“Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19)

I used to go fishing when I lived in North Wales – sea fishing. I was never very serious about it, but I did occasionally cast a line from the shore at Prestatyn or from the pier at Llandudno. I didn’t catch much: an eel on one occasion and a dogfish on another. (The cat enjoyed eating that!) Usually I caught nothing – I only did it as relaxation and I was not really single-minded enough about it. Because catching fish requires dedication and single-mindedness.

The first disciples of Jesus knew this all too well. It’s interesting to note that over half of the Twelve Apostles were fishermen. Peter, Andrew, James, John, Thomas and Nathaniel, they were all fishermen. And Philip also probably was one too. He came from the fishing village of Bethsaida whose name means “house of fishing”.

For these men fishing was no hobby. It was their very livelihood. If they didn’t catch fish they couldn’t put food on the table for their families. It was a matter of life and death for them.

But one day Jesus came and invited them to follow him. He wanted them to stop being fishermen and to live by faith and become “fishers of men”. Instead of seeking for shoals of fish they were going to seek souls of men and women. They were going to spread the Good News of the kingdom of Jesus and urge others to follow him.

These Apostles were to learn that being “fishers of men” required just as much dedication and patience as being fishermen. It was no hobby or sport. It was just as much a matter of life and death as fishing had been. (Only spiritual life and death rather than physical.)

For we also, if we are indeed true followers of Jesus, are called to become “fishers of men”. And for us also, our faith should be a life-style, rather than a hobby.

Those first disciples would have found their previous experience of fishing to be of great benefit in the task of winning people to Christ. We too, as disciples, can learn from the fisherman.

We can learn at least three lessons:

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1) To be a good fisherman you need to be in the right place

I remember spending many fruitless hours fishing, without a single bite. I was obviously in the wrong place. There were fish in the sea, but they were not where I was. They were probably down the other end of he beach. Now a good fisherman knows how to recognize the signs. They know about currents and tides, and the habits of the fish. They know where to expect to find them. They look at the sea birds and learn from them – where the birds are fishing, that’s where the fish will be.

And we need to be in the right place too. We need to go out to win people for Christ. We need to be where they are. Jesus didn’t just sit in the Synagogue and tell people about God. He went out into the streets, the market places, the taverns and the open country.

All too often, in the Church, we are fishing in our own pool. It’s a very nice pool: very comfortable, plenty of fish in it ( most of which have been caught previously). In other words: we are preaching to the converted. We have to realize that less than ten percent of the population of Wales attend church regularly. The other ninety percent or so hardly ever darken the doors of a place of worship. They remain largely untouched by the Christian message.

So we must launch out into the deep water and cast our nets. We can cast them in many places: at work, in the shops, in the pubs – everywhere. (This Christmas we went and sang some Christmas Carols in the pub across the road. I hope no one thought that was an inappropriate thing to do. We didn’t, of course, preach to them there. But they knew we are Christians and we sang Christian words.)

It’s not a hobby, this fishing for men and women. If the Church does not ‘fish’ it will die out. It is a matter of life and death.

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2) To be a good fisherman you need to have the right bait

The disciples knew this. Usually they fished with nets, either from a boat with a drag net or with a single man standing up to his waist in water and throwing a small weighted net out in front of him.

Sometimes, however, they would fish with a hook. For this you needed a hook, a line, a stone to act as a weight and a good strong arm to cast it out! (Nowadays we use a rod to make the casting more efficient.) But all these things are useless without bait, or some kind of lure. If you are a coarse fisherman you use a worm or a maggot. If you are a sea fisherman you use a strip of fish or a lugworm or an artificial lure. If you are a game fisherman you use a skillfully constructed artificial fly. Whatever you do you must have something to attract the fish.

Many times I have reeled in my line only to find the bait has gone – small crabs have stripped it of the hook before the fishes could even get to it. Well, it’s not much use fishing without bait!

Also you need to know which kind of bait to use for the the fish you want to catch. A sea fisherman would never use an earthworm or maggot – the sea fish would not be interested in them.

And so, in “fishing for men”, in seeking to win people for Christ and the Kingdom of God, the “bait” is vitally important. But what is the right “bait” to use? Some think it is a good thing to lure people within the walls of the church by means of all kinds of entertainments and social activities. Now I’m not against entertainment and social activities. They do have their place in the life of the church and they may provide some social contact with people. Without social contact and friendship we will never be in a position to win people over to Christ.

But in itself entertainment and the like will not draw people to Christ. They’ll come and join in our social activities, but they won’t come to worship. They won’t become followers of Jesus. The social actives of a church are like ground bait which you disperse through the water to attract a shoal of fish. But you won’t catch any of them unless they actually bite the hook. And they won’t bite the hook unless it is baited.

So how are people drawn to Christ? Jesus said on one occasion:

I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself. He said this to show the kind of death he was going to die.   (John 12:32-33)

“I will draw all men to myself “ – it is Jesus himself who will draw them. More specifically it is by his sufferings on the Cross he will draw them. Our message is Christ crucified as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. That is the only message which will draw them to Christ himself – that is the “bait”. The thought of him dying and suffering for us is what moves our hard hearts. The love shown at Calvary is what draws people to Jesus into God’s Kingdom.

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)

Yes, the Gospel which saves people is the message of Jesus – firstly his Death, then his Resurrection, Ascension and Return. Without this message we are fishing without bait and wasting our time.

And of course that message has to be backed up by our lives. We need to demonstrate the love of Christ. We have to know the Gospel but we also have to show the Gospel. We have to be able to explain our faith and to demonstrate it in our lives.

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3) To be a good fisherman you need to be sensitive and alert

I went boat fishing once. Most of us in the boat were catching nothing. You would think there were no fish in the water, except that one man was just reeling them in! He was far more experienced than we were. He was sensitive to the bites. When he felt a tug on his line, then he immediately reeled in. As for us: fishes were nibbling away at our baits and we didn’t even notice it! We were missing opportunities because we were not sensitive and alert.

In a similar way we, as “fishers of men”, can be insensitive to the needs of people. Maybe we can be unaware of their interest in spiritual things. Sometimes these “fish” are nibbling the bait without us being aware. They are seeking, but they are too shy to actually take the bait. They will not come straight out and say, “I want to be a Christian,” or “I want to find the meaning of life,” or “I want to know peace with God”. Now, if we are insensitive we can scare them off. It is possible to be so concerned with the task of keeping the church open that we do not see the needs around us. Or we can be so concerned with our own individual needs that we we don’t see spiritual need when it faces us in other people. So these “fish” are put off. They swim off elsewhere, and maybe get hooked by false religions such as Spiritualism or Mormonism.

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Conclusion

You need to fish in the right place, you need to have the right bait, you need to be alert and to exercise patience and endurance.

The Disciples knew that fishing was a hard life. And Jesus did not promise that it would be any easier fishing for men. As fishermen, many times they had fished all night and caught nothing. But they had never given up. Eventually their patience had been rewarded.

And it was just the same when they became “fishers of men”  -preaching the Gospel. It will be the same for us too.

Remember how the Disciples experienced the miracle of the great catch of fishes? on Lake Galilee Let us pray that there might be such a miraculous “ingathering” into God’s net in our day. The Church and the Nation desperately need a spiritual revival.

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Luke 10:25-37

“Charity begins at home”

“Why should we give to the *Guatemala Appeal? Are there not many rich people in that country? Isn’t it their duty to help the needy people in their own country? Why should we have to support them, doesn’t charity begin at home? There are plenty of needy people in our own country we can help.”

This, I am sure is the sort of thing that goes through some people’s minds whenever we are asked to support Christian Aid (or some other charity helping people abroad). Some people even make a point of only giving to local charities – a very parochial attitude and one which betrays a lack of vision for the world at large. Because, like it or not, we are part of a Global Village. You can get on a plane and be in Guatemala in less than 24 hours. Charity does begin at home, but it doesn’t end there.

Still we do have a duty of care for the people around us. We have to live in a way that reflects the love of God, and it’s no use giving money to overseas charities if we are not showing love and compassion to our own family members, our neighbors and daily acquaintances.

Do you remember Mrs. Jellyby in Charles Dickens Bleak House. Mrs. Jellyby devoted every hour of her waking life to helping the natives in “Borrioboola Gha” ( a fictional area of West Africa). In doing so she neglected her own husband and children. Her eldest daughter Caddy was forced to work as her mother’s secretary. Her life was one of clerical drudgery – for every campaign letter Mrs. Jellyby dictated had to be written out with pen and ink by Caddy. Eventually Caddy came to hate the very word “Africa”. Her mother’s idealistic vision became bane of Caddy’s life.

No, we must not be like Mrs. Jellyby. We should care for our own family first.

What is it Paul writes to Timothy?

“If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” (1 Timothy 5:8 )

“Worse than an unbeliever” – those are strong words!

Charity extends to the ends of the earth

But that doesn’t mean we should have no concern for needy people outside our immediate circle. As I said just now: we live in a Global Village. And as Christians we are to love not just our own folk, not just our own nationality, not just our own race, not just people like us, not just our own religion.

And this is the point behind the parable of the Good Samaritan. An expert in the Law of Moses asked Jesus about eternal life. Jesus said, “You must love God with all your being and you must love your neighbour as you love yourself.”

“Yes, but who is my neighbour?” the man replied. And Jesus told this story of the Good Samaritan.

Let me retell it to you now in the form it is told in the Lion Storyteller Bible. This spells it our in a very simple and plain way.

[Read story “The Kind Stranger” from the Lion Storyteller Bible.

( ISBN 0 7459 3607 5 ) ]

You see, it was generally thought in those days that you should love your neighbour and hate your enemy. Your neighbour was the person who lived near you, and the members of your family, and your extended family, and other people in your village or community, and the other people who worshipped in your synagogue. And perhaps you could extend the idea to include all Jews – all who shared your religion and your race.

Your enemy was anyone who wished harm to you. It might be a personal enemy from within your own community, or it could be a member of a hostile group. To the Jew, Samaritans were enemies, and so were Romans and other Gentiles.

But especially the Samaritans! The Jews hated the Samaritans, and the Samaritans reciprocated by hating the Jews. (Samaritans were not of pure Jewish race and their religion was regarded as being mixed with paganism.)

Who was the true neighbour?

At the time of Jesus most people though you had to do good to those who did good to you and harm to those who would harm you. You loved the people were like you and hated those who were different.

But Jesus turned this all upside down. In the Parable, the man who was attacked by robbers was a Jew but his own people did nothing to help him. The Priest might have been on his way to the Temple ( we are not told in which direction he was travelling). He had important work to do for God. He could not stop to help a man lying bleeding in the road. Anyway, from where he was standing (across the road) it looked as if the man had already died. Nothing could be done for him now, except to bury him. And there was no way a priest could do that. To come near a dead body would render him ritually unclean. Then he would not be allowed to carry out his duty at the Temple until he had been purified.

And no doubt the Levite made the same kind of excuses to himself. (Levites were Temple servants who assisted the Priests.) Anyway, it was a dangerous place to hang around in – what with all those robbers around. Far better to move on to some safer area.

The whole thrust of this parable it that the very people who should have been neighbours to the Jew did nothing for him. They abandoned him to his fate. They were supposed to be religious men, and you would think they would have compassion, but they didn’t. If they didn’t love their neighbour, how could it be said that they loved God, however punctilious they were about the Temple ritual?

But the Samaritan saw the man and had compassion on him. He looked at that Jew and saw, not an enemy, a man to be despised and hated, but a brother in need. So at great risk to himself, and taking great pains, and spending a fair sum of money, he took care of the wounded traveller. He was the one who acted like a neighbour to the man who had been mugged and left for dead.

“ You go and do likewise,” Jesus said.

The principle of Christian giving and care

And that’s why we support the Guatemala Appeal and many other charities helping needy people throughout the world.

You may well say that the rich people in Guatemala should help the poor. Of course they should. And the Priest and the Levite also should have helped that poor man lying in the road. But they didn’t and it fell to the Samaritan to help him.

And we have to be like that Samaritan. If some of the rich people in Guatemala won’t help the poor in that country, then we can help them. (As for those rich people, it’s a matter between them and God. We can be sure they will have to account for their actions one day before God’s awesome throne.)

“Charity begins at home” – of course it does, but it doesn’t end there. It extends through the whole earth. The Samaritan didn’t say to himself, “This man is a Jew, I can’t help him. I must only help Samaritans”. No, he had compassion on the man. He saw him as a human being.

And this sets for us the standard and principle of Christian giving. We don’t only help our own people. Our giving is not just to local charities, not just to our own nation, not just to our own race, not just to our own faith.

After all, I doubt if many of the people we shall be helping in Guatemala are Presbyterians. (Most are probably Roman Catholics.) In other years we have supported counties where the people were Muslims, Hindus or Buddhists. The Christian should be a neighbour to everyone – not just to co-religionists.

When it came down to it, the expert in the Jewish Law was asking the wrong question of Jesus. Not “Who is my neighbour” but rather “To whom can I be a neighbour?”

[* Every five years the Presbyterian Church of Wales has a special appeal to support a project in a different part of the world. These are projects run by Christian Aid's partners worldwide. For information on Christian Aid see: http://www.christianaid.org.uk

This year the Appeal is for projects in Guatemala.]

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“We three kings of Orient are

Bearing gifts we traverse afar

Field and fountain, moor and mountain

Following yonder star”.

How familiar these words are and how natural it seems to refer to the Wise Men as three kings who came to visit the baby Jesus in the stable.

But when we look at what is written in Matthew’s Gospel we get something quite different. So many of our ideas of the birth of Jesus are based on the traditional Nativity Scene, with ox and ass standing by, and the Three Kings visiting the stable. But in the Gospel account you will find no mention of ox and ass, no little donkey on which Mary rode, not even any mention of a stable! (All it says is that he was placed in a manger because there was no room in the inn.) There is no mention of three kings riding on camels and arriving at the stable. We don’t even know haw many Wise Men there were – simply that they brought three gifts with them. All these other details have been supplied by the imagination of pious people down the ages. They have now become traditional and they may, or may not, be true!

Now, I’m a great believer in going back to the Bible. I like to think my faith is based on the Word of God, rather than made-up human stories.

So let’s look at the story of the Magi, or Wise Men, as we read it in Matthew, chapter two – what one commentator has referred to as “the first Star Trek”! ( NIV New Testament Commentary)

Wise Men

 v1 – After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem

After Jesus was born – not just before he was born. We might have an image of the Wise Men arriving at the stable on the very night Jesus was born, but Matthew tells us it was later. (In a moment we shall see just how much later it was.)

“Magi” or “Wise Men” – who or what were they? In the ancient world “magus” was a word used often for a magician, a sorcerer. But the word could also refer to the members of a certain caste of Zoroastrian priests. These men, who worshipped one true God, lived in Persia and Babylonia at the time of Jesus. They were, if you like, the scientists of their day. They studied the stars as they tried to chart the fate of kings and nations. They studied the world of nature and were experts in herbs and medicines. Even though they were not kings they were still powerful and wealthy men, with gold at their command.

v2 – and [they]asked, Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.

These Magi came looking for “the King of the Jews”. This was a special title – not just any “King of the Jews” but the King of the Jews. It was the Messiah, the one the Jews had been anticipating for centuries. These men had surely studied ancient writings and they knew that the Jews were waiting for a King and a Redeemer. They had seen a new star in the sky and their studies indicated to them that this was a sign of the Messiah. And as worshippers of he One God they had come to Jerusalem to give homage to him. For where would the King of the Jews be found but at the royal palace in Jerusalem?

 v3 – When King Herod heard this he was disturbed, and all Jerusalem with him.

Herod said to himself, “I am the King of the Jews. Who is this child? I don’t want any usurper claiming Messianic status and pushing me off my throne!” He was disturbed, and so was everyone else who heard of this birth.

The birthplace of the Messiah

 v 4 – When he had called together all the people’s chief priests and teachers of the law, he asked them where the Christ was to be born.

Herod called together his wise men to find where this King would be born. Now, anyone who knew the Jewish scriptures could have told him that the Messiah was to be a descendent of King David and that he was going to be born in King David’s town of Bethlehem. But obviously Herod was not such a keen Biblical scholar.

 v5 – 6 – In Bethlehem in Judea, they replied, for this is what the prophet has written:

‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.’

 v 7- Then Herod called the Magi secretly and found out from them the exact time the star had appeared.

Why did he want to know the exact time the Star has appeared? Was it not so he could know the age of the child? (Presumably the Star had appeared on the day Jesus was born.) That must have been many months previous to this interview with Herod. The Magi would have taken quite a long time getting everything ready and then undergoing their long journey.

v 8 – He sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and make a careful search for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.

Herod didn’t want to worship Jesus – he wanted to destroy him. He knew how old this child was and roughly where he had been born. Now he wanted to get the Magi to find out the exact location for him. Once Herod knew where the Child was it would be easy to get rid of him – or so he thought.

 The Star guided them

 v 9-10 – After they had heard the king, they went on their way, and the star they had seen in the east went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were overjoyed.

Obviously the Magi hadn’t seen the Star for some time. Either the skies had been cloudy or the star itself had vanished. We tend to think of them following the Star on their journey across the desert to Jerusalem, but that would not have be necessary. Everyone knew how to get to Jerusalem and to Herod’s palace. Unfortunately for them it was the wrong place.

So they needed further guidance. And that is what they got from the chief priests and teachers of the Law who referred them to the ancient prophecies. That put them on the road to Bethlehem – just few miles from Jerusalem.

When the Star reappeared Wise Men rejoiced with great joy because it was confirmation to them that they were on the right road. What is more, it actually seemed to move ahead of them and to rest over the very place where the Child was.

 Worship and gifts

 v 11 – On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.

Notice, it was a house and not a stable. some people have difficulty with this. I don’t know why. I can not imagine that Joseph and Mary would stay one hour longer in a stable than they needed to. And they would not keep baby Jesus in a manger when there was a nice cradle for him in a room in an inn. It was only at the time of his birth that they lived in a stable. We are now many months after the birth of Jesus and they have found a house to live in.

When the Magi entered, Jesus was there with his mother Mary. (Joseph was not to be seen. I suppose he was out working as a carpenter or looking for work – he had a family to support.)

The Wise Men bowed down and worshipped Jesus. They didn’t bow down and worship Mary. It was the Child they worshipped. They brought out their gifts of precious ointments, spices and gold.

 v 12 – And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.

So Herod was not going to find out where the child was.

 The flight into Egypt

 v13 – 15 When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Get up, he said, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: Out of Egypt I called my son.

Jesus was safe, preserved from Herod’s murderous wrath. But others were to suffer from that wrath.

 Slaughter of the Innocents

 v16 – When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

Herod had worked out (from the information given by the Wise Men about the time the Star had first appeared) that the Child was about a year old. So, to be on the safe side, he ordered that all boys under two should be killed.

Some have said it is unlikely that Herod would have killed all the baby boys in this way, but historians say otherwise. This man Herod the Great was capable of killing his own wife and two of his sons, as well as perpetrating many other acts of brutality. It is entirely in character that he would kill all the baby boys. In the area of Bethlehem at that time there might have been 20 or 30 boys of that age. Herod brutally had them killed. Presumably soldiers just went up to the houses, snatched the children from their mothers’ arms and put them to the sword. How horrendous! Matthew saw it as a fulfilment of certain words of the prophet Jeremiah which were originally written about the Exile.

We might question why these families had to suffer so that Jesus could be saved. But Jesus had to be saved in order to grow up to become the man who would save the whole world by his death on the cross. You might consider those children and their parents to be the very first martyrs of the Christian faith. Their suffering is part of the great problem of suffering in the world. Why does God allow brutal tyrants to bring suffering on innocent people? No doubt the Christians of North Korea are asking the same question. There is no easy answer to it.

 Conclusion

After Herod the Great died Joseph was guided in a dream to bring Mary and Jesus back to the Land of Israel. They settled in Nazareth, where they had previously lived.

 v 23 – and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: He will be called a Nazarene.

(The name Nazareth sound like the Hebrew word for “branch” and Matthew sees this as a fulfillment of such prophecies as Isaiah 4:2 and Jeremiah 23:4 .)

So we have here a wonderful story of God’s guidance and providence when he brought his Son into the world.

No Three Kings, bowing down in the stable. No mention of Ox and Ass bowing down. No camels. None of the usual trimmings we associate with the Nativity Scene. But what a wonderful story it is in Matthew’s Gospel!

 Lessons

 And what does it teach us? Well here are a few points:

•  Guidance: the Magi were guided by the Star and by the words of Scripture. The prophecy told them the Child was to be born in Bethlehem. It gave general guidance. The star, on the other hand, took them to the very place where the Child was.

In life we also might need guidance. We can take Scripture for our general guide. But sometimes we need more specific guidance and we look for some sign. Such signs can be a great encouragement – as the Star was to the Wise Men. But the guidance of such signs (if they are truly of God) will always agree with Scripture. God will never guide us in a way contrary to his revealed Word. The Scripture led to Bethlehem and the Star led to Bethlehem. Both agreed.

• Disturbance: when Herod heard of the birth of this Child he was deeply disturbed and so were many other people. Jesus comes into the world, not just to bring salvation to those who are seeking peace with God, but also to disturb those who don’t want to go God’s way.

He is a challenge to the powerful oppressors and rulers of this world. And his Church today also is a challenge to all that is anti-God.

• Worship:“On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshipped him.” They worshipped him , not her.

We make a great error if we offer worship to Mary and not to Jesus. Mary is to be honoured above all women, but not to be worshipped.

• Gifts:  Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh.”

Gold, the royal metal, is for a King.

Frankincense is used in worship. It proclaims he is the Son of God.

Myrrh was used to anoint the bodies of the dead. Thirty years or so later the crucified body of Jesus was to be anointed with myrrh. It points us forward to his sacrifice on the cross.

Jesus is our King , Jesus is our God, Jesus is our Saviour.

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(Talk given at the Brecon Presbyterian Church on Christmas Eve 2011)

Have you noticed the Christmas postage stamps this year? In some previous years the Royal Mail has seen fit to issue Christmas stamps with no Christian content at all. (One year they showed pantomime characters.) But this year, to celebrate the 400th. anniversary of the translation of the King James Bible, they have produced real Christmas stamps.

[ Show picture of stamps on screen ]

They are very colourful, aren’t they?

On each one he artist has taken great care to portray a scene which conveys the meaning of the text which is given . Each one has a references to a text from either Matthew or Luke.

Let’s think about these texts:

1) Matthew 1:21

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. (KJV)

The name “Jesus” comes from the Hebrew “Yeshua” , which means “the Lord saves”. We are told “he shall save his people from their sins”. Yes, all the things we are ashamed of in our lives, all the things which cause strife and enmity with others and with God – Jesus came to do away with all this. The Christmas story tells us how he came into the world, but we have to look onward to his death on Good Friday to understand the reason for his birth. He died on the cross to redeem us, to save us from our sins.

2) Matthew 1:23

Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us. (KJV)

Isaiah had predicted the birth of a child who would be Immanuel (which means “God with us” in Hebrew).

So when Jesus was born, that was the fulfillment of the promise. God was coming into the world. He took human form. He was just a tiny baby. He lived a human life. Yes, God entered into the experience of our life.

Ever since that first Christmas we can know that God is with us. He shares our human experience – our trials and our sufferings.

3) Luke 2:7

And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. (KJV)

Not only did he become human, he also experienced what it is to be homeless. to be poor, and indeed to be a refugee from the hatred of Herod.

There was no room for Jesus in the inn – is there room for him in our hearts?

4) Luke 2:10

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. (KJV)

It’s wonderful good news and it’s not just for the select few. It’s not just for the priests in Jerusalem. It’s not just for the rich noblemen and kings. It’s for the humble shepherds in the field ( regarded as the dregs of society in those days). It’s also for foreign Gentiles like the Wise Men. It’s Good News for all the people. It’s for you and for me.

  5) Matthew 2:10

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. . (KJV)

“They rejoiced with exceeding great joy”. I like the King James Version here – its so much more powerful, more meaty, than just saying they were overjoyed! “Exceeding great joy” – what a wonderful expression!

That’s why we celebrate Christmas. Not just in order to eat, drink and be merry. Not just to receive and give presents. Not even just because it is a time for the children. No, we celebrate Christmas because it is a time for everyone to rejoice in what God has done for us all in Jesus.

 I wish you all a very joyful Christmas.

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From the Minister

Symbols of Christmas

 Every year, at around this time, we start decorating our church and our houses for Christmas. We put up the same kind of decorations every year. But do we ever think about the symbolic meaning of them?

The Christmas Tree

The green of the fir tree remains all the year round. It reminds us of our everlasting hope. The needles point upwards, reminding us of our heavenly home. The wood of the tree reminds us of the Cross of Christ on which he suffered for the sins of the world.

The Star

The star on the tree reminds us of the star of Bethlehem that announced the birth of the King of the Jews and the Saviour of the World.

The Angel

The angel on the tree represents the Angel of the Lord who came with good news to the shepherds on that first Christmas night.

The candles and lights of Christmas

These remind us that Christ is the Light of the World. He shines in the darkness of our lives and brings hope. Candles give warmth as well, reminding us of he warmth of God’s love which comes to us in Jesus Christ.

The Christmas wreath

As a circle, with no beginning or end, it symblises the true nature of love. Real love never ceases. God’s love has no begining or end.

The sprig of holly

The green represents eternal life, the spines the crown of thorns worn by Jesus, and the red berries symbolise his blood shed to redeem us.

The Christmas gifts

These remind us of the gifts of the Wise Men, and also that God gave us the greatest gift of all in Jesus himself.

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).

A happy Advent, Chrismas and New Year season to you all,

David Jenkins.

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Well, Christmas is almost upon is. Next Sunday we will have our carol service. Everyone is going about making  preparations – all the rush and bustle of the pre-Christmas period. Some of us have already had more than one Christmas dinner!

With all this bustling activity how can we keep the true spirit of Christmas?

The first thing is surely to come to church and to worship Jesus Christ. That is what we are doing today and we can find in the New Testament many passages which offer guidelines for living the Christian life. One of them is in our reading from 1 Thessalonians today. Paul gives advice on how the followers of Jesus Christ should behave. If we follow these guidelines we will be living as true Christians and keeping the true spirit of Christmas.

I Thessalonians 5:16-24
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise the words of prophets, but test everything; hold fast to what is good;  abstain from every form of evil. May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.

How?

Now there seem to be some very difficult commandments here. How can you “rejoice always”, or “pray without ceasing” or “give thanks in all circumstances”? it just seems impossible, doesn’t it?

The first thing we should note is that these words are intended for committed Christian believers – they are  for those within the church. Can you imagine the response of the outsider to these words?  What would a non-Christian say?

“Rejoice always? Are you kidding? Who can do that? Should anyone ever do that? Isn’t that just plain denial, a refusal to deal with the present moment?
Pray without ceasing? Who can do this? That will give you camel knees? Besides, isn’t there too much work to be done to just waste time mumbling in the dirt?
Give thanks in all circumstances? Whose side are you on anyway? O yeah, slap me again, it felt so good.
Do not quench the spirit? Now there’s one I can agree with. This is the time of season to be merry and to party. Let’s break out the spirits!

The rejoicing, praying, giving thanks in the Spirit are things done by insiders; that is, by those who know something about the present circumstances that can only be known by faith.”  -  (Comment by  preacher from the Internet.)

The point is that to those who are outside the life of faith, those words are ridiculous. But to those who are inside they not only make sense, they give purpose to life.

Looking from the inside

Inside is different from outside. It’s a bit like Dr. Who’s “Tardis”. From the outside it’s just an old-fashioned 1960s police telephone box. But inside it is a vast hi-tech ship capable of traveling through time and space. It’s totally different inside. So is the life of faith.

Let’s try and look at these words then from within the faith.

 ”It is not who you are or what you were that is of interest to God but what you desire to be.” –St. Gregory.

It’s your aspirations which matter. And these words are aspirational. We may not always be able to achieve the standard set out here by Paul but we will try. We will aspire to be true followers of Jesus.

To capture the true spirit of Christmas we must:

1) Rejoice always

Now this doesn’t mean we have to go around like Pollyanna, denying the reality of evil (although to be fair to Pollyanna the little girl in the story, that’s not what she did, she just looked for the positive in everything).
It doesn’t mean we have to go about with a great big grin on our face and smile in all circumstances. No, that is something which people who do not know the Lord may have to do. They may have to be in denial about the realities of life. The Christian, on the other hand, knows how to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who weep. The person of this world can only cope with its problems by denying them. The so called “joy” of this world is not really joy -  it is happiness. And happiness, by its very nature, is temporary.

Note that the word “happy” is derived from “hap” or circumstance. So when good things happen to you you are happy, when bad things happen you are unhappy. It’s all a matter of “hap” or chance. But Christian joy is more than just happiness.

One preacher puts it this way:
“Outsiders have never experienced the presence of the Holy One. They base their joy on their physical and relational circumstances. Relationships always change, they are like rollercoasters. (Which is why basing marriage on romantic love is so silly) Our joy is based on our experience of the Divine…
Most of our culture is based on selling each other joy [or rather: happiness], prepackaged, easy to use. But the toys always break, the sex appeal fades, they stop laughing at my jokes, and sooner or even sooner some really bad stuff happens. Only God remains. Only God is faithful. “

Our joy is something much deeper. We can hold on to it under trial and temptations because we know the presence of God in our lives. We know he loves us – he sent his Son to be born in a stable and to die on a cross. Whatever happens to us in this life we know there is a better world coming. To paraphrase an advertising slogan: “The future’s bright: the future’s” … no, not Orange.  Rather, the future is suffused with the golden glow of eternity.

The Apostle Paul could rejoice even while he was in prison and we also can learn to rejoice, even in the setbacks of life.

2) Pray without ceasing

No, it doesn’t mean going around mumbling prayers all day long. I think it means: don’t give up praying, don’t get so discouraged that you stop taking things to the Lord in prayer. He is with us at all times and there is no time or place in the world we can not pray to him. For some people, their time of prayer is just when they kneel down at their bedside to say their prayers. For others there is the realization that we can talk to God in a conversational way throughout the day. We don’t have to pray out loud  – God reads all our thoughts.

So I think this instruction is about having a prayerful attitude in all that we do.

3) Give thanks in all circumstances

Once again we seem to be back to Pollyanna – the relentlessly cheerful orphan in the story who found an occasion for thankfulness in everything. Have you seen the film of it, starring Hayley Mills aged 12?

It’s quite a good film really. Pollyanna’s parents had been missionaries in the West Indies. She had wanted a doll for Christmas so they asked the Mission Society to send one for their little girl. When the parcel arrived they discovered there had been a mix-up – it was a pair of crutches, not a doll. Pollyanna was upset but her Father said  “Let’s play the Glad Game -  think of something you can be thankful for.”
“What’s good about having a pair of crutches?” she said.
“Well you can be thankful you don’t need to use them!” said her father.

I’m not saying we should all be like Pollyanna’s father, or like Pollyanna herself – there is something off-putting about relentless cheerfulness. But there is also such a thing as a positive attitude to life.
If we believe God loves us and he is working out his divine purposes then we can find things to be  thankful for in the circumstances of life. In the film Pollyanna and her father had made a game of it – the Glad Game. Always look for the silver lining in the cloud. It is surely a good thing to cultivate a positive, optimistic attitude. Look for the things for which you can thank God.

(Remember: this is meant to be aspirational – I do appreciate that we do not always manage to achieve it.)

4) Do not quench the Spirit

No, it doesn’t mean “drink your whiskey neat”! It refers to the way we can hinder the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. By a lack of faith, or by negative attitudes, we can fail to take hold of the spiritual gifts he has for us.

There is a story about a man who had a dream of heaven. An angel showed him  into a room, the walls of which were lined with cubby holes. inside each cubby hole was  a parcel, all  wrapped up. “Who are all these  presents for?”,  said the man.
“These are all the spiritual blessings and gifts the Lord wanted to give you in your lifetime, but you didn’t take hold of them!” said the angel.

Yes, we can quench the Spirit if we are too proud to accept what God offers us. If we try to live the Christian life in our own strength.

5) Do not despise the words of prophets

This is linked with the previous one. God has given gifts of prophecy to some people. He can use them to convey his words. Prophecy can come in different ways, I think:

• it might be the words of a preacher in a sermon
• it might be the words of Scripture
• it might be that someone really feels they just  have  to say something to us.

All these can be forms of prophecy. “Now, if God is speaking to you”, Paul says, “don’t despise what he says. Listen to the way he wants your life to go”.

But, of course, not every prophecy is true. Not everyone who says, “The Lord told me this”, is speaking the truth.sometimes they are deceiving, and sometimes they are self-deceived so:-

6) Test everything

Check up on whether it really is from God. How can we know? Ask yourself:

• does it agree with the teaching of the Bible?
• does the prophecy ring true? If specific facts were given, did they turn out to be true? Did any predictions come about?
• What about the lifestyle of the person who brings the message. Are they godly, are they honest, are they loving, are they humble?

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. (Matthew 7: 15-16)

Jesus tells us it’s by the way a person lives their life and by he things they do that we shall know if they are genuine.

Test everything – don’t be gullible – don’t be taken in by every new and trendy teaching.

7) Hold fast to what is good and abstain from every form of evil

It’s not just a matter of exercising discernment, we must live godly, honest and loving lives also.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable— if anything is excellent or praiseworthy— think about such things.  (Philippians 4:8)

We need to concentrate on the things that are good and wholesome (and that seems to have brought us back to Pollyana again!)

Conclusion

As Paul draws near to the end of his epistle he pronounces a benediction on his hearers and readers:

May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this.
(Thessalonians 5:23-24)

You see, it’s not a matter of struggling hard to live up to these commands it’s God who will do it in us. He will do the work of sanctification by his Holy Spirit, we do not rely on our own strength. And as we live our lives we are looking forward the return of our Lord when we shall be with him for eternity.

[Sermon first preached in 2008.]

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2 Peter 3

Wholesome thinking

During the season of Advent we concentrate our thoughts on the coming of the Messiah. There are two “comings” to consider:

-`his First Coming, 2000 years ago, as a baby in Bethlehem.

- his Second Coming, at the end of the world, as Judge of both the living and dead.

The topic of the Second Coming, or Day of the Lord, is a very important one. If you read all the sayings of Jesus in the Gospels you will find that he refers to this topic more than any other. Indeed, it is had to find one page of the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke which does not refer to the coming Kingdom, the Day of Judgement or the return of the Lord.

Many other passages in the New Testament speak of this great event and some Biblical scholars have attempted to build up a picture of the sequence of events leading to the Day of Judgement. There are many ways of interpreting what we read in the New Testament and many differences of opinion among commentators.

I’m not going into all that today. Instead, let’s just see what Peter says in his Second Epistle. He speaks of the Day of the Lord and what should be our response to it. He tells his readers that he wants to stimulate “wholesome thinking” in them:

 I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Saviour through your apostles.    (2 Peter 3:2).

That is: the teaching of both Old and New Testaments. We depend on the whole Bible for our understanding of God’s working in his world. What then does Peter tell us? Four things:

1) There will be scoffers

 First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.   (2 Peter 3:3-4)

people will come along and mock at the whole idea of the Second Coming and the Day of Judgement. “Where’s the evidence?” they say. “You don’t think God is really going to intervene in the world in that way, do you? Ridiculous! He’s in heaven. He’s a million miles away. He’s not interested in what happens here. Everything in the world will go on as it always has. Why be a prophet of doom and gloom?”

This is the sort of thing they were saying in the days of Peter and that is exactly the sort of thing they say today. Many of them deny the very existence of a God who will judge the world. Either they don’t believe in God at all or they think he is going to save everyone anyway, so there will be no judgement.

But Peter reminds us:

 They deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.  (2 Peter 3:5-7)

They “deliberately forget”, Peter says, that God has intervened before. In fact he has judged the wold before, as we read in the Book of Genesis about Noah’s Flood. And there will come a time when he will judge the world again. The Lord will return to wind all things up. It will be a day if destruction for all that is evil.

2) God’s patience

 But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:8-9).

Peter is writing these words towards the end of his life. The generation of people who had actually met Jesus were passing away. It had been generally assumed that the Lord would return during the lifetime of his disciple but this had not happened. Now only a few were left. What then could you say to the scoffers? Perhaps the Christians had got it all wrong and the Lord would never come.

Well, if that was the situation in those days, it’s even more true for us today. We live two thousand years further down the line. I’m sure even Peter himself would have been astonished to be told that the Lord would delay for more than two thousand years before returning!

And yet, in the light of what Peter says here, what is two thousand years? A mere two days! A thousand years is like a day and a day is like a thousand years to the Lord. He does not dwell within the constraints of space and time as we do. He dwells in the eternal present. In the divine order of things the centuries and millennia are nothing.

“Lord?” a man once prayed.

“Yes?” came the reply.

“Lord, can I ask a question?”

“Go right ahead.”

“O, Lord my God, what is a million years to you?”

“Only a second.”

“And, what is a million pounds worth to you?”

“I count it as a penny.”

“Lord, can I have a penny?”

“Sure! … just a second.”

Things will happen in God’s own time. And there is a reason for the delay, Peter says. The Lord is patient and merciful, “not wanting anyone to perish but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

The delay is a sign of God’s mercy and love. He is going to give a chance to people. before his return. Jesus said he would return when the Good News had been peached in every nation (Matthew 24:14).

(God doesn’t want anyone to perish but on the other hand he cannot force people to accept him. In the end there will be those who have rejected him, and they will suffer his judgement.)

But look how merciful he is! He has already delayed two thousand years!

3) Destruction of the material universe

 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare…… That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. (2 Peter 3:10,12b,13 )

Now, it’s had for us to grasp exactly what Peter means here. How can the “elements” melt or disappear? I suppose a physicist could answer that in terms of modern science. He could say that atoms can be smashed to subatomic particles. And these can be be further broken down to elementary particles and those broken down further until you have nothing but energy. In fact they anticipate the disappearance of the universe as we know it in the distant future.

But what the scientists anticipate does not seem to be quite what Peter is referring to. He is speaking of a cataclysmic and sudden destruction of all things. Some would see this in terms of a nuclear holocaust destroying the earth. I have my doubts about that. I see it rather as a divine event. God will destroy the universe and then remake it. There will be a new heaven and a new earth in which will dwell righteousness.

The Apostle Paul also refers to the Day of Resurrection in which the dead in Christ shall rise with spiritual bodies in the perfect new word God will create. A world without sorrow or sin of any kind. A world in which death is no more. This is our heavenly hope. It’s not going to be the coming of Christ’s Kingdom to this world under its present conditions. Nor will it be some vague shadowy afterlife as a disembodied spirit. It will be a bright and vibrant new world.

4) So, in the light of this, how should be live?

 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. (2 Peter 3:11,12a)

In our daily lives we should do and say the things that please God. We should love our neighbours, we should share the good news of Jesus, we should feed upon God’s word and pray to him. in doing these things we are actually in some way hastening the return of the Lord.

 So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. (2 Peter 3:14)

We should aim to be at peace with God, trusting in Jesus and knowing our sins are forgiven. Knowing peace with God and peace within.

And a final word from the Apostle:

 Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and for ever! Amen. (2 Peter 3:18)

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Rose window in Basilica of St Denis, France, depicting the ancestors of Christ from Jesse onwards.

Introduction

“The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren; And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram.” (Matthew 1:1 KJV)

And so it goes on. “What is this all about?” I hear you say. “Why must we have these boring lists of names in the Bible, and what does have to do at all with our faith? Why are there so many genealogies in the Bible.”

It is all to do with the fact that to the ancient Israelites your family was very important. You had to know where you came from and to whom you belonged. So anyone of standing in the society would be able to recite the names of their ancestors way back down the generations. It was like that in Wales a few hundred years ago when  you would be able to say, “I am Dafydd, ab Ioan, ap Rhys, ab Owain, ab Ifan, ap Tewdor.” etc. You knew your ancestry. It was important to be able to trace your family back to some great leader of the past.

Two lists

And so, in the New Testament both Matthew and Luke give us the genealogy of Jesus because they want to show us he is the Messiah, the Son of David promised by the prophets. You will find considerable differences in the two lists . Matthew’s list starts with Abraham and ends with Jesus. Luke starts with Jesus and traces right back to Adam. Also the lists diverge after King David. Matthew follows the line of King Solomon and the kings of Israel, while Luke follows the line of another of David’s sons, Nathan.

Scholars have pondered over this and some have come to the conclusion that Luke’s list is actually the genealogy of Mary, rather than Joseph. That is: both Joseph and Mary were of the line of King David.

If this idea is true, then Matthew’s list would give the official, legal line through Joseph. He was a descendent of the Kings of Israel and Jesus, his adopted son, would be the legal heir of the line of David. And Luke’s list would give us the biological descent, from King David through Mary. It’s an interesting theory.

Skeletons in the cupboard

Now, what would you expect of an early Christian writing the family tree of Jesus Christ? Would he not tend to play down the less reputable members of the family? After all, people don’t like there to be a “skeleton in the cupboard”.

Think of the television programme “Who Do You Think You Are?” in which celebrities trace their family tree. At the beginning of the programme they always express the hope that they might find some noble, and virtuous ancestor. They are mortified if one turns out to be a thief, or a murderer, or a slave trader.

The list of ancestors given by Matthew does not contain all the links – that is quite common in ancient genealogies. So you would think perhaps that some of the worst ones had been left out. But this is not the case. As the list goes through the Kings of Judah we find such evil men as Rehoboam, Jehoram, Manasseh and Amon given full prominence. And even the “good” ancestors had many faults.

Just think of:

• Abraham and Isaac – both tried to pass off their wives as their sisters so they could be well received in foreign lands.
• Jacob cheated his brother out of his blessing.
• Judah lay with his own daughter-in-law, thinking she was a prostitute.
• David committed adultery and murder.
• Solomon married a multitude of pagan women.

These were good and great men but the had their faults. By God’s mercy they were forgiven and cleansed and they experienced God’s grace.

Nonetheless, you could still say there are plenty of skeletons in the cupboard in the family tree of Jesus!

Four women

Now, in those days genealogies consisted only of the male names of the family. Rarely would there be a mention of a woman. But Matthew, in his family tree of Jesus draws attention to four women. And what women they were!  One played the harlot and another was a harlot full time. Another was an adulteress. And two of them were from pagan backgrounds.

Matthew’s Gospel was written particularly for the Jews – to bring them to faith in Jesus as the Messiah. You can’t help but think that Matthew here is trying to puncture Jewish self-righteousness in his readers. He was writing to people who prided themselves on being Hebrews of the Hebrews. They came from godly families and there was no trace of Gentile blood or of pagan practices in their families. So Matthew is drawing attention to the fact that Joseph ( the legal father of Jesus) had not only sinful kings of Judah in his ancestry but even pagan and immoral women. The Son of David was not only coming to save the Jews but for all people. And he would be the Saviour, not of the righteous, but of sinners.

Let’s briefly look at the lives of these four women:

Tamar

Tamar was the daughter-in-law of Judah. She had been consecutively married to two of his sons. After both sons had died Tamar was left childless and alone – a terrible position for a woman in those days. But Judah was unwilling to let her marry his third son as the custom was, and he left her “on the shelf” as it were. So Tamar took matters into own hands. She covered her face and disguised herself as a prostitute. When Judah came by he asked to have sex with her. Later, when it was found that Tamar was with child, Judah wanted to have her burned for playing the harlot. But when he realized that he himself was the father of the child he admitted that he was in the wrong.

“I have failed in my obligation to her, – I should have given her to my son Shelah in marriage”, he said.

Tamar gave birth to twins, one of whom, Perez, became and ancestor of King David, and therefore of Jesus Christ. The whole rather unedifying incident can be found in Genesis chapter 38.

Rahab

We read abut Rahab in the story of Joshua’s conquest of Jericho. If there is one thing people know about Rahab it is that she was a harlot. She was the Canaanite prostitute who took in and protected the Israelite spies in Joshua, chapter two. When the city was sacked Rahab and her family were spared.

Rahab had helped the Israelite spies because she had come to believe in the God of Israel. She had come to see that the Lord was giving the land of Canaan to the Israelites, and she sided with them and against the people of Jericho. After the conquest of Jericho Rahab lived a different life. She married an Israelite man and became the mother of noble and honorable Boaz who married Ruth. This surely shows a work of God’s grace in her life.

Ruth

Ruth was a Moabite women whose whole life was one of nobility and goodness. She certainly was not a bad woman but she came from bad stock. She would have been despised for being a Maobitess. But Ruth loved her mother-in-law Naomi and wanted to follow the God of Israel. Like her husband’s mother Rahab she attached herself to the Lord and to the people of Israel.

 Bathsheba

Her name is not mentioned in this list but she is described as the mother of Solomon ands the former wife of Uriah. She had been married to a non-Israelite in King David’s service. The King, succumbing to the temptations of the flesh, took Bathsheba for himself and plotted the death of her husband to cover up his own sin of adultery. God’s punishment fell on David for his sins but he sought God’s mercy and received it. Bathesha was not guilty in all this – there was no way she could have resisted the will of the King. Nor was she complicit in the death of her husband Uriah. Nonetheless, she was an adulteress, also probably a Hittite like her husband, and thus liable to be looked down on by a religious Jew.

The grace of God

So all four of these women had something about them that would have been unacceptable to a self-righteous religious Jew at the time of Jesus. But they all became ancestors of King David.

Matthew seems to be wanting to say that the grace of God overcomes all the barriers of backgrounds, former life and ethnic origin.

And when Jesus the Messiah came into the world he came for people such as these just as much as for the respectable people. When Jesus started his ministry he reached out to all kinds of outcasts and marginalized people. The ones who were despised by the scribes and Pharisees – lepers, harlots, tax gatherers, Quislings, Samaritans, pagan Greeks, Roman soldiers – all kinds of people. He also took notice of women and of children – people who were usually ignored in the culture of his day.

Conclusion

Advent is the season to get ready – to prepare for the coming of the Lord. Like the Lord Jesus we should be ready to welcome all kinds of people and to offer them the grace and forgiveness he offers us.

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Matthew 25:31-46

 Jesus told a parable about sheep and goats. It’s one of those stories he told about the Second Coming and the Final Judgement. This parable has some similarities with the one he told about the Wheat and the Tares and the one about the Net full of good and bad fish. In each case there is a separation between good and bad.

A Day of Judgement

There is going to be a Day of Judgement, Jesus says. A day of sifting between wheat and chaff, between those who belong to God and those who have rejected him. God will punish the evildoers and reward those who do right.

Much as we shy away from the idea of judgement and Hell nowadays, we have to see that it is central to our faith. Imagine a world in which there was to be no final judgement. Evildoers would sin throughout their lives, doing whatever they wanted. They would oppress the poor, and persecute the godly. And, as so often happens, if they escaped punishment in this life they would have never been brought to account. They say “crime doesn’t pay” but, you know, often it does – that’s why people do it! And if the godly people had to suffer persecution and injustice in this life (as they often do) and there was no recompense for them in the life to come, how could we say God is just? This life is often so unfair.

Sometimes people say, “I won’t believe in a God who allows such evil things to be done.” They haven’t taken into account the fact that one day God will intervene and will put all things right. Yes, there will be a judgement and a separation between good and evil.

Sheep and Goats

In this parable the two types of people are described as being separated like sheep and goats. In those days shepherds often kept mixed flocks. When it came to shearing time they had to separate the sheep from the goats. It must have been a common sight to Jesus’ hearers – the shepherd separating his flock.

But what do they represent? Who are the sheep and who are the goats? Are you sheep or a goat? By implication, in this story, the sheep represent God’s people, the children of the kingdom, and the goats represent those who have rejected God.

I said the other week that its too simplistic to just divide the world into saints and sinners. We all start off as sinners and we can all become saints by the grace of God. In other words: a “goat” can be converted and become a “sheep”! This is the glory of the Gospel.

I still stand by what I said the other week, with regard to this life. But there will come a day when there will only be two kinds of people, the saved and the unsaved, the sheep and the goats. That day will be the Day of Judgment and Jesus will be the Judge.

The Basis for Judgement

Now, what is the basis for judgement?

• Is it the number of times you go to church?
• Is it now often you pray, or how long you pray for, every day?
• Is it how well you know the Bible?
• Is it how well behaved you are, how good your manners are, how respectable you are?

No, Jesus says, it’s not that. (That is the sort of religion the Pharisees adhered to.)

No, it’s all about love, Jesus says – practical love. This is the whole teaching of Jesus about how we should behave towards one another. And the apostles of Jesus said the same thing.

For example, John says:

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.       (1 John 3:16-18)

And Paul writes to Timothy:

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.      (1 Timothy 6:17-19)

Jesus, in this parable, talks about feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the ragged, caring for the sick, visiting those in prison. This is practical Christianity. This is the sort of thing Jesus did, and his followers should be doing the same kind of thing.

Of course, in our modern civilized world things are a lot more complicated than they were in the days of Jesus. There was no social security in those days. If you saw someone in need and you were able to help them you knew it was your responsibility to do so. Nowadays we are shielded from the needs of the poor by all kinds of social structures. It’s not quite so easy to just drop everything and go out and help the needy. But there are many ways we can be generous. If there are agencies set up to help needy people, either here or abroad, then we can support those agencies. We can be generous in giving our money.

(Next year in the Presbyterian Church of Wales we shall have our regular five-yearly Christian Aid appeal. This time it will be for the country of Guatemala. I hope we can rise to the challenge. They are hoping to raise £12 from each member of each church in the Denomination. It’s not a lot of money – one pound a month.)

We can also give of our time and energy to voluntary work.

And how about starting right at home. How do we behave towards our family, our neighbours and our acquaintances? Are we unselfish, considerate and caring in the way we deal with people? Or are we selfish? Are we “sheep” or are we “goats”? According to this parable we will be judged on the basis of the way we have treated others.

Faith and Works

Now we have to sound a note of caution here. If you were to take this parable alone as the basis for your Christianity you would get the idea that our salvation is the result of our good works – that we earn it by caring for the poor and needy. We might even think that it doesn’t matter what we believe. In this parable the righteous people didn’t even realize they were doing it for the King.

Does this mean that God is not interested in what people believe? Does this parable teach that it doesn’t matter whether or not you believe in Jesus? Does it mean you can be a Muslim, or a Hindu, or a Mormon, or even an Atheist, and you will be saved as long as you care for the needy?

Well, obviously not, because there are whole sections of the Bible which deal with the need for faith. Jesus himself said, “Repent and believe the Good News!” when he started his public ministry.

And what about the Thief on the Cross next to Jesus – the one who repented. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom,” he said. And that man entered into Paradise not on the basis of any good deeds he had done, but simply because of his trust in Jesus. After all, what good deeds could he perform while he was nailed to that cross?

If we study the Bible as a whole – rather than just selected passages – we come to the conclusion that salvation is by faith in Jesus Christ, and by faith alone. That faith is the result of the grace of God.

But we also conclude that “faith without works is dead” (James 2:14-26) because if it is a real faith then it will inevitably result in good deeds, given the opportunity. You are not saved by your good deeds, but if you are saved you will produce the Fruit of the Spirit. The life of Jesus will be working in you and you will show his love and goodness by your actions.

Unselfconscious Christianity

The way I see it is like this: if a person really follows Jesus, if they have really allowed the Holy Spirit to work in their lives, then they will produce fruits of righteousness. They will do deeds of kindness and love, almost without being aware of them. They won’t be always thinking, “How can I do some good deed here so I can show I am a Christian”. No, it will happen spontaneously and unselfconsciously.

And so this is why the “sheep” in the parable were surprised when the King said they had ministered to him. As far as they were concerned, they had just been living as God’s people and showing love to those around them. They hadn’t thought of it as serving the King. But that’s what it was.

And so with the “goats”. Some of them might have been very religious people (just like the Pharisees) but they didn’t love people. And if you don’t love people then you don’t love God, according to the Apostle John.

If anyone says, I love God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.     (1 John 4:20)

These people were counted with the “goats” because they had never been converted. They had never opened themselves up to God. They didn’t love God and they didn’t love others.

Meeting with Christ

Now there are two ways of interpreting this parable. One is the way I have just outlined – Christ comes to us in the poor and needy, and in serving them we serve him.

According to the other interpretation Jesus is talking about people who come to us in his name – Christians who share the Gospel, missionaries , evangelists, etc. Jesus says, “If you receive them and welcome them then then you welcome me.” Thus you show yourselves to be part of his flock. But if you reject these messengers of the Gospel, then you are rejecting Jesus and you show yourselves to be “goats”.

I think it is possible to reconcile the two interpretations. You could see the wider one as generally true – we should love all people and serve them. Christ comes to us in all people because all are made in the image of God, and he died for all of them.

But the more specific interpretation is also true in that we especially meet Christ in his people, and supremely when those people bring the Good News to us.

Leo Tolstoy wrote a lovely short story entitled “The Cobbler and his Guest” in which he expressed the truth that Jesus comes to us in the needs of others. I haven’t got time to tell that story today. Perhaps you might like to read it yourselves. You can get it for free online.

Let me tell you another story instead. This is a true story.

A Christian lady living in Oklahoma was in her car with her two-year old son when they saw “Raggedy Ann”. She was an elderly vagrant African-American woman who roamed around the town, picking through the garbage. She wore layers of ragged clothing and carried a rough stick in her hand. Her face was shrouded in a cloth to hide her face because she suffered from some kind of skin cancer. With her ragged robes and head dress she looked like some kind of Biblical figure. The schoolchildren were afraid of her. They said she was a leper or a witch.

When the little boy saw her he said to his Mom, “There’s Jesus.” 

Mom though how “cute” it was that her little boy should mistake the robed figure for Jesus.

“No, Honey, that’s Raggedy Ann,” she said.

But the boy insisted: “No Mommy, that’s Jesus!”

The mother writes: “And suddenly I realized that the child knew a truth I could not grasp. And I wept”,

(story adapted from www.desperatepreacher.com ).

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 Introduction

Last Tuesday was All Saints Day – a day upon which the departed saints of the Church were venerated in medieval times. “But we are protestants,” you might well say, “and we live in the light of the Reformation. We do not venerate the departed saints or offer prayers to them.” Some would no doubt say that we should not even take note of All Saints Day. But I would disagree. I think it is a good thing to be able to think about the departed saints of God and this season in the Church calendar gives us a chance to do so. We Presbyterians don’t worship them, or venerate them, or pray to them, but we do thank God for them and seek to emulate them.

What is a saint?

 But what does it mean to be a saint? What does the word “saint” even mean? A look at the dictionary reveals a number of different definitions of the word “saint”. These are from the Oxford Dictionary of English.

 SAINT (Noun)

• A person acknowledged as holy or virtuous and regarded in Christian faith as being in heaven after death.

• A person of exalted virtue who is canonized by the Church after death and who may be the object of veneration and prayers for intercession.

• A member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, a Mormon.

• (in Biblical use) A Christian believer.

• (Informal) A very virtuous, kind or patient person.

Now, of all these definitions the only one I would regard as the true one is the Biblical usage.

I’m afraid the waters have been muddied over the ages by various people. The Roman Catholic Church has not helped things by restricting the term “Saint” to very holy, special people who have been canonized by the Church. To become a saint on those terms you must have performed miracles, either during or after your lifetime.

The Mormons haven’t helped either by taking the name for themselves. They call themselves the “Latter-Day Saints”, as if all true Christians were not saints of the latter days. ( And anyway, we would deny that Mormons should be considered as Christians since they do not believe that Jesus is the unique Son of God.)

I want us to try to step away from the false meanings and get back to the original meaning – the Biblical meaning – of the word “Saint”.

In your Bible you will find that many modern versions have replaced the word “saints” with something like “God’s people” or “God’s holy ones”. This is no doubt so as to avoid confusion with the various spurious meanings of the word. But I want to reclaim the word “saint” for its original meaning.

In the King James Version the word “saint” is used in the New Testament to translate a Greek word ( hagios) which means “consecrated to God, holy or sacred.” It means “one whose sins have been forgiven”, “one who has been cleansed by the Blood of Christ”, “one who is sanctified by the Holy Spirit”.

The Apostle Paul wrote:

 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both their’s and our’s:

 (1 Corinthians 1:2)

And throughout the New Testament it is customary to refer to God’s people as saints.

Saints and sinners

 Some people tend to the see the word in black and white. To them there are two kinds of people: good and bad, saints and sinners. (No doubt they see themselves as the former and view many others as the latter.) This was the attitude of the Pharisees in the time of Christ, who saw themselves as better than other men and looked down on tax collectors and “sinners”.

But this was not the way Jesus looked at people. He looked out and he saw sinners all around him – lost souls in need of salvation. He saw some people who had made a complete hash of their lives, and others who were quite respectable. But both were sinners. Both were separated from God by their sins.

And so he went out to of his way to lead them both, Pharisee and Publican, into the way of repentance and forgiveness for their sins. Eventually he died on the cross so their sins could be washed away.

Yes, Jesus saw sinners all around him. That was what they were at that moment, but he also saw saints. He saw their potential. He saw what they could become. Even the hated tax-gatherer Zacchaeus. Even the immoral Samaritan woman by the well. Even the soldiers who were nailing him to the cross. He saw that they were all potential saints.

You see, this idea of the world being made up of: on the one hand, saints, and on the other hand, sinners, is not quite the truth. These two categories are not mutually exclusive. You can be a saint or a sinner, but you can also be both a saint and a sinner.

We are all sinners, and we can all become saints.  I am both a saint and a sinner. I was once lost in sin, before I came to faith in Christ. (I was a respectable sinner, but a sinner nonetheless.) Now I a am a saint because Jesus has died to wash away my sins.  But does that mean I now no longer sin? Unfortunately not. Saint as I, I still fall into temptation. A perfect sinless life can not be achieved by any of us until we get to heaven. But when I have fallen into sin I ask God to forgive me once more, and trust in the blood of Jesus. We are all a mixture of saint and sinner. There is a spiritual battle going on in all our hearts.

So if I say I am a saint, I am not claiming to be perfect. Nor am I claiming to be better than other Christians. I am simply saying I am a child of God, by his grace.

 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.   (Romans 3:22-23)

All have sinned but all can be saved.

Living as a saint

 So we can have our sins washed away – just like that. Does that mean we can do whatever we like because we are now living under Grace, rather than Law? Certainly not! This is what Paul says in Romans:

 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning, so that grace may increase? By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?    (Romans 6:1-2)

And again, a little later in the chapter:

 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey— whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?   (Romans 6:15-16)

The whole purpose of God cleansing us from our sins was so that we might go on from that point living a godly life. We are not meant to lapse back into our former ways. The realization that we have been called to a new life, that we have been cleansed, should make us want to go on to become saints in more than just name.

The Apostle Peter writes:

As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: Be holy, because I am holy.

Since you call on a Father who judges each man’s work impartially, live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.     (1 Peter 1:14-19)

In our natural state we are sinners, but by faith in Christ we become saints. Now we are called to live as saints. we are to live lives which reflect the goodness and love of God.

This is the work of sanctification and it is brought about by the Holy Spirit. The more committed we are to Christ, the less we will trust in our own power, and the more we will be filled with the Holy Spirit. And the more we are filled with the Spirit, the more we shall produce the fruit of the Spirit in our lives.

 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.   (Galatians 5:22)

Conclusion

What is a saint? I hope I have made that clear. Let me end with the words of a children’s hymn. You can find it in the Junior Praise hymnbook.

I sing a song of the saints of God,

patient and brave and true,

who toiled and fought and lived and died

for the Lord they loved and knew.

And one was a doctor, and one was a queen,

and one was a shepherdess on the green;

they were all of them saints of God, and I mean,

God helping, to be one too.

.

They loved their Lord so dear, so dear,

and his love made them strong;

and they followed the right for Jesus’ sake

the whole of their good lives long.

And one was a soldier, and one was a priest,

and one was slain by a fierce wild beast;

and there’s not any reason, no, not the least,

why I shouldn’t be one too.

.

They lived not only in ages past,

There are hundreds of thousands still.

The world is bright with the joyous saints

Who love to do Jesus’ will.

You can meet them in school, or in planes, or at sea,

In church, or in trains, or in shops, or at tea;

For the saints of God are just folk like me,

And I mean to be one too.

( L. Scott )

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