Archive for God the Father

“The heavens declare”

September 25, 2009 at 7:19 pm · Filed under God the Father, Old testament ·Tagged , , ,

 

Psalm 19

The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.           ( Psalm 19 :1 )

Perhaps these words remind you of the famous chorus from Haydn’s Creation. They are from Psalm 19, a great song of praise to God for his creation and for his law. I want us to think about this psalm today.

Now, the psalms are perhaps the greatest example of Hebrew poetry. Even when they are translated into other languages, such as English, we can still hear the poetry in them. How is it possible then to preach a sermon on a psalm?  I’ve always found it difficult and have not often attempted to do so.

This is because the last thing we want to do is to dissect the psalm, to analyze it minutely, to cut the soul out of it. To turn the most beautiful poetry into dry-as-dust precepts and theology. And whatever I say about the psalm will never compare with the sublimity of the original, or even with the English or Welsh translations. The best we can hope to do is to use our imagination a a little,  to see the background of the psalm. What did it mean to the person who wrote it, and what can it mean to us today?

 
A Psalm of David

First  we note that it was written by David. He had been a shepherd boy and had spent a great deal of time out-of-doors. He had looked up to the sky and seen magnificent cloud fortresses illuminated by shafts of light from the Sun. As he settled his sheep in the fold he gazed up at the night sky. He wondered at the stars and moon as he lay down to sleep under the sky.

In the morning he arose and  the Sun’s beams warmed his chilled bones  – bringing new life to him. He meditated on the power and warmth of the Sun. David then led his flock out to the pasture and sat down on a great rock from which he could watch them. Then he took up his harp and sang  a hymn to God. He felt the rock beneath him, solid and dependable, and he realised that God was like that rock. He was reliable – David could trust in him.

He sang, “The Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer.  His words and his laws are perfect – they bring joy and life to my soul.” To his mind God’s laws were like the rays of he Sun penetrating everywhere and bringing life. Lighting the path ahead and showing the way. Warming the soul and comforting.

David meditated on his inner life. He realised that he had made mistakes,  and more than that, he had committed sins. God’s Law shone right into his very heart. David prayed that sin would not rule over him.

Once again he took up his harp and he sang a new song to God. He gathered all his thoughts together in the words of this psalm and sang it to the Lord. He ended with these words:
“May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer”.

Well, we’ve been using a bit of imagination. I don’t know whether these really were the circumstances in which this psalm was written, but they might have been.

Here is another version of this psalm put into simple English for those who do not speak it as their first language. It can also help us to get a fresh view of the psalm:

 

An EasyEnglish Translation on Psalm 19

           (This is) a song of David for the music leader.

     The heavens are telling us about the glory of God.
     The sky is showing the things that his hands have made.

     One day pours out the story to another day.
     One night tells the next night what it knows.

     (But) they do not use words and have no languages.
     Nobody hears their voice.

     (Yet) what they say goes into all the earth.
     Their words go to the ends of the world.
     God has made a home for the sun (in the sky).

     The sun comes out from his home like a bridegroom.
     He is very happy to run fast, like a very strong man.

     His sunrise is at one end of the heavens.
     He travels in a big circle to the other end.
     Nothing can hide from the heat of the sun.

     The book of the LORD is wonderful.
     It makes people feel alive again.
     We can trust what the LORD tells us.
     He points out the way when we are not sure of it.

     What the LORD tells us to do is always right.
     It makes us feel happy deep down inside us.
     What the LORD commands us is pure.
     It makes our eyes shine with new light.

     The fear of the LORD is a clean fear.
     It will always remain with us.
     Every word that the LORD says is true.
     Every one of them is righteous.

    They are of more value than gold,
     even a lot of pure gold.
     They are sweeter than honey,
     even the best honey that bees make.

     Also, they are a guide to your servant.
     Good things come if he obeys them.

     Who can know when he has made mistakes?
     Forgive me all my secret sins.

     Also, stop your servant from wanting to sin.
     Do not let sin rule over me.
     Then nobody will say that I did wrong.
     I will be clean (because you help me).
     I will not do anything very bad.

     Lord, I want everything that I say to make you happy.
     I want all my thoughts to please you.
     You are my Rock and you are my Redeemer.

 (  For information on this translation see  www.easyenglish.info  )

 

The God of nature and the Lord of Israel

This Psalm divides into two sections. In the first part  ( v1-6) David speaks of the glory of God as shown in the skies. He uses the name  El  for God. This is the general Hebrew word for a god – any god. It could be used of a pagan god. Or it could be used for God himself. ( Just as we use the words “God” and “god” in English.)

But from verse 7 onward the psalm changes gear. David talks about the Law and he refers to God as the Lord. This is the Hebrew name Yahweh ( or Jehovah) – it is the personal name God revealed to Moses from the burning bush. It is God’s covenant name – the name he uses when he is in a relationship with people. Yahweh, Jehovah, The Lord (as we usually translate it in English).

“The heavens declare the glory of God, but God’s Law reveals even more – his personal voice to his chosen people. He introduces himself to them by his first name, as it were.”
(From the Student Bible. Philip Yancy and Tim Stafford.  ISBN 0-340-41078-7 )

 

The glory of God

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”
It was true in those days and its even truer today. The more we mere mortals look into the universe the more we are astounded at the immensity and beauty of it all. When we turn our telescopes at the sky we see distant galaxies shining with incandescent gas. We see rings round Saturn and moons orbiting Mars and Jupiter. We see amazing craters on the moon. We marvel at it all and we say, “Truly God is great, who created all this!”

You don’t need to know about the God of the Bible to be able to say that. You might never have seen a  Bible or heard of Jesus but you can still see the evidence for God the Creator. Only fools says there is no God.  ( Psalm 14 )

And the Apostle says: 
“Since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities— his eternal power and divine nature— have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”  ( Roman 1:20 )

The heavens declare the glory of God

Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
here is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.
(Psalm 19:2-4)

Although there are no audible words their voice is heard in every nation. The Sun, David says, shows God’s glory and its warmth penetrates everywhere. Without the Sun there would be no life on earth.

We talk about solar power as if it were something new. But we’ve all been living off solar power since time began!  If we burn wood in our grate then that  is just solar power stored by a tree. We may burn coal or oil to fire our power stations and use petrol in our cars but these fossil fuels are just solar power which has been stored away for vast periods of time.
We depend on the Sun for physical life and we depend on God’s truth for spiritual life. This is where the psalm changes gear.

 

The Law of the Lord

Yahweh’s Law is what revives the soul. It brings wisdom, joy, illumination. it warns of wrong paths and it shows the right path to take. For David it was the Law of Moses – the first five books of the Bible. That’s all he had. Yet he found that Law was able to bring light and joy to  his soul. We have so much more – the prophets, the psalms, proverbs, historic books – and that’s just the Old Testament. Then on top of that we have the gospels about Jesus and the writings of his Apostles.

The Bible shows us the way to live and it points us to Jesus, our Redeemer

David, as he reflected on God’s Law, became aware of his inward sins. He realised that it’s not just the outward things that matter.

Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults.
Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great transgression.
(Psalm 19: 12,13 )

He knew that God was his Rock and Redeemer.

 
Conclusion

What about us?  Do we know God as our Rock, our Redeemer? Do we know Jesus as the Saviour who brought us out of darkness into his marvelous light? He made it possible for our inward sins and faults to be forgiven.
 
If we can say the pagans had no excuse for rejecting the true God, what excuse do we have if we reject God, when we have the full revelation of himself in his Son Jesus. He is our Rock and Redeemer.

(Reflections on David the shepherd boy in this sermon were suggested by EasyEnglish commentary on Psalm 19 .   See    www.easyenglish.info    )

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In the beginning

July 20, 2009 at 7:56 pm · Filed under God the Father, Old testament ·Tagged , ,

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Adam and Eve cast out of the Garden of Eden

 

( Sermon preached in the Brecon Presbyterian Church in 2005)

 

Introduction

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth”.

These are possibly the most important words in the whole Bible. They tell us that the world did not just come about by chance – that there is an intelligent and creative mind behind it all. These first chapters of Genesis are at the centre of controversy between the Fundamentalists who would insist it must all be taken absolutely literally and those who would want to see how these chapters relate to the findings of science. For example, geologists studing rock strata have deduced that fossils are the remains of creatures that flourished millions of years ago – how does that fit in with the seven days of Creation? 
 
I’m not going into that controversy now except to say that personally I tend towards the scientific approach. We could spend hours discussing the interpretation of these chapters and still miss the point. The message is the important thing here. What does Genesis teach us about God, about the world, about human nature? It conveys profound truths in a few words. The first chapters of Gen. undergird the  whole Judeo-Christian outlook, which is so different from that of other religions such as Hinduism and Buddhism. 

 

God alone 

(v1) In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
  – it teaches that there is one God, that he existed before the world and that he created all that is. Also, in the way that it speaks of him, it implies that he is a rational being who thinks and speaks. Indeed it is through his words that he creates the world. 
 
 (v3-4) And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.  God saw that the light was good, and He separated the light from the darkness.
God first made the light. This is more than just a reference to that electromagnetic radiation that stimulate our optic nerves. Perhaps it means energy in general but surely it also refers to light in a spiritual sense. For God always shines his light into the darkness of our souls -

“For God , who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of  God in the face of Christ”.   (2 Cor. 4:6)

The next few verses of Genesis tell us how God spoke and things came into being.  “Stuff happened!”  He didn’t have to make it out of anything – he created it out of nothing. 

 He made a world with all things in order – Sun, Moon, Earth, land, sea, plants and animals. God made all things and gave them all the means of existence and sustenance.  God: the giver of all. To him we owe our very existence. We are required to worship him. 

 

 Caedmon’s Hymn

 Now let me praise the keeper of Heaven’s kingdom,
   the might of the Creator, and his thought,
 the work of the Father of glory, how each of wonders
   the Eternal Lord established in the beginning.

 He first created for the sons of men
   Heaven as a roof, the holy Creator,
 then Middle-earth the keeper of mankind,
   the Eternal Lord, afterwards made,
 the earth for men, the Almighty Lord.
(C7th. Old English poem)

 

Mankind 

God said, “let’s make human beings”.
(Gen. 2:7)  the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

 We are indeed made from the dust – from the materials of the earth. Take a handful of  soil and analyse its elements chemically. You will find carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, phosphorus, iron, calcium, magnesium and numerous other elements. Take the same amount of human tissue and analyse it and you will find the same elements. We are made up of the same materials as the earth. And when we die and decay those elements are released back to the earth to be recycled by nature.
“For dust you are and to dust you will return.” (Gen. 3: 19).

 

Breath of God 

 The animals and plants are also made of the same elements but God breathed life into man. Not just the life that all animals have but a divine breath. So there is that divine spark in every human being. 
(Gen 1: 26) Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness,
-this is is another way of saying the same thing.
 
    So God created man in his own image,  in the image of God he created him;   male and female he created them.
 - male and female – both in God’s image. They were created equal. It is only the fall and the coming of sin that has introduced inequality. 

 

Stewardship 

(Gen.1: 28)   God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

God put them in charge of creation.  With their intelligence they have the power to dominate all other species. But what use will they make of this power? Will they rule kindly and justly? Or will they exploit and ravage the world of its resources? Will they mistreat the lower species and abuse them? Will they ruin the environment in which they have been placed by God? I don’t think that I need to answer that question!

In the beginning, though, all was right – man and woman were in harmony with their environment and God gave them work to do.

 (Gen. 2: 15.)  The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Human beings were made to to work – not to be idle. But the work that they were given in the beginning was not irksome toil, it was profitable and creative. It was the task of nurturing, tending, caring, improving the Garden of Eden. Work was never intended to be drudgery in the beginning – that is a consequence of man’s sin and fall. 
 

The Fall

Gen 3 tells how this Fall came about. It was the results of listening to the Evil One. It was the results of doubting the goodness of God. 
Gen. 3: 4 – 5 -  “You will not surely die”, the Serpent said to the woman, “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”     In other words, “God’s just a spoilsport!”

So they listened to the evil One, they took the fruit, and suddenly they realised they were naked. They hid from God in the bushes. Now what was there to be ashamed of? It wasn’t the nakedness itself – it was the disobedience that they were ashamed of. There’s nothing sinful in a naked human body in itself but there is something deeply sinful in disobeying and distrusting God .

 

Banned from the Garden

So they were cast out of the Garden and had to make their way in the hard world with toil and suffering.  Immediately everything is messed up. Work is now irksome drudgery.

·  Humans are out of joint with the universe now. No longer are they in harmony with their environment. They start to spoil it and to exploit it.

·  They are out of joint with one another too. Even when they are still in the garden the first thing we see after the Fall is a domestic quarrel. God says to Adam, “What have you done?” Adam says, “She did it, it was her fault!” The woman says, “It was the serpent’s fault!” So this fatal tendency to blame others for our own faults began in the Garden of Eden. 
 
·  Man is now also out of joint with himself  – he becomes a restless being who can find no inner peace.  That can only come if he can get God back at the centre of his life.

·  He is completely out of harmony with God  – and this is the worst effect of his sin, for God is the source of life.  Adam and Eve have shut themselves off from God – they will die.

 
Conclusion 

 But I can’t end this sermon on a negative note. For, after all, we know the Good News:  how one of Eve’s descendants, Jesus Christ, has defeated that old Serpent Satan. He has overcome death.

·  He has dealt with the problem of sin and guilt. He has opened the way to put as right with God.

·  And he has made it possible to know inner peace.

·  He has made it possible for there to be reconciliation and forgiveness among the warring tribes of earth.

·  He has shown as the way of unselfishness so that we can be better stewards of the world’s resources and creatures. By his Cross and Resurrection Jesus has undone the work of the Evil One and reversed the effects of the Fall. Glory be to his name! 
 
But to understand and appreciate what Jesus has done for us we first need to realise the depths to which we have sunk. And the first chapters of Genesis tell us. They tell us who God is, who we are, and what we are really like, and they point us forward to Jesus the Saviour.

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Some thoughts on Evolution and Creation

July 20, 2009 at 7:06 pm · Filed under God the Father, Jesus Christ ·Tagged , , ,

 

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 This year marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth and the 150th. anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species. And the television schedules have been full of programmes celebrating this. Some have seemingly put forward the atheistic view that Darwin’s theory has made religion redundant. There have, however, been one or two programmes putting a more balanced point of view. Darwin himself did not claim his theory was contrary to Christianity. Although he was an agnostic towards the end of his life (largely as a result of the death of his daughter) he was not opposed to those who had faith in God. Writing to Joseph Hooker in 1870 he says, “My theology is in a simple muddle. I cannot look at the universe as the result of blind chance, yet I can see no evidence of beneficent design”.

Leaving aside Darwin’s personal views, I think it would be a good thing to clear the air a bit in the current debate with some definitions. It seems to me that there are only a few possible positions one can hold in this debate.

  

 

 The Modern Creationist View

 This is also known as Young Earth Creationism. Adherents of this position insist that the early chapters of Genesis must be taken literally. God created all species of animals and plants by individual acts of creation within a six-day period at some time within the last ten thousand years. The geological record is not millions of years old, and the presence of fossils in strata apparently millions of year old is just an illusion – these creatures can not have lived millions of years ago.

Most creationists would say that the fossils were laid down in the geological strata during the Flood. Under this view God would have created all species of animals and fitted them for various habitats – the giraffe for the grassy plains of East Africa, the kangaroo for the Australian Outback, the polar bear for the Arctic wastes. Noah would have had to bring these animals to the Ark from their various habitats, and after the Flood they would have migrated back to their original regions. Anyone who thinks about the practicalities of this will see great difficulties in this view. For example: how did the kangaroo get back to Australia from the Middle East after the Flood? How did it cross the seas? How did the three-toed sloth, a creature which can hardly walk on land, get all the way to South America?

  

 

 The Old Creationist View

 The Young Earth Creationist position is a fairly recent one. Before the 1960s most creationists held to the Old Earth Creationist view. According to this position the fossil record really is millions of years old and dinosaurs did roam the earth before Man ever lived. But that world was destroyed (in some undefined way) before Man was created in the Garden of Eden. I have to say, to the scientific mind this seems incredible.

 

 The Darwinian View

According to this, all creatures came into existence by a process of natural selection working on genetic mutations and the process took millions of years. This is the standard scientific theory taught in schools today. Please note: it makes no statement about the existence or non-existence of God. It is simply a description of the mechanism by which species developed from other species. Increasingly, evidence from genetic research is backing up the Darwinian view.

Now science can not make judgements about God. These belong to the realm of faith and theology. But if we are looking at evolution theologically, what positions is it possible to hold? The main theological/philosophical positions are:

· Intelligent Design,

· atheistic evolution,

· theistic evolution.

  

Intelligent Design
 
 This has recently come to the fore in the USA with attempts to have it taught in schools alongside Darwinian evolution. To a Christian, at first, this seems an attractive position. After all, we all as Christians believe in the Creator. He is the Designer, the Architect of all things. But we have to be careful with our terminology here. “Intelligent Design” (when spelled with capital letters) is a term used in a very specific way. According to the adherents of Intelligent Design, evolution proceeds mostly according to natural laws but at certain key points some intelligent being intervenes and alters its course. For a Christian who believes in Intelligent Design that Being is God. He would have intervened at key points in the evolution of creatures to bring about the situation we see today. This is what is meant by the term Intelligent Design – not just the fact that God is the Designer of the universe. That truth is surely best expressed by the theistic view outlined below.

 

 Atheistic Evolution 

This is the view propagated by the likes of Richard Dawkins. According to the adherents of this view, everything happened by chance and there is no God. There is no Creator who framed the universe and ordered its laws. Obviously no Christian can hold this view.  

 

Theistic Evolution
 
 This is the the position I believe a Christian with a scientific outlook can hold. To my mind it is perfectly compatible with an evangelical faith. According to this view, God created all things. He made the universe out of nothing (possibly by means of the “big bang”). He created time and space itself. He framed the laws of nature which made it possible for life to evolve on our planet. These same laws also made it possible for human beings to evolve from the animal kingdom. Rather than saying that God intervened at certain steps along the way ( the view held by the adherents of Intelligent Design) we would say that he controlled the whole process by the laws of nature. We believe in a God who knows about the movements of every atom and subatomic particle in his universe – nothing happens by chance. He doesn’t bring the world into existence and then leave it to run down – like an absent-minded clock maker.

In the words of the Apostle Paul:

Everything was created through him (Christ) and for him.He existed before anything else, and he holds all creation together
 
 

 

(Colossians 1: 16-17, New Living Bible)
 And in the words of the writer of Hebrews:
He (Christ) is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
 (Hebrews 1: 3, English Standard Version)
 God is the Creator who goes on creating because he maintains all things by the word of his power, he holds everything together. If he were to cease to do so for even one second, the whole universe would cease to exist.

   

 

Conclusion

 

I have written this article in an attempt to clear up some of the muddle and confusion. For the evolution debate often produces more heat than light! I remember when I was a young biology student in Cardiff. I had only just come to a real faith in Jesus Christ. Religion was one of the many topics we would discuss together as students. Often the discussion would start off with talking about God and Jesus, but then so often, it would veer off down the path of evolution versus creations, and we would never get back to talking about Jesus. Now to me, Jesus Christ is central – our relationship with him is the most important thing in the universe. How sad if we only talk about evolution and never talk about Jesus!

In my ministry I have often deliberately avoided discussing matters of evolution because it alienates some people. For example,if a preacher is a creationist and he or she preaches on that they will alienate many sincere Christians who believe in theistic evolution. If on the other hand the preacher does believe in theistic evolution and preaches it he or she will alienate equally sincere Christians who are fundamentalists. A preacher who speaks about the ideas of Intelligent Design will probably alienate both groups!

As believers in Jesus I think we can agree to concentrate on the main issue – our faith in Christ – and agree to differ on the matters which are not central to our salvation. We can all agree to reject the propaganda being put forward by the like of Richard Dawkins. Whatever some people may say, science does not promote atheism. It can not, and never will be able to disprove the existence of God.

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Möbius strip

July 15, 2009 at 9:50 pm · Filed under God the Father, Jesus Christ, The Holy Spirit ·Tagged , ,

A Möbius Strip

 

Talk (A)

Produce three paper loops.Demonstrate cutting in two longitudinally:

·  simple loop    =    results in two separate loops
·  loop with one half twist =     results in one large loop
·  loop with two half twists   =     results in  two linked loops

 

Application:

 
·  Two loops: God and us, we are separated from God by sin, self-centredness. Every human being is like this by nature.

·  One big loop:   Jesus. He is different . The only man who never sinned. He is perfectly at one with God. “I and the father are one,” Jesus said  (John 10: 30). “then they took up stones to stone him” for blasphemy.

·  Two interlocking loops:  this is us, linked to God for eternity. When we believe in Jesus, when we turn away from evil, when we ask Jesus to rule our lives,  then we are linked to God. Our sins are forgiven, we become new people and we share in the life of God’s
eternity.  Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  ( Romans 8:35–39)
Recap: two loops – we are separated from God
  one large loop – Jesus is one with God
  two interlocked loops – in Jesus we are joined to God.

 

  

Talk (B)  Möbius Strip

 

[show Möbius strip]
This kind of loop is called a Möbius Strip.  It is a loop with a twist in it.

Can anyone think of somewhere where you can see a Möbius loop in everyday life?  How about at the recycling centre?
The universal symbol for recycling is a Möbius loop in the form of a triangle:

See full size image

 

 Why is it called a Möbius loop? after August Ferdinand Möbius, a German mathematician. he discovered it and studies its amazing mathematical properties. (I’m afraid  we haven’t got time to go into all those equations, etc! )

Let me just  show you something strange: If I draw a line along the strip it comes back to where it was at the beginning. So what? That would happen with any loop. Yes,  but look: the line seems to be drawn on both sides, but it can’t be. I did not allow the pen to cross over the edge! I only drew on one side. If an ant was walking along this strip it would have gone right around the whole strip without once crossing over he edge.

You see: a Möbius strip has only one side – even thought it is a 3-dimensional object!
Most things have got more than one side. A sheet of paper has two, a book has six (think about it). What about a ball? That’s only got one side. (Unless it’s hollow then it’s got an inside and an outside.)
So a Möbius strip is like a sphere,even though it looks very different. Like a sphere it has only one side.Now here is the mathematical symbol for infinity:  

See full size image 

But some people  think the Möbius strip is an even better symbol. You see, it just goes on and on, and never ends Also, it includes both side in one. It is a bit like God! He is infinite and eternal, he goes on for ever. He also covers everything. He is everywhere and he combines in his nature various attributes that we might think are opposites.

For example: God is perfectly good and holy, he can not look upon sin and evil,  but at the same time he is perfectly loving and forgiving.
God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.  (1 John 1:5) 
 - that refers to his holiness. He can not tolerate evil.

But at the same time:
“God is love”  (1 John 4:16).
- God loves us and yearns for us to come to him and know his forgiveness.
One part of his nature has to punish our sins but another part has to forgive our sins. These two seem to be in opposition.  How can God forgive the sinner and punish the sin at the same time?
Well, in Jesus he has done it.  He has done the seemingly impossible. Just as the Möbius strip brings together two sides into one, so Jesus brings together God’s holiness and his mercy. When Jesus died on the cross he took our sin upon himself. He was punished in our place. At the cross God’s holiness and God’s love come together.

Lovingkindness and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.    (Psalm 85:10, New American Standard Bible )

 

 

 Talk (C)  The Holy Trinity

[Demonstrate cutting a strip with three half turns in it. Straighten it out into a trefoil knot.  (Girl Guides should know this!)

 

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It's just one loop, but it is knotted in such a way that it looks like three interlocking loops. Amazing, isn't it? And our God is amazing too. Far more amazing than this. For he is three Persons in one God.

So this trefoil knot is a symbol of the Holy Trinity. The Father and the Son and the Spirit are three distinct persons. But they are only one God.  Just one Being. You can not separate them. They are bound together eternally in love and holiness. And such is the love of our God, the Lord, the Holy Trinity, that he actually came into our world in the person of the Son.  Jesus came to bring salvation to us.

[Recap the first talk with the various loops.]

This talk was given in the Brecon Presbyterian Church at a service of worship for all ages.

 

 

 

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Mothering Sunday

March 23, 2009 at 10:59 am · Filed under God the Father ·Tagged , ,

Mothering Sunday in United Kingdom, 22nd. March 2009

(Talk for Family Service in the Brecon Pesbyterian Church)

What do most people call this day? Mothers’ Day. But it’s not really Mothers’ Day, is it? Mothers’ Day is an American celebration which occurs on the second Sunday in May – it was started in 1914 by Anna Jarvis. What we have in Britain on this Sunday should really be called Mothering Sunday. This tradition goes back much further than Mothers’ Day. hundreds of years ago the fourth Sunday in Lent was called Refreshment Sunday. People used to fast for Lent, but half-way though they were allowed to have a little break. On this Sunday they could refresh themselves with a little bit of cake or something else they would not otherwise be allowed to have. (For the rest of Lent they would have no meat, no eggs, no rich foods at all – nothing but coarse bread and vegetables and pease pudding.)

Now it so happened that one of the readings for this Sunday in the Prayer Book referred to the Church as the Mother of us all.

“ But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.” (Galatians 4:26)

It became the custom on this Sunday for people to gather for worship in the “mother church” in their area – usually the nearest cathedral or large church. On this Sunday also, young apprentices and serving maids would come back home to visit their families. Often they were as young as ten or eleven and they had had to leave home to find work – they didn’t go to school. But they were allowed to visit Mum on Mothering Sunday. The girls would usually bring home with then a special cake, known as a Simnel cake, made with marzipan icing.

A Simnel Cake

The custom was called “going a-mothering” and the poet Robert Herrick wrote about it in 1648:

“I’ll to thee a Simnell bring, ‘gainst thou go’st a mothering. So that, when she blesseth thee, half that blessing thou’lt give to me.”

And so the tradition of Mothering Sunday grew up. And after the Americans invented Mothers’ Day it was decided to keep Mothering Sunday in this country as our equivalent to that.

 

Say “Thank you”

It’s a great Sunday, set aside to say “Thank you” to God for our mothers and for our fathers, and for all those who loved us and cared for us when we were young. Parents have a difficult task (although you younger ones might think it’s the children who have a hard time!) but parents had all the work of caring for us when we were babies as well as all the worry and care of bringing us through school years. And the worry and care doesn’t stop when we grow up and leave home. Mothers and fathers still care for us.

Yes, mothers deserve thanks for what they do, and so do fathers and grandparents, and step-parents and foster-parents and aunts and uncles. All who care for us when we are young. Today we give thanks for all these and we thank God for his love which inspires them.

 

 The dimensions of God’s love

We’ve just sung “How deep the Father’s love for us”. I wonder just how deep God’s love is. Is it possible to plumb the depths?

 

OBJECT (1) TAPE MEASURE

If you want to measure the depth, or the height, or the length, or breadth of something you can use a tape measure. But is there any tape that can measure the dimensions of God’s love? The Bible tells us that God’s love is higher than the the heavens (Psalm 108: 4).

So I don’t think we can measure it with a tape measure!

 

OBJECT (2) MEASURING CUP

Or, if you were making a cake, perhaps a simnel cake, you might measure out the ingredients using a measuring cup or a measuring jug. But the Bible says, “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not be in want … my cup runs over (Psalm 23)

So you can’t measure God’s love – it overflows the cup.

 

OBJECT (3) CLOCK

What about time then? How long does it last? I can measure the length of this service using the clock – don’t worry, we’re not going to go over the hour! Well, how long does God’s love last for?

“The steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting”. (Psalm 103:17)

Wow – it goes on for ever! You can’t measure it. You can’t measure the dimensions of God’s love but you can wonder at them. And you can trust him As we sometimes sing:

So high you can’t get over it.

So low you can’t get under it,

So wide you can’t get round it.

Oh wonderful love!

 

Our God is so wonderful: we can trust him. We all need his help. Mothers need his help and children need his help. Young people and old all need his help. We all need God in our lives.

 ”For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3: 16)

How can you measure a love like that? Paul prayed for the church in Ephesis that they would know how wide, how long, how high and how deep God’s love really is. “May you experience it, though it is so great you will never fully understand it”. (Ephesians 3:18-19)

[ Idea for second part of talk from www.sermons4kids.com ]

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The fish and the bicycle

September 27, 2008 at 11:59 pm · Filed under Christian living, God the Father, The Holy Spirit ·Tagged , ,

Baptismal Family Service: The fish and the bicycle

(used at a baptism service in the Brecon Presbyterian Church)


Sometimes you hear people saying “I need that like a fish needs a bicycle!” In other words: “I don’t need it”. A fish has no legs  -so a bike would be useless to it. I’m going to talk about a fish and a bicycle today: but this will be about things we do need.

The fish

Once there was a little fish who said to his mother, “Mum, where is the ocean?”        “Well, you’re in it!” she said.
“What do you mean? I can’t see it.”
“No you can’t see it, but you’re swimming in it. And you’re breathing it when you open your mouth – water goes in and passes over your gills. But you can’t feel it because you’re in it all the time.”
“I don’t believe you!”, he said. If I can’t see it and I can’t feel it, then it doesn’t exist. There’s no such thing as the ocean! And  with that he swam off to play with his friends in
the wide and deep ocean!

 

What a foolish fish! Because he was in the ocean he could not see it. But if he had been caught in the nets of a trawler- that would have been a different story. He would soon have realized what the ocean was. And he would have missed it badly as he gasped in the hold of the fishing boat – a fish out of water. Then he would have realized how important the ocean was to him.

I think  a lot of people are like that fish. They say God doesn’t exist, just because they can’t see him or touch him. But like the fish in the story they are  being foolish.
 The fool says in his heart, There is no God. (Psalm 14:1)

You see: like the ocean, God is all around us, and in us. He created us and everything else, and he keeps it all in being. He is the Ground of our Existence.
In him we live and move and have our being. ( Acts 17:28 )

You know, the worst thing that can happen to a fish is to be taken out of the ocean – and the worst thing for us is to be separated from God. But if people continually reject God  (we are warned in the Bible)  they shall eventually be eternally separated from God. There is a word for this state of separation -  we call it Hell.

But the wonderful good news is that God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him shall not die eternally but shall have eternal life.  (John 3: 16).
Jesus died on the cross to save us from that state of separation. It’s like rescuing a fish and throwing it back alive into the ocean, and seeing it swim joyfully away.

The Good News is all about Jesus.

 

The bicycle

Gethin and Rachel, you have just confessed your faith in God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 
You can think of the Father as the one in whom we “live and move and have our being – the ocean in which we swim, if you like.
 And you can think of Jesus, the one who took human form and died on the cross to save us from eternal separation from God. To save us from our sins, our wrong deeds, and to put us right with God.
Whenever anyone believes in Jesus, and trusts in him, and commits themselves to him they become a new person. They receive the Holy Spirit,  who is the Third Person of God. He helps us to live as Christians. He gives us the power to live the Christian life – to live lives of love, and honesty, and truth, and integrity.

Electric Bike

Here is  a bicycle.  Now a bike is a good way to get around,  especially on the flat, but when you have to climb hills it can he hard work.  It’s easier if you’ve got good gears – like on a mountain bike. But this bike is not a mountain bike. it’s not an ordinary bike either.Can you see anything different about it?  It’s a bit heavier than usual. What’s this box here? It’s a battery!  Yes this is an electric bike. It’s got a motor in the back wheel. [demonstrate power]
So it’s much easier getting up the hills here in Brecon.

Now there are two ways of using this bike with the power on. If you put the switch in this position you you can use the throttle, and off the bike goes without  you having to pedal at all (although you might have to pedal a bit to help it up the hills).

But with the switch in this position you have power assisted mode. You pedal the bike as normal and whenever the pedal moves the motor give a bit of a push to the wheel. so you go forward faster.  You get a bit of help. If you pedal faster it gives  you more help. If you stop pedalling it stops giving you power. So in the power assisted mode you and the bike work together to go forward.

Now I would say that living the Christian life is like that. God gives us the power of the Holy Spirit  to help us to live as Christians should live. But we’ve got our part to play as well. Sometimes God will not help us  unless we do certain things – just as you only get power assistance when you move the pedals.

So there are some things we have to do. For instance:

  •  We have to believe in Jesus and commit ourselves to him
  • Then they asked him, What must we do to do the works God requires? Jesus answered, The work of God is
  • this: to believe in the one he has sent. (John 6: 28-29)
  • we have to be humble
  • we have to be sorry for our sins
  • we have to listen to God. He can speak to us through the Bible.  We’ve got to read it, or listen to it being read.
  •  we have to learn about Jesus and his ways
  • we have to come to church and worship God with other Christians
  • we have to pray and to seek his help to live our lives.

Rachel and Gethin today have asked God’s help and blessing on their child Craig. But they’ve got to play their part too. They must teach Craig and Nerys and Owain about God and Jesus, pray with them, pray for them, bring them to church. Family services like this are a good way to start.

In God we live and move and have our being.  He is all around us, but we will not connect with him until we play our part. When we trust in him, his divine life and power can flow into our lives.

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fathers: human and divine

June 8, 2008 at 6:53 pm · Filed under God the Father, Jesus Christ, New Testament ·Tagged , ,

Some thoughts for Fathers’ Day – based on an all-age sermon preached in Brecon.

The father of Jesus.

Jesus is the Son of God. The Heavenly Father is his Father, and has always been from before the beginning of the world. But as a child, Jesus had an earthly father also – Joseph. He wasn’t the real father of Jesus – God was.

But Joseph did marry Mary, Joseph did bring Jesus up, Joseph did become the foster father of Jesus. Jesus, indeed, was known as “Jesus of the son of Joseph the Carpenter of Nazareth”.
So we are going to be thinking about the two fathers of Jesus.

 
 Joseph

You know the Christmas story - Joseph had found out that Mary was going to have baby. They were not yet married, and Joseph knew it wasn’t his child. It must have been terrible for him to think that Mary had betrayed him with another man, and terrible for Mary that Joseph should think that. It was a terrible time of suffering for both of them. Joseph  decided to break off the engagement, and to do it privately because he  didn’t want to cause more pain to Mary. He still loved her.

The Angel spoke to Joseph in a dream. “Joseph  do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the baby she is going to have is from the Holy Spirit. she will have a son  and you should call him Jesus (the Lord saves) because he will save his people from their sins”.

So Joseph  did what the Angel had said – he took Mary as his wife, and the child in her womb became legally his.

Then they had a terrible time.  Joseph and Mary had to go all the way to Bethlehem, and her child was born in a stable.  They  had to flee in order to escape from Herod’s soldiers to the land of Egypt. In all this Joseph  cared for Mary and Jesus. He protected them, he guarded them, he provided for them.

Have you ever wondered why, in Matthews Gospel, when he tells us about the wise men coming to the house where the Holy Family were lodging, there is no mention of Joseph?
 On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. (Matt 2: 11)
Where was Joseph ? I think he was out  working as a carpenter somewhere – he was earning money to support his wife and child.

Later the Holy Family returned from Egypt and settled in Nazareth. Joseph  made sure Jesus could read and write. He took him to the village school in the synagogue where the Rabbi taught the boys to read and instructed them in God’s Law. Jesus learned to love God’s word.

 Joseph  also trained Jesus in the carpenter’s trade. Together they would work at the bench, making chairs, and beds, and yokes for animals.

Later we read of Jesus being referred to as “the carpenter of Nazareth” -  and no mention of Joseph. So it is very likely that Joseph  died when Jesus was in his early twenties. Jesus then became head of the family -  running the business with his younger brothers.
Joseph was, in so many ways, an ideal father. He was loving and caring, he was honest and righteous ( wanted to do the right thing). He protected his family.

In St Joseph’s RC Primary school in Brecon there is a the statue of Joseph  and the boy Jesus, represented in modern dress. Jesus stand in front of Joseph and Joseph has his hands on his shoulders. Beautifully expressive of protection and care, and pride in his son.

Joseph provided for his family, he trained his children both in God’s Law and in the carpenter’s trade. he was a good father. And Jesus wasn’t even really his child!
Joseph is a real encouragement and inspiration. Not just to all fathers but especially to foster fathers and step-fathers.

He showed all the characterisics of the good father:

·  LOVING
·  CARING
·  RIGHTEOUS
·  PROTECTING
·  PROVIDING
·  TRAINING

 

God our Father

I want us to think about God now as our Father. He is the Father of Jesus in a very special way, but he is also our Father. We are his sons and daughters, although not in the same way that Jesus is. But if we believe in Jesus we are children of God.
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God  (John 1: 12)

When  and Mary lost Jesus at the age of 12 in Jerusalem they eventually found him in the Temple. He said them, “Didn’t you know I had to be in my Father’s house?”
 Jesus knew from an early age that God was his Father.

Let’s think about the characteristics of a good father. They are true of Joseph but they are even more true of God. All earthly fathers take their lead from God as Heavenly Father.

·  LOVING 
 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3: 16)

·  CARING  Casting all your care on him; for he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7)

·  RIGHTEOUS  God is holy and pure. He wants us to be holy like him. he will forgive our sins if we repent.

·  PROTECTING  And we can turn to him at all times

·  PROVIDING 
 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
 (Matt 6: 32-34) 

·  TRAINING  He has given the Bible, his Word, and sent his Spirit to help us understand.

 
Conclusion


Some people have never known the love of a good father (or father-figure) in their lives. That is very sad.
 But everyone can turn to God, who is a father to the fatherless, and whose purpose for each one of us is one of love.
 All he wants is us to do is respond to his love.

 

Note: this material is not copyright. Anyone who finds it helpful may use it in sermons, articles, print and reprint, with or without acknowledgement.

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