Valley Baptist

Advent 2 Shalom/Peace

2008-12-08T12:05:00.000-08:00

I’ve been contemplating the Advent candles and the themes of Advent that they each represent.
We have the hope candle which we lit last week. And at the beginning of the Christian year as we remember Christ’s first advent and anticipate his second, we affirm the hope that we have in Christ, hope that is like a light and a beacon in the darkness. We are a people of hope and while there is much to despair in our world presently we cling to that hope more determinedly.
Today we lit the candle of peace. And we recall that Jesus is the prince of peace. That he said “blessed are the peacemakers”. We remember that the angels announced his birth with the words “peace on earth and goodwill to all”. We remember Jesus own words to his disciples, my peace I give you my peace I leave you. We are a people of peace and we try to live peacefully for our world.
The pink candle is the candle of joy. Jesus birth is a joyous occasion. Mary proclaimed “my spirit rejoices in God my saviour for he has looked with favour on hid lowly servant”. The Angels announced to the shepherds “I bring you news of great joy to all people” and the same shepherds after seeing the Christ child returned with joy “glorifying and praising God.” We are a people who know a joy deep within a joy that issue forth in praise to God and a desire to live for Christ in the world.
The fourth candle is the candle of love. “Love came down at Christmas, love all lovely love divine”. The best is kept to last, the tallest candle is the love candle for we know that “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son” And we know that “greater love has none that this that a man lay down his life for his friends” Christmas is about love the love of God for us expressed, fleshed out, made known. And in the centre is the Christ candle lit on Christmas day Christ the source and fulfilment of our hope, peace, joy and love.
But in contemplating these candles I thought of the text that Neil read last week from 1 Cor 13. These three remain faith hope and love and the greatest of these love. I wondered why it wasn’t these three virtues that were used as the advent themes. Why do we not have a faith candle and why instead do we have a peace candle and a joy candle?
And I wonder why Paul did not say “these things remain faith, hope, peace, joy and love – perhaps it was just too wordy for him!
Peace is a challenging concept to bring into our celebrations of Advent and Christmas. For at best the notion of peace in the gospel story is at ambiguous. The gospel account of Jesus birth are mixed with violence. King Herod’s slaughter of the innocents and the forced exile of Joseph and Mary into Egypt hardly paint a picture of peace. Today we read the beginning of the gospel of Mark, in which John the Baptist is introduced. This one who prepare the way for the Lord goes ahead of the Lord in facing a violent death at the hands of a brutal and unjust state. Like Jesus he escaped Herod the Greats plot to kill all boys under two in the region of Bethlehem, and like Jesus he meet his fate courtesy of that potentate’s evil son Herod Antipas.
The ambiguity surrounding ‘peace’ in the gospels is Jesus own proclamation “I came not to bring peace but a sword”.
Maybe this evokes some sense of relief. With the mad rush that is Christmas, the many demands of family and of work does and tightening budgets, peace is a luxury that barely get’s a look in. And when peace can’t be found we look for substitutes, some chemical to help you cope, some activity to express the pent up frustration or a self induced denial a sort of automatic pilot response to stress of the loopy season that shuts out the panic and pain but also shuts out the joy and celebration
How do we hold these notions of violence and injustice together with the peace that is also a key ingredient in the Christmas Story?
Today’s psalm speak of righteousness and peace kissing this is a very poetic and romantic notion but that one earth does it really mean?
It’s helpful if you have clear idea of what peace and righteousness are.
The Hebrew word for peace as you probably know is shalom; it involves far more than just the absence of conflict it is a positive concept that embraces all that is to do with total well-being. Physical, emotional, spiritual, social, and economic well-being are all aspects of the biblical concept of shalom/peace. Shalom symbolises the ideal life where we are at peace with ourselves our neighbour, our circumstances, our community and our God. It is akin to what Jesus called the abundant life and what we sometimes call the good-life.
Righteousness as I hope you also know is about right living. It is about living justly. Justice and righteousness come from the same root word in Greek and you cannot separate the two if you want to understand what either of them means.
Here then is the poets meaning when he writes that righteousness and peace kiss. He means that in the ideal world that he anticipates right living will result in the good life.
Evidently that is not true at the moment! It wasn’t true when the poet wrote it. It wasn’t true when Jesus was born. More often than not the righteous that is to use Micah definition those who act justly and love mercy and walk humbly with their God, pay a price for their right living, the price can vary from financial hardship, to mocking to persecution and martyrdom.
The poet writes with what Walter Bruegermann called prophetic imagination. He imagines a world where the righteous are reward for their good living, a world where

The LORD will indeed give what is good, and our land will
yield its harvest.

The poet finishes his psalm with a phrase that resonates with our gospel and Old Testament reading

Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps

He puts the two ideas in the right order good living must come first, the good life will follow. Until the end of all things when there is made a new heaven and a new earth, the good life cannot be guaranteed, but in the mean time we can be sure that the good life is not possible without good living.
The poet/prophet Isaiah was moved by the same spirit and his imagination was stirred in a similar way. He spoke comfort to the people of Jerusalem and Judah who had suffered long in captivity, he spoke of shalom of the good life being realise in their time. But for this to happen justice would have to lead the way. The valley shall be exalted, the hills shall be brought down, a highway through the wilderness would be built. The highway called the road of the righteous
An earlier poet writing before the exile also recorded in the book of Isaiah wrote of the holiness highway

And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean
will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools
will not go about on it.
9 No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will
not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there,
10 and the ransomed of the LORD will return. They will
enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and
joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away

Here we have another image of good living resulting in the good life.
The latter prophet sometimes called Second Isaiah is convinced that only God can bring about the shalom/peace that people long for but that God will only come when the way is prepared, the ay of righteousness, the way of justice the way of good living.
Move forward a few hundred years to the time of John the Baptist. A prophet a preachers a voice calling in the wilderness Prepare ye the way of the Lord. And how is one to prepare the way for the Lord, how is one to prepare a way for God to act in one’s life or one’s community. The message is the same as that of the earlier poet/prophets. Live good so that the good life may come.
This means repenting, changing the way ones live in Luke’s gospel John spells out what repentances involves in very practical terms, he gives examples of the kind of right living that prepares the way for the Lord.
Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. ... The person with two tunics should share with the one who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.
This is the beginning of true shalom/peace. Where righteousness and peace kiss where right living meets the good life.
It’s simple stuff really. But it challenges us deeply cuts across our cultural norms and call for us to act in a way that custom and long ingrained practice work against. How do we find peace this Christmas amidst the mad rush around us, amidst the pain and panic, amidst the gross injustice and extreme deprivation that confronts us?
Peace comes as a gift, a gift from the Christ child and peace comes from within as we do what our conscience tells us is right as we find ways to share our tunic and our food with others. We can but do all we can to live rightly thus finding peace with ourselves and peace with God. This does not guarantee that w shall live long and prosper or that all shall be well around and about. But the inner peace that comes from doing our best and trusting God for the rest, is a great strength and can get us through the worst storms of life.
We are people of hope our hope is that the peace we experience now in part will one day be fully realised and we keep our prophetic imagination alive as we anticipate that day.
We are people with an inner joy a life giving effervescence that is the partner of the peace that passes all understanding
And we are people who are deeply loved and its our experience of that love in its many forms that settles our heart and the casts out all fear and lets us live and rest in peace.

Jesus is ‘Christ’.

2008-12-08T12:03:00.002-08:00

Mark 8:27 Jesus and his disciples went on to the
villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, "Who do people say
I am?"
28They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah;
and still others, one of the prophets."
29"But what about you?" he
asked. "Who do you say I am?" Peter
answered, "You are the Christ"
30Jesus warned them not to tell anyone
about him.

One of the most familiar yet least understood titles given to Jesus is that of ‘Christ’. In practice for many people the term Christ functions more like Jesus surname than as his title.
Other Tiles such as Lord, King, or Saviour are more obviously titles of position and function we have some understanding of what a Lord or a King or a Saviour does – but what is a Christ? What does this title mean?
“Christos” is a Greek word used to translate the Hebrew Term Messiah. It literally means, ‘anointed one’.
In the Hebrew bible the prophets are called the anointed ones of God.The King of Israel and Judah were anointed to serve God and God’s people.Interestingly Cyrus Emperor of Persia and conqueror of Israel was called God’s anointed one; perhaps because he pursued a policy of generosity instead of repression, and allowed Israel to follow its own religious practices and to rebuild Jerusalem. The term ‘anointed one’ applied to priests and especially the High Priests who were anointed with Holy oil to serve the people of God.
So already in the term Messiah or Christ we see some things that apply to Jesus
· he is the anointed prophet who annunciates the word of God
· he is the anointed high priest who offers an atoning sacrifice
· he is the anointed King who rules with justice and generosity
When Jesus preached his first recorded sermon in his home town of Nazareth he reads from the Prophet Isaiah a text which he claims as his manifesto.
The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.
This is one of the most important texts in the New Testament for it concisely and clearly lays out Jesus own view of himself and his ministry. It provides a central interpretative motif. In art and music a motif is a theme or a pattern that is repeated, it becomes a reference point by which the rest of the work is viewed or heard and interpreted. In the writings of the New Testament there are a few motifs that help us interpret the rest of the work. The Kingdom of God is major motif, the love of God is a central motif, the cross, the resurrection of Jesus these are all motifs or ideas that are important to our understanding of the scriptures and we can test our interpretations of the bible by seeing how they line up with these core motifs.
The title “Christos” or Messiah is itself a motif a very strong theme through which we understand who Jesus is and through which we interpret the writings about Jesus.
In the text from Isaiah 61 quoted in Luke 4 we have Jesus supply his own definition of what the Messiah or the Christ is. This was import to do because in Jesus own time there was a lot of expectation around the idea of a coming messiah.
Messianic expectation.
Several Old Testament themes merged together to create this messianic expectation, Biblical notions such as the Holy One of God, The Son of Man, The Son of David, and from non-biblical literature The Righteous One formed the literary background. Mixed into this was the contemporary political situation and the rise of Israeli nationalism in the face of Roman occupation. People believed and hoped and prayed that the coming messiah would liberate Israel from her oppressors and that he would establish a monarchy that would rule forever.
The depictions of this new messiah varied in different quarters but many saw him as a warrior king who would lead a revolutionary army to overthrow the occupying forces. Some of Jesus’ own disciples were awaiting this style of messiah.
Against this background of expectation comes Jesus who defines what the messiah is like. He defines the term in his conversation, in his preaching and teaching, in his life of service and in his surrender to death. The messiah is not what people had expected. It took people a long time to be convinced that Jesus fitted the bill, that he was the messiah the Christ.
Jesus showed that the Messiah is more like the suffering servant of Isaiah; peace loving, compassionate, gentle, humble, generous, gracious, looking to the needs of others above his own.
So “Christ” as a title for Jesus at its root in Hebrew thinking and in Jesus own teaching is a humble figure who preaches good news to the poor, proclaims freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, who releases the oppressed, and proclaims the year of the Lord's favour.
We could say that “Christ’ signifies the action of God in Jesus. The title “Christ” remind us how God acts toward us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. We are reminded that Jesus is more than a teacher of great repute, a healer, a wise man a prophet, he is anointed by God, to fulfil God’s purposes for humanity. We see more in the writing of Paul.
Paul uses the word Christ 275 times the title is clearly important to Paul. Yet Paul; is not so much concerned with who Christ is as to what Christ does. For Paul it’s all about justification, we have been justified by faith through grace - this is what Christ does for us.
With his focus on the work of Christ, Paul is interested in Christ’s role in creation and Christ’s role in the life of the believer.
Paul sees Christ as intimately involved at the beginning of creation.
“by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth”
And more than that Christ is active in sustaining the creation
“in him all things hold together”
Here we have described for us the Cosmic Christ; Christ Jesus creator and sustainer of all things and Christ as the goal of all creation.
“all things were created by him and for him”
Putting together the Gospels depiction of the humble messiah and the Pauline depiction of the cosmic Christ an image emerges of one who though Lord and creator of all things humbles himself to become a human being, to seek and save the lost, and one who sets the pattern and goal for all of existence.
The cosmos was made in him though him and for him
We are made in him through him and for him and it is with this in mind that Paul uses the term Christ, he is concerned to show how our connection with Christ affects how we live here and now.
“there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live”
Paul uses the phrase ‘in Christ’ numerous times to describe the Christian life.
Christ is our life and our salvation
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. Gal 2:20
if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Phi 1:21
Christ is the source of our unity and equality
in Christ we who are many form one body Ro 12:6
There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Gal 3:28
Our life in Christ is marked by freedom, a freedom that allows us to do God’s good and perfect will.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Gal 5:1
he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, Eph 1:9
For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Eph 2:10
We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. Col 1:28
Christ as the goal of creation is also our goal our end our purpose our model, we are being changed to become more like him
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus Phi 2:5
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. Eph 4:15
Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Eph 4:32
Christ through whom the world was created and for who the world was created is also the sustainer of the world and he sustains us with his constant presence hence we are admonished by Paul to allow Christ to have his way with us.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts Col 3:15
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly Col 3:16
And Paul prays that we grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ Eph 3
Jesus asked his disciples Who do people say I am? and they gave their answers. “Some say you are Elijah, some say you are John, some say you are the prophet”
It’s relatively safe to answer the questions what do other people think of Jesus, we can answer that objectively and have an interesting discussion.
This morning and indeed over the last few weeks I’ve talked about some of the titles given to Jesus and reflected on what the New Testament authors thought of Jesus. All of that is safe stuff to talk about it’s out there it’s an academic question.
However the much harder question to answer and the one that must impinge on every aspect of our lives is the question that Jesus asks next.
Who do you say I am?
And whether you’ve been a Christian for 80 year or 2 years or still undecided this is a perennial question one that must be answered again and again in each life situation we find our self in.
Who do you say I am?
Prophet, teacher, King, Lord, Saviour Christ?

Jesus is Saviour

2008-12-08T12:03:00.001-08:00

One of the classic titles given to Jesus is that of Saviour.
For many years a sign was inscribed on a large rock face on SH1 somewhere between Wellington and Hamilton it said JESUS SAVES underneath someone else had written “with the BNZ” or was it Westpac I don’t recall.
The humorous repartee points to a problem with the English language, what do we mean by saves and with the theological notion of Saviour and Salvation.
The exuberant evangelist on the street asks a passerby “Are you Saved” to which he gets the quite legitimate reply “saved from what?”
I think the phrase “Jesus is my Saviour” is repeated in some circles without a lot of thought to what that really means and without a lot of connection with the biblical idea behind that designation.
Like many terms in the bible saviour has a multiplicity of meanings and to grasp the concept you need to take all of them into account. Bad theology and bad Christian practice occurs when one meaning is given overdue emphasis.
A colleague of mine who spent some years ministering in the US recalled a number of experiences where he encountered people with a strange and unhelpful overemphasis on one aspect of saviour. On one occasion he picked up a hitch-hiker who was in quite a state, drunkard, gambler loose with his tongue as well as his money, had abandoned his family, but in conversation declared himself to be a Christian because he had got saved at some crusade or another. There was no expectation that Christianity had anything to do with being part of a church community living a life of love and service, of worshipping God. No being a Christian was a matter of uttering a prayer inviting Jesus into your heart and thereby being saved from hell destined for glory.
This is an extreme case but one that points to the pitfalls of having a narrow understanding of what saviour means, of what salvation is, of what being saved is all about. It is rather clear that this is not what Jesus envisaged for his followers. But how do we know that our view of salvation and our practice of calling Jesus saviour is any closer to the truth and any more helpful in living as Jesus intends us?
Salvation is a multifaceted jewel. It has a past, present and future dimension. We have been saved we are being saved we shall be saved. We are saved from certain things, sin, death, the devil, destruction. We are saved for certain things, a life of good works, to give glory to God, to be witnesses, to share eternity with God. There is a temporal dimension wherein salvation applies to the things of this world and there is an eternal dimension wherein salvation is a guarantee of a new world and life in all its fullness for all of eternity.
My colleagues hitchhiking companion had a limited view of salvation, for him to say Jesus was his saviour was a consequence of some past action that in turned guaranteed a future in heaven but had no implication for his life in the here and now.
His saviour was concerned only with saving his soul from hell. There was no sense that he was being saved to do anything – life could proceed in any way he chose without anything affecting his eternal destiny.
Contrast our sweat hitchhiker with Zacchaeus the tax collector. What do we notice about Zac’s encounter with Jesus.
1. To begin with there is an attraction and a curiosity about Jesus. Zac wanted to know who this Jesus was. Many conversions begin this way, with a person being curious and starting a search.
2. Jesus takes the initiative to engage with Zac. He calls to him in the fig tree. He calls to him by name. He invites Zac to respond. This detail reminds us of an important theological point about salvation and about Jesus the Saviour. Jesus is the initiator of salvation. Salvation comes from Jesus it is offered as a free gift. Some people strive to find salvation. They strive to earn their way into God’s good books; they want to prove that they are good enough to go to heaven. But salvation is actually the other way around; it’s about God coming to us with a free gift. The movement in the first place is always from God to human, from heaven to earth. We call this ‘grace’, unmerited kindness and favour. But note that Zac is not being invited to a free party. This is not cheap grace. Zac is being invited to a new way of life – it is to begin immediately with him showing hospitality to Jesus and his friends.
3. Zac immediately responds. He starts by offering Jesus a welcome. When I first became a Christian this was an incredibly important step. I acknowledged Jesus; I welcomed Jesus into my life. I asked him to save me. I knew already that that would involve change and it would involve commitments and it would involve cost, but I also knew instinctively that the new life I was beginning was going to have more pluses than minuses, that I would be rewarded for welcoming Jesus.
4. There is then a bit of grumbling. “All who saw it began to grumble saying he has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner”. The beginning of salvation can be quite unnerving because from that point on the world of the ‘saved’ is turned upside down. The sinner dines with the Lord of all, the wicked tax collector repents and begins to do good. The last becomes the first, the outcast is welcomed to the centre, the despised becomes a leader and shows the way. The religious become unnerved because their settled position is challenged, the complacent become unnerved because they see that grace is real and change is possible. The inactive become irritated by the energy of new convert who highlights their apathy. I’m sure you’ve experienced this phenomenon we often put it down to the zeal and inexperience and lack of mature wisdom of the new convert, but it is more than that, it is the unfettered activity of grace, turning the world of the convert upside own and with any shakeup like that there is bound to be a bit of a mess.
5. Zac’s response to the grumbling is to state his intention, to confess his faith, to outline for witnesses to hear his plan for following Jesus and working out his salvation. He makes his confession to Jesus the Lord "Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount." Zac is aware that for him to know Jesus as saviour he must know and serve him as Lord. Living honestly, compassionately, caring for the poor, working for justice. Zac is not earning his salvation, he is responding to the grace of God. The love of God compels him to do these things
6. Finally we hear Jesus affirmation of Zacchaeus: Jesus said to him, "Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Jesus came to seek and save the lost. There is no mention of heaven or the afterlife here; this story is not about that; it is about someone finding salvation. That is it is about someone finding Jesus, finding a reason to change and being given the power to change. Salvation according to this story is about life here and now, about the way we live about how we use our money, about how we follow Jesus as Lord.
This is not the only way the bible talks about salvation, but it is a good counter to the tradition that only emphasises the eternal and spiritual aspect of salvation.
Paul who is probably most often quoted to emphasise the eternal dimension of salvation is quite clear that salvation is also, if not primarily, about this life and how we live as saved people here and now,
8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast. 10For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
We are saved writes Paul so that we might do good works prepared for us. Salvation then is about being set free from all that prevents us finding our vocation, finding out what it is we are called to do, finding out just what those good works are that God has prepared for us to do and that God is waiting for us to do.
In this to we recognise an ongoing process, I am saved, I am being saved I will be saved. My past and present life decisions and career choices are based on my faith on the experience and understanding of God that has come to me through my relationship with Jesus. I have followed the call of Jesus to the best of my ability, according to my experience according to the degree to which I have been saved, set free, sanctified, made to be like Christ. As the process of my salvation continues I see my calling in a new light. I will see new works that God has prepared for me to do.
Thus our relationship with Jesus is dynamic and always changing. We can’t live in the past. We can’t base tomorrow’s decisions on yesterdays experience, we need an ongoing relationship with Jesus wherein we continue to be saved, to be refined, purified, challenged and changed. Paul once again Put’s this succinctly. This time Phil 2.
Therefore, my dear friends ...—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, 13for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.
In working out our salvation we are working out our ongoing relationship with Jesus; determining how he wants us to live in the current circumstance. It’s about saying yes to Jesus.
Yes I will try that new thing
Yes I will allow you to challenge and change me
Yes I will look for fresh ways to live out my faith
Yes I will serve you wherever you place me
Yes I will pay the price
Yes I will get off my backside
Yes I will love the least
Yes I will speak out for injustice
Yes Jesus Yes You are my saviour, you have saved me for a life of good works and I am being saved as I follow you and I will be fully saved when we meet face to face.
Yes Jesus my saviour.

Would Jesus be A Christian?

2008-12-08T11:59:00.000-08:00

Jesus is Lord: Matthew 7:21-28, Psalm 72, Ephesians 4:1-5
Intro
Christianity throughout the world is expressed in an enormous variety of ways. So much so that if you put two divergent groups together you might wonder if they bore any relationship to one another.
One might even wonder that if Jesus showed up at the gathering of certain Christian groups whether he would identify himself as a Christian.
Can Jesus be a Southern Baptist, a Korean Pentecostal, a Russian Orthdox, a South American Catholic and a Quaker?
There are many factors that go into explaining the vast difference in Christian expression. One is that at the heart of the gospel is an enormous amount of freedom. The bible does not in fact prescribe, how we should worship, what we should eat or wear. It does not lay out black and white answers to life’s complex problems as much as we wish it might. Secondly each Christina community is unique in its history and experience, factors which enormously influence our understanding of life and faith. Thirdly each Christian community is embedded in layers of culture. Culture not only affects the way we do things it affects the way we see things and understand things.
Our Christian experience and expression and witness are influenced by a multiplicity of factors so much so that it can be difficult to see the common core. It can also be difficult to gain a healthy perspective about your own faith and commitments because of the many layers that make up what we believe and what we think we know.
So I think it is a legitimate question to ask. Would Jesus be a Christian? I don’t want to ask it about Southern Baptists or Greek Orthodox. But I want to ask it about the style and type of Christianity that I am a part of here in New Zealand. And so how do we do that?
We have to try and get to the core of the matter the foundation of our faith and ask some key questions about Jesus and then reflect on what that means for us who claim to be Christian people. Are we being Christian in a way that Jesus would if he were alive as a human being among us now?
Over the next few weeks I’m going to look at some of the key Christological Claims that the bible makes and the church affirms. Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Saviour, Jesus is Christ, and bring it to some form of conclusion on the last Sunday of the month which is Christ the King Sunday.
What do we mean when we say Jesus is Lord? More importantly what did the early church and the writers of the New Testament mean when they called Jesus Lord? The Greek Word Kurios has three basic meanings and one further important connotation that we will explore.
Just and Noble King and Sovereign
One of the meanings of “Lord” is simply the king or sovereign ruler of a group of people. Now we don’t have much appreciation of this idea in our modern culture or even as we look back over history. The idea of a king being just and noble is more of a myth, as in King Arthur, than it is in any actual historical situation.
We’re used to the idea the power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, history is on the side of this well worn cliché. We have two models of monarchy the one being a despotic and brutal dictator with absolute power of his people or that of a toothless figurehead who is good at pomp and ceremony but with no real power.
How then do we apply the term Lord to Jesus? Hopefully in neither of these ways.
In spite of a succession of bad kings throughout Israel’s history the people retained the hope of a good king. From time to time they saw the fruit of Godly leadership, some of their kings acted justly and nobly some of the time. Psalm 72 expresses that hope in the form of a prayer which begins

Endow the king with your justice, O God, the royal son with your righteousness.
2 He will judge your people in righteousness, your afflicted ones with justice.
3 The mountains will bring prosperity to the people, the hills the fruit of righteousness.
4 He will defend the afflicted among the people and save the children of the needy; he will crush the oppressor.
Imagine being subject to any number of brutal kings that ruled throughout history. No hope, no justice, no safety, no prosperity. The thought of a Good king was a wonderful dream.
The good king would bring hope, and prosperity, he would protect his people, ensure that the service and infrastructure for a good society were in place and so on. The good king would bring life and liberty.
Here then is the hope we live by when we proclaim Jesus is Lord. We believe that Jesus sets us free from all other tyranny so that we may live in freedom and enjoy the life we have been given.
We reject on the one hand the idea that Jesus is a dictator who rules over us with an iron fist, and we reject the idea that he is a toothless lion who is nothing more than a figure head representing a set of good ideas and worthy aspirations. Jesus is the rightful Lord of All, his kingdom will endure forever, it is a kingdom of justice that we may enter into by swearing our allegiance to Jesus as Lord forsaking all other Lords and kings.
Master of Servants
The second meaning of Lord is related, it’s a little more domestic than political. In Jesus time a Lord would be one who had servants under him. Servants obey their master; they are enslaved to him or her at his or her beck and call. Often the servant or slave was treated as little more than a chattel whose sole reason for being was the advancement of the Lord’s needs and wants.
The Master had total control over the slave dictating what and when the slave ate, when and where they slept and arose, who they associated with, what they said, what they wore. The slave did not have a life of his or her own but was an appendage of the master’s life, all meaning and purpose were derivative from the master.
Of critical importance here is the character of the master. Once a slave is owned by one person the slave could be sold like any other chattel or beast of burden. A good and caring master could make the slave’s life bearable; a cruel master could make the slave’s life intolerably miserable.
As Bob Dylan famously wrote and sung, “You’ve gotta serve somebody”
You may be an ambassador to England or FranceYou may like to gamble, you might like to danceYou may be the heavyweight champion of the worldYou may be a socialite with a long string of pearls.But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeedYou're gonna have to serve somebody,It may be the devil or it may be the LordBut you're gonna have to serve somebody.Might be a rock'n' roll adict prancing on the stageMight have money and drugs at your commands, women in a cageYou may be a business man or some high degree thiefThey may call you Doctor or they may call you Chief.
That which we serve that which we submit to and give our life to that is the thing or person that gives our life meaning and gives us our sense of who we are. A slave in the first century Palestine might have had a miserable lot at the hands of his earthly Lord, but if he knew Jesus as Master and Lord, he had a higher sense of purpose a greater sense of self-worth, he could rise above his oppression and realise his human potential.
We are in a different situation our slavery is seldom to earthly an lord but many people are enslaved to chemical addiction, bad habits, unhealthy ways of relating to others, addicted to materialism, individualism, success, social advancement, power, adrenalin and so on and so forth. That which we are enslaved to dictates our lives makes us who we are and we have a choice we can choose to give up other masters and serve Jesus as Lord.
Master/Teacher of apprentice/learners
The Other common use of the word Kurios or Lord in Jesus time was that used for a master/teacher/Rabbi by his students or disciples. We use the word master in a similar way today. We talk about master builders, or master violinists, or a master craftsman and so on. A master is a person who has mastered a set of skills so perfectly that they are embodied within them. The master sculpture doesn’t need to consult a book when she is creating a masterpiece, the creativity flows. A surgeon operates with such skill and knowledge and instinct that it is almost second nature for her to operate.
But how do people arrive at being masters in their field, they submit to a process of learning through disciplined practice. The young violinists observes the masters, copies the master and practices what she has copied over and over again until the new skill becomes ingrained, it just flows naturally without conscious thought
When we say Jesus is Lord this is in part what we mean. Jesus is the master of life and living. We submit to his tutelage, we become his apprentices, his students, his disciples learning the discipline of love and faith and life and hope and grace and so on. We try to copy Jesus actions, to imitate his attitudes, to follow his lead, until we find that living the Jesus way comes naturally.
This analogy is limited in one respect. For in most other master student relationships, having reached a degree of near perfection the student themselves eventually become masters. When it comes to living the Jesus way we never quite master it. Perfection is always just beyond our reach; well actually it’s a long way beyond our reach. And the reason for this I will explain in the fourth meaning or connotation of the word Lord in the New Testament.
When the Greek Translators got a hold of the Hebrew Bible that is our Old Testament they decided that instead of Translating or transliterating the Hebrew word Yahweh the personal name of God if you like, the decided that they word just insert the words “The LORD” In most English translation where this tradition is followed “The Lord” is typed with small caps, the Hebrew behind this Phrase is Yahweh the name of God.
In a few cases in the New Testament the Hebrew Bible quotes an Old Testament passage that use “THE LORD” in small caps and it is clearly meant to refer to Jesus, here is an example. From Romans 10.
That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. 11As the Scripture says, "Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame." 12For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, 13for, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved”
The last section is a quote from Joel 2:32. A direct Hebrew translation would be "Everyone who calls on the name of YHWH will be saved”. However Paul clearly identifies this with Jesus. So in saying that Jesus is Lord we are also saying that Jesus and YHWH are one in being, they are one and the same, Jesus is God.
So going back through our three meanings of Lord; when we say Jesus is Lord we declare that
He is sovereign King creator of all things perfectly good and reliable, rescuing us from all bad kings, rulers and despots
Jesus is our Master, the one who we submit to in preference to all else that would seek to have control over us for good or bad, we submit not to Jesus a 1st Century Jew but to Jesus one in being with God.
And Jesus is our teacher/master/Rabbi, Jesus models for us how to live, love and be, he does this not merely as a really good philosopher and healer, but as one in being with God and one who subjected himself to the tutelage of God the Father only doing what God the Father did, so that we in turn might become his disciples following in his footsteps.
Would Jesus be a Christian?
If Jesus arrived among us in the flesh would he recognise our worship and our lifestyle as a faithful expression of loving and serving God the Lord of all?
It’s not up to us to answer that question for other people, but from time to time it is good to look at our own lifestyle and see if we really mean it when we declare Jesus is Lord.
Are we serving as faithful subjects in his kingdom?Are we progressively dismissing all other lords giving up all those things which control our lives to serve Jesus alone?Are we learning from the master, living as he would live?
These are our questions.
You and Jesus know the answers!

What Happens to Bad People?

2008-10-27T12:58:00.000-07:00

I’ve chosen to preach a series around 3 questions that I find I cannot answer with any degree of certainty.
What happens when I Die?
When will the world end?
And what happens to bad people?
These are what we call eschatological questions - questions about the end of all things.
In one respect the end of all things is a bit airy fairy and far removed from the hustle and bustle of daily life, yet ‘end’ also means purpose and as we ask questions about the end of all things in terms of the end of history we are also asking basic questions about the end or purpose of human life. It may be a luxury to contemplate such things but you have the opportunity to do so and therefore direct your own affairs with a sense of purpose and hope.
Today’s question is one that has bothered me for as long as I’ve been a Christian. What happens to bad people? It bothers me because none of the answers that are said to be orthodox satisfy me.
The typical answers relating to the doctrine of hell seem to me to be out of kilter with everything else I’ve come to learn and love about God. Yet on the other hand any answer that suggest that bad people will ultimately get away with their gross and evil deeds is manifestly unjust and immoral.
So what does happen to bad people?
This morning I’m going to provoke your thinking I’m going to introduce a range of answers that have been offered and I’m going to throw some things into the mix that you might not have considered before.
Firstly, the answer to our question What happens to bad people? Has been variously answered and we might put up a continuum of answers with a scale of how tough the punishment gets for bad people beyond the grave.
1. Eternal Torment
2. Eternal Separation
3. Punishment followed by Annihilation
4. Purgatory/Punishment followed by heaven
5. Heaven (universalism)
Before we decide whether any of these is more right than any of the others we need to explore the question a bit more. If we assume that bad people get punished or face some consequence for their sins beyond the grave we need to define what we mean by bad people and here things begin to get a bit complicated. Who deserve to go to hell?
1. Extreme Evil doers; Hitler, Pol Pott, George W Bush?
2. Sinners
3. ‘Unsaved’ sinners
4. Ignorant sinners
5. Faithful Moslems, Jews, Buddhists, Humanists
6. People who have failed to do enough good
Which is the correct bible answer?
Some research out of the US is interesting on this.
· When polled about belief in hell of those who believed about 5% of them thought that that was their destiny.
· Some conservative groups believed that between 95-99% of the world’s population were destined to go there.
· A vast majority of people thought that only real bad people went there.
But what did Jesus teach about bad people? Are some people so bad that they are beyond redemption, beyond mercy, beyond hope?
Jesus certainly does warn some people about Hell mostly the religious leaders and I want to come back to that but I want to look at the parables because I think they are most instructive on this issue.
Take the parable of the sheep and he goat.
Jesus brings the nations before him at the end of time to be judge and just as a shepherd divides the sheep and the goats so he divided the nations according to what they have and have not done.
Three point to consider.
1. Sheep and goats were almost indistinguishable and only the trained eye of the shepherd was capable of judging between the two
2. This judgement is about what people have done in terms of looking after the most vulnerable people in society; that is the sole criteria of this judgement.
3. The judgement is practically impossible - Here’s what I mean!
Read through the criteria to be welcomed into your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world
Have you done any or all of these?
· Fed the hungry,
· Given water to the thirsty
· Given Hospitality to a stranger
· Provided clothes for the needy
· Cared for the sick,
· Have you visited anyone in prison?
If you answered yes to all of these you are probably a sheep and if you answered yes to one or more you may be a sheep.
But ask yourself this also have there been times when you have had the opportunity to do any of these things and failed to do so.
Have you ever missed the opportunity to do any of the above?
Maybe Mother Theresa comes close but even she I suspect was not perfect in this regard there would have been times that she failed to do some of these things.
According to the parable that makes Mother Theresa bad, that makes her a goat.
But she is not all bad, she is not all goat and neither are you or I we are part sheep and part goat.
The division of good and bad doesn’t run between one group of good people over here and another group of bad people over there, the division is though the middle of each of us.
The separation which begins at the judgement is one which removes all vestiges of evil and selfishness, of ill motive, of twisted thinking, of unforgiveness, bitterness and deep hurt. I’m of the opinion that this may take some time. I think we may continue to grow and develop as a result of the final judgement. I have a feeling that the ‘punishment’ that we face beyond judgement is the coming terms with ourselves and the working through of issues that are raised – it will be to some extent self-inflicted punishment a little like an athlete punishes their body to bring out the best.
In a moment I will comment on the passages that seem to most directly refer to Hell as a place of eternal punishment and damnation, but first I want to touch on what I think is our psychological need for hell.
When I look at the angry reactions of families who are victims of violent crime or sexual crime or other gross injustice as they confront the perpetrators outside the courthouse or as I see the way activists and legislators agree to get tough on crime building more prisons removing bail and parole calling for the death penalty and so forth I see a society that ‘needs’ to punish bad people. Unfortunately the punishment is all about revenge and vindication it’s an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It’s about making people pay for their crimes. This idea that crime must be matched by punishment is deeply entrenched in our collective psyche even though in most case it does nothing to prevent reoffending. Punishing criminal makes them tougher, they grow to hate the system with intensity and lose all respect for authority, for property and for life.
Underlying our penal system is a deeply held belief that most if not all bad people are beyond redemption and are deserving of hell. Punishment is seldom viewed as corrective, merely punitive in a way to make the victim feel vindicated, to make society think that some equilibrium has been reached and justice served.
We live in a blame society where if we have someone besides ourselves to blame for our problems then we can feel better about ourselves. We seem to need to have others who are bad people others who are at least worse than ourselves and onto whom we can deflect our own faults. It makes life simpler to divide the world into us and them, the good and the bad, the saved and the damned. I think it is this underlying psychology that influences our interpretation of scripture.
There are a number of scripture passages that are universalist, we have one read to us this morning yet the dominant theme over centuries of Christianity has been to give precedence to those passages which are exclusive and portray bad people or unsaved people as eternally damned. Leading figures in the church including Mega church evangelicals and Pope Benedict still hold to a view of a literal hell. I don’t and I think the church needs to think long and hard about this doctrine.
The doctrine of Hell has served the church well, for fund raising purposes, evangelistic drives, crusades, for enforcing good behaviour and discipline.
It leads to a distorted image of God-portraying God as vengeful, unforgiving, merciless vindictive.
It leads to a distorted view of justice- We’ve inherited this economic view of justice, that is to do with balance sheets and repaying debt an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth model.

Justice is about putting things right, it’s about seeing what is wrong and making it right it’s about correction not punishment. When you make a mistake God is not out to punish you for it, but God does want to correct you, correct your thinking, your attitudes and your behaviour.
The doctrine of hell, leads to a distorted view of people who are different and we want to apply our own categories of good and bad.If they are not like us they are bad
If they do bad things they need to be punished and so countries are invaded, bombs are dropped and hell comes to earth.
Let’s now then look at some of the passage that speak explicitly of “Hell”

Matthew 5:22But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, 'Raca, ' is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, 'You fool!' will be in danger of the fire of hell.
Matthew 5:29If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Matthew 5:30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
Matthew 10:28Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matthew 18:9And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
Following last week’s sermon where I began to explore literary device used by Jesus you should be able to recognise these sentences as hyperbole. They are expression used to strengthen or amplify a point. The point of each verse is not hell per se but some behaviour that should be avoided. Now we can’t dismiss the possibility of a literal hell just by noting that these phrases have a literary meaning rather than a literal one; however we need to recognise that Jesus is not teaching anything about hell here he is using the idea of hell regardless of its actual existence to make a point.
Matthew 23:15"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are.
Matthew 23:33"You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
These last two instances from Matthew’s gospels are interesting. Jesus is addressing the teachers of the law and Pharisees. It is only the religious leaders that get such harsh treatment from Jesus. Why does Jesus threaten these religious leaders with hell – most likely it is because they were threatening others with the same and using the threat of hell as a way to manipulate their followers – that sounds rather familiar. John doesn’t use the word Gehhena/Hell in his gospels and all of the other passage in Mark and Luke that use the word are parallels of the Matthean texts
Mark 9:43If your hand causes you to sin, 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.
Mark 9:45And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell.
Mark 9:47And if your eye causes you to sin, 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,
Luke 12:5But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
...the one exception being the story of Lazarus and the beggar at the gate.

Luke 16:23In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.
Again we have to ask of this story, what is the main point. Jesus is not teaching about hell, he is teaching about our responsibilities in the here and now. We have only one chance to get it right after your gone it’s too late to do that good that you had always thought about doing.
There are just 2 other uses of the word hell in the NT
James 3:6The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.2 Peter 2:4For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment;
The expression in James set on fire by hell is a metaphor that speaks of the evil potential of the human tongue. It’s not teaching about hell but a warning about controlling our speech.
2 Peter seems to have access to some extra-biblical sources that teach about angels, but note that his use of ‘hell’ here is more akin to the Old Testament notion of Hades a holding place until the judgement.
I have now shown you all the NT uses of the word “hell” now that by no means is meant to end the discussion, there are numerous other texts that talk about eternal punishment, eternal darkness, gnashing of teeth a great lake of fire and so on. I’m happy myself to believe that in spite of all these references that Hell exists only as an impossible possibility.
I believe that if a human being freely chose to be eternally cut off from God that God would not stop that and that such separation whether it meant annihilation or eternal isolated conscious being would in fact be hell.
But because I believe that God is love and God is fair, I believe that God would give every human being a reasonable and fair choice.
For such a choice to be reasonable and fair, the person making the choice must be of sound mind, and fully aware of all the facts and consequences of their decision.
In those circumstances I think it is impossible that anyone would choose separation from God.
Of course I am basing my argument on the eternal goodness of God and nothing yet has persuaded me that God is less than perfectly good or that Hell is compatible with such goodness.
So finally what do I believe happens to bad people?
The same as happens to me for I too am bad. I might be saved but I’m a saved sinner and there’s work to be done on me yet.
Death
Paradise
Resurrection
Judgement
Correction restoration rehabilitation Glory.
I’m more than comfortable if any of you take issue with what I have said this morning. For me this is the good news – but I appreciate other see things differently let us be adult about it and discuss it as friends on a journey together.

A footnote:

Is there then any point in being saved?

Yes
1. You have a relationship with God in Christ now
2. You have a certain hope
3. You know the eternal forgiveness of God
4. You can start work on your faults here and now knowing that will make an eternal difference
5. You have the spirit to help you
6. The truth shall set you free to live and love as an authentic God-loved human being
7. You can be sure that all the good work you do now is for a good end.

Community Lunch

2008-10-21T18:00:00.001-07:00

We’d love to see you at our
Community Lunch
North East Valley Baptist Church Hall 12:30 Fridays
Come as you are
Bring some food to share

The first NEV Community lunch was held in the NEV Baptist church hall on Friday the 5th of September with about 20 people in attendance. Vicky and Jan introduced the NEV Community development project and gave out post cards inviting feedback on ways that NEV might be improved. Our local MP Pete Hodgson called in on our second meeting and Public Health Nurse Cathy Sampson visited us on week 3.
This gathering is for anyone who would like the opportunity to meet others in the Valley. The formula is simple: a couple of volunteers set up the tables and put on the kettle. Participants bring some food to share and we sit down together to eat and chat. We meet on Fridays at 12:30 and YOU are welcome to join us.

Strong communities are safe communitiesSharing communities are caring communities

Will the World End?

2008-10-21T17:58:00.000-07:00

Will the World End?
Some 25 year’s ago I read a small book called “When the money runs out”
It was one of those books that claimed to interpret biblical prophecy in particular clarifying the mysteries of end time predictions of the book of Revelation. As a young Christian it made a big impression on me with its talk of barcodes with the number 666 written on them, of grand conspiracy to enforce one world government, one world currency and one super computer based in Brussels (Called the Beast) that was going to control it all. I was convinced that within a short few years if not months I was going to have to have the mark of the beast, probably a barcode tattooed on the back of my hand in order to buy goods. I began to figure out how I could survive once these end times events began to unfold. The writer had done a very convincing job of lining up verse from the bible with contemporary world events. On the eve of 1984 I was convinced the world was going to end very soon.
I don’t regret reading the book nor do I regret the renewed vigour and energy of faith that it inspired. I’ve not had to have that barcode tattoo yet and in the intervening years I’ve seen dozens of similar books that make similar types of predictions again lining up current world events with bible verses. I’ve learned to be a little critical of such approaches.
I’m sure given the current financial crisis that doomsday prophets are making a killing once more.
The end of the world has been a popular concept in western cultural thought for at least 2,300 years. It’s deeply ingrained in our pop culture today; many movies have been made around the theme.
Water World imagines the melting of the ice caps and the total flooding of all land.
Armageddon and Deep Impact both Imagine the Earth being destroyed by a meteor collision.
Films like The Day After and On the Beach imagine a Nuclear Holocaust
The Matrix series envisions a world where humans are enslaved by machines.
Battle Star Galactica, Star Trek and Wal E imagine planets becoming so polluted or ravaged by war and disease that human being must take flight to find a new habitable planet.
Will the world End in some catastrophic way. Dooms day prophets discuss the possibility of nuclear war triggered by a rogue state or terrorist group, Astronomers calculate the chance of a catastrophic collision with a huge meteor and Environmentalists warn that any number of things from global warming, to resource depletion could see the end of human life.
At another level astrophysicists tells us that eventually our sun will burn out in say 4 billion years and the universe which is still expanding after the big bang, will eventually collapse back into a singularity.
It seems then that all things must eventually come to an end. Yet the thought that the sun will burn out or that the universe will be crushed to the size of a pin head hardly keeps me awake at night.
Without divine intervention the world will end eventually – but a more pertinent question is will the world end soon, in my life time or that of my grandchildren perhaps?
What would be really helpful to know is, what does God have planned.
The author of “When the money runs out” and numerous authors of that genre have decided to try and answer that question with a timetable of events leading up to an end of the world.
Throughout the centuries there have been hundreds of movements that prepared themselves for an imminent end of the world. A number of cults surfaced at the turn of the millennia just as others had done likewise a thousand years earlier. Through the 20th century groups in NZ such as the Brethren and Pentecostals churches have been strongly influenced by a rise in Christian fundamentalism that started toward the end of the nineteenth century. Dispensationalist teaching became popular and bibles were printed with footnotes that helped you trace the unfolding of biblical prophecy in the count down to the second coming of Christ.
Fear and anxiety around WW1, the Suez Crisis and the first gulf war and 9/11 made end time teaching popular and drew the punters in again.
What does the bible say about the end of the world? Well it appears that it can say whatever you want it to say so we must tread very carefully. We need to deal with some common pitfalls of interpretation and look at some general themes.
When you read stuff like the book of Revelation or even Jesus own teaching in the gospels about the end of the world it can be quite confusing.
We can be helped from utter confusion if we bear two things in mind. One is the use of literary devices such as metaphor and hyperbole in the scriptures and the other is the use of apocalyptic writing.
Let’s take hyperbole; crudely put it is exaggerating something to make a point. The doctor kindly reassures her patient; “You’ll be fine I‘ve done this millions of times” Of course that is not literally true, but it would be unkind to say the doctor was lying. The doctor is using a well rehearsed figure of speech hyperbole and we all know what the doctor means.
Jesus was a master at the use of hyperbole.
it is easier for an camel to go through the eye of needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
If your right eyes causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.
Sometimes it’s difficult to know when hyperbole is being used when should we take Jesus literally and when should we look to see what point he is trying to make through hyperbole. Take this example of Jesus talking about a great time of testing to come just before the end.
"For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be" (Matthew 24:21)
This make interesting reading in the light of similar passage from Ezekiel where he is talking about God punishment being brought to bear on the exiles in Babylon
"because of all your abominations, I will do among you what I have not done, and the like of which I will never do again." (Ezekiel 5:9).
Here we find God pronouncing a great judgment the likes of which He will never do again. Yet Jesus informs us that there would be a Great Tribulation upon Israel that would supersede theme all. They can’t both be right.
Was Ezekiel lying about what God said? Or is Jesus lying? Or do we have here a figure of speech we have not been taught to recognize?
There are over 200 types of figures of speech used in the bible and so we must guard against interpreting the bible literally if we want to get at what the writers actually intended.
Because of the way we have been taught to read the Bible, figure of speech such as hyperbole have often been misread the consequence can be significant . If we, through misinterpreting certain texts, for example, expect that God is going to end the world in our very own generation, we will behave and make different decisions than if we expect the world to go on the way as it is far beyond our lifetime. If a Christian President of the United States, for example, expects because of his understanding of the Bible, that a battle of Armageddon may occur on his watch in which certain countries or ethnic groups are to be the good guys and others are to be the bad guys, then he is likely to make political and military decisions based upon his beliefs. If you believe the world is going to end in your lifetime and you teach this to your children, this will dramatically affect how those children will prepare for the future.
Some portions of the bible are so full of figures of speech that they are almost impossible to comprehend and make no sense if taken literally. There is a whole genre of literature in the bible called apocalyptic literature that is like this. The book of Revelation, part of the synoptic gospels and much of the book of Daniel are recognisably apocalyptic. Apocalyptic literature is characterized by exaggerated predictions of or allusions to a disastrous outcome. Visions and dreams, transportation into heaven, angels, demons, Imaginary beasts and monsters, superhuman beings, symbols and special numbers are part of the stock and trade of the apocalyptic writer. This form of literature first found a place in Israel when Antiochus the fourth king of Syria invaded Israel inflicted barbaric cruelty and desecrated the temple of Jerusalem by sacrificing a pig on the Altar. The people of Israel were so distressed by the evil that they were enduring that they sought for a way to describe how such evil could happen to God own people. Was God still in charge when the righteous faced such tribulation? The Jews drew on some of the stories that they had heard while in captivity, stories of a great conflict in the heavenly world between the two sons of God the one completely good the other entirely evil. The Jews modified the stories and told them in their own way. The best modern comparison is fantasy literature, such as CS Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles, Or Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings or J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter. All stories of Good and Evil in a great battle. Stories with fictional characters. Stories which are certainly fantasy but also profoundly true in the message that they portray.
Apocalyptic literature is not the same as prophesy. It’s much, much more. It tells of great general truths – this sort of stuff happens under these sorts of circumstances. It is warning rather than prediction. Compare it with Jonah’s message to the great city of Nineveh. “God’s gonna wipe you guys out in 40 days” Actually God didn’t, much to Jonah’s disappointment. Threatened with destruction, threatened with an apocalyptic end to their world the people of Nineveh changed their ways and did as God required.
So the threat of the immanent end of the world remains, but its threat rather than a promise, a warning rather than a prediction, a possibility rather than a certainty.
We could destroy the world humanity has that potential
God could destroy the world God is capable.
Neither need happen however, at least not immanently if we change our ways heed the warnings and live God’s way, taking care of one another and the planet.
I want to make one further point about the end of the world and it is this. The end of the world has begun. The end of the world began with the death and resurrection of Jesus. The great expectation of many people in Jesus time and since has been that the world will end at some catastrophic moment in history. And that after the end the kingdom of God will come and a new heaven and a new earth will be formed.
However Jesus said the kingdom is among you. We pray for God’s kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. We have the first-fruits of the kingdom now. Eternal life has begun now. We have been moved from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light.
How then do we deal with those passage that talk of the Heavens and the earth being destroyed before the new heavens and the earth being formed. In the same way that yoiu talk about your new life in Christ!
The Bible says “you have been crucified with Christ”, “the old man has gone”, “the old nature has been put to death”, behold the old has gone and all things are made new”
These statements are figures of speech that evoke a profound reality but cannot be taken literally. As Christian people we have begun a new life in Christ a life in which the old ways are being transformed, our future is so assured that we can be certain that one day we will be as Christ in our perfection and completeness. The bible writers were so certain about our future state that they talked about in the present tense even the past tense. It’s a figure of speech. It’s like a medical student saying I’m a doctor. Or an apprentice saying I am a plumber.
The same phraseology that the New Testament writer use to describe our transformation and future goal they also use to describe the transformation and future goal of the heavens an the earth. I am creating a new heavens and a new earth, the former things shall be no more.
Will the world end?
Will it end in my life time?
I think the biblical answer is Maybe but don’t count on it!
Live as though each day could be your last but work as though your efforts are vital to the preservation and improvement of the world for generations to come.

What happens when I die?

2008-10-21T17:56:00.000-07:00

“Heaven is important but it’s not the end of the world”

Romans 8:9-11, 18-25, Luke 23:29-43

Tom Wright is the Anglican Bishop of Durham, Northern England. He is one of the world’s leading New Testament Scholars and firmly of the evangelical tradition. He recently wrote a new study entitled “Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church” Tom has got me thinking about heaven, about the end of the world about what happens when we die. One of his main motivations in writing this book is to show as the title suggests that our theology of hope about things to come, strongly influences the way we express hope in the here and now.
I soon realised that my thinking around these areas had been a little woolly; maybe because in this modern scientific age we are reluctant to enter into discussion on areas that are beyond our ability to prove. I also began to realise that a lot of the populist versions of the afterlife were not really Christian or biblical at all.
In this series I want to encourage you to think biblically and christianly about heaven and hell, about what happens when we die, about the end of the world.
So over the next three weeks we’ll look at three questions
1. What happens when I die?
2. Will the world end?
3. What happens to bad people?
Following a quote from his book I’ve entitled this series
“Heaven is important but it’s not the end of the world”
Our gospel lesson for today is one that is often read during the season of Easter.
You will know the story two felons are crucified either side if Jesus.
One curses Jesus the other defends Jesus and then asks Jesus to remember him when he comes into his kingdom.
Jesus replies, “Today you will be with me in paradise”
A common mistake made interpreting this passage is to see paradise as the thief’s final destination. Some place that you go to be with Jesus in eternal bliss.
However paradise is not to be understood that way at all rather paradise is a resting place that one enters before the final resurrection. It is similar to the Hebrew concept of Sheol or Hades or the grave or the pit, an in-between place where the dead await the final judgement. The difference with paradise at least conceptually is that Jesus is there – it is not the cold storage depot that Hades is portrayed as.
The words in Jesus reply are crucial. He says TODAY you will be with me in paradise.
This is Friday that is being referred to - the day of death. Jesus isn’t talking about Sunday; he is not talking about the resurrection to come. He doesn’t say soon you will be with me in paradise. Today you will be with me in paradise.
As Jesus enters this state called death this in between state he conquers death. Just as an invading king conquers a new territory so Jesus conquers death and claims it for his own. Death is no longer the domain of the evil one, death belongs to Jesus, he inhabits the land of death just as he inhabits all things. Hades becomes paradise, because Jesus has been there and conquered it. We should no longer fear death because we will be with Jesus in death. There is life after death in paradise a life with Jesus but this is not yet the end.
The thief on the cross, experiences the salvific presence of Christ, the kingdom of God even as he dies his tortuous death. Jesus is with him, God is with him and because Jesus dies and conquers death the thief enters into death with Jesus.
In John’s gospel we find a text that is a favourite at funeral services. “In my father’s house are many dwelling places, I go and prepare a place for you”
The place referred to is clearly paradise.
the word for "dwelling places" here, monai, is regularly used in ancient Greek not for a final resting place, but for a temporary halt on a journey that will take you somewhere else in the long run.

The dwelling places of John’s gospel and the paradise of Luke’s gospel. Speak of an interim state a place where Jesus is, a blissful, peaceful place a resting stop along the way but not our final destination. We are talking about the Good Friday Place, the place where death has been conquered – but Easter Sunday signifies something entirely different.

Good Friday is life after death, Easter Sunday is life after life after death. Easter is resurrection day and on that day a whole new reality is entered into.

Jesus as the first to rise from the dead prepares the way for the general resurrection of all people. Resurrection is a way of talking about a new bodily life that we enter into sometime after death, sometime after being in the waiting place of paradise, or of those dwelling places in “my Father’s house.”

Tom Wright refers to a 2 stage post-mortem experience. The first stage being paradise the second stage being bodily resurrection. There is confusion when these two ideas are morphed. Both ideas are clearly written about in the New Testament and should not be confused.

The second stage of our after death experience is bodily resurrection.

In the gospels Jesus is clearly shown to have a physical body before his death and after his resurrection. The resurrected Jesus walks and talks, he breathes, he tends a fire, he eats fish and bread with his friends, he invites Thomas to touch him. Jesus resurrection body is like his former body in that he is clearly identified as a human being not a ghost. He looks like a normal human being, he walks beside the disciples as they head for Emmaus and they don’t freak out he appears quite normal. However Jesus resurrection body is somewhat different. The same disciples on the road o Emmaus are kept form recognising Jesus –so perhaps he looked different. Jesus was able to suddenly appear inside a looked upstairs room that is something I haven’t managed with my body.

Paul explains the difference between the natural pre-resurrection body with the spiritual post-resurrection body. He draws an analogy between a seed planted and the plant it produces. A good gardener will recognise a plant from its seed and vice versa. So with us our natural body will be continuous with yet different to our spiritual body. In his conclusion he points to the differences.

42So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.

You may ask, Why is this important? Surely what happens after we die is neither here nor there. We just need to have faith that God is loving and that God will take care of it all.
Naturally that is the basis of all we believe. God is love and God will take care of all things.
Yet theology while not able to get to the heart of the mystery is able to keep us from moving in the wrong direction. Theology might not be able to tell you exactly what life after life after death is like but it can help us avoid error.
A popular misconception of Christian eschatology is the view that when we die we cease to be physical embodied beings and are for evermore disembodied spirits. This may be the case in paradise, in the waiting place between Good Friday and Easter Sunday but it is not our eternal destiny. We are destined for resurrection to have spiritual bodies, that is, bodies that are spiritual, spirits that are embodied. Human being is now and evermore shall be a body and spirit welded together one unitary being.
Over the centuries Greek thought has contaminated Christian thought. One such idea is that humans are essentially spirits that are trapped inside bodies and that our ultimate goal is to be released from our bodies.
Related to this is the idea that bodies are evil, that the material world is evil and in the end counts for nothing. True salvation in this model is escape from our bodies, escape from this world, escape from earth to heaven. As much as that sounds to some ears the Christian message it has more in common with Buddhism than the message that Jesus and the apostles taught.
Our hope is not to escape earth and find heaven. Our hope is a new or renewed heavens and earth.
Our hope is not escape from our bodies, but renewal and resurrection of our bodies, recreation of our bodies, transformation of our bodies.
The world God created is very good. It has its faults and imperfections. It bears the burden of sin. But the good creation is waiting in hope. The hope of creation is the same hope we share Romans 8
18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.
Paul is very clear that our future hope and in fact the hope of the whole of creation is not in some netherworld – but in the liberation from the bondage of decay – our hope is in a renewed creation and in the resurrection of our bodies. We will be embodied people living in a renewed physical universe.
(And as I contemplate that hope it fuels my imagination much more than sitting on clouds and playing harps)
Because of the continuity between our present experience and our experience beyond death the things of this world take on much more importance. A recent letter in the Baptist typified a view that was once argued in the senate of the US, “This world is going to be destroyed so why bother looking after it”.
This world has an ongoing place in God’s economy and we are charged to look after it.
Let me take you on a bit of a speculative digression but worth thinking about nonetheless. Imagine that on resurrection day you arose with the same body as just prior to your death. You also arose with the same feelings, thoughts, attitudes, resentments, distortions and so on. Just like Jesus you arise with scars. The key difference between your pre-resurrection state and you new post-resurrection being is that you are now in a perfect environment, the “bondage to decay” has been removed. Your new improved body has the ability to regenerate itself, you now have the motivation to lose that excess weight, you now experience the love of God completely and fully and you have renewed spiritual strength to let go of old hurts, and completely bury old habits and attitudes.
I see nothing in scripture that would negate this possibility and I encourage you to contemplate it. It might not be how things work out but this scenario if we held it to be true I think would help us get our attitudes right in this life. If we see our existence beyond the grave as continuous with this one - as Scripture clearly teaches, then everything we do in this life impinges on the next.
If you have any doubt about the two stages in the grave and beyond the grave, paradise and resurrection or if you have any doubt about bodily resurrection then hear the words of Jesus.
It is quite explicit: "The hour is coming," he says, "indeed, it is already here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of Man, and those who hear will live; when all in the graves will come out, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment."

From the Heart October

2008-10-21T17:53:00.000-07:00

A WARM WELCOMING LIGHT
As I write this newsletter I’m looking out of my window at another exceptional spring day. Yesterday the temperature hit a balmy 25 degrees. As I walked round the neighbourhood I saw lots of people opening up their houses to the elements letting the warm air and sunshine do its stuff of warming and drying. I saw mats and carpets and mattresses out on decks benefiting from the penetrating rays of sunshine. It made me think of the way sunlight disinfects and the way that bringing things out into the light is usually the best way to get to the truth, to disinfect and to bring healing.

With the exception perhaps of mushrooms, not much healthy grows in the dark. Black mould grows behind the dresser in the damp unventilated bedroom and its deadly spores contaminate the air bringing on asthma and respiratory complaints. In a similar way even more potent disease festers away in the dark, resentment, lies, abuse, shame and guilt (to name a few). Jesus has been called the light of the world for a good reason. It is a wonderful thing to walk out of one’s own personal darkness into the warm brilliant light of God and discover that the light which exposes is also the light which cleanses, heals and makes whole.

At NEV Baptist we are not perfect but we have experienced a perfect love; a warm welcoming light. On these glorious spring days I’m reminded again of God’s great goodness in shining the light of love upon us.

Decision 08: Meet the Candidates

What issues are really important to you and your family? Which political party has the best policies and people to give a lead to our country, especially in light of the many international crises that are affecting us? We are faced with an historic international financial crisis, a potentially catastrophic environmental crisis, a crisis in terms of energy and the ever present threat of international conflict over natural resources and religious difference. Who leads our country does make a difference and your vote counts. Come along and meet the candidates, be informed and vote for your future. The Forum will be held on Saturday 18th October, 7pm at NEV Baptist Church. There will be the opportunity to ask candidates questions. Refreshments provided - no charge.

SUSTAINABLE LIVING CLASSES IN NORTH EAST VALLEY
This interactive eight-week course will assist you to
1. Learn and share practical tips that make a difference and can save you money
2. Meet others in your community who are interested in living more sustainably
3. Gain support for introducing lifestyle changes you want to make
Facilitated by Dr Maureen Howard,
c/o Water and Waste Services, Dunedin City Council.
NEV - Evening Course (8 Weeks)
Start Date: Tuesday 14 October
Each Tuesday: 7-9pm
NEV - Daytime Course (8 Weeks)
Start Date: Wed 15 October
Each Wednesday: 10am-noon

Venue: Both at NEV Baptist Church Hall, 270 North Road
ENROLMENT AND COSTS
All courses are free but a Koha/Donation is requested ($25-35 recommended)
Courses are restricted to a maximum of 14 people REGISTRATION IS ESSENTIAL
Registration or enquiries to Maureen, Phone 4739967, Email mhoward@slingshot.co.nz
The Sustainable Living Programme is brought to you locally by the Dunedin City Council

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect
- Aldo Leopold U.S. Ecologist

Touch the earth lightly, use the earth gently,
nourish the life of the world in our care:
gift of great wonder, ours to surrender,
trust for the children tomorrow will bear.

Shirley Murray NZ Hymn Writer

From the Heart August 2008

2008-09-22T20:24:00.000-07:00

A Spiritual Heart for the Community
Valley Baptist is an open spiritual community at the heart of the North East Valley Community

“It looks more like a lounge and feels more like a family”
“I really like the grapevine time where we share news and someone prays for us”
The refreshments after the service are just as important as the sermon
(don’t tell Steve that)”
“I like the fact that the messages are accessible yet intellectually stimulating”
“The worship is relaxed yet engaging and connects with the real world”
“We are a community church”

These are among the comments heard at NEV Baptist or ValleyBaptist as we like to be called. We are a little church with a big heart and big vision. We are a spiritual community that serves the wider community with heart and integrity. If you want to be part of a vibrant spiritual community check us out. We welcome visitors – do drop in and make yourself at home.

Eating Together Builds Community Strength
A new initiative
There are lots of great people in this community and lots of good things happening. A gathering to share lunch is set to bring members of the community together to talk, share ideas, develop awareness of community issues and facilitate networks.
For some it will be as simple as sharing sandwiches and a cup of tea with friends. For others the benefits may include dreaming together about how North East Valley may be enhanced and how residents’ lives may be improved.
The lunch will be by the community for the community. All are welcome to be a part of this community building initiative.

You’re invited to be part of a
Weekly Community Lunch
North East Valley Church Hall 12:30 Fridays
Starting September 5th
This is a to be a shared meal,
bring some food to share
Prepare to share something of yourself as you meet and get to know your neighbours
This will be a highly informal gathering with no agenda other than enabling people to meet and get to know each other; - what comes of that is up to those who attend, the possibilities are before us.
Strong communities are safe communitiesSharing communities are caring communities

Decision 08

Sometime soon the country will go to the polls for a general election. ValleyBaptist Church Hall will be one of the polling stations this time around as the Presbyterian Church hall is no longer available. And sometime during the election campaign we will host a meet the candidates evening and invite the public to attend. So keep your eye out for further information on this. It pays to be informed and we want to encourage the community of NEV to play their part in the democratic process. So meet your candidates, hear what they stand for and vote accordingly.

A word from the wise.
The ancient psalmists once wrote; “Above all else guard your heart for it is the well-spring of life.” We believe that a wholesome heart, nurtured with worship, encouraged in good company, stimulated with relevant spiritual teaching is essential to experiencing and living life to the full. This is how we help each other to guard our hearts and so become together a heart for the community.

VALLEY BAPTIST
A church for the community

Our Vision
We are a diverse people of Jesus Christ
Who celebrate life given
Support one another on the journey of faith and
Respond in care to community need

Our Staff
Pastor: Rev Steven O'Connor
Admin Pastor: Sandra Copeland
OSCAR Supervisor: Janette Anderson

Contact Information. If you’d like to find out more about ValleyBaptist, or anything else in our newsletter, in the first place phone the church office 473 9413.You could also check out our website www.valleybaptist.org.nz

Community Ministries Restructuring

2008-09-22T20:22:00.000-07:00

The New Testament identifies five key reasons for the existence of the church. These are: worship of God, proclamation of the gospel, education of the faithful, strengthening of fellowship and service to the world. All other activities are peripheral or are subservient to these main tasks.

Currently we are taking a careful look at the last of these. We are a community church our vision statement has a clause that reads "we ... respond in care to community need" Our church constitution and rules set up a team structure wherein one team takes a lead in community ministries. Known as team 3 it was intended that this team give oversight to all of our community ministries. As various people have migrated north over the last few years our team structure has withered somewhat. I am now keen that team 3 be raised from the dead and reinvigorated to give new life and a good lead to our community ministries. Community ministries is a vital part of our work one which gets us out into the community caring for people as Jesus would.

Our community ministries include The Naphtali Day Care Centre, OSCAR, Play group and our community lunch. We need volunteers in each of these ministries to ensure their success. Chiefly we need people who can help with liaison and governance. Although more practical assistance especially with community lunch as that gets established is also needed. There are other ways that we can respond in care to community need and to ensure that the church is doing its best in this area I'd like to see team 3 reformed and I encourage you to think prayerfully about your ability to commit to this team. A minimum commitment would be 4 meetings per year but their are a variety of ways that people could serve. So please pray about it and don't hesitate to have a chat to me about ways that you could be involved. Steve

Counting the Cost

2008-09-22T20:11:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken at last year’s cardboard cup; where adventurous boat builders attempted to sail there cardboard craft across a Anderson’s Bay. Finishing the race was quite an achievement for some. Sinking was part of the fun but the real challenge was to build a sea worthy boat that could finish the race and win the prize.
Before you launch your waka you want to be sure that it is sea worthy.
You want to make sure that is able to get you to your destination safely
You want to know that it will do the job that it was designed for.
Before embarking on any trip out into the briny blue you need to do your homework – for not only will the success of the venture depend upon good preparation but so may your very life and the lives of those who sail with you.
Jesus tells some stories about “doing your homework” of being sure you are as prepared as possible for what lies ahead.
He is addressing those who would be his followers who were hoisting their sails to the winds of the spirit and setting a course for the Kingdom of God.
Make sure you know what you are getting yourself into says Jesus there will be rough sailing ahead it’s not for the feint hearted. Count the cost before you leave the coast.
Of course Jesus metaphors were not marine they were more land based he speaks of building a tower and setting out for a battle.
Before you build a tower say Jesus make sure you have the resources to finish the job.
I wish some of our finance companies and property developers would heed Jesus practical advice. Before you embark on spending millions of dollars of other people’s money speculate on some uncertain future and the hope that property prices will continue to spiral upward – count the cost. Count the cost of leaving investors in the lurch, count the cost of broken promises, ruined reputations and dashed hopes. In our complex world of international market forces it is even more important for financiers to count the cost most carefully.
Jesus makes it personal in the message it is rendered.
"Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn't first sit down and figure the cost so you'll know if you can complete it? If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you're going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: 'He started something he couldn't finish.'
Some people seem to spend a good deal of their life and energy on changing course. They start one project on a whim and abandon as soon as it get too difficult or a more attractive option comes along. People do that in seemingly insignificant ventures such as sports and hobbies and more consequential activities such as where they live and who they live with. More to Jesus point people respond to God’s call to faithful discipleship with initial enthusiasm but give up when slighted by their fellow traveller or get bored or drawn to something else exciting and new.
While change of direction is at times necessary and can be for the good; chopping and changing, partners or houses or careers or faith commitments can be very destructive and at the least a great waste of energy and very poor stewardship of the one life we have been given.
Taking stock once in a while at corporate level and at a personal level can have lasting benefits. I’d suggest you need to take time out at least once a year to plan for your future. Be proactive with your life rather than being reactive and buffeted about by the storms.
In particular take stock of your faith your values and your commitments. Check to see if that which you say you believe with your mouth is backed up with what you think in your head, what you feel in your heart, and how you live with your hands.
The word integrity describes the situation when all parts of a system, be that a machine a corporate body or a person, are integrated where each part fits together smoothly to make a healthy functioning whole. Take stock once a year. Give yourself an integrity check.
Are you words your thoughts, your feelings and your actions in line?
If they’re not make plans to put them in line.
Make adjustments where you see a lack of integration a lack of integrity.
The second image Jesus uses tells a parallel story of the need to do your homework and be prepared.
Can you imagine a king going into battle against another king without first deciding whether it is possible with his ten thousand troops to face the twenty thousand troops of the other? And if he decides he can't, won't he send an emissary and work out a truce?
The stakes are higher in this scenario. If the king fails it’s not just a matter of people laughing at an unfinished tower – it’s the life and death of 10,000 soldiers. It’s the future of his kingdom and the lives of all whom look to him for leadership and protection.
How we live our life may seem inconsequential to us. How committed we are to God, to church, to the Kingdom of God, may seem like a mere personal choice. Yet all of our choices have far reaching consequences.
For example I’ve been reading the recently published biography of Arnold Nordmeyer. The Presbyterian minister of Kurow who in response to the poor housing and medical conditions of the workers on the Waitaki dam projects got together with his local doctor and devised a health scheme not only for those workers but for everyone in the country. He went on to be an MP in the first Labour government, the minister of health, the minister of finance and the leader of the Labour party, he pioneered, designed and fought all his life to create the social welfare system that we take for granted today. He paid a great price, in the early days MP were paid a pittance, they spent long periods of time away from home.
Nordmeyer might have decided to remain a Presbyterian minister. He might have thought that his choice of vocation was really just a personal choice without wide reaching consequence. I’m fairly sure that if Nordmeyer had remained a clergyman that NZ would be a vastly different and significantly poorer country today. He was a man for his time who was prepared to count the cost and stick steadfastly to his chosen course believing that is was proper and right for him to do so. And while the likes of Fraser and Nash spent months at a time overseas Nordy was very reluctant to leave NZ because he had a job to do here. And thank God he did it.
The choices you make have consequences not only for yourself but for many others whom you influence knowingly and unwittingly. If you spend your life flitting about from one inconsequential project to another without ever knuckling down to see something through you may be depriving others of your God-given skills, and talents.
So take stock of your own life, count the cost and make plans to make a difference.
The kingdom of God which is expressed in a variety of ways as people demonstrate their love for God and neighbour is a project of eternal significance.
Jesus says count the cost though and be sure you know what you are letting yourself in for.
There will be a cost for your familial relationships – you might not get to spend all the time you would like with your family. There will be a price for your own ambition, you may not get that promotion you deserve or be able to afford that new house. And in extreme cases you may have to quite literally lay down your life for the cause.
We’ve been taking stock as a church, looking at where we’ve come from, what challenges we face, what strengths and resource we have and we’ve been thinking about where we’d like to head.
A number of insights are emerging, but one that is coming through strongly is our desire to as in the words of our vision statement “respond in care to community need”.
We want to give priority and strength to our community ministries. That is the way we show signs of the kingdom of God to those we live among and we want to do that as well as we can. We believe that the decisions we make in this regard have great consequences, we believe that in touching people’s lives through our community ministries we are touching them on behalf of God and building God’s kingdom among us.
So as we count the cost corporately and as we look to reach out to others through our OSCAR programme, through Naphtali, though the community lunch, through our play groups and whatever new initiates the spirit leads us into would you consider helping us to respond in care to community need? Would you consider being part of our community ministry team? There are many ways you could be involved, from administrative tasks, to helping tasks, transport perhaps, cleaning, joining in the programmes, meeting befriending and supporting or ‘clients’ helping to dream up new ways to care for the community.
As you consider your involvement and count the cost let’s return to Jesus first question. Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn't first sit down and figure the cost so you'll know if you can complete it?
When it comes to the kingdom of God, its establishment on earth and its completion when Jesus returns. You can be sure that one person has counted the cost fully and is 100% confident that he/she can see the work through to completion. God has counted the cost of the kingdom, God has paid the price and God will see it through with his/her infinite resources.
When you are seeking to plan for you future and when you are looking to see how you can best be deployed to serve in the kingdom. Be sure that God has counted the cost. Be sure that if you do your homework and if you set your face determinedly to the tasks that God calls you that your senior partner will not let you down, Your efforts will bear fruit.
As Paul wrote to the Philippians I am

“confident of this, that he/she who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Waters of Change

2008-09-13T14:36:00.001-07:00

There is no doubt that we live in a rapidly changing world.
To survive in this world, to keep your head above the water you have to be adaptable and to thrive you need considerable skill in order to ride the waves of change.
Right now a number of plant and animal species on our planet are in danger of extinction because they cannot adapt fast enough to global climate change.
As a church community we are faced with the same challenge to adapt or become increasingly irrelevant and eventually die out. So once in a while we need to take stock of where we are, where we have come from, what is important to us what challenge we face and we need to ask afresh Where do we want to go?
A boat is a good image for picturing our journey together, for a boat is a vessel that is designed to move people through changing conditions. What can scripture teach us about adapting to changing conditions?
I was attracted to today’s gospel passage ( Mt 13) for this verse
Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old
Matthew was leading his community through a time of significant change. Many of the disciples in Matthews church were Jews who continued to follow Old Testament law and Jewish customary practice. At the same time a growing number of new converts to Christianity were never Jews and did not want to eat Kosher food or have their sons circumcised. For Matthews community to survive in fact for the church as a whole to survive it had to adapt to this significant change as non-Jews converted and challenged the old ways.
This saying of Jesus has special significance for times of change.
Matthew was able to tell his community that some of the Old stuff was real treasure yet the new stuff the teaching of Jesus about the kingdom of heaven was treasure also. If you have both you are doubly rich.
When we look at our past and see where we have come from we will see some old things that are treasures some things that are highly valuable and that will add much to our journey forward.
We listed things like our evangelic heritage a strong tradition that fundamentally is about believing that God can be encountered today in our world and that God changes people for the better through such encounters.
We listed our Baptist heritage and there is a whole host of values associated with that in which we continue to find strength today; such as our independent governance, our free worship, our association with a family of churches.
There is some relatively new stuff in our treasure bag as well.
A good deal of the new treasure has come from new people who have brought with them new ideas, new experiences of God, different cultural experiences, different denominational backgrounds, different gifts and talents. We have become more and more a diverse people of Jesus Christ and we’ve learned not only tolerance of difference, but appreciation and celebration of difference.
In some ways we are like Matthews community who were at first a Jewish/Christian sect with a very narrow understanding of God and of Jesus. As new people joined their community they brought many treasures with them and forced the community to broaden its outlook, to embrace a more inclusive theology, to honour a wider range of Christian experience and expression.
In the light of the new treasure some of the old so called treasure turned out to be a little rusty a little less valuable than first imagined in fact as we have listed on our charts some of the old stuff turns out to be old baggage that is best left behind.
Old prejudices and presumptions are exposed by the new treasures. Outdated practices which serve little meaningful purpose are seen for what they are relics of the past.
So worn out leadership structures are replaced with models that better suit today’s needs. Old pews are converted into tables and comfy chairs are brought to create flexible worship space. The high wooden pulpit is dispensed with and so on. Sombre, formal patriarchal communion service lead by men in dark suits is superseded by a more relaxed an informal celebration.
So friends we are on a boat we are on a journey we are undergoing constant change, but we don’t jettison everything that is old instead through a process of discernment we look at the treasurer in our bag and we decide which of the old and which of the new will serve us best as we make for new shores.
As I said I choose today gospel lesson because of the verse about old and new treasure. But we should really see this verse in its context. The immediate context is the 3 parables told by Jesus to his disciples ( the crowds have been dismissed earlier).
The first two parables in this series refer to people discovering the kingdom of heaven. One is a man who discovers the kingdom quite by accident and is overjoyed. The second story is of a person who has been seeking after such a treasure for a long time and upon discovering it is also overjoyed. Both sell all that they have in order to gain the treasure which is the kingdom of heaven.
These short stories remind us that at its core our church community is about the kingdom of heaven, a priceless treasure that brings great joy to all who discover it and will cause many to give everything that have to its cause. Some people today are actively seeking God, through prayer, mediation, bible study, service, reading, questioning, and conversing. We can support and encourage these activities and pray that through our influence many will find God. Other people are just trying their best to survive, dealing with ordinary demands of life and yet out of the blue they encounter God in unexpected ways. Sometime people discover God in a moment of agony or ecstasy a sudden traumatic death, or the birth of a child. We want to be there to help people through the ordinary and the extraordinary and nurture any faith that appears.
The story of the fishing net is appropriate for our image of the church as a boat. A number of groups drew fishing boats and referred to the role of the church as fishers of people.
This parable is referred to as the parable of the dragnet and there are some points about this story that I want to emphasise.
Now a dragnet is one that it used near the shore and as the name suggests it is operated by being dragged through the water. It is weighted below and has floats on the top line. Two people walk through the water dragging the net and catching everything in their path.
The point is – You have to get out of the boat to go fishing. You have to get into the water where the fish are. You have to get wet and cold and take the risk of slipping over. That’s the way you catch fish with a dragnet.
I will make you fishers of people said Jesus and we all want more people in our boat but none of particularly like getting out into the water and dragging the net.
This has got to be one of the biggest challenges of our church. How do we fish for people? How do we bring people into our boat? How do we do it with integrity and respect?
Well it’s rather obvious that you have to get your feet wet. It’s no use standing in the boat and calling to the fish. Not much point in dressing your boat up to make it more attractive for fish. You have to get out there where the fish are if you want to catch some.
Another salutary point about the dragnet is that it is indiscriminate it catches all sorts of fish, the edible and the inedible. The fish need to be sorted before going to the market.
But in Jesus story the sorting is done at the end of time by the angels.
People come to church for all sorts of reasons, some just because they want a nice place to get married, some to meet new friends, some to find a quiet space and a rhythm in their life, some to please their parents or their partner. The point is we are not judge we are not to bring our prejudices to bear. Good fish and bad fish will live side by side. The church community will be a mixed community, never totally pure and holy but always loved and forgiven.
Matthew records other parables with a similar message. The parable of the wheat and the tares, the parable of the sheep and goats both come to mind. These parables remind us that in this world good and bad live side by side, and the separation of good and evil will only ultimately be achieved beyond the grave.
The division of Good and bad is never a simple thing for the dividing line is never between people or institutions but right up the middle of each. I am part good fish and part bad fish, you are part sheep and part goat, we’re all part wheat and part weed and the complete removal of evil motives and intentions and thoughts and behaviours in any of us is beyond our ability to achieve.
All human institutions are likewise a mix of good and evil. Governments are never purely good or purely evil but contain a mix of both. There is no such thing as a perfect church we are flawed people and we create flawed communities.
Yet flawed communities can be communities of grace, communities of love and hope and acceptance and forgiveness and this is who strive to be.
In this world of change, where tsunamis reek havoc and tides erode familiar coastlines and where waves buffet and bang us about, where the water seems dangerous at times we want to be a people who are unafraid to get our feet wet because we are people of hope.
Our hope summons us to engage in the world around us to share our hope with the people we meet.
Here is my hope here is how I see us sailing ahead with God.
We will be non-judgemental inviting all and welcoming all who want to join us.
We will celebrate with joy the life and hope we have found so that others have a cause to celebrate as well.
We will work together all hands on deck, each to their station that our boat may go where it is needed and respond in care to community need.
We will make space for the seeker and give opportunities for the accidental discover of God.
And we will sail into uncharted waters blown along by wind of the spirit.
We will continue to evolve and grow as we explore the dimensions of the kingdom of heaven before us. We will remain open to change, we will count the cost and give our all we will look for new ways to reach out as a church to people beyond our walls.

God's Image in our community

2008-09-13T14:34:00.000-07:00

Human beings are undeniable social creatures, with the exception of a few recluses we do not live alone and we seek out the company of others.
Is this something that has evolved in us as a matter of survival or is something more basic more essential to our very nature?
One of the central spiritual quests of all religions is to understand the nature of human being.
We seek to answer the existential question who am I?Why am I here?What is the purpose of my existence?
One of the most important ideas in the history of religion for understanding who we are as human beings is the biblical phrase “Image of God” we are created in the image of God so the writer of Genesis declares and other biblical writers affirm.
There have been a number of explanations as to what image of God means there is merit in most of the explanations but the one that I think is most helpful and most useful to us today is the one that sees the image of God as a relational term. It reflects the notion that we are social beings who find fulfilment and salvation in relationship.
God is a relational being a perfect community of three in one. Human beings were created to reflect that aspect of God. Our human potential is realised when we are in healthy relationships with God, our neighbour and the created world around about us.
The creation stories of Genesis 1 and 2 make the strong link between the plurality of God and the social nature of human being. Let us make Adam in our image, let us make them male and female. Human beings find completeness in relationship with one another and with God. The link is also clearly made with our relationship to the created order. In Genesis 1 we are to have dominion over the land, in Genesis 2 we are to tend and care for it. God who cares for us and cares for the created ordered made us to do the same and when we do so we reflect the divine image and we find fulfilment and salvation.
I love watching the Olympic Games. It is always inspiring to watch people achieve their very best at a particular endeavour. Here we see one aspect of human potential being achieved and I draw you attention to it for illustrates a point that I think is so important for us to grasp and realise the theological significance of. Human potential is almost always achieved in relationship. What I mean by this is more than just it takes a whole team to win a gold medal. I mean the motivation to achieve is social, the emotion expressed at success or failure is an expression of relationality, the pride we feel at watching a New Zealand athlete giving their all is an aspect of our social being, the way we identify with the raw effort, the share magnificence and beauty of achievement is all part of what it means for us to be social beings created in the image of God we are made to relate and everything we do bare on that essential element of our nature.
Let’s look at some special Olympic moments and consider the way they demonstrate our social being. I’m going to shoe you five athletes who had special performances at the games and achieved remarkably. In each of the situations pictures I want you to imagine something that might be a little difficult I want you to imagine that the athlete was a total recluse who achieved the same goal but did it in their own private arena. Their own pool or their own lake or their own sports stadium. Imagine that they did it all for their own satisfaction, no one ever witnessed them in training, no one ever saw them throw or lift, or run or swim or row. They did it all by themselves and completely for their own benefit. I said it would be hard to imagine perhaps ridiculous to comprehend, but I think it makes clear what I mean when I say we are social being and all we do is motivated by our social nature all our best achievements are expression of our social being.
Valerie Villi A truly charming and beautiful young woman with an extraordinary talent. Great physical strength, great determination and mental strength and a winsome personality. What did she do when she won the Gold medal? She immediately looked for her coach and fellow team members to celebrate with. She recognised that they were as much a part of her win as she was. She was connected to them in deep ways and that connection brought out her best.
German Olympic weightlifter Matthias Steiner was ecstatic after he won gold in Beijing, saying he wanted to take the title for his late wife Susann. During the winner’s ceremony, a teary-eyed Steiner took his wife’s photo out of his pocket and kissed it while standing on the podium. He held on to the picture of Susann, who died in a car accident last year, throughout the ceremony.
A strong bond that not even death can break was this man’s winning edge.
Michael Phelps’s 8 gold medal haul is unlikely to be equaled or bettered ever. But Phelps swims not as a man on his own he is part of a great swim team, he is a proud American, he has a suppotiuve family and he has battled with ADHD and is a celebrity to the ADHD community.
To most of the ADHD community, Michael Phelps’s phenomenal swimming at the Bejing Summer Olympics is a beacon of hope and inspiration “after we watch Michael Phelps, his fierce determination and single-minded focus, it is clear that even the name Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder falls short in describing just what ADHD is. Clearly Michael Phelps has no shortage of attention!”
Mahe Drysdale is a determined and gutsy athlete, his effort in the final medal race was inspirational. But he is not in that boat by himself. His parents are there with him, his partner is there with him, the whole NZ rowing fraternity is there with him, his sponsors are there the NZ public is there, a billion television viewers are there ( and it’s just a small boat). Take away all of those social networks and not only would Mahe’s efforts be meaningless, but he would not have started the race let alone finish it
Hussein Bolt the fastest man alive ever. A superb athlete who seems to make winning against the elite in sport look like a Sunday stroll. Not the most modest of athletes a very spirited young man whose gestures have upset some IOC committee members. But when you understand where Hussein has come from you can see why he is so elated at his success. The small and impoverished nation of Jamaica runs the race with Hussein, their exuberant cheering and parting on the streets of Kingston evidence of the pride they feel, the connection they feel at seeing one of their own, bone of their bone flesh of their flesh reaching his potential on the world stage.

These terrific feats of athleticism illustrate what it means to be made in the image of God. We can all achieve wonderful things by working together in community. Good community will bring out the best in every person that is a part of it.
The best possible community is the one with God at its centre and where God’s people are in good relationship with God and are in good relationships with their neighbour and are caring for the world around and about. In these circumstance human potential is realised, people achieve what they are designed to achieve, life is lived to the full.
I want tom come at this Image of God idea from another angle and as you will see end up in a similar place. In the ancient world it was common for a tribe or nation of people to be ruled by a King who live in a faraway place. To remind the people who their ruler was the king would often have his likeness carved and displayed in a public place.
Here is another image from Beijing. Mao Tze Tung the Chinese communist leader and Tyrant. During his reign his image was displayed in millions of public places thought China. Mao’s image was a constant reminder to the people of their identity and role in the People republic of China. In many ways Mao’s image was revered it was for many Chinese people the image of their god. The one who lead the people, who showed the way who embodied the spirit and championed the cause of a socialist republic.
The ancient writers of the biblical text had this concept before them when they declared that we are made in the image of God and more significantly Paul had this in mind when he declared that Jesus is the image of the invisible God.
Jesus the Son of God left the perfect community of the Holy Trinity when he became incarnate of the Virgin Mary. Jesus relationships with the Father and the Spirit were perfect, therefore he can represent them perfectly. There is no disharmony between what we see in Jesus the visible son of God and what we know by faith about God the Father and God the Spirit. Jesus is the image of the invisible God because he is perfect harmonious relations with the spirit and with the Father.
What Jesus says what Jesus does therefore reflect perfectly the will and the way of God. His being, his doing, his action, his saying are all expressions of the image of God
The glorious and wonderful thing here is that we also are made in the image of God.
But surely there is a quantum difference between me and Jesus.
In practice yes but in potential no!
We’re not perfect for sure.
We don’t love God perfectly as Jesus does
We don’t love our neighbour perfectly as Jesus does
We don’t love and care for creation perfectly as Jesus does.
But if we were perfect in each of the aspect we would be like Jesus we would be perfect images of God.
Paul writes that when we see Jesus we shall be changed and we shall be like him.
There is the end goal of each of us to be like Jesus, to reach that perfection of human being.
It seems we won’t get there this side of the grave but that it our end point that is what we are aiming for and that is where we should be heading now.
Each and every person on the planet to some degree or another bears the image of God.
It is the possibility and potential to reach human perfection by learning to love God, love neighbour and love creation.
Every person you meet has that potential and you and I have a wonderful privilege in helping people edge closer to their potential.
And here is where we come back to community and our nature as social beings. We enrich one another we build each other up by getting to know each other in the first place, by opening our lives to one another, by sharing with each our stories our gifts and talents our pain and heart ache our needs and our resources, our comfort and our care, our hope and our disappointments our doubt and our faith.
I guess that is why I kept coming back to church.
This is a place of hope and salvation.
Here we practice what it means to live as Christian people loving and caring for each other, we practice it here so we can do it out there, so that it becomes natural for us to open our lives and share our hope with others.
You are here because you are a social being, made in the image of God, you are here because in this place you find hope and faith and life. This community is filled with people just like you who are made in the image of God who long for the company of God and fellow travellers on the journey.
May God help us to be a community of his people who live to bring life and hope and faith to those around us.

Community Development

2008-08-26T15:33:00.000-07:00

You are the salt of the earth
You are the light of the world
Did you know that the “You” in both of these phrases is plural?
Jesus is not talking to an individual and saying you are the light of the world or that you as an individual are the salt of the earth.
He is talking to his disciples and he is saying you collectively are the light of the world, you as a group are the salt of the earth.
It is we as the community of the spirit that are the salt of the earth the light of the world.
Salt to be effective must come in contact with that which is seeks to
Flavour or
Preserve
Or transform/enhance
Light to be effective needs to be put in a place where it can shine
So long as the light is not hidden under the bed or in a basket – then it can’t help itself its illuminating rays will be broadcast for all in the vicinity to see.
I’ve been involved in the last few weeks in a new enterprise called the NEV community Development project. This project seeks to find out all the good things that are going on in the valley, to identify the resources, including people, groups, service, and facilities that are currently contributing to the wellbeing of families and children in particular and see if they might be enhanced for better social outcomes.
Already a number of things have been uncovered, some treasures within the valley have come to light. People are coming out of the woodwork, new connections are being made new synergistic partnerships are coming together.
For example I’m hopeful that we might be able to bring some social service providers and our play groups together in a new way that will help young parents out.
I mention this because there are some good things happening in our community and we can play a part in making them better.
There’s two spins offs for us firstly we help to shape a better society.
Our saltiness helps to bring flavour and preservation to social structures.
Our light helps illuminate institutional evil and shines a light on ways ahead.
The second benefit for us is that as we use our salt and light to enhance the community around us, we also let other people see into our community. It’s a two way process.
Imagine coming across a house on a cold stormy night. Perhaps your car is broken down and you need to use a phone. The light from the house shine brightly helping you to see the path in front of you. You are drawn to the light and as you get close you can see in through the kitchen window the friendly face of a stranger doing the dishes and talking with another person.
The light that shines out of the house has helped you on your path, lead you to a safe place and given you a view to see that it is safe to approach and go inside if you are invited.
As we as a church community get involved in community ministries - we let our light shine before others and they begin to see.
They see the good work we do and God gets the credit.
They see the evil that we expose and begin to combat it as well
They see the heart that motivates our outreach they see who we are and are not afraid to come in and join us.
Salt preserves and enhances flavour together we are able to enhance the life of the community around us. And from the rich resources of our faith we enhance in a particular we. Helping others to live life to the fullest physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually.
The ancient prophets often expressed a vision for the way the world could be if God’s people did as they believed and enhanced the world around them. Perhaps the greatest collection of such visionary portrayal of the ideal society comes from the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah 65:17-24
Isaiah envisages a new creation a new heaven and earth a completely renewed society so radically different from his current experience as to be impossible except that God brings it about.
17-19This new society is one of great joy and fulfilment.
20 Infant mortality will be reduced to zero, all people will live to a ripe old age – the health needs of all are paramount in this new community.
21 Good housing is provided for all
22 Economic justice is guaranteed there shall be no exploitation - workers will be rewarded for their efforts
23 -25 It shall be a time of prosperity, security and peace.
Other similar visions of a new humanity a new social order are scattered throughout the Hebrew Bible Isaiah 58 The fast that God requires is to loose the chains of the oppressed Isaiah 61 Good news to the poor release to the captives. Amos 9 promise a time to come when David’s kingdom will be restored and his people once again live in prosperity and peace. Micah envisages a day when swords will be beaten in plowshares and spears made into pruning hooks, when nation shall not lift up sword against nation and neither shall they learn war anymore – they shall sit under their own vines and their own fig trees and no one shall make them afraid.
These words are more than just great imaginative poetic verse.
They capture the heart and soul of people in tune with the divine, they express the very hope of God for all people.
A hope that has inspired many wonderful social movements, inspired church communities to get off their pews and into the streets. To turn he love of God toward neighbour.
It was this vision which so put fire in the belly of Jesus. To see people reaching out to one another in love and forgiveness and healing - bringing justice and compassion and mercy. The gospels overflow with stories of Jesus reaching out to others and affecting dramatic change.
Take the story of Zaccheeus as an example.
Luke 19:1-10
Jesus is travelling with his friends through Jericho. His community is one that is constantly on the move.
A crowd gathers as is often the case with Jesus - the crowd is drawn to the light of the world. The crowd approaches this company of strangers and seek to see for themselves.
Zacchaeus is so keen to see what is going on that he climbs a tree for a better look. People want to have a look before making up their own mind. Retailers know this and will have big window displays to show of their merchandise and bright showrooms to draw people in.
This company of Jesus and his friends was attractive, their reputation as miracle workers of people of justice, hope and compassion went before them and people wanted to look in.
Now Zaccheaus was a man who would not have been welcome in many social settings. He may have wanted to look in on the local synagogue but he would not have been welcome. He was isolated and cut off because of his occupation as a tax collector a collaborator with the imperial roman army and one who contributed to the oppression of the Palestinian Jews.
Zaccheaus looks in on Jesus perhaps not expecting much maybe just a glimpse of goodness to sustain him in his barren existence.
Zaccheaus instead gets the surprise of his life when Jesus calls out to him and declares that he is going to have dinner with him tonight at his place.
In another time and at another place Jesus feeds thousands of people, here in this place he knows that Zaccheaus need is not of food but of company and of acceptance and embrace. Zaccheaus needs to be needed, he needs to know he is capable of goodness and may contribute to the well being of others.
And so Jesus sups with Zac. And Zac declares his commitment to live the Jesus way, giving generously to the poor, amending wrongdoing and living honestly.
What can we draw from this story for our life together?
Jesus and his community are on the move looking for opportunities to respond in care to community need.
They don’t have a one size fits all programme.
They respond to the real needs of real people in real circumstances and they inspire them.
The light of the world exposes evil - in this case two evils are exposed, one is the way that Zaccheaus has been branded a sinner and outcast – by eating with Zac Jesus exposes the sin of judgement and demonstrates God’s unconditional love.
In the story we are not told that Zac cheats the system or is dishonest – but we are told that to do so is evil. For all we know Zac might have been 100% legitimate but there is little doubt that many tax collectors were ripping people off and the light of the world exposes this evil and holds it up to public scrutiny.
So here are the thoughts for us in summary form.
Together we are the light of the world the salt of the earth and we can make a difference in our community by engagement with other people and groups.
We have a dream a vision for how we would like to see the world, we call it the kingdom of God and it’s about justice and peace and so on.
As a church community one of our primary purposes one of the reasons we exist is to respond in care to community need. This is an area that we need to put some institutional and corporate effort. Another of our primary purposes is to gather to worship and we put a great deal of resource into that because we know it’s important.
I’m under the conviction that we need to put more corporate effort more institution energy into our community outreach. It is important to do this if we are to fulfil our mission to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. It is critical if we want to make a difference to the community around us and It is critically in the end to our own survival. For the church exists to serve other and if we fail to do that we may as well shut up shop.
I’m currently putting more time and energy into planning and rethinking our community ministries. I will build a team of people who share a vision to see our community enhanced and flavoured by the gospel life we share. I’m looking to re-establish a community ministries team that will give oversight to all our community ministries, from play group and OSCAR to Naphtali and the soon to be launched community lunch. I want a team of people with a willingness to engage in work, in prayer, in imagining a better way. I want people who are prepared to let their light shine before The NEV community so that people may see our good works and glorify our father in heaven.
If you’d like to know more about the dream or the team I’d love to hear from you!

Two Blind Men

2008-07-26T14:26:00.000-07:00

In our study this morning I want us to think about living compassionately.
We’ve considered the compassionate heart of God and how God suffers with those who suffer. We’ve considered Jesus motivation for imploring workers to go into the harvest and show the compassion of God and today I want us to consider the lifestyle of compassion.
How do we live as compassionate people?
How do we reflect the compassion of God and draw others to the God of compassion?
To do this we are going to look at one of the many stories in which Jesus is said to have compassion on someone who is in great need.
The story is told of two blind men on the road near Jericho

Two Blind Men Receive Sight

29As Jesus and his disciples were leaving Jericho, a large crowd followed him. 30Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!"
31The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!"
32Jesus stopped and called them. "What do you want me to do for you?" he asked.
33"Lord," they answered, "we want our sight."
34Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.

This is a typical healing story as found in the synoptic gospels. Matthews main point is to show that Jesus is the Son of David that is the promised Messiah who comes to heal he may have in mind some of the prophecies from the book of Isaiah.

29:18 In that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

35:5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

Being blind must have been one of the most debilitating challenges of Jesus time.
You couldn’t work, you were cut off from society, you weren’t allowed to worship in the temple, you were socially outcast, economically deprived, uneducated, probably had other health issue due to poverty and the inevitability of accidents – to be blind was to be in a pitiful state.

Physical blindness is also quite commonly used as a metaphor for spiritual blindness that which cuts one off from seeing the world as it really is, from seeing the true value of people, of seeing God not as a justifier of our depraved social structures but as the one who challenges us to live justly and compassionately.

So while this story serves to show Jesus as a healer of the physically blind we may also see in it Jesus offering us a way to overcome our own spiritual blindness.
Let’s unpack the story and look at it a bit at a time.
The first part of the story sets the scene.

Jesus and his friends are on a journey somewhere near Jericho but that details need not concern us.
Jesus has a crowd with him he’s at the height of his popularity. Everyone is having a good time with Jesus – but something threatens to rock the boat and spoil the party.
Two unkempt, unwashed, unwelcome beggars start making a racket and interrupt the genial conversation among the happy travellers.

Jesus friends try to bring back order by telling the blind men to shut their faces.
So here we have a situation with many parallels in our world today an oppressed minority is silenced. Two men who represent all those cut off from society and privilege by no fault of their own are denied access to their only source of hope.

A double evil is being committed the first evil is systemic and has denied these men justice and mercy for many years the next act is deliberate and reactive, the crowd try to put these men back in their place. Maybe it’s because they have been conditioned to believe that the blind men are an abomination to God cursed with blindness for some sin they have committed. Maybe they think they are doing God’s business in supporting the system of oppression. It reminds me of those who supported apartheid in South Africa believing that Black people were inferior to white people cursed by God for some some sin of one of their ancient forebears. It’s abhorrent to us that some could believe like that – however people are capable of justifying incredible evil with their diabolic theology.

Alternatively the crowd might have been afraid to confront the system that they know to be evil afraid that such confrontation would put the spotlight on their own complicity.
Thankfully our blind heroes are men of great courage and they refuse to be silenced, they cling to the hope that they have and the shout even louder for Jesus to intervene. Somehow they knew this Rabbi was different and would not be complicit with the evil system that was oppressing them.

So that is the situation. The blind men take this great risk, no one else is standing up for them they must do it themselves – how will Jesus react?
We can skip to the end of the story and see what we’ve come to expect from Jesus for we think we know Jesus well enough.

Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes

Fantastic of course.

Fantastic that Jesus touched them – he put his own spiritual holiness at risk by touching men who were by law unclean.

Fantastic that He put his popularity at risk by standing up to the crowd and defying their expectations.

Fantastic for these blind men who received back their sight and were welcomed into the fold.

They were now part of society again, in fact they joined the crowd and followed Jesus.

And we have this word compassion again this feeling of deep pain within as one identifies strongly with the suffering of another.
We’ve come to expect that from Jesus too really but I was interested to note that Jesus had compassion on them at that moment as though it came upon him suddenly when he engaged with them.

So what does this mean for us who want to be like Jesus and live a life of compassion?

Lets pay a little more attention to what Jesus does in this story – “God is in the detail”
Jesus had compassion on these men once he had engaged with them. Here is a point that I want to emphasise and make clear.

Compassion is a relational term.

You can’t have compassion in general. To say I am compassionate in general I think is an airy fairy woolly thing to say. Compassion is always about being connected to real people in real situations. Anything else is pointless sentimentalism.

I think it is humanly impossible to be compassionate all the time to feel compassion for all the suffering people of the world consistently. We can’t bear thinking about all the problems of the world let alone engage at that deep gut level identification with the suffering of countless millions. We can only do it one person or one situation at a time. It’s about living in the moment and responding appropriately to the place and time you find yourself in. There is a time to celebrate a time to praise, a time to build up a time to plant, and there is a time to engage with the suffering and that is the time to be compassionate.

As Jesus left Jericho on that day he would have been aware at one level that there were beggars and blind people in need of his touch. They were after all everywhere as they are today. Yet he was engaged in another task travelling with his friend to their next port of call which was probably Jerusalem. I imagine he was fielding their questions as they explored what he had been saying earlier about the kingdom of God. Jesus was engaged with his companions giving them the attention that they needed yet he was also aware of what else might have been going on around him His peripheral vision was being employed his cocktail ears were in tune, so that when he hears the two men crying out he responds and he diverts his attention.

Jesus stops and he listens.

Here I think is the beginning of the compassionate life - it is allowing yourself to stop and listen. Are you in tune enough with the world around you to know when it is good to stop and listen?
When a cry for help is heard are you too busy to stop and listen? One of the neighbours of Chin Chin the wee 5 years old girl kidnapped in Albany was devastated because she had heard a little girl scream for help but had ignored her.

Maybe you can’t respond to every need you see or hear, but are you too busy to stop and listen?
Having paused to hear the cry of the blind men Jesus asks what seems an obvious question.

"What do you want me to do for you?"

It seems obvious to us that they wanted their sight back; but Jesus makes no such assumption.

It has been a common mistake for philanthropists and aid workers, church community ministries to assume they know the needs of those they work with. That is quite a presumption!
It is estimated that billions of dollars of aid has been wasted in the last 50 years or so by well meaning charities who assume that they know what the “poor people in Africa really need”. And so because people have not taken the time to stop to listen to ask the right questions, the poor people of Africa or Papua New Guinea have found themselves with a brand new irrigation system when what they wanted was to get back on their ancestral land and when that opportunity arises they abandon the generous gift of the west.

Following Jesus example we can live the compassionate life by developing openness to what is going on around us, taking time to stop and listen to the cries of the hurting and engaging where we can with people as real people and asking the right questions.

I know many of you do this quite naturally and instinctively, you’ve learned to listen to that still small voice of the spirit which helps you discern the right steps to take at the right time.
Some of you need to hear that you are trying to do too much and I’m not picking on anyone that’s just the way the pendulum swings. Others of you will need to hear that you are not taking enough time to listen to the cries of the hurting – probably because your life is too busy, maybe because it’s too scary to even think about other people’s problems when you are troubled yourself. If that’s you - consider the prayer of St Francis, it is in giving that we receive and by taking time to stop and listen to others you may find that you receive that wonderful gift of a listening ear for yourself.

At times some of us need to hear Jesus saying: Are you asking the right questions or are you ploughing on doing your good deeds without checking as to whether they are wanted or needed? Remember real compassion comes by engaging with people as people where they are and not assuming you know their needs anything else is what we used to call works-righteousness an attempt to make yourself look good by doing good for others.

Jesus calls us to live lightly and freely. We don’t need to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders that is his job.

Our call is walk with him each day responding in Christ-like ways to the people and situations that we encounter.

That is why it is important to nurture your own soul Guard your heart wrote the psalmist for it is the wellspring of life.

A well nurtured soul will be able to listen to that still small voice within guiding ones footsteps long the way
A well nurtured soul will be able to listen to what is going on in the outside world and will take the time to gracefully stop listen engage and respond with compassion.

God of all compassion so grant that we might live compassionately AMEN

A scandalous father

2008-07-23T14:15:00.000-07:00

The Parable of the Lost Son Luke 15

11Jesus continued: "There was a man who had two sons. 12The younger one said to his father, 'Father, give me my share of the estate.' So he divided his property between them.
13"Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17"When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many of my father's hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.' 20So he got up and went to his father. "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21"The son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.[b]'
22"But the father said to his servants, 'Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let's have a feast and celebrate. 24For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' So they began to celebrate.
25"Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27'Your brother has come,' he replied, 'and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.'
28"The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29But he answered his father, 'Look! All these years I've been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!'
31" 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' "

Like many of Jesus’ stories the parable of the lost son subverts conventional wisdom and challenges at many levels.
We’re well familiar with the narrative and it is so often told that it has lost a good deal of its punch. But to Jesus first audience it was a shocking story most of them would have identified with the elder son and would have been scandalised by the foolish and irresponsible generosity of the father.
The second son should not have expected any share in the inheritance, he should not have had the gall to ask for anything from his father.
He should have served his father humbly, obediently without complaint. His best hope for advance in life was to honour his father and his elder brother who was the legal heir of his father’s estate and hope that these two would provide for him into the future.
The younger son acted scandalously.
The father also acted improperly and would have been regarded as a scandal a failure as a father. Where did his son gets such fanciful ideas from.How shameful to have a son asking his father for money and thereby humiliating him publically.Why didn’t he discipline his son more? He should have beaten him for acting so impudently? He should have sent him away empty handed!He should have disowned him and certainly not welcomed him back into the family with open arms and lavish gifts.
You can see then how the elder son acted with conventional wisdom and righteousness. He carries on working for the father with humility and faithfulness. He doesn’t complain until he becomes enraged with the obvious injustice of the situation and even then he only speaks after he has been spoken to.
We’re accustomed to identifying the father with the God and father of Jesus, but for the first disciples this was not natural and it took them a while to get their head around the idea.
Can we today really appreciate how much of a scandal our God is; so much so that many people still have a great deal of difficulty getting their head around the idea of the God that Jesus incarnates.
The same questions that arose in the minds of Jesus initial audience arises in the mind of sceptics today with a different focus.
How could a loving heavenly father let his creation get out of control?How could God allow such freedom that leads to wanton destruction and great acts of horrendous evil?And how could any God worthy of that name; welcome back a rebellious son such as we?
One of the hardest things to do as a parent is to stand back and watch your child get hurt. Parents have to learn to keep their distance. And when one of your kids fall of his bike and smashes his face, as Cameron did a year ago, you get haunted by the knowledge that you could have prevented it and in that particular case I probably should have. But kids learn through mistakes and you’ve got to let them make ‘em. We need to be there for our kids and simultaneously keep our distance. The distance increases as kids get older and learn to use their freedoms. Regardless of the distance – when your kids get hurt you feel their pain, you suffer with them.
And here is how I’ve come to get handle on suffering and a God of love. In the story of the lost son Jesus says of the father “while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him”
How is it that the father saw the son coming a long way off? It has been speculated that this is so because the father was constantly looking out for his son’s return. Of course this makes sense any Father who lavishes so much love on his son in the face of social condemnation must be hoping and praying for his son’s return. He didn’t pay him off to get rid of him but that one day he might have him back.
The father was filled with compassion for his son. The word compassion which is the theme word for this month, literally means to suffer with. The Father suffered with his son, he felt his pain and loss as if it were his own.
Such compassion was not something that the father suddenly got when he saw his son. It was something that the father by nature always had towards his son. From the first time the boy stubbed his toe, or fell off his donkey, or was laughed at by other kids in the village, his father felt his son’s pain. Such compassion is there regardless of the distance – it is part of the parent’s lot to feel compassion for their children. We may lose it but that is always a tragedy!
The father felt his son’s pain every time he looked to the distance hills through which his son disappeared. Every time news from afar arrived, every meal that his son was absent, every family celebration he missed all of these reminded the Father not just of his loss of the Son but of the Sons loss as he embarked on his prodigal lifestyle.
The father’s compassion was not limited by distance, but it could only be acted upon by proximity. When he sees his son coming over the horizon, the father runs, he has to get close, he has to show his love, extend his welcome, offer his embrace; that too is part of the father’s nature, programmed into him; he longs for intimacy.
A couple of songs about God were doing well on the Billboard hot one hundred charts in the 1990’s. Bette Midler’s Grammy award winning song declared that God is watching us from a distance and Joan Osborne’s song asked What if God were on us 1995. The two songs played with the traditional theological notions of God’s transcendence or distance on the one hand and God’s immanence or closeness on the other. These two aspects of God’s relationship to us are important in understanding God, suffering and compassion.
God like any parent, like the father of the prodigal, watches his children from a distance. Yet as we have noted this distance is not an emotional distance, it is a freely chosen distance that relinquishes control and gives freedom – freedom to learn, freedom to love, freedom to make mistakes and get hurt. God our mother and father suffers with us as we suffer and God knows what it is like to suffer in a unique way for God not only watches his creation rebel and suffer he watches his one and only son suffer and die. God the father suffer the loss of his son who is a very part of himself.
God like any parent also wants intimacy with her children, she waits and looks out for the returning prodigal and longs to hug and welcome and lavish gifts on her children. Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning
So out of compassion God chooses not only to be watching us from a distance but also to be found among us to become one of us. God the son learns what it is like to suffer with us, God’s compassion is not abstract, or removed it is down to earth, real and tangible.
God the Son suffers, he suffers brutal physical torture and death, he suffers rejection and abandonment, he suffers separation from God the father and he suffers the weight of the world’s sin. The nature of Christ’s suffering is such that it has a permanent affect within the very being of God. Because of Jesus, we know that God feels our pain and fully identifies with all of human suffering. In Jesus God has bound himself permanently and irrevocable to humanity in the bonds of compassion.
Compassion then I think is the key to understanding God, understanding human suffering and the problem of evil. It’s not a simple formula, it’s not a pat answer either, for to really comprehend compassion requires spiritual insight that perhaps only come as you experience your own suffering, or enter into someone else suffering and see in the midst of that suffering one hanging on a cross and crying our My God My God why have you abandoned me?
If I sound a little lyrical this morning it is because when you get close to the heart of God’s character prose no longer suffices, the language of poetry is need to talk about such things.
And so in concluding this morning I bring you a poem. A substantial poem, written by a man with extraordinary compassion a man who literally stood beside those suffering and suffered with them and found God, among the mud, blood and stench of trench warfare in France in the First World War
G. A. Studdert Kennedy was a chaplain in WWI for the British and got down and dirty with the troops risking his own life to bring hope to dying men. In this poem, originally written in Cockney dialect Kennedy assumes the posture of a soldier whose faith has been badly shaken by seeing a young corporal blown to bits in the trenches. Like Job, he begins to rant against God, until suddenly an insight breaks through as he the ponders the cross.

The Sorrow of God

"Yes I used to believe in Jesus Christ
And I used to go to church.
But since I left home and came to France,
I've been clean knocked off my perch.
For it seemed alright at home it did,
To believe in a God above
And in Jesus Christ his only Son
What died on the cross through Love.

When I went for a walk of a Sunday morn
On a nice fine day in the spring
I could see the proof of the living God
In every living thing.
For how could the grass and the trees grow up,
All alone of their bloomin' selves?
Ye might as well believe in fairy tales,
And think they were made by elves.

So I thought that that long haired atheist
Was nothing but a silly sod
For how did he account for my Brussel sprouts,
If he didn't believe in God?

But it ain't the same out here, you know
It's as different as chalk and cheese,
For half of its blood and the other half mud,
And I'm darned if I really see
How the God who has made such a cruel cruel world
Can have love in his heart for men,
And be deaf to the cries of the men as dies
And never comes home again.

Just look at that little boy corporal there,
Such a fine upstanding lad,
With a will of his own, and a way of his own
And a smile of his own, he had.
An hour ago he was bustin' with life
With his actin' and foolin' and fun;
He was simply the life of us all, he was
Now look what the blighters have done.
Look at him lying there all of a heap
With the blood soaking over his head
Like a beautiful picture spoiled by a fool,
A bundle of nothing-- dead...

And the lovin' God he looks down on it all,
On the blood, and the mud, and the smell,
Oh God if its true how I pity you
For you must be livin' in hell.
You must be livin' in hell all day,
And livin' in hell all night.
I'd rather be dead with a hole in my dead
I would by a darn long sight,
Than be livin' with you on your heavenly throne,
Looking down on yon bloody heap,
That was once a boy full of life and joy,
And hearin' his mother weep.

The sorrows of God must be hard to bear,
If he really has love in his heart.
And the hardest part in the world to play
Must surely be God's part.
And I wonder if that's what it really means,
That figure who hangs on the cross.
I remember I saw one the other day
As I stood with the captain's hoss.

I remembers, I thinks, thinks I to myself
Its a long time since he died,
Yet the world don't seem much better to-day
Then when he was crucified.

It's always the same, as it seems to me,
The weakest must go to the wall,
And whether it's right, or whether it's wrong
Doesn't seem to matter at all.
The better you are and the harder it is,
The harder you have to fight,
It's a cruel hard world for any bloke
Who does the thing which is right.
And that's how he came to be crucified,
For that's what he tried to do.
He was always a-tryin' to do his best
For the likes of me and you.

Well what if he came to the earth today
Came walking about in this trench
How his heart would bleed for the sights he'd see
In the mud and the blood and the stench.
And I guess it would finish him up for good
When he came to this old sap end,
And he saw that bundle of nothing there,
For he wept at the grave of a friend.

And they say He was just the Image of God
I wonder if God sheds tears.
I wonder if God can be sorrowing still,
And has been all these years.
I wonder if that's what it really means,
Not only that he once died,
Not only that he came once to earth
And wept and was crucified?
Not just that he suffered once for all
To save us from our sins
And then went up to his throne on high
To wait until his heaven begins.

But what if he came to earth to show
By the paths of the pain he trod,
The blistering flame of eternal shame
That burns in the heart of God?...

But why don't you bust this show to bits
And force us to do your will?
Why ever should God be suffering so,
And man be sinning still?
Why don't you make your voice ring out,
And drown these cursed guns?
Why don't you stand with an outstretched hand
Out there betwixt us and the Huns?
Why don't you force us to end this war
And fix up a lasting peace?
Why don't you will that the world be still
And wars for ever cease?
That's what I'd do, if I were you,
And I had a lot of sons
Who squabbled and fought and spoiled their home,
Same as us boys and the Huns.

And yet I remember a lad of mine,
He's fighting now on the sea.
And he was a thorn in his mother's side
And the plague of my life to me.
Lord how I used to switch that lad
Until he fairly yelped with pain
But fast as I thrashed one devil out
Another popped in again.

And at last when he grew up a strapping lad
He ups and says to me
'My will is my own, and my life is my own,
And I'm goin' Dad to sea.'
And he went, for I hadn't broken his will,
Though God knows how I tried,
And he never set eyes on my face again
Until the day his mother dies.

Well maybe that's how it is with God,
His sons have got to be free.
Their wills are their own, their lives are their own,
And that is how it has to be.
So the Father God goes sorrowing still
For his world which has gone to sea
But he runs up a light on Calvary's height
That beckons to you and to me.
The beacon light of the sorrow of God
Has been shinin' down the years,
Flashin' its light through the darkest night
Of our human blood and tears.

There's a sight of things which I thought were strange,
As I am just beginnin' to see.
'Inasmuch as you did it unto one of these,
You did it unto Me'

So it isn't just only the crown of thorns
What has pierced and torn God's head
He knows the feel of the bullet too,
And he's had his touch of the lead.
And he's standin' with me in this here sap,
And the corporal stands with Him,
And the eyes of the laddie is shinin' bright
But the eyes of the Christ burn dim.

Oh laddie I thought as ye'd done for me
And broken my heart with your pain.
I thought ye'd taught me God was dead,
But ye've brought Him to life again.
And ye've taught me more of what God is
Than ever I thought to know,
For I never thought he could come so close,
Or that I could love Him so.

For the voice of the Lord, as I hear it now
Is the voice of my pals that bled,
And the call of my country's God to me
Is the call of my country's dead.

The Fields are White to Harvest

2008-07-23T14:11:00.000-07:00

Matthew 9:35-38 The Workers Are Few

35Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. 36When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. 37Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field."

In this short passage from Matthews’s gospel we see how Jesus worked, what Jesus saw as he looked upon the crowds he ministered to and what motivated him.
1. how Jesus worked
2. what Jesus saw
3. what motivated him
My main interest this morning is the last of these; Jesus motivation that is, his compassion, but the three aspects are linked so we will deal briefly with each of them.
Matthew in his gospel summarises Jesus ministry three times to reinforce that Jesus had a threefold methodology. The main aspects were, teaching, preaching and healing. These tools of the trade were the way that Jesus showed the compassion of God.
Preaching or proclaiming the kingdom of God was the activity that involved declaring in a straightforward way the central tenets of the faith, while teaching involved explaining how those tenets worked out in everyday life. The ministry of healing was the practical outworking of the kingdom.
In other words Jesus would say here is the truth (proclamation) let me explain it to you (teaching) and let me show you what it looks like (Healing) Mind you it wasn’t always done in that order and Jesus actually spends more time on healing and comforting the sorrowing - that is in living out his faith - than he does in proclaiming and teaching. It is often the healing that comes first and leads onto teaching and proclamation.
Jesus methodology was holistic in that it appealed to the head the heart and the body. Proclamation appeals mainly to our emotions our values and our commitments. Proclamation is about presenting a vision. It is to our heart that proclamation appeals. Jesus vision of the kingdom of God is proclaimed with passion and Jesus audience feels a stirring within. Visionary leaders have the ability to make us believe that their vision is achievable and that it is worth committing to, that it represents a set of values that we can aspire to. Proclamation calls on us to give of our best for a higher cause. And no cause could be more worthy or higher than the Kingdom of God that Jesus proclaims.
Teaching appeals mainly to our head. Through teaching the vision is consolidated and it nuances explored and explained. Teaching set outs the pathway to follow so that the vision may be attained.
And the practical ministry of healing if we see healing as much more than the curing of physical ailments but mending of all that is broken and twisted in our world, healing is the pathway; healing is the steps that we take to reach the vision to see the kingdom of God established.
It has been said many times throughout history that we stand at a cross roads, and that certainly applies today. The decisions that we as individuals and communities and nations will make over the next few years will have enormous consequences for decades and centuries to come.
We stand at a cross road, yet there is no sign at the cross road. Or perhaps there are so many signs at the cross road that we don’t know which one to follow. Or maybe there is an ancient sign at the cross roads engraved in stoned covered in lichen and hid behind billboards and neon. The old sign reads Kingdom of God this way. And the path it points to is a difficult and narrow way, where each paving stone is an act of love, a deed of mercy, an undertaking of compassion.
The ancient sign that so few look upon today points clearly to a new city coming down from heaven, a new way of being, a new way of living together and serving one another. The sign is there for those who care to look. The road is there for those with courage to travel and the destination is sure for those who stick to the narrow way. I hope that your experience of church is one in which you see past the clever billboards and the flashy neons to look at the ancient sign sealed with blood of many saints and martyrs and of the son of God himself who first placed it there.
Let’s look now at little more closely at Jesus who is the sign, wh declares the truth, who, shows the way and demonstrates the life of compassion. I want us to look at what he saw on the day these remarks refer to.
1. He saw the crowds
2. He saw they were harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd
3. He saw a harvest
The crowds were drawn to Jesus because of the clear way he demonstrated the way the truth and the life. The religion leaders around about the crowd were squabbling over the best way to repress and oppress the people, placing impossible burdens on them. The various sects offered their own variety of religious burden so there was choice in the market place but it was Murphy’s choice for none were offering life, nor hope. The people were desperate, helpless and longing for a voice that would show a better way. They found that in Jesus, they saw that in Jesus they hung out with Jesus to learn more.
At the same time as seeing the crowd as lost and helpless Jesus also saw them as having enormous value and potential. Jesus saw a plentiful harvest. A plentiful harvest was a cause for much joy, and hope and promise. For it meant that famine could be avoided for a few more years. A plentiful harvest promised full bellies, healthy children, grain to sell and plant again. The harvest hadn’t been devastated by draught, or overtaken by weeds or plundered by raiders – things were looking good. This is what Jesus sees as he looks upon the human harvest before him – people of great potential, people with promise and possibility. Jesus didn’t see weeds that needed to pulled, he didn’t see chaff that needed to be burned he saw a harvest. He saw people who with some encouragement could be as it were harvested and thereby begin to realise their potential.
And how do people realise their potential, they need to be directed to the ancient sign behind the neons, beyond the billboard that points to the Kingdom of God and the way of compassion.
And so we come to Jesus motivation. Several times in the gospel a word is used which literally means to be deeply moved in the bowels. That is to feel something with great intensity. Jesus feels compassion for his lost sheep with a great intensity – for here are all of these people who are helpless and harassed again two words in the Greek which are very strong and evocative. The people are like drunkards falling prostrate on the ground, they are like the victims of a violent crime lying ravaged and bewildered.

Life can be like that at times for us as well as for others. When there is no clear proclamation, and no sound teaching, when the gospel is not being demonstrated with acts of compassion it is hard to see the way. When the billboards and neons promise much but deliver little we feel let down and wonder really what life is all about.
Seeing people harassed and helpless like that moves Jesus deeply – he is filled with compassion for all that he made and longs that all people come to experience life in all its fullness. As Jesus looks around he see so much potential so many people with so much promise; but they are hurting, they are disadvantaged, they’re blind to their own need, they’re so caught up in running the rat race or keeping their head above water that they can’t stop to see the ancient sign pointing to the way of life.
The harvest is plentiful. Each human being has enormous potential for good. Everyone can make a difference in their own sphere. Each and everyone one of us, each and every person we meet, each and every person that draws breath not only has a great need to be shown compassion but have an enormous ability to act with compassion once they have been set free to do so.
The harvest is plentiful but the labourers are few.
There are a few people doing fantastic work in helping others to come to believe, believe in God, believe in themselves, and believe in the way of compassion.
Jesus is so concerned about this that he asks us to pray that the Lord of the harvest would send out workers of compassion. And this we must do if we have any compassion within us. Yet this prayer can only be prayed to the extent that we offer ourselves as labourers in the harvest. And so I finish with a prayer and invite you to still your hearts and pray with me.
By your grace O Lord we have stumbled upon the ancient sign and seen the road of life where each footstep is a deed of compassion. We see the need around us people harassed and helpless doing their best yet making no headway. We see people striving after the neons and billboards and finding nought but illusion and disappointment.
We confess O God that our eyes are dim our feet are tired and our hearts fail. We are weary and we wonder what difference we can make. Move us deeply that we may feel your compassion, your longing and your hope. May we feel it for ourselves and for those around us. And as we see the need before us help us also to see on the road ahead the promise of a kingdom, where you reign and all things shall be well.
Give us confidence in you, in the life we have discovered in you, in the way you lead us and the truth you reveal to us. May we answer your compassions claim, learn to see you in the least of all, and find you within and without as we walk in humility with mercy and grace.

Family Values

2008-07-23T14:01:00.000-07:00

Family Values the left and right of it
“Family Values” rhetoric is a loaded with meaning which in the media and the general public imagination has been captured by the conservative right; yet secular and religious progressives are not devoid of values when it comes to familial relations. Like many of the divides between right and left overemphasis of the difference is unfruitful and benefits neither side.
“Family values” has become a symbol and slogan for conservatives, the term carrying traditionalist connotations. The stereotype of this socially conservative ideology limits the term family to a nuclear married heterosexual child-rearing unit, to the exclusion of all others. However, in my experience conservatives do recognize that family units often include grand-parents in need of care and other sorts of non-nuclear arrangements such as foster-children and step-children.
The bible records a multitude of family models, many of which do not fit modern conservative ideals yet display qualities that are pleasing to God. One of ironies of the right’s claim to the biblical high ground in family values is that the bible does not venerate the nuclear model of family, in fact I’ve not found one example of a family in the bible that has two parents raring their own children and doing so successfully. The bible does however offer many positive and negative examples of how to treat each other and provides a good deal of didactic material about the roles and responsibilities of parents and children and more generally how we are to care for our relatives.
‘Family’ may be considered from two perspectives the first concerns ‘the who’ of the family and the second concerns ‘the how’. The first approach to defining family is one that conservatives seem to give priority to. The right legitimates biological relations so that mum, dad and their children become the central construct. The addition of other relations may also be considered valuable, however the inclusion of others outside of the biological component is seen as less than ideal and the removal of one or both parents to be avoided. Because of the right’s opposition to divorce, unmarried parenting, to same-sex relations and same sex partners raising children a good deal of their moral crusade is concerned with the who of such familial relations.
The left and the right disagree as to the impact and importance of the who in family values, but there is much common ground on the what of family values. The right may do its cause more good by concentrating more on the what so that children in particular may receive good nurture regardless of the type of family they are raised in. Progressives emphasise values relevant to ensuring successful families, regardless of the form of the family unit. The purpose of families, from giving care to dependents to providing a stimulating , nurturing and fulfilling home life are all functions progressives have an interest in advancing. Progressives recognise that families exist and operate for many varied reasons; for example to provide quality childrearing conditions and or, economic security, emotional security, spiritual nurture, fulfilment, intimacy, vocational support, collaboration.
By attacking the form of heterodox families, conservatives unnecessarily antagonise a large section of society which might otherwise be more receptive to its influence in terms of how relations within families can be strengthened. Conservative values such as respect for parental authority and parental responsibility, within the context of loving committed relationships are important within any family caring for children. The Christian virtues of: forgiveness, compassion, honesty, patience, valuing others, trust, commitment and reliability are not at odds with progressive family values. These virtues can be found in families of all types and while conservatives are keen to promote the benefits of raising children in a loving married family; they also need to avoid marginalising those who seek the same ends, but have found themselves in families which have a different form. Let us please put more energy into the values that we place on families and that families imbibe rather than on the form that families take.