Blessed Sleep (Psalm 121)

A funeral sermon for a lovely Christian woman. Names have been changed as an expression of care to the family.

James, Lydia, Anita, Mary, Amelia, and all the family, may I express my deepest condolences to you today. Yours was a wife, a mother, a grandmother and a sister who was truly special. You have borne your grief with outstanding courage, dignity and above all devotion. It is a beautiful thing. All you friends who loved Polly, your support and kindness throughout her illness and at the time of death have been deeply appreciated by the family, I know. Thank you.

On Tuesday, I read through all the e-mails Polly had sent me over the last year. Some were updates to her support team; others were more personal notes to me. It struck me again just how frank and candid Polly was. She spoke the truth in love, as the Bible says Christians should do.

I was told by a former youth leader here that Polly’s unflinchingly straightforward style was once unleashed on an unsuspecting church youth group when she was invited to speak to them on the birds and the bees. She was of course an authority on the subject, not just as a mother of four daughters, all of whom had gone through their teenage years, but also through her professional life.

I think the expectation was that this kindly churchgoer, then in her late 50s or early 60s, would be a safe bet to give a decorous context for all those hormones coursing around the room. But no. Polly Lamont didn’t shilly-shally and she didn’t do British reserve. She proceeded at length to talk about sex, unblushing, in the most uninhibited fashion imaginable, and sparing no detail. Those 15 year olds didn’t know what had hit them!

I loved many things about Polly, but that was possibly what I loved most. She was earthy. I don’t mean crude and I don’t mean worldly. A worldly person is overly attracted to the superficial and temporary diversions of life without God. No, Polly was a very spiritual woman and I’ll touch on that later. By “earthy”, I mean she was real. She had a hearty and down-to-earth approach to life.

Perhaps that’s the main reason why I often found myself opening my soul to her when I visited her. She had a quite natural way of instilling confidence and trust. I found again and again that I let my guard down. I found myself sharing with her not just my thoughts but my heart. She was more than a parishioner; she was a neighbour too but, most of all, she was a trusted friend who gave me a safe place to be myself.

When, in early December, the decision was taken to stop fighting the cancer and concentrate on controlling the pain we knew that Polly would not live for very long. She did too. From that time, every time I saw her she looked a little frailer.

We prayed she would live to see Christmas because she so wanted to spend it with the extended family, knowing, I’m sure, that it would be her last. We are so grateful to God that she did; it was very, very special to her.

Polly had already said to me long before then in her startling, matter-of-fact way that she knew her cancer would kill her in the end; she just didn’t care for it to be too soon or to be a disagreeable journey.

But she did not fear death. I watched her carefully as she said so, to try and spot anything in her body language that might suggest she was just putting on a brave face.

She didn’t flinch or hesitate. “I know I’m going to a wonderful place” she said. Polly was composed, confident and at ease about the prospect of dying.

Polly could sing “Amazing grace… that saved a wretch like me” and mean every word. She knew that she would - and could - never get to heaven on the basis of her own moral goodness, admirable though it was. She knew she was - like everyone here - loved by God but a sinner, in need of his grace. And she knew she had received it freely through faith in Jesus Christ.

*

One of the more remarkable things about God, and there are many, is that he reveals himself as an insomniac. Today’s Psalm reads:

He will not let your foot slip –
he who watches over you will not fall asleep;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

Actually, it’s not that God can’t sleep because he is worried; it’s that he doesn’t sleep because he is watchful.

I was reflecting about Polly’s ebbing life and God’s sleeplessness and it struck me that the New Testament, when talking about Christians dying, often uses the expression “to fall asleep.” I wonder why…

I think there are several reasons why sleep is such a brilliant metaphor for death. No one can stay awake forever. Everybody dies. Sleep is refreshing. Death, for Polly, was a release from indignity and constant pain control. But most significantly of all, after sleep, you wake up feeling alive again the next morning. The birds are singing, the sun is up, there’s dew on the grass, and there’s a new day opening up before you.

That’s how Christians feel about death. Polly is sleeping and one day, at the last judgement, she will wake up – with a new body.

Judgement holds no fear for Christians. The Bible says that God loved the world so much that he sent his only Son, so that whoever believes in him, will not perish, but have eternal life.

Interestingly, the poem Polly chose to have read by Leo Marks, though not a Christian as far as I know, also talks about death as sleep.

A sleep I shall have
A rest I shall have
Yet death will be but a pause.

The morning Polly died, I felt a strong urge to call James, ask him how the night had been and go over there to pray with them both again, as I so loved to do. I could see that it would not be long before she “fell asleep.” So I thought I’d sing her a lullaby and John joined in with me.

It’s a verse from an old hymn that Christians sing on All Saints’ Day. And since All Saints’ church is the community of believers Polly loved, it seemed appropriate.

The verse I chose is about how the glorious sunset at the end of a day signals that night time, the time for sleep and rest, is approaching. Sunset takes the sleep metaphor further. As death draws near, you can just begin to see the first glimmers of the bright glory of heaven. Here are the words:

The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest;
Sweet is the calm of paradise the blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Just a few hours after singing that little lullaby, Polly fell fast asleep in Christ.

And now that she is sleeping, I want to close by reading the next verse which looks ahead to the new dawn that always follows the night. When Christ comes again to judge the living and the dead, those who have fallen asleep will awake to meet him. I’ll spare you the public nuisance of attempting to sing it, but here are the words:

But look! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of glory passes on His way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Sleep well, Polly. Until we, and all who are in Christ, awake together on another shore, and in a greater light.


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 1st March 2012

Renewal of Our Vision (Colossians 1.3-12)

Introduction

A bishop once joked on the radio about the European heaven and hell. Apparently, in the European heaven, the romantics are Italian, the mechanics are German, the police are English and the cooks are French.

But in the European hell, the cooks are English, the police are Italian, the mechanics are French and the romantics are German.

These national stereotypes are probably really unfair - but we all recognise the image they portray. Basically it’s down to each country suffering from a widespread public perception of their national flaw. Each nation, to that extent, has an image problem.

The church in our country has an image problem as well, let’s not kid ourselves. But how did that happen? How did the church ever get to a point where the general impression amongst ordinary people in our land is that it’s dull and outdated?

The truth, according to Ephesians 3.10, is that the local church is the means through which the manifold wisdom of God is proclaimed to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. The local church is in the front line of God’s great strategic purpose for transporting the message of salvation to the ends of the earth. The local church is the pillar and foundation of all truth says 1 Timothy 3.15. It is the hope of the world.

What is the Church that Jesus isBuilding?

God’s means what he says and his word is eternally valid. God never thinks to himself “Oh, I wish I’d never said that.” His church really is the glorious agent for blessing the world that God says it is.

“I will build my church” Jesus said. You won’t do it, the clergy won’t do it; your ecclesiastical structures and systems won’t build anything, but I will complete what I started when I poured out the Holy Spirit in power on the Day of Pentecost. “I will build my church.”

Question: What is the one true church? Answer: The one true church is the one that Jesus Christ is building right now. Anything else will weaken, dwindle and die - because unless the Lord builds the house, the workers labour in vain.

A local church in the United States did a survey of non-churchgoers in their neighbourhood. They went to shopping centres, parks and railway stations, and they asked passers-by one simple question; “Why do you not go to church?” I think that the five most common answers they found in their study are not wildly out of line with what you would find if you conducted the same survey here.

At Number 5, people said, ‘I feel uncomfortable with worship.’ Number 4; ‘I’m too busy. I just do not have time.’ At Number 3 (they would have loved Gift Day two weeks ago). ‘Because the pastor is always going on about money.’ At Number 2 they said ‘The message of the church does not interest me, it is not relevant to my life.’ And, at Number 1, the biggest single reason why people never go to a church is ... roll of the drums ... are you ready? ... ‘It’s boring.’

Yes, Jesus changed water into wine, but alas the church has managed too often to turn wine into water!

Grow and Bear Fruit

The opening paragraphs of Colossians 1 talk about the local church the way Jesus wants it - which is how we should want it.

It does not breathe an atmosphere that anyone could characterise as boring. Twice it mentions growth and fruitfulness. God expects his church to grow and bear fruit. In fact Jesus has commissioned us to do so.

Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit - fruit that will last - and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.” (John 15.16)

God does not envisage inertia and certainly not decline for his church. The proclamation of the good news about Jesus brings about changed lives. It must! And this is still true in 2012.

Let’s quickly run through Colossians together and try and get hold of the atmosphere of the church in Colossae. Because there are three key factors here, necessary for the growth and fruitfulness, which God expects to see in the life of a local church. Think of it like planting a tree.

First of all, if you’re going to plant a tree, you must have some decent soil to plant the sapling in. If you put it in poor soil the tree’s growth will be stunted. Think of faith as being like soil. That’s a comparison Jesus made in the parable of the sower. The good soil of faith produces a harvest 30, 60 and up to 100 times what was sown.

Well, the church in Colossae was a community where faith was evident. Look at v3-4. “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus." So this wasn’t a social club; this was a group of people who lived by faith.

Faith is not so much about believing the creed (though that is important and I’ll come to that in a minute). In the Bible, faith is something you do, not just something you think. If you live by faith you conduct your life in obedience to God’s word, even if it’s not what you yourself would have naturally chosen. Put what God wants first in your work, in your finances, in your interests, in your choice of language, in your free time, in your relationships… in everything you do make sure Jesus is Lord, he is the boss, he calls the shots. That’s faith! Are you living by faith?

Secondly, if your sapling is going to grow it needs water around its roots. Job 37.17 says “[God] brings the clouds … to water his earth and show his love.” Colossians 1 describes a church where love was evident. In v4 Paul says “we have heard of … the love you have for all his people.”

Love in the church is the first and most vital sign that the Holy Spirit is at work. Love is robust evidence of the Holy Spirit’s anointing. That’s why in v8 here it says that a man named Epaphras … “told us of your love in the Spirit.” Have you ever experienced a critical, harsh or uncaring church? That is one where the Holy Spirit has very little control. Are you letting God change your heart so you share his love with people around you?

 

Thirdly, if your sapling is going to have any chance of growing it needs light. It’s no good planting a sapling in a small yard facing north with a high wall around it. It’ll never grow. The essential light churches need to grow is truth.

God’s truth is absolute and eternal. He is a holy God who does not drop his standards and say “Oh, go on then.”

Psalm 119 says this: “The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” That’s right.

The church at Colossae really got hold of deep Gospel truths. In v5 Paul talks about the true word of the Gospel that had come to them. They believed in truth. They believed that sound doctrine was essential and non negotiable. This is different to faith; faith is what you do. Truth is what you think. Do you stand on God’s word as the chief authority over your life? In v6 it says that the Christians in Colossae had heard the Gospel and now they truly understood God’s grace. The great truths of justification and the atonement had gripped their minds.

If you have let truth shape your world view you will fully appreciate that you are more sinful and flawed than you ever dared believe. But at the very same time you will have discovered that you are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than you ever dared hope. Let the great truths of God’s grace renew your mind and shape your thinking!

Faith, love and truth… No wonder Paul says in v6: “The gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world - just as it has been doing among you…”

And in v10 he has every confidence to say: [May you] “live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God.”

Forward with the Vision

I think these verses really express eloquently what our vision is here at All Saints’.

About 18 months ago we agreed a four-year vision which says this:

We believe that God is calling us to four years of outreach with the objective that every household in our parish should know that we are a vibrant Christian community ready to:
- pray for them
- serve them practically and
- invite them to encounter Jesus Christ.

I think that we have made good progress in connecting with the parish around us and that there is a sense of momentum. People used to say to me in my first year here, “It’s like we’re on a bus but there’s no number or destination on it.” I am not hearing that kind of thing now and I take that to be a good sign! But I think that this is a good time for us now just to pause and refocus on this vision.

That “vibrant Christian community” bit is what I’ve just been talking about. Faith, love and truth… In Colossae, faith and love had sprung up (Paul says) and that young church was now the talk of the town.

This is why we’ve wanted to focus on the theme of renewal since the New Year. We need to recharge the batteries of our faith. Are you being renewed in love? Are you renewing in your commitment to Jesus as Lord?

This first quarter of the year is a time for us to fill up again and let God revitalize our passion for the kingdom.

I hope we are, or want to be, because if we are not being renewed and refreshed by the Holy Spirit there isn’t really anything to tell the world about.

What do you think? Does the Gospel sound more convincing, more authentic, more attractive coming from Tigger or from Eeyore in your opinion? Tigger’s gospel has a ring of truth about it. It sounds like this: “The wonderful thing about Jesus, is grace is a wonderful thing…” It sounds like it has made a difference to Tigger and now he can’t help himself from telling others.

Eeyore’s gospel seems ineffective. If anything, it’s bad for you. It just makes you miserable. It is more like; “Oh well, I suppose God so loved the world. But probably not me. And I don’t know about you.” No one comes forward to the front when Eeyore is giving the altar call!

After this season for personal spiritual renewal, what do we have planned this year to take our vision forward?

I want to talk about 4 opportunities in the 4 months in April, May, June and July (one in each month) that will stretch us as a church, no doubt about it, but will also, I believe, bear fruit and bring growth if we are letting God make us a vibrant Christian community like the Colossae church was.

There is lots of planning still to do and not all details are confirmed but here’s an idea of what special events, over and above our standard programme, are coming up.

Firstly, in the first week of April, we have been invited by several other churches in the area to join them for a week of evangelism amongst children and youth in Preston Park. It will start with a youth evening guest service here. It will be a joint-venture and we are going to link up with Christians from local churches in Teesside as well as with a team coming over from the USA. We think it will be tremendous fun and we believe that working in unity with other Christians and churches really adds value.

God says so in Psalm 133 doesn’t he?

How good and pleasant it is
when God’s people live together in unity!
It is like precious [anointing] oil…
It is as if dew… were falling on Mount Zion.
For there the Lord commands his blessing,
even life for evermore.

Then in the middle two weeks of May, we are going to join forces with 8 other churches in the Stockton area in a practical service mission like last year’s Springboard. Only this time it will be town-wide and supported by charities like the Besom in Stockton, which has a growing database of people in material need. We will be joined by more teams from the USA. We hope to have even wider media coverage than last year and we expect that the church will become highly visible in our town during that fortnight. This time we will be able to carry that work into the rest of the year because God is raising up a new ministry here called Careforce, led by Martin Howard and his team. That is exciting…

On 5th June the nation will celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. We are hoping to put together a street party in Dunottar Avenue and Swinburne Road and the church will be the focus of getting all that together. There is some work to do on authorisations and consent etc., (in fact the neighbours don't even know it yet!) but we think that could be a fantastic opportunity to get among our nearest neighbours, introduce ourselves, find out what’s going on in their lives tell them why the church in their street is such an important part of our lives, and be as much of a blessing to them as we can.

And then at the end of July, we are going to do some more outreach based on the Olympics; another Christian holiday club - but this time involving the whole family - and a party evening with barbecues and the Opening Ceremony on a giant screen.

And this will be supported by more editions of Community In Touch delivered to every home in our parish so everybody will know what God is doing here. I hope you’re excited about all this. I hope you’ll pray and ask God what role he wants you to take in it.

Ending

I want to finish with a little story about watches. If you asked someone in 1968 which country will lead the market for wrist watches in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, everyone would give you the same answer; Switzerland. Why? Because Switzerland completely dominated the global watches and clocks market at that time - and had done since the early 20th century.

The Swiss designed and built the best watches in the world. It’s the Swiss who produced the first watch with a hand for the seconds. The Swiss developed delicate mechanisms with ever finer precision. The Swiss produced the first fully waterproof watch. The Swiss invented automatic winding. The Swiss seemed unassailable in innovation and market dominance. In 1968, 65% of all watches in the world were made in tiny Switzerland.

But in 1980 - only 12 years later - the Swiss had to make 50,000 of their 62,000 watchmakers redundant and their global market share dwindled to just 10%. Why? What went wrong?

The problem was that they ignored a new technology; the quartz crystal. Quartz watches do not need a main spring or a winding mechanism, which was the great strength of Swiss watches. The Swiss rejected quartz technology from the outset while a small Japanese company Seiko invested in quartz and became, in three or four years, the world’s largest manufacturer of watches.

The reason I’m telling you this is simple. A domestic industry that was so secure, so profitable and so dominant was buried in the space of 12 years because of a lack of focus at a decisive time. They failed to act at a time of opportunity - and the consequences were devastating.

The church that Jesus is building is a movement that is mobile, flexible, optimistic and looking out. The former Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple was right when he said that the Church is “the only organisation in the world that exists primarily for the benefit of its non-members.”

So what God is saying to you? The Lord is building his church. Will he find you on the building site with your hard hat on?

Let’s pray…


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 5th February 2012.

Renewal of Promises (Colossians 3.12-14)

On the 50th Anniversary of the marriage of Tom and Audrey Whitfield, celebrated in church with family and friends and with a renewal of the marriage vows.

Tom and Audrey, congratulations! 50 years of marriage is a significant milestone. We salute you both for staying the distance, staying faithful and staying in love.

Though we wouldn’t know it from looking at your own successful and marriage, there is a legendary rivalry that is supposed to exist between the sexes. It is celebrated in a thousand funny stories and one-liners.

So, says Rona, “If we can send a man to the moon, why not just send them all?”

Nancy talks about how she and her other half decide to go on holiday. “My husband said to me that he wanted to spend his holidays in a place he’d never been before. I said, ‘Right, how about the kitchen?’”

And Caroline sums up the married man in one sentence; “A husband; that’s the guy who supports you through all those problems you wouldn’t have had if you hadn’t married him.”

But if men are supposed to be lazy, unromantic, insensitive, only ever think about one thing and never ask for directions, women (I’ve heard) take forever to get ready, overspend on the credit card, can’t read maps and talk too much.

You know the story about the vicar with the dentures… The first Sunday after he gets his false teeth, he preaches for four minutes. The second Sunday, he preaches for six minutes. The third Sunday, his sermon lasts 2 hours and 48 minutes. The congregation has to eject him from the pulpit and ask what’s going on. So the vicar explains that the first Sunday, his gums hurt so badly he couldn't talk for more than 4 minutes. The second Sunday his gums still hurt and he couldn’t speak for longer than 6 minutes. But, the third Sunday, he put his wife's teeth in by mistake and couldn't shut up...

Tom and Audrey, I’m sure you’d be massaging the truth if you were to say that it’s been a blissful half century of uninterrupted ecstasy.

Every marriage needs a considerable investment of energy if it is going to work. And yours clearly has. I am sure your Christian faith has played a big part in making your marriage a success.

Our first reading today is a brilliant model for married life. It says;

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

A man chooses a woman and asks her out. A woman chooses to agree to his proposal of marriage. That’s the way it usually works. Husband and wife choose each other.

But it says here that Christians are chosen by God to be his people. Christians know that God has decided to love them even when they are unlovable. So we know that love is more than an emotion or a feeling. Christians know that love is first and foremost a choice. And as we choose to love and go on loving, we learn what love really is and it’s there that we experience love’s greatest riches.

As Christians we learn over time, and to our dismay, that we are more sinful and flawed in ourselves than we ever dared believe. But at the very same time we discover that we are more loved and accepted in Jesus Christ than we ever dared hope.

This is why the New Testament compares the love of a husband and wife to the relationship between Christ and his people, the church. God chooses to love us and he determines to never give up on us.

On your wedding day, I suppose that Tom put on his best suit, polished his shoes, had a spotless, ironed shirt and made sure he was clean shaved. Audrey will have had her hair beautifully arranged and will have put on her radiant, white wedding dress. You will have wanted to look your very best. This will not have been a day for stubble, yesterday’s t-shirt, scruffy jeans and trainers. It wouldn’t have been appropriate.

God describes the way we act towards each other in all our relationships (including throughout married life) as being like the clothes we select from the wardrobe each morning. Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience the Bible says. Put on love.

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you it says.

Interestingly, Paul mentions forgiveness twice; I’m tempted to say once for Tom and once for Audrey! Because, as you have learned, I’m sure, it doesn’t work if one of you forgives, while the other seethes with resentment.

There was once a man who talked down to his wife at a party. Next morning he felt bad and asked her to forgive him. She said she would, but she kept bringing it up. He said, “I thought you were going to forgive and forget.” She said, “Oh, I have, I just don't want you to forget that I have forgiven and forgotten!”

Forgiveness is reciprocal. And once an issue is forgiven, you choose to forget as well.

And finally, the reading says this: Over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

How would we define love? Well, together, you may not quite define love, but you do very eloquently illustrate it.

Perhaps for a working definition of love we should look to children for wisdom.

A group of children were once asked, “What does ‘love’ mean?” Here are some answers:

Nathan, 7, says, “Love is what’s in the room at Christmas, if you stop opening presents and listen.”

Jessica, 8, says, “You really shouldn’t say ‘I love you’ unless you mean it. But if you do mean it, you should say it a lot.”

Tommy, 7, says, “Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.”

Happy anniversary, Tom and Audrey.

Sermon preached at Saint Mary's Long Newton, 29th January 2012.


I, Tom, took you, Audrey, to be my wife,
to have and to hold
from that day forward;
for better, for worse,
for richer, for poorer,
in sickness and in health,
to love and to cherish,
till death us do part,
according to God's holy law.
In the presence of God I renew this vow.

I, Audrey, took you, Tom, to be my husband,
to have and to hold
from that day forward;
for better, for worse,
for richer, for poorer,
in sickness and in health,
to love, cherish, and obey,
till death us do part,
according to God's holy law.
In the presence of God I renew this vow.

God the Father,
God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit,
bless, preserve and keep you;
the Lord mercifully grant you the riches of his grace,
that you may please him both in body and soul,
and, living together in faith and love,
may receive the blessings of eternal life. Amen


Sermon preached at Saint Mary's Long Newton, 30th January 2012

Renewal for Our Building (2 Kings 12.1-12)

Introduction

Well, it’s Gift Day. Thank you to all those who have given a gift or offered a loan or made a pledge – or who plan to, today or soon. I don’t know who any of you are, and never will, but God does. Our treasurer will thank you on behalf of the whole church but even if you got no acknowledgement in this life for the gift you have made, God knows your heart. The Bible says that our giving should be done in secret. “Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you” said Jesus.

But in this life we may feel like that poor postman working at the sorting office who found an unstamped, shakily hand-written envelope, addressed to God. He opened it and discovered it was from an elderly lady, distressed because all her pension for the month, £200, had been stolen. The letter said, “Dear Lord, without your divine intervention I will be cold and go hungry this month.” So he had a word with his colleagues at the sorting office. They dug deep and came up with a gift of £180 which they got to her by special delivery the next morning.

A week later, the same postman noticed the same handwriting on another unstamped envelope also addressed to God. So he opened it and found a note inside which said “Dear God, thank you for the £180 - life would have been unbearable without it. P.S. It was £20 short but that was probably those thieving workers at the Post Office.”

I’m sure they all had a good laugh. But that’s one of the things about anonymous giving; we don’t give so that people will make much of us and admire us. Giving should first of all glorify God. Jesus said, “When you give, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.” Every church treasurer takes that to mean that your right hand puts a large wad of notes in the offering so quickly that the left hand doesn’t have a chance to say “No, not that much!”

Actually, the phrase probably traces its origin back to our passage in 2 Kings 12.9 where the collection chest was placed on the right hand side of the altar so that those putting money in would naturally use their right hand to do it. Some people were tempted to make a bit of a display of their gift, handling it with the left hand where everyone could see it.

Bishop Justin, in his New Year message was talking about three priorities this year, the first of which was to do with finances. This is what he said; “At a personal level, [let’s] live within our means after having given away ten pence in every pound to worthy causes. We always think of generosity as benefitting the receiver, but [Jesus] tells us that giving generously benefits the giver.”

That’s right. I have yet to meet anyone who said to me that, having tithed their income, they were dissatisfied with God’s provision, disappointed by God’s faithfulness or disenchanted by God’s blessing. One of the key indicators for me, of how healthy any church is, is how glad and open-handed the giving is.

The particular project we are focusing on this Gift Day is the plan to replace the roof that is over our heads as we sit here this morning. It is over 100 years old, it leaks (which adds damage to the walls as you can see behind me) and it is poorly insulated (as we noticed last Sunday when the heating was on full blast from 4:00am but was still inadequate to heat the church 6 hours later).

Our roof frequently loses tiles in high winds. Every time there’s a storm at night I lie awake wondering about how the roof will be coping. We have had to make emergency repairs over the last few years but every time the roofers go up there they find something else that needs serious attention. So the time has come to replace the roof and, as we do, to add a layer of high quality lagging to keep the heat in during the winter and reduce our fuel bills.

Of course, if you were to ask me what I would rather spend £80,000 on – a new roof or, for example, a children and youth evangelist it would be a no brainer. I want to say loud and clear that we want to focus on ministry and not maintenance. This building must never become an end in itself. Some churches become museums, even mausoleum. This one is a mission station.

But in order to facilitate the ministry here we need a building fit for purpose and essential structural repairs have to be done. When it’s finished the roof will no longer burn a hole in our budget every year so it will actually release us, and those who come after us for the next 100 years, to direct resources at building the church rather than the church building. When it’s our turn to pass on the baton to the next generation, we are not going to pass on to them a building with chronic structural issues that will weigh them down and burden them. Today we give to the Lord, but also we bless future generations of believers who will worship in this place. That’s a great legacy to pass on.

Joash’s Reforms

When it became clear to the Church Council last year that we were going to have to do this, I felt the Lord speak to me through 2 Kings 12 and the story of King Joash who lived around 800 B.C.

I need to tell you a little bit about the background – and I think you’ll see why in a moment.

When Joash was very young, possibly a babe in arms, there was a horrible and traumatic incident in his home. When his father King Ahaziah was brutally assassinated whilst on a foreign trip, Joash’s grandmother, Athaliah, went on the rampage and set about wiping out the whole royal family in a bid to seize the throne. There was a bloodbath and the nation descended into chaos, a bit like the reign of terror after the French Revolution if you’re familiar with the history.

But before the Queen Mother could kill her last grandson Joash, a quick-thinking aunt picked him up, ran away and hid him in the temple where he was secretly taken care of by a kindly old priest called Jehoiada.

Just think; if it were not for that intuitive saving act, Jesus could not have been the Messiah, and would not have been born - because if Joash had been killed, David’s line would have ended there and then. The prophets always said that the Christ must be descended from David’s royal lineage (which of course Jesus was). But God watches over his word to see that it is accomplished – he always has and he still does. God has invested promises into the future of our world that will shape future international events for God is faithful to ensure that his word comes to pass.

So the boy Joash, the rightful heir to the throne, was hidden away in the temple for about seven years before he was dramatically taken out of hiding and declared king at the age of 8. Wicked queen Athaliah was deposed and put to death.

The books of Kings and Chronicles record a verdict for every sovereign of Israel or Judah; either they did right in the eyes of the Lord, like David, or they did evil in the eyes of the Lord unlike David. What about Joash? He was neither good nor bad (or rather he was both good and bad – in that order).

He started well but I’m afraid he finished badly. Verse 2 says that as long as Jehoiada, the priest who had hid him away in the temple, was mentoring, nurturing and advising him from God’s word - he did well. But when Jehoiada died Joash drifted from God, he made unwise decisions and ended up assassinated by his own officials. Matthew Henry makes the telling remark that Joash “was not so illustrious at forty years old as he was at seven.”

It really doesn’t matter at the end of the day how enthusiastic or dramatic your conversion was. More importantly, will you walk with Christ in every experience in life, good or bad? And most important of all, will you still be hanging on to Christ when you breathe your last? It says about the long list of believers in Hebrews 11 that each one was still living by faith when they died. That’s what counts and sadly Joash wasn’t.

Parallels with Preston on Tees

Why do I feel that this story speaks with such resonance to our own situation?

Firstly, there is an interesting parallel between the age of the temple at the time of Joash’s repairs and the age of this building. Both are just over 100 years old at the time of the repairs being necessary. It’s just a small thing but it caught my attention.

Secondly, and this is where the historical background is important, this temple must have been a place that Joash had an emotional attachment to. This was the house he had spent his most tender years, hidden away from danger remember. He had learned to walk and talk there. But most importantly of all, it had been a refuge. I think that Joash had a heart to repair the temple because it had been a place of salvation for him – and now there was a chance for him to give something back. So I want to ask you, has All Saints’ been a place of salvation, a place of refuge in your life? I don’t want us to be unhealthily attached to a building but has God blessed you here? Do you have a heart to give something back?

Thirdly, I love the way the people gave personally and willingly to the project. I want to commend this as a model for us. We could put up cardboard thermometers outside the church and go on a fundraising frenzy holding jumble sales and so on - but that’s not biblical.

Verses 4-5 say this:

Joash said to the priests, “Collect all the money that is brought as sacred offerings to the temple of the Lord - the money collected in the census, the money received from personal vows and the money brought voluntarily to the temple. Let every priest receive the money from one of the treasurers, then use it to repair whatever damage is found in the temple.”

When we first started talking about the roof at the Church Council it was clear that there was an eagerness to get on with this. £80,000 a lot of money to find but we felt faith rising and that the time had come for us to stop talking and start to act.

We were reminded of Haggai’s prophecy four centuries after Joash when the temple was once again in need of extensive rebuilding. Haggai challenged the people of his day saying “How can you live in panelled houses when the house of the Lord lies in ruins?” 

We thought, “Yes, we wouldn’t sit on our hands if there were leaks in our roofs at home. Why should our standard for God’s house be lower?”

In a time like ours, where there is a national economic squeeze, we might have been looking at reluctance and pessimism but it was just the opposite.

And finally, I was struck by the fact that Joash’s repairs were accompanied by a new era of spiritual renewal. I like that.

The early years of Joash’s reign, when he did right in the eyes of the Lord, were years of significant spiritual advance. 2 Kings 11 says that, following Joash’s coronation, they renewed the covenant, they recommitted themselves as God’s people, they tore down altars to Baal, they smashed their idols and did away with their priests.

Verse 15 of chapter 12 shows how far righteousness was re-established in the land; from being a nation blighted by idolatry and corruption it says that the people acted with complete transparency and honesty as they handled the money for the rebuilding.

I’ll be frank; there is no point in renewing this building if we, the people inside it, are not being renewed in our faith.

Our goal this year is to grow in our awareness of God’s presence, to increase in evangelistic effectiveness, to swell in numbers, to mature in unity and love and strengthen our knowledge of and commitment to truth.

Ending

So, as I close, may the Lord pour out upon us a spirit of glad generosity.

May this place be a house of prayer that glorifies God, that facilitates acceptable worship and encourages relevant preaching from the Word of God.

May we, his people here, grow in grace and increase in faith this year. May this be our highest prize. And so may we joyfully testify to the truth of these words: “Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

Shall we stand to pray…

* The total given in this Gift Day was £58,000 in gifts and up to £42,000 in interest-free loans; a terrific response.


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 22nd January 2012

Renewal in Awareness (Genesis 28.10-22)

Introduction

It’s a strange story isn’t it? A man called Jacob lies his head down on a rock, miraculously manages to fall asleep (how many of us would sleep well with a hunk of limestone for a pillow?) has a weird dream about a ladder stretching from earth to heaven with angels climbing up and down on it, wakes up - and immediately understands that his weird dream is one of the most significant God-moments of his life. So he takes the stone he used as a pillow, builds it into a pillar, tips olive oil on it, renames the place he stayed the night and moves on.

What is that about?

Let me ask you, do you find it an easy story to relate to? Maybe the dreamers amongst us get this story more than the rest of us…

Do you dream a lot? Hands up if you dream quite often… Do you ever think about what your dreams mean? Apparently, there are several accepted interpretations for common dreams. Dreams when you’re flying are supposed to be about gaining a new outlook in life or having control of a situation. Has anyone ever had a dream where you’re waiting for a bus or walking along the street and then it dawns on you that you are underdressed or completely naked? I used to have that dream quite often when I was a teenager. According to psychologists those dreams are apparently about insecurity or anxiety about secrets. To see birds in a dream is said to symbolize your goals, aspirations and hopes.

I’m sure some of you have heard the story about the woman who wakes up and turns to her husband saying, “I just had a dream that you gave me a pearl necklace for our anniversary. What do you think it means?”
He thinks about it and says, “Well, you’ll know tonight.” So that evening, he comes home with a small package and says “Happy anniversary.” Her face breaks into a smile; she opens the present… and it’s a book called “The Meaning of Dreams.”

If you’re like me, you seem to never have dreams (or rather you never remember them – the experts say that everyone dreams).

Some people though actually don’t dream that much because they are insomniacs – they find it really hard to get to sleep at night. They count sheep, they think about yawning people, they drink camomile tea, they try changing position… I try and list in my mind the 44 dioceses of the Church of England. How sad is that?

A friend of mine once said to me, “When you can’t sleep, just lie right on the edge of the bed. You’ll soon drop off.” If you’re insomniac you might find that helpful. If that doesn’t work, log on to the All Saints’ website and listen to one of my sermons – that will do the trick.

Verse for the Year

We find the whole realm of dreams a bit strange – and it is really. We might find this story a bit curious too but, when you get beyond the surface, it is packed with truth and light and revelation.

The MDT were praying at the end of last year about our priorities for 2012 and we were drawn to v16-17 of our passage where Jacob wakes up and says;

Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it. How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.

We felt that there was particular significance in these verses for us, that God was speaking to us through it and impressing upon us our need to become newly aware of his presence, newly alert to his purposes among us. God comes to us in surprising and unexpected ways.

But before we break those verses down, let’s try and get into what the whole passage is about…

Jacob’s Journey

Genesis 28 finds this character Jacob at a major crossroads, running to save his life. He has just fled his home and left his family, after causing an almighty bust-up in which he robbed his elder brother of his inheritance. If you’ve read the story of Jacob up to this point (Genesis 25-27) you’ll know what a rascal, what a rogue, this man is. You wouldn’t want to buy a second-hand car from Jacob! You’d think twice about lending him a tenner. He’s a double-crossing, sneaky, devious, deceitful old fox and unquestionably he has been spiritually asleep his whole life, but God is about to wake him up.

Listen, you’re on a journey too and so am I. And no matter how long you might have been running from God, how long you’ve been deaf to his voice, it is not too late. No matter how low you’ve sunk, how godless you are, how bad you’ve been, God is waiting for an opportunity to wake you up and begin something new in your life.

Anyway, after travelling about 55 miles the sun is setting so Jacob finds a smooth, cylinder-shaped rock to support his head anhe camps out under the stars.

The Dream

The dream is of a great staircase or ladder stretching from earth to heaven and wide enough for angels to pass one another as they ascend and descend on it.

What is the ladder all about? Firstly, it’s about the vast gulf and separation between heaven and earth. It’s about the infinite distance between the eternal supremacy of God and the trifling lowliness of man. In Christ, God holds the whole universe together and all things exist through him and for him. Human beings live for about 80 years, do stuff and then die.

Secondly, what about the angels? I think the angels in the dream are saying that the gap between heaven and earth is spiritual in nature; this is angel territory. In other words, no one can ever attain heaven without a supernatural work of God. It is futile to try and reach God on the strength of our merits.

But, thirdly,  the ladder is not just about the yawning spiritual gulf between the human and the divine. It also says this; even though we have no chance of getting to heaven on our own, God has provided a way for men and women to reach heaven. He has bridged the gap.

We have to say all three. We must tell people the truth and say all three. 1. Our sin (this is true for all of us) our sin has separated us from God and the chasm between us and him is too wide for us to cross. 2. Our biggest issue is not a matter of culture or education or politics; we are spiritually stuck and we must admit it. I've never met anyone who was convinced they were good enough for heaven; the doubt always lingers that however good they are, they might not have been good enough. They’re right. None of us are good enough.

And 3. We must also say that, God, in his amazing love and out of sheer grace, has sent us a Saviour. He has provided a stairway that reaches into eternity. There is a way for us to be forgiven and cleansed of our sins - and that way is Christ.

In fact, we know that the ladder in Jacob’s dream is all about Jesus. He himself said it was in John 1.51.

Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

Jesus is the ladder; he the only way God has provided for souls to reach heaven and for heaven to invade earth.He is the lens through which God becomes real to us.

And when we meet with God, through Christ, we encounter a place of promise, of blessing, of hope.

God speaks personally to Jacob about his future in the dream. Jacob is not even married at this point but God makes breathtaking promises to him; I am with you. I will keep you wherever you go. Your descendants will be like the dust – there’ll be millions and millions of them. I will never leave you.

All God’s promises to you are “Yes” and “Amen” in Christ. That’s what Jacob’s dream is all about.

The House of God and the Gate of Heaven

But the word I believe God has for us today is focused on Jacob’s response to his dream. I want you to notice this man’s newly awakened spiritual consciousness. There is a stirring in his perception of what God is doing in his life.

How aware are you of God’s presence and power in this place?

Jacob wakes up and says, Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it. I didn’t even know. Are there spiritual realities all around us that we miss? Are we insensitive to the moving of the Holy Spirit?

How awesome is this place! says Jacob. This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.

This is a bit disturbing isn’t it? It tells me that I can be in a church where God is moving in power and not even know it! God’s presence is something we have to discern, be alive to. Could it be that the Lord is often at work among us in ways we do not perceive and need to become more aware of?

I had a conversation with John Greenwood before Christmas and we talked about going to places where your heart sinks a little. Every Church of England minister is familiar with this experience! Every now and then you go on a training day or you fill in for someone on holiday or ill and… it’s depressing frankly. And John (who is much more gracious than I am) said to me “Well, I try to look for what God is doing there and go with that.” I like that.I learned something that day.

I was walking outside early yesterday morning. The sun was up and it was a crisp, clear day. I looked east and squinted at the sun for a brief moment. For the next five minutes or so I saw the sun’s image every time I blinked, even though I was looking away from it. Have you had that experience? It struck me that our relationship with God is like that. The more you look to him, the more you’re able to see him at work everywhere else.

This is none other than the house of God says Jacob. Of course the reality of God’s house in the New Covenant is much more than buildings. There is a sense in which this is God’s house, but God doesn’t live here – he lives in us. We are his house.

We are being built into a temple of which Christ Jesus is the chief cornerstone. Look to Christ, look for him, and he will open your eyes to what he is doing in the lives of the people sitting around you today. Surely God is in this place, this is the house of God.

This is none other than the gate of heaven says Jacob. In other words, our Christian community, the unity that God blesses us with, is a portal through which the kingdom of heaven breaks in to our experience.

We will be moving on with our vision this year. You’ll be hearing about all that’s planned in a few weeks from now and it's really exciting. We believe that every home in our parish should know that they have a vibrant Christian community at the heart of their neighbourhood. That vibrant Christian community is, for them, more than just an enthusiastic church in Dunottar Avenue; it is an open door to heaven.

Ending

Take a card and put it on your mantelpiece or by your computer or above the TV. Pray that this year will be one of increasing awareness of God’s awe-inspiring presence here. Pray that random people, to their great surprise, will dream of Christ, or encounter him in other ways, and turn to him. Be open to God surprising you. Look for the working of the Holy Spirit in this place. Seek first the kingdom. Fix your eyes on Jesus so intently that you see him everywhere else.


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 15th January 2012

The Song of Unanswered Questions (Psalm 88.1-17 and John 13.1-6)

A funeral sermon for a young mother killed in a car accident in the week before Christmas 2011. Some names and details have been changed as an expression of care for the family.

When, on Christmas Eve, I first heard about Janet’s untimely, sudden and tragic death, like all of us here I’m sure, I was shocked and shaken. Though I don’t think I ever met her personally, Janet had been in contact with the church just the week before asking us to do a registry search and issue a duplicate certificate. I signed the documents.

It seemed almost eerie that her life was ended so abruptly and so soon after that otherwise unremarkable contact over some routine paperwork. It adds to the sense of it all feeling unreal.

We are probably all in the stage of grief where we haven’t yet fully taken it all in. We feel numb. We can’t quite believe it has actually happened. What if it’s a bad dream and we’ll wake up? Maybe we can just press the “undo” key on the computer and get back to where we were before? We know it is real and that we can’t undo it – but we find ourselves thinking such things.

When I first learned that I would be taking this funeral I wondered which Bible reading I should choose to speak on.

The Bible contains a song book that we call the Book of Psalms; it’s a collection of 150 songs; songs of happiness, songs of longing, songs that narrate a story, songs about love and songs of grief - what we call laments.

There are dozens of lament Psalms written not just funerals, but also about suffering a great injustice, or a battle with deep personal depression and other sorrows too.

And all the laments in the Psalms take a familiar form. There is a description of what has gone wrong. There are lines expressing the raw feelings of those bearing the grief. There are searching questions; “Lord, why? Lord, how long will this go on?” And finally, there is a change of mood when the Psalm writer says: “And yet, despite everything, I will trust in God because he is faithful.”

I said they all follow this same pattern; in fact, all but one. Instead of finishing on the usual upbeat note, Psalm 88 just leaves the questions unanswered and ends abruptly with no glimmer of light.

I’ve sometimes wondered why this is. Did the Psalmist have no faith? Is there some kind of mistake? Was the Psalm unfinished?

Let me read a few selected lines of the Psalm to you…

I am overwhelmed with troubles...
I am like one without strength...
I am… like… those whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care.
You have put me in the lowest pit, in the darkest depths.
You have taken from me my closest friends…
I call to you, Lord, every day.
Do you show your wonders to the dead?
Do their spirits rise up and praise you?
Is your love declared in the grave?
Are your wonders known in the place of darkness?
Why, Lord, do you… hide your face from me?
All day long [your terrors] surround me like a flood; they have completely engulfed me.
You have taken from me friend and neighbour - darkness is my closest friend.

It’s not exactly light reading, but it articulates what people actually think when they’re not having to be polite and how people actually feel when they aren’t putting on a brave face - at times like these.

There are eight questions for God in Psalm 88 - but no answer from him recorded. There are several instances of finger pointing addressed to God; “You have taken my closest friend from me.” But not once does God explain himself in the Psalm.

We find ourselves here today asking “Why?” Why Janet? Why so young? Why did she make that particular journey? Why didn’t she fill up with fuel? (If indeed she did run out, we’re not sure). Why so near to Christmas?

We find ourselves probing God and doubting his goodness. “You took my closest friend, my daughter, my wife, my mother, from me.”

And at this moment in time there are no satisfactory answers to the questions we ask. At this moment in time there is no definitive reply for our complaints either.

I carry with me in my Bible a bookmark. It was a gift from a couple who have suffered much and whose strong faith is an inspiration to me. It’s a beautifully weaved design with birds, flowers, leaves and ornate patterns. The name of the country where it was made from is embroidered at the top.

But on the back it’s an abstract mess of coloured threads, with untidy loose ends. It is impossible to tell looking at the back what beauty and clarity is on the other side.

Perhaps this reverse side is life as we observe it from our perspective; a seemingly arbitrary mess of tangled threads. And perhaps this tapestry is life as God sees it from his perspective; everything makes sense.

In fact, the Bible says this is so in 1 Corinthians 13.12:

Now we see things imperfectly as in a cloudy mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.

I don’t think there is a mistake about Psalm 88; God knows there is a time when, for us, nothing adds up or makes sense.

We are like Thomas in our Gospel reading. "Do not let your hearts be troubled" says Jesus. Why? Because he knew that Thomas’ heart was troubled.

“Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” says Thomas. He is confused, bewildered, perplexed… He is trying to think about life and death and how he never seems to understand spiritual things.

“How can we know the way?” he asks.

We maybe expect Jesus to reply, “This is the way” and give an explanation of how to get to heaven.

But he doesn’t. He says “I am the way...”

May we all, in our confusion, our anger, our shock and our sorrow find the path of peace in him; the Way, the Truth and the Life.


Sermon preached at Saint Mary's Long Newton 10th January 2012.

The Reason Why (John 1.1-14)

Introduction

A very happy Christmas to you all, and to your families.

Once upon a time, long, long ago, there lived a poor man and his wife. They were so poor that one day they found themselves with bare cupboards and nothing to put on the table for supper.

So the wife, who incidentally wore the trousers in this particular household, decided to send her hen-pecked husband off with his fishing rod to the local lake. “If you don’t catch nuffin’, there’ll be no dinner tonight,” she said.

So off he went, desperate to land some sort of catch. After five hours of miserable failure, he finally reeled in, against all the odds, a decent sized fish. In fact it was so big, he had a bit of a struggle pulling it out of the water.

Finally he managed to master it and place it on the bank of the lake. He was just about to whack it on the head when, the fish began to talk, pleading with him. “Please don’t kill me. If you throw me back into the water I’ll grant you three wishes, whatever you want, you can have it.”

The man thought that would be great, so he let the fish go and returned home empty handed, excited about what his wife was going to say.

“Well, what did you catch for our dinner, lazy bones? You ain’t done nuffin’ have you?” she said. So he explained what had happened. “You and your tall stories, I don’t know, what do you think this is, Jack and the beanstalk?”

So he says, “Watch! I wish… I wish that a magnificent four-course meal would appear before us right now.” And sure enough the table is filled with the most exquisite delicacies and fine wines. “You idiot!” she screams, “you could have asked for anything, a flashy sports car or a luxury yacht.” “OK,” he says without thinking, “I wish for a new Rolls Royce.” Immediately, a gleaming new Rolls appears before their eyes.

“What? Are you totally stupid?” she says! We can do better than this. Don’t say anything. For your last wish, ask for a royal palace… No! Wait… Ask for a dwelling fit for God himself.” So he does, and instantly they find themselves surrounded by farm animals in a dark barn, with a cattle trough for their bed. The sumptuous meal has turned into humble flat bread. And, outside, the brand new Rolls Royce is now a donkey that’s seen better days.

God in Human Likeness

Christmas is the celebration of God taking human form in Jesus Christ. In our Gospel reading tonight we heard the following words;

The word became flesh and blood and lived among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, sent by the Father, full of grace and truth. He lived among us…

…or literally ‘pitched his tent in the neighbourhood.’ God becoming one of us is one of the deepest and most weighty mysteries of the Christian faith. It blows the mind to think that the creator of all that is, he who spoke vast galaxies into existence and who sustains all things by the word of his power, became a dependent infant who needed to be fed, changed, burped, loved – and everything else we associate with newborn babies.

Verse 12 of our Gospel reading explains what we have to gain if we respond to this event in the way God wants us to.

To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.

How an infant sleeping in his cot can be begotten, not created, and how he can be very God of very God, remains an unfathomable mystery.

But God became a child so that you can become a child of God.

To all who received him, to those who believed in his name…

And so we embrace it by faith, or we don’t really take it seriously, as if it were a fairy tale, like the one I told a minute ago.

But if it is true, if God really did come down to earth, what would he be like?

Our reading talks in philosophical - almost abstract - terms. If your daughter phoned one night and told you she had a new boss, and you said, “Oh, what’s he like?” And she said, “Well, to me, he’s the word incarnate, he’s the true light, he is in the world, shining with glory, full of grace and truth,” let’s be honest - you’d want something a bit more concrete. It’s very conceptual, and we like things to be a bit easier to grasp.

Well, it’s like this: the infinitely awe-inspiring glory of God was concentrated in one person, who immersed himself in our wearisome humanity.

The landlord became the tenant. The club owner became the centre-forward. The headmaster became the pupil in reception class. The supermarket chairman became the checkout assistant.

He laughed and cried; he got hungry and thirsty and tired. He suffered humiliation, rejection and derision.

If anyone wants to know what God looks like, take a look at Jesus. You see straight away that God is not bitter, or frustrated, or miserly. He is larger than life, he eats and drinks with outcasts, he heals people the doctors gave up on and he leaves stuffy hypocrites speechless. Kids love him, bullies fear him.

But he was more than a great man. We talk about Charles the Great, Alexander the Great, Napoleon the Great, but not Jesus the Great. Jesus is above greatness. He is unique. It was dark at midday when he died, and it was bright at midnight when he was born. No one has ever been like him before or since.

In v2 John says that Jesus was already there before time began. In v3, 10 and 11 we read that Jesus was behind the whole of creation. Everything that exists traces its origin and raison d’être ultimately back to him.

We know John wrote his Gospel, in Greek, in Ephesus in the first century.

In the beginning was the word. All things were made through him. The word was with God. The word was God.

“Word” there is our English translation of the Greek word logos, but logos means much more than ‘word’.

Five centuries before Jesus was born lived a philosopher - before Socrates, Plato and Aristotle - called Heraclitus, who by a remarkable coincidence also wrote in Greek, in Ephesus about this logos. Heraclitus was way before his time. And ‘the logos’ was his big thing, it was central to his quest to understanding what made everything tick.

In his thinking, the ‘logos’ meant the principle that explains why things are the way they are, it’s where we get the words logic, logical, logistics. It’s not an ivory tower philosophical idea, it practical. It means the reason why. What is the reason why the rain and the wind come and go? It’s the meteo – logos (meteorology). What is the reason why people behave the way they do? It’s the socio – logos (sociology). What is the reason why planets spin round the sun? It’s the cosmos – logos (cosmology). Every discipline of human understanding and learning comes back to its logos, the explanation why it is like it is.

So when John wrote his Gospel, he deliberately picked up this language from Heraclitus – he said that Jesus is the logos, he is the reason why. All things find their true sense, their ultimate meaning in him. He is the reason why you were born and have life. He is the reason why you can know God. He is the reason why you can know that God loves you. Life, the universe and everything; Jesus is the reason why.

You don’t need a telescope, a microscope, or a horoscope to see the fullness of Christ, or the emptiness of life without him. But the God of the whole universe was living down the road, in the neighbourhood, and most people totally missed it!

A few years ago I read about a farmer called Maurice Wright who bought an old painting in 1975 for a few quid at a car boot sale and hung it up in his barn. Over the years it collected cobwebs and dust until one day an art lover noticed it on the wall. They talked about it and the farmer asked if he thought it was worth anything. So the art lover took a photo of it and went to see an expert at Christie’s. A few weeks later he learned that it was the work of a 19th Century artist named Edward Thomas Daniell. Collectors knew that this picture existed but assumed it had perished years ago. It had been missing for over a century. When the farmer put it up for auction and it sold for £100 000!

The ‘reason why’ was in the world but (like that painting in the barn) the world did not recognise him. He came to his own and his own did not accept him. But those who did receive him, to those who believed in him, he gave the right to become children of God.

Ending

Do you accept him? Have you received him? Do you believe in him?

Where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in.

After all, one of his 92 names and titles is Emmanuel – which means God is with us. So if you’re searching for God, don’t bother looking in great palaces or splendid castles – discover him, if you will, in an inconspicuous barn in a quiet corner of a modest road in an insignificant backwater province of a mighty empire.

It’s not easy to find. You have to search. But if you seek, you will find. You’ll find him surrounded by farm animals, with an eating trough for his bed. Ignore the gleaming Rolls. Look for the donkey that’s seen better days waiting outside.


Sermon preached at Saint Mary's Long Newton, 24th December 2011

The Promised Messiah (Isaiah 11.1-10)

Introduction

We all know why you never see the headline 'Psychic Wins Lottery.' There is a reason why astrologers and fortune tellers have no more success predicting the winner of the Grand National than anyone else.

Those of you who were at the John Archer evening last week will have been amazed by some of his tricks and illusions.

In one trick, he had a coin placed over each eye and stuck down by three strips of gaffer tape. Then he had a police issue blindfold placed on top of that. After that he had one more layer of black gaffer tape applied over the blindfold. He then asked three members of the audience to draw a picture of anything they wanted. One drew a Christmas tree, one drew a rugby player kicking a penalty and the third drew a matchstick man. John then described all three pictures in detail, fully blindfolded.

In another trick, he had a deck of cards held together by a rubber band. He asked three people at random to flick through the deck and stop at any card they chose. They had to memorise the card and say nothing. John then guessed the three cards; 3 of diamonds, ace of clubs and Jack of hearts. And he guessed each card correctly.

It was highly entertaining and absolutely amazing. And yet we knew that each trick he did was an illusion of sleight of hand or a loaded deck or some other ruse. No one believed that John Archer really has magic powers.

Messianic Prophecy: Descent

Perhaps that’s why we don’t really get that excited about Old Testament prophecies about the Messiah. Maybe we think to ourselves deep down, “What if there’s some psychological explanation.” And because most of us aren’t Jewish by background, we aren’t sensitised to the concept of a Messiah anyway.

But there’s no question that the announcement of the identity of the Messiah is important to God – because quite a lot of the Old Testament is devoted to it.

Have you ever thought about those genealogies in the Bible? They are admittedly not enthralling reading, but they are important for confirming that Jesus fulfils the first of the three conditions necessary to be the authentic Messiah. And it’s this; according to Scripture, he must be a descendant of Abraham, of Isaac (not Ishmael), of Jacob (not Esau), from the tribe of Judah (not from any of the other 11 tribes). Furthermore he must descend from Jesse’s family - I’ll come back to Jesse later - and from David's line (not from any of his brothers). That narrows the field down significantly. It excludes well over 99.9% of the human race.

The significant thing is this; when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in AD70, all the genealogical records were lost in the flames. So no one can ever again prove their descent from Judah or the royal line. But Jesus’ family tree is written down for us in black and white.

Messianic Prophecy: Birthplace

The second condition is equally easy to substantiate and difficult to fake. Anyone claiming to be the Messiah must have “Bethlehem” on his birth certificate to the exclusion of every other location on earth. Fact; the Messiah has to be born in Bethlehem. Problem; the parents chosen for the task of raising him live 80 miles away in Nazareth. Solution; "I know”, says God, “some bureaucrat in Rome dreams up a new poll tax for the entire Roman Empire! It won’t be popular but it should get Mary and Joseph from here to there just in time. God always keeps his word even if taxes go up to make it happen. Oh, the inscrutable mysteries of the sovereignty of God…

There are dozens of other prophecies that, taken together, narrow down further the identity of God’s Chosen One to a very small number of people even among the tiny percentage who qualify through their genealogy and birthplace.

Messianic Prophecy: Character

But just in case there is still any doubt, there is a third condition to be fulfilled. There’s quite a lot about the character of the Messiah – and there are several facets of that in our reading from Isaiah this morning;

Verses 2-3 talk about his spiritual stature.

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord -
and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

Verses 3-4 say he’s going to see deeper than what’s on the surface of people’s lives; he’ll look into the heart and favour the poor and needy.

Verse 5 says he will be characterised by doing the right thing and being faithful to what he said.

Now, you might think that that’s pretty general; insight, consistency, integrity and honesty. But how many political leaders can you name, from any era, who tick all those boxes? Maybe a few stand out from the crowd; Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Aung San Suu Kyi all have that one-in-a-generation mark of greatness but none is from the tribe of Judah or descended from David.

Jesus qualifies handsomely not only though the particulars of his family tree and the location of his birthplace but also through the incomparable merit of his character.

Messianic Prophecy: Branch and Root

I said I’d come back to Jesse and I’d like to draw your attention to v1 and v10 of our reading. Let’s read v1 first.

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.

Isaiah often uses word pictures and sometimes compares people to trees. You might remember chapter 61 where he says of the redeemed: “

They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour.

And in v33-34 from the previous chapter he says,

See, the Lord, the Lord Almighty,
will lop off the boughs with great power.
The lofty trees will be felled,
the tall ones will be brought low.

What he is talking about here is not literal trees, but the Assyrian army that appeared like a vast and mighty forest. But God says here that this all-conquering superpower of its day will be cut down like a chainsaw fells a diseased tree in your back garden.

God does that. This is the year that has seen Bin Laden and Gadaffi, who struck fear in the hearts of nations, brought low like lofty trees.

So when chapter 11 begins by saying…

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit

…Isaiah means that Judah, the royal dynasty of David, would one day be chopped down like a tree stump (as indeed it was when the nation, including its king, were exiled to Babylon in 587 BC). That was the end of the monarchy. The king became a humbled civilian. But Isaiah says here that from this miserable stump a new shoot would grow – this is someone completely new but from the same royal line. And here’s the thing; he will be greater than the original tree and would bear much fruit.

We looked at Isaiah 53 a few weeks ago and marvelled at the extraordinary vision of a man of sorrows who suffered for the sin of his people. That chapter links to this one because it begins with these words;

[The Lord’s servant] grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
(Isaiah 53.2)

In other words, the one who suffered and died for the sins of his people is this branch who will bear much fruit.

But in v10 there’s a curious twist;

In that day the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples;
the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious.

Did you notice? It’s no longer a shoot from the stump. Now the Messiah is called the root of Jesse. In other words, he is not only the greatest descendent (or branch) of David’s line, he came before it as well. He is the root. Once again, it points unmistakably to Jesus; son of Mary and Son of God. He is the root and branch Messiah.

Ending

So, as I close, think about this; blind faith is to believe in a baby in a manger. But informed faith is to put your trust in the only one who perfectly fulfils dozens of prophecies made over hundreds of years.

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a branch will bear fruit.

The root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; [and] the nations will rally to him.


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees and Saint Mary's Long Newton, 18th December 2011

Your God Will Come (Isaiah 35.1-10)

Introduction

There’s this Hezbollah militant, desperate for water, and he is treading wearily through the Judean wilderness when he sees something shimmering far off in the distance. Hoping to find water, he hurries towards what he hopes is an oasis, only to find a little old Jewish man with a small stand, selling ties.

So the Hezbollah guy says, “Do you have water?”
The Jew replies, “I have no water. Would you like to buy a tie? They are only 100 shekels.”

The militant shouts, “Idiot! I do not need an over-priced tie. I need water! I should kill you, but I need to save my energy and find water first!

“OK,” says the Jew, “No matter. If you continue over that hill to the east for about two miles, you will find a lovely restaurant. It has all the ice cold water you need. Shalom.”

So, the Hezbollah guy staggers over the hill, cursing as he goes. Several hours later he staggers back, almost dead.

The Jew says, “So what’s the problem?”

“Your brother won't let me in to his restaurant without a tie!”

Israel’s Wilderness

The only time I’ve been to Israel, I took a coach trip one day from Jerusalem down to a place called Masada in the valley of the Dead Sea.

If you’ve done the same coach journey - and if you’ve been to Israel to see the sights, you probably have - you’ll remember I’m sure how the road, surrounded by rough, craggy cliffs either side, keeps winding down and down and down. It seems to go on forever.

You begin to say to yourself “I’m sure we can’t go any lower than this.” And you’re right, because eventually, at 423 metres below sea level, you arrive at the lowest point on the planet.

You are at the northernmost edge of a deep gash on the surface of the earth called the Great Rift Valley that extends all the way down to the heart of the African continent.

When you finally get there, you find that it is quite unlike any valley on earth (except perhaps Death Valley). We tend to think of valleys as fertile places watered by streams and rivers. But this is an arid and bleak and rocky place. This is what it looks like.

It’s a bit like the surface of Mars, but with constant heat haze shimmering over it. The Dead Sea itself is over 8 times more salty than the ocean – which is great for floating tourists. But it’s a harsh, inhospitable and unforgiving environment.

In fact, you can hardly go anywhere in Israel without quickly getting dehydrated. That’s one of the reasons Jesus said “Those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

I remember getting out of the air-conditioned coach to take a stroll around outside. Nothing prepared me for the shock of stepping off the coach into what seemed like a furnace. It was like opening an oven door and being blasted by a power wave of blistering heat.

When I went it was July, when the average daily high temperature is 40 degrees and often pushes up to 45 and even beyond that. From May to September the average rainfall there is nil. In fact, it only rains at all in that place for two weeks a year. Very few plants or shrubs flourish there and hardly anything living survives for long.

This is the setting for this morning’s reading from Isaiah. When Isaiah prophesies about the wilderness, you can see it’s not like the Sahara with its fine sand and rolling dunes. The sand in the desert of Judea is gritty and dirty. It’s a lifeless, charmless, hopeless, waterless wasteland.

Spiritual Dryness

But God’s word to us this morning is not actually about a physical wilderness. When Isaiah says,

The desert and the parched land will be glad;
the wilderness will rejoice and blossom

it’s a metaphor. A friend of mine, Sarah Hodges, said to me this week, “It’s only when I am in the desert place and really thirsty that I can truly appreciate the utter truth and beauty of this.”

She was meaning spiritually thirsty. The wilderness is spiritual. God is saying “This is what it’s like when someone is away from God.

This is how it feels to leave the path of his perfect will for your life. Your entire soul becomes parched dry.

Everything around you just begins to feel wretched and without hope. Everything about the future looks bleak.”

Now if you will bear with me just a moment, I need to set the scene so we can understand the context of these verses.

At the time of this prophecy, God’s people were settled in their own land. They were relatively prosperous; things were quite stable. They thought they were safe. They were wrong.

Isaiah, inspired by the Holy Spirit, says that things are going to get worse.

History records that Isaiah’s predictions and warnings in the early chapters of his book were spot on.

• God’s people were indeed overrun by an invasion of awesome military might - as Isaiah had warned.
• They would soon suffer the deep trauma of a heavy loss of life - as Isaiah had warned.
• They would soon be carried off as a people to a foreign land and that generation would never see home again - as Isaiah had warned.
• Those that survived the bloodbath would end up in Babylon, away from their land, away from their roots, away from God.

This empty, barren, deserted place is what exile was going to feel like to them and it was about to happen.

Isaiah says here (these are his words) that being away from God, being out of his purposes for your life is like

• a desert
• a parched land
• a wilderness and
• a thirsty ground with burning sand

Have you ever (spiritually, I mean) been in a place like that? Maybe you are there now?

What does it feel like when you find that you are far away from the God you once loved and encountered in worship?

Verses 3 and 4 talk about feeble hands, knees that give way and fearful hearts.

Feeble hands – it’s what you feel like when you’re handling so many burdens that you think you just can’t carry them all anymore.

Knees giving way – it’s that sense of fatigue, of overwhelming tiredness. Spiritually as well as physically, you feel you just can’t stay strong much longer.

Fearful hearts – it’s when you’ve lost the sense of God’s provision and now you just don’t know how you’re going to pay the bills.

It’s when you’ve lost the sense of God’s enabling and now you can’t see how you’re going to get your marriage back on track or know his power in your workplace – or whatever.

Have you been there? This is the desert.

Isaiah, in v5-6, also talks about the blind the deaf, the lame and the mute.

Blind - it’s when you just can’t see how God’s hand is over your life anymore.

Deaf – it’s when his word seems like a closed book that has nothing relevant to say to you.

Lame – it’s when you’ve stopped walking with God because you feel you just can’t. Your walk with the Lord has slowed to a stop.

And mute – it’s when you feel so powerless, like you haven’t got a voice and everything you say seems to be ignored.

Have you been there? This is the desert. For Israel in Isaiah’s day those feelings were brought on by the exile to Babylon, but for us any trauma or sorrow or trail of bad news can land us in that desert place.

Real Peace, Real Joy

The times when I’ve been furthest away from God and the most estranged from his will in my life are when I have been tempted to recover that sense of wellbeing that only God gives through other means – like in music or in human friendships or through entertainment or in nature.

People think sometimes that they can generate happiness and produce joy on our own. We never can. Peace and joy are the fruit of the Spirit; they are the by-product of the rule and reign of God in your life.

Actually, I should qualify that by saying that you can find pleasure in all kinds of things – but the Bible (in 1 Peter 1) talks about fullness of joy and inexpressible joy. You can’t find delight like that anywhere apart from in Christ.

People pay good money for substances and experiences that will alter their mood and give them a buzz for the evening. But the Bible talks about unspeakable joy which is real even when everything around you is falling apart.

Similarly, you can find calm and stillness in many places if you look. People pay top money for weekend escapes and havens of tranquillity - but they come back when it’s over to the same old hassle.

You can’t get the peace of God that passes understanding anywhere else than in Christ. Philippians 4 says that this peace only comes through thanking God in all circumstances and laying your burdens before him instead of worrying about them.

If you’ve got the joy of the Lord (which is your strength) and the peace that the world cannot give you’ll be very well over the circumstances, not under the circumstances.

God is Sovereign

Anyway, back to Isaiah 35: The amazing thing about these verses to me is that God is not one step ahead but two. He is telling Israel the good news that’s going to happen after the bad news that hadn’t even happened yet.

Well before even the first sign of a downturn, God is already talking about how good the recovery is going to be.

Don’t you find that encouraging? Though things are going to become very grim for them, God tells his people here that he knows already that things will get much better because he is on the throne. He has a plan.

He is the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Nothing takes him by surprise. He is sovereign over the affairs of the nations, so you can step out in faith and trust. You can depend on his goodness.

With our God there is no ‘oops!’ With our God there are no accidents. There is no wiping the sweat off his brow.

So before you enter a crisis, God already knows how he can lead you out of it.

The desert and the parched land will be glad;
the wilderness will rejoice and blossom.
Like the crocus, it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy.
The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendour of Carmel and Sharon;
they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendour of our God.

If you think your life is barren and dry and without purpose, look up. God is sovereign. Even in death God has a better future in store for those who love him. To live is Christ, to die is gain. Armed with that knowledge you can begin to flourish.

The Highway of Holiness

But my message this morning would be unbalanced and misleading if I were to stress God’s dominion and power – and be silent about what it is that the Lord requires of us.

Those feeble hands and trembling knees I mentioned earlier. God says in v3 “Strengthen them. Steady them.” Those fearful hearts I talked about. God commands us in v4 say to them:

Be strong, do not fear; your God will come,
he will come with vengeance;
with divine retribution he will come to save you.

God is calling for a response of trust in him. Given his track record of creation and redemption, how much more trustworthy could he show himself to be?

God is also calling forth from us a response of holiness.

Verse 8 says this:

And a highway will be there;
it will be called the Way of Holiness;
it will be for those who walk on that Way.
The unclean will not journey on it;
wicked fools will not go about on it.

It’s significant that the New Testament describes the Christian life as a “walk” (Ephesians 4.1) and God’s New Covenant people, the Church, are called the Way (Acts 19.9).

The way back into God’s purposes is a path of holiness and righteousness. God says here very clearly that the unclean and the wicked and the morally perverse will not be found here. It is set apart for the redeemed.

There’s a story about an old man living on a nobleman’s estate in Glamorganshire who used to go to the local chapel using the noble lord’s private path because it saved him walking considerable distance.

One day, the two men met on the private footpath. The lord said, “And what right have you on this path?” “No right at all, sir,” said the man, “but I thought you wouldn’t mind an old man who has lived on your estate so many years going this way to worship God, especially as it’s so far the other way.”

The nobleman looked at him and said “Give me your stick!” So the trembling old man gave him his stick, not knowing what to expect. To his surprise, the noble lord gave him his own cane, capped with gold and bearing his family crest.

And then he said kindly, “My good man, when anyone asks you again what right you have to walk this path, show them this, and tell them I gave it to you!”

What right do you and I have to walk on the Highway of Holiness? None at all.

But when Jesus died God made us an offer. We lay on Jesus our filthiness and sinfulness and fallenness. And he takes that on himself, bearing our punishment on the cross. And in return, he gives to us his perfect holiness and righteousness.

That’s grace. And you can only receive it as a free gift with grateful faith. Jesus will take no payment for it. If you were to give me a gift and I offered to pay you for it you’d be insulted wouldn’t you? It’s a gift.

Have you accepted that gift by faith? Are you continuing to receive it, as a gift, every day? Then walk on in the holiness he has given you as a gift.

You men here – it’s like you’ve been given a classy Saville Row Italian suit, perfectly made-to-measure.

Ladies; it’s like a stunning new silk dress that has been expertly tailored to adorn your beauty. Wear it! Put it on! In Romans 13.14 this is what Paul means when he says “Clothe yourselves the Lord Jesus Christ.”

This is the Highway of Holiness we travel on.

It also says this in v9-10:

No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast;
they will not be found there.
But only the redeemed will walk there,
and those the Lord has rescued will return.

I don’t think it’s an accident that the New Testament talks about the devil as a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.

And when Paul wrote about fighting wild beasts in Ephesus he was talking about evil people with a dark agenda that he had to contend with spiritually.

But the Highway of Holiness is a road upon which we have ultimate victory over the world, the flesh and the devil. If God is for us, who can be against us?

Ending

So to finish, and as we have those words “Your God will come” ringing in our ears, let’s look to the baby of Bethlehem. Like a fragile crocus blooming in the desert, God poured all his fullness into this tiny infant who, though being in very nature God, submitted himself to living among us to show us how much he loves us.

It is in this little one, this fragile, dependent newborn baby in a cradle, raised in obscurity and poverty, betrayed and crucified but victorious by his resurrection – it is because of Him that there are streams in the desert to drink from.

Is anyone thirsty?

Let’s pray…


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 11th December 2011