In the days of Noah.

Today's Sermon.  Text Matthew 24:36-44

Even just a short time ago hardly anyone would have predicted the enormity of what is now happening to our country. The thought that we would be plunged into a recession so low and debt levels so high that we will never be able to afford even the interest on the loans let alone the loans themselves would have been laughed off. In the midst of the ‘Celtic Tiger’, whilst the Property Bubble was still expanding, no one predicted how great the fall that we are now experiencing would be. Anytime an economist came on the radio and said that the whole thing was unsustainable, they were laughed at and not taken seriously. The mentality of so many was ‘eat drink and be merry’; with no thought to the consequences of endless spending and borrowing of money that was not ours. It turns out that predicting the future is a hard thing to do.

When I was a boy, I was fortunate enough to go with my parents on a holiday to Italy. My favourite part was when we visited the ancient city of Pompeii. This city in Roman times was full of life and home to 18,000 people. They were just living their lives when, out of the blue, there was an enormous volcanic eruption which rained down hot ash on the city. Many managed to escape, but 2000 people didn’t, they were buried alive. Today you can walk through the city streets and see ancient shop signs, houses, and theatres and it’s not hard to imagine that the people there had no idea when they woke up that morning on August 24th AD 79 that it would be their last day on earth.

The second coming seems all a bit like something from a Hollywood movie, something fantastic and theatrical. I think it's one of those times when the Bible uses metaphorical (or picture) language to convey to us what it will be like.

The most important thing about chapter 24 in Mathew's Gospel is to remember that it is primarily about the end of the world’s history. History is in a real sense “His Story”. The Kingdom of God came with Jesus’ Incarnation; when He lived among us. The Lord’s disciples, both then and now are citizens of two countries; we belong to this age and in the age to come. As Micheal Green puts it “”We are not what we were, but equally, we are not yet what we shall be”(1). History is steadily moving to the day when God’s Kingdom will be “Consummated”, that is achieved and fully realised. Jesus’ return will settle forever the destiny of all people. There will be no sitting on the fence, either we are with Him or we are against Him (cf. Matthew 12:30)

Our reading begins with the Lord saying:

‘But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father...’ (36)

Only the Father knows when the end will come, not even the Lord Jesus in His human nature knew, nor should we give any heed to anyone who claims they know when it will be either! There have over the centuries been many people who have tried to predict when the second coming would be. One of the most famous was a chap called John Napier, a sixteenth-century mathematician. He applied logarithms and all sorts of clever formulae he had invented and applied it to the book of Revelation (the last book of the New Testament). He then calculated that Jesus would return sometime between 1688 and 1700. His book sold like hot cakes and went into twenty-three editions - until 1701, when sales unaccountably plummeted!(2)

To help His disciples understand what His second coming would be like, the Lord Jesus then says:

For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. (37-39).

The people In Noah's day would have had a hard time believing the warnings that a great cataclysmic flood was going to sweep them away, even though Noah was building a great big Ark (as a more than subtle hint)! If they really suspected that the end was coming they would have asked Noah if they could get on board. The people in Noah’s day were just getting on with their lives, just like we do today, they were eating and drinking and marrying right up until the end. The warnings are there for us too, though we have something much greater than an Ark to find safety in, we have the Lord Jesus Christ; He is our Ark, it is through believing and trusting in Him as our Lord and Saviour that we find eternal safety and salvation.

We do not know when the end will come but the door of the Ark is still open and there is still time to get on board, why wait, we do not know how long we have, it may be tomorrow for all we know?

The Lord Jesus explains things further when He says:

Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. (40-42)

It is clear that once the final day arrives, all opportunity for repentance will be gone, the door is shut. These are very sobering verses which act as a clear warning to us. If we are not on board the Ark of Christ we shall be left behind, lost forever, there will be no second chance.
Jesus is pleading with us - ‘get on board, take my hand, quickly, now before it is too late.’

He continues:

But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour. (43-44)

Anyone that has had their house broken into will be able to relate to this. It happened to Sonja and I once, in our previous Rectory. We came back one evening to see a couple of windows broken open and saw that they had tried to break into the very strong filing cabinet in the study, making quite a mess of it in the process. Of course, if we had known what time the burglar was coming we would have been ready, we would have had all the lights on in the house and let it be obvious that we were there, so the burglar would not have bothered trying to break in. The Lord Jesus urges us to live lives of constant readiness for His return, to live in joyful hope and expectation that He is coming at an unexpected hour.

Probably most of you have heard of or read some of John Grisham’s novels, such as The Firm, Pelican Brief, and The Client. Despite his fame and wealth, Grisham makes a concerted effort to focus on things that have lasting meaning, including his faith in God. Grisham remembers, as a young law student, the remarkable advice of a friend:
“One of my best friends in college died when he was 25, just a few years after we graduated from Mississippi State University. I was in law school, and he called me one day and wanted to get together. So we had lunch, and he told me he had cancer. I couldn't believe it.
"What do you do when you realize you are about to die?" I asked.
"It's real simple," he said. "You get things right with God, and you spend as much time with those you love as you can. Then you settle up with everybody else."
Finally he said, "You know, really, you ought to live every day like you have only a few more days to live."
Grisham concludes: ‘I haven't forgotten those words’”.
Will Norton, Jr., in Christianity Today.Christian Reader, Vol. 32, no. 6.(3)

Let us make the very best use of the time we have left, because no matter who we are the time is short and will go very quickly. Let us make sure that we know Christ as our Lord and Saviour and let us make sure that we are living lives of readiness and expectancy: What would we like Jesus to find us doing when He returns? Then let us be doing that thing. Amen.



-----------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Matthew for Today, Michael Green, Hodder & Stoughton, 1999, p.229
(2) From Scripture Union Bible Notes “Closer to God”, No.12, 2001.
(3) http://preachingtoday.com/search/?type=scripture&query=Matthew%2024:36-44&start=21

Remembering to say 'thank you'.

I have not had much time for blogging recently.  I have put together several 'posts' in my head but have not got around to creating them yet.  In the meantime here's today's sermon (the usual caveats of poor grammar and bad syntax apply!)  Oh, and if I can think of a suitable photo I'll put it up later...

Text:  Luke 17:11-19

Mother Theresa told this story to a gathering in 1994: ‘One evening we went out, and we picked up four people from the street. And one of them was in a most terrible condition. I told the sisters, "You take care of the other three; I will take care of the one who looks worst."

So I did for her all that my love could do. I put her in bed, and there was such a beautiful smile on her face. She took hold of my hand as she said two words only: "Thank you." Then she died. I could not help but examine my conscience before her. And I asked: What would I say if I were in her place? And my answer was very simple. I would have tried to draw a little attention to myself. I would have said, "I am hungry, I am dying, I am in pain," or something. But she gave me much more; she gave me her grateful love. And she died with a smile on her face. Gratitude brings a smile and becomes a gift.’[1]

Gratitude brings a smile and becomes a gift.  How good are we at saying ‘thank you’?  Sometimes we forget ourselves, we are like the child with a present that tears off the wrapping paper and runs off with the new toy and forgets to say ‘thank you’ to the person who has just given them the gift!  Think of the times you have opened a door for someone and they have just breezed on through as if you were their slave and not said a word of thanks!  Do we remember to say ‘thank you’ to those who love us and care about us for all that they do, whether it be cooking us meals, washing our clothes or going out to work so that there is money to put food on the table? 

In our reading from Luke’s gospel, we see that the Lord Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem.  He is journeying towards that city where He will be crucified and where He will rise again.  He is on his way to die for my sins and yours.  As He does so he comes into a village where there is a colony of ten men who have Leprosy.  Leprosy in those days was the number-one dreaded disease.  Today we fear Cancer and we fear Heart Disease, in those days they dreaded Leprosy, a disease that was (and is) caused by a bacteria.   Pale patches on the skin were usually the first sign of the disease then other complications occurred as the disease progressed. Numbness and lack of feeling in the limbs often led to festering wounds on the hands and feet, and then to the characteristic deformities of the face and limbs. This led to stigma towards those affected and their families, causing them to be shunned and excluded from everyday life.[2] 

So these ten men that the Lord comes across are living in isolation, away from their wives and children, away from their community.  They must be very lonely; it would be an awful existence.  They call out to Jesus:

‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ (v13)

Jesus’ reply doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to us at first, so lets have a look at it.  He says:

‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ (v14)

Back then, the way that it worked was that if a persons leprosy went into remission, if they were healed then they would have to go back to the priest before they could be declared clean and fit to live in their community once more.  So the Lord is not beating about the bush here.  He does not deliver a sermon, pass round the collection plate  and then pray for their healing.  He simply tells them to go to the priest.  All ten men knew what Jesus was saying and so they did as He told them.  Not one of them said, “Yeah right, I don’t believe you.”  All ten had faith in Jesus, because it was not until they responded in faith that they were healed.  Luke puts it like this: 

And as they went, they were made clean. (v15)

Now, like the child who in their excitement forgets to say ‘thank you’ for the birthday present, the men run off.  They have been imprisoned with this disease for so long, they can’t wait to get home, to see their wives and children.  They never thought they would see their homes again and yet here they are, healed and made whole.  Wouldn’t that be the most wonderful thing?  Would you not just run and shout and jump for joy? 

But only one man remembers to thank the Lord Jesus.  He falls at Jesus’ feet and thanks Him.  This man is grateful.  Then Luke drops the bombshell - this man was a Samaritan! The Jewish people and the Samaritans hated each other.  From a Jewish perspective the Samaritans were unclean, although originally Jews, their ancestors had intermarried with Gentiles, they had their own temple and style of worship and they were outcasts.  This man was not a member of the Select Vestry, he was not even a member of the General Vestry, his name was not even on the Parish list!  He was an outsider.  But Jesus came to save any who would come to him, Jew, Samaritan, Gentile, any who would respond to Him in repentance and faith. It should have been the insiders who said thank you to Jesus, but they ran off, they took Jesus for granted and off they went. 

¹⁷Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? ¹⁸Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’¹⁹Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’

Why do we do it?  Why do we take God for granted?  If we are honest, we find a pattern as we examine our lives and our relationship with God.  We see that there are times when we are thankful, when we do pray and when we do worship with fervent hearts.  We have no problem showing our gratitude.  But there will be other times, perhaps the majority of the time when we do not.  We just cruise though life, hardly praying, hardly worshipping, hardly showing any gratitude at all.  Then Bang! Something goes wrong, we get bad news from the doctor or from our employer or from a relative or friend and we are back on our knees praying with all our heart once again.  A few days, weeks, months later, the problem has passed, the prayers have been answered and what do we do, we slowly fade in our daily devotion to God, slowly, but surely His Lordship of our life slips and downwards we go until something else happens.  How do we solve this?  One word:  Discipline.  We make sure that we have a regular time and a regular place of prayer and Bible study, preferably in the same place, so that that chair or that room or that part of the garden becomes our sacred space.  We do this even and especially when we don’t feel like it.  Don’t just pray when you want to, pray when you don’t want to.  Don’t just say ‘thank you’ to Jesus when it is easy, say ‘thank you’ to Jesus when it is not easy. 

Pastor Rinkhart[3] was a Minister of a church in Prussia from 1619 to 1649, during the Thirty Years War[4].  From the year the war began until the year the war ended, he was the minister in the same walled city.  Many refugees from the war flocked into his city to find safety inside as the battles raged around them.  His town was overrun with poverty, the plague, and all the perils of war.  It was awful.  It was hell on earth.  By the end of the thirty years war he was the only minister left in town alive; all the other clergy had died, so he alone was to bury the plagued villages and refugees from war. Somewhere in the middle of all of that suffering, he wrote a hymn, “Now, thank we all our God; with hearts and hands and voices; who wondrous things hath done; in whom this world rejoices.  Who from our mother’s arms, has blessed us on our way, with countless gifts of love and still is ours today.”  Incredible, isn’t it amazing that he was able to be so thankful in the midst of such suffering because he kept his eyes on the Lord Jesus.  It is a great miracle when the human heart is healed of ingratitude, when we can be filled with daily thanksgiving .....to God and others..... for God’s countless gifts of love.

Let us pray:

Lord Jesus, I lay myself at your feet and with all my heart I thank you for all that you have done in my life.  I thank you for forgiving me; I thank you for saving me, for loving me and for washing me clean.  Help me Lord to follow you, teach me to be your disciple and to show you how very thankful I am by living my life, all of my life everyday … for You. Amen. 

Hymn 361: “Now Thank We All Our God”

---

[1] http://preachingtoday.com/illustrations/1998/july/4146.html

[2] http://www.ilep.org.uk/facts-about-leprosy/

[3] http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_c_where_are_the_other_nine.htm

[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirty_Years'_War

Encouragement for the journey

(Photo from the Sheep's Head walk for Christian Aid last month)

A couple of people actually read last weeks effort, so for anyone that may be interested, here is this mornings sermon.

Text:  2 Timothy 1:1-14

Have you ever watched or taken part in a long distance endurance test, you know something like a sponsored walk from Malin Head to Mizen Head, a cross-channel swim, the Cork, Dublin or London Marathon, or crossing the Himalayas on a pogo stick!?  One of the things that they all have in common (apart from making the participants very tired) is that they all have support teams.  There will be a crew of people backing up the walkers, providing food, drink and perhaps shelter.  There may also be a crowd along the way, clapping and cheering as the participants pass by, giving encouragement “well done”, “keep going”, “Only 4000 Kilometres to go” and so on. 

The Christian life is in many ways a bit like a long endurance race.  We will sometimes find the going tough, we may even want to give up, drop out completely or hail a taxi to take us to the finish line!  One of the things that makes it easier is when we encourage one another.  I just love it when I hear that happening, when you take the time and the effort to look after your fellow travellers and ask how they are doing and help them in different ways, encourage them to persevere and pray for them.  This is one of the reasons why the Tuesday morning and Thursday evening groups work so well for those that take part; they are places of encouragement.  People always come away encouraged and built up in their faith. 

As we look at the reading today from 2 Timothy, we see that Timothy, a young church leader has a very tough job to do.  Without support, it would be fair to say that Timothy would not have lasted the distance, yet the letters he receives from the Apostle Paul (who is in prison in Rome), spur him on and, with the help of the Holy Spirit, he is given the power and energy and strength to persevere. 

Right in the first verse, Paul puts the Gospel in a nutshell; it is “the promise of life”.  Outside of what Jesus did for us upon the cross there is no promise of life.  Without Christ we are completely lost and without any hope, yet the gift of God is forgiveness and eternal life.

Then in verse 3, Paul writes: 

I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. 

Wow, Imagine that, having the Apostle Paul pray for you, wouldn’t that be great!  Perhaps we underestimate the importance of praying for each other.  I cannot tell you how grateful I am for your prayers for my family and for me “Please Lord help Daniel with his work, help him to get round all the visits he needs to do, get to all the meetings he needs to be at and let his sermon not be so long this week Amen!”  Let us always pray for each other, for our family members, friends and even people whom we don’t know.  I’m sure that in heaven we will be stunned at the effect our prayers had in the purposes of God’s Kingdom, how God used our weakness to perform mighty acts of greatness.  Never underestimate the power of prayer. 

Timothy came from a godly home.  Paul writes that

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, lives in you.  (v 5)

The love of Jesus was there in Timothy’s younger days.  He saw how important this faith was to his grandmother and mother.  Timothy grew up in the Lord.  How important it is for us to make sure that our children ‘grow up in the Lord’, that we show them a godly example of how to live and that we teach them to pray and teach them to read the Bible and show them how to be godly, to be loving to others, to be forgiving and gentle, yet strong in faith and courage.  I know how difficult this is and we can only begin to do it with God’s help, but I am convinced that all the effort that we put into trying to bring up our children to know and love the Lord Jesus will not be in vain.  Our children may not turn out the way we want them to, but if they can just acknowledge God in their life then ultimately that is all that matters. 

As the weather begins to turn cold once more some of you may have already lit your first fire for several months.  Some people just seem to have a gift when it comes to lighting a fire.  Many times I have a fire all set, I have a good amount of dry kindling and newspaper and it is all looking good.  I light the match and it all starts off well, the fire roars into life then in no time at all the flame dies down and there is just a bit of smoke hanging on and it is all looking rather pathetic.  Then Sonja comes in, gives me a look of pity, and in less than a minute I have to stand back because the heat of the fire is so great! 

The Apostle Paul likens Timothy’s spiritual gift to a fire.  He says:  

 I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the laying on of my hands; ⁷for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. (6b, 7)

We don’t know especially what Timothy’s gift is, but the same truth applies to us also.  What gifts do you have?  What has God made you good at?  Gifts tend to fade in strength when they are not used or encouraged, so whatever gift you have make sure you use it and when you do, give all the credit and glory to God, because a gift is just that, a gift.  There are lots of people at the moment helping to make the Alpha course we are doing go so well, including those with the gift of hospitality.  They are using that gift so well that the Grace Centre feels such a welcoming and homely place (not to mention the fact that I have probably put on half a stone since the course has started)! 

It seems that Timothy was (understandably) a bit overawed by the responsibilities entrusted to him.  Ephesus was a city where few people had any sympathy for Christ; there was much persecution and opposition to the Christians there.  Paul reminds Timothy to rekindle, to get the fire going again, to be strong in the Lord, not to rely on his own strength and power, but Gods strength and power.  The word ‘cowardice’ in the Greek means someone who flees from the battle, who will not stand up to the fight.  How often has this been true of us, that we have not spoken up when we should have done?  How often have we neglected to tell someone of God’s love and forgiveness, how often have we fled from the battle?  I can think of many times when I should have spoken up on something but didn’t, so I am encouraged by this verse and I hope you are too; God did not give us a spirit of cowardice but a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline. 

We know that in our own strength we are simply not able, we do not have the ability to use our God-given gifts, we are naturally cowards who run away from the battle, we are lacking in love and we have the self-discipline of a sloth!  Verse 8 though gives us the answer:

‘…relying on the power of God’ 

That’s it, that’s the secret.  Relying on the power of God.  Have you ever run out of petrol and had to push your car?  It’s not easy is it?  It is possible (especially with a bit of help) to move the car, but it will move very slowly and only for a short distance.  When we do not rely on the power of God it is like we are running on empty!  We need His power and we get this power when we surrender to Him, when we hand over control of our lives to Him.  Let us pray:

Here I am Lord, I give you everything, my whole life and all that I am.  All my plans, wishes and desires I give to you.  Leave no stone unturned.  Lord, please heal me of my selfishness and forgive me for the countless times I have sinned.  Cleanse me through the power of the cross, wash me from the inside out.  Lord I am yours, use me for the glory of your name and by your grace to make a real difference in this world for you.  Fill me with your Spirit that I may not be afraid to speak about you and to help people in your name, to live out the gospel everyday in all that I say and all that I do and I ask this in the name of your Son, my Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen. 

The Rich Man and Lazarus

Encouraged by a recent post from "Rev Garibaldi McFlurry", I'd thought I'd post a sermon, as I haven't done so in quite a while.  There's good reason for this (frankly it's just too embarrassing - I know that I'm not a great writer, my grasp of English grammar must make people who can actually write wince with pain, and also the written sermon differs quite a lot from the one that I actually end up speaking in church.)  But anyway here's the one I will be delivering later this morning (God help the congregation!).

Text: Luke 16:19-31 "The Rich man and Lazarus"

Hell is quite unfashionable these days.  There was a time of course when preachers, usually with wild hair and staring eyes, would thump on pulpits and declare damnation with vivid descriptions of fire and torture and eternal hopelessness.  Of course that would be sooo politically incorrect today, we talk a lot about heaven and salvation but very little about final rejection by God and the eternal punishment that results.  Many Christians today just choose to ignore the subject or believe that a good and loving God would never allow such a place to exist.  Others think that surely hell must just be for a time; it surely can’t be for eternity can it? 

The Lord Jesus actually had quite a lot to say on the subject of hell, and one of the better-known passages includes our reading for this morning from Luke’s gospel.  He starts off by saying:

‘There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 

There is of course nothing wrong with being rich, Abraham and Jospeh of Arimathea were rich; it is what one does with ones wealth that matters.  The rich man in this parable liked dressing up; purple cloth in those days was usually reserved for royalty because it was so expensive, the purple dye was extracted from shellfish and was a very expensive process.  This was the kind of man who might be described as “filthy rich” (Hendriksen New Testament Commentary, Luke, Banner of Truth 1997, p.782), a strutting peacock.  He wanted everyone to know that he was rich.  He was in love … with himself! 

Jesus continues:

²⁰And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, ²¹who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores. 

Here is the test for the rich man, to see if there is any kind of compassion in him or is he TOTALLY selfish!  A poor man, called Lazarus lies at the gate to the rich mans mansion.  The name ‘Lazarus’ means, “God has helped”, but not only was he a beggar, totally unable to provide for himself, he was covered in sores also.  The poor man would have been happy even to receive the scraps, the leftovers from the rich mans table, but the rich man did not help him in any way, he continued living only for himself.  Lazarus’ condition was so bad that even dogs used to come and lick his wounds.   

We then learn that:

²²The poor man died and was carried away by the angels to be with Abraham.  The rich man also died and was buried.

The beggar’s misery had ended at last, we don’t even get any details of his burial, it probably was very short and sad. Yet what happened to his soul was far more important, he was carried by Angels, God’s own messengers to be with Abraham.  The rich man however had a burial, it was probably a big funeral with lots of important guests and a lavish ceremony.  His tomb was probably in an important and prominent place.  What happened to his soul though was far more important, we are not told what happened to him, no angels are mentioned, but his final destination we are told is: 

 ²³In Hades, where he was being tormented, he looked up and saw Abraham far away with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴He called out, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in agony in these flames.” 

“Hades” is the Greek work for the place of the dead.  Here it clearly is hell, the place of torment and flame.  However, the descriptions that we are given are not meant to be taken literally, but that does not take away from the fact that certain definite truths about the life hereafter are conveyed to us; those who have died are not asleep but awake and of those who have died, some are saved and some are lost.  Another more disturbing truth conveyed is that the destination of the dead is final, there is no second chance, no crossing over from hell to heaven or vice versa. 

We are not given much detail, other that the rich man is in torment, he cries out in agony in the flames.  But how can hell be a place fire and a place of darkness?  Clearly these are indicative of the terrors of hell and perhaps the truth is beyond the ability of our language to tell.  

The rich man calls out to Abraham for help, but Abraham reminds him that he received the good things in his life on earth, the implication being that he is receiving his punishment now because all he could think of in his life was himself and he did not care at all for his fellow man or for God.  And then what makes help further impossible is the great chasm between the place where Abraham and Lazarus are and where the rich man is, there is simply no way to get across. 

In desperation then the rich man pleads for his five brothers, that someone would go and warn them so that they would not end up in hell also.  At last the rich man is thinking of someone other than himself (though it is too little, too late). 

Abraham replies:

 “They have Moses and the prophets; they should listen to them.” 

To which the rich man responds:

“No, father Abraham; but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.”³¹He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” ’

And of course someone did rise from the dead, the Lord Jesus, and many refused and to this day continue to refuse his offer of salvation, which He won on the cross, to all who would come to him in repentance and faith. 

A few weeks ago this kept me awake most of the night.  I was basically trying to have an argument with God.  I could not get my head around the idea that hell is for eternity.  I reasoned that no matter how bad a person is in this life, no matter what crimes they commit, they of course deserve a punishment for those sins.  I could understand better if that punishment was in proportion to the crime, so a person could be in hell for the duration of their punishment, whether that was a year, a hundred years or a million years.  And it is very tempting to believe in such a thing, that is one of the reasons people believe in purgatory or annihilation- it is much easier to believe in these things than hell for eternity, a never ending permanent jail sentence.  After many hours of wrestling with this I fell into a short and uneasy sleep.  It was still troubling me the next day and for several days afterwards.  I read a lot of chapters of theology books on the subject and of course read a lot of Bible passages too.  I came to the following conclusion:  That the Bible is correct, that God is love, yes, but He is also a God of truth and justice.  I don’t like the idea of hell, who would?!  But just because I don’t like it, I don’t have the option to stop believing in it.  Somebody who is walking towards the edge of a cliff might choose to believe that there is no fall ahead of them, but that does not stop the fall from happening when they take the step over the edge!  We can choose not to believe in hell or pretend that it doesn’t exist, or object to it on philosophical grounds, but what help will that be?  Surely the best thing we can do is try to warn people – yes they will probably think we are mad, but what a small price to pay that is if it makes a difference.  How much do we pray for those we know (and even those we don’t) who do not know the reality of Christ in their lives?  How often have we begged and pleaded with God with tears in our eyes for those whom we love who we so desperately want to be saved? 

A mother once came to me and asked me to pray for her sons.   There were tears in her eyes as she spoke of them and the kind of lives they were living.  As she spoke I remembered the story of St. Augustine, one of the greatest Christians in history.  Augustine was a fairly wild and ungodly youth.  His Mother, Monica despaired, she went and pleaded with the local priest to try and get him to talk some sense into her son.  He said to her, “… it cannot be that the son of these tears should perish.”  For Monica it was the encouragement that she needed and she didn’t give up praying for her son.  in later years she often recalled with him how she had taken these words as if they had sounded from heaven. 

Let’s pray … Amen.  

A Precious Perfume

Note: I don't have any pictures of Spikenard, so this Lavender photo that I took at the Eden Project a few years ago (that I have Ortonized in Photoshop Elements) will have to do ;~)

Today's Sermon: John 12:1-8

What is the most precious object that you own? How special is it to you? Would you be prepared to give it away in order to say 'thank you' to Jesus? That's a tough one isn't it! Not long after we were married, my wife and I were given a car by some friends of ours - it was a fairly old car though it was in good condition. It was an amazing act of undeserved favour - our friends had very little money and they wanted to give something that not only would be of great help to us but would be a way of saying 'thank you' to God for the many ways in which he had blessed them. To this day, that couple and their children are amongst the happiest people we know. It's a principle that I see time and time again, that the happiest people are also the most generous people and of course the reverse is true also, the more we try and hold on to things for ourselves the less happy we will be.

In today's reading from John's Gospel, the Lord Jesus is welcomed as Guest of honour at the home of Lazarus, Mary and Martha. We know Mary and Martha from the time when Jesus went to their house before and Martha was rushing around preparing food and tidying whilst Mary sat at Jesus' feet and listened to what he had to say. Of course we remember too the story of Lazarus, where Jesus raised him from the dead after he had been in the tomb for four days.

So they have this special dinner for Jesus and there are a number of other guests there also. True to form, it is the busy Martha that serves them and John tells us casually that Lazarus was one of those sat around the table with Jesus. It's funny how relaxed it all is, here is a man who was dead and in his tomb and yet now he is alive again. He is not a ghost or some kind of apparition, he is able to sit down and walk around and breathe and talk and eat! Lazarus is a walking talking miracle!

Mary, Martha and Lazarus love Jesus. People express their love for Jesus in different ways. The way that Mary expresses her love is very special and beautiful. She expresses her love and gratitude to Jesus using a pound (that is nearly half a kilogram) of perfume made of pure nard. Now Nard (or Spikenard as it is sometimes called) is no ordinary perfume. It is a flowering plant of the Valerian family that grows in the Himalayas of China, India and Nepal. The plant grows to about 1 metre in height and has pink, bell-shaped flowers. It has rhizomes (underground stems), which can be crushed and distilled into an intensely aromatic amber-colored essential oil, which is very thick in consistency (from Wikipedia). So imagine in those days getting a perfume from the Himalayas overland on camel-back thorough countless mountain passes some 3,500 miles to Israel! No wonder it was a very expensive and very precious perfume.

In those days the men would have eaten separately from the women and they would have been inclined on couches around a low table. Mary is probably standing as an attendant, she comes from behind Jesus and breaking open an alabaster jar pours this very precious oil over him and especially on his feet. She then unties her hair and wipes Jesus’ feet. There is such an abundance of oil that it has to be dried up!

This is a truly wonderful act of worship. Mary doesn’t care about what the other guests might think as she pours out her heart and her soul and her most expensive possession as an act of worship. It is wonderful when we can do that too, when we can worship Jesus with every ounce of our being and not let any inhibitions get in the way.

The moment of transcendence is broken by the voice of Judas who says:

“Why was the perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” (v.5)

A legitimate question perhaps. This was after all very expensive perfume. I did a bit of maths. A Denarius was the amount a laborer was given for a days work. So the minimum wage today is €8.65 an hour so say at 37 hours a week and with six weeks unpaid holiday a year that is roughly €14,000 in today’s money. That was one very expensive jar of perfume and one very extravagant act of worship! To Judas this looks like unjustifiable extravagance. He gives the impression that he cares for the poor but John sadly tells us that he was, in fact a thief.

So Mary is now surrounded by disapproval, Mark tells us in his account that others joined in Judas’ indignance. Yet amid all those stern faces and mocking tones there is One face and One voice which approves of what Mary has done - and it is the only voice which matters, that of the Lord Himself. Jesus knows why Mary did this incredible thing, he says:

“Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” (v.8)

Mary knew what she was doing. She knew that there were many who wanted to kill Jesus, many who were jealous of Him. She knew that it was only a matter of time before He was killed by His enemies – had He not said so Himself numerous times? She had bought this jar to anoint Jesus’ body for burial. This might be her last chance to do so, her last opportunity; she might not be able to get this close to him again. Mary knows that she owes so much to Jesus; she owes him her salvation and the recovery of her brother Lazarus from the dead. Her whole life has been utterly transformed by Jesus, the pouring out of fragrant perfume was both a natural and from the heart act of devotion and worship. Having freely received, she freely gave.

Jesus makes it clear that His time is coming to an end. The poor will always be with them, He would not. Just now, at this moment, anointing Him for burial was the more important thing to do. The responsibility and privilege of caring for the poor would be for the church through the ages. Matthew and Mark in their accounts of this story add Jesus’ beautiful promise:

“I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” (Matthew 26:13)

There is an unfortunate contrast between Judas and Mary. It is natural for the reader or listener of the story to ask themselves the question as to which character most represents them. Unless we can appreciate what Christ has done for us we can have no sense of the level of debt that we owe Him. Even if we were the able to give the whole world and all its riches it would not be sufficient to pay the debt we owe. When the penny drops, when we finally realize, then we will hold back nothing from the One who gave His everything, even His life for us upon the cross.

So as we consider our possessions and the most precious things that we own, suddenly they don’t seem so valuable any more. How can we not love Jesus? How can we not feel as Mary did when we know that our sins are forgiven, when we know that we have peace with God when we know that we shall be with Him in heaven for eternity?!

Let us pray that our faith will not be like that of Judas, a mere temporary impression, like the morning cloud and early dew which lasts only for a season. Let us pray that our faith will be like that of Mary: real, true, genuine and sincere, a faith free to express itself, not caring what others will say or think, a faith that is the result of accepting God’s love, God’s grace, and a faith that is the result of a living relationship with our Lord, Saviour, Master and Friend, Jesus Christ, Amen.



--------------------------------
See also:

J.C. Ryle, “Expository Thoughts on the Gospels”, John Volume II, James Clarke & Co. 1969.
William Hendriksen, New Testament Commentary, John, Banner of Truth Press, 1998

The return of the "Prodigal Son"

Nikon D70s, 1/500 sec, f10, -1/3 EV ISO 200 (Bigger)

"Waiting on Shore", Rosses Point, Co. Sligo

Today's Sermon, Text Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32 (Mothering Sunday)

Facebook is sometimes in the news for bad reasons but there is also plenty about it that is good too. One of the good things about it is that it brings people who had lost contact together again. Here’s an example: When Avril Grube's marriage came to an end in 1982, she decided to remain in her hometown of Poole in Dorset, while her husband returned to his native country of Hungary. The couple had one son, Gavin, of whom Avril was awarded sole custody. Avril's husband was only given visitation rights.

One day, while in town to visit his son, Avril's ex-husband asked to take Gavin to the local zoo. Avril agreed, and off the two went for a day of fun. As day turned into night, however, Avril became worried. She waited and waited for them to return, but they never did. She would soon learn that Gavin's father had taken the boy back to Hungary.

For years Avril and her sister searched for Gavin, going so far as to take up their case with former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the authorities at the Hungarian Embassy. But their efforts were fruitless. Over time, Avril slowly lost hope of ever seeing her son again.

But 27 years later—27 years—she found him.

In March of 2009, Avril's sister typed Gavin's name into an internet search engine and found his Facebook profile. Avril and her sister immediately started sending him messages. When Gavin didn't respond—they later learned he doesn't use his account much—they started messaging his children, who also had Facebook accounts. Eventually, the two finally reconnected after so many years apart.

"She is absolutely on cloud nine," Avril's sister told a reporter for the BBC. "They have been hugging—really, really happy."

Brian Lowery, managing editor, PreachingToday.com; source: BBC News, "'Kidnapped son' found on Facebook" (5-29-09)

The parable of the ‘Prodigal Son’, (as it is often known), is probably familiar to most of us. It is a very powerful, moving and challenging story about a Father and his two sons. This being Mothers’ Day, it is not too hard to apply the role of the Father to that of the Mother also. Most parents of grown-up children will be able to relate (at least a little) to what the Father goes through, and all of us (as God’s children) know what it is like (at least a little bit) to be like that ‘Prodigal son’. The older son is typical, taking responsibility and protocol seriously and the younger son too is typical (perhaps stereotypical) as carefree and with little or no understanding of duty or respect.

So we begin with the younger son saying to his father ‘give me my share of the estate’. He wants his inheritance NOW! He is naive and has little or no sense of worth or respect. He seems to be only thinking about himself and what he wants. Why does the Father agree to this very unusual request? Perhaps we wonder why God lets the sinner go his or her own way. Why doesn’t God stop them, we ask? Perhaps sometimes the only way we can learn is by learning the hard way.

So the property is divided between the two sons. The younger son collects together everything he has and sets off for a distant country. What does he do? We are simply told that he ‘squandered his wealth in wild living.’ In the original language it reads that he ‘scattered his resources’, it is like he literally throws his money away. Now he is penniless things get even worse. A severe famine comes over the foreign country where he is. Desperate for a job, the only thing he can find is one feeding pigs (a job that would have been very dishonouring for a Jew, for whom pigs were ‘unclean’ (see Leviticus 11:7)). So he has hit rock bottom, even the food that the pigs are getting is better than what he has. Here is the lostness of a sinner - but at least he realises it, many people today are lost and do not realise it.

At last, in the hour of his deepest need, he begins to come to his senses. Even his Fathers servants have a much better life. To be outside of God’s family is to be utterly alone. So he makes plans to return home. It was only a short time ago that he couldn’t wait to get away from home, now he can’t wait to return, no matter if he is only hired as a slave when he gets there.

He has a thin thread of hope that his Father will take him on a a slave, perhaps after a severe telling-off and punishment. Little did he know what was about to happen. He might have for a time forgotten all about his Father, but his Father never forgot about him. There may have been times in our lives when we have forgotten all about God as we have gone away from Him, but he never forgets about us.

But the son doesn’t even get near his home before something extraordinary happens. The Father couldn’t care about protocol, with unconditional loving abandonment, not caring what anyone else thinks or says he runs, yes he runs to his son. His heart is overflowing with love and compassion. He drapes his arms around his child and kisses him. The son manages to begin his long-rehearsed apology which no doubt is now from his heart but his Father doesn’t notice it - he is too overcome with joy.

You know, I have met people who think that God can’t or won’t forgive them. People often see God as stern, an old serious man with a white beard and a pointing finger. This is very different to the Father that Jesus told us about, who actively seeks out the sinner and goes looking for the lost, or as Francis Thompson describes him in his famous poem, He is “the Hound of Heaven”.

The celebration begins. The Father calls for the best robe to be brought and a ring and sandals, for the fattened calf to be killed and for a celebration to begin. O what rejoicing there is in heaven Jesus tells us over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:7). What celebration there was in heaven the day you gave your life to Christ / what celebration there will be for you the day you decide to give your life to Christ if you haven’t yet done so.

The elder son had been working in the fields. He hears all the music and dancing and wonders what is going on. A servant tells him that his younger brother has come home and they have killed the fatted calf and are celebrating.

The elder brother is enraged. He refuses to go to the party. His Father comes out and pleads with him. Here is a great irony. The son who was on the outside (the younger son, is now on the inside and the son who was on the inside (the elder son) is now on the outside! This is what Jesus means when He talks about the first being last and the last being first. Where are we on that scale - Do we resent God for forgiving those who we think we are better than? God will lavish His grace on the undeserving and that included us - none of us deserve God’s love, none of us are ‘good enough’ to ‘earn’ His forgiveness. Who are we to think like the older brother - and yet we do - and if we do we need to be careful, very careful.

The Father explains to the elder son that there is no need to be angry, everything he has belongs to him. The elder son has always had reason to celebrate because everything will one day be his. One of the things that makes this such a powerful parable is that the story is left hanging - we don’t know what the elder brothers response is. Of course the whole point is to provoke a response from us - what would we do in his place?

God’s grace is unfair and that means it is is unfair for us all. We don’t deserve God’s love, we don’t deserve His forgiveness. Yet once we experience it, who are we to question who God should forgive.

God’s open arms extend to all who will come to Him, they are open for you, for me and for anyone who will turn around from their old way of life. All of us are in this parable somewhere, are we the younger brother before he leaves home, are we the younger brother who has gone away are we the younger brother who is at last beginning to come to his senses? Are we the younger brother fearful of what the Father will say, are we afraid to go home? Are we the older brother? Do we have a superiority complex!? Do we think of ourselves better than we ought? Whoever we are and wherever we are we need to come to the Father and trust that when we do so it will have been the best and most important decision we have ever made... Amen.

Waiting for Salvation

High Cross in Castlefreke Woods, Co. Cork
Olympus OM-1, G.Zuiko 50mm f1.4, Ilford HP5 plus (ISO 400)

Sermon for Today. Luke 2:22-40.

What’s the longest you’ve ever had to wait for something? Maybe we have waited a long time in a queue to buy something we really wanted, maybe we have waited a long time to receive a letter, perhaps with good news in it. Maybe we were sick and we had to wait a long time to get better. Maybe we had to wait a long time for someone to return who had gone away. Life is full of waiting and some of us are better at it than others. In today’s reading from Luke chapter 2 we come across the joy of a man and a woman who had waited their whole lives for something and now finally in their old age it had happened.

Joseph and Mary were bringing the baby Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem. In Jewish life there were three ceremonies that occurred after a child was born. If it was a boy the first of these was circumcision, which happened on the eighth day after birth. This act symbolised the Jews’ separation from Gentiles and their unique relationship with God, it was a time of joy when friends and family members celebrated the baby’s becoming part of God’s covenant nation, (not unlike our baptism of infants in the church today). The second ceremony was the “Redemption of the firstborn”. A firstborn son was presented to God one month after birth. The ceremony included buying back or redeeming the child from God through an offering. The point of this was for the parents to acknowledge that the child belonged to God, who alone has the power to give life. The third ceremony was the "Purification of the mother". For forty days after the birth of a son and eighty days after the birth of a daughter, the mother was ceremonially unclean and could not enter the temple. At the end of this time, the parents were to bring a lamb for a burnt offering and a dove or a pigeon for a sin offering. The priest would sacrifice these animals and declare the mother to be clean. If a lamb was too expensive, the parents could bring a second dove or pigeon instead. This is what Mary and Joseph did.

So there are Mary and Joseph, with Jesus at the Temple, for Mary’s purification, when they come across an old man called Simeon. Simeon had been waiting for many years for this day. God had made a promise to Simeon that he would not die before he had seen Christ, the Messiah, the Saviour. Simeon was now old, but he had never lost hope. He had nurtured a vision for years, perhaps wondering at times if it was just a dream or wishful thinking. Then one day, he lifts up his eyes in the Temple, he sees a young couple with a baby, and no longer doubts, but knows in his heart that what God said would happen is indeed happening.

Luke tells us that Simeon is both righteous and devout. He is a good man, he lives his life is such a way as would be a good example to all and he is totally committed to God in his heart, mind, soul and strength.

We are told that Simeon was waiting for “the consolation of Israel” (v.25), a strange phrase, what does it mean? In the Message translation, this phrase reads that Simeon was a man who “lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel”. Things were really not that great for the people of Israel at this time. Thanks to the Romans, they had lost their political independence, (though King Herod was still allowed to reign over them in cruelty). Thanks to the scribes and the Pharisees, the Jewish religion had become more about outward show and religious ritual than an internal change of heart. Yet there were godly men and women like Simeon, Anna and many more who were eagerly waiting for God to come and rescue them. Simeon knew that time had come as soon as he saw Jesus.

Simeon takes the child Jesus in his arms and utters his timeless words, inspired by the Holy Spirit and known to many as the Nunc Dimittis (the first words of the Latin translation):

‘Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.’

Simeon’s heart is flooded with thanksgiving and praise. He thanks God for what this child means to him personally and for what it means for all people, both Jew and for Gentile. As far as Simeon is concerned, he is ready to die because that which he has longed for for many years has come to pass. The saviour is here and he has seen and held Salvation in his arms!

Simeon declares that Jesus is a “Light for revelation to the Gentiles”. Now to those who had no knowledge of God, who were living in darkness, the Light of Salvation has come. Jesus also brings “glory” to Israel because they above all nations were the ones chosen by God for the purpose of spreading the true religion among the nations of the world and selected to be the people among whom the Christ would be born.

What Simeon said about Jesus amazed Joseph and Mary. Of course the angel Gabriel and the Shepherds had previously said wonderful things about this child, but these earlier messages did not include anything so specific about the significance of this child for both Gentiles and Israel.

Simeon then prays a prayer of blessing over Mary and Joseph and says something to Mary that must not have been too easy for them to hear:

‘This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.’

When people encountered Jesus, there would be no sitting on the fence. He would be the great divider, as William Hendriksen puts it, “a person’s relation or attitude towards Jesus would be absolutely decisive of his eternal destiny.”(William Hendriksen, The Gospel of Luke, Banner of Truth Trust, 1978, p.170)

Where we will exist in eternity is 100% determined by our attitude towards Jesus, he is after all the way, the truth and the life, and no one can come to the Father except by Him (John 14).

I’m sure that Mary in particular would have come back to Simeon’s words many times over the course of her life. In the moment of her deepest agony, when Jesus hung on the cross these words would have provided a measure of comfort that in fact God was in control and it was indeed part of His great plan for the Salvation of all who would come to Him in repentance and faith. Of course, upon Jesus’ resurrection these words would have led to an even greater strengthening of Mary’s faith as her heart was filled with joy and worship.

Our reading concludes with a short piece about Anna, an elderly widow and prophet. She had practically lived at the temple for many years, fasting and praying night and day. Like Simeon she had waited and waited and waited for God to do something. She had not given up hope, she had prayed and fasted and then one day she saw the answer to her prayer and suddenly her heart was filled with praise. Imagine her joy as she watches the scene with Simeon holding Jesus aloft and uttering those famous words. Anna is filled with gratitude to God and she cannot help talking about it.

Simeon and Anna and many others had to wait a long time for Jesus to come. When He did come they recognised Him immediately and their lives were never the same again. The good news is that we don’t have to wait, Jesus is alive and through the presence of the Holy Spirit He is here with us now. Like Anna, like Simeon it is important that we recognise Him, that we worship Him and that we acknowledge Him as our Lord and our Saviour, our master and our God. One of the names by which Jesus is known in the Bible is Emmanuel, which means 'God with us'. We do not have a far away remote god, we have a God who is intimately present at every moment, who understands and knows us, who ‘perceives our thoughts from afar’ and who ‘knit us together in our mothers womb’ (Psalm 139).

Do you know Jesus? Is He the most important Person in your life? Do you acknowledge Him as your Lord and your Saviour? Now is not the time for waiting, now is the time for receiving Him. Amen.

What must I do to inherit eternal life?

Haven't posted a sermon in a while so thought I'd post one today, just so you know that I still do write them ;-)

Mark 10:17-31

Sometimes the words of Jesus are very difficult to accept. When they are we need to have the courage not to run away and pretend we never heard or read them but to face them head on and WITH HIS HELP seek ways that we can let Him transform us into the person He made us to be. Hopefully this will become clearer in a few minutes.

At the Prep school I attended there were a number of boys who had very wealthy parents. On a Sunday evening when we were brought back to school by our parents after a weekend at home, there was an expectation on the parents to come to the evening chapel service, which most did. We had a very godly School Chaplain and I remember one evening he spoke on the passage of scripture that we have for our Gospel reading for this morning, about the rich young man and the bit about how it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Thereafter, there were a few parents who no longer came to chapel when dropping their sons off on a Sunday evening. I happened to be there when the chaplain quietly asked some of the boys why their parents no longer came. One of them replied that it was because of his teaching that rich people can’t go to heaven!

Of course there will be many rich people in heaven! What Jesus is teaching is something more subtle than simply how wealthy we are, He is warning us to have a correct attitude to wealth and possessions. Money should not be more important to us than God and money should not be more important to us than helping our fellow human beings in need.

The rich young man in our Bible reading falls on his knees before Jesus and says:
“Good teacher … what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

In response the Lord gives him a summary of the Commandments: ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, do not defraud, honour your Father and Mother.’

To be honest, I find it hard to believe the man when he responds to Jesus, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.”

Jesus though looks at the man and loves him, “One thing you lack,” he said, “Go sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me”.

God can ask us to do some very uncomfortable and very difficult things but when He does so, we can be sure that we will get infinitely more back from Him then we could ever give up.

I think we can have a lot of sympathy for the man at this point. In response to what Jesus asks of him, his face falls and he goes away sad because he had great wealth.

J.C. Ryle describes Jesus’ attitude towards this rich young man wonderfully. He writes:
“Just as we look with sorrow at some noble ruin, roofless and shattered, and unfit for man’s use, yet showing many a mark of the skill with which it was designed and reared at first, so we may suppose that Jesus looked with tender concern at this man’s soul.”(1)

I suppose it’s not hard for us to imagine Jesus looking at us like that too. He looks at us with a great deal of love, mercy and compassion, yet like a ruined house he sees that we are far from a completed work and there is so much that needs to be changed and transformed in our life, so much renovation is required. We are indeed ‘human becomings’(2) and it is up to us whether we let the Great Builder work away at our hearts and lives or whether we resist Him at every turn. Sometimes it might be painful, maybe He needs to demolish an area of our lives before He can build it back up again but let us always be confident that God knows what He is doing, even if at times it is a struggle for us to understand.

You can just imagine the expressions on the faces of the dumbstruck disciples as Jesus turns to them and says:
“How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!”

and then:

“Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

A Sunday school teacher was telling about a little girl who had gone to the zoo with her Sunday school class. There, she had spent an inordinate amount of time at the camels' enclosure. Her teacher finally made sense of her fascination when the girl asked, "Where do they keep the ones who can go through the eye of a needle?"(3)

Perhaps one of the most misquoted verse in the whole Bible is the first part of 1 Timothy 6:10 which is often quoted as:

Money is the root of all evil. (Including by the band Pink Floyd in their song “Money”)(4)

But in actual fact is:

For the love of money is the root of all evil.

Having money is not the problem; it’s what we do with it that matters. It might well be that we don’t have a problem with money, our master well be something or somebody else. For this young man, it was his wealth that was getting in the way of him becoming a disciple.

It is said that in Jerusalem at the time there was a narrow gateway and because of its shape it was called the “eye of the needle”. If you tried to get a fully laden camel through the gate it would have got stuck. You first had to unload the camel before it could pass through the gate. So it was with this young man, he could not pass through the door to God’s kingdom, because he was fully laden with the love of his money. He first had to take off this load before he could pass through the doorway to a new life in Christ. And of course the same is true of us. If we are to pass through the narrow gate to eternal life, we first have to shed our load of all that hinders us. We all carry baggage, and that baggage is no doubt different for each of us, it might well be money, but it could just as easily be something else, but before we can be truly born again we have to shed our load, lay it at the foot of the cross, and then, only then can we pass through the gateway.

As usual, Peter is the spokesman for the disciples, and he says to the Lord:

“We have left everything to follow you.”

There seems to be an element of doubt in what Peter says, yet where the rich young man had failed the disciples had not. Each one of them had given up a lot to follow Jesus and as we know, many of them would later even give up their lives for Him. Peter himself (according to tradition), was crucified upside down because he insisted he wasn’t good enough to die the same way that his Master had.(5)

Jesus’ reply to Peter and the other disciples must have been a very comforting one to them:

“Yes,” Jesus said to them, “and I tell you that anyone who leaves home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and for the gospel, will receive much more in this present age. He will receive a hundred times more houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields — and persecutions as well; and in the age to come he will receive eternal life.

It is clear that this is a promise for all believers, not just the original disciples. For all who have put Christ first, over their possessions and even over their relatives, for all who have made a sacrifice to follow Christ motivated by love for Him and for the Gospel, they will be reimbursed many times over for what they gave up. In these uncertain times, where financial investments are so fragile and once great banking institutions are being artificially propped up by tax payers money, it is good to remember that one investment is sure and certain and guaranteed – investment in our relationship with God through Christ.

A very sobering thought indeed is that one day we will have to stand before Christ (Heb.4:12)

What will we be able to say that we gave up for Christ? Will we be like the Rich young man and walk away in sadness, or will we be able to stand up like Peter and say “Lord I left everything to follow you.”

Amen.

-------------------------
Notes:

(1) J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels, Mark, Banner of Truth, 1985, p.209

(2) Phrase attributed to John Macquarrie - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Macquarrie

(3) http://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/weekly/98-07-01/3091.html

(4) http://www.pinkfloyd.com/dsotm/content/setup.html

(5) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Peter

Rays of Hope

Taken at the top of the "Devil's Ladder", Carrantuohill, Co. Kerry on a bleak November's day 2004

Job 38:1-11 (Today's Sermon)

I can remember one time when I was a boy going out to a meal with my parents at a restaurant in Cambridge. Everything was going well until my mother ordered the Apple Crumble. She was halfway through eating it when she made a horrible discovery – a slug; a great big fat juicy slug was there behind a bit of crunchy topping. I laughed, I think my parents laughed too, but not for long. It was a bit like a scene from Fawlty Towers. Mum demanded to see the manager of the restaurant. The waiter tried to placate her by offering another bowl, this time without the slug, but my mother stood her ground -she wanted to go to the top. The manager eventually came with a face like he was about to stand before a firing squad. Anyway my extreme embarrassment was tempered by the fact that there was hardly anyone else there and that we got our meal for free. A few weeks later walking down that same street I noticed that the restaurant had closed and I couldn’t help but think that my mother might have had something to do with it….

Poor Job had a much more serious problem that a slug in his food. In a series of tragedies he lost all his sons and daughters, then he lost his wealth and then finally his health too, becoming afflicted with painful sores from the soles of his feet to the top of his head (2:7). From being a man with a happy life, a large family, large wealth and good health, he became lonely, sad, poor and wracked with pain. Job was a godly man and this fact remained despite his suffering and despite the desperate questions he had of why God would allow his terrible misery to not only happen but to continue.

When we were children we got used to the idea of being rewarded when we were good and punished when we were naughty. We soon learn the idea of justice and mercy. Naturally we extend this same principle to God – we think that God will reward us if we are good and we are sometimes tempted to think that when something bad happens it is because we have done something wrong. Well the story of Job shows us that nothing could be further from the truth. Here was a deeply religious and godly man – who had not done anything wrong and yet he was suffering terribly from the tragedies that had befallen him. As we get older we realise more and more that if anything the more good we do the more we suffer, we do right and we get knocked down, we do our best and something comes out of the blue and shatters our life into pieces.

If we allow it to, this kind of suffering causes us to be angry. For some it is too much and they turn their backs on God and blame God for what has happened and give up even wondering why He didn’t do anything to make things different from the way they are. If anyone had cause for complaint it was Job. He was a better person than any of us could ever be. He had more wealth and more land and a larger family than any of us will ever have. Did he get angry with God? You bet he did. Have you ever been angry with God, have you ever shouted aloud at Him about something? There have been times when I have seen pain and suffering in people and even at times in my own life when I have very strongly asked God the question “Why?” Job speaks to God with such eloquence, with such unnatural strength and wisdom, but he doesn’t beat about the bush. For chapter after chapter he asks God why, Why WHY? For a long long time there is no answer.

If we turn to the book of Job and expect a nice, neatly packaged answer to the question of suffering we will be disappointed. Of course Job’s three friends try to give him neat, stock answers but none of them work. In so many ways the question of suffering is a very complicated and messy one, no amount of human wisdom will even begin to approach an answer. We do however get a peek behind the curtain. At the beginning of the book we see the character of Satan at work and we understand that Job’s pain and suffering and loss do not come from God, but rather God allowing Satan to inflict Job. Rather than answer any questions though, this raises a whole lot of new questions, such as why on earth would God allow Satan to do such a thing? It just doesn’t seem to make any sense.

Finally after all the silence from heaven there is a great storm and God speaks at last. But then what He says is not what Job (or we) were expecting to hear. We were expecting something along the lines of an explanation, an “ABC” of suffering. Instead however God takes a different tack entirely, We read:

Then out of the storm the LORD spoke to Job. “Who are you to question my wisdom with your ignorant empty words? Now stand up straight and answer the questions I ask you.” (38:1-3)

Instead of getting answers, Job is getting questions! But perhaps in those questions there will be the beginnings of an answer. The Lord continues:

“Were you there when I made the world? If you know so much, tell me about it… Who laid the cornerstone of the World? In the dawn of that day the stars sang together, and the heavenly beings shouted for joy. Who closed the gates to hold back the sea when it burst from the womb of the earth? It was I who covered the sea with clouds and wrapped it in darkness…” (v.4-9)

Frederick Buechner writes: “God doesn’t explain. He explodes. He asks Job who he thinks he is anyway. He says that to try to explain the kind of things Job wanted explained would be like trying to explain Einstein to a little-neck clam … God doesn’t reveal his grand design. He reveals himself.” (1)

Pain makes people react in different ways. Some people in their pain grow closer to God, some drift bitterly away. The main difference seems to lie in where they focus their attention. Those who become obsessed with questions about cause such as “What did I do to deserve this, why am I being punished?” often turn away from God. Those however who lean on God and like Job trust God though the suffering are much more likely to find, somehow, a way through it all.(2)

God’s speech goes on to remind Job of the wonders of Creation with some of the most beautiful poetry in the whole Bible. The message becomes clearer, that even if God were to explain to Job all about suffering and evil and pain, he would not understand it; it would simply be beyond his ability to comprehend. In reminding Job of the majesty of Creation and God’s power, it is as if God is simply saying to Job “Trust me”. Parents know this full well, there are times when you have to convince your children to trust that you are right – you are not able to give a full explanation that they could understand, so you say “because I am your Father”, or “because I am your mother” trust me.

In response to our pain, our misery, our suffering, God holds us tight and says “trust me” and as we look up from that promise we see a cross on a hill and we begin to understand, (not as much as we would like to understand, but nevertheless it is a beginning). We know that the only way forward, no matter how hard it may be is to say, “Yes Lord, I trust you, I trust you no matter what.”


----------------------------------
(1) Quoted in Philip Yancey, Where Is God When It Hurts, Zondervan, 1990, p.106
(2) Ibid., p110

See also: “The Message of Job”, David Atkinson, IVP, 1991.