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Sermons given at Oundle St Peter's
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He Weeps
Given by:
Stephen Webster
Date given:
13th November 2011
Book:
John
Chapter:
11
Parish:
Oundle St Peter's 
A family in shock; grief – tears – distress: that’s the situation into which Jesus walks in the bible reading we heard earlier. The people described in the reading are some of His closest friends. Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus live in a little village called Bethany a few miles from Jerusalem. And Jesus – a family friend – is often calling in.
But a few days ago - when Jesus was elsewhere in the country - Mary and Martha sent Him bad news.
‘Lord,’ they wrote, ‘the one You love – Lazarus - is ill.’ So Jesus makes His way across country to Bethany. And in the reading we heard just now He arrives only to discover that He is too late. Lazarus is dead. He died four days ago.
And Jesus walks in on a scene of grief and distress. Many have come (friends and relatives and acquaintances) to sit with Mary and Martha, to cry with them and to comfort them in their sadness. And now Jesus arrives: too late. They sent for Jesus. They thought that He would have been able to make a difference. But He’s arrived too late.
Hearing that Jesus is approaching the house Martha hurries out to meet Him. And she’s prepared for Him some words of rebuke. ‘Lord if only You had been here,’ she says, ‘my brother would not have died.’ Jesus we told you that He was ill. We asked you to come. We thought you could make a difference. But now Lazarus is dead.
And then a few verses later Martha’s sister Mary hears that Jesus has arrived. ‘She got up quickly’ we’re told, ‘and went to Him.’ And what are her first words to Him? Exactly the same as Martha’s: ‘Lord, if only You had been here,’ she says crying as does so ‘my brother would not have died.’
‘If only You had been here, my brother would not have died.’ If only. If only. If only. They believed Jesus could make a difference. They asked Him to come. But He’s too late. If only…
I wonder if like Mary and Martha you’ve ever found yourself crying out ‘if only…’; found yourself asking God, ‘Why?’ If only You’d answered our prayers God. Why did this have to happen? If so I think we can be encouraged by Mary and Martha. You see they walk right up to Jesus and they tell Him that they are disappointed in Him.
Jesus we wanted You to do something differently. We wanted You to make Lazarus well. We wanted You stop him dying. We wanted You to come earlier and You didn’t. If You’d just turned up he would have lived.
And what is Jesus’ response?
‘Stop right there Martha!’?
‘Mary, do you realise who you are speaking to?’
Is that Jesus’ response? No.‘When Jesus saw her weeping,’ we’re told, ‘He was deeply moved… and He wept.’ Jesus wept. Mary and Martha bring Jesus their hurt and their anger and their tears. They bring Him their disappointment that He did not answer them as expected. They bring Him their grief that their brother has died.
And Jesus’ response? He does not tell them off, He does not rebuke them, no - He cries with them. And as they tell Him their grief He shares in it. He cries with them. Jesus – God the Son is like God the Father. And what this event shows us is that God likes honesty.
Tonight as we gather to remember those we have loved who have died and to give thanks for their lives it is absolutely fine for us – like Mary and Martha to tell God our true feelings. To tell Him our sadness and our sorrow; to tell Him our disappointments and our pain and - yes like Mary and Martha - to tell Him if we think He could have acted differently; to tell Him if there are prayers we don’t think He answered the way we want. He is not shocked when we are honest. He does not close His ears.
He does not say, ‘You can’t talk to Me like that!’ No – in fact the bible tells us that He knows our pain and sadness and He cries with us. ‘God is close’ says Psalm 34, ‘to those whose hearts are breaking.’
And more than cry with us as we walk through the hardest if times - He walks with us. ‘Though I walk the darkest path,’ we sang in our last hymn ‘I will not fear the evil one, for You are with me, and Your rod and staff are the comfort I need to know.’
It’s a version of Psalm 23. Another version – the one in our church bibles – puts it this way: ‘Though I walk through the darkest valley I will fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.’
As Mary and Martha walk through this darkest of valleys; as they grieve for Lazarus; as they tell God all their pain and hurt He’s right there with them. Walking every step of the way with them. Crying as they cry. Close to them as their hearts are breaking. And just as He is close to them, so He promises to be close to us walking every step of the way with us - even if through our tears it’s hard to recognise Him.
So this account of Jesus’ meeting with Mary and Martha is encouraging because it reminds us that we can be honest with God - in fact that He longs for us to be real and honest with us. It reminds us that we can tell Him exactly what we’re feeling. It reminds us that He as we cry He cries too; that when our hearts break He is close.
But it is encouraging for another reason too. Because Jesus’ goes much further than bringing comfort. He goes much further than sharing in Mary and Martha’s grief. He breaks into their grief and their sadness and He gives them certain hope.
To Martha Jesus says, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ And then He says, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in Me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die.’
Tonight in our service we recognise that the same Jesus who met with Mary and Martha in their sadness is here with us now. Jesus is here. With us, close to us. And the reason that Jesus is here - the reason that we can speak to Him in prayer is because 3 days after Jesus died on a cross He was raised from death. He defeated death and rose again and is alive today. And that’s why this service is not only a service in which we express our sadness it is also a service of thanksgiving.
One of the earliest Christians - St Paul - wrote that when followers of Jesus grieve for those who have died ‘we do not grieve as those who have no hope.’ We do not grieve as those who have no hope. We grieve because we miss those who have died. We grieve because we see them no longer and we wish we were with them again now. But we do not need to grieve as those who have no hope. Because Jesus defeated death. He is with us now.
And He says, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in Me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die.’ Jesus’ promise is that death is not the end. That beyond death lies life and that if we hold on to Him and His promises - even when we die we will live.
In the account of Jesus’ meeting with Mary and Martha which we heard read earlier Jesus demonstrates His power over death by bringing Lazarus to life again. That is an amazing miracle. But it’s just a glimpse – a sign – a foretaste of a more amazing miracle. Jesus raises Lazarus to life again. But Lazarus is raised only one day to grow old and die again.
But what Jesus promises for all who trust Him is something more wonderful. ‘Anyone who believes in Me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in Me will never die.’ He promises a life spent with God in eternity where He will wipe away all tears and there will be no more death.
So tonight let’s thank God that He walks with us through the darkest valley; let’s thank God that when we cry He cries with us; let’s thank God that with Him we can always be honest; that we can always tell Him all our pain and sadness; let’s thank God for those whose lives we remember tonight - for the joy they brought into our lives; and let’s thank God that because Jesus defeated death - because He is the resurrection and the life - we can have certain hope that death is not the end - but beyond lies new life.
A Hilarious Giver
Given by:
Paul Adams
Date given:
6th November 2011
Book:
Matthew
Chapter:
6
Parish:
Oundle St Peter's Paul consciously urges generosity on the part of the Corinthians. It’s an appeal to generosity founded on a promise that God will supply their needs, and more, and so provide the ability to be generous.
The person who sows sparingly will only reap a sparse harvest. By contrast, sowing bountifully will produce a rich harvest. The conclusion Paul draws is straightforward - we need to decide how much we shall give. He then sums up his thinking in the well-known phrase, “God loves a cheerful giver”.
While Paul is looking for a generous contribution from the Corinthians, he does stress that it needs to be a voluntary gift, not one made simply because he is applying pressure. Why does God delight in a cheerful giver? Because He himself is such a giver and He wants to see His characteristics, in those He created. That’s us!!
It’s not about paying Parish Share or keeping a roof on the church; it’s about our relationship with God and trying to be like Him.
**The Greek word is hilaron from which we get our word “hilarious”. Are we hilarious givers? I don’t very often hear much laughter when the offertory plate goes round!!
Paul has in mind the joy that comes from enjoying participating in God’s work.
Generosity is born from the heart of the giver. What type of giver are you?
Flint – need to be hit hard, but only small pieces break off
Sponge – need to keep being squeezed to give a bit more
Honey – no hitting or squeezing necessary, just keep giving
It is impossible to talk about sowing without some reference to the field in which we are invited to sow. Your church is your home address, it is your place of regular communion with God with other members of his family. It is the first call on your giving, just as it is the first call on your time each week for worship. There will be other ministries and good causes you are also called to sow in but this is your home and first priority!
It is God the abundant provider who provides the seed we scatter. Any sparse sowing is not because we haven’t got enough seed. I have no doubt in my mind that God provides all and more, to do His work, it’s just we like to hold on to it. Each of us has a ministry of sowing in relation to what we are given - in money as well as gifts and talents. God’s provision means we will have enough to live on, and enough to give and share. Christian giving should be liberating experience, as we learn to receive gladly and share gladly. We either put ourselves first or we put God first. It is He who gives us the seed, we choose how to sow. Do we use all the seed God blesses us with - or is it still in the packet - untouched, and therefore infertile and certainly not productive?
As regular worshippers we face a tough question: Which field are you sowing in? Yours or God’s? We cannot separate money from lifestyle. We may have seed but if it is all sown in the field of our own personal choices then we miss out on the blessing twice. Once because no matter how much we sow in our own field it will never be enough. Secondly because there will be little left to be sown in God’s field.
For Christians the last thing to be converted is always the wallet. I can give my time and my talents but the acid test is whether I will give my money to God’s work as well.
For all of us, this passage is a reminder of God’s amazing generosity, blessing and daily miracles. Do we wish to be associated with it? Will we trust God sufficiently to put him first in our financial lives as well as our weekly worship? That is the key, will you trust in God. Is our Christian faith, and our relationship with God important enough to us that we will respond to Gods call on our finances? I often hear, or get told, that the Church, or the Diocese is only ever after our money. Well, to me, that is a gross distortion of the truth and a poor understanding of what scripture tells us! We give in response to a phenomenally generous God who wants us to be part of what He is doing in His world.
Each one of us needs to go away from here this morning and prayerfully consider our giving! Do you want to be part of what God is doing in your church and community?
(Talk about packs)
Let’s now focus on the Old Testament reading. We’ll look at v10. It says “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room to hold it”. Do you get the idea “so much blessing that you will not have enough room to hold it”.
4500 years ago God called to himself a bronze aged people who had “no hot and cold running water, no social services, no TVs, DVDs or CDs, no health care, no carpets in their homes, no “almost any comfort you can name”. No anything (by our standards), and he revealed to them one of the most sophisticated, generous, progressive principles on charitable giving this world has ever seen. He said before you spend any money on yourself, before you pay taxes to the King, before you spend money on food and shelter bring me the first tithe. And when they did, God blessed them. But not JUST blessed them, but “so much blessing that you will not have enough room to hold it”.
On average we give less that 1.5% per person to charity. And yet God’s people 4500 years ago, with almost nothing, gave the first 10%, and then paid taxes to their King on top of that. Humbling isn’t it?
Why did God implement this idea of tithing? And why is it that Giving and Blessing are so linked? Well I want to give you three ideas.
Firstly, because it reveals to us the true priorities of our own heart. To give to God’s work FIRST, and to give SACRIFICIALLY, is just about the best indicator of where our heart and hopes are. Jesus said “where your treasure is – there your heart is also”. Where we invest our time and money not only REVEALS where our heart and ambitions are, but it also LEADS them.
But may be you cannot tithe because your financial commitments are already too high. What if I’m on benefits? What about the recession. This has all come as a bit of a shock. Well, “we live under Grace and not the Law”. God is more concerned about your heart and your motivation for giving, rather than the amount. Determine what you can give and give it joyfully. We would ALL like to give more, if you cannot give a tithe, give what you can. And as your circumstances change (and if they change for the better) then give to God from the first fruits of that change.
Or maybe you don’t earn a wage. Well, the key point about tithing is that you give “in kind” from what you do. If you were a shepherd you would bring a lamb, if you were a farmer you would bring crops, if you were a spice merchant you would bring spice. Why? Because God is saying “what you do is important to me” And I will delight in having a part in what you do. So that, if you work at home looking after the children, tending for the needy (or whatever). Then God wants you to know that what you do is every bit as important to him – and he will accept and delight in a tithe of your time every bit as much. It is not second rate. it is not about money – it never has been. It’s about your heart and your priorities before God.
Secondly, because when we are forced to trust God we always end up experiencing the truth that he never lets us down. God says in Chapter 3v10 ‘test me in this.’
I met a lady in a church where I was preaching. She said to me “I knew exactly what you were talking about today. She went on to tell me that her husband had become ill and had to give up work, and eventually she had to give up work to look after him. Their only income was from the benefit system. She said each Monday morning she would go and collect their money, come home and sort it out. The FIRST thing she did was put Gods money in Gods purse and then allocate the rest as necessary. She said in all of the time her husband was ill they never wanted for anything. They would often get up in the morning and an envelope with £50 or £100 had been pushed through the letterbox. Often a box of fruit and veg was left on the doorstep, or a tin with a cake in. God knew what their needs were and He provided.
You cannot out-give God! He says to us, “Go on test me”
Finally, Why is tithing important? Because ministry costs money!
What would happen if all of us gave 10% of what we earned or received to the Kingdom of God and His work here at St Peter’s? What would happen if that began next Sunday? Your ministry and your capabilities here would explode. They would multiply 3, 4, 5 times. What else could you do to reach out to your community in Oundle and share the love of Jesus? How many more children could you reach? How many young people? How many young families? How many more elderly people could hear about the love that Jesus has for them? The people of God in this church would become the most powerful force for good in the whole area. Why? Because you would have the material resources that would be limited only by your lack of vision of where you put them to work.
Painting by Numbers
Given by:
Stephen Webster
Date given:
23rd October 2011
Book:
Matthew
Chapter:
22
Parish:
Oundle St Peter's Painting by Numbers
(Matthew 22: 34-46)
Early morning sunshine is streaming through the windows of Phinehas the Pharisee. He opens his eyes, yawns, stretches, jumps out of bed and brushes his teeth. And then he notices. It’s there again. That uneasy feeling that despite all his best efforts – something is wrong.
You see Phinehas is a good man. He is a Pharisee. And he longs to live his life at peace with God and at peace with his neighbour; a beautiful life lived in harmony with God and people around him. But how to achieve it? That’s the question.
Actually Phinehas is pretty sure he knows how to achieve it. It’s all in Deuteronomy chapter 5. God describes exactly how to live the beautiful life. He gives 10 Commandments. Follow those rules and surely you’ll live how God wants you to live. And Phinehas is pretty sure he’s doing a good job on the whole 10 Commandments thing. As he brushes his teeth he does a quick mental audit.
No gods before me
That’s an easy tick. I mean it’s not as if he’s a Greek or a Roman or anything. He knows there’s only one God and he’s worshipping the right one.
No idols, no images, nothing to worship and bow down to
Another easy tick. Phinehas does a walk in his mind through each and every room of his large comfortable house. Nothing. Not an image. Not an idol – all absolutely clean.
Taking His name in vain misusing God’s name
Well – the very thought – unthinkable.
Observe the Sabbath day keep it holy – do no work.
One of Phinehas’s strong points this one. I mean the trick with this one - if you really want to please God and live in harmony with Him - is to make sure you define work. Phinehas has spent many years thinking about this question.
Apart from walking to and from Synagogue he tries to do absolutely nothing on the Sabbath day but sit still. And he likes to help his neighbours keep the Sabbath too. It makes him seethe with rage when they just don’t bother. Just last Sabbath he’d had to yell across the street to old Miriam as she was blatantly staggering to lift feed for a donkey.
Using God’s name in a way he was sure the Almighty would appreciate he’d yelled ‘Don’t you fear God!’ across the street. That made her drop her load in fright and run - stupid woman.
Honour your father and mother.
Phinehas has no trouble with this one either. If occasionally Mother and Father need reminding of the commandments and correcting well isn’t that all part of properly honouring them?
Murder – adultery – theft – false testimony
Well they’re all simple ticks aren’t they? However angry old Miriam makes him with her godless ways
- however deeply he dislikes her - he isn’t actually ever going to murder the old fool is he?
And as for coveting.
Well what is there to covet? Life is pretty well set up for Phinehas. He has a very comfortable home, a good income, and lives a godly life. I mean who could there possibly be to envy? He can’t think of anyone he’d rather be than himself.
So as Phinehas does his daily mental check of the commandments he thinks – with all due regard to modesty - that he can probably award himself 10 out of 10. Yep. Ten ticks.
But the problem is: it’s there again. That uneasy feeling – that despite all his best efforts something is wrong. Why doesn’t he feel that he’s living the beautiful life in harmony with God and neighbour? Why - despite having a big tick against each commandment doesn’t he feel at peace?
***
Well obviously I made Phinehas up. He’s a stereotype. But the point is this:
This fictional character Phinehas, he sets out in a committed and serious way to obey all the 10 Commandments: God’s blueprint for living a holy life. And the result? Pride. Anger. Hatred. And even though Phinehas sets out to have no gods before Yahweh, to worship no idols, he’s left with a sense that the God He wants to be at the centre of his life is somehow far away. You can apparently follow all the rules and entirely miss the point.
As Nick helpfully pointed out last week we’ve reached a point in Matthew’s gospel chapter 22 – where the Pharisees and other religious leaders are in open confrontation with Jesus. They spend chapter 22 trying to trick Him and in chapter 23 Jesus will give them both barrels.
He will call them ‘sons of hell’ - ‘whitewashed tombs’ on the outside a respectable thin white veneer covering inside a pile of everything unclean and dead. And why? Well the Pharisees set out to follow God’s laws to the letter but end up proud and bitter and angry and full of hatred.
Remember old Miriam yelled at across the street? ‘You tie up cumbersome loads on other people’s shoulders’ says Jesus, ‘and then are not willing to life a finger to help.’ ‘You shut the door of heaven’s kingdom in people’s faces.’ How could a people so set on following God’s laws end up behaving in such an ungodly way?
I recently saw a book for sale in The Works bookshop. It was called Painting the Great Masters by Numbers. Do you know about painting by numbers? I’m not exactly sure – but I think it works like this. You receive a copy of a great master. Perhaps the Mona Lisa. And you receive a canvas for you to paint onto. And onto the canvas is marked the outline of the picture - a basic line drawing. And on the line-drawing are lots of numbers.
You also receive masses of tubes of paint. Instead of having their colour name on ‘cobalt’ or ‘cerise’ each tube has a number. And what you need to do as the artist is put the right number paint onto the right number on your outline picture. And lo and behold as you patiently do this so appears a perfect copy of the Mona Lisa.
The results are sometimes impressive and I’m sure it requires a good deal of skill and effort. But of course you haven’t suddenly become Leonardo Da Vinci. At best you’ve made a good forgery. But not one that any art critic couldn’t see through. Because the point is the painting didn’t come from within. It’s just a reproduction – a fake made by following the instructions. Following the instructions doesn’t make you a great artist.
Take the numbers away leave, you on your own and you can’t paint a great master. You’re missing something vital: the flair – the creativity – the essence of the great artist.
The Pharisees aren’t great masters. No, they’re just painting by numbers. They’re following external instructions - no work on the Sabbath, tithing all their goods, avoiding murder - but missing the essence. And the result? Not the beautiful life – but a fake.
You can’t live the beautiful life of harmony with God and neighbour by following external instructions. No, it has to come from within. ‘Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together,’ it says in today’s reading.
‘One of them a top lawyer tested Jesus with this question: “Teacher which is the greatest commandment in the law?”’
Now what will Jesus say? Which bit of Deuteronomy 5 will Jesus turn to? ‘You shall have no gods before Me’? After all surely the very beginning of living that beautiful life is putting God first?
Or maybe ‘Keep the Sabbath day holy.’ A commandment that reminds us to put God at the centre and to have balance in our lives.
But no Jesus doesn’t go to any of Deuteronomy 5. No he jumps straight to Deuteronomy 6. In the verses straight after the 10 Commandments. ‘You shall love the Lord Your God with all Your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’. ‘That’s the greatest commandment’ says Jesus and for the second most important He takes the second half of a verse from Leviticus. ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’
‘All the Law and the Prophets’ he says ‘hang on these two commandments.’ The whole bible – all the scriptures ever written He says that’s what they all hang on; that’s what they’re all about: ‘Love God with your whole being love others as yourself.’
Those 10 Commandments: that’s what they’re all about loving God and loving others.
‘I am the God who freed you from slavery. I am the God who forgave you your wrong doings and rescued you from your old life, the addictions and the sorrows and the sins so don’t turn back to them. Don’t worship idols or golden calves or money or possessions or rules or anything else. They’ll leave you empty. No put me first – because I love you.
And don’t work every hour I give you so forgetting me, forgetting yourselves – forgetting family – no, put aside the Sabbath day for worship, and rest and recreation because I love you. Honour your parents, care for and don’t neglect an older generation. And don’t harm each other.
Don’t kill; don’t commit adultery: think of the pain and grief it causes; and don’t steal or lie – or be forever longing for others’ possessions. No – if you love Me and love others this is how you will live. That’s the beautiful life. But the rules – they aren’t the point – love is the point.
Phinehas you strive and strive and think you put me first developing your allergy to anything that might possibly be a graven image or that might possibly by a stretch of the imagination be thought of as work on the Sabbath - but do you know Me? Do you love Me? You’ve followed the outward rules but don’t have the inner essence. You put your rules before Me and you hate your neighbour.’
You see the 10 Commandments describe the kind of life we will live if we love God and others. But if we have no love for God or others then following them slavishly simply as instructions will lead us to living a life that is fake. Well stupid Pharisees I say. How blind they were. How lucky we are to be part of the Church following Jesus’ teachings and living lives of grace and love and forgiveness.
I have a friend. She’s not a Church goer. Won’t go near Church. Her Father is a Christian minister. ‘When I was a kid,’ she said, ‘I hated Sunday. Church was so boring. And afterwards we weren’t allowed to play out. We had to wear our best clothes all day and only read books Dad had chosen in silence.’
Was that what God had in mind? Is that why He gave us the Sabbath? Because He wanted us to be miserable once a week? Or was it because He wanted us to dedicate a day a week to having fun praising Him and thanking Him for all He has done for us? A day resting and having recreation? Of spending time with Him and with friends and family - enjoying the fact that we’re His family. Love is the point not a dry keeping of the command.
You see I think that we’re just as tempted to fall into the trap of painting by numbers as the Pharisees. After all painting by numbers is easier. You’re not faced with a blank canvas. You don’t have to work out what to do. But the result is a fake, a travesty. No – much harder is to paint the beautiful life inspired by love, working out at every step what to do next. Much harder – but it’s the only authentic way.
In his book Getting Your Kids through Church without them Ending up hating God Rob Parsons tells of a young lad called David. For a time Rob Parsons was involved in a Church where David – then a young teen – played in the worship band and was part of the Church youth group. A few years later Rob went back to speak at the Church but David was nowhere to be seen.
Later Rob bumped into David in town. He was buying a Big Issue when Rob saw him. They got chatting and David told him about a half-marathon he was planning to run for an AIDS orphanage in Uganda.
‘I didn’t see you at Church,’ says Rob.
‘Yeah well’ says David, ‘I stopped going there when I was 17.’
‘Why?’ asks Rob
‘Oh you know – I was a bit ashamed really, you know I got in with the wrong crowd. Started smoking - got my nose pierced, my lip pierced – you know – not really Church kind of stuff.’
‘I cannot get David out of my mind,’ says Rob Parsons, ‘because David’s church had a list of “performance indicators” - maybe unspoken but powerful nevertheless - that were no where near high on God’s agenda.’
Smoking – not the best of habits; body piercings – not to everyone’s taste. But on God’s agenda? Not anywhere. Not compared with - coming in at number 2 - ‘loving your neighbour as yourself.’
Loving your neighbour like the homeless Big Issue seller or AIDS orphans in Uganda. And yet David felt he wasn’t good enough to be part of God’s family.
‘You hypocrites;’ says Jesus ‘you sons of hell you tie up cumbersome loads on people’s shoulders and don’t lift a finger to help. You slam heaven’s door in people’s faces.’
‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind”; that’s the greatest command. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’
Are you ever tempted to paint by numbers? Are you ever tempted to make walking with God just about rules and ways of behaving? So tempted that you forget to know Him and love Him With your whole being?
Ever so angered by other people’s rule-breaking that you forget to love them?
Something to think about as we finish: ‘Love God and do as you please.’ So said St Augustine. Was he right? ‘Love God and do as you please.’
Sorry Sir Sam and the 77
Given by:
Steven Webster
Date given:
2nd October 2011
Book:
Matthew
Chapter:
18
Parish:
Oundle St Peter's Sorry Sir Sam and the 77
(Matthew 18: 21-35)
As you might know I used to be a secondary school English teacher. And one of my Year 11 students was nicknamed Sorry Sir Sam- Sorry Sir Sam. Sam’s two favourite words were, ‘Sorry Sir!’ – which he could deliver with amazing cheerfulness.
‘Have you got your homework Sam?’ ‘Oh Sorry Sir.’
‘Where’s your coursework Sam,’ ‘Oh Sorry Sir.’
‘Sam are you listening?’ ‘Sorry Sir’
‘Sam have you still got no coursework?’ ‘Sorry Sir’
‘Sam will we ever see a piece of coursework?’ ‘Sorry Sir’
‘Sorry… Sorry… Sorry’
It has to be said at this point that the sorrow that Sam expressed almost never resulted in the production of coursework.
Sorry, Sorry, Sorry. ‘How many times must you forgive?’ That’s the question Peter asks at the beginning of today’s gospel reading. How many times must I forgive?
They’ve left their clothes in the middle of the floor AGAIN;
They’ve stacked the dishwasher all wrongly AGAIN
That loo seat – it’s been left up AGAIN
Or that person at home or work or church, they’ve said that hurtful thing AGAIN. They’ve put you down again. How many times must you forgive? At what point does it become reasonable to say, ‘I wash my hands of them. I’ll ignore them. I’ll keep out of their way. They’ve done it once too often for us to remain friends.’ How many times must someone hurt you before that response is OK? It’s a question on Peter’s mind. ‘Lord how many times must I forgive someone who sins against me?’
All through these chapters of Matthew the disciples are constantly bickering. So maybe Peter has someone specific in mind. ‘Lord how many times must I forgive him? Up to 7 times?’
7 times. In Jewish thinking the perfect number. 7 times seems a reasonable amount. More than reasonable; generous. Maybe Peter’s expecting a pat on the back from Jesus. ‘Well done Peter. You’re right. You’ve got it. Be generous. Forgive people up to 7 times.’
But no. ‘Not 7 times…’ says Jesus, ‘but 77 times.’ The perfect number 7, multiply it by 10 add the perfect number again. 7 times? No - keep on going Peter and keep on going. By the way I don’t think the point here is to keep a very careful count and lie in wait until crime 78 happens and then pounce.
If you’re still counting at 77 you probably didn’t forgive them the other 76 times.
No Jesus’ point is… keep going Peter. Don’t keep a count. The day when you can think, ‘Now I don’t need to forgive’ - it isn’t coming. So why? Why should Peter keep on forgiving? That person who has hurt me… why do I need to forgive and to keep forgiving?
To explain Jesus tells a story…‘The Kingdom of Heaven’ he says, ‘is like a king.’ Want to know what heaven’s like? How God operates? Then listen to this story about a King. Here was once a King who wanted to settle accounts. A man was brought in who owed him 10, 000 bags of gold or ten thousand talents.
Look at the footnote to verse 24. ‘One talent’ it says, ‘was worth about 20 years of a day labourer’s wages.’ One talent: 20 years wages. And this man owes 10 000 talents. That’s 200,000 years of wages. If we take the average UK wage to be £18 000, he’s racked up 3.6 billion pounds in debt.
What Jesus omits to say at this point is that this man obviously worked in the city of London probably as a trader for a Swiss bank.
200,000 years of wages. Unless you’re a rogue trader in the city the numbers are ridiculous. How on earth could you possibly rack up 200,000 years of wages? Why is Jesus so extreme? Why make the debt so large? Well whatever the reason the point is: the man has forfeited his freedom. The King orders that everything the man has be sold and that he and his family become slaves. The man owes an unimaginable debt and so everyday for the rest of his life he will work as a slave.
“Be patient with me,’ He says “I will pay it all back.” Don’t you love his optimism? 200,000 years of wages. ‘Be patient. I’ll pay it all back.’
Why did Jesus make the debt so improbably large? Because it’s unrepayable. The debt is unrepayable; the man faces a lifetime of slavery. The Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sachs was on Thought for the Day on R4 this week and he said this. In Hebrew and Aramaic the word for debt and the word for guilt are identical. It’s the same word. Debt and guilt the same.
I wonder if anyone here identifies with this man? Once you did something wrong you hurt someone – you wronged them and now you can never ever put it right? And you carry that around everyday.
Why does Jesus make the man’s debt so large? Because sometimes we are like the man in the story.
Rev Maake Masango was the moderator of the South African Presbyterian Church and served on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up as a way of bringing healing to South Africa after the pain and wounds inflicted during Apartheid. At the Commission those who had committed crimes were brought face to face with those they had wounded.
In exchange for telling the truth about what they had done, facing up to the pain and grief they had caused, they received an amnesty from prison. Rev Masango relates the story of a Captain in the South African Police brought face to face with an elderly South African woman.
The woman had been forced to watch as first her son and then on a separate occasion her husband were shot and murdered by a squad led by the Captain. Rev Masango tells how the Captain explained that since those days he had become a Christian but then broke down in the court room. Faced with this elderly grieving woman he broke down. ‘How can I ever put it right?’ he said, ‘What can I ever do?’
An unrepayable debt that a lifetime of slavery will never put right. None of us here has done quite what the Police Captain did. We don’t carry his burden. But maybe we carry around our own burden of debts we can never repay. But there is good news.
We left the man in Jesus’ story on his knees begging for patience until he could repay the unrepayable.
But there’s no way to pay, just a lifetime of slavery. Until he hears these words: ‘Cancel the debt. Write it off. He owes nothing. Set him free.’
Imagine his reaction. What was it like walking out from there? Not a penny to pay. 200,000 years worth of wages – cancelled. No life time of slavery ahead; no debt to work and work and work never to pay off. Free. Absolutely free.
Why did Jesus make the debt so large? Yes - because sometimes we are like that man in the story. But also because God is like that King.
You see forgiveness isn’t free. Forgiveness costs. Yes free for the man; he walks free; but not free for the King; it cost him 200,000 years of wages. The man walked free – the King took the hit.
The God who says to us ‘Forgive not 7 times – but 77’, He is the God who forgives us, and forgives us again and again and again to 70 x 7 and far beyond. But forgiveness is not free. There is a cost. And it is the King who pays. Remember Isaiah’s words spoken hundreds of years before Jesus. ‘Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, by His wounds we are healed.’
Remember Jesus’ words the night before He died. ‘My body will be broken for you.’ ‘My blood will be shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.’
Forgiveness is not free. It costs. But the good news is that God has paid the price for our freedom.
On the cross Jesus carries our punishment that we – like the man in the story might walk free. Forgiven. Free. With no lifetime of slavery and drudgery ahead.
Maybe you identify with the man in the story. Maybe you feel you have a debt that can you never repay have done a wrong you can never put right. What God wants you to know today is that the price is paid. On the cross Jesus took your guilt. It is enough. It is finished. You are His child and He loves you. He doesn’t want you to live a lifetime of slavery and drudgery. He wants you to be free – to live in freedom as His child. From today. If any of that strikes a chord with you why not pray about it with the prayer team during communion or find a moment with Richard or me.
Of course Jesus’ story doesn’t finish with the man walking free. It takes an extraordinary twist. Because as the man skips out of that place 200,000 years of debt written off, he bumps into a man who owes him a denarius one day’s pay – perhaps £200. And this man who’s been forgiven 200 000 years of debt takes the man who owes him one day’s worth of wages begins to choke him and says, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’
The man begs on his knees. ‘Be patient with me – I will pay it back’. Where have we heard that before? But the newly freed man has this debtor thrown in prison. How absurd! What an absurd detail for Jesus to put in the story! Who – having been forgiven 3.6 billion could ever quibble over £200?
Why did Jesus put that in the story? How could the man behave like that? Well the only way of course is because he didn’t see himself as a forgiven debtor. Ludicrous as it seems he’d forgotten what the King had just done for Him.
Why did Jesus put that in the story? Because we’re like that all the time. We forget who we are. We forget what the King has done for us.
‘How many times must I forgive?’ Isn’t that the question of the person who feels they have nothing to be forgiven for? And the truth is that that is none of us. It’s not just that some of us here might be like the man who racked up an unrepayable debt. It’s that we all have. ‘We all like sheep have gone astray,’ says the prophet Isaiah, ‘each one of us has turned to our own way.’ All of us owe God big time. But God loves us and through the cross He has wiped the debt clean. He has paid the cost of forgiveness Himself. We can be free forgiven today.
But each time that in our hearts we say, ‘I wash my hands of them. I’ll ignore them. I’ll keep out of their way. They’ve done it once too often, I won’t forgive,’ we are forgetting who we are and what God has done for us. Our debt He has wiped clean. We’re free. We’re His children.
All He asks is that as He has forgiven our billions so we forgive the pennies others owe. And this comes with a warning. If we refuse to forgive how can our heavenly Father forgive us?
These words can be really hard. ‘If you do not forgive your heavenly Father will not forgive.’
I mean a thoughtless slight is one thing but what if the pain done to us is severe and deep. What if a person has harmed us deeply and the harm can never be undone. Will our heavenly Father punish us for failing when the task is so hard?
At one point in the gospels Jesus says to a man, ‘Do you believe?’ and he replies ‘Lord I do believe help me in my unbelief.’ If you’re the person struggling to forgive a deep and severe wound then how about this prayer: ‘Lord I want to forgive, help me in my unforgiveness.’ Because the person who asks for God’s help everyday to forgive; the person who wrestles with forgiveness and seeks help and prayer from other Christians as they struggle; that is a person who is working to do what Jesus asks.
‘Lord I want to forgive. Help me today.’ That is a good prayer.
Because ultimately forgiveness is the only hope for our world. Where ever the war, whatever the conflict, whatever the ancient hatreds, there’s only one way of ending them. ‘Sorry’ and ‘I forgive’. Without ‘sorry’ and ‘I forgive’ the pain never ends. But with the kind of forgiveness seen through the cross comes the possibility of healing.
‘Where is justice?’ the victim may say, ‘What about my pain? I can’t just write it off. Who’s going to take it?’ ‘He bore our griefs’ says Isaiah, ‘He carried our sorrows.’ The one on the cross He will carry it. ‘By His wounds we are healed’
‘What about my guilt?’ The offender may say. ‘I can’t just pretend it never happened, I can’t just ignore it. Where does it go? ‘He was pierced for our transgressions,’ says Isaiah, ‘and bruised for our iniquity.
He – the one on the cross – that’s where it goes - He will take it. ‘The punishment that brings us peace is upon Him.’
I mentioned an account of a Police Captain brought before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission who faced an elderly widow whose husband and son he had brutally murdered, A wrong he could never put right. The Captain who said he had become a Christian and then broke down saying, ‘How can I ever put it right?’ he said ‘What can I ever do?’ The woman did answer the Captain. She was asked by the Chairman if she had anything to say.
‘Yes’ she said. ‘I wish to say to the Captain that I too am a follower of Jesus. And Jesus died to forgive me and him. And I want him to know that I have forgiven him. And there are three things the Captain can do. First I would like for him to come sometimes to my house and to visit me. Maybe sometimes to bring me flowers because my husband used to bring me flowers and I have no husband now.
And second sometimes maybe to help me with the garden because I have no son to help me with my garden and third I would like it if the Captain were to think of himself as being a new son to me.’
He bore our griefs, He carried our sorrows, by His wounds we are healed…
What will it take for you today to know you are God’s forgiven child?
And what will it take for you to be His forgiving child?
Never, Lord!
Given by:
Stephen Webster
Date given:
28th August 2011
Book:
Matthew
Chapter:
16
Parish:
Oundle St Peter's ‘Never Lord’
(Matthew 16: 21-28)
On November 2nd 2008 a remarkable event happened in Pakistan. A country with a population 95% of which are Muslim gained its first Christian cabinet minister.
Shabbaz Bhatti was 40; a deeply committed Christian with a reputation for integrity and opposition to corruption; a man who had repeatedly turned down preferment if it compromised his work advocating the cause of Pakistan’s poorest communities.
In an interview before he became a government minister he said, ‘I don’t want government positions. I don’t want popularity; I don’t want any position.
Just a place at Jesus' feet is what I want. I want that my life, my character, my actions speak for me and indicate that I am following Jesus.
Jesus lived with ordinary people, the poor and those in need. I want to live for Jesus and if need be to die for Him. Until then, until my last breath, I will continue to serve Jesus, to serve the poor, the suffering, the needy."
But in 2008 though, he did accept a government position. He was asked to be ‘Minister for Minorities’ a post which for the first time became a cabinet post.
The 5% of Pakistan’s population who are not Muslim Christians, Hindus, Sikhs are amongst Pakistan’s poorest communities. And often face exploitation, discrimination and worse.
On becoming Minister for Minorities, Shahbaz Bhatti said, ‘I accept this post for the sake of the oppressed, down-trodden and the marginalized.
I wish to do all in my power in the struggle for human equality, justice and religious freedom.’
One of the many people Shahbaz Bhatti tried to help as a government minister was Asia Bibi. In 2010 after a conversation with some women in her village about Jesus she was accused of denigrating the prophet Mohammed and sentenced to death for blasphemy. Shahbaz Bhatti championed her cause and campaigned for Pakistan’s blasphemy laws to be overturned. Because of this he received frequent death threats. But Shahbaz Bhatti refused to be intimidated saying he was not afraid to die for what was right.
A Christian in Pakistan’s government; a man standing up for justice; God’s person in the right place at the right time in a position to influence his country for good; someone able to campaign for reform at the highest level; able to do their bit to make the world a better place. What a fantastic God-given opportunity!
But on the March 2nd this year as he was driving to work gunmen stepped out into the road and sprayed Shahbaz Bhatti’s car with bullets killing him instantly.
Why? Why did God allow it? Why didn’t God protect this godly man? Why allow this to happen to someone who was doing so much good? Why would God allow His own purposes to be frustrated like that?
Do God’s ways ever seem baffling to you? Do you ever find yourself crying out ‘Why?’
God why me? Whatever did I do wrong? Why do I have to struggle with this illness? Why does everything go wrong for me? If God loves me why does He let me go through such hard times?
If God’s ways ever seem baffling to you then you’re in good company. The events of today’s gospel reading leave Peter baffled.
Peter has just had a moment of great revelation. We heard about it in last week’s reading. He has just put two and two together and worked out who Jesus is.
Jesus is the Messiah. He’s the one foretold in those ancient promises. He’s the Saviour, the Messiah, the Rescuer God promised to long ago to send.
You remember how the promises went. The one who would proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for prisoners, sight for the blind; the one who set the oppressed free and usher in a Kingdom of God’s rule.
And Peter has seen Jesus at work. He’s seen Jesus welcoming and restoring outcasts; healing the sick – freeing people from the burdens that weigh them down. He’s seen God’s power at work in Him calming storms and feeding multitudes. And Peter puts two and two together.
This is the Messiah. ‘Who do you say I am?’ Jesus asked in last week’s reading. ‘You are the Messiah’ says Peter, ‘the Son of the Living God.’
Peter’s got it. He understands. ‘The Messiah - the Son of God.’
And if Jesus is the Messiah – then the best is yet to come. The world hasn’t seen anything yet. Because Jesus and His disciples are on the way to Jerusalem to the city where once King David reigned.
And if Jesus is the Messiah, well this can only mean one thing: when they get there God is going to do something amazing through Him.
In Jerusalem surely God will put His servant to reign on the throne of their Father David. Messiah Jesus will take the government upon His shoulders.
God’s servant standing up for justice; God’s servant in the right place at the right time to usher in God’s rule; His Kingdom.
There in the right position to make the world look like God wants it to look. What an amazing opportunity. But… ‘No’ says Jesus. ‘No…’
Matthew writes: ‘from this time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.’
Imagine Peter’s bafflement. ‘Never Lord,’ he says, ‘this shall never happen to You!’
What sense does it make? Why would God let His long-promised rescuer – His own Messiah suffer and be killed?
Why would God allow this to happen to His servant when He is doing so much good? When He’s just about to do so much more?
It makes no sense. ‘Never Lord,’ says Peter, ‘this shall never happen to You!’
The Messiah suffer? Be killed and on the third day rise? Why? Suffering, pain, failure, shame, weakness, defeat where do they fit in with God’s plan? How do they further God’s purposes?
Doesn’t God sort things out for His servants? Doesn’t He protect them from hardship? Isn’t God there to prevent us suffering?
Yes Peter wants to follow Jesus but at this point in Peter’s life he wants to follow Jesus down the road to victory. He doesn’t want to follow Him down the road to pain failure and death.
And if I’m honest I’m not sure I do either. But Jesus’ suggests that there’s a flaw in Peter’s thinking. And that there’s a flaw in my thinking too – and in many Christians’ thinking.
In 2005 a sociologist called Christian Smith undertook a survey of the beliefs of young people the 18s-30s - in American Churches. It was called the National Study of Youth and Religion. After analysing the findings, he described the beliefs of Young American Christians as being what he called ‘Moral Therapeutic Deism’. Moral Therapeutic Deism.
The Christians surveyed believed that God wants us to be kind to each other. Their belief was Moral. They generally expressed the view that the Christian life gave them a sense of meaning; of happiness and well-being. Being a Christian was therapeutic.
They didn’t expect God to be very involved in their day-to-day lives. A belief in a God who doesn’t involve Himself in human affairs is Deism. Of course they didn’t believe God was always uninvolved. Their faith was after all therapeutic.
When faced with a difficulty or problem They believed that God could be called upon to resolve it. God generally uninvolved – but there when you need Him.
Moral Therapeutic Deism, thinking probably not confined to American Christians or young Christians.
Of course truths underlie this thinking. God does want us to love one another and our enemies. The Christian faith is moral.
Following Jesus does give us a right meaning and purpose in our lives. And God does tell us to cast our cares and worries and problems on Him. He is involved in our lives.
So what’s wrong with Moral Therapeutic Deism? Well Jesus never promises that the Christian life will be a therapeutic ride. He doesn’t say, ‘Want a sense of happiness and well-being? Come and follow Me!’
He doesn’t say, ‘Stephen come and follow Me. I have rolled out a soft thick carpet for your feet - walk My way and I will make sure you never encounter hardship.’
No Jesus says, ‘If you want to be My disciple, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Me.’ He says, ‘Lose your life for Me and you will truly find it.’
You see if I believe that the purpose of following Jesus is therapeutic to give me a sense of well-being then as soon as hardship and suffering come,I may begin to doubt that God loves me.
I may ask ‘Why me? What did I do wrong? If you love me God why do you let me go through such hard times?’
But Jesus words in today’s passage show us that God never promises that those He loves won’t encounter hardship and difficulty.
‘Jesus began to explain to them that He must suffer many things and that He must be killed and on the third day rise.’
God’s own beloved Son suffered many things
‘Never Lord,’ says Peter, ‘This must never happen.’
‘Get behind Me Satan!’ says Jesus ‘Peter you’re doing Satan’s work for Him, tempting Me away from the road I must walk.’
‘You do not have in mind the concerns of God,’ He says but only human concerns.’
Human concerns: ‘This must never happen.’
The human outlook: ‘Surely suffering, pain, failure, shame, weakness, defeat have no place in God’s plan.’
So what about God’s perspective? What is that? Why must the Messiah suffer many things and die?
Remember the words of Isaiah, ‘Surely He took up our pain and bore our suffering. He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on Him and by His wounds we are healed.’
You see as Jesus walks towards the cross God doesn’t march in and stop Jesus suffering at the hands of human beings. He doesn’t prevent apparent defeat;
No. He does something different. He takes the bleakest looking defeat and He turns it into victory.
As the crowd hurl abuse Jesus says, ‘Father forgive them’, as a thief hangs next to Him in sorrow and despair, He says, ‘Truly I tell you today you will be with Me in paradise.’
‘My blood’ says Jesus, ‘shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.’
Yes in Jesus God could have charged into Jerusalem on a stallion, swept away the Romans and established an empire.
But ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts’ says God, ‘neither are your ways My ways.’
No instead God chose to take up a cross, to take up our pain; to carry our sorrows. to be pierced for my wrongdoing and your wrongdoing. Punished so that we might have peace; wounded so that we can be healed.
And as the good news of a God who knows the depths of human pain, a God who has paid the price of human wrongdoing, a God who through the cross brings forgiveness, cleansing, restoration, reconciliation has swept across the world and transformed billions of lives so Jesus’ death that looked so like shame and weakness and defeat is demonstrated as the greatest victory in history.
Following Jesus isn’t therapeutic. He doesn’t promise us a pain free life. In fact He promises the opposite. ‘Take up your cross and follow Me’
He doesn’t promise to step in and prevent all defeat but He does demonstrate that at the cross, God turns defeat into victory.
He doesn’t promise to step in a prevent all sadness and suffering, but He does promise to walk with us every step of the way.
He does not say you will have no sorrows; No. But He does say that on the cross He has carried them.
He says, ‘Give Me your all, your everything. Lose your life for Me and you will truly find it.’
I don’t think that Shahbaz Bhatti expected the Christian life to be therapeutic.
‘Just a place at Jesus' feet is what I want.’ He said, ‘I want that my life, my character, my actions speak for me and indicate that I am following Jesus.
‘I want to live for Jesus and to die for Him. Until my last breath, I will continue to serve Jesus, to serve the poor, the suffering, the needy.’
Living for Jesus wasn’t therapeutic for Shahbaz Bhatti. It brought him hostility, pain and an early death.
But imagine a Church full of Shabaz Bahattis, a church full of people wanting nothing but to serve Jesus until their dying breath.
Wanting nothing but to share His good news and to serve the poor, the suffering and the needy, whatever the cost.
Imagine St Peter’s – full of people, me and you – giving our lives - our everything to Jesus. Imagine the transformation that might bring in the community around us.
Shahbaz Bhatti received many death threats. ‘Are you frightened of dying?’ asked a BBC reporter just before his death. ‘I am very much inspired by the life of Jesus’ he said. ‘When I see that Jesus sacrificed His everything for us,I ask myself, “How I can follow that path of Calvary?”
Our Lord said: "Come to Me, take up your cross, and follow Me". I know what the meaning of the cross is and I am following the way of the cross. I want to live for Jesus and I am ready to die for Him.’
‘Whoever loses their life for Me’ says Jesus, ‘will truly find it.’
What does it mean for me? And what does it mean for you? to give your life to Jesus? To lose your life – your everything - for Jesus?
What might that begin to look like today? This week?
Compost Heaps and Pepper Shoots
Given by:
Stephen Webster
Date given:
17th July 2011
Book:
Matthew
Chapter:
13
Parish:
Oundle St Peter's Compost Heaps and Pepper Shoots
(Matthew 13)
In our back garden is a compost heap. Onto it we throw all our kitchen waste. Old tomatoes, apple cores, peelings and the like. And from it eventually comes lovely black rich compost for using in our flower pots and veg containers.
This year for the first time we decided to plant peppers. After a few days little shoots began to emerge.
‘Fantastic!’ we thought, ‘that was easy.’ But as the little shoots grew taller we noticed that they all looked different.
Some with little hairy leaves, some spiky, some a pair of leaves, some in a pattern of four.
Buried in our lovely rich compost are all sorts of seeds. Tomato seeds, cherry pips, all manner of weed seeds, that have found their way in.
And the problem is: Jane and I haven’t got a clue what pepper a shoot should look like.
So which ones need weeding out and which ones are peppers?
We had a look on the internet, studied lots of pictures of shoots but they all looked kind of small and green and shooty and we couldn’t quite agree on which ones to pick out.
So we let them grow. I mean one day one of them might grow a pepper and that will be quite a strong indication.
Actually some of them are definitely tomatoes so we’ve repotted those…but otherwise who knows?
Sometimes you can’t tell the difference between the plant that you want and a weed until it’s full grown.
That’s the point Jesus makes in the parable He tells in today’s gospel reading.
He tells of a farmer who plants a field of wheat. But overnight an enemy spreads weeds among the wheat and when the shoots come up the farm workers see that some of the shoots are weeds.
‘Shall we go and root out all the weeds?’ they ask the farmer?
‘No,’ he says, ‘because you might pull up some of the wheat by mistake.
No, leave it until harvest and we can sort it then when we can clearly see what’s weed and what’s wheat.’
So that’s the story Jesus tells but what does it mean for us?
Well Jesus does explains it for us. ‘The one who sowed the seed,’ says Jesus, ‘is the Son of Man.’
So the farmer stands for Jesus who often calls Himself Son of Man.
‘And the good seed,’ He says, ‘are the people of the Kingdom, those who follow Jesus and accept Him as King. ‘And the weeds,’ says Jesus, ‘are the people of the evil one, ’those who do not accept Jesus as King, who allow the evil one, Satan to reign instead.
The harvest says Jesus stands for the end of the age; the great sorting out when weeds are separated from wheat and thrown into a furnace;
Well, that’s Jesus explanation. This is a parable about those who follow Jesus and those who don’t.
It’s a parable about judgment. It’s a parable in part about Satan – the evil one. Uneasy listening.
The devil, fire and judgment? Didn’t Jesus come to tell us about a God of love and grace and mercy?
An uncomfortable parable. Uneasy listening. But what does it mean for us?
In some versions of the bible the word for ‘weeds’ is translated by the word ‘tares’ or ‘darnel’.
Tares and darnel both have something in common. They’re both grasses that look very like wheat and they are both very common in Middle eastern grain fields.
And until you see the grain ripening until you see the fruit it’s very hard to tell whether your plant is wheat or weed.
So why did Jesus tell us this parable?
In 1095 Pope Urban II got distressed by the fact that the city of Jerusalem had come under Islamic rule. So he issued a decree to the Christian Kings of Europe to have a pause in waging war against each other and to join forces and raise a Christian army and march to Jerusalem and win it back under Christian control
So began the Crusades : two hundred years of bloodshed.
In October 1097 a Christian army marching behind the cross of Jesus reached Antioch and for 8 months besieged its population. When they finally gained entry in June 1098, the Christian army set about systematically slaughtering the city’s Muslims and ransacking the mosque.
That was nearly 1000 years ago but that event and events like it continue to make it very difficult today for Christian people to share their faith with Muslim people.
How come Christians could ever have behaved like that?
How could you do that and claim to follow Jesus who said, ‘Love your enemies; do good to those who persecute you.’
‘Love your enemies,’ He said. ‘Do good to those who persecute you.’ Those were King Jesus’ orders. Yet marching behind a great big cross they massacred people in the name of Jesus.
How come Christians have ever behaved like that? Why did God let it happen in His name?
Over the centuries priests and bishops and archbishops and monarchs have engaged in battles and power struggles.
At the Reformation Christians tortured and burnt each otherfor believing different things about bread and wine.
On April 19th 1791 church bells rang out across cities like London, Bristol, Liverpool and across the land.
Churches celebrated by ringing bells: because William Wilberforce had been defeated in his first attempt to get a bill through parliament abolishing the slave trade.
How come Christians have ever behaved like that?
In South Africa parts of the Dutch Reformed Church were complicit in Apartheid.
Throughout Europe churches have had their part to playin a millennium of anti-semitism.
In Northern Ireland Christians of different traditions have for hundreds of years fought and killed each other.
Today Churches stand accused of condoning abuse, covering up scandal and of deceit.
How come Christians sometimes behave like this?
Well darnel and tares they’re very hard to tell apart from wheat until they’re full grown. But by their fruit you can know them.
‘The good seed,’ says Jesus, ‘are the people of the Kingdom.’ The people who accept Jesus as King.
‘And the weeds,’ He says ‘are the people of the evil one.’ But wheat and weeds can be hard to distinguish.
A person might sit every Sunday in a church pew, might put on fine robes and wear a clerical collar, might be able to quote from scripture at length, might look like the real thing, like real wheat, might wear a great big red cross on their front, might raise a giant cross and march behind it, and claim to be winning territory for Jesus might do all those things but not actually be a child of the Kingdom, not actually have made Jesus the King of their heart.
King Jesus who said, ‘You’ve heard it said “eye for eye and tooth for tooth,” but I tell you if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other also.’
King Jesus who said, ‘You’ve heard it said, “Love your neighbour and hate your enemy” but I tell you, ‘love your enemies and do good to those who wrong you.’
Who said,‘You’ve heard it said, “do not commit adultery” but I tell you ‘anyone who looks in lust has committed adultery in the heart.’
The wheat they are people of the Kingdom, people who have made Jesus their King. The weeds – they allow Satan to rule.
So I don’t know about you but that poses a challenging question for me: ‘Am I really serious about making Jesus my King?’
In my work, among my family, with my colleagueswith my neighbours?
Am I allowing Jesus to be King over all my attitudes and actions? Am I wheat?
There is good news. But before we get there, notice two challenging things about Jesus’ teaching.
- For Jesus the evil one, Satan, the devil is real.
How come weeds grow up alongside wheat? How come people who say they follow Jesus can live so differently from how He wants them to live? This - says Jesus - is the work of the devil.
‘The enemy who sows bad seed’ says Jesus in v 39, ‘is the devil.’
Want to follow Jesus? Want Jesus to be your King? Then take Jesus’ teaching seriously. Listen to Him carefully. There is an evil one who doesn’t want you do that. For Jesus Satan is no myth. He is real. He is personal. He wants to cause mayhem.
How come over the centuries Christians have done evil in Jesus’ name? Because they allowed the devil a foothold. They let him rule.
But stick close to Jesus. Listen to His teachings each day. Talk to Him each day. Allow Him to be Your King and you’ll give Satan no foothold.
Challenge 1: For Jesus the evil one, Satan, the devil is real.
Challenge 2: In Jesus’ teaching judgment is a reality. For Jesus judgment is real.
Listen to these words: ‘As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age.
The Son of Man will send His angels and they will weed out of His Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
I don’t know how you feel hearing those words but I feel uncomfortable reading them. But it’s today’s set passage.
The words of Jesus plainly speaking of fire and judgment. Of judgment and punishment for all who do evil.
Jesus talking about fire and judgment? Didn’t He come to tell us about a God of love and grace and mercy? What has love got to do with judgment? How could a God of love be a God of judgment?
Isn’t the judgement God – isn’t He Old Testament? And the loving one New Testament?
Some Christians try to bring these two different views of God together by talking about balance.
Yes they say God is loving but we must balance that by remembering that He is a holy God of judgement who sometimes burns with wrath.
The problem for me, though, is that I’m left wondering, “Which God am I going to meet when I pray?” The one angry with my lack of holiness or the gracious forgiving one who pardons it?
The problem with balance is that it gives us an incomplete God. A God who is quite gracious but not completely gracious.
Yes there’s grace but He’s not all grace because we must never forget His wrath.
But surely there’s no such a thing as, “some grace”? Some grace is no grace at all.
No the bible tells us that God is love. God is love; and when He’s angered – and when He judges - when He promises to root out everything that causes sin and to prevent all who do evil from entering His Kingdom, that is because He is Love.
God is a God of judgment because first of all He is a God of love.
You see, faced with evil what should love do?
A couple of weeks ago I listened on the radio as the parents and sister of Milly Dowler stood on the steps of a court in London and tried to put into words their grief and sorrow and rage at the fact that a man called Levi Bellfield had cruelly, violently, unjustly robbed them of a precious daughter, a much loved sister.
Standing on those steps, hearing the depth of their pain what is the response of love? Doesn’t love cry out for justice? When love sees the exploitation and murder of street children throughout the developing world; when love sees the sale of women into the sex trade in the Philippines; or grossly unfair trading practices that condemn millions to lives of permanent poverty;
What is the response of Love?
Is not Love enraged by the cruelty humans mete out to each other
Doesn’t a loving Father God burn with anger when His children are mistreated and abused?
It is because God is love that He judges.
It is because God is love that He promises a day when He will weed out of His Kingdom all that causes sin.
It is because God is love that He promises a day when He will say ‘No more.’ ‘You who hurt and damage and destroy and exploit, all you who do evil – you have no place in My Kingdom. For I am love. My law is love.’
But I’m left worried. Because I’m thinking am I wheat or weeds? I mean if I really look honestly at my heart? Do I meet the standards of the King? Have I really made Him my King? Do I love as He loves?
And the only answer I can give is no – by a long way no. And I’m in despair – but God who is Love has good news for me.
On the night before Jesus dies He has a meal with His friends. And taking the cup of wine He says to them, ‘Drink this – all of you – for this is My blood of the new covenant. It is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.’
A cup of wine, a sign pointing to blood shed, Jesus’ blood shed for you, for me, for many, for our forgiveness.
Love must judge must judge everything in me that is unkind, hard, selfish, unloving.
Love must judge; But the King of Love, He dies in my place, receives the judgement that should have been mine so that I can be free.
Jesus’ blood shed for you, for me, for many, for our forgiveness. Grace. God’s free forgiveness, for all want to turn from wrong and accept Him.
And the response? To say ‘Thank You!’ And to decide every day to make the King of Love My King; and to let Him little by little change me.
A Beautiful Blue Pearl
Given by:
Stephen Webster
Date given:
3 July 2011
Book:
Genesis
Chapter:
1
Parish:
Oundle St Peter's A Beautiful Blue Pearl
(Genesis 1, Matthew 20:20-28)
In 18 days time it will be 42 years since a human being first stepped onto the moon. Astronaut Jim Lovell said, ‘We went to the moon to learn about the moon. And we did learn a lot about the moon but what we really learnt about was earth.’
Beneath Neil Armstrong’s feet dry barren dust. For millions and millions and millions of miles in every direction airless hostile emptiness populated only by occasional worlds, some so cold that methane freezes or so hot that rock melts or balls of nothing but thick toxic gas.
And then they saw a sight never before seen in human history. They watched from the moon as the Earth rose.
They watched as the rays of the sun lit up a tiny beautiful blue pearl.
The only thing of colour in an expanse of cold lifeless black and white. A stunning heart-stoppingly heartbreakingly beautiful blue pearl.
‘When I first looked back at the earth, standing on the moon,’ says Alan Shepard from the Apollo14 Mission ‘I cried.’
There floating free in an empty expanse in a moist membrane of bright blue sky, the earth.
Covered with oceans of temperate water and teeming green forests, a tiny blue pearl – everything set up just perfectly: a paradise of life.
Just the right distance from its star with just the right protective bubble of atmosphere to make life possible. Beautiful, perfect but tiny.
‘I put up my thumb and shut one eye,’ says Armstrong and that tiny pea, pretty and blue - planet Earth – was blotted out. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.’
‘Put your thumb up and hide the Earth’ says Jim Lovell. ‘and everything that you've ever known, your loved ones, your business, the problems of the Earth itself - all lie behind your thumb. How insignificant we really all are. And how fortunate.’
How insignificant. How fortunate. How amazingly fortunate you and I are.
‘When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,’ says the Psalmist,
‘What are mere mortals that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?’
And yet our amazing creator God has made this stunning paradise on which we live and has given us life so that we can enjoy it and care for it.
‘God saw all He that He had made,’ said the words of our first reading ‘and it was very good.’
So very good, so precious, so beautiful, so fragile - in need of our care.
Space shuttle astronaut Ulf Merbold said this about his first flight. ‘For the first time in my life’ he says ‘I saw the thin seam of dark blue light - our atmosphere.
This was not the ocean of air I had been so often told about but a thin delicate precious membrane standing between us and the hostile vacuum of space. I was terrified by its fragile appearance.’
The precious blue pearl held within a delicate membrane. A beautifully self-regulating atmosphere. Carbon – in the form of carbon dioxide put into the atmosphere by living organisms.
Carbon locked back into the earth by dying organisms.
‘The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden’ we’re told in Genesis, ‘to work it and care for it.’
Put here in this earth to work it and care for it.
‘So God created human beings in His own image, in the image of God He created them, male and female He created them.’ You and me created in the image of the creator, created to reflect the character of the creator. Created to care for this beautiful fragile blue pearl just as the creator does.
But something went wrong didn’t it? We human beings, we looked round at this gorgeous paradise and we said,‘The earth is OURS and everything in it.’
Over the last 200 years we’ve found amazing uses for the ancient carbon stores coal and gas and oil that we found under the earth. By burning this carbon we found that we could power amazing machines that over 200 years transformed the western way of life.
It began with steam powered engines in factories. Now nowhere in the country is more than a day away in our oil burning cars. The other side of the world is only a day’s jet-engined flight away.
And gas and coal fired power stations, fire up our houses with light and power our computers and dishwashers, washing machines and tumble dryers and mobile ’phones.
It has transformed our way of life and given us in the western world wealth unimaginable to previous generations. Populations that ate meat on feast days now demanded it daily.
Where for one generation a holiday by train in Skegness or Bournemouth was a prized luxury, a new generation grew up expecting to fly to Spain, Greece, Indonesia.
Once a novelty for the rich having, one car, two cars per family became a necessity - we designed our towns that way.
New cars, new phones, new computers, new houses, new clothes - we became used to consuming, consuming, consuming.
And in the next 20 years 2.5 billion people in China and India are about to catch up and do the same. But there’s been a cost to all this consumption. Since 1950 we have stripped the earth of half – yes – half of all its rainforests. We have deprived countless species of plants and animals and native peoples of their habitats and means of life.
Species are currently going extinct on our planet somewhere between 100 and 1000 times faster than has been the case over earth’s history. The ocean’s fish stocks in many places are in danger of collapse.
We are living beyond our means. We are using and spending the earth’s resources faster than they’re being replenished.
And by burning all this oil, gas and coal we’ve begun to mess with that beautiful self-regulating atmosphere. We’re burning the carbon we’ve found locked in the earth and throwing it up into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide.
Our planet is getting hotter and almost every scientist who studies this - 98% of climate scientists say that it is our burning of carbon of oil, coal and gas in the engines of our cars and planes to make electricity for our homes that is causing this.
And this warming is having a serious effect. 6 years ago scientists studying the arctic ice predicted that by the end of this century the arctic will be free of ice in the Summer.
Having made more studies of the water beneath the arctic ice this week the prediction was revised.
Ice free summers in the arctic may be between 10 & 20 years away.
5 years ago scientists said that the Antarctic ice sheet was so thick it would probably never melt.
Recent satellite images suggest that it may now be melting faster than the arctic.
The rise in sea levels this will bring is very bad news for some of the world’s poorest populations like those living in the low-lying Maldives and flood prone Bangladesh.
And so are the changes to weather patterns that happen in a warmer world as deserts grow and extreme floods and wilder hurricanes become more common. The truth is that within the lifetime of my children - Emily, Daniel and Samuel life on our planet may become much less comfortable, much more challenging.
Well enough of all this doom and gloom Stephen. What does God have to say about all this?
Well to answer that question I want us first to think about 2 things Christians sometimes say about it all.
- God told us to rule over the earth didn’t He? So isn’t using its resources for ourselves fine?
2. Worrying about the environment isn’t the Church’s job.
God told us to rule over the earth.
Using its resources for ourselves is fine isn’t it?
Look at Genesis 1: 27 and 28 it’s right there:
‘So God created human beings in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.’ ‘and God blessed them and said… ‘fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’
So there we are. Chopping down rainforests, industrialised fishing of the sea are fine.
Just part of subduing the earth and ruling over it.
I don’t think so.!
In the ancient world when a King had a great empire which stretched over many lands he might appoint in a faraway colony, someone to act as His viceroy.
And he might give that viceroy a ring to wear a ring which was imprinted with the face of the King, his likeness – his image.
And the viceroy’s job was to rule with the authority of the King, to rule in the manner that his King would rule and to use the ring he’d been given to stamp the King’s image on the laws he passed. To rule in the manner of the King. In all his acts to make an imprint of the King’s image.
We are made in God’s image. To be his viceroys on earth. To rule in the way God would rule, that all our acts might bear His image.
God has clear ideas about what makes a good ruler.
And I’m told that the Hebrew word ‘rada’ used for ‘rule over’ in these verses carries those meanings. In God’s eyes good Kings are Shepherd Kings. A King made in God’s image cares for and serves for those they rule.
Kings who act as tyrants, who use those under their care for their own ends, who ravage and exploit and destroy, they are not Kings made in God’s image.
No a King made in God’s image, well, He washes the feet of those He came to rule. A King made in God’s image – well He might die for love of those He serves.
‘You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them’ says Jesus, ‘Not so with you. Instead whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant and whoever wants to be first must be your slave.’
‘Rule over the earth’ says God, ‘be my viceroys. Bear my image.’ But what will the King say when He comes to see what His viceroys have done.
How we have treated the precious fragile beautiful planet we were entrusted with?
When He comes and finds the whole of creation groaning under the rule of a tyrant?
Here’s a second thing Christians sometime say about the environment.
Worrying about the environment isn’t the Church’s job. Going out and making disciples, encouraging more people to follow Jesus that’s the Church’s job. Preaching the gospel is the Church’s job.
To which I say ‘Amen.’ That is absolutely the core of the Church’s job. And I’ll tell you what I understand the gospel to be.
God made a beautiful world and he made people to love Him and know Him.
- But human beings turned away from God. They turned to greed and selfishness. They hurt each other and spoilt the beautiful world He had made.
- So God came to rescue them. In Jesus He came. To show humans a different way to live and by dying and rising to bring them forgiveness.
At the heart of the gospel is the fact that I need a Saviour. Someone to save me from my selfishness and greed, someone to bring me forgiveness, someone to help me live differently.
And Jesus is that Saviour and His Holy Spirit helps me to live differently.
That is the Gospel. God made a beautiful world. We spoilt it. Through Jesus He calls us to repent. He forgives us and calls us to live differently.
At a time when humans are busily and selfishly harming that precious blue pearl God gave us, I think that the call to repentance, the offer of forgiveness and the wonderful possibility of a different way of living is a message that has never been more relevant.
So what is God’s message to us this morning? How is He asking us to change?
1. Care.
‘The LORD God put the man in the garden to care for it.’ God wants you and me to care for His world. So next time you politely curse the energy efficient light bulbs, and next time someone nags you about recycling or switching lights off or bangs on about whether car journeys or plane journeys are necessary,
and you feel yourself (in spirit) about to roll your eyes and think, ‘how boring,’STOP. And think ‘God wants me to care. It matters.’
2. Think
As you begin to care, think. Think about the ways that you and I consume more than our fair share of the world’s resources. The food we buy – how far has it been flown across the world? The clothes we buy – do we buy often and cheap and discard?
The way we travel, the energy we use at home. Maybe for you it’s ‘start thinking’. Maybe it’s ‘carry on thinking’.
As far as I’m concerned, I’m perhaps only beginning to think through the implications of all of this for our life.
3. Do something
Take steps to make a difference. Maybe small steps.
That mile journey to the shops in Oundle, are you in a position where you could walk it or cycle it? Could you get in the habit of walking and cycling those distances.
Going further away? Could bus or train replace the car? Could the ferry replace the plane? Those options burn much less carbon per passenger.
Too complicated? Too inconvenient? Think about this: On about October 15th this year an important person will be born: the 7 billionth alive on our planet.
Now 7 billion people can’t live the way I live: in a home with central heating or air conditioning, eating meat every day, driving a car to the shops, machine washing and tumble drying the clothes, flying off on an annual holiday.
At least if 7 billion people do try to live that way then I think in no time we’ll turn our beautiful blue planet into a dry lifeless wilderness.
Caring for God’s world, loving my neighbour as myself -
Maybe my distant neighbour living in poverty in a lands where the desert is encroaching or flooding threatens. My distant neighbour who dreams of a life like mine -
Caring for God’s world. loving my neighbour as myselfmeans that I do need to start thinking of ways that I can live more simply.
And embracing new technology that can give us less harmful ways of creating energy.
‘So God created human beings in His own image,’ put them in the garden to care for it, said, ‘rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky over every living creature…’
So you and me this week? How will we choose to rule?
Will the image of our loving gentle good creator God be seen in all our actions?
Will we be like the King Jesus we follow?
Will we love and serve all that we have been given to rule?
The Crisis Points
Given by:
Joyce Tompkins
Date given:
5th June 2011
Book:
2 Kings
Chapter:
19
Parish:
Oundle St Peter's
2 Kings 19:14-19 John 17:1-11
THE CRISIS POINTS
Both readings this morning were very famous prayers --- both coming at crisis points.
Jesus’ prayer was just before he faced the Cross and he prayed for the disciples and also for us.
Hezekiah’s prayer was in the face of alarming threats from a fierce enemy.
We look today at this latter prayer.
Some BACKGROUND is needed in order to understand Hezekiah’s prayer
1. PREPARATION
King of Judah (Southern Kingdom)
Good King ---- he had got rid of anything to do with idol worship
“He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord ----- he kept the Commandments given to Moses”
“He trusted the Lord ------ and the Lord was with him.”
Hezekiah had rebelled against the Assyrians and had refused to pay taxes to them ---- so was on a collision course with the Assyrian king ----- but ----- he was well prepared to face any crisis points --- his trust was in the Lord his God
2. PROBLEMS
- Facing a fierce enemy --- Assyria
- Northern Kingdom was already captured --- people taken into exile
- Assyria had also captured many of the fortified cities of Judah
- Now the Assyrian King, Sennacherib, was threatening Jerusalem, the capital city
- Phoney peace plan had been offered --- safety and good treatment if the people opened the city gates and surrendered
This was no solution at all ---- Assyria never kept its promises. It was just a trick to make the capture of Jerusalem much easier.
Hezekiah had sent messengers to the prophet Isaiah asking for him to pray.
Isaiah’s message to Hezekiah was “Do not be afraid of what you have heard”
He prophesied that Sennacherib would not conquer Jerusalem
Sennacherib heard about this and sent a threatening letter to Hezekiah --- mocking him and also mocking God.
No other nation had been able to withstand the Assyrian army --- their gods had been useless to save them --- so why did Hezekiah imagine that his God would save him?
Here was a crisis point ---- so what was Hezekiah to do?
3. PRAYER
He went to the Temple of the Lord
He took the letter and “spread it out before the Lord”
He took the whole problem to the God in whom he trusted ----- and then he prayed
Note the priorities in his prayer: -
- Worship ---- he acknowledged God as enthroned in splendour ---- God over all the nations of the earth ------ Creator of heaven and earth
Hezekiah recognised that he came to a great and mighty God
- Asked God to look and see ----- to listen and hear the words that Sennacherib had sent to insult the living God
Hezekiah’s concern was that God should not be mocked and insulted.
- He admitted to God the reality of the danger he faced “It is true --- the Assyrians have laid waste these nations and their lands”
But the gods they trusted were not gods at all --- merely images fashioned by men’s hands
Hezekiah was a realist and did not try to minimise his problem
- Prayed for deliverance --- “Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms on earth may know that you alone, O Lord, are God”
Hezekiah asked for deliverance from the threat he faced but his greatest desire was to see God honoured and glorified.
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THIS PRAYER?
1 PREPARATION
If, like Hezekiah, we have made a practice of keeping close to God, then when times are tough we can confidently turn to Him
Lay out the problem before God ---- tell Him all about it
Hezekiah loved God and trusted him --- so he was able to take his problem to God
We can do the same and it much easier to do so if we are in the habit of trusting him --- but even if this has not been true we can still turn to God and lay our problems at his feet.
1 Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you”
2. PROBLEMS
Many situations are serious and cause great concern. How do we cope when all seems hopeless --- eg. un - employment, serious illness, bad news, bereavement, relationship break down, debt or hostility in some form or other?
How do we react in a crisis?
War time slogan--- “Keep calm and carry on”
Someone has re-phrased it ---- “Now panic and freak out” (On a mug)
Panic is often our first reaction ------ fear and anxiety can take over our lives --- we live with the crisis on our minds day and night.
We can learn from Hezekiah ---to recognise the situation we face and go to the Lord and calmly lay it out before him, then begin to pray.
3. PRAYER
Priorities in prayer
- Worship ----- recognise that we come into the presence of a great and mighty God – creator of heaven and earth --- king over all the nations.
Thou art coming to a King
Large petitions with thee bring
For his grace and power are such
None can ever ask too much
In addition to all of that, we know Jesus as our Saviour and Friend, who gave his life for us ----- who rose victorious over sin and death ---- who is now enthroned in glory and splendour ---with him nothing is impossible. No problem too difficult for him to deal with ---- no burden too heavy for him to bear.
Jesus invited us “Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest”
So we can go to him in confidence and ask for help
- Ask for help
Our natural desire is to have freedom from whatever is upsetting us --- to have fear and anxiety removed ---- so we can ask for healing, comfort, peace etc
Prayer changes things --- that is why at every service we offer to pray with anyone who has any kind of need.
However we do not always get the answer we are looking for --- but --- that does not mean that God has not heard or does not care or is unwilling to help.
Sometimes it is through difficult times that we experience God’s greatest blessings --- and by the way that God strengthens us others will see what a wonderful God we have.
This should be our greatest desire that God be honoured as we put our trust in him --- not just in the good days --- but --- especially at the crisis points, which we all face from time to time.
So --- at the crisis points in our lives: -
- Don’t panic --- don’t act in a rush ---stop and take it to the Lord --- lay it all out before him
- Recognise that you come to a great and mighty God --- nothing is impossible with him
- Ask for what you need ---maybe ask someone to pray with you
- Trust God to do for you whatever is best
- Desire that God be honoured as you put your trust in him
Put Down your Burdens
Given by:
Stephen Webster
Date given:
22nd May 2011
Book:
Matthew
Chapter:
11
Parish:
Oundle St Peter's Return to Sermons page Oundle Welcome page
On our backs between us we carried a tent and all our food and drink. When I say drink you must remember we were in our twenties and it wasn’t all water. A few cans of beer made their way into our packs. It was a warm day and after a few hours Paul seemed to be struggling a bit. Not wanting to be outdone by his younger brother, however, he didn’t say much. He just struggled on and seemed more and more pleased at every rest. Finally having climbed to the summit, we found a good place on the way back down to pitch our tent beside a cool mountain stream. Paul threw off his rucksack with a groan and lay flat out on the ground. Before putting up the tent we decided that it would be ideal to put some cans of beer in the stream so that afterwards we could sit and enjoy a well-deserved cold beer. So we began to unpack our rucksacks. Now Paul and I remember the next part differently. What Paul likes to say is this: he watched astonished as out of my rucksack came a t-shirt, some shorts, a pair of socks, a fleece, a sleeping bag and a map; ‘What exactly have you been carrying?’ he asked as out of his rucksack came a tent, several bottles of water weighing a kilo each, a stove, and two days worth of beer cans for two. The way Paul tells it whilst I had waltzed up Snowdon carrying just my own clothes, he had slogged up the whole day carrying beer for both of us. Now I think this has got distorted in the telling. I’m sure we packed those rucksacks together and that it was distributed more fairly than that but the point is this: when you’re going mountain climbing you don’t want to be lugging around any unnecessary weight. And the same is true in our Christian walk. ‘Come to Me,’ says Jesus, ‘all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you… For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.’ If we set out to walk with God we don’t want to be lugging around unnecessary weight. ‘My yoke is easy’ says Jesus, ‘my burden is light.’ What does He mean by that? We’ll come back to that in a moment but first a reminder of where all this fits into our sermon series. Today is the second of our series on prayer. Last week Richard looked at the verses earlier in Matthew where Jesus tells us not to worry because we can trust God who is our Father. Prayer is foremost about a relationship with a God who loves us and knows us and is with us in all things. A God who loves us and knows us and is with us in all things. Do we believe that? Do I believe that? Do you believe that God loves you? Do you believe He is good? You see what we believe about God will have a big impact on how we pray. And that is what Jesus touches on in today’s passage. And to understand how we need to think about what it meant in Jesus’ day to be a disciple. If a rabbi or teacher ever said to you in first century Judah, ‘Come and follow Me!’ that was the greatest honour. You became the rabbi’s disciple. You literally followed him. Went everywhere the rabbi went did everything he did, sat at his feet - listened to all he taught. And rabbis would have different approaches, different methods – different disciplines. This was called the rabbi’s yoke. We all know what a yoke is don’t we? Oxen in a field pulling a plough have a heavy piece of wood placed on them. A yoke. It’s through the yoke that the farmer drives them. And the Rabbi’s yoke – it’s what would drive you. In following a rabbi you would take on his yoke, you would take on yourself his particular disciplines and outlook. His yoke. What drove him would drive you too. And why would you do that? Because you wanted to know God. The rabbi was there to teach you who God was, what He was like – and how you could come to know Him and walk rightly with Him. By taking on his yoke you hoped you might come to know God the way he did. We get an idea as we go through the gospels of the approach of some of the religious teachers. "Want to know what God is like? Want to know Him?" say the Pharisees "then take our yoke upon you." A heavy yoke that says God’s approval is something to strive for. Go to the greatest possible lengths to demonstrate that you’re keeping His laws and you may just win His approval. Of course do no work on the Sabbath. But go to the greatest lengths. Make sure it’s absolutely none. Not even good work – not even healing work. And when you tithegive God a tenth, go to the greatest lengths to measure out everything in your calculations even the pickings of mint from your garden. And when you fast be extreme in your fasting. Make it obvious to all the world that you’re fasting. God is a holy task master. Work hard. Strive. Obey. And you might just win His approval. And of course keep well clear of dirty sinners and those who fail to make the grade. Don’t taint yourself by associating with them. The Pharisees’ is a heavy miserable yoke. There is always more striving to be done, more law to be obeyed. And God the holy task master never seems to approve enough. ‘They tie up heavy cumbersome loads and put them on people’s shoulders,’ Jesus says of the Pharisees in Matthew 23, ‘and then lift not a finger to help.’ And of course what, if he’s honest, even the apparently most holy Pharisee knows deep down is that inside he is a failure just like everyone else. There is a very beautiful beach on Sark called Grand Grève. Blue sea and a wide expanse of sand at the foot of spectacular cliffs. After a day swimming and sunbathing and reading on Grand Grève there’s only one drawback. Hundreds of feet of cliff to climb up hundreds of steps in the still hot afternoon sun. It’s a slow steady haul. And one day when we’re on holiday there Samuel is stoically plodding away step by step ahead of me. A couple of times he says, ‘I’m tired Daddy. My rucksack is very heavy.’ But I’m not taking the bait. Through an act of selfless parental love I decide that it’s best for the development of his character if he learns to carry his rucksack himself. And anyway it’s only got swimming trunks and a towel in it. He can surely manage that. Eventually near the top I relent. I agree to carry the load the last part for him. Immediately he slings the pack off his back and it crashes to the floor with a thud. I casually reach down to pick it up. The bag doesn’t budge. ‘What on earth have you got in there Samuel?’ ‘Those are my stones Daddy.’ So I look inside. And sure enough under the towel and the swimming trunks are two great rocks. There’s obviously a great big question mark on my face because Samuel – who perhaps has a career ahead in geology – looks at me and simply says, ‘I liked them.’ Carrying cans of beer up Snowdon is one thing. Needlessly lugging rocks up a cliff quite another. The Pharisees in Jesus’ day, they have loaded people’s backs with stupid needless heavy rocks. Rocks that say ‘God is hard.’ ‘Strive to obey.’ ‘His approval is hard to win.’ ‘He has no time for failure.’ What about you and me? Are we needlessly lugging around great big rocks. When we pray do we come to a God who loves us and knows us and is with us in all things. A God we can call Abba Daddy? Do you believe that God is good? Because what we believe about God has a big impact on how we pray. On whether we pray at all. Have you got some useless heavy rocks loaded on your back? Rocks that say "I’m not good enough for God", "I’m a failure", "I am unlovely – unloveable", "I’m useless" "God has allowed bad things to happen to me because He is punishing me". What yoke have you taken on? What drives you? Is it a yoke that says, "I must strive strive strive to succeed," "Only when I succeed am I worth anything." Jesus’ invitation to people labouring under miserable yoke, to those who have been lugging around heavy rocks is this: ‘Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.’ Do you know there was once a man – a short man? He worked for the Roman occupiers and was hated by many. I don’t think he had prayed for a long time. He hadn’t dared pray because he knew he had failed and failed and failed again. God was a hard task master with no time for the likes of him. Because he was short he climbed a tree just to watch from a distance when Jesus passed. But Jesus didn’t pass. No he stopped looks up and said, ‘Zacchaeus today I coming to eat with you.’ And there’s a woman. She’s committed adultery. She’s failed. She’s sinned. I don’t think she can bring herself to pray. I mean who would she pray to? This task master God she has so clearly failed. Why would He listen to her?
And the mob they’re ready with the rocks, with rocks to rain down on her. [Because of course people who are lugging around heavy rocks are always only to ready to throw them at others.] And there’s Jesus. In the midst of them. ‘Go ahead’ He says, ‘throw the rocks but only if you’ve never failed yourself.’ And then she’s alone with Him and He’s says, ‘I don’t condemn you. Go and live a different life.’ And then there are those two boys. The ones in the story Jesus tells. There’s the waster and gambler who has rejected his father and lost him a fortune. And as he crawls back down the road he doesn’t know how to pray. On his back a load of heavy rocks, ‘I’ve failed. I’ll serve you. Just take me back as your servant.’ And there’s that older brother too. The one who never left – and who hates his brother. He doesn’t know how to pray either. He lugs around some heavy rocks on his back too. Rocks that say, ‘I have served you. I will serve you. I will strive never to fail you. I am your servant.’ And the Father what does he do? Whilst his boy is still far off he runs down the road to meet him. Flings his arms around him and says, ‘You are my son. I love you.’Says to both boys, ‘You are not my servants. You are my children. Everything I have is yours.’ "I’ve failed. I’ll be your servant. I’m not good enough. I am unlovely. God is punishing me. I am worth what I achieve. I must strive." What do we believe about ourselves? What do we believe about God? ‘Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened’ says Jesus ‘and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.’ Jesus invitation is to throw off that old rucksack with all the heavy rocks and put on the much lighter pack He offers. ‘You are not my servant, you are my child. Everything I have is yours. I do not condemn you. You are forgiven, forgiven through the cross. Worth so much that Jesus died for you. I love you. Not because of what you do, not because of what you achieve but because you are My child. Nothing you can do will ever make me love you less. Nothing you can do will ever make me love you more. Nothing. Nothing. So put down your heavy load and come to Me.’ That’s Jesus’ yoke. That’s who God is. That’s what He thinks of you. Want to know God? Then that’s the yoke you need to wear. That’s what needs to drive you. What does God think of me? If you’re not sure about the answer to that question or if you think you might be lugging around a few useless rocks why not pray with another Christian about it? In the chancel during communion the prayer team will be ready to pray with anyone who’d like to take up the opportunity. Or why not grab Richard or me and fix up a time to pray to together. Because if we’re struggling along, driven by some miserable heavy useless yoke, then it’s going to be hard for us to simply come into our heavenly Father’s presence and pray. 
A few years ago my brother Paul and I set off on a camping trip on Snowdon. We set off early one morning planning to climb Snowdon, camp the night and then walk further the next day.
In the Dark
Given by:
Stephen Webster
Date given:
20th February 2011
Book:
Mark
Chapter:
10
Parish:
Oundle St Peter's In the Dark
I have been banned from doing DIY around the home. What a result! My wife tells me I’m not to do any DIY. She’s never forgotten the day in a previous house (not the one belonging to Peterborough Diocese) when I attempted to put up a bathroom cabinet and found myself thwarted at every turn by faulty machinery. The stupid drill just came to a dead stop in the ridiculously hard Victorian brick. And however hard I pressed it refused to sink deeper. And then of course the raw plug simply refused to be driven into the hole however hard I hammered it. And the whole bracket for some reason only known to itself insisted on sitting on the wall at some absurd angle. How often an excellent workman is thwarted by his tools. Stupid tools – I have to say - that deserved every insult I gave them. Loudly rebuking a drill, or a raw plug, or an uncooperative wall is, I find, the only reasonable way forward in such situations. When one discovers that a hammer is unfit for purpose what else is one to do but cast it down from a great height?
Now it was at this point that Jane came up with a quite absurd suggestion. ‘Shall we get someone who knows what they’re doing to come and help?’ she says, ‘We could look through the Yellow Pages.’ ‘Someone who knows what they’re doing,’ says my wife. Well this was obviously quite absurd. I knew exactly what I was doing. And if it hadn’t been for a stupid wall and a faulty drill I’d have been fine. Someone to come and help. What a suggestion! That as far as DIY went and who knows perhaps in many other ways too, I was in need of help?!
* * *
In our gospel reading today we meet a man who is unafraid to shout to the world that he’s not self-sufficient. That he does need help.‘As Jesus and His disciples, together with a large crowd were leaving the city,’ writes Mark in v 46 a blind man, Bartimæus was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”’ We’re not told when Bartimæus lost his sight. But one thing is clear in first century society and in most societies until very recently, from that point on Bartimæus will have experienced nothing but dependence.
Think of the challenges of day to day living for someone without sight in a world without gadgets where cooking is done over open fires. Unable to see Bartimæus is unable to work; unable to earn an income. Think of the years. Every day depending on others simply for food and shelter. And by the time we meet Bartimæus in Mark 10 it seems that if there were ever family members able to care for him he’s now alone. So he sits by the roadside begging. Listening to the people walking past. Asking for their money.
And sitting by that roadside each day he evidently hears stories of a teacher from Nazareth. One through whom they say God works. One who makes those who are paralysed walk again, one who even raises the dead and yes the one who restores sight to those who can’t see. And what’s more, amongst today’s passing footsteps he’s heard some new chatter. That this very teacher from Nazareth, this Jesus who heals is today in Jericho and will likely pass this way. Today in Bartimæus’ own town, about to pass his way is the one who can change his life forever. Except of course Bartimæus can’t see. What if he misses Him? What if this Jesus walks past without stopping? How will he know when Jesus is there? How will he get Him to stop? So Bartimæus begins to shout. ‘Jesus, Son of David have mercy on me!’ He’s making his need – his lack of self-sufficiency all too obvious. ‘Jesus, Son of David have mercy on me!’ In other words: ‘Jesus I need you. Without you I’m lost. I don’t care what spectacle I make of myself. I need you.’
How irritating. How uncomfortable. How embarrassing for the passing crowd. How lacking in dignity: this man displaying his weakness and vulnerability and desperation for the whole world to see. In a world where we like to say, “I can do this on my own. I don’t need help. I am self-sufficient.” How jarring. ‘Many rebuked him,’ says Mark. ‘Told him to be quiet.’ Shut up Bartimæus! You’re making a scene! But ‘Bartimæus, he just shouted all the more: “Son of David have mercy on me!”’
‘I can do this on my own. I don’t need help. I am self-sufficient.’ We say ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!’ shouts Bartimæus. And Bartimæus’ way – well says God – Bartimæus’ way is the stronger way. You’re stronger when you realise that you’re weak.
* * *
Just over a year ago as part of the Oundle Festival Ben Fogle and James Cracknell came here to St Peter’s to speak about their expedition to the South Pole. In 2009 together with a Doctor called Ed Coates they entered a race to walk across Antarctica to the South Pole, competing against teams of hardened and experienced polar explorers from around the world. Strong man of the team was superfit rower and 2 times Olympic gold medallist James Cracknell. Few people had doubted that he could finish the race. But Ben Fogle was a different story. He contracted a serious tropical flesh-eating parasite just weeks before they were due to start. Not only was he not able to train with the others but he also had to undergo powerful chemotherapy, having lead pumped into his body which left him exhausted and weak. Just days before they were due to begin, Fogle was almost barred from competing because of his health but eventually race organisers let him in. Right from the start team strongman Cracknell set a challenging pace and would get frustrated with Coates and Fogle. Sometimes Coates and Fogle would argue that they needed to preserve their energy and set up camp earlier than Cracknell wanted. He’d keep striding out in front. He was tough. He could cope. He would set the pace.
All 3 developed blisters on their feet. Fogle and Coates regularly complained about them and Doctor Ed Coates made sure that his and Fogle’s feet were regularly treated and dressed.
But James Cracknell, well he was tough, he was an Olympic champion. It was only pain. They were only blisters. His feet were fine he’d say. And on he’d go. But of course Cracknell did have blisters, terrible blisters that just got worse and worse and infected. And then generally weakened, he developed a severe chest infection. And on staggering over the half way point the organisers threatened to withdraw Cracknell from the race. They gave the team two enforced days of rest while they kept a watch over Cracknell and treated his infections. Driven superfit athlete James Cracknell became the weakest link in the team. Meanwhile Ben Fogle who’d begun the race fully realising he was it’s weakest member got the nickname Duracell Bunny because he just seemed to have a constant supply of energy.
Sometimes you’re stronger when you realise you’re weak. And you’re weakest when you think you’re strong. James Cracknell’s weakness was thinking he was strong. Refusing to admit when he needed help. Refusing to get his blisters treated when it could have made a difference. Refusing to admit when he needed a rest.
* * *
‘I can do this on my own. I don’t need help. I am self-sufficient.’ We’re tempted to say. ‘Jesus, Son of David have mercy on me!’ shouts Bartimæus. And Bartimæus’ way is the better way says God.
To understand why let’s remember what happened just before Jesus got to Jericho. Look at page 958 just across from the story of Bartimæus. You’ll see the title ‘The rich and the Kingdom of God.’ Do you remember the story? The rich young man who has everything. Not only is he wealthy – but he’s holy too. He keeps all the commandments. He’s a stalwart of the synagogue. He has everything. He needs nothing. If ever anyone could say, ‘I don’t need help. I am self-sufficient,’ it’s this young ruler. But how can I make sure – he asks that I will inherit eternal life? What must I do? What must I do?‘I want to do this on my own. I don’t need help. I am self-sufficient.’ And what does Jesus tell him to do? To give away all his wealth. Give away all his money? How on earth could he do that? He wouldn’t be self-sufficient any more. He’d need people’s help. Why - he’d have to depend - on God! And it’s too much for the rich young man. And he goes sadly away.
And in Luke’s gospel just before the account of Bartimæus’ healing Jesus tells a parable about a Pharisee and a tax collector. They both go to the temple to pray. The Pharisee confidently strides to the front and says, ‘God I thank you that I’m not like other people like evildoers and that tax collector I keep the commandments and fast and pray.’ But the tax collector stands head bowed right at the back beats his breast and whispers,‘God have mercy on me a sinner.’ He - and not the Pharisee – goes home right with God says Jesus.
‘I can do this on my own. I don’t need help. I am self-sufficient.’ We’re tempted to say. ‘Jesus, Son of David have mercy on me!’ shouts Bartimæus. (‘When I am weak,’ Paul writes to the Corinthians, ‘then I am strong.’)
The rich man and the Pharisee both self dependent – independent. But God wants people who are God dependent. People like the tax collector and Bartimæus who are ready to say, ‘God I throw myself on you.’ Bartimæus was sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard that it was Jesus he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” The crowd rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he just shouted all the more. Jesus stopped and said, ‘Call him.’ Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’ Jesus asked. ‘Rabbi,’ he said, ‘I want to see.’ ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’ Jesus asked. Bartimæus believed. He believed that if only he could meet with Jesus, Jesus could transform his world. He didn’t care what other people thought; he was prepared to be vulnerable he ignored the rebuke and ridicule of the crowd, didn’t mind saying, ‘Jesus – son of David have mercy on me.’ ‘Jesus I need your help.’
What about you and me? When are we tempted to say to ourselves, to the people around us - to God: “I can do this on my own. I am self-sufficient. I don’t need help.” In work. At home. In bringing up children. In our marriages and relationships. With our health. Are there times when we want to show all the world that we are striding out ahead strong and indestructible? But actually inside unseen by all we’re limping along in agony. And if we’re honest what we really need to be saying is, ‘God I need you. Without you I’m lost.’ ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’ Jesus asks.
Bartimæus says, ‘Lord I want to see.’ And Jesus meets his need and transforms his life. ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’ Jesus asks. What would your answer be? What would you say to Jesus? As usual during communion today there will be a prayer team in the chancel. If you’re quietly struggling with some issue or problem on your own why not use that opportunity to bring it to God and depend on Him? ‘What do you want Me to do for you?’ What’s your answer?
