’t and the desire to lash out and ‘tell it as it is’ was great; perhaps you’ve been there too?
It isn’t easy to smile and be gentle and kind when people are lying through their back teeth to make them look like the offended party and you the bad guy – but despite our feelings, we need to exercise love and not loathing and to forgive as God has given us forgiveness. A timely passage as we bring this year to its conclusion. Are there people you have spoken wrongly of, or been wrongly spoken of by? Now is the time to seek forgiveness, or to forgive, and bring peace and the love of God into being as we look to a new year. Stop and think about the people you need to seek out.

The second part of this passage comes in for some real stick in these wonderfully liberated times. What? ‘Wives, be subject to your husbands,’ now that is an invitation to a punch-up with some of the people I know; and yet looking past the offended, arms-folded, response – without the second clause, the answer is a misinterpretation and misunderstanding!

The second clause, ‘Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly,’ adds something to the party, but you need to put the two together to make sense, for what they mean is this:

‘Wives, love your husband and follow him – husbands, love your wife so much that you’d be willing to die for her’

In our household we work on the principle that I have the casting vote, but I know that should I ever have to use it then I have lost the plot! These two passages are about running a happy home not about who is superior, and this is the problem with sexual politics. They are all about power and not about submission and partnership. ‘Let me be number one,’ is the underlying text from both sides. But life should be about good relationships and not power, about how we serve one another rather than how others can serve us.

The cherry on the relationship cake is added when we place this: ‘Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is your acceptable duty in the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, or they may lose heart.’

Two more relationship which I see wrongly enacted on a daily basis. If this was done right perhaps we’d see a different society around us – sadly this is yet another benefit of the post Christian society in which we live. Food for thought there methinks.

So time to reflect and pray:
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.in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
And because it's Christmas, let's do some carols:

1 Samuel 2:18-20
But the boy Samuel served the Lord. He wore a sacred linen apron. Each year his mother made him a little robe. She took it to him when she went up to Shiloh with her husband. She did it when her husband went to offer the yearly sacrifice. Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife. He would say, “May the Lord give you children by this woman. May they take the place of the boy she prayed for and gave to the Lord.” Then they would go home.

Colossians 3.12-21
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and never treat them harshly. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is your acceptable duty in the Lord. Fathers, do not provoke your children, or they may lose heart.

Luke 2.41-52
Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him.

After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour.

Post Communion Prayer
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.