The Beginning of Advent



ADVENT 2010

Twas The Beginning of Advent

by Todd Jenkins
Published by permission of Todd Jenkins (96-11-19) on this Kir-Shalom Sub Page on November 19th 1996. Permission to use this poem is granted provided due acknowledgement is made as to authorship.



Twas the Beginning of Advent




'Twas the beginning of Advent and all through the Church
Our hope was all dying-- we'd given up on the search.
It wasn't so much that Christ wasn't invited,
But after 2,000 plus years we were no longer excited.


Oh, we knew what was coming-- no doubt about that.
And that was the trouble-- it was all "old hat."
November brought the first of an unending series of pains
With carefully orchestrated advertising campaigns.


There were gadgets and dolls and all sorts of toys.
Enough to seduce even the most devout girls and boys.
Unfortunately, it seemed, no one was completely exempt
From this seasonal virus that did all of us tempt.


The priests and prophets and certainly the kings
Were all so consumed with the desire for "things!"
It was rare, if at all, that you'd hear of the reason
For the origin of this whole holy-day season.

A baby, it seems, once had been born
In the mid-east somewhere on that first holy-day morn.
But what does that mean for folks like us,
Who've lost ourselves in the hoopla and fuss?


Can we re-learn the art of wondering and waiting,
Of hoping and praying, and anticipating?
Can we let go of all the things and the stuff?
Can we open our hands and our hearts long enough?


Can we open our eyes and open our ears?
Can we find him again after all of these years?
Will this year be different from all the rest?
Will we be able to offer him all of our best?

So many questions, unanswered thus far,
As wisemen seeking the home of the star.
Where do we begin-- how do we start
To make for the child a place in our heart?


Perhaps we begin by letting go
Of our limits on hope, and of the stuff that we know.
Let go of the shopping, of the chaos and fuss,
Let go of the searching, let Christmas find us.

We open our hearts, our hands and our eyes,
To see the king coming in our own neighbours' cries.
We look without seeking what we think we've earned,
But rather we're looking for relationships spurned.

With him he brings wholeness and newness of life
For brother and sister, for husband and wife.
The Christ-child comes not by our skill,
But rather he comes by his own Father's will.


We can't make him come with parties and bright trees,
But only by getting down on our knees.
He'll come if we wait amidst our affliction,
Coming in spite of, not by our restriction.


His coming will happen-- of this there's no doubt.
The question is whether we'll be in or out.
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock."
Do you have the courage to peer through the lock?

A basket on your porch, a child in your reach.
A baby to love, to feed and to teach.
He'll grow in wisdom as God's only Son.
How far will we follow this radical one?

He'll lead us to challenge the way that things are.
He'll lead us to follow a single bright star.
But that will come later if we're still around.
The question for now: Is the child to be found?


Can we block out commercials, the hype and the malls?
Can we find solitude in our tinselled halls?
Can we keep alert, keep hope, stay awake?
Can we receive the child for ours and God's sake?

From on high with the caroling host as he sees us,
He yearns to read on our lips the prayer: Come Lord Jesus!
As Advent begins all these questions make plea.
The only true answer: We will see, we will see.

J. Todd Jenkins, Intentional Pastor,
First Presbyterian Church, Fayettevile, Tennessee



The Spirit calls us to take this Advent personally and be personally invested in seeking his new future in this remembering and re-telling of Emmanuel – God being with us now.


We still need him. We still rely on Emmanuel. We need his life, his grace and his power for a new Advent – one more until the second Advent when all will be said and done and our mission complete – to love God with our whole heart and others as ourselves.

With Elizabeth may we find God’s new future for us and our college and our lives this Christmas;

“The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favour and taken away my disgrace among the people.”




Come, Lord Jesus, come.


Amen

Risky Responsibility

Sermon,
Day of Fulfilment
21 November 2010.
Ocean Forest

Luke 19:11-27

Risky Responsibility

TEXT:  v26       The king replied, "Those who have something will be given more. But everything will be taken away from those who don't have anything.

As we sit here on the end of another church year and look over the way to see another Christmas, end of year and new year on the horizon, we do so with a timely word from the Master about life and our calling for now and the new year. It is a ward of affirmation and challenge.

As Jesus draws ever closer to the fulfilment of his earthly mission which will end in Jerusalem, the crowds are gathering and wondering what is going to happen when the guy who is proclaiming himself to be God’s own Son, arrives in the Royal city and clashes head-on with the powers that be.

Will Jesus the King rise up and create a new political landscape? Will he overthrow Pilate, the Roman governor and Caiaphas, the Jewish high priest? Will he challenge the Jewish Council? Will he challenge and overthrow even Rome?

Many want this. Many want triumph without suffering. Many want Jesus to do it all and fix it all without any cost or personal investment by them. We can tell this from some poignant words spoken by those few depressed followers, who talked with the strange traveller on the road to Emmaus after the resurrection,

“What are you talking about?” asks the stranger (who actually is the risen Jesus). “About Jesus of  Nazareth. He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to save Israel….” (Luke 24:21)

As he has done before, Jesus re-directs the mob with all of their excited banter and wild imagining of new power and peace without any risk on their part by telling a memorable story about a young prince who heads off to a royal city to get his stamp of approval from those above him to rule his local kingdom.

The Prince gives each of his servant’s different and moderate sums of money with the instruction to make a profit with the money until he returns. He tells his servants to do business; to trade with what he has given them.

The reckoning occurs when the Prince; now the King of his kingdom, returns. The first two servants are generously affirmed and rewarded by the new King for trading in his gifts; for doing business with what they had been given by the King. Their success in using what they had been given is rewarded with them being appointed governors over towns in the King’s kingdom.

However, it is the third servant who gets most of the attention. It has not gone well for him. If he had actually traded or done business with what he had been given and lost it all, that would be one thing. But he has not even tried to trade or do business to profit his King. He only has hid what he had been given.

Why didn’t he have a go? Why did he hide the gift away? Why didn’t he take a risk for his King and do his King’s business?

He says he was afraid of his King. This fear seemed to paralyse the man. He was unable to risk losing, unable to risk trading and doing the King’s business. He describes the King as a “harsh man”. The servant has misunderstood the King’s intentions and his goal, and now the King will be indeed harsh on this unfaithful, ‘untrying’, ’safe’ servant. This person will have no share in the King’s rule.

The King does not withdraw his gifts to himself but gives them away again to the person who took the risks, made the effort and actually did the King’s business.

Friends, I hear Jesus now affirming us for the many times we may have done our King’s business with the gifts he has given us this year. I also hear the King telling us that we need to take risky responsibility for the coming of the kingdom of the King n our times and places.

I hear Jesus affirming us for all the times we have dared to do his business of living and speaking of Jesus and the forgiveness and love found in him to people of all sorts.

I know there are people here who almost daily risk a lot – their reputation, their emotional well-being, there professional practice in the attempt to bring the Good news of Jesus to kids and parents in this college.

I know there are also parents here who put it all on the line to keep their kids growing up in the fear and favour of the Lord. To those have traded in the gifts of the Spirit Jesus says, ‘Well done faithful servant. I affirm you and I love you”.

There is another message here: preserving what we have received is not being faithful and it is not enough for the growing of God’s kingdom of life in this world of death and darkness. Playing it safe is not what God is calling us to.

What will help us take risks in kingdom work? What will help us move further out from the shadows into the glare of people? What gives us the confidence to put our gifts from God to work for God’s purposes of drawing all the world into the grace and love of Jesus Christ – where we live?

It seems that trusting God as being an affirming, loving, rewarding giver of gifts is the foundation to taking risky responsibility for God’s work in our world.

The third servant did not seem able to trust that his King was any of these good things – but viewed God as harsh and possibly unfair and untrustworthy. How are you viewing God?

Before we blame the third servant for being silly too quickly, let’s not forget that sometimes we find it hard to trust that God’s intentions and character are good. Maybe we are the third servant at the moment. Maybe we have been him in the past. Lord knows, we may be he in the future.

But as we look over the hedge at a new year coming, we might need to ask the King for mercy and for direction and a renewal in trust. We may need to ask the King to show us again that his intentions for our life and his church, and this college and our families are good. We may need to ask God to show us again that he loves us and wants the very best for us.

We need to ask God to show us his generous character again this Advent and Christmas so that we hit the New Year with trust in him for our year ahead.

We need each other to be “risky God-business people”. We need to learn the lessons of how to be faithful with a little so that we may be faithful with much.

We need plenty of people around here who will take on the risky responsibility of trusting in God’s power and goodness and then using the gifts he gives to bring more into the grace and love of Jesus.

Will you take some risks for the Kingdom? Will you ask the Lord to show you the many gifts of home, money, means, people, skills, character you have and direct your life in God’s service in this community and where you live.

• Parents, will you keep on parenting and bringing up your children in the Lord’s way?
• Grandparents, will you keep encouraging your kids to seek the Lord and encourage them to keep on parenting in the way of love and truth?
• Workers, will you work your job as a calling from Jesus and do it in his name?
• Young people, will you seek God’s direction in your heart and give your life’s dreams and goals into his hands for his purposes and follow his lead? We need young people to commit their lives to God’s business of bearing witness to Jesus in their vocation and their personal lives.

The thing is that the most successful “risky God worker” was also the most rewarded. The more we risk “losing” anything for God’s name and work, the more we are rewarded by his affirmation. And what I am hearing here is that God is lavish in his giving and in his affirmation and rewarding!

We can trust this as we ponder the coming of the Saviour again this time around…

15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. …18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. (Colossians 1:15-20)

So,

….so 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; 11 be strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and give joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you[b] to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. (Colossians 1:10-12)

Amen



Thanks for Life

Sermon

Pentecost 24C
Sunday November 7, 2010.
Ocean Forest


Thank you for life, God.
2 Thessalonians 2:1-5, 16-17


16 May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, 17 encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.


There is a lot to worry about when thinking about the future. I think even as Christians who know how things will end we struggle at times to view a hope-filled, God-filled future.

Nowhere does this struggle come upon us than when our future is personally threatened – be it in a financial threat, a status/employment threat, a threat to our children or grandchildren, a tragic death of a friend, and most of all, a threat to our own bodies through serious health issues or an injury by accident or the like…


But, most potent a challenge to faith in God’s promise of life forever in him is the threat of death – to another or ourselves.


We have had such a tragic brush with death these last two weeks. A beautiful little baby boy named Tyrone died – probably a cot death. I went into the Primary school class of which the little baby’s older sister is a member. She bravely told the class what had happened over the weekend. There were tears and there was such sadness.

We lit a candle and we read the word – “Let the children come to me and don’t stop them for there is the Kingdom of heaven. Jesus took the children in his arms and blessed them. How precious are these little ones – precious in God’s sight, says Jesus.


The little grade one girl is being so brave. She is trusting that her little brother is indeed in Jesus’ arms.


Then many of our community have been shocked by the tragic loss of Darren Strudwick, a fit, positive colleague and family and well known and loved by many in the cycling and mining community and here in our school/church community. If only we could this child-like grade 1 faith more often; that simple but profound trust in God’s word for now and the future.


Paul urges this simple faith as he writes to a community of people who have obviously been shaken up by trouble and those who have played on their anxieties about the resurrection to life on the final day.


He keeps it very simple. We might think simplistic?


1 Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, 2 not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us—whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter—asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. 3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way….


Somehow, someone has been telling people in church in Thessalonica that they have missed the boat on God’s promised future of life. Part of the community have been duped into believing that this great promised resurrection Jesus spoke of has already happened and they did not make the cut!


It sounds a bit naïve to us. How could anyone believe this?” we ask. Well, how can anyone believe any “out there” message like this?


I might be easier than we think. There are plenty of “out there” messengers in our day too. How about the Mormons? How about the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the many Eastern/New age strands of spirituality – particularly Scientology? How about some who speak of the future in the name of Jesus? Of course, God gifts some of his people to see future things and hopefully their message encourages and strengthens faith in God’s promises to never leave or forsake us and be there now and at the end.


But so many have very “out-there” messages of gloom and doom and strange belief for the future. Planets, prejudice, even hatred, space-ships, stars, thousands of wives…..these are all mentioned in the many “out-there” messages…


We can and sometimes do fall for them. Given the right conditions, we can fall for anything, it seems. The right amount of anxiety and fear of unknown cultures and people, an appealing message of self-improvement and victory over our fears, the right mix of prejudice and even hatred at times, a dob of moralism and elitism, and hey presto: out goes the simple trust in Jesus’ word on living, dying and rising again, and in comes a huge variety of warped but appealing beliefs about the same.

Paul knows this. All he can do is appeal to what he has already shared with this community and exhort them to hang on to that which they originally trusted to be good and truthful and real.

….God chose you as first-fruits to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth. 14 He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15 So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter.


Friends, this message is for us as we ponder the future and the world as we hear and see it now. The fundamental truth is that we have already been called by God through the death and rising of Jesus of Nazareth for a purpose that he will bring to completion in his time. Paul declares this…..

14 He called you to this through our gospel, that you might share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.


God has given you your future in your past and you live in the present in this gift of life. In baptism the Spirit of Jesus resurrected you in power and set you on a course for a known future – a future that we can trust.

Our life in Christ is linear. We are heading somewhere, not just going around in an endless meaningless circle of life. We have a beginning and an end and He is in this – the “Alpha and the Omega”, as St John hears Jesus being named.


It is clear from the Word that God will bring this world to its end in his time and will. Christian faith says that the end is in God’s hands. No one knows the hour or the day. So, even though the church has sometimes got very sidetracked trying to “do a Nostradamus” and declare an end date for the world, this is far beyond any human being’s authority and quite foolish.


So, whether or not there are dangerous conspiracies going on in the world, or great natural forces at play or UFO’s or other life-forms on other planets in this massive universe or not, God began this and he will bring it to its completion in his way and time and his will is one of grace and love for human beings. He has proven this in the giving of his Son for the world – the “sacrificial Lamb of God who now takes away the sin of the world” so that it shares in the promised new Jerusalem and new heaven and new earth when this old one passes away.


Paul is urging us to stick to this and leave these things in the good and trustworthy hands of the Lord. There is good reason for this. If we delve into things that we cannot know and certainly cannot control, we get sidetracked from what we are being called to be and do – work with the Spirit of Christ to make God’s kingdom come on this earth – to participate in God’s mission to “bring all things under Christ” so that “none may be lost” – in other words, to love the stranger, the oppressed, the different, the needy, the lost, the loved in the name of Jesus and in his mighty love.


The Faith of Job (Job 19:26-27)……


And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
with my own eyes—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!


Amen.

Freedom

Sermon

Reformation Day
Sunday October 31st, 2010

 

John 8:31-36

Freedom

A man's worst difficulties begin when he is able to do as he likes. Thomas Huxley, "Address on University Education," Collected Essays, 1902, III, p. 236.

Friends, it is interesting that the gospel word for Reformation Day is this part of John’s gospel. It is part of a long and very heated exchange between those who believed they were absolutely right with God and a Rabbi who said they were absolutely in bondage to sin in their belief! You can see why it was heated! This whole conversation eventually ends up with the Jewish leaders present picking up some big stones to throw at this Rabbi Jesus!

Hopefully there will be no stone throwing today as we hear some confronting words from Jesus, at least at first.

This would be an offensive word from Jesus to us if we replaced the word “”Jews” with “Christians”.

“To the Christians who had believed in him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are REALLY my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

“What, you mean there are Christians who have believed in God’s existence and gracious love, but are not REALLY disciples, and not truly free from being bound up in sin?” the “Jews” and we might ask? Well, it seems so, according to Jesus.

“Is he saying I am not really free and not really following?” Maybe….


As he made this charge against them, those in his hearing rolled out the truth they always returned to. “We are free. We are not slaves to anyone. We know this because we are Jewish. We are of the family line, the community, the history of Abraham – the father of all – the father of God’s promised acceptance”.

We might respond the same way. “I am not a slave to anything or anyone. I am free. I am a Christian. I have connection, belonging and history with the church. I have believed in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour’.

“I tell you the truth” says Jesus, “everyone who sins is a slave to sin and a slave has no permanent place in the family….”

Now there is a dent in the pride! Jesus seems to be laying a big axe right at the roots of our faith and saying that we are not a free as we think we are. He suggests that we are not permanently in God’s family. We can fall out of the family. And then even deeper; the fact that we rebel and disobey God and say and do wrong shows that we are still entangled with this sin problem.

Now that is difficult to take. In fact, many Christian folks do their very best to minimize this reality of bondage to which Jesus refers. “You Lutherans are always talking about being “sinners”, people say. “Why can’t you be more positive!? God loves people and is gracious and Jesus has already died for our sin and it is a past reality. Got over the sin talk and stick with God’s grace……”


Well folks, therein lies the seeds of a shallow and unfaithful life. If sin really is no big deal, and we are not slaves to it, then what do we do with the reality we find when we look within and around us? And once we admit that we have issues, and the world has issues, then where do we turn for justifying ourselves before others and God?


For the Jews that Jesus addressed, it was family/national pride (really themselves). They were children of Abraham, don’t you know. They were free. They we were above all other nations and peoples.


For us Christians – we belong to the church, don’t you know. I am fourth generation Christian or my grandfather was a minister, or my name is Schultz (for Lutherans) or I am a moral person and I do not deliberately sin. I am trying my best, you know!” we might say. Really it is the same place we return to – ourselves.

But the truth that will be the beginning of our real freedom is that our words and actions confirm our status.

Surely, as we reflect honestly on our life and relationships, we are entangled in many “unfree” things – words, actions, inner wounds and the addictions, idols and harm they bring, lack of understanding, lack of attention to God and his Word, envy, greed, just plain weakness and doubt about Jesus and his presence in my life….and so it goes.

These things tell us that sin is a present reality – a “clear and present danger” as one Harrison Ford movie was called back in the 80’s.

When one accepts this reality check of being still entangled with all that is offensive and unfaithful to God, then one just cannot rely on family heritage, church history, someone else’s faith in God or anything else – except one thing.


When the reality of my sin is brought to my attention – by the Holy Spirit, by the way, “who convicts the world of sin” (John 16:8), I am led by the Spirit to the only source of true freedom, and therefore, true following and true reward.

“A slave has no permanent place in the family, but a Son belongs to it forever. So, if the Son sets you free, then you will be free indeed”

The Son is the permanent freedom for all slaves. Jesus is the permanent source and giver of complete freedom. Seeking him for our justification is true freedom.

Friends, the great and complete freedom we already have to live truly free – in love and compassion and faith and confidence is only found in the grace of God poured out in the person and word of Jesus.

May we find that great release from bondage and the freedom it brings that Luther and millions

 of others have found – God has done a new thing that is deeper and more far reaching than mere family tradition, church tradition or national pride – he has done something in the heart of a human being that changed a person from within – beyond family ties, or national boundaries.

God has poured out his undeserved gifts of faith and love and grace in the giving of his Son and surely taken all human sin into himself in his Son’s death and resurrection and created the environment for true freedom now.

We are free only in the Son. We are truly free from sin by faith in this grace of God given in the Son. Our faith rests on nothing else – our moral purity, our efforts to be Christian, our church going, our efforts

 to be above reproach, to be better than anyone else, our intellectual understanding of Christian faith, our knowledge of the bible even.

Our true freedom from all the sin and evil which still so easily entangles has its source in the Son – Jesus Christ and his dying and rising and his word speaking now.

"I tell you the truth, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death." (John 8:51)


Now that is complete freedom – freedom even from death and its shadow over us. That is freedom that re-forms the church into a living, active, gracious, community of faithful followers of Jesus’ Way.

The freedom from sin and death that Jesus gives in our baptism and ever since is that which transforms the community into a community centred on the truth of things – and the ability to speak the truth in love and forgive and restore each other – in all truth and with all love.

Friends, the new deal has been made, God has done his new thing and is calling us to find freedom in his Son. Lt’s not justify ourselves or rely on anything less than the grace of God freely given in the Son, Jesus Christ – and let’s follow where he leads us.

Living it Together 7

Sermon:

Living it Together1 & 2 Timothy Sep 12 – October 24, 2010.
Pentecost 22C, Week 6

Stand by me2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18

6For I am already being poured out like a drink offering and the time has come for my departure. 7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

16At my first defence, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. 17But the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. And I was delivered from the lion's mouth. 18The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Everyone needs someone to stand by them. We need someone to stand by us when we are under threat and when we are witnessing something joyous.
When fear rises, danger draws near and we feel the threat, it is so helpful and encouraging to have a trusted person with us to help us, protect us and share the fear with us.

When we are standing at some place of great meaning – a place we have always wanted to see, or we are finally doing that thing we have always wanted to experience, the first thing we naturally want to do is share the moment – share the joy with a person who stands with us in our joy.

“the Lord stood at my side and gave me strength”, declares Paul as he signs off.

Of course, it is not always possible to have that trusted other person near to stand with you in the good or bad moments.

In good times, others can stay away because of envy or jealousy. In bad times people can fall away from us because of fear or shame.

But the great human need we have is for someone to stand with us – which means to share our thoughts, our feelings, our fears; our hope. We all need someone to stand by us to protect us, to help us, to give of themselves to us, to broaden our own experience and learn things we cannot learn alone.

Paul declares that God has been this “stand by me”, ‘Other’ person for him all the way through. That statement of great praise of God’s ability to stand when all other people and things fall reminds me of a famous story about one of the early Church Fathers named Polycarp, the bishop of Smyrna…

After dodging the Roman authorities for a few days and then seeing a vision of his own death given by the Lord, Polycarp was arrested under the persecution of the Roman empire in AD 156. He was a well regarded bishop and old man of faith in the church generally. He was pursued by a certain Constable, named of all names, ‘Herod’!

On the journey to the Coliseum he was put under a little more pressure than your run of the mill “atheist” (Christian) was put under by those gave their allegiance to the Caesar and Roman gods. “Just say, “Caesar is Lord”, and make a sacrifice to Caesar and all will be well, Polycarp!” Constable Herod and his father, Nicetes implored; first with just words, and then with physical tactics to the old but important man.

Polycarp made it clear he would not Hail Caesar or sacrifice to him. His fate was sealed as they eventually entered the stadium. Before the Proconsul, as the great crowd watched another “atheist-Christian” being eaten by the lions, Polycarp took a firm standing as the Proconsul attempted to get him to deny his faith in Jesus as Lord and declare publically that “the atheists” should be done away with. Say, “I curse Christ”, Polycarp, and I will release you.” it went on…

The Proconsul, knowing he had a much known and respected “atheist” before the crowd saw the opportunity to make a great attack on the faithful people of God. He pressed on and on…

And then comes the very famous response from a man of God in the face of the darkest and most sinister kind of evil aimed at destroying not only his faith, but attacking the faith foundation of the whole community of God…

“Eighty six years I have served him, and he has done me no wrong: how then can I blaspheme my King who saved me? Do you what you will”

Polycarp of Smyrna was then burnt at the stake instead of being fed to the lions in the great stadium and became a great inspiration to the whole church as he confessed faith in Jesus in the face of all fears and threats.

Paul and Polycarp betray a simple faith in God’s dependability, despite the injustice, attack, betrayal, hardship and doubt they experienced. Amazingly too, they also betray lack of anger at God. It seems that they have been through all of that. Surely they would have had their moments of being angry at what was happening to them in various fearful and even shameful moments.

Surely they would have prayed the psalms and the book of Job when they were under great pain or sorry or threat.

“Why do the wicked keep winning, God and the poor keep losing?”

Why do the unjust and corrupt people make it and the honest and kind people get trodden under foot?”

Why do we work so hard only to find out that the generation will squander we have worked for anyway?

Why is this happening to me, God? Where are you? Why don’t you respond to me?

But now it seems, as Paul speaks a final word to his son, Timothy, the time for anger at God, despondency with the church, anger at people who have hurt him and caused him great personal damage is passed.
Only One remains and His faithfulness and dependability is all that matters for whatever may come.

18The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom.

Friend, I don’t know what you are angry about or if you are angry at all. I don’t know if you are despondent about your life and where it is heading or whether you’re pretty happy with how things are shaping up.

I don’t know if you have ever been angry with the Lord and whether or not you admitted it and told him or someone else that you were or whether you still are.

I don’t know if today you are where Paul has ended up – with no angry words to say to God or anyone else – just a word of praise of God’s ability to stand by people through to the end of it all.

Whether there are words to be had with God or not, the truth being proclaimed here is that God is a “stand by me” God. He stands not apart from, but he stands with his people.

He is calling us to believe this about him and inviting us to a deeper experience of his trustworthiness and inspiration in our place here.
Will we believe and will we let the Spirit of Jesus draw us further into the experience of God standing with us in all we are and all we are facing?

 

This God in whom we live and move and have our very being, is the God who stands by his people as much as is humanly possible in the shedding of the blood of his Son, and the giving of the gift of the Spirit to his people. He stands by us in all circumstances; shutting lion’s mouths, staying close and never abandoning you. As we follow his call to trust here and now, in our everyday things and our inner world, he will stand by you. His light and life will be with us in us all.

We will end up where Paul ends up – seeing so far beyond the current circumstances of chains, and grief and loneliness and instead, seeing life, community, God’s surrounding faithfulness, God’s promises coming to pass in his life and the people of God moving on to their goal – the presence and glory of Christ and his crown of victory.

To him be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Living Together 5

Sermon:
Living it Together
1 & 2 Timothy Sep 12 – October 24, 2010.
Pentecost 21C, Week 5

Word Searching
2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5 (New International Version)
14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 4
1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

Leanne and I viewed that new movie with Julia Roberts staring called “Eat, Pray, Love”. It was a very “now” kind of story of divorce, marriage, spiritual searching, inner journey and an honest attempt to reflect on love and life and the meaning of it all. It is also so very orientated on the self and the whole notion of “the god within” and finding one-self. God is so human that he is no longer objective or divine.

In contrast and direct challenge, Paul, at the end of his life and his life’s work does not point us to look within ourselves only (even though this is necessary for wisdom and understanding),  but to search outside ourselves – not mainly with our eyes but more with our ears to an Outside presence and teacher.

How can Paul, a man in a dark prison, who has lived his life fearlessly, boldly and seen great acts of God played out right before his eyes and through his very word and presence, very human and flawed though they be, stay faithful, and more importantly hopeful about his own life and the life of all of us?

How can this master keep his young apprentice, Timothy, in the game of life and ministry? How can Paul trust that the church he has had a huge hand in planting around the Mediterranean will stay strong, truthful, faithful and full of life as he wallows in a seemingly hopeless bondage to godlessness?

Closer to home, how can you and I as parents or grandparents or teachers of students have any kind of real hope that we have done enough for faith to win the day in our kid’s lives?

As people who know the love and power of Jesus, we dearly want that for the next generation. We want that for our own kids and grandkids, but it seem too precarious in them. Having lived a little longer than them, we know how hard things will be for them in this ever secular, oversexed, material culture in which we live.

How do we find a hope that God will keep them and they will keep God and all that they have been taught regarding faith in God through our lives – again, imperfect though they be?

The truth is that in ourselves we have no such hope. Without God’s direct intervention from outside of us; without God’s powerful love and grace operating within us and in our relationships with those we mentor, teach and encourage, any hope that kids, grandkids, students and friends will run the race of faith with strength and loyalty to the Lord would be just wishful thinking.

But with the one thing God gives us that we all can access and be helped to understand in our hearts we can hope and we can trust.

When it seems that your hopes are being dashed, or you just don’t feel up to life and work and parenting and being church; when you are not sure if your leadership is the best it can be or you’ve got what it takes to do all the things you know God wants you to do, the thing that will sustain you and keep you hoping, even against hope, is the Word of the Living God.

I don’t know what is going on for you these days – where your fears are, where your hope is fragile and your faith is diminished, but the direction from the Spirit given to Timothy is to “continue in what he has already learned in life from God”.

14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it

Not only will hope remain as Timothy remembers the things he has come to understand from God’s grace being poured out into his life in many and various ways through the Word, hope will be strengthened by also remembering those who did the teaching; those through whom God graced his life – beginning with his childhood mentors.

…….you know those from whom you learned it, 15and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Friends, I can tell you that I get despondent about many things – as you probably do. I get despondent about my work, my parenting, my husbanding, my health, my selfishness, my idols, my regrets and sorrows.

I get despondent about the world and the state of affairs. I get despondent when the big companies deny the little people justice or when corruption has its way or when another sporting cheat is found out in the sporting arena and so it goes.
We should not be at all surprised by all we find stressing, worrying and threatening. Paul has no illusions when he speaks of what he sees in the future (and the present).

The old man says to the young man, “. 3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.”

That’s a damning word on how we human beings carry on. I can relate to what Paul is seeing. I see it. I see it in our community, our world and in my own heart!
Paul says he has “run the race of faith in God’s power and grace”. Somehow he has got there through all his despondent and dangerous times. Somehow he has been led through his own foibles and pain to be on the edge of the great reward which he seems to be almost able to taste and see as he writes this final letter to his son.
For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure.

7I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Are we longing for his appearing? Probably not, most of time anyway. There is so much to be and do. Good things I mean; faith-filled things like teaching the kids, loving our partner, friends and learning to be a better human being.

But there are times when the thought of Jesus coming to wrap everything up and deliver on his promise to bring in a new heaven and earth – a new existence in his presence seems a pretty good option!

Paul’s is there. He wants Timothy and all those who will hear these words throughout generations to be there too – and find the faith he has been given.
There is only one place to find it, he is saying. It is in the God-breathed, God-charged living Word which the Spirit fills.

16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Friends, if you want to be equipped for life, parenting, working, wise decision making, recovering from grief, divorce, loss, and regret, staying truthful and honest and showing others how to stay there too, then the Scriptures are the force behind bringing those things to fruition in your life.

I know. You know this is the case but somehow we just never get to actually taking God’s word personally and putting this kind of weight on it in our week. We know the theory but struggle to do something about the practice.

What I am hearing is a little bit of the Word is better than no Word. Taking time to receive God’s word here most weekends is good. It is better than not being here and not hearing the Word with other travelers – not just the spoken Word of a sermon, but the word in the praying, the singing, the liturgy, the silence; the actions of the Spirit that free us and forgive us. Keep that up.

But there is a few more moments than Sunday morning to live and that is where I know it is hard. Then again, is it that hard? We consume plenty of other media. We do tend to over work. We fill our days up to the full with lots of things – many good, some not do good.

I hear Paul urging Timothy to “stay in the Word” however he can. For Timothy in his calling it is preaching the word. He is to;

2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction...

It definitely sounds like the Word in our lives is a long term and demanding thing requiring patience and great care. Its message is not always immediate; its meaning from the Spirit is not always easily heard or understood at first – so it requires time and space and intent, and conversation with fellow hearers, like producing a good garden, making a house a home, raising children, becoming good at a complex skill.

The difference between hearing the Word of God and hearing and learning other things is that God’s Word is supernatural. It is spiritually charged by the Spirit of Jesus. He speaks when it is spoken. It has power to make wisdom part of us, to shape us internally, to give us God’s life in our life. That is Paul’s belief.

So he says, speak it, learn it, share it – at all times, when the going is easy and when it is not; when it is well received and when they look at you funny.

God, help us search for the truth and include your Word in our search as we strive to stay faithful to you and one day reach the end of the race of faithful life and receive your great reward – now and then. Amen

Living it Together 4

Lay Sermon:
Living it Together
1 & 2 Timothy Sep 12 – October 24, 2010.
Pentecost 20C, Week 4

God’s unchained Word
2 Timothy 2:8-15

We continue delving into the Timothy journey this morning in the Second Letter Paul writes to his “son” in the faith, Timothy. The situation is difficult for Paul. He is reaching his end in a Roman prison. He is longing to see and hear from his “son” in the faith, Timothy. Paul wishes his son was with him as he faces day after day in a dark, damp cell, in chains, with no one with him except Luke.

Out of his chained body and his chained spirit Paul trusts something. He makes one of bold statements of the gospel that has stood the community of Christ in good stead in its worst times of threat from within and without – “I am suffering in chains, but the Word of God is not chained”, declares Paul to Timothy.

Now that is a statement of faith! For all intents and purposes, it looks as if the Word of God which has burnt in Paul’s heart and come from his mouth and by his hand these last 30 years since the resurrection is nearly silenced. The “great man” is alone and imprisoned, unwell, grieving, not free to speak anymore to anyone.

His close companions have bailed out. It seem only Luke, the evangelist, is with Paul now – or at least his only regular visitor. To make this confident statement about how things are from God’s point of view is faith on show.

“Even though the Word is nearly silenced in me, it will never be silenced. Even though I rattle around in these painful chains and my energy is spent. God is not spent and his word is on the move way beyond me”, declared Paul.

What a word of faith an encouragement to a young pastor and a young community having trouble with words! There seems to be lots of arguments and disputes over many things in the Ephesian church.

There is dodgy teaching by two characters at least; Hymnanaeus and Philetus, “who have wondered away from the truth” (verse 18). They have decided that the resurrection to life for all the baptized people of God has already happened and this has destroyed the faith of some in the community of faith in Ephesus.
There are “foolish and stupid arguments” going on and Paul is encouraging Timothy to “avid them because they only ever end in “quarrels” which leads to resentment among God’s people (verses 23-24).

We may think that a few arguments and a bit of gossip about the community is no big deal. We may resign ourselves to the fact that we are human beings and these kinds of words do happen in the church. Paul allows no such “giving in” to “godless chatter”. He is very strong here and directs his apprentice and son to be very strong here too. Why is this?

Well Paul is of the belief that the more of this kind of gossip and argumentative words we share, the more self-focused, resentful of others and “godless” we will become.

The message is that words are very important and are to be respected, thought about, carefully chosen and God focused. He instructs Timothy as the pastor of this community to steer very clear of all this argumentative kind of behavior. He instructs him to tell to people to keep clear of it too.

Surely Paul, who has been on the end of heartless and damaging words for years knows a thing or two about the damage and argumentative and quarrelsome word can do to a person and the community of God.

We do too. Harsh words hurt and create unnecessary anger that can easily lead to resentment – and so quickly – even between people who had nothing much to fight about even an hour ago!

In the murky world of arguments and hurtful words there is a solid, dependable and life-giving word which triumphs over our petty squabbles and our deep hurt. It is God’s Word.

Paul calls out to us to “remember”. Remember Jesus. Remember his resurrection and his victory over all untruth. Remember Jesus, the new King David, from a human family (that of King David) and yet now “King of all kings” (1Timothy 6:15).
All this ungodly focus and harsh wording among God’s people can be so confusing and faith-destroying, and yet God’s Word remains clear and true and consistent and above all – life-giving. It resurrects us as it resurrected Jesus. It rules the church as Jesus the new King David rules now.

So, if God’s Word is never chained in any one person or any one church community or any one situation of sorrow or hurt or resentment, then we can endure. That’s where Paul takes this faith he has in God’s unchained word.

Because God’s Word moves on beyond us and sometime in spite of us, we can endure whatever words come our way. Paul says “I endure everything (including shame, loneliness, ill-health, resentment at being unfairly chained….) for the sake of the elect”. Paul can endure this not for his sake, but for the sake of the people in Timothy’s church and every other follower of Jesus.

The goal of his enduring is the salvation and life of God’s people. He is still totally committed to the Call God put on his life to be an “apostle to the Gentiles”. He still burns for those outside the household of God and will endure all to do all he can to make sure that God’s word is unchained in the world.
If we die with him we will live with him.
If we endure, we will rule with him
if we are faithless he will remain faithful,
declares Paul as he remembers some hymn that people seem to know.

In the end Paul instructs the Pastor of the church to be in the business of memory keeping. He uses this song people know to do just that and gives Timothy a resource to help him keep people’s hearts and minds focused on Jesus the resurrected King.
“Keep reminding the people of these things”, says Paul to Timothy.
Remind them of what?

Jesus is the resurrected king of kings, the Ord of Life and the head of the church who rules in grace and power. His Word is the living thing that keeps us straight and true. His Word avoids unnecessary agreements and the resulting fighting and resentment that this always brings into the community.
His Word brings life and healing to the community.His Word will ensure that we endure any harsh word or situation and in the end ensure that we remain “workers, approved by God” (verse 15).

That’s God’s part. Our part is to respond. “Do your best”, Paul says, “to be a worker approved by God who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the Word of God” (verse 16).

Correctly handling the Word surely means not using it to argue! Rightly handling the Word of God means careful use, thoughtful response, respectful and gentler application to those who have a different point of view.

Paul goes on to say that :The Lord’s servant must not join the quarrel, instead he must do kindness, be able to teach (the Word), not resentful….he must gently instruct in the hope that God will grant people the gift and ability to repent of sin and find peace in Christ (2Timothy 2:24-25).

This is our way of being together and enduring together at Ocean Forest. We need to help each other stay away from argumentative behavior and harsh words. The way we do this to affirm in our words and actions the truth that God’s Word is the authority on all things and that it does not reside in any one person fully! We all share the Word and have authority to encourage each other in it.

As much as it is up to us, we do acts of kindness and take the gentle approach to working through different points of view, always bowing to God’s Word as the final authority in life.

We handle the Word of God with respect and great care as we reflect on it for ourselves, share it with others, teach it to our children and receive it into our own heart for our own life.

As we receive God’s Word we endure and we are doing exactly what we are called to do. As we handle it carefully and kindly with others we are being workers in God’s vineyard who know we have his approval for our work.
Amen