The drawbridge

Based on: Matthew 4: 12-23 and Isaiah 9: 1-4

When my son Sam was little he enjoyed playing with a set of medieval toy soldiers and so I was overjoyed when a medical castle was donated to our church to be sold in the Good as New sale. And it wasn’t a cheap plastic version! This was a castle that had been lovingly played with for many years with layers of wallpaper on top of wallpaper to keep up the repair. 

It had a simple drawbridge, which was great considering Sam was only about 5 when I bought it for him. It was on a simple string mechanism that went through a small hole in the castle wall.  To bring the drawbridge up you would simply pull the string and to lower the drawbridge you would simply let go.  Pull to go up, let go to lower the drawbridge. That drawbridge came to mind when I reflected on today’s bible readings.

At the start of Jesus’ ministry he began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near” and then calls his first disciples with the simple call, “Come, follow me”.

Repent – a change of mind – come, follow me.

Our minds are truly magnificent. If ever there was proof that God exists, surely its his greatest creation of the 8 billion individual minds, each containing about 100 billion neutrons, that currently exist on earth and the countless others that came before us and will do after us. It literally blows your mind away.  There is something bigger than us!

The bible tells us that we are made in the image of God. Some believe that we are separated from God.  But if so, what is keeping all the atoms and molecules in our bodies together, what is keeping our hearts beating and the world turning? 

However we may often feel separated from God. Our prayers seem to fall on deaf ears; we can feel lonely and isolated.  The drawbridge has come up.  No matter how many times we come to church and hear God’s promises that he will never leave us or forsake us…..our minds can, almost, play tricks on us.  Our thoughts can let us down. “I’m not good enough”, “I’ve failed again”, “Who am I? I’m not worthy”.  We pull the drawbridge up and shut God out.

Alternatively our thoughts could run to the other extreme “ I’ve got this”, “I can do this on my own”.  Ego kicks in.  Again, We pull the drawbridge up and shut God out. Before we know it we are off doing our own thing, under our own steam and then…..blame God when it all goes wrong. The irony!

We are all interconnected and never separated from the God that grows tress from acorns (without our help) but through our thoughts and actions we pull the drawbridge up and shut God out.

So the first thing Jesus tells us to do is to Repent – change your minds, let God in.  The first part of our journey with Christ is to to raise our awareness that we need to change our minds – change our thoughts.  

Now the ability to choose our thoughts is the gift of free will, given to us by God. But we need to choose our thoughts wisely. And this is where Christ steps in. Step 2. Come, follow me.  

Jesus preached ‘Repent’ and the simple call, “Come, follow me”.

The ability to choose our thoughts is the gift of free will but we need to choose our thoughts wisely and be able to change our minds – change our thoughts – our level of Christ Consciousness needs increasing and we do that by following him.

We do that by following his example, as recorded in the Bible. We follow his topsy turvy example of the humble servant. “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.” (Mark 9:35). And those who seem to be less fortunate, who look like they are not as “blessed” as we are, turn out to be those who God proclaims as blessed and fortunate. 

Christ Consciousness.  Our minds ask – What would Jesus do? We raise our mind’s awareness of what is needed in a situation by asking (based on scripture) ‘What would Jesus do?’

We follow his example, we follow his lead!

Repent. Change your mind. Come, follow me. 

——

So we choose our thoughts and can choose to shut God out but what else could be keeping that drawbridge up between us and God? We cannot be separate from God since we are part of his amazing creation but what else could be that barrier? What else makes us feel separated from God?

The things we do wrong, especially the things we do wrong that we are aware of, can act as that barrier. In the same way that we can not look a person in the eye when we know we have let them down, the things we do wrong (sin) can be that barrier between us and God. 

From Isaiah we earlier read ‘See, the Lord’s hand is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. Rather, your iniquities have been barriers between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you’.

‘Your sins have hidden his face from you”, not you to him, not your face hidden from him – God never put the barrier in – ‘Your sins have hidden his face from you’.

The essence of sin is ignoring God, in the sense of behaving as if he does not exist or choosing to do things that are wrong.  If we are honest, we would all have to admit that we do things we know are wrong. Paul wrote: ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23). 

Relative to God’s standards we all fall a long way short. When we follow Christ, when we compare ourselves to Jesus, when we increase our Christ Consciousness, we see how far short we fall.

But, by the Grace of God, that barrier has been dealt with.  Once…and for all! That self-made barrier can come crashing down like that castle drawbridge on a wooden floor. Crash!

Because ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8-9). 

Grace Alone. Faith Alone. God loves, forgives, and saves us not because of who we are or what we do, but because of the work of Christ. By the grace of God that barrier has been dealt with once and for all.

And finally, do you remember how simple the drawbridge mechanism was on my son’s medieval castle?  To put the drawbridge up you would pull the string and to lower the drawbridge you would simply let go.  Pull to go up, let go to lower the drawbridge. Which was the easiest action?….. Yes, the letting go bit. 

‘Let go and let God’. I think that’s my favourite phrase.  I wish I always lived by it? I think we can all relate to holding on too tight, wanting to keep control during this journey we call life. But that’s hard work. Pulling on to that drawbridge string.  That’s hard work. 

We stand there holding tight on to that string, effectively declaring “I’ve got this” – whether it’s a conscious or unconscious thought. Ego kicks in.  Do you know what Ego stand for? Edging God out. EGO. Edging God out. Barrier is up!

So why do we do it?  Why don’t we do just ‘Let go and let God, increase our Christ Consciousness in our thinking, lower down the barrier to let God’s wisdom, strength and comfort come flooding in?

A friend of mine is studying ‘A course in Miracles’. It’s a course spread over a year and on day 16 he observed that ‘Every thought you have brings either peace or war; either love or fear. There are no neutral thoughts.’ I’ll repeat that, ‘Every thought you have brings either peace or war; either love or fear. There are no neutral thoughts.’

If God is love, then that barrier is fear. If with every thought there is a choice between love and fear. No neutral thoughts.  It’s either one way or the other. If God is love and love flows freely from God then that barrier is fear.  

Think about those times in your life when you have chosen to do things that are wrong.  Those times when we were aware at the time, or with hindsight, that we have fallen short of God’s standards. How many of those where when we acted out of fear.  

Fear can be crippling to our lives, our lives as God intended them to be.  Of course we have been given the God given gift of knowing when it is a good time to be careful, fear of being hit by car is quite warranted if we step out in front of on-coming traffic. By how many fears and worries do we create because we do not let that barrier down, do not spend time with God. Listening to him, asking him for guidance, letting go of that string that is holding that drawbridge up in fear of what’s going to come in’. 

Conclusion

Repent – change your mind. Come, follow me. It’s a simple calling to a promise of life in all it’s fullness. But our thoughts can get in the way.

Thoughts are tricky things. So we need to see who we are beyond our thoughts. We are made in God’s image, we are love. But to see it, we need to be aware of our thinking. 

Repent – change your mind. If we want to be closer to God we need to raise our awareness of our thinking (Christ Consciousness – What would Jesus do?); 

We need to let go of holding on so tightly to what we think we know is best for or lives (leave that ego to one side); and lower that drawbridge to God’s saving grace and love that never stops flowing…we just need to let it in. Amen.

Limiting Beliefs

Based on Luke 19: 1-10

There’s an old allegory, which is a bit like a parable, about a baby elephant that is tied to a fence post. The baby elephant tugs and pulls to try to break free but it fails to break the fence or break the rope. Eventually, it gives up and makes peace with the thought that they will never break free, they could never break the fence or break the rope.

But eventually, the elephant grows up and becomes a big, adult elephant with massive legs, huge tusks and long trunk and it could easily walk away from the fence, it could easily break the fence or the rope. But the elephant believes that the fence is some immovable thing, so the adult elephant remains tied to it, falsely believing it can never get away.

This false belief is a limiting belief.

Limiting beliefs are false beliefs that can prevent us from achieving our goals, hold us back from being the person that, deep down, we always hoped we would be, the person God wants us to be. These false beliefs can keep us from living life, as promised by Christ, in all it’s fullness.

Zacchaeus was a short man. Being short is something I can definitely relate to. For my 50th birthday I was given a card which read ‘Now you have reached 50 that growth spurt is looking increasingly unlikely!’

Zacchaeus was a short man. Rarely is there any mention of someone’s physical appearance in the gospels, we have no description of what Jesus looked like, but Zacchaeus’ height is central to the story. He is not prepared to let his lack of height prevent him from achieving his goal. He is committed to seeing Jesus.

We don’t know why Zacchaeus was so keen to see Jesus. Had he heard about him? If so, what had he heard that caught his interest? Had he been thinking about Jesus for a while? Had he felt uncomfortable about his life for some time – perhaps wanting to make changes? We don’t know but nothing was going to hold him back from encountering Jesus. He was willing to climb a tree – a rich tax collector, how undignified! He was willing to scramble up that tree and draw attention to his, literal, short comings. He took a risk and sacrificed his dignity as nothing was going to hold him back from encountering Jesus.

And the reward was immediate. Jesus looks up and sees him and and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.’ And the impact of that encounter was also immediate , Zacchaeus stood there and said, ‘Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.’ The encounter with Jesus immediately, and completely, transformed him.

Nothing held Zacchaeus back from this encounter with Jesus. No limiting belief got in the way….and so the thought comes to mind – Do we think we have limitations that are holding us back from being the person, deep down, we always hoped we would be, the person God wants us to be. What do you think limits your potential? Is it a true belief or a limiting belief, a false belief.

I’ll give you an example. I love maths, I’m rubbish at English, so I thought I could never write a sermon and be a local preacher. Well, you’ve invited me back a fair so the sermons can’t be that bad!

Limiting beliefs can keep us from doing important things. Our beliefs put boundaries and limitations on what we do. Some limiting beliefs unnecessarily hold us back from who we want to become. Like the elephant that remains stuck to the fence post, for no reason. He could break away from that fence at any time, it is only his thoughts, his past experiences, his past failure to break away from that fence, that keeps him tied to that fence. These limiting beliefs keep us in place without us even realising it.

Let’s turn to scripture to see what it says about limiting beliefs. Let’s call in the big guns….

1. Matthew 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” All things. Not some things. With God ALL things are possible.

2. Galatians 2:20: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Since our identity is no longer ours but is in Christ, we can step into our calling secure in who we are. Christ lives in us.
3. 2 Corinthians 12:9: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” We do not need to be strong. In our weakness, we get to witness the strength of God.
4. And even in the Great Commission comes the promise that we are not alone. Matthew 28: 18-20. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
   God hasn’t promised us easy, but he has promised us that we are not alone. ‘I am with you always’.
5. And the prayer from Hebrews 13: 20-21, ‘Now may the God of peace …. equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him.
   He will ‘equip you with everything good for doing his will’.

I could go on but I won’t and I feel I’ve hardly started with the unlimited power of the Holy Spirit that, of course, resides within us.

Nothing held Zacchaeus back from his encounter with Jesus. No limiting beliefs.

Is there anything holding you back from the next step, from that calling, that deep down knowing of where or what you should be, or even that feeling that you are slightly off-track and you need to move back to your true alignment?

What do you think limits your potential? Bring those potential limitations to mind now. What comes to mind?

First, you need to ask yourself. Is this true? What If I’m Wrong?

Limiting beliefs lose their power as soon as we consider that they may not be true. So in my example, ok my GCSE results show that English isn’t my strong point, but are my teachers comments over 30 years ago still ringing true? What about the reports I wrote at work, what about the talks I gave at networking events. I have changed. And my faith, do I now have faith that I write not from my own ability but with God’s help. When the Lord Calls, He Equips!

If there is a something that you believe is holding you back from fulfilling your God given potential, you first ask, Is this true? What If I’m Wrong?

Secondly, ask Yourself, “How Is This Belief Serving Me?” We often hold beliefs because they served us as some time in the past. For example, the baby elephant believing that they could not break free served it from hurting itself further from the strain of pulling on the rope. But is the belief still true, is it still serving you? If not, change it, choose a new belief. Get in to the habit of prayerfully questioning, looking to scripture for guidance, and trying out new beliefs.

Moses was a good example. We can take great comfort in knowing what God achieved through Moses despite his limiting beliefs. God called Moses to approach Pharaoh and insist that he set the nation of Israel free from slavery. Moses was full of arguments. His questions were, Who am I? What shall I say? What if they do not believe me?

Just listen to his limiting beliefs in this reading from Exodus chapter 4 – Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

Moses of course then begs God to send someone else and his brother Aaron is used as his voice but I wonder…. The Lord said, Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” Even Moses’ potential could have been held back by his limiting beliefs but God worked through it with Moses.

We are all human after all BUT we are also ever-changing people, just look at the example of Zacchaeus if you don’t believe that. Here was a man, a rich man, a chief tax collector, not just any old tax collector, but a chief tax collector who by his own admission had been a fraudster. He says to Jesus, ‘if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.’

He may have believed it too late to change his ways, his habits ingrained, his love of money too prominent but he immediately changed.

BUT and the the big but is that he didn’t do it all by himself. He encountered Jesus. His transformation was not a coincidence. He took risks and made sacrifices to to see Jesus. He put his head above the parapet and Jesus saw him. Immediately he changed, a small miracle in itself. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.’

We are ever-changing people, transformed by Christ. Is there anything currently holding you back at the moment from achieving a burning desire that you feel God is calling you to? What is holding you back? Could it be a limiting belief, a false belief? Prayerfully reflect on it. Is this true? What If I’m Wrong? Is the belief still serving you? If not, change it.

Look to scripture. We confidently step into God’s call for our lives by laying our lives at the feet of Jesus and reminding ourselves of what Scripture says about who we are and who God is. We must rely on him and, in our weakness, we will see his strength. Bring all of this to God in prayer.

Let’s not let anything hold us back from being the people of God that we and God wants us to be. Excuses be gone! Take the risks, make the sacrifices. Because who wants to be on life’s merry-go-round, that just goes round and round. Let’s have life, life in all it’s fullness. Amen.

Photo by Iswanto Arif on Unsplash

Who wants to live forever?

Based on Revelation 21: 1-6

What are your hopes for the future?
What do you dream for?

Infamously, Martin Luther King Jr had a dream for the future.

He had a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

He had a dream that his four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.

He had a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

He had a dream for the future. What are your hopes and dreams?

John had a vision of the future that is recorded in the book of Revelation. Much of the vision is of devastation but these visions of devastation are framed by visions of God as creator and redeemer in chapters 4 to 5 and 21 to 22. We are now reading from these last two chapters.

John sees a vision of a new heaven, of a new earth and of a new Jerusalem. He hears the promise of fellowship with God and all it’s precious consequences. He hears Gods declaring that he is making all things new. God who is the beginning and the end – the alpha and the omega – who gave of himself so that we may have life. That’s some vision of the future!

I rarely find myself reading the book of Revelation, you may be the same. I’m not sure why. On various courses I have been on with work I have discovered that I’m not really a dreamer. I recall being told that I should give myself permission to dream….but about what! Perhaps I feel more grounded in other books of the Bible rather than talk of the visions in Revelation. You may feel the same. But these 6 verses that we are reflecting on today seem very well known, very comforting, like a familiar friend.

Perhaps then, it is by no surprise, that many of these words would be familiar since John’s vision is so similar to the visions of the prophets in the Old Testament – Isaiah, Haggai, Ezekiel…to name but a few. Do these words sound familiar?

‘For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice for ever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress.’ Those were words from the prophet Isaiah. (Isaiah 65: 17-19)

We embrace these verses from the book of Revelation because they are familiar to us and even more so to the Jews. A new Jerusalem is at the heart of Judaism. Even when Jerusalem was battered, broken and obliterated the Jews never lost faith that God would restore it. Jews to this day still pray for a New Jerusalem.

We embrace these verses because they are familiar to us but perhaps it is also because of an awareness, whether a conscious awareness or subconsciously, an awareness that things need to change. A longing for a new heaven and a new earth.

That sense of the need for things to change, the need for us to change, is an awareness of sin. That things aren’t currently as they should be, something isn’t right. Our dreams for the future is for something different to what we have now, for a world perhaps as described in these verses – ‘God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.’ (v3b&4)
We are aware that things needs to change. And so we embrace John’s vision of God himself declaring ‘See, I am making all things new.’

I am reminded of Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians in which he writes ‘So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!’ (2 Corinthians 5: 17). God is the God who can take a person and re-create them, who can take a life and remake it, and who, as John saw it, will some day create a new universe for those whose lives He has renewed. We are new creations in Christ.

John vision is a promise of the future – we haven’t yet reached an age where there is no more sorrow, no more tears, no more death – but even in this present world it is still true that those who mourn are blessed, for they will be comforted, and Christian’s throughout the world testify to how they have been changed through faith in Christ, how the Spirit of Christ has already changed them, now, not how they will be changed in the future, but how they have already become new creations.
‘See, I am making all things new.’ ‘If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation’.

Think back for a moment to the younger you. Have you changed? Have you grown in faith and become a better version of yourself, as a result of your faith? If so, project that forward. Dream of what you could be, the future you.

Everyday our work and our worship is, at least in part, about bringing in the visions of God’s future into the present. Each time we pray ‘Your Kingdom come, your will be done’, we are asking for the fulfilment of John’s vision to be in the present, for God’s kingdom to come in now, and asking how we can play our part (‘your will be done’). Dream of what you could be, the future you, and ask for God’s help to make that future reality the present.

We embrace these verses from the book of Revelation because they are familiar to us, because of our awareness that things need to change and because they reach out to our soul’s deep longing for immortality.

Who remembers the 80’s film Highlander? It was about an immortal man. Perhaps the films is most famous for it’s soundtrack that just happened to be played on the radio as I was preparing this service. It was a song by Queen and it posed the question, ‘Who wants to live forever?

I recall watching the film and deciding that the pain of losing those who you love, whilst you never die, wasn’t something that I would want but…what about wanting a world in which there was no death? In John’s visions of a new heaven and a new earth, ‘Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more.’ It’s a quote that dives deep within our soul’s longing for immortality.

John’s vision is for the future as we have not yet reached the world and the age in which there is no more sorrow, no more tears or no more death but, and it’s a big but, we must remember that death has already been swallowed up in victory for those whose faith is in Christ.

And finally, we embrace this vision as it reminds us of the greatest gift of all time. In the vision God announces ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.’

God so loved the world that he gave. John 3: 16, ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.’ God uses his greatest to give, and the gift that he gave to satisfy the longing of our souls was nothing other or less than himself.

The Alpha and the Omega. All life begins in God and all life ends in God. We come from God and we go to God. As Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, ‘From him, and through him, and to him are all things’ (Romans 11:36). God is the source of being, in which we begin and the final goal to which we will inevitably go.

John’s vision is of constant fellowship with God and all it’s precious consequences. God is to give His presence to us for all time, forever. Here in this world and life in heaven will be nothing other than life permanently in the presence of God, not just a presence in a building or around us, but within us.
God is to make his dwelling place with them, says the angel, and his did this through his greatest gift, Jesus, Emmanuel, which literally means ‘God with us’.

Have you changed? Have you grown in faith and become a better version of yourself, as a result of your faith in Christ?

John’s vision was for sorrow to be forgotten, sin to be vanquished, death to be no more, time to be changed from being temporary to everlasting eternity, for God to never leave us, nor the world, as we are. That was John’s vision. Who would not want to embrace these promises?
That was John’s vision. What is our reality?

What are your hopes and dreams for the future? Is it for this ideal? In John’s vision he was told to ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ The ideal is real. Ideal actually exists. Our dreams for a better world, to be a better person, have an actual reality with God as the source and origin of all ideals.

Have you seen glimpses of John’s vision? Have you seen glimpses of the new heaven and new earth? They may still be tears in this world but have you seen those who are mourning finding comfort in their faith? Have you witnessed a new creation, when someone you knew came to faith? The ideal is real. The ideal actually exists. Why else would Jesus teach us to pray ‘your kingdom come’ if the ideal was not real and did not actually exist.

John’s vision is about bringing in the kingdom. We can play our part now in bringing in the kingdom, we can bring the future into the present, by the way we live now. We can ask God to break us, shape us and mold us into a new creation. A constant, relational change into a new creation as we journey in fellowship with God, Emmanuel, ‘God with us’. ‘See, I am making all things new.’ As new creations in Christ with we can play our part in bringing in John’s vision of the Kingdom. Amen

Photo by Johny Goerend on Unsplash

We are loved ❤️

Short all-age message for Mother’s Day. Based on the story of the Prodigal Son

Today is Mother’s Day and I’m a mother myself. I have two kids of my own and two step-children.

My youngest child is now 19 years old. How did that happen? I’ve no idea where that time has gone. I feel like I’ve blinked and my youngest is all grown up. So to all the young mums out there. No more blinking! Enjoy your time together.

But our time with our kids isn’t always easy. There are fun times, happy times but, let’s be honest, our kids (you kids) aren’t always well-behaved and there are times when they are naughty.

And I remember a time when I turned around to my kids and, because of the way they were behaving, I said something along the lines of – I don’t like you very much at the moment BUT I still love you.
I don’t like you for what you’re doing BUT I will always love you.
And that, no doubt, is how many mums and dads feel about their kids. No matter what you do, I will always love you. I will never stop loving you.

There are many things we can take from the story of the prodigal son, that we read earlier.

We may relate to the oldest son who starts off in the story as being well behaved and good. He never did anything wrong and he did whatever his father wanted and he always worked hard. BUT by the end of the story he is bitter and jealous of his younger brother. He can’t understand why his Father would still love his brother who was naughty.

We may be able to relate to the younger brother who has done wrong. He was completely different to his older brother. At the start of the story he only thought about himself and wanted his own way BUT by the end of the story he realises the mistakes he has made.

Today we are thinking about the father, the father who has never stop loving his son and welcomes him back when he returns to him.

As a mother on Mother’s Day; or as a father; or as a child thinking about the our parents, grandparents or carers that have loved us, I’m sure we’ll admit that human mothers, fathers and carers are not perfect.

Parents may love their children but even our love is a worldly type of love. Sometimes we are thinking about ourselves and not always about our kids. Sometimes, as children, we may not feel loved at all.

To me, one of the most heart breaking things is that many people go through life not experiencing true love, Godly love. And what drives me as a local preacher is to raise awareness of God’s astonishing love for us.

God loves us no matter what, even when we are naughty. He loves us just as we are. He loves us and he will never stop loving us. It is not conditional on what we do or don’t do. We may even feel that we don’t deserve it BUT God’s love is freely given to all. God’s loves you and me no matter what.

Now that’s not an excuse to be naughty because, no doubt, that hurts God, just like it hurts the hearts of our Mums and Dads when we are naughty. But each and every one of us is worthy of love and we are loved by God. Full stop.

Even people who do not believe that God exists are still desperate to know that love does exist and that they are loved. We put our hearts on the line and ask, ‘This is me, am I worthy of love?’

The answer is Yes. For God so loved the world…that includes each and everyone of us…..for God so loved the world that he sent us his son. We are loved.

A Christian teacher once wrote, ‘If we could imagine the love of one who loves (someone) purely for their own sake, and not because of any need or desire of his own, purely desires their good, and yet loves them wholly, not for what at this moment they are, but for what he knows he can make of them because he made them, then we should have in our minds some true image of the love of the Father and Creator of mankind.’ (Anglican theologian O.C. Quick)

Can you imagine such love?
Such love does exist because God IS love. We must share the good news that we are loved and God loves us just as we are. He knows the true you, he knows your thoughts and your ways, and he loves you. And for you he has given you his all.

This Mothering Sunday, our challenge is to love, to love people just as they are. Just like God does.
Our second challenge is to share the message that everyone is loved by God, and its a far deeper love than even we can show.

That God has never stopped loving them, no matter what they have done with their lives so far.

That he is a loving and forgiving God, just like the Father in today’s story.

They just need to run home to him. To come back to him. He will welcome them home with arms wide open.

Each and every person on this earth IS loved by God, no matter what.
Amen.

Miracles and when the ordinary becomes extraordinary

Based on Jesus’ miracle of turning water into wine John 2: 1-11

As a family we enjoy watching films and Sunday evening is our family film night.  But with the kids now away at university we needed to make the most of them being back over Christmas. So when the film ‘Indiana Jones and the last crusade’ was on one evening, we knew it was a film that we all enjoyed, so we sat down to watch it together.

In the film, Indiana Jones is seeking out the holy grail and has to decipher clues on the way. But before I go on, just a warning of a spoiler alert, fingers in your ears if you don’t want to hear what happens in the end. 

Indiana Jones’ father is dying and the only way to save him was to find the holy grail but to do so he deciphers that he has to take ‘a leap of faith’. The clue is that the person needs to take a leap of faith.

He is on one side of the cliff face, the holy grail on the other side, in between a bottomless void, a canyon. With no obvious way to cross he simply has to step out. He holds his breath and as I was watching the film I was wondering, what would be going through his mind.  

He’s about to step out into a vast void, a nothingness, with just the instruction to take a leap of faith.

He takes the leap and like James Robert’s’ magic trick of turning after into wine, it was just an illusion, a bridge was there but it was hidden, and he walks across safely.

In our gospel reading today it is the element of recognising Jesus’ leap of faith that is quite enlightening. When Mary tells Jesus of the wine running out his initial reaction is not to get involved and replies, “why do you involve me?” “My hour has not yet come.”

Many of us, I’m sure can relate to Jesus’ reply, perhaps not to the request to turn water into wine, but along the lines of not feeling ready.  That feeling of wanting to God’s will, wanting to do more to share the Good News, wanting to pray and do more for others but not feeling quite ready or adequate.

Do we need to take a leap of faith? Do we need to be slightly pushed outside our comfort zones.

Have you ever reflected on Mary’s role in this Miracle?  Have you ever wondered whether this miracle would have even happened if if it was wasn’t for her encouragement, if she didn’t see the problem, the potential solution and encourage Jesus towards a knowing that he was indeed ready? 

She was quite assertive and definitely effective when we hear her say to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you,” as he then tells the servants to fill the water jars and performs the miracle of turning the water into the finest wine. 

Would this miracle have even happened if if it was wasn’t for Mary’s encouragement? Are there friends and family that need our encouragement at this time?  Are there people in our congregations that are taking on roles within the church that need to hear words of encouragement?

Many years ago I took on a new role in the church.  I think it was when I became our treasurer over 15 years ago but I can’t remember. I received a card with some words of encouragement. It simply said ‘Whom God calls, he equips’. There was no long letter, just those simple words. I may not be able to remember what role I was taking on but I do remember the words and the thoughtfulness behind the card. A simple message, ‘Whom God calls, he equips’. It was just what I needed to hear.

What other words of encouragement could you share with others today? Here’s a few suggested bible verses.  You don’t need to memorise them, Simply Google bible verses of encouragement and verses on how God equips us. Here’s just a few:

• From Deuteronomy, The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. – Deuteronomy 31:6

• From Mark chapter 10, Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” – Mark 10:27

• God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. – Psalm 46:1

• For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. – Jeremiah 29:11

• And from James If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. – James 1:5

The words of encouragement are not for us receive to make us proud, boastful or egotistic.  As Christians we approach these roles with humility, knowing that without God’s help we wouldn’t stand a chance of seeing things through.  The impossible is possible but only with God’s help.  Words received in this state of humility are encouraging to help us feel a ‘knowing’ that we are on the right path, that we are playing our part with God working his purpose out, in and through us.

Is there anyone who you feel needs a brief word of encouragement? Who knows, 15 years from now someone else may be telling a story about a card they received that encouraged them to take that leap of faith.

So with a leap of faith and often with encouragement, miracles can happen. 

Turning water into wine was the first of Jesus’ miracles and as the minister and founder of Alpha, Nicky Gumbel, puts it, hanging out with Jesus was never boring. He writes in his book ‘Questions of life’:

‘Jesus must have been the most extraordinary person to have around. Sometimes people say that Christianity is boring. Well, it was not boring being with Jesus. When he went to a party, he turned water into wine (John 2:1–11). He received one man’s picnic and multiplied it so that it could feed thousands (Mark 6:30–44). He had control over the elements and could speak to the wind and the waves and thereby stop a storm (Mark 4:35–41). He carried out the most remarkable healings: opening blind eyes, causing the deaf and dumb to hear and speak and enabling the paralysed to walk again. When he visited a hospital a man who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years was able to pick up his bed and walk (John 5:1–9). He set people free from evil forces which had dominated their lives. On occasion, he even brought those who had died back to life (eg John 11:38–44).’

But why did Jesus perform these miracles. As our gospel reading explained in verse 11 ‘What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.’  Jesus said that the miracles he performed were in themselves evidence that ‘the Father is in me, and I in the Father’ (John 10:38).

Do miracles happens today? Jesus told his disciples, ’Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.’ (John 14:12) and he then explains the promise of the Holy Spirit (John 14: 15 -31).

So do miracles happen today? I recently saw a documentary called ‘Down to earth’ on the subject of sustainability and one episode was on the topic of Water.  Surprisingly part of this episode included a section on the water at Lourdes and it’s apparent healing properties. 

I was intrigued that the Vatican employs a medical doctor to investigate claims of miracles. What an interesting vocation! He examines possible miracles and rules out medically explainable recoveries. There’s seven criteria that must be met in order for a miracle to be confirmed:

• Doctors must have previously confirmed the presence of the illness in a full diagnosis.
• The illness must be severe.
• The illness unexpectedly disappears
• The cure is instantaneous
• The cure is complete
• The illness does not return
• No medical explanations can be found

Now of the 7,400 claims submitted in the last 135 years, only 70 of them have been recognised as genuine miracles. But that’s just at Lourdes and its still 70 instantaneous healings from severe illnesses that cannot be explained.

But their rarity does also make us consider the everyday miracles, when we catch a glimpse of God in the ordinary. When a flower comes into bloom, when the sun is rising, or setting, when a baby is born, or a chick is hatched. Those everyday miracles that we perhaps take for granted.

Do we look for the extraordinary in the ordinary? Do we want the extraordinary, the abundance that Jesus has to offer us, or are we happy trudging along with the ordinary? Where is Jesus doing the extraordinary in our lives and our communities? Do we look for miracles in the everyday? Do we celebrate the little things in life, or have we forgotten how to celebrate? 

Our gospel reading affirms that with a leap of faith, with humility, mixed with encouragement, miracles happen, the extraordinary happens.

On Tuesday a new Alpha group starts which has been organised by the Circuit Mission Enabling Team. I am one of the hosts. 

Am I taking a big leap of faith? Absolutely. I’ve never even attended an alpha course before let alone help run one. With humility I have looked for guidance, prayed and equipped myself. But the team have encouraged each other. We know why we are hosting it. The why is big enough to be willing to take that leap of faith . And as we prayed together at our training session we prayed with humility, handing it over to our Lord. So maybe, just maybe, a miracle, the extraordinary, may happen. 

Please speak to me after the service if you would like to know more about the Alpha course.

Jesus told his disciples, ’Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.’ (John 14:12)  

What miracle does Jesus want to work through you today? Who are you being called to encourage? What is your miracle? Amen

Photo by Alex Radelich on Unsplash

Choose this day who you will serve

Based on the scripture readings:

• Old Testament reading – Joshua 24: 1-2a, 14-18
• New Testament  reading – John 6: 56-69

Sermon – Part 1 – Flesh and blood of Christ

Have you ever read the book or watched the film ‘Alice in Wonderland?’ A children’s favourite and I’m sure a few of us as adults have enjoyed reading it or watching it with our children or grandchildren…a great excuse!

It is the story of a girl who is quite bored of her life, something feels missing and so she goes on an adventure. And what an adventure she has! 

If you recall, it starts with her spotting a white rabbit in a waist coat with a pocket watch who is running late and due to her curiously she find herself falling down the rabbit hole and about to embark on an adventure of a life time.

Quite near the start of the adventure she stumbles across a bottle that says….Well, who can remember what does it say on the bottle? ‘Drink me’.  And what was the affect of her drinking from the bottle? She shrinks! Drinking from the bottle is what she needed to do, she steps out in faith, she commits to the adventure by drinking from the bottle. 

Then later in in the adventure she comes across an instruction of ‘Eat me’! on a bit of cake. Who can recall what happens when she ate the cake?  She grew.  Yes, she needed to grow big again for the next part of her adventure.  A choice. A commitment. Not knowing what the affect would truly be of that choice.

Today’s gospel reading reminded me of that story. An instruction to eat but without a complete understanding of that instruction and what the consequence would be; a bit of a mystery; a choice that had to be made; an adventure that required a leap of faith. 

So we begin with a recap of what may have been covered last week, as last week’s lectionary reading was very similar to the start of today’s New Testament reading. 

It doesn’t hurt to hear another perspective on a teaching that Jesus clearly said was difficult.

Today we have heard Jesus say, ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me’(v56); ‘Whoever eats me will live because of me (v57); ‘The one who eats this bread will live forever’ (v58).

It very much helps us to understand that that these words would not have sounded bizarre to someone listening to Jesus at that time, or, as my kids would say ‘gross’ about eating someone’s flesh or drinking his blood.

Would they have found it difficult to accept, yes, just like Jesus said, but not because it sounded gory or confusing but because of the meaning behind the words. These words are declaring who Jesus really is. It is the meaning behind Jesus’ words on who he really is, that they would have found difficult.

To the ancient world these are words and ideas which go back to the very childhood of their race. The ideas would be be quite normal and usual to anyone who had been brought up in ancient sacrifice.  

Once part of an animal sacrifice had been offered to the god, it was held that the god had entered into the flesh and therefore when the worshipper ate it they were literally eating the god, taking the god into their very inmost being, nourishing themselves with the very life and strength of the god.  They believed they were literally god-filled after such a feast.

So when Jesus is saying ‘Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me’(v56); ‘Whoever eats me will live because of me (v57); ‘The one who eats this bread will live forever’ (v58). Jesus is declaring his identity, his divinity, even fortelling his sacrifice.  That’s the bit they would find difficult to accept, not the bit that may sound gory to us.

Jesus is saying, you must take my life into the very centre of your being. You must take me into you, and you must come into me, and then….you will have life, real life. 

Us abiding in him and he abiding in us. 

Sermon – Part 2 – Choice

This gospel reading and the Old Testament scripture is all about choice.  

Earlier we heard that Joshua had gathered all of Israel and told them to make a choice –  ‘Chose this day who you will serve, whether the gods of your ancestors served in the region beyond the River or gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord’. (Joshua 24: 15). 

Choose this day who you will serve! Joshua offered the people of Israel a choice without any judgement. He leads by example by declaring he will follow the Lord but it is a moment of decision – a renewal of a decision made before or perhaps a new decision of who to serve.

And we hear in the gospel reading of Jesus’ disciples making a choice – when the implications of following Jesus become a bit more challenging, many chose to leave. 

Why now?  What had changed?  Why could many not accept this teaching? Was it too difficult? 

When they couldn’t accept this teaching, Jesus doesn’t answer their complaint, he speaks in words about the Son on Man ascending to where he was before. Implying that even if these people saw that happen, if they saw him rise up and ascend to the skies, they still wouldn’t accept his teaching.

He also suggests that the teaching is of the spirit and those of the flesh cannot receive it. He knows that some, perhaps most, won’t get it.

But Peter got it. In the final verse Peter declares, ‘We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’ (V69)

From everything he has seen and heard, Peter has chosen to believe and know that Jesus is the Holy One of God.

These are not necessarily one-off decisions. 

The people of God were called by the Old Testament prophets to return to the Lord again and again. Later, Peter recommits to following Jesus on the beach after the resurrection. 

Wrestling with faith doesn’t mean being judged and found wanting. The offer remains open. And that very act of wrestling with it makes us more resilient when we do make a commitment of faith.

Have you committed your life to Jesus?  

Let’s just pause for a moment to recall when we have made a commitment to be a disciple in the past or pause to consider whether you want to make a commitment now.

When Alice chose to drink from the bottle and eat the cake it was a leap of faith.  Jesus asks his followers to make a similar choice and to do so is also full of unknowns but that’s where the analogy ends. 

Unlike in Wonderland, we know that it is the right choice for us. 

The leap of faith in following Christ is challenging but we are promised, and we have seen through the experiences of others, that it will lead to life in all it’s fullness; it will lead us to experience the fruit of the Spirit – joy, peace, love…; and in the words of Peter, ‘eternal life’. 

And that leap of faith can feel much smaller if we believe the scriptures that God wants what is best for us and believe that God is good all the time.  Do you believe that?

Today we are thinking about choice – to ‘choose this day who you will serve’ – and so I’m going to say a prayer of commitment. It may be your first time or it maybe the 100^th time that you have recommitted yourself to following Jesus. I invite you to simply say amen if you agree to to that commitment. Let us pray,

Generous God,

you always love us, 

always want the best for us, 

always inspire us to grow.

You offer us life in all its fullness,

and give us the freedom to choose 

how we respond to you.

We offer our lives back to you, 

and pray that you accept our love in return. Amen.

Categorisation

Based on Mark 3: 20-35 and Exodus 3: 1-15

Many years ago, before I met my husband, I was in a nightclub, chatting to a guy at the bar and we were getting to know more about each other.  Remember those days before internet dating! We were pleasantly talking when the question came up, ‘What did I do for a living?’. My answer was ‘I am an accountant’. His response was so abrupt that I will never forget it. He literally turned on the spot, walked away and wasn’t seen again for dust.  Don’t worry, it was his loss! 😊

What was his preconception of what an accountant was like? His reaction was so instantaneous.  I had been categorised as an ‘accountant’ and I had been stereotyped.  He immediately decided which box I was in and I was something he definitely wanted to avoid dating.

In today’s lectionary gospel reading the Scribes have categorised and labelled Jesus, the crowds have declared he is mad and even his own family have come from Nazareth to Capernaum to find him and take him away. 

The Scribes, of course, don’t like what he’s doing because it doesn’t fit into their categories. Jesus isn’t accredited. He must therefore be sidelined. He must be labelled in such a way that people will no longer take him seriously. He must, they say, be in league with the arch-demon, Beelzebul. Maybe he’s even possessed by Beelzebul. That would explain it; and it would also justify them doing anything they wanted to control him, to contain him, perhaps to silence him for ever.

But Jesus is not deterred by this categorising and labelling, even from his family trying to restrain him. He doesn’t lash back with an instant label for the scribes. He merely points out the flaw in their thinking. He knows who he is and will not be deterred from his purpose and the will of God.

We also have our Old Testament reading today. When Moses encountered the burning bush he heard the voice of God declare ‘I am who I am’ (Exodus 3:14 NRSV). 

Let’s rest in those words for a moment – ‘I am who I am’.  In that declaration, what category has God put himself in?  None!

There’s no categorisation in that statement.  It is a statement of infinite potential.  

How often do we use the words ‘I am’. I am an accountant. I am a wife. I am a mother. What about other ‘I am’ statements? I am black. I am white. I am a man, I am a woman. I am clever. I am rubbish at maths. I am bisexual. I am heterosexual. I am not worthy. I am trash…..you get the gist!

The statement ‘I am’ is the shortest, simplest, yet the most powerful words that we say about ourselves and others.

What is our obsession about categorising ourselves and others all about?  Why do we put everyone into boxes, little stereotype boxes? Why have the Scribes categorised and labelled Jesus? I imagine that it is done predominantly from a position of fear rather than from a place of love. ‘That person is different to me, so I need to be wary’. Our minds are in a ‘Be safe’ mode of protection when we categorise and stereotype rather than from a place of openness and other-centered love.

I am…dot dot dot

On 25^th May it was the one year anniversary of the death of George Floyd, a black man who died in police custody. A tragic example of the dangers of categorisation. We will reflect on this in our prayers.

The Scribes tried to label and categorise Jesus, they tried to discredit him and put him in a box. And in thee Old Testement reading we have God the Father declaring ‘I am who I am’. No categorisation, just infinite potential.

God is the alpha and the omega (the begin and the end).  God is Omnipotent (all powerful), Omniscient (all-knowing) and Omnipresent (everywhere). No limitations! ‘I am who I am’.

Now, we are made in the image of God.  How different would we feel if we woke up in the morning and declared the words ‘I am’ and leave it at that? To not add any extra words.  Just ‘I am’. To not wake with the baggage, categorisation and preconception of what we are capable of.

We should try waking up with the infinite potential of the statement ‘I am’ and see where the day takes us, because that is what is possible, infinite potential is possible. 

We are not separated from God, we have the power of the Holy Spirit working in and through us, we were created in Christ and with the promise of new life in Christ. So why not start a new day with infinite potential.

So if we are to use the statement ‘I am’ and leave it resting there with infinite potential, it is important for us to reflect on God and where ‘I am’ comes from. What is the nature of God in whose image we are made? If we are to avoid the toxicity of categorisation, we need to reflect on what is our true nature.

God’s true nature was revealed to us in Christ.  God’s true nature is that God is good. A simple yet powerful statement that is easy to take for granted.  We forget that we were blind to God’s true nature until it was revealed in Christ. Before Christ many feared a tyrant god and made animal sacrifices to appease this wrathful god.

Christ revealed the Good News that God is good; that we are not separated from God; we are created in Christ; the Holy Spirit dwells within us and he loves us just as we are. God is good!

God’s Spirit resides within us – Gods most wonderful creation. Our nature, our natural state, our factory setting, is made in the image of God with the Spirit dwelling within us and the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

During the day when we do something which is outside of these factory settings we feel a tug, a little pull, a knowing that we need to get back to our factory settings.  Our true nature is one of goodness and love and that is all we need to know about each other. That is all we need to know about each other! No labelling or categorisation is required. We are all, and I repeat all, part of one body of Christ with the same nature of God, made in the same image of God, made with the same nature of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

No categorisation is required when we realise that we have the same nature. Does it serve to categorise or does it just limit everyone’s potential? I believe that any categorisation is damaging, isolating, creates separation and segregation. And that categorisation comes from a place of fear and not a place of other-centered love. 

At the end of the gospel reading we hear the crowd telling Jesus , ‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’ And he replied, ‘Who are my mother and my brothers?’ And looking at those who sat around him, he said, ‘Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.’

Mary had brought the rest of the family to Capernaum from Nazareth to find him and take him away, to stop him behaving in such an outrageous fashion. So Jesus’ words are deeply shocking with a shunning of traditional Jewish family ties and with Jesus declaring God’s new family which needs no ordinary human family bonds. Members of this family simply do the will of God. We belong to God and we need to take care to remember that when even the closest people to us think we are crazy for doing God’s work. 

The gospel, and allegiance to Jesus, produce a division, often an unexpected and unwelcome one, in every group or society. The Apostle Mark’s call to his readers then and now is to stick with Jesus whatever the cost.

If there is one message to take away from today’s service it is that categorisation of people comes predominately from a place of fear and not a place of other-centered love. Categorisation can be so damaging, so isolating, creating separation and segregation. 

The Scribes tried to wrongly categorise and label Jesus, so be warned that others will do the same to us, even our families, but we also have the refreshing message of infinite potential if we use the words ‘I am’ wisely, prayerfully and definitely not flippantly. 

Let’s raise our awareness and listen to how many times we categorise ourselves and others throughout the day.  Remember the nature of the source from which we were created – I am who I am – with a Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Wake up in the morning and just say ‘I am’ and feel the freedom and infinite potential of resting on those two short, simple, yet powerful words. Amen

Seeing and entering the Kingdom of God

Based on John 3:1-17 and Isaiah 6:1-8

Part 1

Hands up if you have one of these?  Can you remember what we use it for…it’s been a while! A passport.  I’ve had to dust mine down for today but its been in the draw just ready for when we can get away safely. Living in the UK is great, something that we shouldn’t take for granted, but a bit more warmth for a couple of weeks a year and the opportunity to experience different cultures is something that many of us enjoy.

But without this passport, Covid aside, we cannot leave the UK, we cannot enter other countries.  We cannot enter and cannot even see other countries.  We can look at other people’s photographs and we can hear of other people’s experiences but we cannot see or experience for ourselves the joy of visiting other countries without our passport.

In today’s gospel reading the Jewish leader, Nicodemus, visits Jesus and a conversation takes place about ‘seeing’ and ‘entering’. Jesus says to Nicodemus, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born from above.’ ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.’ Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.”

So without being ‘born from above’, we cannot see, let alone enter, the Kingdom of God. Being ‘born from above’ is the passport into experiencing the Kingdom of God.

Before we reflect on this metaphor of a spiritual passport let’s, like any good holiday brochure, first consider the destination, the experience we desire  – the Kingdom of God.  Where is it? Why would we want to go there? What is the experience going to be like? What do other people say about it? If we need to be ‘born from above’ to see it and enter it, why go there? This is a really important question to ask – both for ourselves and for why we share the good news with others about the Kingdom of God.

When you’ve been on an excellent  holiday do you find yourself telling your friends about your experience, what you got up to, how you felt – the joy and the peace. Do you show them your holiday photos of the sites and the smiles?

Many of us have experienced glimpses or even feel immersed in the Kingdom of God but without photographic evidence how do we begin to describe this Kingdom to encourage others to experience it for themselves.

Jesus’s mission was to proclaim the coming of Gods Kingdom, to call people to repent and to enter into the Kingdom of God. So, if someone asked you, ‘What is the Kingdom of God?’, what would you say?  It is a dire shame if we can talk to our friends about a wonderful holiday destination but can’t explain our experience of the Kingdom of God, God’s Kingdom.

Is it an experience? Is it a destination? Is it experienced now? It is to do with after-life?

I can tell you the official Methodist definition from this little book, a little brochure, ‘What we believe – A catechism for the use of the people called Methodists’. A great little summary of the Christian faith and was updated last year. It reads, The Kingdom of God is ‘God’s rightful reign over everything he has made, at present fully recognised only by those who have accepted it in Jesus Christ. In the end God’s rules will be acknowledged by all, and established undisputed when he judges the whole human race through Jesus Christ.’

God’s rightful reign, so perhaps more of an experience, an experience of God’s reign rather than a destination.

Jesus spoke in parables to reveal the nature of this kingdom. Stories using the imagery of  yeast and mustard seeds –  reflecting the ideas of growth, small beginnings and large endings. Parables about waiting and that the kingdom is close. Imagery of pearls and treasure – something so precious, so important of the highest priority. Something that is so precious that you’ll sell everything else, including all the other pearls you’ve ever owned, in order to buy it. Can you imagine the scale of the brochure to sell that pearl?

Experiencing the rightful reign of God is more precious than gold or silver and we can experience it now. When Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God he was talking about something that would become a reality ‘as in heaven, so on earth ’ – God establishing his kingdom on earth as in heaven.  The Good News was not about how to escape this world (the escapism that many people seek when they go on holiday), it was about how the one true God was changing this world – radically and forever – under his rightful reign.

How would you describe the Kingdom of God? What’s your experience? We are now going to listen to a hymn. 

For many of us it is hard to recall and quote scripture, so it’s great that we have hymns with words that we can call upon to help remind us of God’s word. We listen to the hymn ‘ The Kingdom of God’. 

Part 2

The Kingdom of God is Justice and Joy; Mercy and Grace. This is the experience we can enjoy now – ‘as in heaven, so on earth’.

So back to the metaphor of the spiritual passport. We have considered the experience we desire  – the kingdom of God. But Jesus said , ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the Kingdom of God without being born from above.’ ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.’  Being ‘born from above’ is the passport into experiencing the Kingdom of God.

The greek word for ‘born from above’ also means ‘a second time’. We talk of ‘born-again’ Christians and this is what it is referring to.  We are born into this world from our mother’s womb but as Christians we have a second birth. A concept we may now be used to but a completely new concept  to Nicodemus.

There’s a famous Mark Twain quote ‘The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.’ As Christians, it is on that second day that we experience our second birth. 

Baptism by water begun by John the Baptist and continued by Jesus’ disciples to mark becoming a member of the community of Jesus’ followers. However people wrongly assumed that as long as they had a water-baptism that they didn’t need to concern themselves about the new spiritual life. 

The Spirit baptism is new life, a knowing that God’s Spirit is within us. Only through companionship with the Spirit can we truly see and experience the Kingdom of God – we experience justice,  joy, mercy and grace.

Now some people cannot pin down that second day, the day of their second birth, to a specific moment in time – it may have been down to lots of smaller moments. That doesn’t matter, do not doubt your faith, what matters is not what happened at the moment of birth but that you are alive in Christ now and that God’s Spirit is working in and through you. That you are seeing and experiencing the Kingdom of God here on earth as in heaven.

But it is a choice. It is by grace we are saved through faith, so that no man may boast. But faith is a choice, belief is a choice.  There’s another great couple of hymn lines to try to remember in the hymn we just sang-  ‘The Kingdom of God is challenge and choice: Believe the good news, repent and rejoice!’  So the Kingdom of God is Justice and Joy; Mercy and Grace but also The Kingdom of God is challenge and choice: Believe the good news, repent and rejoice!’ 

Jesus said, repent, believe and follow me. So a few great hymn lines to call upon. 

So we know where we want to go to in the brochure – to experience the Kingdom of God.  We know that to see and to enter the Kingdom of God we need to be born again from above, the Spiritual passport.

But how do we get there? The way into the kingdom is through Jesus.  The kingdom is brought in by Jesus. Jesus says, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.’

The coming of Jesus began the process of remaking the whole world in justice and truth. Jesus was announcing a new reality – New creation, new life and new hope in the establishment of the Kingdom of God.

We repent, we believe and we follow Jesus, and in following Jesus, through companionship with the Spirit, the Kingdom of God is then experienced within our lives. 

And it’s available to everyone! To enter the Kingdom of God we need to be born again from above, the Spiritual passport. This spiritual passport is available to everyone. God so loved the world that he gave his son – to the whole world, no exclusivity to this passport, no application form or vetting procedure, all are welcome.  But it’s a choice that needs to be made.

So finally, who is going to tell others of this choice? Who is going to share the Good News that the Kingdom of God can be experienced here on earth as in heaven? Who is going to share the message that to see and enter the kingdom of God that they must be born of the Spirit?

In our Old Testament reading , when the prophet Isaiah saw the immensity of God’s glory in his vision, where just the hem of the Lord’s robe filled the entire temple, and after receiving God’s gracious pardon, Isaiah heard the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And Isaiah answered, ‘Here am I; send me!’

So today’s message is of the Good News – that the Kingdom of God can be experienced here on earth as in heaven.  We may not be going abroad this year but the spiritual passport of being ‘born from above’ gives us entry into the Kingdom of God which we can experience here and now on earth. It requires a response, a choice, to repent, to believe and to follow Jesus but in doing so we receive something more precious than silver or gold; and we are called not only to experience the Kingdom of God but, like Isaiah, to play our part in bringing it in. Amen.

Emotional Rollercoaster

Based on: Luke 24: 36b-48 and Psalm 4

‘Sit down and have a cuppa tea’, a classic British response to a crisis. 

What is it about a cup of tea in a crisis? What amazing medicinal purpose does it have?  There’s a thought that it’s the sugar in the tea that will give you the extra energy required to get through the situation. Or is it the caffeine? But a response of adrenaline from the sugar or caffeine is the last thing we would need to calm down. Is it the comforting warmth of the tea that helps or is it something about the need to just ‘sit down’ and to wait whilst the drink is prepared? Who knows!

But it’s this classic British response that feels comforting and something that we can perhaps relate to, when we recall Jesus trying to calm the disciples in the Upper Room. He didn’t use tea..but listen on.

Our gospel reading today recalls events in the Upper Room and the disciples experience of witnessing the risen Christ. Cleopas and an another disciple have just experienced the risen Christ on the road to Emmaus and they have rushed over immediately, ‘within the same hour’ (so perhaps running the 7 miles to Jerusalem) to tell the disciples and their companions who are locked in and frightened in the Upper Room about their experience and they declare ‘The Lord has risen indeed’.

Imagine you are one of the disciples, or one of their companions, gathered together, hiding from the world in fear but you are now hearing confirmation that the Lord has risen. Strong emotions are stirring….but its about to turn into a rollercoaster experience. 

We read:

While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ 

Emotions of fear, terror, fright, doubt, whilst their Lord is offering Peace. ‘Peace be with you.’

And then the wonderful verse, ‘While in their joy they were disbelieving’ – joy on one hand but disbelief in the another – a great example of the extremes of their emotions – he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.

Why does Jesus ask for food? Is it the ordinariness of the task, in the midst of extraordinary happenings,  that settles the disciples?  Is it the ordinariness of making a cup of tea that settles us in crisis?

The meal does seem to settle them. Perhaps the ordinariness of the task enables then to become more open to Christ’s presence in the room. The Lord has risen indeed. He was there with them and his presence calmed their fears.

I’d like us to consider where we have felt our Lord has been over the last 12 months for us, where we feel he is now. For many it has been quite a rollercoaster ride. Where are you? Are you on a high, a low, a twist, a turn? How are you feeling? Are you enjoying the journey or is a nail-bitting ride at the moment? 

As soon as the risen Christ enters the Upper Room he says, ‘Peace be with you’. The same peace that Jesus talked about before his crucification. ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid’ (John 14:27)

Where have you felt your Lord has been during this pandemic.  Have you felt him along side you, comforting and calming you, just like the disciples experienced in the Upper Room or are you feeling the anxiety of the journey?

What about our Old Testament reading today. It was a Psalm. Psalms are songs or poems. Many of them are songs of praise for God and his work in creation; there are psalms of thanksgiving – in which the psalmist thanks God for deliverance from personal distress; and then there are Psalms, like today’s, which is a Psalm of lament – expressing grief or sorrow. I’ve read that approximately 70% of the psalms are laments!

I’ve never really been too keen on psalms of lament.  The writers often seem so angry and, to me, appear to be taking it out on God – perhaps trying to assign blame.

But I recently read the book ‘God and the pandemic’ by the well respected theologian Tom Wright, which attempts to answer the question, ‘where is God in this coronavirus pandemic?’ Where has God been for the last 12 months?

It’s well worth a read and his suggested answers weren’t what I expected. The one answer, which is relevant for today’s Old Testament reading, was about Lamenting. Something if I’m honest I try not to do.  I like to think that I consider my glass to be half full, rather than half empty.What about you?

But the book states that as we pray, ‘we are to lament, we are to complain, we are to state the case, and leave it with God’. Basically, let’s not ‘pretend’ that all’s well. We are emotional beings and because of that, we grieve, and the best thing to do is to share those grievances with God and to leave it with him.

Jesus grieved. He wept at the tomb of his dear friend Lazarus, and it was a mixture of his grief and his trust in his Father than enabled Lazarus to be raised from the dead. 

Tears should not be seen as a sign of weakness. Jesus wept, so is it too much of a stretch to say that the risen Christ our Lord still weeps along side us?

There is sometimes a misconception of what it means to be a Christian. God never promised us that, once we turn to him, once we open our eyes and see his grace, that life will be a bed of roses. There is no promise of a life without pain or grief.

If 70% of the psalms are songs and poems of lament, then the psalmists were not afraid to share their grief and sorrow with God. Why don’t we?  Where are such songs in our modern hymn book? Is it the British way to ‘drink tea and keep a stiff upper lip’ that prevents us from truly grieving what we have lost in the last 12 months, what the world has lost?

We are emotional beings, made in the image of God. To deny our emotions is to deny our humanity. 

We are emotional beings, made in the image of God, but we also know that we can block out emotion. Should we?

There is a TED talk on YouTube called ‘The power of vulnerability’. This video has had over 50 million views and it is by Professor Brene Brown who studies human connection.

To summarise a 20 minute video in one sentence, she concludes – If we lift up the emotional barrier to block out and avoid pain, it is the same barrier that blocks out love and joy.

She explains, ‘That vulnerability, whilst it is the core of shame and fear and our struggle for worthiness, it is also the birthplace of joy of creativity, of belonging, of love.’  

We have a choice of putting up an emotional barrier to both pain and love but life would then be like a merry-go-round, that just goes round and round.

To let ourselves be vulnerably seen; to love with our whole hearts, is like a roller-coaster ride.  In those moments of terror, when we are wondering if we can do this, if we can love that person.  To feel that vulnerable means that we are alive. We are living life in all its fullness.

But so what? Why have we been reflecting on the emotions of the disciples, the emotions of the psalmist and the thought behind emotion?

The church’s mission in the Upper Room began with three things which have become very familiar to us in the last year. It began with fear; with locked doors; and with doubt. Sound familiar? The church’s mission in that Upper Room began with fear, locked doors and doubt.

But then Jesus appeared behind those locked doors, his presence replaced fear with peace and doubt with faith. 

As we start to emerge from this pandemic, as doors begin to unlock,  there are going to be a lot of emotional wounds that need healing.  I think, so far, we have only discovered what is at the tip of the iceberg. 

Followers of Jesus are called to be people of prayer at the place where the world is in pain. So prayer will have a big part to play in these forthcoming months. No doubt prayer has also brought us through the last 12 months.

Followers of Jesus are called to be people of prayer at the place where the world is in pain but to heal these emotional wounds how do we pray?

As we have heard, the theologian Tom Wright believes that as we pray ‘we are to lament, we are to complain, we are to state the case, and leave it with God’. The Apostle Paul also say ‘we don’t know what to pray for as we aught. We are at a loss! But the Spirit groans with us with sighs too deep for words and intercedes for us according to the will of God. And God who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit. Romans 8:22-27

Whilst the sun is shining and we may feel the joy of meeting up again with friends and family, there are also going to be the emotional wounds that need healing.

There is a time for weeping, a time for lament, a time to show vulnerability. We must not present to the world that being a Christian means that we do not feel pain, feel grief. 

The irony is that we are likely to feel even more pain because of empathy that is born from our commitment to unconditional love….even for our enemies. Self giving, other-centred love cannot be given without complete emotional commitment.  It’s impossible without making our hearts vulnerable.  

Being vulnerable will not be comfortable, but neither will it be excruciating. But it is necessary when we truly connect with one another and help heal the emotional wounds of the pandemic. 

Connection and relationships are why we were created. We were created to be in a relationship with God and with one another. It’s why we are here. It’s God’s will. And we are now his hands and his feet. So God will equip us, he will give us courage, wisdom and he will strengthen us. With the risen Lord standing along side us we will address these emotional wounds.

The doors are now slowly unlocking and just as Jesus walks along side us we need to walk along side our community. 

We must not underestimate the emotional wounds of the past 12 months. We must choose to not shut out our emotions, not pretend that all is well, for others and for us.  We will weep together and we will laugh together again. We may need to lower our British stiff upper lip…..but in true British tradition there will always be time for a proper cup of tea. Amen

Other-centred Love