“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God”. Thus says Jesus. The thing with wealth is that it is relative. There is always someone richer than me, so I can always shimmy my way around the uncomfortable implication of Jesus’ meaning. But, as good as we are at shimmying, at some point we have to face up to the fact that we are the camel. As we look at the eye of the needle and the eye of the needle stares back at us, what are we thinking? What, or who, do we trust to get us through? What, or who, does the church trust to get it through? Is it our wealth? Is it our prestige? Is it our doctrine? Is it our intellect? Is it our commitment? Is it our Lord? Whoever, or whatever it is, whoever or whatever we put our trust in, it’s only when we die that we’ll find out for sure whether our trust is rewarded or misplaced. So, Jesus invites us to come and die, with him. That’s where he’s heading as he teaches his disciples about camels and needles. He’s on his way to Jerusalem where he will be killed, and on the third day . . .
Well, you know the rest of the story, but will you trust the rest of the story?
Pastor John Strelan Ecclesiastes 3:1-2a
In Mark 9:38-50, Jesus emphasizes the priceless value of faith, urging us to recognise what is truly precious. Just as we protect and cherish our most valuable possessions, Jesus calls us to guard our faith with even greater care. We are infinitely precious to God, and the gift of faith He gives us is beyond compare. Jesus warns us to avoid anything that could harm our own faith or cause others to lose theirs. As we reflect on this message, may we treasure our connection to God, nurturing the precious gift of faith that unites us to Him eternally.
NOTE: There is no audio recording of this sermon.
Tone deaf. Oblivious. An inability to read the room. Thick as two bricks. Call it what you will. It is clear that Jesus’ disciples were clueless. Jesus had just finished telling them (again!) that he would be betrayed, arrested, killed and rise again. One might reasonably expect that information might be of interest to them! But, no, there’s something else on their minds. They are more interested in debating who is the greatest! Methinks someone needed to take away their shovel.
The American psychiatrist, Elizabeth Kubler-Ross is well known for her five stage model of grief, which describes the inevitable human journey of dealing with death and dying. The stages are: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. It’s a tried and true model.
As Jesus and his followers journey towards Jerusalem, Peter is well and truly stuck in the first stage. He can’t stand to hear Jesus talk about death. Most people I know are like Peter. But, dying is something every single person has to face. It is unavoidable. According to Kubler-Ross’s scheme, the lucky ones reach acceptance. Emotionally, that’s a great place to be. But, still, the result is death: the end of life.
If Jesus of Nazareth had become a psychiatrist instead of a carpenter I’m sure he would have added a sixth stage: hope.
Jesus’ journey towards Jerusalem is a journey to the cross, a journey to death. It’s the human journey. But, Jesus calls his disciples to a new way of thinking and being. A way of thinking and being where the acceptance of death is not the final stage, but the first stage, the first stage of life. And, after acceptance comes hope.
Please note: The recorded sermon audio is taken from the 10am School Service on Sunday 15th Sept. A different sermon 'Take up your cross' was given at our 8.30am service, and you can find the printed copy here.
Who is God?
What is God?
Omniscient? Yes!
Omnipotent? Yes!
Omnipresent? Yes!
Infinite? Yes!
Triune? Yes!
But, God is more than that . . .
It was about 9.30pm when I left the ministry centre after the Prepared to Go workshop on Thursday (it was good, by the way). The petrol gauge warning light on the car dash was glowing. No problem, I’ll stop in at a petrol station on the way home. How convenient.
If I get a craving any time of the day or night I know there will be somewhere I can find food. I don’t even have to get out of my car! How convenient.
Once upon a time, if I wanted money, I’d go into a bank, wait in line and talk to a real person, maybe have a polite chat and withdraw some cash. But, who wants to wait in line, and who really wants to make polite chit-chat? Thank goodness for ATMs! Remember them? I could go to a machine, punch in a few numbers and be on my way. How convenient. Now, I’ve nearly forgotten what a $20 note looks like as I whip out my smart phone and some electronic magic happens. How convenient.
I could go on . . . shopping without leaving the comfort of my lounge room. Catching up with friends overseas in real time by staring at a screen. Even typing these thoughts and being able to hit the delete button when I make a mistake. How convenient.
But, I wonder sometimes whether we can have too much of a good thing.
“I will make America great again”. That was the promise of a certain US president. What an attractive thing to promise a people hoping for a better future. Simple. Straightforward. Easy to understand. It’s the kind of thing we want to hear from our leaders.
Jesus came to a nation hoping for a better future. The crowds flocked to his rallies. He had them eating out of the palm of his hand. He was the one, they were sure. All he had to do was say the word and they’d be right behind him. All he had to do was make that simple, straightforward promise: “I will make you great again”. Instead, Jesus spoke in riddles about eating his flesh and drinking his blood.
What was he thinking?!
Two students were doing well in their university course; so well, in fact, that when it came to the final exam they went out partying the night before, confident that they would have no trouble. They had a great night, and one thing led to another and they only got home at 5am and ended up sleeping the whole morning. They missed the exam.
All is not lost, they thought. They came up with a plan. They went to their lecturer and explained that they had been visiting a terminally ill friend out of town the night before. On the way home they got a flat tire and discovered they had no spare and no jack. They were stranded and ended up sleeping the night in the car and only made it back home mid-morning. They were very sorry to have missed the exam but could they still sit it that afternoon?
The lecturer thought for a moment and decided that since the students hadn’t had a chance to talk to anyone else about the exam she would allow them to sit the test. That afternoon she sat the two students in separate rooms and gave them each the exam paper. Page one, question one. A simple one for 5 points. “No worries”, each of them thought as they turned the page for question two. It read: “Which tire?” (95 points)
There’s a difference between being smart and being wise.
Ephesians 5:15 – Be careful with how you live, not as unwise people but as wise.
As a new pastor in a new parish you want the first time you lead worship to go well. Actually, it’s more than that, you really want to impress (or, maybe that’s just me?) Anyway, if you were present at my first service here at St John’s last Sunday at 8.30 I think you’d agree things didn’t quite go to plan. Nothing major and nothing that has caused me lasting emotional scarring (you too, I hope). As I think about it now, I think it was God’s way of keeping me humble, reminding me that I can’t control everything and that even when my plans go a little wonky it doesn’t mean God is suddenly hamstrung. No, even when things are less that perfect God still works through us, sometimes even more profoundly.
There’s something of that in Paul’s words to the Christians in Ephesus, I think. “Be imitators of God”, he encourages them. What is it about God that we are to imitate? Well, my ego wants to tell me that because God is perfect I need to be perfect (and didn’t even Jesus say that somewhere?), and being perfect means that everything goes to plan, I don’t make any mistakes and I get to control everything! But, then, it’s all about me. When Paul says ‘Be imitators of God’ he points us to Jesus. Jesus who was as human as we are. So, I like to think that if Jesus did work for a while in Joseph’s carpentry workshop he occasionally cut the timber to the wrong length, and didn’t get the angles right all the time. In other words, he made mistakes! And, things didn’t always go to plan. And, he didn’t think he had to control everything. In fact, he didn’t control everything! But, what he did do, and what he never stopped doing was to love, because that is who God is. And, that’s what Paul encourages us to imitate: the godliness and the humanness of love. Love is not about being right, or getting it right, and certainly not about being in control. Love always seeks the good of the other. There’s a vulnerability to love, a openness, a messiness even. We see that clearly in the way Jesus shows God’s love for us. Jesus shows God’s love – Jesus loves us – so we can be imitators of God.