Sermon 4th July 2021 – 6th Sunday after Pentecost Text: 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 – Power in weakness

 Sermon 4^th July 2021 – 6^th Sunday after Pentecost

Text: 2 Corinthians 12:2-10 – Power in weakness

 

Have you ever been asked what your favourite Bible passage is? Do you have one? Many choose Psalm 23 – the Lord’s my Shepherd. Many choose John 3:16 – for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but receive eternal life. Some choose Ephesians 2 – for it is by grace you have been saved through faith. I love all those passages.

But for me, my favourite is our 2nd reading from St Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 12. But I don’t just have it as my favourite because of what it says but for me it is the cornerstone of my faith and the comfort for me that what we believe is not some cleverly devised man made religion as people often say it is. If you were wanting to create a belief system would you have as the central teaching that suffering is good for you. That suffering and hardship does not mean that something is wrong. I mean, that’s what Paul is saying. He says: I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.

Whenever I’m feeling low in my faith – whenever I’m going through a difficult time I keep returning to this chapter and reminding myself – this is what Paul was talking about. Why I place such importance in Paul message here for my faith is because of Paul’s conversion to Christianity.

Paul was a leading Jew of his time. He was greatly respected and had a lot of authority. He presided over the first killing of a Christian by the name of Stephen. He gained approval to go about and arrest Christians and to throw them into jail. And while on his way to Damascus to do that he had an experience. He met the risen Lord Jesus who spoke to him from heaven. And as such Paul was converted.

Why would Paul give up everything he had – a life of luxury, respect, authority and instead accept weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ? Even if he did experience something – why would he persist if it led to such hardships? How many people have left the church because something didn’t go their way? How many people have stopped believing in God because life hasn’t gone the way that they expected it to go? Something must have really triggered Paul’s faith to ignore all the hardships that came because of his faith in Jesus Christ that not only did he continue in his faith but his faith in Jesus grew stronger.

Well, Paul tells us what happened in our reading: And remember, Paul is speaking about himself; I know a person in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows. And I know that such a person—whether in the body or out of the body I do not know; God knows— was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat.

Paul, it seems, was taken up into Heaven to be shown exactly what was awaiting him so that he did not give up his faith in spite of what he was going to experience for the next 14 years and beyond. And what he saw was either so amazing that to speak about it could not do it credit or what he saw had simply no human words to explain it: That’s what is awaiting you and me.

Paul was caught up into Paradise and heard things that are not to be told, that no mortal is permitted to repeat. When I hear this it gives me hope and encouragement. There are times when I feel like throwing in the towel. It’s all getting too hard.

All the compliancy things we have to do these days just to run a church service once a week for an hour or so:

The Covid regulations – the copyright regulations especially with recording and live streaming – the child safe compliancy and safe place compliancy – there is the danger that church and our Christian faith gets reduced to purely an admin participation from which we grow weary and burn out.

Do you think Paul would not have experienced that if he saw what he did as simply an administrative function? The insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities – why bother – unless there was something supernatural about what he was proclaiming. And there was. He saw the insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities as a distraction to try and stop him from proclaiming the Gospel – the thorn in his flesh he called it – a messenger from Satan himself to torment him.

But Paul was able to see this and instead of growing weaker he grew stronger in his faith because instead of relying on his own strength he was drawn to God’s strength as God tells him: My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. To the point that not only did Paul persevere with his hardships but he said: I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

In those times when I have felt weak and like giving up I remember what Paul said and that this is exactly what Satan wants. It is very easy to give in when we feel as if things are getting too hard. But imagine where Christianity and the Church would be today if that was the attitude of Paul and the early disciples.Many of them were persecuted and put to death because of their faith and yet the church continued to grow and spread out through the world.

God wants everyone to experience the Paradise Paul experienced – but not just a short visit or a glimpse like Paul did but to live forever in this place that there is no human words to describel.

We have all experienced our thorn in the flesh in life – all borne heavy crosses to carry -  sometimes because we are Christians – but Jesus invites you to let his power rest on you on those occasions. Paradise awaits all those who put their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour and Paul says that he considers our present suffering not worth comparing with the glory that awaits us in Heaven. So let us pick up our cross and follow Jesus because we know that he is leading us home to live with him in Heaven.

Sermon 27th June 2021 – 5th Sunday after Pentecost Text: Mark 5:21-43 – persisting in hope

 Sermon 27^th June 2021 – 5^th Sunday after Pentecost

Text: Mark 5:21-43 – persisting in hope

 

In today’s Gospel, we hear two stories of healing. But they come about in different ways. One is what we call through intercessory prayer. When we pray for someone who is unable to pray for themselves. Jairus’s daughter is ill – on the verge of death and Jairus pleads with Jesus to come and lay his hands on her to make her well. The other is a prayer of last resort.

 

A woman who has tried everything to find healing for herself –  “She had endured much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had; and she was no better, but rather grew worse” There are similarities that Mark is wanting us to see.

We know neither of their names. One is Jairus’s daughter – the other simply a woman suffering from hemorrhages. Jairus’s daughter is 12 years old – the woman has been suffering for 12 years. But they go about their plea for help in different ways.

 

Jairus fell at Jesus’ feet and begged him repeatedly,.  The woman sneaks up from behind and does not ask for permission of any kind; Both show great faith in Jesus ability to heal. But the healing happens in opposite ways: Jairus asks Jesus to lay his hands on his daughter while the woman, without permission, lays her hand on Jesus’ clothes. She does this because there is no one there to advocate for her.  She has no friends to carry her on a mat or lower her through the roof to be seen by Jesus. She has no father like Jairus’s daughter.

 

I feel that the woman is a lot like many of us. She has tried everything.  She has done everything money can buy.  She has seen countless doctors and has only grown worse.  When do we normally turn to God? After we have exhausted all our other options? But something in her still has hope.  And so do we even though we try our own ways first. Despite all she has been through, something in her believes, trusts, and even expects that if she simply reaches out and touches the edge of Jesus’ cloak, she will be healed. Even though her ways are sneaky. Even though she had tried other ways first.

She still has faith in Jesus albeit a flickering wick. Does that sound familiar?

 

Do we sometimes approach Jesus rather sheepishly because we’ve tried everything else and now we will try asking Jesus?

Well the good news is that she still is able to discover healing despite her ways of going about it. But is that the full extent of her healing? She is immediately physically healed as she touches Jesus’ clothes but her spiritual needs do not end there. She needs further healing in her relationship with God to enable her to trust him.. She can’t just sneak off after having had an encounter as such with Jesus. Jesus, knowing exactly what has happened, turns to her and reassures her that she’s not in trouble. Jesus is not going to scold her or take back the healing asking why she didn’t come to him first or ask for permission to touch him. She feels that he is going to reprimand her. She came in fear and trembling, fell down before him, and told him the whole truth – much like our confession and forgiveness. But he reassures her: Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease. It had nothing to do with any magical powers hidden in his clothes but the faith she put in Jesus. Whereas in the past it was sickness that had defined her, Jesus has set her free and redefined her to be a daughter of God She had no father like Jairus’s daughter did to plead with Jesus.  She didn’t need to – she is a daughter of God. God is her heavenly Father and Jesus pleads for her healing.

 

Again Mark wants us to see this connection as Jesus calls her daughter and now he goes to heal Jairus’s daughter. But again Jesus must deal with negativity and doubts with people saying that hope for Jairus’s  daughter’s life is already lost as some people came from the leader’s house to say, “Your daughter is dead.  And even though Jesus says “the child is not dead but sleeping” they laughed at him. Jesus ignores their laughter because his hope is in his heavenly Father’s power and compassion. A reminder to us to ignore the laughter of the world because we put our hope in Jesus Christ and him rising from the dead. Jesus enters the home, gathers with the young girl’s parents and loved ones, and invites her to get up and walk around. She is healed, and they are all overcome with amazement. Both of these stories contain amazing healing but it is the persistent hope that Mark is wanting us to focus on.

The woman has exhausted everything she has—her finances, her options—but hope moves her to reach to Jesus when everything is gone. Jairus’s daughter has exhausted her very life but Jairus does not give up hope in Jesus. So the message here for us is to never give up hope in Jesus. And sometimes that is what it takes for us to see that in Christ alone is our hope. And hope will not disappoint us as St Paul points out:  Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us. And Jesus will not turn us away because we’ve left him till last. Jairus is told not to bother the teacher any longer, that his daughter has already died but he and Jesus carry on, continuing to the house to see her.  Hope carries Jairus forward just as it did the bleeding woman.

 

There is desperation and depletion in both of these stories but hope is stronger.  And sometimes it is when all else fails that we realise where our true hope lies. After a year and a half of pandemic, heated political divides, isolation, and unrest, we are hungry for healing within our bodies, our tired souls, and our communities.  Maybe we are where this woman and Jairus were. All hope in anything else has been exhausted – we are exhausted. We need to reach out for Jesus healing.

We need to ask for help, for rest, through prayer. Let us identify with Jairus and keep trusting in Jesus when the world has lost hope. Let us identify with the woman who has tried everything else, as we have,  – masks, santitizing, social distancing, lockdowns, vaccinations and we’re still no better and in fact many feel worse.  Let us seek healing where it is can be found when all other hope is lost and remember that to believe in Jesus is to hope for—even to expect—healing and wholeness whether it be in this lifetime or our full healing in Heaven.

Sermon 20th June 2021 – 4th Sunday after Pentecost Text: Mark 4:35-41 – Crossing over to the “other side”

 Sermon 20^th June 2021 – 4^th Sunday after Pentecost

Text: Mark 4:35-41 – Crossing over to the “other side”

 

Several years ago there was a celebrity psychic by the name of Jonathon Edward who claimed he could make contact with deceased relatives with messages for their loved ones. He coined the phrase that these deceased relatives had “crossed over” to the other side giving name to his TV Show “Crossing Over”. He believed, as did his followers, that life was a journey to the other side of life and that he had access to communicate with them.

 

Mark, too, in our Gospel reading today has Jesus on a journey “to the other side”. Mark doesn’t say where they were or to where they were going – he just says to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” And in this passage Mark describes several interesting analogies of our own personal journeys to “the other side” as we journey through life on our way to Heaven. Let’s see if we can analyse it:

 

Leaving the crowd behind, they took Jesus along just as he was in the boat.

The first thing to understand is that biblical scholars often consider that references to boats in the gospels are an image of the church. As Christians we journey with Jesus in his church where we are called to leave the world behind. To understand this we need to understand the Greek origins of the word “church” which is “ecclesia”. We get words like Ecclesiastical meaning of the church. It is made up of two Greek words – Ek  and Kaleo. Ek means out of – Kaleo means called. As the church we are called out of the world in the sense of what we heard St Paul say last week – if anyone is in Christ they are a new creation. We are called to leave our worldly thinking behind – our sinful way of life – and to pick up our cross and follow Jesus. Again, as Paul said, from now on we regard no one from a human point of view. No, we see everything through the lens of Jesus Christ our Lord. So, we are on a journey, with Christ, not the world. It’s like when Jesus called his first disciples – Peter and his brother Andrew – James and his brother John – all fisherman who immediately dropped their nets and followed Jesus.

 

Sometimes, as Christians, Jesus calls us to drop our ways of life and follow him on a new journey. Sometimes we remain in our current positions but with a new outlook on life as new creations. And we are not alone in our journey. In Jesus’ boat there were the 12 disciples and notice that Mark points out for no specific reason other than to show we are together in that there were other boats with him – the one Holy Christian and Apostolic Church.

 

A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. Here Mark points out that the journey is not an easy journey. Our life journey is confronted with storms and waves that beat against us to the point we feel that we’re not going to make it. And it’s during those times when we can feel so isolated to the point that we feel our friends, family and even the church have deserted us because they don’t understand what we’re going through..

But remember what we have just seen. We are “in the boat” with others – we are “in the boat” surrounded by extended support in the “other boats”. But what’s even worse is that at times we feel that even God has left us to battle the storm alone. Just look at the next point of Mark’s: Jesus was in the stern asleep. Jesus knows full well the pain of abandonment when he cried out from the cross – My God, My God, why have you forsaken me? Likewise the disciples cry out:  They woke him up and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Because that is what it felt like.

It felt like Jesus didn’t care that they were being attacked by the wind and the waves. Maybe it feels like you’ve been deserted by Jesus when you’re going through difficult times.

 

But note 2 things from this situation. Firstly, Jesus was there with them. He was in the boat, not on the shore waiting for them to arrive.  Likewise, Jesus is with us in all of our battles. He promised that – I am with you always. He was asleep but this was not an indication of him not caring. No – if he didn’t care then he would have bailed out of the boat. If they drown then so does he. He doesn’t escape just because he was asleep. It’s just that Jesus knows that the wind and the waves can only do so much. They cannot stop his church from arriving at the other side. So he gets up and he rebukes the wind and the waves. Peace – be still.

It will be the same words he will speak to them after his resurrection to calm their fears when they are locked away in a room fearing for their lives. Peace be with you. Peace – be still and know that I am God – is what he is saying.

And that’s what they recognise.

 

Here’s the 2^nd point: That Jesus, even asleep, is the one to whom all must submit – in heaven and on earth and under the earth. He is the one whom the wind and the waves and all must obey. As Christians who have been called out from the world we are called to put our complete faith and trust in Jesus Christ as our Saviour – even when it looks like our entire life is under attack. All must submit to Jesus but it doesn’t mean we won’t be confronted by storms in life. But those storms must submit to Jesus.

 

Our Old Testament reading speaks about one of the greatest stories of human suffering in Job. But God said to Satan that even at the height of his suffering that he cannot take his life because God is the master of all life. We don’t always understand our suffering but we are asked to keep trusting God as Job was when God replied to him: Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Who determined its measurements? Who stretched the line upon it?

On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy? Who shut in the sea with doors when it burst out from the womb?— when I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band, and prescribed bounds for it, and set bars and doors, and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther, and here shall your proud waves be stopped'?"

Job and his friends were trying to analyse his suffering and explain why Job was suffering so greatly rather than trusting in God.

 

St Paul experienced the same challenges in his own suffering but he knew that with God being with him that it would not prevent him from reaching his ultimate goal – eternal life in heaven. So, through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see-- we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything. Paul knew that his salvation was assured and could not be taken away from him. And so too for you – the world can only do so much in the way of suffering but it cannot disqualify you from eternal life in heaven. And that is grounds for rejoicing even in the midst of our storms because now is the day of salvation and there is nothing that can remove that from you –

 

Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord who is with us always to bring us safely to the other side.

 

Sermon 3rd Sunday after Pentecost - 13th June 2021 Text: Mark 4:26-24 – Is Bigger really Better?

 Sermon 3^rd Sunday after Pentecost - 13^th June 2021

Text: Mark 4:26-24 – Is Bigger really Better?

 

Bigger is better is how we usually understand things.

Go to McDonalds and you’ll be tempted to upsize your meal from small to large.

Buy something on TV shopping and they tempt you with a 2nd one free or they’ll add in a heap of accessories.

Or go to Costco and everything is jumbo size.

Our phones that used to be smaller are now getting bigger and bigger screens  As are our TV screens.

And, even though I haven’t quite caught up with the technology, I see that most office computers have 2 computer screens so they can work across more information.

Bigger is better whether it’s our houses, our bank balances, our military – even our churches.

It’s almost like we are fighting our own personal Cold Wars where we have to outdo others.

What we continually seem to find, however, when it comes to God, bigger is not necessarily better.

When God chose Israel as his chosen nation he specifically told them - that he had chosen them not because of their numbers or power (indeed, they were a fraction of the human population and a distinctively minor power among the nations but because He loves them

St Paul tells the disciples that God chose them not because of their numbers, influence or power.

He says: think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,

When the disciples were concerned about the huge task that was ahead of them they asked Jesus to increase their faith so they could be up for the challenge:

The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” And the Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.

And again Jesus uses the mustard seed to explain that faith is not about size.

He said: With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

Smallness is the focus of today’s Parable of the Mustard Seed.

From God’s perspective, things are often not what they appear to be at first.

The tiny mustard seed may seem small and insignificant, but it contains something very valuable to emphasise that size can be deceiving.

It helps us understand that out of a small thing can come something powerful?

And what does Paul say about God’s power? The weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

And that’s because the power of God is hidden behind the illusion of weakness:

It is hidden behind the seemingly weakness of Christ’s humiliating death: Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

Smallness is what Jesus referred to again and again in his ministry.

And we know, too, that smallness is the basis on which the church began.

Even small churches have their advantages over larger churches.

It’s interesting that one of the key focuses of large churches is their “Small Group Ministry”.

The dangers of focusing on size is that we can too easily be tempted to trust in size rather than faith in God.

St Paul urged that in our 2nd reading today:

We are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord-- for we walk by faith, not by sight.

Paul’s concern was the temptation to begin to rely on that outward strength and lose faith in God.

He said: they boast in outward appearance and not in the heart.

Paul  had a real thing against boasting:

In Ephesians 2 he says: For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

Likewise he says about knowledge: We know that “We all possess knowledge.” But knowledge puffs up while love builds up. Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know.

Even in his own life Paul knew the dangers of boasting and accepted God’s “thorn in the flesh” – his suffering as a way of preventing boasting:

Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me.  Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

So, again, Paul saw the weakness of God hiding true power and therefore when it came to boasting he said: I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

We live in a world that not only promotes bigness it idolises it.

So we avoid this temptation to join in the human view of success.

Paul says: we regard no one from a human point of view;

Rather we regard people from a Christian point of view because in Christ there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

There is nothing small when it comes to faith. Faith is faith.

You either have faith or you don’t have faith.

So never underestimate the faith you have.

Even if you feel like it’s barely there remember that Jesus said a smouldering wick he will not snuff out.

Even if you feel your faith has been battered and bruised, Jesus said: A bruised reed he will not break,

Jesus lifted the hopes of the woman whose many sins made her rejected by others – it was her many sins not her great faith which saw her dedication and love to Jesus.

I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love.

Jesus restored a woman rejected by the Law of Moses because of her behaviour requiring her to be stoned to death.

It wasn’t her great faith but Jesus’ love for her that saved her.

And what greater example do we have than the thief on the cross.

In his dying breath he simply says – remember me when you come into your kingdom.

No measure of faith there – just a death bed plea to our Lord.

Don’t be intimidated or be made to feel inadequate about your faith.

Sadly I have heard people say – if you had more faith you would be healed or things along those lines.

Jesus never said that.

In fact he said the opposite today – faith as small as a mustard seed.

But even more important, You are saved by grace “THROUGH” faith, for Christ’s sake.

You are not saved by faith but by grace.

And that is important because Paul said today - all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ.

But even there we do not fear about whether we have enough faith but remember – everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved – by grace.