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.
'Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval. John 6:27
On this day of Installing Pastor John into the community of St John’s, we are witnesses to the Apostle’s account of that day on the grassy slope when the Bread of Life fed them all. We hear of a conversation between Jesus and two of the Twelve. Apparently, this conversation is a test for the two chaps. It also then is a test for us; a test of how we are living as disciples of this Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified and risen Saviour.
Phillip and Andrew are the two. They both can see the absolute impossibility of the call to feed over five thousand people out on those remote grassy slopes late in the day. They respond differently to the impossibility of Jesus’ call to feed the world. One resigns in complete defeat and has nothing else to say or do. One tries to find at least something to keep on working with even as he resigns himself to the fact that the task is still impossible.
Reminds me of being a Christian in a modern secularising community or a church in mission in the same environment. It all seems impossible! Just because it is impossible, and just because we may fail the test Jesus is giving us, does not mean it is all over. There is a middle road and there is continued things to do under the provision and direction of the Saviour.
May you be confirmed in both this day.
It is through Christ that all of us, Jews and Gentiles, are able to come in the one Spirit into the presence of the Father. Who remembers the kaleidoscope? That Victorian era, optical device that you looked in one end and turned the other end around. Doing so you would see the most amazing shapes and colours brought about by mirrors inside and what appeared to be stained glass shapes. I recall as a young boy, being enthralled by this device, seeing the colours and shapes appear in a way you would not normally see.
In Mark 8:22-25 we read about a blind man in Bethsaida, who was cured by being touched twice by Jesus. After being touched the first time the man thought people looked like trees, then after being touched the second time the man’s vision was totally restored. While we may have our eyesight, Jesus and his teachings can make us view life in different ways, as though being viewed with different eyes. And yes we sometimes need to be touched twice. But by his grace, Jesus restores our eyesight, we can see things through a different lens, seeing life differently, from a different perspective and indeed, seeing more colours in life, that we mightn’t have before- a little bit like looking through a kaleidoscope.
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In Lutheran theology we often refer to 'law' and 'gospel'. Today we review both law and gospel, examine how to use them and how to avoid confusion.
We look at today's epistle text, Ephesians 1:3-14, as an example of pure gospel. We, the church, are free to go on sharing God's Law and Gospel with others. We give thanks that Christ commissioned us to do so and is with us always. We can trust that He's the One who makes the seed grow - working out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glory.
Christmas. Easter. Pentecost. These are the 3 Principal Festivals on our Christian Church Calendar. We know all about these. We celebrate these every year. Do you know that Christian Church Calendar also includes Lesser Festivals and Commemorations? Last Wednesday, 3 July, was one of the Lesser Festivals. It was the day designated for Thomas, Apostle. What do you know about Thomas? Can you list 3 things? What can we learn from Thomas?
There are many ways to suffer and none of them are pleasant. We do all we can to avoid them. Eat well, exercise, get vaccinated, attend classes on how to make sure we are in a safe place. And yet suffering happens because we are human. Plans fail, people let us down, our bodies attack us. And we are the fortunate ones who don’t live in Gaza, Israel or the Sudan. Jeremiah’s cry is terrible. Why?
“God drove me deeper and deeper into darkness and beat me again and again with merciless blows The thought of my pain, my hopelessness is bitter poison” (Lamentations 3)
Our instinct is to block suffering because we don’t know what to do with it. Jeremiah faced it and lamented with a no holds barred outpouring of his pain and sorrow. Instead of being paralysed by asking “Why?” he moved on. "Now that this has happened what is it going to mean for me ?” And he learned
"Hope returns when I remember one thing, The Lord's unfailing love and mercy still continue, Fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise, The Lord is all I have and so I put my trust in him"
The sermon is based on the passage from Job 3:1-11. What’s your best source of comfort when you suffer loss? For many people there’s no book of the Bible that speaks more helpfully to them in their loss than the Book of Job.
We know stories of how important people and big businesses are able to accomplish big things. But it also happens that small and insignificant people are able to do great things too. Today’s bible message speaks of the Kingdom of God being like a tiny insignificant mustard seed, which will germinate, grow and grow and become a large bush. In this week’s sermon we see how God looks at things differently than we do. Jesus in this parable is inviting us to look at the Kingdom of God with new eyes. The small and insignificant can bring great results. With God all things are possible.