Archive for Jesus Christ

“No pain, no gain.”

September 11, 2009 at 9:59 pm · Filed under Christian living, Jesus Christ, Sacrifice of Jesus ·Tagged ,

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Mark 8:27-38

A Family Service at the Brecon Presbyterian Church

Talk  (A)
(Illustrated with felt board figures and scene.)

Jesus left Galilee and went to the area known as Caesarea Philippi. It was in Gentile territory – a pagan place. The town had been built in honour of Caesar by Philip, the ruler of that area. It was a place were they worshipped Caesar as a god. It was also been a place where, in the past, people had worshipped the god Ba’al.  As well as this, the Greek god Pan was worshipped here -  he was said to have been born in the area.

As they were going along the road to this place Jesus asked his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”

“Some say you are John the Baptist brought, back to life. Others say Elijah the prophet has returned. Others say you are one of the other prophets who has come back,” they replied.

“Yes, but who do you say I am?” Jesus asked.

Peter said, “You are the Messiah, God’s Anointed One.”
Jesus then told them them to keep this knowledge to themselves for the time being.

 

The Messiah

But who was this Messiah Peter spoke of? The Jews were waiting for him to come. He was the one who was going to solve the nation’s problems. They had been under the rule of foreign powers for centuries but they believed the Messiah was going to come. He would restore the kingdom and bring new life to the nation. This was the hope of the Jewish people at the time of Jesus.

They had all sorts of ideas about what he would be like. But most of them thought of a mighty conqueror who would drive the Romans from the Holy Land and then reign as king in Jerusalem. Then they would defeat all the Gentile nations and rule over them.

No doubt Peter thought in these terms when he said, “You are the Messiah.”

But Jesus’ idea of the Messiah was very different. It was more like the “suffering servant” we read about in Isaiah.

 

Suffering and Sacrifice

Jesus started taking about the Messiah in these terms: “The Son of Man will suffer many things. He will be rejected by the religious leaders and he will be killed. But after three days he will rise again.” All this was very different from Peter’s ideas of the Messiah and Jesus emphasized it a great deal until it was too much for Peter.

“No, Lord, don’t talk like that! These sorts of things wouldn’t happen to the Messiah. You’re not going to be rejected and die.” (Peter  didn’t seem to have cottoned on to the bit about rising from the dead.)

Jesus must have felt then he was being tempted to turn away from the path God had set before him  – the way of the cross. It was just like on that previous occasion when he had been tempted by the devil in the wilderness. Then Satan had proposed ways of avoiding the suffering and sacrifice.

Yes,  it would have been easy for Jesus to do that. People were willing to follow him as a military leader. By using force and supernatural power he could have overthrown the Romans. But his way is not the way of force and military might.

“Get behind me Satan,” he said, “these are not God’s thoughts, but men’s.”

 

Talk (B)

 
Song written by Larry Norman in the 70’s

Some say he was an outlaw that he roamed across the land
With a band of Unschooled ruffians and a few old fisherman.
No one knew just where he came from, or exactly what he’d done.
But they said it must be something bad that kept him on the run.

Some say he was a sorcerer, a man of mystery,
He could walk upon the water, he could make the blind man see.
He conjured wine at weddings and did tricks with fish and bread
And he talked of being born again and raised people from the dead

Some say he was a poet that he would stand upon the hill
And his voice could calm an angry crowd, or make the waves stand still.
He spoke in many parables that few could understand
But the people sat for hours just to listen to this man.

Some say a politician, who spoke of being free
He was followed by the masses on the shores of Galilee.
He spoke out against corruption and he bowed to no decree
They feared his strength and power, so they nailed him to a tree.
Some say he was the Son of God, A man above all.
That he came to be a servant and to set us free from sin And that’s who I believe he was,
because that’s who I believe.

 

Talk (C) 

[Show various crosses - gold necklace, wooden, palm cross, etc.]

Take up your cross

Every day we see crosses all around us. People wear them as jewellery, they hang them on the wall, and they use them as key chains. When you pass by a church, it is not unusual to see a cross on the steeple. We even see many people who wear the cross as a tattoo. What comes to your mind when you see a cross? What does the cross mean to you? Is it just a piece of jewellery or a work of art?

For Jesus the cross was not a piece of jewellery or a work of art. It was the instrument on which he was going to be executed. When he said to his disciples that they would have to take up their cross and follow him they didn’t think he was talking about wearing jewellery or carrying an ornamental wooden cross. He meant that, as his followers, they would have to be prepared to die for their faith, if necessary.

 

Deny yourself

Jesus also talked about denying oneself in order to share  in eternal life. What does this mean? In the Middle Ages people thought it meant becoming a monk, treating yourself harshly, fasting for long periods, whipping your body and wearing hair shirts! But Jesus didn’t mean this. By denying yourself he meant forgetting yourself – letting go of selfishness and thinking about other people. Most of all, thinking about God and what he wants for your life. It’s about submitting to God’s will and living for others.
You know the saying: “If you want JOY in life then put Jesus first, Others second and Yourself last.”  J.O.Y.

If we are going to enter into God’s Kingdom then there are certain things we might have to let go of. Of course, we must renounce sin and turn away from all that we know to be wrong. We have to repent and ask forgiveness for our sins in the name of Jesus. But even after that there may be some things we have to let go of. They are not things that are wrong in themselves; it’s just that they might get in the way of eternal life.

Jesus said: What good is it if someone gains the whole world but loses his soul?    ( v 36)

 if we don’t let go of these things we might miss out on the most important thing of all – a relationship with God and the sure and certain promise of being with him for ever.

This is how Eugene Peterson paraphrases this passage in The Message:

“ … But Peter grabbed him in protest. Turning and seeing his disciples wavering, wondering what to believe, Jesus confronted Peter. “Peter, get out of my way! Satan, get lost! You have no idea how God works! Calling the crowd to join the disciples, he said, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat;I am. Don’t run from suffering, embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self Help is no help at all. Self Sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for? If any of you are embarrassed over me and the way I’m leading you when you get around your fickle and unfocused friends, know that you’ll be an ever greater embarrassment to the Son of Man when he arrives in all the splendor of God, his Father, with an army of the holy angels.”

 

Choices

It’s true that in life we make all kinds of choices.

  • Will I look for wealth and power: or will I look for ways to help people?
  • Will I care for the people around me: or will I just selfishly seek my own pleasure?
  • Will I concentrate on money, fame or fashion: or will I work hard to develop my talents to use for the benefit of others?

 
At a most basic level it could be a simple as:  ”will I go to church this morning, or will I do something else?” For the grown-ups that “something else” might be playing golf, or washing the car.  For young people it might be going our with your friends. The point is that there will always be clashes in life. We often have to make a choice between one thing and another.  We have to decide our priorities. So, how much priority do we give to following Jesus?

 

Following

Jesus never said it was going to be easy to follow him. In fact he used the most stark image to describe it. “You’ve got to take up your cross”, he said. And he wasn’t thinking of a gold cross, or one ornamented with jewels. He was thinking about the cross carried by the condemned man -  the cross he was going to be crucified on. Some people have literally done that – they have died for their faith in Jesus.

Clarence Jordan was a well known preacher, scholar and farmer in the USA in the mid 20th. century. (He was one of the founders of  Habitat for Humanity.)  Once Jordan was invited to preach at a magnificent church. The pastor showed him everything and pointed to a beautiful cross on the steeple: “That cross alone cost us $10,000.’

Jordan said, “Time was when a Christian could get one of those for free.”

(“A Cloud of Witnesses” by C. Douglas Weaver, Macon GA: Smyth & Helwys, 1993)

It’s unlikely that we will be asked to die for our faith, but we must be prepared to live for it. To give it the top priority in life.

Clarence Jordan also founded a Christian community of both black and white people in South Georgia in the 1940s. This was revolutionary thing to do and the congregation were severely persecuted.  Jordan asked the help of his brother who was a lawyer. “Having political aspirations, the brother refused. Clarence suggested that his brother should go back to the rural church where they had both walked the aisle to accept Christ and explain something. ‘Tell them,’ said Clarence, ‘what you really meant to say was that you ADMIRE Jesus, not that you want to FOLLOW him.’”

(“A Cloud of Witnesses” by C. Douglas Weaver, Macon GA: Smyth & Helwys, 1993)

Do we just admire Jesus, or do we want to follow him?

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“Ephphatha”

September 7, 2009 at 10:29 am · Filed under Christian living, Jesus Christ, New Testament

Mark 7:24-37

Introduction

Today I am going to so something I rarely do – preach from a text, a single verse. Actually it’s really just one word from Mark 7: 34

“Ephphatha”, which means “be opened”.

This is the actual Aramaic word used by Jesus when he healed a deaf man and commanded his lips and mouth to be opened. But I want to apply it to this whole passage in Mark 7: 24 to the end of the chapter. Here we see Jesus going out into Gentile territory and breaking new ground, opening up new groups of people to the Kingdom of God. So it’s all about being open – in contrast to the closed minds of the Pharisees and Scribes. In the previous section they were criticising the disciples of Jesus for not going through the correct procedure before eating their food.

These men thought of religion as something just for the elite. Only for Jews, and only really for those Jews who were wealthy enough to be able to afford to go through elaborate time-consuming rituals. It was partly to get away from such people that Jesus went off to the territory of Tyre and Sidon. He also probably needed to get some rest and relaxation. So he left the country, he went abroad, out of Jewish territory.

Although Tyre and Sidon had originally been included in the land allotted to the tribes of Israel, the fact is that the tribe of Asher had never fully settled their territory. So Tyre and Sidon remained in the hands of the pagan Canaanites. At the time of Jesus it was a very mixed area, both ethnically and religiously. There were a few Jews around, but most people were pagans.

These were the cities of the Phoenicians who were great sailors. They were the first men to steer by the stars. They traded right across the Mediterranean, and even as far as Britain where they came to buy Cornish tin. They built cities in North Africa – most notably, Carthage. The Phoenicians who lived in Tyre and Sidon were known as Syro-phoenicians (that is Syrian Phoenicians) as opposed to the ones from North Africa who were known as the Carthaginians. They were all descendents of the ancient Canaanites and worshipped the god Baal.

(We read quite a lot about them in the Old Testament, in the story of Elijah. Jezebel was a Sidonian princess and worshipper of pagan gods.)

In Phoenicia there were also other tribes and races – Romans, Greeks and Syrians, among others. Two main languages were spoken by the common people – Aramaic (a language related to Hebrew which had been the official language of the old Persian empire) and Greek (which had been the language of the empire of Alexander the Great). Latin was the official language of the Roman authorities. The same situation existed in Palestine and it is very likely that Jesus and his disciples were bilingual in Aramaic and Greek.

 

 

Moving out

Mark tells us that Jesus and his disciples went to the vicinity of Tyre and stayed in a lodging place there. Jesus wanted to be on his own – but soon people heard who he was and started flocking to him. A woman came to him and begged that he would save her daughter from the power of an unclean spirit. We don’t know anything else about the girl. What was her name? How old was she? What form did the demon possession take? How had she come under this evil power? How long had she been in this state? We don’t know these things but we do know that her mother was desperate. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.

She was desperate enough to come to this Jewish healer, even though she was just a gentile. “Gentile dogs” is what they were called by most Jews. And to the Jewish way of thinking dogs were unclean animals.

Now we come to the part of the story that causes most problems to modern commentators. It’s just so politically incorrect! Jesus refers to this woman and her daughter as dogs!

“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”

It seems so harsh. It makes it appear that Jesus was as narrow minded and judgmental as the Pharisees. But we notice one thing, which is not apparent in the English versions of the Bible.

When he speaks to her, Jesus doesn’t use the normal Greek word for dog, KUON, which just means a cur, any old dog roaming the streets. Instead he uses the diminutive form, KUNARION, a little dog, a pet dog. It’s almost a term of affection.

It is surely significant that Jesus used this word for dog. (By the way, if you are wondering why Jesus should have been speaking Greek, it was because this woman was a Greek-speaker. Although she was Syro-phoenician she didn’t speak Aramaic. Just as you can be of Welsh birth and nationality and yet not be able to speak Welsh. Jesus apparently was bilingual, so he spoke to her in Greek.)

“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”

The little pet dogs that lie under the table waiting for the children to drop scraps of food for them. Of course, no orthodox Jew would have such an arrangement in his household. The dogs, if there were any, would have been kept outside. But Jesus is talking to a Gentile woman, and Gentiles didn’t necessarily regard all dogs as unclean.

Jesus is saying, in effect, that he had come to bring God’s help to the Jews first. His mission was to show to the Jews that he was their Messiah. Only after that had happened would the Gentiles be included. Jesus is not excluding the Gentiles, he is just stressing that he is, first and foremost, the Messiah of the Jews.

Also he seems to be testing this woman to see if she really wants to allow God to work in her life. Or is she just looking for a miracle cure for her daughter? There are several other occasions in the gospels when Jesus seemed to go out of his way to put people off following him. He often needed to test their intentions.

But this woman rises to the test:

“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.” “Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”

 It wasn’t just because of her clever repartee, it was because she showed faith in the God of Israel. She acknowledged that Jesus had come to the Jews first but she also wanted some crumbs to fall for the Gentiles. It’s an amazing combination of humility, boldness and faith.

And because of that faith Jesus performed an amazing miracle. He drove out the demon at a distance, without even meeting the girl. No words of power, no ceremony of exorcism, not even a command to the demon to go. He simply said, “The demon has left your daughter” – and it was so! She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

 

 

Moving back

Jesus stayed in the region of Tyre and Sidon for some time. (One commentator suggests about six months.) Then he returned home to Galilee. On the way home he went into the region of the Decapolis which was on the Gentile shore of Lake Galilee.

The people of this area were also pagan – a mixed population of Syrians and Greeks. But the area was close to Jesus’ home in Caphernaum and the people spoke Aramaic, just as he did.

In one of the villages they brought to him a man who was deaf and who had a speech impediment. Once again, we don’t know anything about this man. We don’t know his name or his age, or how long he had been deaf. Was it from birth? Was he indeed totally deaf or just profoundly deaf? Was his speech impediment a consequence of his being deaf? We don’t know.

This man lived at a time when there was no provision at all for deaf people. No one had yet devised a sign language for the deaf. There was no support, and no cure for his condition. This man was in a desperate plight. The people begged Jesus to lay hands on him, in the hope that it might effect a cure.

So there was this crowds of excited people all around the man – jostling and gesticulating. They grabbed hold of the man and propelled him toward Jesus. The deaf man must have been completely bemused. He didn’t know what was going on, or why they were pushing him toward this stranger! Immediately Jesus grasped the situation. He saw that the man was bewildered. So he led him away from the crowd, to a quiet place.

Now Jesus could have just laid hands on this man and cured him. But he wanted the man first to know what was happening – so that he would have faith in Jesus. So Jesus spoke to the man with signs and gestures:

  •  He placed his fingers in the mans ears, as if to say, “Your hearing will be made whole.”
  •  He touched the man’s tongue with saliva, as if to say, “Your speech will be made perfect.” (In ancient times saliva was believed to have healing properties.)
  • · He looked up to heaven and sighed deeply, as if to say, “God sympathises with your plight. He is going to heal you.”
  • · And then Jesus said the word “Ephphatha”, which means, “Be opened”.

 

Why does Mark record the actual Aramaic word Jesus used? I don’t know, but I can’t think of a better word to use. Just think of these three syllables:

Eph – Pha – Tha.

Each syllable requires moving the lips and the teeth. It must be just about the easiest word in the world to lip-read! So the man saw the word with his eyes. He knew he was being healed, and the next moment he could hear and speak.

At this, the man’s ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. Jesus commanded them not to tell anyone. But the more he did so, the more they kept talking about it. People were overwhelmed with amazement. “He has done everything well,” they said. “He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.”

 

 Conclusion

“Ephphatha: be opened.”

This word seems to me to be the key to the whole passage. It’s all about openness.

  • Jesus went to Phoenicia and spent time among the Gentiles. He saw them as human beings, with human needs. Despite his words to the women he did not see them as dogs. He was open to them. “Ephphatha: be opened.”
  •  He delivered the little girl from an unclean spirit. Her life was suddenly opened up to all that was good and pure. “Ephphatha: be opened.”
  •  His conversation with the Syro-phoenician woman indicated that the saving power of God was going to be made available to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews. Not yet, but after the Resurrection, and after the Day of Pentecost, the Good News was going to go out to every nation. The doors of salvation were going to be opened up to all. “Ephphatha: be opened.”
  •  In the Decapolis, once again Jesus ministered to a Gentile person. He opened up a new life for this man even as his ears and mouth were opened. “Ephphatha: be opened.”

 

And what about us? do we need to open up too?

  •  Surely we need to be open to the fact that God can work in ways we can not imagine, outside our institutional religious structures. That’s just what Jesus was doing in that Gentile territory.
  •  We also need to open up to God himself. We can’t hide anything from him anyway. But he yearns for us to open our hearts to him – to receive the blessings of his Spirit.
  •  Then at last our ears will be open and we will listen to his word. Our mouths will be open and we will proclaim the glory of his name. We will tell others about this Jesus who “has done all things well”.

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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!)

 

See full size image

 

 

 

 

 

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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With Jesus in the boat

June 22, 2009 at 7:27 pm · Filed under Jesus Christ, New Testament, Suffering ·Tagged , , ,

 

 

Mark 4: 35-41

Introduction

“With Jesus in the boat we can smile at the storm, Smile at the storm, Smile at the storm, With Jesus in the boat we can smile at the storm, As we go sailing home.”         (Children’s chorus based on this incident in Mark.)

 

A storm at sea

Jesus had been working hard, teaching the crowds, healing the sick. He was exhausted. So he said to his disciples, “Let’s get in a boat and go to the other side of the lake”. That was the Gentile side – he knew it was unlikely that any Jewish people would want to go there. Jesus climbed into the boat just as he was and lay down on a fisherman’s leather cushion at the stern of the boat. Within a short while he was fast asleep – worn out. And so they set off in their boat, and a few other small boats with some other followers of Jesus went with them.

Now, weather conditions on Lake Galilee are treacherous. The hillsides and valleys all around the lake funnel the winds. Sometimes a squall can blow up out of nowhere, with no warning. That’s what happened here. One moment all was peaceful and calm, the next they were struggling against strong winds and huge waves. The waves were breaking over the boat and they were in danger of being swamped. The disciples panicked – but there was Jesus, fast asleep! One is reminded of Jonah fast asleep, below deck on the ship to Tarshish. The difference is that in Jonah’s case, his sleep was an escape from a guilty conscience. In the case of Jesus it was sheer physical and mental tiredness. He was asleep and he was at peace.

All this was too much for the disciples. “Master don’t you care if we drown?” they cried, as they tried to rouse him. Jesus rubbed his eyes, got slowly to his feet, and in a loud clear voice said, “Quiet, be still!” Jesus spoke to the storm just as you might command a barking dog to be quiet. And the wind just petered out, the waves died down, and calm came over the sea.

“Why are you so frightened?” he said to his disciples. “Do you still have no faith?” And they were filled with great awe and fear. “Who is this, even the wind and the waves obey him?” It was fear that had led them to awake the master. Now he is awake it is replaced with a much more profound awe and fear. Who is this man?

At the beginning of this incident we see a very human Jesus. He lies down in the stern of the boat just as he is: unwashed, unfed, totally worn out. He seeks the oblivion and restorative power of sleep. This is a very human Jesus. He is so obviously a man, and we can all identify with him. But when he calms the storm they see his divine power. Here is a man who can control the weather with a single word of command. We see no magic mumbo-jumbo here, no incantations, no spells. Not even an invocation of the name of Jehovah. By his own power Jesus stills the storm, with a word of command. And the wind and waves obey him.

Who is this man? He’s more than just a man. What then, an angel? A semi-divine being? No, something more than that. For the disciples this was the beginning of a steep learning curve that will lead ultimately to Thomas’s great words of faith: “My Lord and my God!” The recognition of the divinity of Jesus Christ.

 

Storms of life

Now we, as followers of the Risen One, also believe that Jesus is Lord and God. We also believe he has power to calm storms. Like many preachers, and commentators, and hymnwriters of the past, we can see a parallel with the storms of life which Jesus can calm.

“Will your anchor hold in the storms of life, When the clouds unfold their wings of strife?

When the strong tides lift and the cables strain, Will your anchor drift, or firm remain?

“We have an anchor that keeps the soul Steadfast and sure while the billows roll,

Fastened to the Rock which cannot move, Grounded firm and deep in the Savior’s love.”

 

And:

Be still, my soul; thy God doth undertake To guide the future as He has the past.

Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake; All now mysterious shall be bright at last.

Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.”

 

what do we mean by “the storms of life”? Well, I suppose, all the “heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to”, as Shakespeare says in Hamlet.

We are thinking of all the trials and difficulties we face at times. For one person it might be financial crisis of debt. For another: life-threatening illness. Or it could be bereavement. It could be be pain and disability. It could be rejection and opposition, perhaps persecution for one’s faith, or because of one’s race. Some might suffer slander and backbiting. Others might be worried about loved ones: their safety, their heath, their moral or spiritual well-being. It might be the burden of broken relationships or divorce. It might be the pressure of work or the stress of responsibility. It might be the loss of a job or the pain of long-term unemployment. It might be the intolerable burden of caring for someone else. This is a far from comprehensive list. I’m sure some of you could add to it from your own experience.

 

With Jesus in the boat we can smile at the storm

Whatever the storms of life may be, we know we are safe if the Lord is with us. Those disciples were safe as long as Jesus was in the boat with them, even when he was asleep! God would look after him: it was not his destiny to drown in Lake Galilee. Rather, he was to go on to die at Calvary. That was God’s plan. Yes, “With Jesus in the boat we can smile at the storm”.

But notice this: Jesus has to be in the boat with us. Have we got Jesus on board?

Our church, the Presbyterian Church of Wales, faces many storms at present – have we got Jesus on board with us? If we are seeking to glorify him, then we will weather the storms.

We have storms in our lives too. Ask yourself: “Have I got Jesus on board? Is he the Lord of my life? Does he rule my actions? Do I know him as my Saviour? If the answer is “yes”, then I can face the storms of life that come at me. The Lord is in the vessel of my life, I need not fear the storms. And if, perchance, he does not calm the storm, then he will give strength to endure it. If we have Jesus on board, then we can face the storms. But if we don’t yield our lives to him, then there is no way we can expect his help in our lives.

 

Conclusion

So, once again, the call is to follow the Risen Christ, who is Lord and God in human form. “Immanuel: God with us.” He will be with us in the boat as long as we have invited him on board.

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Five Resurrections

April 25, 2009 at 8:58 pm · Filed under Resurrection of Jesus, The hereafter ·Tagged , , ,

 See full size image

 

 

 

 

Introduction
“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live.” 
(John 11: 25)

For the last few weeks we have been reminding ourselves of the Easter story. This Sunday let us consider five great resurrections. The first three are recorded in the Gospels – they are resurrections which Jesus performed in his lifetime. On each of these occasions Jesus raised from the dead someone who was close to someone else. His motivation for this was compassion, but in doing so he showed forth the power and glory of God.

 

Resurrection No 1 – Someone’s daughter ( Mark 5:21-24, 35-43)

Jairus was an important man, the ruler of the synagogue,an influential and wealthy man. He came to Jesus distraught with sorrow and worry.

“My little girl is dying. She’s only twelve years old and she is about to die. Please come and help her.  Please lay hands on her and heal her.”

Jesus saw the man’s need and agreed to go with him to his house. But on the way they were delayed -  another needy person, a woman who had suffered from a flow of blood for twelve years. She touched the hem of Jesus’ robe and she was healed. There was quite  a lot of fuss then, while Jesus spoke to the woman in front of the crowd.

All this time Jairus was waiting for Jesus to come to his house  – he was on tenterhooks. He was deeply anxious and he feared that his daughter might already be dead. When they got to the house Jairus’s worst fears were realised. A man came out of the house and said, “Your daughter is dead, why bother the teacher any more?”

Jesus turned to Jairus and said, “Don’t be afraid: just believe.”
Jesus then went into the house accompanied just by his closest disciples. There was a tremendous commotion with people crying and wailing loudly. Jesus went in and said to them, “The child is not dead, but asleep.” They mocked bitterly at him.  Jesus gave an order to clear the house of the weeping and wailing people. Then just with Peter, James and John, and the child’s parents, he went into the room . She was lying there, dead on the bed. Jesus gently took her by the hand  and said, “Little one, get up.”  Immediately she sat up! She looked around in a puzzled way, then walked about the room. They were all completely astonished, amazed and overjoyed. “Give her something to eat,” Jesus said, “and don’t tell anyone else about this.”

So it was that Jairus and his wife and three of the disciples were the only witnesses of this amazing miracle. The time had not yet come for Jesus to proclaim openly  his power to raise the dead.

 
Resurrection No. 2 – Someone’s son (Luke 7: 11-16)

On another occasion Jesus came to the town of Nain in Galilee. His disciples were with him and a large crowd of people were following him. They had seen some of his miracles and heard his wonderful teaching. As they approached the town they met another crowd coming in the opposite direction. It was a funeral procession on their way out to the cemetery. Tragically the deceased was a young man. It was particularly sad also that he was the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. So now she had no one in the world. The Lord saw her situation and his heart went out to her.

“Don’t cry,” he said. Then he went up and touched the funeral bier, and the pallbearers stood still. They were aghast – this was an act of profanation. To touch a body, or a coffin, or a funeral bier, was to incur ritual pollution. None but a close relative would do that.

Jesus said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!”

And the man who had been dead sat up in the bier and he spoke some words. Jesus gave him back to his mother. The crowd were filled with awe: “a great prophet has appeared among us. God has come to help his people!”

The news was getting out that Jesus was a mighty man of God.

 
Resurrection No.3  – Someone’s brother  (John 11:38-43)

Martha and Mary were two sisters who lived at Bethany. They were friends and disciples of Jesus.  So when their brother Lazarus became desperately  ill they sent for Jesus to come and heal him. But Jesus waited two days before making the long journey from Galilee to Judea. When they got to Bethany they found that Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Against the wishes of the sisters Jesus had the tomb opened, and with a mighty word of command brought Lazarus back from the dead.

“Lazarus come forth!”

The people  standing around the tomb were transfixed with amazement as they saw a flash of something white at the entrance of the tomb. Next moment, there was Lazarus standing at the mouth of the tomb with his grave-cloths still fluttering around him, and  a napkin wrapped around his face. Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave-clothes and let him go.”

As a result of this miracle many of those who had come to visit Martha and Mary in their sorrow came to believe in Jesus. And the religious authorities, when they heard about this, plotted to kill Jesus.

Now this was definitely a real resurrection. Yes, to the sceptical mind Jairus’s daughter could have just been in a deep coma (and after all Jesus did say she was only sleeping). Likewise, the widow of Nain’s son had only just been declared dead. In those days people were buried as soon as they died. It was just possible that this  young man was not actually dead, but in a coma.

Yes, to the sceptical mind I say these things might not seem to be real resurrections. But the raising of Lazarus is a different thing -  he had been in the tomb for four days. His body had started to decompose but Jesus reversed the process and brought him back to life. An amazing miracle! No wonder Jesus had said,

“I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”  (John 11: 25)

 

 
Resurrection No. 4 – God’s Son

In the Easter season its not the resurrection of Jairus’s daughter, or the widow’s son, or Mary and Martha’s brother we celebrate, but he Resurrection of God’s Son.

All these people Jesus raised were brought back to physical life, only to die a natural death later. (The girl probably married and had a family, the young man was able to support his widowed mother, Lazarus was returned to the bosom of his family but al three of them died later.)

But the Resurrection of Jesus is totally different: he rose with a new, spiritual, glorified body. In his risen form he could appear and disappear at will -  even behind locked doors. He could veil his appearance so that people did not recognise him. But he didn’t return as an apparition, a phantom, a ghost. No, he had a solid existence. He was there in the body. People walked with him on the road, they sat at his feet, they ate and drank with him. On one occasion he sat by a campfire on the lakeside and served them fish and bread cooked on the hot coals. Imagine: a barbecue with the risen Jesus!

At the end of forty days Jesus was taken from their sight to heaven. He is risen and glorified – he will never die again.

 
Resurrection No. 5 – Our resurrection

This is the bit I’m looking forward to!  Jesus raised the three people mentioned in the gospels and he himself was raised from the dead on Easter day. But the good news of Easter is that we shall be raised too!

 We too, on the day of Resurrection, will be given  wonderful, glorious, Resurrection bodies. Like the Lord we shall no longer be limited by the physical constraints of this material world. And yet we shall not be mere disembodied spirits, insubstantial wraiths. No, we shall be more solid, more real, than we are in this life. We shall have entered the ultimate reality of God’s presence.

Now this is all a great mystery, we can not imagine what it will be like,  but the Resurrection of Jesus guarantees it.
The Tomb was empty, the Body was gone -  and Jesus appeared to his disciples.

 The Lord is risen  – he is risen indeed!

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Christ our Passover

April 13, 2009 at 12:29 am · Filed under Jesus Christ, Old testament, Sacrifice of Jesus, Uncategorized ·Tagged , ,

 

Passover ceremony

Have you ever wondered why the date of Easter jumps around so much. There can be as much as a month’s difference from one year to the next. Easter is what is known as a “movable feast” – but why?

The simple answer is that it is connected with the Jewish Passover, and that varies from year to year because it always occurs at full moon. Jesus died and rose at Passover time, and so Easter is always held a this time of the year. But it does not always coincide with Passover. For some reason the Church leaders in the Middle Ages decided to use a different method of calculating the date to that used by the Jews. Possibly they were motivated by anti-semitism – I don’t know. I think it would be a very good idea if we kept the same time as the Jewish Passover, or alternatively  kept a fixed date for Easter. This year Easter does coincide with Passover, and so I thought it would be a good thing for us to see the parallels between the two.

Jewish passover rituals

The Passover has been celebrated for thousands of years by the Jewish people. It is a retelling of how God rescued his people from a life of slavery in Egypt. Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt in a hurry after the last plague fell  ( the Death of the Firstborn). The original Passover ceremony involved the sacrifice of a lamb and the  daubing of its blood on the doorposts and lintel of the house. Then the lamb was roasted whole and eaten by the members of the family. They also ate unleavened bread as a reminder that, when they fled Egypt, they had not had time to wait for their bread to rise,  but ate it without yeast.

In the modern Passover ceremony there is no lamb – for since the destruction of the temple in AD 70 there have been no animal sacrifices in Judaism. A shank-bone of a lamb is always present on the table as a reminder of the sacrificial lamb but no lamb is eaten at the modern Passover meal.

 

Christian significance

“Well,” you might say, “that’s all very interesting, but what’s it got to do with us as Christians?”  A lot actually!

In the New Testament Christ is spoken of as the sacrificial lamb of God through whom the sins of the world are take away. John the Baptist  spoke of him in this way and Paul spoke of Christ our Passover sacrificed for us. It is very likely that his Last Supper with his disciples was a Passover meal. His use of bread and wine in the Sacrament he instituted comes from the Passover.

Not one bone broken

When the Passover Lamb was sacrificed it was important that none of its bones were broken. Its blood was poured out, but its bones were not broken, and it was roasted whole.  In Psalm 34: 20 it is prophesied of the Messiah that “not one of his bones will be broken”. During the crucifixion the soldiers came to break the leg bones of the victims as a means of hastening their death. (It prevented the man on the cross from being able to push up with his legs to take a breath. With their legs broken the poor victims could not breath and were soon asphyxiated.) But when the soldiers came to Jesus they found he was already dead, and so they did not break his leg bones. Thus the prophetic words of the Psalmist were fulfilled.

Passing over

The original Passover lambs were slain so that their blood could be daubed on to the door posts and lintels of the houses of the Israelites. It was said en that when the destroying angel came to strike the firstborn of that house he would stay his hand when he saw the blood on the door posts. God and his destroying angel  would “pass over” that house. Hence the term Passover.

It is from this incident in the Old Testament that we gain our Christian understanding of the work of redemption which Christ did for us. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. His blood was shed for us. When we trust in him and in the power of his blood we are, as it were, putting the blood on the doorposts and lintel of our lives.  God passes over our sins  and refrains form punishing us. Instead the punishment falls on Christ the sinless victim on the cross.

First fruits

As part of the Passover festival the Israelites would take some of the first fruits of their barley harvest and bring it to God’s Temple to offer as a sacrifice.
(There were two grain harvests in the land, one a barley harvest, which began at the Passover, and the other a wheat harvest, which began at Pentecost.)

They brought the first fruits ( i.e. the first sheaf of barley they harvested)  to show that they trusted God to provide for the rest of the harvest. How appropriate it is that it was at the time of the offering of the first fruits of the barley that Jesus rose from the dead. Paul tells us that Christ became the first fruits of those who are asleep (1 Corinthians 15:  20 ) -  i.e. the first one to rise from the dead and a guarantee that we also shall rise on the Last Day.

Resurrection

In the Passover ceremony today there is a fascinating ritual carried out by the head of the household. Three matzos ( pieces of unleavened bread) are taken and placed together. After a while the middle one is broken, wrapped in a cloth and hidden away while the ceremony proceeds. Later it is brought out and shared between the participants. It is thought that this was the unleavened bread which Jesus  broke and shared with his disciples saying, “This is my body which is broken for you”.

If you ask a Jew what is the significance of this part of the ceremony they will not be able to tell you. But Jews who have become followers of Jesus see a great significance in these actions. For them the three matzos represent the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The middle one is the Son, Jesus, whose flesh was broken on the cross. It is hidden in away, just as the body of Jesus was hidden in the tomb, and it is “resurrected”  just as he rose on the third day.

 

Christ our Passover

In the Passover ceremony four cups of wine are drunk. The third one, which is taken just after the meal, is known as the Cup of Redemption. It was this cup which Jesus raised when he said “this cup is the New Covenant in my blood”.  For his followers it represents his blood shed on the cross so that we could be forgiven. The New Covenant – the New Agreement – between God and his people, sealed with the sacrificial blood of Christ. Through his Death we are cleansed of our sins and through his Resurrection we are raised to newness of life. So this is what we celebrate on Easter Sunday. But every Sunday is a kind of mini Easter, a celebration of his Resurrection on the first day of the week. And every time we share in Holy Communion we remember the sacrifice of Jesus. In the worlds of the Apostle Paul:

For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.      

 (1 Corinthians 5: 7-8 )

[Sermon preached at Brecon Presbyterian Church, Easter Sunday 2009 ]

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Palm Sunday

April 5, 2009 at 9:30 pm · Filed under Jesus Christ, Sacrifice of Jesus ·Tagged , ,

Palm Sunday

Just five days before he died, Jesus came riding on a donkey into the city of Jerusalem. Crowds came out to meet him and his followers from the country came behind him in procession. The crowd was ecstatic: they waved palm fronds, they carpeted the ground beneath his donkey’s feet with branches and with robes, they shouted his praise.

“Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!”

The little children also joined in the praises. Later that day they were seen running around in the Temple courts, shouting excitedly “Hosanna to the Son of David!”

All this happened to fulfil the words of the prophet Zechariah: “Fear not, O daughter of Zion. Behold your King comes, seated on a donkey’s colt.”

The disciples at the time didn’t understand the significance. But later, after Jesus had returned to the Father, then they remembered how they had done all those things the prophet had spoken of.

 

Now, what does Hosanna mean? Isn’t it just a shout of praise – a bit like hallelujah? True, there is that aspect of it – the word Hosanna by the time of Jesus had come to be used as a general acclamation or praise to a conquering hero. But originally the word had a very specific meaning: Hosha-na – “save us, we pray”. It was a cry for help, a plea to be rescued from their enemies.

I’m sure many of the people in the crowd on Palm Sunday were thinking that Jesus had come to rid them of their enemies, the Romans. So they were very pleased to welcome him. But they didn’t seem to notice he wasn’t riding a war horse with armed men marching behind. He was on a humble donkey, the symbol of peace! Yes, Jesus was coming to save his people, but it wasn’t to save them from the Romans. It was to save them from their sins and from their spiritual enemy, the Devil. Jesus wasn’t going to bring in the Kingdom by force. No, he was going to die on a cross for the sins of the whole world. And even as the crowd was crying Hosanna there were some in Jerusalem plotting to destroy him. Already they were planning to bribe one of his disciples to betray him.

 And so Jesus came into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. On Monday he cast the money changers out of the Temple. Then he spent time in the Temple courts, teaching about God and his Kingdom. In fact, many of the parables and teachings of Jesus we are most familiar with were given at this time – during the last week of his life. On Thursday he shared his last supper with his disciples and washed their feet. Then Judas went out into the darkness to betray him. And so, on to Good Friday:

 

Good Friday

 

 When Jesus was nailed to the cross the sun was darkened for three hours – even the world of nature was affected by the great events that were happening.

 

Criminals

Alongside him were crucified two other men – criminals who had committed violent offences against the state. Jesus had done no harm in his life but was punished and died the death of a criminal. One of these men reviled Jesus and mocked him: “Are you not the Messiah, save yourself – and us!” But the other said: “Don’t talk like that. Aren’t you afraid of God? We are being punished because we deserve it, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus said: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

 

Enemies

Now there were other people by the cross that day – the enemies of Jesus were there. Many of the passers-by mocked him. “Save yourself and come down from the cross!” they said. And the Chief Priests were also there mocking him. “He saved others but he can’t save himself! Let the Messiah, the King of Israel come down now from the cross that we might see and believe!” Such cruel mockery. But it was not weakness that kept Jesus there on the cross. It was his love for these very men, and for all the world, that kept him there.

 

Friends

But it was not just the enemies of Jesus who were present. Thankfully some of his friends were there too – particularly the women among his disciples. There at the foot of the cross were Mary, his mother, and John, his beloved disciple. Jesus looked down at Mary and said to her, “Behold your son!” You might think he was referring to himself and to the terrible plight he was in upon the cross. But he then looked toward John and said, “Behold your mother!” Thus he indicated that, after his departure, John should be like a son to Mary, and Mary like a mother to John. And we are told that from that time John took Mary into his house as a member of his family. Even in his deepest pain and sorrow Jesus found time to think of his mother and to make provision for her after his death. It must also have been a comfort to him to see some of his friends watching at the foot of the cross.

 

Believing

And even some of those who were supposed to be his enemies were drawn to him at the foot of the cross. They found themselves believing in him. The Roman Centurion, for example, and some of the other people there. There were awe-inspiring occurances when Jesus breathed his last. There was a mighty earthquake and, in the Temple the veil separating between the Holy of Holies and the rest of the Temple was torn from top to bottom. When the Centurion and some others with him felt the earthquake and saw the way Jesus died they were filled with awe. “Truly this man was the Son of God!” So even the Centurion and the other Roman Soldiers began to see who Jesus was. After he died his body was taken from the cross and placed in a tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea. There he rested until the third day, the day of Resurrection. And we shall celebrate that next Sunday. Amazing love Meanwhile, in the coming week we shall reflect on the amazing love of God that brought his Son into the world to be our Saviour.

“How deep the Father’s love for us,

How vast beyond all measure,

That he should give his only Son

To make a wretch his treasure. “

 

[ Address given on Palm Sunday 2009 at a service of all-age worship at the Brecon Presbyterian Church. The talk was illustrated with felt board figures.]

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The message of Job

February 1, 2009 at 1:12 am · Filed under Jesus Christ, Old testament, Suffering

 

Job 1:6-22, 2:1-10,  16:1-21

“There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil”. ( Job 1:1)  

  And Job was very healthy, wealthy and wise.  He was a happy man blessed with seven sons and three daughters. But days of evil were soon to come upon him.
In the book of Job  we hear his cry of anguish of the godly man when tragedy strikes him. We learn something  of the nature and  cause of suffering.

The heavenly drama

Satan asks to test Job   (Job 1 1-22)

One day the angelic beings are before God and Satan also appears.
God: Where have you come from?
Satan: From roaming through the earth and going to and fro in it.
God:  have you considered my servant Job – there is no one like him, blameless and upright
Satan: Why shouldn’t he be good? You pay him well enough! You have fenced him round with a hedge of protection -  look how rich he is. No wonder he “worships” you! But just take away all he has and, you  see, he will curse you to your face.
God: Behold – all that he has is in you power Satan, but don’t harm him physically.

And so a series of tragedies hit Job, one after another. In one day, according to the book of Job, he received the news that: 
·  the Sabeans had taken all his oxen and asses and killed his servants.
·  his sheep had been struck by lightning, along with the herdsmen.
·  the Chaldeans had taken all his camels and killed the servants.
·  a freak storm had hit the house where all his children were feasting and they had all died when the house collapsed.

How did Job react to all these disasters?
Job arose and rent his robe in grief, fell on the ground and worshipped God. “Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I shall depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord ( Job 1:20-21)


And so Job did not curse God.

Round one is over -  Satan has lost this one. What about round two?

 

Satan asks to test Job again  (Job 2:1-1)

God: Where have you come from?
Satan: From roaming through the earth and going to and fro in it.
God: have you considered by servant Job – no one is like him blameless and upright  – he still maintains his integrity even though you incited me to ruin him without any reason.
Satan: Skin for skin (ie. a man will be prepared to lose even his loved ones to save his own skin). A man will give anything for his life. Just touch his body with sickness and he will curse you to your face.
God gave Satan permission for this:  “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.”

And Satan went forth and struck Job with “Egyptian boils” – a particularly foul illness which inspired horror in all who saw it . Like leprosy, or like AIDS today it was thought by many to be a sign of God’s judgement. And so Job is sitting on the ash heap, scratching his boils.  His wife says, “Curse God and die!” But Job will not curse God.

 

Job’s sorrow

Job’s three friends came to comfort him.  When they saw him they did not recognize him. They wept, tore their robes, threw dust on their heads and sat with him on the ground for seven days, in accordance with the custom of that day. No one spoke a word to him  for they saw that his suffering was very great. (This is the best thing, and sometimes the only thing, to do in situations of tragedy.)

At last Job opened his mouth and he cursed the day he was born. He asked God why he had not died at birth. He cried out in his agony. The speeches of Job , which last many chapters, reveal a soul in torment. He can not understand why. “Why me, O Lord?” he says, “I know I am not sinless, and yet I have tried to live a godly life. O why does God punish me?”

Part of Job’s suffering stems from the fact that he does not know about the heavenly drama, he has no idea of what has been going on behind the scenes. He does not know that God has allowed him to be tested by Satan. It’s not because  of his sins, but actually because of his righteousness, that he is suffering. However, Job does not know that.

 

Job’s “comforters”

Job’s comforters now speak – and with friends like this, who needs enemies!  The speeches of Jobs friends reveal a complete  lack of understanding, sensitivity and imagination. They can not put themselves in his shoes. They assume that he must be a gross sinner or all this would not have happened to him. Why doesn’t he repent and beg for mercy, then surely everything will go well with him.  One after another they imply that God is punishing him for his sins.

By the end of their  “comforting” they are making direct accusations against him.   If only those three friends had remained silent. They did well then – when they sat in the dust with Job and just empathized with him. But the moment they tried to make sense of what was happening they increased his sorrows greatly.

Job in his reply becomes sarcastic. No doubt you are the people and wisdom will die with you ( Job 12:2) Now he is really scathing – and who can blame him?

I think there is nothing crueller than to say to a person in pain that it is their own fault, or the result of their sin. And this applies even when you think it might be true – it might indeed be their own fault. It might actually be the result of their own sin. Even if that is the case, you can never say it to the person who is in anguish.  In Job’s case it definitely was not true – the pain was not the result of his sin and he was suffering illness and bereavement as well as poverty. It was particularly cruel for his friends to speak in this way.

In some sections of the Christian Church you find the doctrine of health and wealth. “God want’s you rich: God want’s you healthy.  If you give financially to his work you will never be poor. If you pray with faith you will always be healed.” The corollary of this is: if you are poor, or if you are not healed, then it must be your own fault; you don’t have enough faith;  you are not right with God. This doctrine is not only untrue, it is cruel. It was exactly this kind of teaching in which  Job’s comforters believed.

 

Job cries out

Job feels that it is so unfair – he needs someone to mediate between himself and God:    If only there were someone to arbitrate between us, to lay his  hand upon us both.  (Job 9: 33)

Job is asking for the seemingly impossible – an umpire between himself an God. Someone who could bridge the gap between the  human and the divine. Can such a thing be possible?  Yes, there is one such person, who is both human and divine, and can lay his hand on both.  Job senses the reality of this, even though he does not know the name of his Advocate.

Even  now my Witness is in heaven, my Advocate is on high. My Intercessor is my friend, as my eyes pour out tears to God. On behalf of man he pleads with God as a man pleads with his friend. ( Job 10: 16-21)

(These are amazing words for something in the Old Testament.)

 

 Yes, Job there is an Advocate – his name is Jesus Christ, our High Priest, Son of God and Son of Man. He pleads with God as a man. He atones for our sins and  bears our sorrows.

·  “a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief.”  (Isaiah 53:3)

·  He has been tested in every way as we are, and yet without sin                       ( Hebrews 4: 15)

·  There is one Mediator between God and Man – the man Christ Jesus               ( 1 Timothy 2: 5)

God’s answer

When Job and his three comforters have had their say Elihu comes along. He is a young man who thinks he knows all the answers. He attempts to portray the wonders of God’s creation to Job. Nevertheless, all he has to offer is words.

Then God himself speaks  – out of a whirlwind.

Who is this who darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man, I will question you and you will answer me.
Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand…
Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place…
Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep?  …
Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death?  …
Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.            (Job 38)

And so on, for several chapters. As one commentator says: God doesn’t explain, he explodes

 Job is quite incapable of knowing the answer to these questions. How then can he hope to know why he is suffering? And God gives no answer – not even to explain Satan’s role in all this. He simply points to the wonder of his creation,  so that Job is astounded.

In the film Keeping Mum, Rowan Atkinson plays a vicar who has to address a conference on the theme: God’s Mysterious Ways. He ends his address saying something along the lines of: “When it comes down to it God says to us: I am mysterious – live with it!” 

It’s quite funny when said in Rowan Atkinson’s voice -  but it is so true also. And this is  what Job found. Even with all this sorrow he found he could live with the mystery of suffering. Job is satisfied with his encounter with God – even though God gives no explanation

Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’  My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.  Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.   ( Job 42:3-6)

Job’s reward

Job had found satisfaction,  not in the logic of his friends’ arguments, but in an encounter with God himself. God does not reprimand Job after his repentance – but he does reprimand Job’s friends:

After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.
So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.    ( Job 42: 7 -8)

Here is a reprimand to all purveyors of the health and  prosperity teaching.
Although, in the end, Job was richer than before and had more children. “The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first”, we are told. (Job 42:12)

Our reward for patient endurance may not be the same as Job’s. God does not promise to reward us in this life. Job knew very little about the hereafter. For him, the reward in this life was a vindication of his righteousness, after  all he had suffered. We know that in the life of the world to come all will be put right. There will be vindication for those those have been treated unfairly in this life. In the life of the Resurrection:  [God] will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.  (Revelation 21:4)

Job did not know all this, but even in the depth of his sorrows and grief he grasped some inkling of it:

I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God;
 I myself will see him with my own eyes— I, and not another.   (Job 19:25-27 )

This is our hope also!

As the Apostle Paul says:   this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. (2 Corinthians 4:17)

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The Baptism of Jesus

January 15, 2009 at 10:21 pm · Filed under Christian living, Jesus Christ ·Tagged , , ,

 Mark 1: 1-11

A  bystander’s view

Hello my name is  Jacob. I was brought up in Jerusalem and taught the Law of God. The rabbis taught us all about God’s commandments. There were also some who spoke of the coming of the Messiah – Gods anointed one. And also of the one who was going to come before, in the spirit and power of Elijah.

When I heard of that, I felt a stirring in my soul – a yearning to know God. I wanted to be able to talk to him but I felt that my sins were a barrier between myself and the Lord. For God is holy and perfect and can not look upon sin. But I felt myself to be unholy and far from perfect. I would always fall down on some commandment or another.  How could I break our of this cycle of failure?

Then one day a strange figure appeared in the wilderness of Judea. He was called John and he looked just like the prophet Elijah of old -  even down to his garments! Like Elijah he wore a rough camel-hair garment and an untanned leather belt. His hair was wild and unkept and he ate locusts and wild honey. His message was also similar to that of Elijah: “Repent of your sins!”, he said, “God will forgive you and you can be dipped in the River Jordan as a sign of cleansing.” When I heard about that I went out to see John at the River Jordan. There were hundreds of others going out to hear John’s fiery message. We were stirred, we were moved by the Spirit of God. We confessed our sins and failures before God and implored his forgiveness. And then John baptized us in the river.

I had seen Gentile converts being baptized – when they were cleansed from their old Gentile way of life – but I had never before seen Jews baptized in this way. As the water flowed over my body it felt as if all my sins were being washed away – but really it was only water washing my body. John insisted that he was not the Messiah himself – he was just preparing the way for him.
 
This was his message: After me will come one more powerful than I, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I baptise you with water, but he will baptise you with the Holy Spirit.   (Mark 1:7 -8  )
 I desperately wanted to know this experience of the Holy Spirit – that cleansing which would truly wash away my sins in a way that the waters of the Jordan  never really could.

And then, a few days later, he came -  Jesus of Nazareth. They say he was a relative of John – a cousin or something like that. His father was Joseph, the carpenter in Nazareth, and he was of the line of King David. This is just as foretold in the prophets of the Messiah. I learned later that he was actually born in Bethlehem, King David’s town, the very place the prophets had foretold.

Well, Jesus came up to John and asked to be baptized. John didn’t want to baptize him.  “I need to be baptized by you,” he said, “and do you come to me?”
I think John felt very strongly that he was not worthy. He was aware that he was not sinless, and that Jesus was. You see, Jesus didn’t need to be baptized as a sign of forgiveness of sins but he wanted to go through with it to identify with all the people there who wanted to go God’s way in their lives. I think he saw it as an act of dedication to the work God was calling him to. So he said to John, “Let it be so now – for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” And John agreed to it.

Now I’m not exactly sure what I saw then – I was standing some distance away. There was some strange disturbance in the sky just as Jesus came out of the water, and a loud booming voice like thunder. I didn’t hear the words.

Later John said he saw the Spirit of God descending from a gap in the heavens  in just the same way a dove alights. I don’t know if it actually was in the form of a dove. I’ve also heard that Jesus and some others heard the voice say, “You are my Son, the Beloved, with you I am well pleased.”

 After this Jesus went out to the wilderness for 40 days. And when he returned he was filled with the power of the Spirit. He proclaimed, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God has come, now repent and believe the Good News!” It was then that I became one of the followers of Jesus and came to know the fulfillment of all my spiritual yearnings.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, I’ve been trying to tell the story from the point of view of a bystander.
Let’s just think about the implications for a minute. We see:

 

For Jesus


 
1) An act of public commitment and dedication
Jesus came to John to be baptized and to dedicate himself to the task to which his Father was calling him.

2)  The descent of the Holy Spirit
The power of the Holy Spirit came upon him to anoint  and prepare him for his ministry.

 3)  A voice from heaven
God spoke, confirming that Jesus was indeed God’s Son. I have no doubt that Jesus always knew he was God’s Son,  but this was the confirmation for him.

 

 For us

What was true for Jesus is also true for us in some sense.  When he was baptized, Jesus made his commitment to the work to which God was calling him. And we make a comitment when we come to Jesus and seek to follow him.
For us also there is :

1) The act of public commitment and dedication
For most of us ( if we were brought up as Presbyterians or Anglicans or Catholics) we were baptized as infants. So the moment of our baptism was not the moment of public comitment for us. It might have been at our confirmation, or some other occasion when we made a public confession of our faith in Jesus.
Whenever it was, there was some point in our lives at which we decided to follow Jesus and were prepared to stand up and be counted.

2) The Holy Spirit descends
For Jesus the heavens were rent asunder and the Spirit came upon him like a dove. For us it will not be that spectacular. ( Although some people do seem to have very spectacular conversion experiences.) It is more likely to be a much quieter affair, our moment of public comitment. The important thing, however,  is that we have dedicated our lives to Christ and that the Holy Spirit is at work with in us. We need his help in order to live the life of faith.

3)  God anounces that we are his children
Now Jesus is the only-begotten Son of God: there is no way that you or I can be sons and daughters of God  in that sense.  Jesus is unique. But we do become children of God in another sense: by adoption. We receive the Holy Spirit and we are adopted into God’s family. We know him as Father.

In his prayers Jesus used a very personal name for God – “Abba” – which in the Hebrew language means “Daddy”. It’s such a personal name – one which a small child would use when talking to his Daddy.

The Apostle Paul tells us that just as Jesus prayed “Abba, Father”, so can we – for we have been adopted into God’s family.

Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.    (Romans 8:14-6)

What a glorious thing this is!

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