Keeping the Main Thing the Main Thing (Acts 6.1-7)

Introduction

Have you ever been in a church service when a baby cries for ages and ages? There’s an old story about that very thing; not just a discreet whimper, but a really shrill yelling for the entire first fifteen minutes of a sermon. And the story goes that finally, the mother gets up to take her baby out into a side room. The minister looks up, feels sorry for her and says, “There’s no need for you to leave. Your precious baby isn’t disturbing me.” And she looks back and says, “Oh, I know that; he’s crying because you’re disturbing him!”

So at great risk of disturbing you, on we go in in the book of Acts. Jesus ascends into heaven, he sends the Holy Spirit in power on the apostles, the gospel is preached everywhere, there are miraculous signs that accompany it and, despite the beginning of the first wave of persecution against the church, the number of believers has not stopped growing. It’s looking good. But when we turn the page of our Bibles to chapter 6 - what do we find? From the very first verse, the atmosphere is tense, there is friction, and people are complaining.

As Gill Clayton once said, there was so much grumbling in a church she heard about that people used to say “The only thing that’s harmonious in this church is the organ!”

Some of us like a bit of a moan sometimes. But, frankly, grumbling is inconsistent with being a Christian. Moaning is incompatible with your new identity in Christ. If Jesus is my Lord, I am crucified with Christ, the old things have disappeared, everything is new, I am seated with Christ in heavenly places, chosen in him before the foundation of the world that I should be holy and blameless. Nothing to gripe about there…

A friend of mine who is a church leader in the south of England told me he was approached one morning last year by a villager who lamented that the last few times he's come to a church event there were lots of people in the building. He actually said, with no hint of irony, “I think a lot more people would come if church wasn't so full.”

“Do everything” Philippians 2.14-15 says, “without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.”

     

But let’s be honest, we do sometimes complain, and the first Christians did too. The Church in Jerusalem in the first century seems to have had a split personality. On the one hand, it was rocking, bursting with life, and full of the Holy Spirit. We want that, don’t we? But on the other hand, it faced a major dispute that could easily have split the church in two. We’re not so keen about that.

A Dangerous Problem (v1-2)

Chapter 6, verse 1 tells us about the issue that could have caused a deep and permanent rift. Here's the situation: the growth in the number of believers is continuing to accelerate. “At that time,” we read, “the number of disciples was increasing ...” So far, so good.

But at the very same time, there were mounting tensions between two groups of people called here the Hellenistic Jews and the Hebraic Jews. Remember, all the Christians in the first few years of the history of the Church were Jewish.

We just need to unpack this a bit to help us understand what was going on. The Hellenistic Jews – who were they? They were Jewish believers in Jesus from all over the Roman Empire. Because they had been born abroad, they didn’t know any Hebrew, they only spoke Greek which was the main trade language of that day. They were a bit like Welsh people in the UK who wear the red shirt during the Six Nations Rugby and sing “Land of my Fathers” with tears rolling down their cheeks but have never lived in Wales and don’t speak a word of the Welsh language.

The Hebraic Jews were totally different. They too were Jewish believers in Jesus but they were born and raised in and around Jerusalem. They will have known a bit of Greek but probably refused to speak it. They were a bit like Welsh people who have never left their village, speak only Welsh as a matter of principle; pretend they don’t understand English, and resent it when houses in their village are sold as holiday homes.

These are the two groups that fell out – you can probably get a feeling for why they didn’t really get on.

Now widows in that society were in a bit of a fix. They had no pension provision and no social security; no income at all. But we saw in chapter 4 a few weeks back that there were “no needy people” among the first Christians. They shared all they had and made sure that these poor women had food to eat and were properly looked after. So every mealtime, they would cook and serve food for the widows and, as you’d expect, the women naturally tended to sit with those they could have a conversation with as they ate; Greek speakers on one table and Hebrew speakers on another. That’s the background.

The problem arose when this group noticed that that group was always getting served first and felt they were given bigger helpings, leaving only leftovers for the other table. “It's not fair,” they complain. “Why aren’t we getting the same as they are?”

And it gets worse because bitterness sets in. The church becomes not only segregated - which is sad - but it becomes spiritually ineffective because the leaders (v2) are having to spend all their time arbitrating this dispute and so they have less and less time to devote to prayer and the proclamation of the Gospel. That’s tragic.

The leaders have hit a wall. They are overwhelmed and they obviously cannot do everything. The twelve that Jesus commissioned to make disciples of all nations had become diverted from their main calling. That's the basic problem.

‘The main thing’ was being neglected for ‘the other thing’ and ‘the other thing’ had become ‘the main thing’. The main thing was no longer the main thing. But as J. John says, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.”

Verse 2 says; “The Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said ‘It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables.”

The stand-up comedian Milton Jones once said “Sometimes people think of church as being like a giant helicopter. They don't want to get too close in case they get sucked into the rotas!”

But let’s be clear about this. This wasn’t about reluctance to get involved. John Stott says, “There is no hint whatever that the apostles regarded social work as inferior to pastoral work, or beneath their dignity. It was entirely a question of calling. They had no liberty to be distracted from their own priority task.”

Funnily enough, we have a similar issue here at the moment. But I was reviewing Messy Church with Jan this week. We noticed that, at the end, instead of having a friendly people spending time with the families over the meal, many of us who might naturally do that are busy tidying the church and moving chairs after the celebration and waiting on tables. An opportunity to engage people about Jesus is being missed because of essential physical chores.

That’s not to say we don’t need to do those practical things. But we do need to raise up a team of people who are happy to do the hands-on stuff so others can be released to fully connect with people around the tables. So we’ll be working hard to put that right this term. And if you’re not above moving chairs, and prefer that to talking to people, you have no idea how valuable a ministry that is.

A Divine Solution (v3-5)

How did they sort it all out? Very briefly, there are five important things I want to say about how the Lord led them to resolve the problem. Each of those five things have a direct application to us here.

Firstly, they say “Brothers and sisters, choose seven… In this particular context it was seven men, but elsewhere in the New Testament, Romans 16 for example, women clearly had a place in leadership teams too. The point is this; their vision was for a plurality of shared ministries, not one minister.

I wince every time I hear about someone say they are “going into the ministry” or “entering full-time ministry” meaning they are getting ordained. In the New Testament, every Christian is a full-time minister. If you’re a nurse, or a teacher, or a businessman or an administrator or a stay-at-home mum, or whatever, you do it all for the glory of the Lord Jesus and that is your ministry. And in the church Jesus is building there is not one ministry but many ministries.

I still hear about churches where, even if they have excellent pastoral care teams and fully trained pastoral assistants who are probably more pastorally gifted than the clergy, some people say “If the vicar hasn’t visited me I haven’t really been visited. Don’t fob me off with the curate or the pastoral assistant But there is no trace of one-man ministry in the Acts and there shouldn’t be in today’s church either.

Secondly, they say they’re looking for candidates who are “known to be full of the Spirit.” Known to be… So you can tell if someone is filled with the Holy Spirit. It is not just something you feel inside. This verse tells me that if you are filled with the Holy Spirit people can see it. Would people describe you as Spirit-filled? Those I know to be filled with the Holy Spirit are positive and encouraging, they’re prayerful, they’re joyful in all circumstances. They’re people I want to be around.

In the 19th century, a young man from very humble origins with a heart for God and filled with the Holy Spirit met a young woman also on fire for the Lord. But she was from a noble family. It was like the chimney sweep falling in love with Lady Mary in Downton Abbey. They fell in love. She went to her father to ask if she could marry him, as was the custom. He told her, “Listen my dear, this young man is not from a good family. You don’t know where he has been!” “Yes, Daddy, I don’t know where he has been,” she said. “But I know where he is going, and I want to go there too.”

People who have a heart for God and are filled with the Holy Spirit know where they are going. And others are attracted to go with them; that is the essence of an anointed leader. Do you need a refill of Holy Spirit joy and power today?

Thirdly, they say they’re looking for leaders who are full of wisdom. God is looking for sanctified good judgement. That only comes from soaking in God’s word. It makes for fair-minded, discerning people, safe people who you’d go to for advice.

I love the Riding Lights drama sketch, I wonder if you’ve seen it, where a sleeping man, suddenly jumps out of bed and says, “I had a dream. I saw the Lord in the seventh heaven, and behold, Jesus spoke to me and I fell at his feet as though dead. There were angels and peals of thunder. He has given me a message for the world. I must go...” And off he goes. Then his wife walks into the room and rolls her eyes, “Why is it,” she says, “that men who have visions never make the bed?”

I like that. God is looking for wise leaders who are grounded; not all head in the clouds.

Fourthly, they were looking for stable people. “We will turn this responsibility over to them” they say at the end of v3. Who’s going to entrust responsibility to people who are volatile and unpredictable? The apostles make it plain that these new leaders are going to be in charge. They say “we don’t need to micro-manage this work. We have solid leaders in place that we can trust with this ministry.”

And fifthly, they looked for leaders with the attitude of a servant. The word “distribution” in v1 and the word “wait” in v2 are the same in Greek; the word is diakonia from which we get the word Deacon. It just means “service.”

Milton Jones, the one who joked about the rotas, says that in church, people sometimes say “I really want to be used!” But when you ask them to put the chairs out they say “Now I’m just being used!”

But people who are Spirit-filled, wise and trustworthy are not above serving others in humble ways.

A church leader from Cape Town called Phil Dooley said recently, “The best teams are made up of nobodies who love everybody, serve anybody and don’t care about becoming a somebody.”

And so we read in v5 “This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon (that’s not the meerkat in the Lion King, it’s another one - I think you knew that but just in case…), Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.”

Interestingly, all seven are Greek names and not Hebrew ones. Those who felt they were being overlooked beforehand were given leaders who spoke their language – literally.

A Desirable Outcome (v7)

Verse 7; “They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.”

Ending

So here’s the thing; the action they took when this crisis blew up

• solved the practical problem 
• released seven people who were doing nothing into ministry
• gave 12 overworked people a bit of a break
• freed up space for prayer - which is the key to blessing
• got the gospel out on the streets so that it was more potent than ever before

 And look, after this crisis, even Jewish priests were converted and that was a group that had been particularly resistant to the gospel before.

All this tells me that, surprisingly perhaps, restlessness and conflict in the church can be fruitful. It’s actually much better than harmonious apathy.

I’m never scared of conflict in church. I get more concerned when no one cares enough to feel passionately about anything. If Christians respond positively when there is disagreement it can actually be a springboard to growth and the key to a new level of blessing. Having said that, please don’t all start a bun fight in the hall over coffee!

So what is God saying to you today?

• To step up into a ministry of serving others so that the gospel can be more fruitful?
• To keep the main thing the main thing?
• To make sure you are filled with the Holy Spirit before you leave this place?
• To grow in wisdom this term by soaking in the word of God?
• Maybe something else…

Let’s pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 31st August 2014.

The Curious Case of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5.1-11)

Introduction

I thought I’d start off with a bit of investment advice from one of our greatest entrepreneurs, Richard Branson. “How do you become a millionaire?” someone asked him. So he replied “It’s easy. Start off as a billionaire and then go into the airline business.” I thought that was quite helpful.

If you’ve been following our series on Acts you’ll have noticed that we’ve moved a few readings around in the last three weeks. Today’s passage on Ananias and Sapphira was not really appropriate for the baby Oliver’s Thanksgiving Service two weeks ago and it seemed unfair to land it on our visiting missionary family last Sunday so we shuffled the pack a little bit.

So let me very quickly set today’s passage in the context in which God gave it to us.

The end of chapter 4 tells us about the amazing generosity and communal living of the earliest church. They shared everything in common. It was not at all unknown in those days for people to cash in their savings or sell land and hand the proceeds to the leaders of the church to be shared out among the destitute. The result was that there were no needy people among them.

That’s counter-cultural. We live in a world that says “What’s mine is mine.” That sounds fair doesn't it?

Our best read daily newspapers waste no time condemning those in our society who say “What’s yours is mine.” They are labelled as scroungers and parasites. We live in a “What's mine is mine” world. 

But our society usually commends generous people who say “What’s mine is yours.” We admire footballers for example who give away their testimonial money to charity and who say "What's mine is yours." 

Which of these three attitudes do you think the earliest church had? 

The big picture is of widespread sharing and amazing generosity inside the church and (as we saw last Sunday) extraordinary signs and wonders, healings and conversions outside it. 

But I would be wary of going to a particular hospital if no one ever got better there. If no one never actually grows in faith in a particular church we should ask why on earth not?

The answer is none of them. The benchmark for Christians, past and present, is “What’s mine is His.” All of it, all of me. That is what it means to say “Jesus is Lord.”

Incidentally, have you ever wondered why there were so many people in need of material support when the church was young? How come it took the sale of valuable assets like houses to ensure no one was in need? It’s because people were coming to faith in their thousands and many of them were losing their jobs and therefore their livelihoods as a result. The general mood in Jerusalem was one of outright hostility to this new sect (as it was seen).

That’s why it says in 5.13 that the crowds admired the first Christians but didn’t dare join them. People could see there was something very attractive about the gospel but they knew that it might cost them everything to embrace it.

So when we read these troubling verses about Ananias and Sapphira here it’s important to see that this is not the whole picture of the way the early church was. Yes, it was scandalous. Yes, it was shocking. Yes, it was embarrassing. But whenever you read something in God’s word, it’s always wise to read around it and get a sense of the context.

So if you’re ever tempted to say something bad about the church, well okay, but point to something good about it too. Don't go on and on about one bad apple if there's an orchard of healthy ones.

The second thing I want to say before we get into the text itself is that, however much this story bothers us, we should be thankful for it. Be glad that the God’s word always tells you the truth, and the whole truth, about human beings.

So the Bible won’t just tell you about a hero like David’s courage in taking on Goliath and that he wrote psalms and that he had a heart for God. It will also tell you the unpalatable truth that he seduced and stole another man’s wife and then had him killed.

Every character in the Bible is presented to us with their strengths and weaknesses, their successes and failures, their bright side and their dark side.

There is only one exception – and it’s Jesus. More is written about him in the Bible than about anyone else. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John shine four bright searchlights on him - the words he said, the things he did, how he reacted to traps, how he responded to those who did violence to him, how he spoke to royalty and wretches - and not one blemish is recorded.

The story of Ananias and Sapphira tells us that if something goes badly wrong in the church, if there’s a scandal of some kind, own up to it. Never try to hide it or cover up the evidence or go into denial.

Here, two people were deceitful, were dishonest, and they dropped dead in what must have looked like suspicious circumstances to those who had not witnessed the event.

The Bible doesn’t claim that this was a church with no problems. It tells you that the perfect church doesn’t exist - and never will until Jesus comes back.

I’ve found wherever I’ve lived as a Christian that there are people who butterfly around from church to church, looking for the perfect one. Someone like that came and saw me once and moaned for about half an hour about the church they had just left. And they finished by saying “The people in that church are always complaining!”

I suppose the complaint I hear most often by people who don’t go to church about those who do is that they are hypocrites. There is hypocrisy in the church but what would you think about someone who refused to go to hospital because it was full of sick people?

Jesus said he didn’t come for the healthy; he came for the sick and he is in the business of changing lives.

Is your life changing? Are you growing? Are you learning? Are you maturing to become more like Jesus? I hope you are.

Ananias and Sapphira – 3 Questions

So let’s look a bit closer at the passage, Acts 5.1-11.

Ananias and Sapphira are a married couple who, like Barnabas (4.36-37), own a piece of land and sell it. They give some of the money to the church and they agree to keep some of it for their own needs.

Peter confronts Ananias in the severest terms and Ananias drops dead. Hours later Sapphira, unaware of what had happened earlier, is asked about the money, and she gives the same answer. Peter prophesies that she too will die and, sure enough, she falls down dead.

That’s… really harsh isn’t it?

1. Didn’t Ananias and Sapphira have the right to keep some of the money?

2. Even if they didn’t, wasn’t the punishment disproportionate to the offence?

3. If it was a sin, wouldn’t it have been fairer if Peter had given them both an opportunity to repent?

1) Wasn’t the Money Theirs?

Let’s take those questions in turn. Firstly then, didn’t Ananias and Sapphira have the right to keep some of the money? Was it theirs?

The answer is yes it was. They had every right to keep it. It’s very clear. Peter says so in v4. “Didn’t [the property] belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal?”

In other words, “Look, it’s your property and it’s your money. You could have held on to the asset if you wanted to and you could have kept all of the sale price for your own requirements.”

The issue is this; they decided to sell some land. Let’s say they got £10,000 for it. They could have said “We’d like to give £5,000 to the church and keep £5,000 for our own needs.” And that would have been fine. The money was theirs. But they thought it would look really good if they said “We received £5,000 for the land and we’re giving all of it to the church.”

The problem was not that they kept some for themselves. If I have £10 in my wallet, give £5 to you and keep £5 for me, that’s fine.

The problem was that they wanted to look more generous, more holy, more charitable than they really were. It was deceit. It was pretence. It was hypocrisy.

 “The world is not offended to discover that Christians have faults, but it is mightily offended to find Christians with faults parading themselves as holy Joes who have none.” (Roy Clements, Turning the World Upside Down).

I think we subconsciously classify sin as more or less serious. Up there with the really big sins for most of us are things like adultery, theft, assault and taking drugs.

Then there are smaller sins that include things we’d openly admit to - laziness, overeating, a bit of jealousy, that sort of thing.

No one likes hypocrisy but I reckon many of us secretly place it towards the more acceptable end of the scale than the scandalous end. 

But Jesus didn’t. Nothing provoked Jesus to exasperation more than hypocrisy.

He wasn’t fazed by a woman taken in adultery. He went to parties with prostitutes, alcoholics and thieves. In fact, so much so that people slated him for it and accused him of being a glutton and a drunkard. 

But hypocrisy, especially religious hypocrisy, really upset him. Over and over again in the gospels Jesus tore into the Pharisees for their pretence. They were false.

The word “hypocrite” is from the Greek hypokritēs which came from the stage. It means “actor” or “play-actor.” It literally meant someone who wore a mask in the great Greek dramas which is what actors used to do so people could see their facial expressions from the back of the amphitheatre.

Wearing a mask. Projecting an image to be thought of favourably.

2) Wasn’t the Punishment Too Harsh?

The second question is this; wasn’t the punishment disproportionate to the offence? Pretending you put a bit more in the offering than you actually did is hardly commendable, no one’s saying it’s okay, but isn’t double death a bit excessive? It seems really unfair.

But when you read the text carefully, you find no trace of Ananias’ and Sapphira’s death being called a punishment. It might seem like it but we mustn’t read into God’s word what isn’t there. At no point does it say “God struck him down” or something like that.

Peter confronted Ananias over his hypocrisy in the strongest of terms and we’re told that he heard those words and then fell down dead. Whether he had a heart attack coming from the shock I don't know but it’s presented to us as a natural – though certainly dramatic – occurrence. 

When Peter confronts Sapphira later, and she lies about the money, he seems to have some kind of prophetic revelation - a word of knowledge perhaps - that she will die in the same way as her husband did and says so.

But once again, Peter could have said “may God’s judgement fall on you for this wickedness” or something like that but he doesn’t. So the second question “Wasn’t the punishment disproportionate to the offence?” I think reads into the story what isn’t there. A coroner would have to report an open verdict.

3) Why Weren’t They Given a Chance to Repent?

And consequently the third question, “Why didn’t Peter give them both an opportunity to repent?” doesn’t quite fit either. They both died suddenly before they had an opportunity to amend their ways. 

Life can be like that. In 2010, a woman named Deborah McDonald was run over and killed by a car in Ohio, hours after celebrating winning a big prize on a TV game show. 

In 1934, the Montreal Gazette carried the story of a man who died of shock when he was told he had won the lottery.

I don’t suppose in either case it was the judgement of God on them.

Jesus told a story about a rich man who accumulated huge wealth for himself, building ever bigger storehouses to stash away all his assets. But before he had a chance to spend any of his fortune and enjoy the reward of his labour he suddenly died.

Life can be brief and death can be sudden.

Ending

I want to end by looking at the effect this episode had on the church – and what it should say to us this morning.

It says twice in our short reading that “great fear” gripped those who heard about these things. Verse 5; “And great fear seized all who heard what had happened.” Verse 11; Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.”

It’s normal for fear to grip people who have witnessed a sudden death. You may have watched a passenger being interviewed this summer after she learned that the plane she had been due to board had crashed with no survivors. She was ashen faced and quite shaky. There is a natural adrenaline-fuelled shock when we brush with death.

But I think what we read about here is more than that; it’s the fear of God which is quite different. I can only remember a few occasions in my life when I have been seized with the fear of God.

Once was when a very disabled man Kathie and I knew well called Arthur was dramatically healed by the power of God in a prayer meeting. Arthur had been bent over with severe spondylosis, which is a degenerative arthritis of the spine. Having only been able to move very slowly and painfully before prayer, he was instantly healed and was able to run up and down the stairs of his home.

Another time when I have been seized with the fear of God was hearing someone who didn’t know me, prophesy to me, revealing the secrets of my heart. He was so accurate, it was scary. He spoke to me for about five minutes, he revealed my name, the nature and exact focus of my ministry, my main gifts, what I was being called towards and my biggest weakness. It’s as if he could see into my soul.

In both cases I felt I was in the presence of the holy. Both events sent a tingle down my spine. My heart raced. I became aware of God’s nearness. I wanted urgently to be right with him, to repent of sin and be totally his.

The fear of God, the awareness of his power, the sense of his holiness, awe before him – how we need it! Pray for the fear of God to seize us all.

But here’s the question; do I want to belong to a church like this?

Acts 5 goes on to say there was amazing growth as many came to faith. Do you want to see the church grow? Even if it means you no longer get to sit where you always sit in church because somebody new, and more fired up than you, always gets there first?!

Let’s pray…

It says that God released people who were tormented by evil spirits. That’s usually noisy and a bit messy. Do you want to see people being delivered from evil? Even if it rather interrupts the liturgy of the Sunday service?

There were signs and wonders and extraordinary blessing, there was deep unity, radical sharing of assets and great fear seized them all.

Do I want to belong to a church like that?

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 17th August 2014

The Sunshine of Married Love (Colossians 3.12-17)

On the happy occasion of Sarah and Anthony's marriage

Well, Mr and Mrs Barker – that sounds weird doesn’t it? But it won’t take you long to get used to it. Anyway, congratulations to you both.

You’re people who know a bit about the world, you certainly travel a lot, so I thought it might be good to have a general knowledge quiz. And the quiz is specifically about how much you generally know one another. How well do you think you know each other?

So here’s what we’re going to do. You each have two shoes, your own shoe and one of your spouse’s. I want you to face away from each other and hold up the shoe of the person you think I am talking about.

For example if I ask “who buys the best presents?” if Anthony thinks Sarah does, he has to lift up Sarah’ shoe. If he thinks he is the better present buyer, he has to lift up his own shoe – and likewise for Sarah. And we’ll all see how well you think you know each other and have a good laugh at your expense.

So are you ready? O.K.

Who is the best cook?

Who’s the better driver?

Who’s the first one to get up in the morning?

Who spends the most time in front of the mirror?

Who’s in charge of the TV remote?

Who talks the most?

Who’s the most likely to get lost?

Who’s the most likely to ask for directions?

Who spends the most time getting ready to go out?

Who was the first to say “I love you”?

Who’s the first one to make up after an argument?

Who started the argument in the first place?

And finally, who do you love the most in the whole wide world?

OK, very good… No you can turn round.

Now Anthony and Sarah have only been married a few minutes so this is a quiz for all the other married couples here today. Three questions then, and you only have to basically answer yes or no. No sitting on the fence. Are you ready?

Firstly, raise your hand please if you are, or ever have been, married. Thank you. Now please keep your hand raised if you think that marriage is always really easy…

OK, you can put your hands down now. I think we’ll have to conclude from this unscientific survey that (depending on the response...)

marriage is not easy at all (lots of hands drop)

the jury is out -either that or that there are a lot of liars here today! (mixed)

there are a lot of liars here! (lots of hands stay up)

Secondly, raise your hands please if you think that marriage is a foretaste of heaven...

Well going on the feedback I’ve had from couples just back from honeymoon (and I have to say, they don’t go into much detail) I’d have to say it certainly can be. I have been married for 31 years now, same as Sarah's parents) and I think I would agree. So marriage certainly can be a foretaste of heaven.

Thirdly, and I’m not going to take a vote on this one - you'll see why, is your marriage hell on earth? Tragically, I’d have to conclude from my conversations with some married people that once again, it can be.

Marriage can be a foretaste of heaven but the truth is that it can be hell on earth. Today is a sunny day but the forecast for tomorrow is for clouds and rain. It is no more possible to have a marriage that is 365 days a year of bubbly happiness that it is to have a year in Britain of warm sunshine and no rain at all. In all marriages 'the weather' is a mixed picture over the long term.

Anthony and Sarah; I’ll be honest with you, yours, like everyone else’s, can go either way. That's the bad news. The good news is that God has given you everything you need for it to be a foretaste of heaven so you have it in your power to make your marriage turn out well. It's all about the values that you choose to sustain your relationship.

No one wants to be unhappy together. Les Dawson once said, “People ask me what’s the secret of a good marriage? So I say that my wife and I go out to a restaurant twice a week, have a candlelit dinner, with soft music, and a slow walk home. She goes on Tuesdays and I go on Fridays!”

I'm sure you want more happiness than that. So how are you going to keep the romance, the harmony, the enjoyment alive in your marriage so that instead of it being hell on earth it’s a foretaste of heaven?

What makes for a happy and harmonious marriage? It just so happens that the reading you chose gives us the answer.

It says, “Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

I was reading some statistics about marriage this week. Apparently, on average, getting married in Britain last year cost £22,000. (It actually only costs about 1.5% of that sum to get married legally but a lot of people obviously like to spend money a party). And then the article said this; “It doesn't matter how much money you spend on a ceremony, if the right foundations aren't in place then the whole relationship will crumble.” I agree.

You’re all dressed up today because you want to look your best. It’s a special occasion. This is not a day for scruffy t-shirts and ripped jeans. So when the Bible says “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience” it means let those things be what everyone sees when they look at you.

In a marriage relationship those qualities (compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience) are a bit like bridges that join you together.

If, when you look at each other every day, you see someone who is kind and patient you will build strong bridges that will join you together. The opposites of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience are indifference, unkindness, self-importance, harshness and impatience. When husbands and wives are uncaring, unkind and harsh towards each other they take bricks out of the bridge, one by one. You can’t see how much the bridge is weakening when it's just one brick at a time but one thing is for sure; one day it’ll collapse altogether.

The reading also says, “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” Jesus, on the cross, said "Father forgive them because they don't really know what they're doing." A lot of marriages go sour because people upset each other, then won’t say sorry or can’t forgive.

One of the greatest practical challenges you'll ever face living under the same roof is a blocked drain. I've had to sort a few out in my time. First of all, a kitchen sink blockage. You try boiling water, a plunger, D-stop and nothing works. The worst kind is a mains drain. You go outside, take the cover off try poking about with sticks - then you call in the professionals. Drains have to be cleared. 

In the same way, unresolved anger and unhealed hurt is like a blocked drain in a marriage. It takes a lot to say “Sorry” and even more to say “I forgive you” but those words are often heard in happy, stable homes where God is at the heart.

And the Bible reading ends by saying “Over all these virtues (compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness) put on love which binds them all together in perfect unity.

In any marriage the one thing that keeps it all together is love.

For richer, for poorer; whether you prosper financially or struggle with the bills...

For better, for worse; whether baby sleeps through the night from day one or hardly at all for two years...

In sickness and in health; whether you’re in and out of hospital or running marathons for fun...

Love and cherish one another – and may God go with you and stay with you right ’til the end of your days.

Well, you’re off to the other side of the world I believe. Perth, the capital of Western Australia, is the sunniest capital city in the world, with an average of 8 hours per day sunshine 365 days per year. Isn’t that wonderful?

But it’s also the most isolated capital city in the world, miles from anywhere. 

So, as you move on, my prayer for you is that you will never become isolated from one another’s affections as the Lord God brings the permanent sunshine of his blessing into your married life.

Sermon preached at Saint Peter's Wolviston, 9th August 2014

Heavens Above (Psalm 8.3-4)

Dumbell Nebula

One of our church members called Nigel likes to look up at the night sky through his telescope. With Madness’ song It Must Be Love playing in the background I was looking at some of Nigel’s pictures this week, including some great shots of the Dumbbell and Ring nebulas and the Great Cluster of about 300,000 stars in the constellation of Hercules.

It is awesome to think that these places are so far away from Earth that light, travelling at 186,000 miles a second, takes between 1,360 years (the Dumbbell Nebula) and 25,100 years (the Great Cluster) to reach us. Wow.

The Ring Nebula

With the Rosetta probe currently orbiting a comet that is hurtling round our solar system at 34,000 miles per hour and the Curiosity laboratory rover still crawling over the surface of Mars two years after landing there, our inquisitiveness to explore the enigmas of space seems greater than ever.

If there’s one thing on TV that I know I’ll drop everything to watch it’s a programme on space. The wonders of the heavens have always fascinated me and always will.

But as a Christian I believe that the One who put it all there, eons and eons ago, loves and cares about us infinitely more than I will ever wonder about the vastness and beauty and mystery of the universe. I also know that in this most violent of summers on the world stage we are so much better at removing our ignorance about worlds that are light years away than we are at removing darkness from the human heart.

I often think of the heavens your hands have made,
and of the moon and stars you put in place.
Then I ask, “Why do you care about us humans?
Why are you concerned for us?” (The Bible, Psalm 8.3-4).

Why indeed? It must be love.

The Great Cluster, Hercules

Priceless Treasure (Psalm 139.13-18 and Matthew 13.42-44)

Introduction

If you are ever in any doubt that God loves you, you only have to look at Psalm 139 to see how much he does. It’s like one of those books of photos you can get with amazing photos of a developing foetus inside the womb.

It is a prayer written by a man called David and in the prayer he realises that he is special and loved by God.

He was a unique individual and you are too.

Every human being is a marvel of creation. Here are some amazing facts I’ve discovered about the human body. If you’re a woman, your ovaries contain up to half a million egg cells, yet only about 400 will ever get the opportunity to form a new human being.

If you’re a man, your body manufactures about 1,500 new sperm cells every second – that's enough to repopulate the entire planet (8 billion people) in just 61 days. Please don’t try that at home.

Without you ever having to think about it, your heart pumps 7,200 litres of blood around your body every day.

Since I began this sermon, 350,000 cells in your body will have died and been replaced by new cells.

Did you know that the chances of you having identical fingerprints to anyone else are one a quindecillion (that’s one with 48 zeroes after it). There really is only one you.

So when we gave thanks for Oliver’s birth earlier we were saying how amazing God is for having created such an intricately crafted masterpiece.

Oliver’s fingerprints, like all of ours, were fully formed when he was a foetus aged three months. Those fingerprints, distinct from those of anyone who has ever lived before, will not change throughout his lifetime. Oliver is a priceless treasure.

Like David, he could say today, “You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made... All the days set out for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

How much is he worth? If we add up the value of all the chemical elements and molecules in our bodies – carbon, iron, water… we would have a monetary value of about 71p each. But I know to you, his family, all the money in the world couldn’t buy Oliver from you - he is a priceless treasure whom you love more than any material thing.

Jesus used to talk about priceless treasure. He told a couple of very short stories about it.

Here’s the first: “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.”

And here’s the second: “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”

The two stories are quite similar. Both feature a man. Both men discover something valuable. Both see the enormous worth of their discovery. Both are willing to pay whatever it takes to obtain what they had found. And both give everything they have to possess their prize.

But there’s one big difference. Did you spot it?

In the first story, the man stumbled across his treasure quite by chance.

But in the second one he was intentionally searching for pearls when he found a truly exceptional one.

Treasure in a Field

Here’s what I think the stories mean. Sometimes you make a spiritual discovery out of the blue. You weren’t looking for anything – but suddenly the answer to all your longings is staring at you in the face.

I was listening to Radio 2 this morning and Clare Balding was interviewing a singer/songwriter called Stefan McCloud. He was a drug addict, living on the streets of Glasgow. In his desperation he cried out to God one day and God revealed himself to him. He is now married with a family, totally transformed by Jesus Christ.

It was like stumbling across treasure hidden in a field. When Stefan McCloud found it, he knew nothing could be the same again.

The Cullinan diamond (sometimes called the star of Africa) is the largest diamond ever found and is worth about $400 million. How would you feel if you were digging around in your garden and you found a gem bigger than the Cullinan diamond?

The man in the story doesn’t just sell all he has; the Bible says he does so with joy. It’s the happiest day of his life. Whatever he pays for the field, he gets so much more in return. What a discovery!

The Pearl of Great Price

But for others, encountering God is not something you stumble upon unexpectedly, but the end of a long search.

Jesus said, “the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.” He’s looking out for something truly exceptional. Are you looking for purpose in life?

I was when I was about 17. I just felt life was empty. I had everything really; a good family, an education, my health, good looks (at least my mum said so); I was happy enough but I was looking for something more.

So the collector of pearls has got a magnificent collection.

“Here it is; my pride and joy” he says. “My whole life I’ve built up this collection of magnificent pearls.”

And he starts to talk about them. “This one,” he says, “was handed down to me by my grandfather the day I was born. It’s been in the family for generations. It is only worth about £200 but it has incalculable sentimental value.”

“Here’s one that was recovered from a locked safe on board the Titanic. For insurance reasons I’m not allowed to tell you what it’s worth. 

“This one has a strange glittery shine on it. That’s because it was subjected to great heat from an underwater volcano when it was being formed. It’s the only one like it in Europe.”

“This string of pearls was worn by Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot. I bought that necklace for £2 million in an auction. 

He could bore you for hours.

Then one day, his broker calls. A new and rare pearl has come on to the market. In fact, it is not just rare, it is utterly unique. It’s the size of a golf ball, it has an incredible, pure shiny hue, it reflects light in the most glorious ways and it surpasses everything else in his collection.

“When he found a pearl of great value” says Jesus, “he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”

Why do you think a pearl is especially fitting as a symbol of the kingdom of God? I think it’s because it’s the only gem that cannot be improved by human craftsmanship. The source of true happiness, like a pearl, is designed, created and perfected in heaven.

Diamonds and rubies and sapphires have to be cut and polished by skilled jewellers before they have any beauty. But a pearl is flawless when it is found and it can’t be improved by human hands.

Pile up all the wealth in this world on one side of the scales and put what God offers on the other side and it still isn’t enough. The salvation of your soul, knowing Jesus and eternal life in the glorious presence of God are worth infinitely more.

Conclusion 

So when you thank God for Oliver, your priceless treasure, when we stop to be thankful for any blessing in life; your friends and family, your health, the food you eat, the roof over your head, and on this 100th anniversary of the eve of the outbreak of WW1, the peace we enjoy in our land, let’s remember that the greatest gift of all; the blessing of knowing God is beyond our means to pay – but absolutely free to all who call out to him.

Let’s pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 3rd August 2014