Sermons by Adrian

DIRTY HANDS Living a Holy Life in an Unholy World (2)

2012-01-23T06:22:00.000-08:00

Readings: Psalm 62:5-12, Jonah 3:1-5, Mark 1:14-20, 1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on January 22nd 2011

A printable PDF copy can be found here

I was watching a football game. Actually it was what you call a soccer game. Manchester United playing Chelsea in the English Premier League. Whilst not a crucial game it was nevertheless an important one that could gain either side important points. A soccer game lasts 90 minutes, with time added called stoppage time at the end.

It was 91 minutes into the game, (that is already one minute into the two minutes of stoppage time). The score was one goal to each side. The Manchester goal keeper had the ball. Instead of staying in the goal-mouth, the usual procedure for a goal-keeper, he started kicking it up the field, gesturing at the rest of the team to move up, to get in shot of the goal.

With just a few seconds to go, he passed it to another player, who crossed the ball across the goal mouth, “Wham” one of the other players headed it into the back of the net. Victory to Man. United! A classic goal in the closing seconds of a tightly fought match.

Have you noticed though, that when a championship game of any sport draws near to a close, teams will take on some unusual tactics? Goal-Keepers come out of their areas. There will be crazy passes or plays that wouldn’t normally be tried. When time is short, the game plan can dramatically alter.

I want to continue on my theme of “Living a Holy Life in an Unholy World”, looking at Paul’s teaching in chapters six to nine of 1 Corinthians. In our passage this morning we have Paul recommending to the Corinthian Church that, as time was of the essence, they should examine the game plan of their spiritual lives. It was important for them to concentrate on what was really important, maybe even take unusual steps to see that they remained spiritually on the winning side.

As history was headed towards the final whistle, the coming of Jesus Christ had set in motion waves of change that could not be ignored. Things were not going to remain the same, particularly for those who embraced His message. In particular their relationship with Jesus Christ was going to affect the way they related to everything else in their lives. Enthroning Jesus Christ as Lord meant other things had to move over.

Our passage this morning is very much an exercise in perspective keeping. It calls us to look at our lives, with the knowledge that life can be very uncertain, and take stock as to what really matters.

I am reminded of conversations I’ve had with folk who have been victims of flood or fire. The things that were seen as being the greatest loss, where not necessarily items of material value, but things that had some personal worth attached to them. Photographs, letters, memories of people and places, things that could not be replaced.

In a similar way Paul sees the possibility of Christ’s return as energizing us towards thinking through where our commitments should lie. What are we investing our lives in? Things that outlast them, or things that won’t even last as long as them? What’s the bottom line? Is it relationships? Is it feeling good? Is it buying and selling and owning? What are the defining factors in our relationship to the world in which we live?

Paul seems to say, “Look, if tomorrow where the last day of history, how would you live your life today?” I’m sure I’m not the only guy here who can remember late night conversations as an adolescent along the lines of, “What would you do if you knew there was a nuclear bomb on its way from some foreign power and you only had a few hours left to live?”

I’ve heard some guys suggest that they would like to find the prettiest girl around, head for the nearest nuclear shelter and set about the business of seeing the world became repopulated as soon as possible. But of course I’m not allowed to say that sort of thing in church.

But you know what, I said it, and it fits right in with what Paul is saying. I’m not talking about the fact of adolescent desire clouding genuine understanding, but Paul is shouting at us “Get Real”. If your religion is just an escape, forget it. If you come along to church and want it to be totally unrelated to the real world in which you live your daily life; if your looking for something to sort out your spiritual life by providing neat, inoffensive solutions, then find another religion.

Get Real. Christianity is the religion of the Cross. Pain and punishment. Flesh and blood. Desire and Frustration. Crucifixion, Sweat and tears. Rolling Stones and empty tombs. Don’t confuse faith with fairy tales. Don’t settle for Disneyland faith and Hallmark spirituality. Don’t commit yourself to anything that is not reaching deeply into your daily world. Don’t put up with anything that does not deal with the actual life you live, the desires that shape your existence, and the thoughts that fill your mind.

There were those in Corinth who took it that Paul was preaching that 'Jesus was coming soon' and therefore they didn’t need to do much except hang around, say their prayers, read their bibles and “Woosh” any moment Jesus would whisk them away to happy clappy heaven. The last thing they wanted to do was get their hands dirty through involvement with the real world. ‘Just wait for the Lord to sort it all out. You don’t have to worry. You don’t have a care in the world. God will look after everything”

‘Get Real’ says Paul, because Christ has come, because time is of the essence, then you have to get your hands dirty. You have to throw yourself, body, soul and spirit, into sorting out what’s right and wrong for you, where your real commitments lie and how you will live in the light of those decisions.

He identifies for us a dilemma, a crisis that genuine Christian commitment will eventually lead us to. Namely, the pervasive human problem of competing goals and loyalties. We are called to relate to every indifferent matter in such a way as to neither overvalue it or to confuse it with what is most important.

Putting it simply, Paul gives instructions for being active disciples. Being a disciple, he tells us, is more important than anything else in life. It is more important than what we wear, what we own, how we feel, who we marry, what we get to do and don’t get to do, be it at home, at work, at school, wherever. To be a disciple is to take active steps to see that Jesus is enthroned as Lord over and above every other thing in your existence.

He speaks of particular things. “Those that have wives should act as though they had none” (verse 29). Now there’s a phrase that could be open to misinterpretation! In this same chapter Paul says a whole lot about honoring your relationships and how a husband needed to have his mind set on his wife. About how that sometimes meant that a married person couldn’t commit to everything a single person would be able to commit to. If you had a family, you had responsibilities.

Looking at it through that lens, Paul seems to be saying, “Treat your partners in marriage as though you only had a short time together”. If your partner wasn’t your partner, what sort of things would you be doing to convince them that you should be the special one in their lives? If today was the last day of your lives, what would you say to each other, how would you behave towards to each other?

Verse 30 “Those who mourn should act as though they were not mourning, those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing”. Plainly, it would be psychological suicide to repress every emotion of mourning or rejoicing. Again, I don’t think that’s what Paul is getting at. To me Paul is saying that we should not allow either mourning or rejoicing to be the framework through which we interpret everything else in our lives.

Our lives are full of experiences of loss and experiences of blessing. If, in the long term, we allow those experiences to become our focus, then they will shift our eyes away from Christ and cause to interpret our lives only on the basis of our emotional experiences. Mourning and expressing joy are important dimensions of life, but they are not the totality of human life. We must make room for them, but not build our lives upon such experiences.

Verse 30 continues “and those who buy, as though they did not possess”. Elsewhere the gospel plainly teaches that materialism is not a sound base upon which to build a spiritual life. Jesus told a parable about a ‘Rich Fool’, a man who works hard, stores up everything for a rainy day, only to find that, as Paul is warning the Corinthians, sometimes life is cut short. On his entry to heaven the man is told, “You fool, Now what are you going to do with all that wealth you accumulated for yourself?” How many times have you heard people say “You can’t take it with you”? Yet so much time is spent in acquisition. As Paul says, “What if there is no tomorrow? How is all that stuff going to help us?”

Finally, verse 31, he instructs “those who deal with the world (should act) as though they had no dealings with it”. So what Paul? We’re supposed to live our lives as though this world had no influence on us what ever? Isn’t it time you got real? Chances are Jesus isn’t coming tomorrow, you got that wrong! 2000 years and He hasn’t shown yet!

I can’t answer for Paul, but maybe he would direct us towards these words in Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 18 and verse 18 “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" It wasn’t Paul who said that, but Jesus. Nevertheless…if today were the closing seconds of the Game, how then would we live? We really don’t have all the time in the world. Knowing that is a fact that can help us value the time, and use the time that we do have, a whole lot more wisely.

There is time for sowing and a time for harvesting. In both cases we get our hands dirty. Christian discipleship involves actively seeking for our life to be under Christ’s Lordship in all areas. Our relationships. Our time. Our emotions. Our stuff. That world we walk though on a daily basis. Evaluating all of that isn’t easy. But, as Paul seems to suggest, what if tomorrow was our last? How would we invest our lives today? May God help us to answer such questions in a way that draws us deeper into God’s love.

AMEN!
Rev Adrian Pratt

“BODY BEAUTIFUL” Living a Holy Life in an Unholy World (1)

2012-01-17T06:00:00.000-08:00

Reading: Psalm 139, 1 Samuel 3:1-10, John 1:43-51, 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on January 15th 2012

A printable PDF file can be found here

What do you think? How am I looking this morning? Pumped up? Ready to go? How would you like a body like mine? (Please don’t answer that question, I may be offended!).

Have you ever considered how much time and energy is spent in this nation in trying to get our bodies into whatever others tell us is the shape they should be in? We’re too fat, we’re too thin, we have bulges in the wrong places, we’re not eating this or doing this, we need to wear this in order to emphasize this, wear that to cover up the other… and all for what, for whom, for why?

The Western World is obsessed with the shape and size of bodies. The quest for beauty, the idea that somehow the only way to be anybody in life is to look like somebody else is a slippery, wasteful path to pursue.

The older you get the harder it becomes and maybe we reach a point where we don’t exercise to keep in shape but to stay alive! Years of neglect and abuse eventually take their toll. Some get up in the morning and are just thankful that the joints still move (though nowhere near as easily as they once did). I’m told that some check the obituary column just to be sure they are not in it. The aging process plays cruel tricks.

I’m starting a series this week that looks at chapters six through nine of 1 Corinthians which I’m calling, “Living a holy life in an unholy world”. This morning our reading focused on the human body. In particular how we should as Christians regard our bodies and the sort of things we should or shouldn’t do with our bodies.

The people to whom this letter was first addressed were the church at Corinth. Corinth was a cosmopolitan seaport with not the best reputation. It wasn’t that there were not good people in the place, but rather that there was such an attitude of uncritical tolerance that it became a place where ‘anything goes’. Some commentators describe Corinth as “Sin City”.

The church there was strongly influenced by the climate of ‘freedom without responsibility’ that many of its citizens embraced. To their credit they had actually used such a situation to their benefit. They experimented with spiritual gifts and made much of ‘experience’ being a validation of truth. No congregation that Paul founded had such a charismatic emphasis as the Corinthians. Speaking in tongues and words of divine prophecy, utterances and experiences attributed to the work of the Holy Spirit appear to have been an important part of their worship experiences.

A significant number of these believers were Gentiles with wealth and property to their name. Enough for them to accommodate meetings in their homes and organize banquets around the Lord’s Supper. Indeed later in the letter Paul takes them to task for using such times as opportunities not for service but for self-promotion, the rich exploiting the poor and the whole thing becoming something it was never intended to be.

Corinth’s libertarian attitude led to the development of a dangerous teaching. Putting it simply they came to believe that what you did with your body was unimportant, that it was only the state of your soul and the experience you had of the Holy Spirit that counted for anything.

Things had deteriorated to such a point that in the church people were entering into all kinds of relationships that did anything but glorify God and made the congregation as a whole look bad. Back in chapter five Paul has heard about all this and he chastises them, “It is common knowledge that there is immorality among you, immorality of such kinds as even the godless don’t approve of” (paraphrase of 1 Cor.5:1).

Paul speaks of the body using the Greek word “Soma”. He sees our bodies as one of the great gifts that God has given to us. So we are to care for them and be careful how we use them. He notes how our bodies are driven by appetites, and singles out two particular passions. Firstly, our appetite for food. Secondly, our appetite for physically connecting with others. In both cases he warns that the unrestrained expression of desire could result in tragedy, both personally and for the church.

It seems in Corinth they had a few catchy little expressions they used to justify their actions. It may be they even heard these things from Paul when he had been amongst them. We know that Paul was keen to preach a gospel of ‘Freedom in Christ’. No longer did people have to live under the law, but they were saved by grace through faith.

So in verse 12 we find Paul quoting to them one of these maxims. “All things are lawful for me”. You see the logic the Corinthians had applied? ‘All things are lawful for me’. ‘Jesus has set me free from law, so I can live however I please. What I do with my body doesn’t count. I live by the Spirit not by the flesh.’ ‘All things are lawful for me.’

Paul is keen to retain the truth he has preached to them. ‘Yes’, he tells them, ‘You are right, all things are lawful for you. You are set free in Christ!” But, he then goes onto say… not everything you do benefits you and anything that you are doing that has become a bad habit you can’t get out of has robbed you of your freedom in Christ.

He then deals with another Corinthian catchphrase; “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”. They were using this maxim to justify a lot more than an occasional binge on chocolate. It was descriptive of the attitude they had towards all their bodily appetites. If your body felt like eating, then go ahead eat as you like. If your body feels like drinking, go ahead, drink whatever. If your body feels like it needs the companionship of another, then go ahead, indulge that need.

Corinth was a port, with a reputation for being a place to indulge the self. Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll, if you could you name it then you could probably find it. So if somebody felt the need for some physical companionship then it was no big deal, you just went out and indulged yourself.

We know from elsewhere in Paul’s letters that he had taught them about unclean and clean foods and how it was not what they ate that made them unclean, because it was after all only food, and that they could, within reason, eat whatever their stomachs approved of… but this “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”, was twisting that idea as to accommodate just about anything a person did.

“Hold on a minute” he seems to say, “All this body and eating and relating and all the rest of it, you know and I know that ultimately the body decays, we die and that’s it.” In Verse 13 he tells them “God will destroy both the one and the other”. “But there is a bigger picture. You are Christian people, redeemed by the work of Jesus Christ.”

Paul’s argument is something along these lines: - You recall what happened to Jesus. He died but God raised Him from the dead, and something new came about. That power, that Holy Spirit, resurrection power is at work in your lives now that you have accepted the message of Jesus Christ by putting your faith in Him.

So how you treat your body, what you put into it, where you take it, is for you a really important issue. It didn’t used to matter when you just lived to die, but now you are seeking to live in a way that glorifies God and lasts for ever so you have to look at your body in a new way.

Now, you are a part of a community, a church, a body of people known as the body of Christ. What people see you do affects of how they look at God. Christ’s love now lives in you. Your body is a little church all on it’s own, a temple of the Holy Spirit. That’s why you can’t just go on living by satisfying whatever appetite may arise in your body.

Whether it’s food, or physical companionship, or even what you wear and how you behave, a whole host of things. Once these weren’t important, but now they are. They are important because God desires His temple to be a beautiful place. A place through which others can find His love. You are called to be that beautiful place.

He warns them to be particularly careful when it comes to physical relationships. Whilst your body, with its needs and appetites and changing seasons is important… remember that you are more than just a body. You are not your own. Jesus claims you as His.

This claim Jesus places on your life places you in a position of tremendous security. This claim Jesus makes over you is above and beyond the claim any other person or thing or appetite or desire makes over you. This claim Jesus makes over you puts you at the center of God’s attention, the apple of His eye, and the object of God’s affection.

That’s a strong place to be coming from. God simply says, "Be the Man, Be the Woman, Be the Person I made you to be". The words of Psalm 139.

O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, You know it completely. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me! (Psalm 139:1-6)

How do we live a holy life in an unholy world? One way is by remembering that each one of us, in God’s eyes, is already body beautiful. Beautiful enough to send Jesus to be our Savior. Beautiful enough to be called a temple of the Holy Spirit. They do say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Well... behold… God made you. Jesus saved you. The Holy Spirit lives through you. Leave this place in the confidence of the security that comes from knowing yourself a child of God.

Rev Adrian Pratt

BAPTISM OF THE LORD SUNDAY "REAFFIRMATION AND BAPTISM”

2012-01-09T06:31:00.000-08:00

Readings: Genesis 1:1-5, Psalm 29, Mark 1:4-11, Acts 19:1-7
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on January 8th 2012

A printable PDF file can be found here

Today, as we ordain and commission new elders and deacons, I invite us to reaffirm our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Today, Baptism of the Lord Sunday, I’m inviting us to reconsider the promises made at baptism, confirmation or membership. Last week we met around the Lords table. This week we meet around a font that has been filled with the waters we use in baptism. Baptism, be it that of an infant or an adult, is always a sign of new beginnings.

Our Scripture reading from Acts 19, gave us an intriguing story of Paul, on one of his missionary journeys, encountering a group of believers in God in Ephesus, who had been baptized by John the Baptist, but had not received the gift of the Holy Spirit, nor fully accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ.

At first Paul seems confused. They were doing all the things church folk were meant to do. They were disciples. Meeting together. Sharing. Praying. They believed in God, no doubts about it. But as he talks with them he realizes that their experience with Christianity was minimal. They start discussing the role of the Holy Spirit in religious life and these folk are saying, “Holy Spirit? Nobody told us about the Holy Spirit?”

Paul quizzes them some more. ‘But I thought you said you’d been baptized? How did that happen?” “Well” they explain “There was this man of God called John who taught us how to turn our lives around. We went down into the waters with him and have committed ourselves to following the Lords leading as we look for the One John said was to come.”

“I’m with you now” Paul seems to say. Filling in the gaps we can presume that these folks just hadn’t got the message that Jesus had come! They were out in Ephesus, a very different place to Jerusalem. So Paul explains what has been going on and they break through to a new level of understanding.

In the story of the book of Acts the significance of their acceptance of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that Acts tells the story of the spread of Christianity “in Jerusalem, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth”. At each significant advance the spread of the gospel to a new area is marked by Pentecost like signs. The acceptance and baptism in the Holy Spirit of twelve disciples in Gentile territory beyond Jerusalem marked another milestone in the advance of Christianity.

The story reminds us that though we may believe, there still needs to be moments and times when we refocus and reaffirm what we believe. These disciples had been baptized and they were people seeking to be God's people. God honored their search by granting them a fuller and deeper revelation of His love, filling them with the knowledge of Jesus as their Savior and empowering them for service through the Holy Spirit.

We still stand near the dawn of a New Year, and we can choose what forces are going to shape our lives in this new age. We like to think of ourselves as free agents. Not really! Our lives, our thoughts, our values, our spirituality, our whole outlook on life is shaped by the forces around us and our reaction to them. Admittedly, we can, like the folk in Ephesus that Paul came across, not always be in possession of all the facts, or aware of the full story. But as God reveals the way of discipleship to us there remains a decision to make as to how we will respond.

We are not all basically good or basically bad. We are a complex mix of emotions and desires, often in conflict with others and with ourselves. We are conditioned by our culture and our upbringing and our expectations. We are miserable sinners who wouldn't recognize an act of God if it came to us wrapped in box that said, "God was here"; yet at the same time we are glorious, possibility laden, miraculous, unique, creations of a loving God, full of destiny, purpose and meaning.

I bid you to pray that just as God gifted those disciples at Ephesus with Spiritual gifts, so our lives, both individually and together as a church community, will show increasing evidence of being molded and recreated and blessed by the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

We shall in a moment commission and ordain some of our members to serve their church through the office of deacon or elder. Many of you have served in the past. Others will do so in the future. We stand together in the service of Christ as His baptized and sent into the world people.

On this baptism of the Lord Sunday I invite you to again consider what the waters of baptism mean.

God adopts us as God's children.
God commissions us for service.
God forgives us, cleanses and renews us.
God equips us for ministry.
God claims us as God's own.
God sends us into all the world.
God calls us by name and longs to fill us with the Holy Spirit.

Paul went to Ephesus. He found some faithful people. Faithful people who were ready to take the next step of their journey of faith. As we stand with those being commissioned and ordained this day, may we recognize the call of God that extends to every one of us. Amen.

Rev Adrian J Pratt

DO THE DANCE!

2012-01-03T07:44:00.000-08:00

FIRST SUNDAY OF 2012
Reading: Psalm 72:1-15, Jeremiah 31:7-14, Ephesians 3:1-12, Matthew 2:1-6
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin on January 1 2012

A printable PDF file can be found here

On this first day of a New Year I want to ask you,
“Have you got your dancing shoes on?”
I want to think this morning about a verse that appears in Jeremiah 31:13,
“Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
and the young men and the old shall be merry.”

Consider the changes that have taken place since our great-grandparents days. Industry. Technology. Health Care. Education. Media. Music. Transport... air travel, not a dream, but a common way of getting around... men on the moon... computers.. i-phones...the list just goes on and on.

Consider the changes that have taken place as the centuries have rolled by. The population explosion. The discovery and settlement of a world that didn't turn out to be flat. The founding of nations and peoples. The constant interaction of tribes and ethnic groups and language and power.

Consider the rise and fall of great Empires, the Spanish, the French, the British. Consider the survival of nations of old... the Asian nations, India and China, the Middle Eastern nations whose ancient conflicts remain unresolved. Consider how only a short time ago in earths history the geographical land mass of the Australia’s and the America's were not known to have been in existence to most Europeans.

Also consider the role of the Christian Church within the scheme of things. The might of Rome and the power of the Eastern Orthodox tradition shaping the religious landscape. The bloodthirsty crusades by followers of both Mohammed and Christ. The phenomena of the Reformation, the growth of Protestantism and more recently Pentecostalism, TV evangelists and Mega-Churches.

History, the nations, the tribes, the religions, it’s like a great dance; the partners weaving in and out, sometimes one taking center stage, sometimes another taking a seat at the sidelines only to reappear once more on the floor. And all the time, the ship of progress, the growth of knowledge, taking us ever forward, to.... well, who knows?

Consider also the terrible mistakes that are made as the ship heads onwards. In the last century - two world wars and countless thousands of other conflicts. In this century, 911, Iraq and Afghanistan. Refugees. Holocaust. Ethnic Cleansing. Chemical Warfare. Atomic Bombs. World Hunger.

The technology and know how and resources available to put an end to poverty, and so much more, which instead have been squandered on weapons of destruction that can destroy us, and every other living thing on the planet, a million times over. Consider how nations continue to live in fear of each other, building walls to separate themselves, some seeking to be the biggest and the best and the most powerful, others seeking only to survive.

The history of the nation of Old Testament Israel gives us a fascinating picture of what it means to dance in and out of the will of God. Created out of a faith experience, a people called to reveal the One true God to the world, so often they just do not keep step with what God is doing.

The Old Testament does not just span a few centuries, but talks of time in terms of generations. Noah and Moses and Abraham and David and Isaiah and Daniel, were not contemporaries. They are separated by hundreds of years and many generations between them.

I fear that we sometimes forget what an enormous slice of history upon this planet is contained within the books of the Bible. They contain the earliest stories about the dawn of Creation itself and conclude in the relatively recent past, just a couple of millennia ago when the early church was founded after the resurrection of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit.

Think about that the next time you open it's pages. Here is wisdom as old as language. Even before people had figured out what writing was, some of the earliest stories circulated as tribal memories and folklore, told around campfires and family meals, not one thousand, but many thousand years ago. It's the original, the real thing.

And what a story it tells! We look to the turbulent events of our fore-fathers, the last two hundred and fifty years, the last thousand years, but see... the stories in our Bibles - sometimes their frankness and warlike imagery startles us, it's tales of genocide and immorality and violence leave us with as many questions as we find answers.... but has it not always been so?

As century rolls over to century, can we not see how the Spirit of God dances in and out of the history of the whole world, sometimes recognizable, sometimes unseen, sometimes misunderstood, sometimes mistaken?

Look again. The stories of the Bible are not about nameless characters or faceless individuals. We know these people. Abraham and Sarah. Moses being placed in the bulrushes and his struggles to come to terms with who he was and what he was called to do. David the little shepherd boy who became the King. Ruth and Naomi. Amos. Daniel in the lions Den. The list goes on.

And we see God dances, not as a wandering spirit searching for a home, but as the Holy Spirit in the lives of people with names and character faults, and jobs to do and homes to live in, people not wholly removed from this world, but who would be unrecognizable from the average person we walk past in the Mall on a shopping trip.

To such people, people such as you and I, come the promises of God. People with a tendency to walk away from God rather than towards God. It is as though God catches us by the arm, turns us around and says, "Let's Dance!". It as though, when we are sitting alone, feeling left out, feeling nobody understands what we are going through, God whispers in our ear, "Dance with me".

Again our text (Jeremiah 31:13) "Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow"

"Dance then wherever you may be, I am the Lord of the Dance said He,
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be, And I'll lead you all in the Dance said He"

The suggested New Testament reading for today gives us the account of the Wise Men following the Star to Bethlehem. Wise people keep seeking. Wise people do not disregard the religious insights of generations of spiritual folk. Wise people unravel their Bibles for they recognize a Sacred Story that weaves throughout time. Wise people are prepared to travel within the mystery. They treasure the questions as much as the answers.

And for those who are not so sure, the Savior goes seeking them. Seeking people to bring their gifts and talents into God's service. Seeking people who are prepared to dance to the beat of a different drum than that which their current generation or surrounding culture suggests. Seeking people who are prepared to travel through life with an angels song in their hearts that rings out, "Glory to God in the highest and on the earth be Peace!"

So my message to us all as we face a new year is simple; "Do the Dance". With God as your partner allow God to show you the steps, let the rhythm of the Holy Spirit be the rhythm that runs through your life, allow the harmony of each others fellowship and the melody of the living words of Jesus Christ that come to you through the Scriptures be the music that fills your days.

Do the Dance!

Rev. Adrian J. Pratt

"LET IT HAPPEN!” (ADVENT FOUR)

2011-12-19T06:02:00.000-08:00

Readings: 2 Sam. 7:1-11, 16, Ps. 89:1-4, 19-26, Romans 16:25-27, Luke 1:26-31,38.
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on December 18th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

As we have been traveling towards Advent a prophet called John the Baptist came out of an unexpected place and foreshadowed the coming of Jesus in unexpected ways. Last week we saw how the ‘Wind’ of the Holy Spirit was crying out the name of Mary; the poor peasant girl chosen by God to be mother of the Savior.

This week’s bible reading gave us an account that’s known as the ‘Annunciation’. An angel, in fact one who was regarded as a chief amongst angels called Gabriel, addresses Mary with terrifying news (and I use the word terrifying here in the sense that it was news that had such an element of awe within it that the only correct response was to quake with wonder)… “And behold” announces Gabriel “Thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name JESUS.”

More details are offered concerning His destiny and identity until, in a moment of beautiful resignation Mary responds, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.” Eugene Petersen in the Message pictures it this way “And Mary said, Yes, I see it all now: I'm the Lord's maid, ready to serve. Let it be with me just as you say.” Mary says, “Let it happen!”

Christmas is coming. Next Sunday will be Christmas Day. It will happen, whether we are ready for it or not. Ready or not, here comes ‘What?’ Here comes Christmas. And here’s Mary saying “Let it happen!”

What makes these gentle words of Mary all the more spectacular is that there was a history behind the coming of the Messiah that spanned centuries of prophetic visions and expectations. The child that she was to bear in her womb was not simply one in a number of remarkable events, but this child, the one to be called Jesus, was the climax and the culmination of all that the prophets had hoped and prayed for.

As other biblical writers such as John and Paul would seek to explain, this child was the culmination of God’s plans. He was the Creative Word made flesh, the one in whom Creation itself would find its ultimate meaning.

One bible commentator writes; “Consider this: From the beginning of time God
has been at work in bringing forth Jesus Christ so He could be one with His people.
Now, in this final annunciation story in the Bible, God’s purpose will be fulfilled.
God will act to save the people. This child is to be born to this woman for the saving of the world.”

And here’s little Mary saying “Let it happen!”

At the heart of Christmas is a startling thought. God wants to do extraordinary things in the midst of our everyday world. As people who are in this world; as every one of us here is a part of the world that God made, the world God saw and God declared ‘Good’; the implication of the Incarnation is that God wants to do extraordinary things in our lives. In your life, in my life, in the lives of our families, in the lives of our churches!

So are we ready for a ‘Mary Christmas’? That is are we ready to say to God, as did Mary, “Listen, whatever you want to happen in my life, whatever You have in store for me, however You want to do it… Let It Happen!”

If you recall our reading, when the angel first proposes such an idea to Mary, her attitude is not one of acceptance but of perplexity. ‘God; You don’t want to be getting mixed up in a life like mine! I’m not the sort of person who welcomes holy interventions. There’s got to be a catch here, there has to be some kind of miscalculation, can I get back to You on this?”

When you have the angel Gabriel standing in your front room, telling you not to be afraid and saying that you have found favor with God, it’s a little to late in the day to take a rain check. Some might suggest that ‘let it happen’ was the only response that Mary felt she could make!

But to me the really gritty part of this account is this. Mary’s decision to let God do what God wanted to do in her life, meant she would have to abandon her hopes and dreams about how she wanted her life to turn out.

She was a young woman of respectable family who had made a good marriage. She was to be the wife of a skilled craftsman, which would make her a part of the tiny middle-class of Palestine. Her hopes and plans no doubt included a quiet life, children, good health, some economic security, a little comfort, not much pain. God almost certainly had a place in her plans; doubtless she would keep the Commandments, make the sacrifices, follow the rules, pay the tithes and do all the usual stuff.

The story of the Annunciation is God saying "No" to all of Mary's plans. God saying that Mary will have very little of what she had hoped for and expected. God saying that, instead of Mary's plans for herself, God has plans for Mary, and these plans are unexpected, a bit scandalous, and change everything. Saying “Let it happen” when it’s obvious that to do so is going to mess with your game plan is tough.

Mary had tremendous faith and courage. It meant standing up to whatever gossip or rejection might come her way because she was pregnant and not yet married. She was willing to suffer a mother’s worst fate, bearing a son who would necessarily be taken from her all too soon.

She was willing to give Him away so the whole world could have Him. Later, she would watch her son walk the rocky road of a religious leader, see her son receive threats and abuse. Then, Mary would stand at the foot of a cross, helplessly watching Him die a humiliating death.

She would also witness many moments which bore witness to the glory of the Lord and the truth of the angel’s announcement. Jesus turning water to wine. Healings and miracles that were hard to put into words. And the greatest miracle of them all, the resurrection.

We no doubt have plans for Christmas and for our families and for our lives. Hopefully those plans include figuring out how God fits in. As Advent comes to an end, we need to realize that God has plans for us. We need to remember that, very often, it has been those times in our lives when things did not go as we had planned that God was the most present, and the most real.

This account of the Annunciation challenges us to give up the absolute authority of our own plans. We are asked to promise to listen, listen in such a manner that we are prepared to let God say "No" to our best plans for ourselves.

Don’t get me wrong here! Plans for the future, for our lives and for the direction of our lives are very important. We are to use our freedom responsibly and carefully. And part of doing that is making plans, and making decisions, and following through with them. There is nothing wrong with plans. There was nothing wrong with Mary’s plans.

At the same time, Christmas is here to tell us that God's business quite often turns out rather different from "business as usual." The challenge of this last Sunday in Advent is whether we can say to God, “Let it happen!” Whether we can truly be open to and accept what God has in store for us, especially when it is not part of our hopes or dreams.

What will Christmas be like for us this year? What would it look like for the Lord to be born and be reborn within us? How do we deal with the reality that God has kept God's promises and come to God’s world? Dare we believe that God really does work through ordinary lives like mine and yours and Mary’s?

Such a thought may initially fill us with alarm. But by faith, even without an angel in our front room, we will come to see that God’s way really is the best way. Not the easiest or the most comfortable, but the deepest and richest, the only way that has eternal benefits and the right way to truly celebrate Christmas.

My prayer for us this morning is simple. “Let it happen!”

Work in people’s lives in such a way that they see Lord, that Your way is the best way. Let it happen!

Lord through Your Holy Spirit work through us as a church here in this place. Help us reach out to the community with Your love, even if it means we have to change the way we do things. Let it happen!

Lord help us to reach those who desperately need a touch of heavenly light in the midst of the dark times they are going through. Let it happen!

Lord, we know that change has to begin in each of us before it can flow through us to touch others. May new hopes and new dreams be born into our lives as we celebrate the wonder of Christmas.

Let it happen!
Let it happen!
Let it happen!

Amen!

Rev Adrian Pratt

THE WIND CRIES MARY(ADVENT THREE)

2011-12-12T06:50:00.000-08:00

Readings: Psalm 126, Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11, 1 Thess. 5:16-24, Luke 1:46-56
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on December 11th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

I was chatting with a musician friend the other day and asked him a question. “Who” I said, “Do you think is the greatest guitarist that ever lived?” For me that’s a hard question to answer. There are so many different styles of music and guitar playing that it’s hard to narrow it down.

Eric Clapton always been a favorite – he just manages to transcend so many different styles and never seems to miss a note. I saw a guy play in Liverpool once, called Gary Potter – he was amazing – but what happened to him? Django Rhienhart – the jazz guitarist – awesome in his particular style. Likewise “The Edge” the guitarist with U2 – talk about innovation and using just a few notes to create a wall of sound.

I think in the realm of heavy rock music I’d have to say Jimi Hendrix, because although he died tragically young, and in technical terms and in terms of speed of playing there’s been some who could run rings around him, he was a true original and did things with the guitar’s sound that had never been thought of before.

Now I realize that to some of you the question of who the greatest guitarist may be is really not a burning issue, and some of you may well have an intense dislike of rock music, and that’s O.K. We’re all different. Me... no matter how wonderfully it’s explained and how much I appreciate the talent of those involved... I don’t think I am ever going to really be able to say, “I love opera”.

And to a British guy brought up on the game of cricket, I will never be able to fully comprehend the excitement that baseball generates in some of you. But... you know it’s a big world and there is room in it for all the variety and eccentricity that our likes and dislikes reveal about us. So, indulge me just for a moment as I return to Jimi Hendrix.

Although he is always remembered for his guitar playing, less is said about his song-writing. He also crafted some remarkable songs that complemented the imagery he created through his playing. Admittedly, some of it was out there somewhere and we may never know what was really going through his mind, but that’s the artist’s privilege.

One of his early songs was titled “The Wind Cries Mary”. Some of the words of that song fit in really well with the themes we explore during Advent.

Last week we were thinking about John the Baptist – a voice in the Wilderness – a voice that the religious folk of his day completely failed to hear – but which struck a chord in the hearts of many others, causing them to re-evaluate there lives and ‘get ready’ – for something new that God was going to do.

John spoke to the midst of a world that just wasn’t fun any more. A world where hope had died and laughter had ceased. A world where everything seemed set in stone. The rich would get richer and the poor would get sickness, redemption was unlikely and deliverance from evil a dream.

The Israelites were after all, a conquered and vanquished people who knew that time was not on their side. They were losing their identity. They were losing their faith. Nothing seemed to matter anymore. It was just a case of sitting it out.

God had other plans. The plans that we celebrate as Christmas. God was about to get up close and personal with the world He had fashioned and formed. God was about to turn everything on its head. God would come in Christ and nothing would ever be quite what it seemed again.

How would this be? What was God going to do? When would it happen? Who would it involve? It’s here the evocative words of Jimi’s song, which I’m pretty sure he didn’t write about Christmas, nevertheless fit so well to this defining moment in history.

“After all the jacks are in their boxes,
And the clowns have all gone to bed.
And you can hear happiness staggering on down the street
Footprints dressed in Red,
And the wind whispers.. Mary”
(© “The Wind Cries Mary” by Jimi Hendrix)

Way back in Bethlehem, in that dim and long ago time, there was a new song about to be sung and a new light about to appear. And the Holy Spirit, the Wind of God, was carrying one word on the breath of God… the wind whispered … Mary.

To young Mary, a peasant girl betrothed in marriage to a working man, in a tiny little village that would have been forever forgotten were it not for the acts of God that took place there, came an angel that told Mary that in her life would be birthed a Savior for all the world, that for all time afterwards, from generation to generation, people would call her, Mary, the Blessed One of God, favored above all women, past, present or to come.

Isaiah painted a bleak picture of a world abandoned by God. John spoke from the wilderness of a hope that was to come. The wind whispered Mary and Mary’s heart burst forth into a glorious song that is recorded for us in Luke’s gospel. A song sometimes called the ‘Magnificat’ or the ‘Great Rejoicing’ and that transforms Isaiah’s words.

It’s very different song to the one that Jimi Hendrix would later write. This one is a song of hope and expectation. This is a song about a turn around of cosmic proportions. This is a song that laughs in the face of the way things were, for God was to do a reversal of fortunes that would leave the downtrodden leaping for joy and those who had been brought low, crying with tears of laughter.

Dr. Conrad Hyers, professor of Mythology and Religious history at Gustavux Adolphus College in Minnesota, once preached a marvelous sermon entitled “The Nativity as a Divine Comedy”. Drawing on the images of reversal that are throughout the gospels, he reminds us of the radical nature of Scriptures message, something he suggests that the church has often sought to suppress and control, because it appears so disarmingly new and disturbingly spontaneous.

He speaks of how Jesus is ascribed images more appropriate to a jester or a clown than to the Son of God. He is, as we have seen, heralded by a wilderness prophet wearing animal skins, eating locusts and honey and throwing people in a river. He chooses a bunch of misfits and unknowns to be his followers, amongst them one whom he knows will eventually betray Him.

Although He is given a host of titles such as ‘Son of David’ and ‘Prince of Peace’ and ‘Lord of Lord’s’ He appears to belong to the common man, incite violent opposition from religious leaders anxious to maintain the status quo and expresses His royal position by the preposterous act of washing His disciples feet.

He is born to a carpenter’s wife in an animal shelter, has a vagabond ministry amongst peasants, publicans and sinners, enters the holiest city on a donkey, and dies as a mock king with thorns for a crown and a cross for a throne.

His ministry attracts neither poets or philosophers, emperors nor priests, generals nor politicians, but is a parade of children, shepherds, gypsies, prostitutes, tax-swindlers, foreign soldiers, slaves, and refugees, a parade of the maimed, the blind and the lame, a procession of lepers and demon tortured nobodies, a carnival of fools.

These appear as the chosen of God, chosen not because they have the most to offer, but because they have nothing to offer but themselves. And the reward for their ‘chosen-ness’ is often that of being the clown, the scapegoat, the ‘Fool for Christ’s sake”.

The wind cried Mary and this little girl, Mary, this peasant in the midst of nowheresville, responds with a song of joy in which she proclaims this divine foolishness. “He who is mighty has done great things for me, And holy is His name…… He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.”

Dr. Hyers concluded his sermon with these words:-

“In this divine comedy a poor woman’s farthing cast inconspicuously in the temple chest may be worth more than all the benefactions of the rich. Sinners unworthy to set foot in holy places, may be justified over those faithful and comfortable in their righteousness. Children may be closer to the Kingdom of God than the learned or pious. Illiterates and fools may see what scribes and philosophers do not. And the most godforsaken places may be precisely where God is found. Emmanuel. God with us.”
(© ‘Christian Century’, December 1974, pp 1168-1172)

Where will we find God in our Christmas celebrations this year? As always it will be in the unexpected places. In the generosity of our giving rather than the wealth of our receiving. In the laughter of children rather than the compliments of strangers. In the fellowship of those others refuse to welcome.

Maybe around the T.V. set or in the midst of a shopping trip, God will catch us unaware. Maybe around a table laid with the best we can afford, or possibly around a table laid with little more than bread and wine, we will sense something of the divine foolishness that calls people like us to discipleship.

Could be the wind, the wind of the Spirit will not be crying Mary, but calling our name.

“Christian, follow Me.
Christian, worship Me,
Christian, serve Me.”

May God help us to respond with joy to the unlikely Good News of Christmas, to respond with a foolish heart that declares, “I have nothing to offer but myself”. But be careful! Do that and God might just start working out that crazy turn around Kingdom stuff in our lives.

To God’s name be the Glory.

Rev. Adrian Pratt

"THE CRISIS” (ADVENT ONE)

2011-11-28T11:30:00.000-08:00

Reading: Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19, 1 Corinthians 1:3-9, Mark 13:24-37, Isaiah 64:1-9
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on November 27th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

It’s the first Sunday of Advent – Advent being the season when we start to consider the implications of God revealing Himself to us through the birth of Jesus long ago in a Bethlehem stable.

Why? Why did God choose to do such a crazy thing as coming to the world as a baby in a manger? Of all the options that God – being God – could have chosen in order to reveal love and righteousness and truth and light to the world, what’s with this “Jesus /Christmas/ Incarnation” thing?

I could stand up in the pulpit for a long, long, time and never even scratch the surface of the “Why” question. ‘Why’ is a tiny little word, but a great big huge question. ‘Why, Daddy, why?’ ‘Why does this do that?’ ‘Why won’t this work?’ ‘Why do I have to go to church?’ ‘Why can’t I be an astronaut?’ ‘Why does the mailman wear blue?’ ‘Why do fools fall in love?’ ‘Why did God send Jesus?’.

I think that Isaiah 64:1-9, our lectionary passage for this morning, gives us a little insight into the “Why did God send Jesus?” question. You see in that passage Isaiah going through, what can only be described as… A MAJOR CRISIS!

Isaiah was of course, (by virtue of being an old Testament prophet) writing a long time before Jesus was ever born on earth. What’s more, Isaiah, who as we’ve said was an Old Testament prophet, was an extreme sort of guy, not afraid to speak his mind when he felt called to do so.

And Isaiah, in our reading is hurting. He’s not just having a bad day – he’s having a terrible, horrible, obnoxiously awful time of things. He’s tied up in knots, frustrated and starting to get a little crazy. And most of it is to do with the fact that he is a prophet.

On the one hand, his problem is with God. God seems to be on the run… in hiding.. gone missing, gone walkabout, absent without leave. It wasn’t that God had stopped listening... God wasn’t even... as Bette Midler put it, “Watching from a Distance”…God just wasn’t there. Think about it. If you were a prophet declaring the word of God – the absence of God was a major problem. Isaiah had a problem with God.

He also had a problem with God’s people. Actually not with God’s people specifically, but just ‘people that God had made’ in general. Isaiah looked around him and looked at the way people were living and the things they were doing and then looks up to heaven and complains to God; (verse 7) “There is nobody who calls on Your name, or attempts to take hold of You”

Maybe that was exaggerating things a bit, but even those that did bother trying to connect with God, were in an equally bad position, because those who were doing the right things were doing them for the wrong reasons, and even if they did get it right, compared to the righteousness of God, their righteousness was just like dirty old rags or filthy dish-washing cloths. Welcome to the jungle! Every person for themselves and God didn’t even come into the picture.

Isaiah’s Crisis;
1) God wasn’t showing up
2) Nobody was looking for God.
That’s a problem for a prophet.

It’s a problem for any person of faith. As society becomes increasing secular and God is increasingly portrayed as ‘one of those philosophical conundrums that one can choose either to dismiss or accept only with some caution’, then the only way people can live is by working out what’s right and wrong for them selves.

You can no longer settle an argument by saying, ‘Well, it says in the Bible’. Because somebody is going to turn around and say, ‘I don’t give a fig what it says in the Bible, because it’s an outdated old book that belonged to an ancient time when people still held onto some romantic notion of their actually being a God. There is no God... so why do I have to listen to your claptrap’

Taking it one step further, the question, as to if there is or is not a God, is a complete irrelevance to some people, because God or no-God, they are not about to waste any of their valuable time looking for Him, Her or it, because frankly they feel they have better things to do with their lives. Why look for God when you are getting by quite well, thank you very much, without needing any sense of the Divine?

This is where, I believe, the ‘WHY?” of Christmas comes into play. Why did God choose the revelation of a Christmas Jesus in order to share and show divine love to the world? Precisely because, as Isaiah discovered, and as people in our world are still telling us, not only did God seem absent, but also, nobody was looking for God. Such is the crisis of belief that Isaiah faced. Such is the crisis of belief that the church today has to speak to.

And the Advent message speaks right into that situation.

1. It tells us that God is not on holiday, on study leave, missing without a weekend pass, or absent in any way whatsoever, but God in Christ comes to the center of human reality, as a baby, in a manger, subject to all the uncertainty that being human being exposes us to. God – in Christ – shouts out to us with the piercing wail if a baby’s cry – I’m real, I’m really here – right now – and I’m here to be known and known by you.

2. The Advent message is that not only is God real and really here, but God is out looking for us. If a person is lost without knowing it, the only way they ever become found is if somebody goes out looking for them, finds them where they are, taps them on the shoulder, and says, “Hey, I was looking for you!”

The God of Christmas, God in Christ, is the God whose real presence comes looking for us, the God who in Jesus, gets on our case and under our skin with words that call us to follow and actions that call us to change, whose healing touch becomes the remedy for our sickness and whose salvation gets a hold of us, at times when we don’t even realize we are lost.

This is a God whose Spirit works on our insides and says crazy things to us like, “Hey, listen, I need you. I need you to walk with me. I need you on my side. I need you on my side because you need Me more than I need you.” Did you catch that last bit? “I need you on my side because you need Me more than I need you”

This is God. It would be arrogance indeed to suggest that the God of the universe, the God who flung stars into space and carved atoms out of nothingness, actually can’t get by without us. Yet God chooses for us to know His love, not because God can’t live without it, but because God knows our lives are so different when we make room for the love of Jesus Christ in our heart of hearts.

There’s a crisis in our world. Now that’s an understatement. Our world is crisis after crisis after crisis. Seems like there’s always something going wrong, some revelation of something rotten, some bad thing going on here, tragedy there, disaster taking place in this place or that.

Maybe there’s a crisis that you are personally travelling through. Maybe it’s something you’ve got yourself into. Maybe it’s something bad that has come your way, out of nowhere. Maybe its just life, getting you down, tugging at you in ways you don’t like or can’t handle. Maybe you’re just not sure anymore. One says this. One says that, I don’t know whom to believe!

So here it is in a nutshell. The Advent message. God is here. Always was here. Always will be here. Christmas tells us that God will go to the limits of human experience to prove God’s love is here for us. Maybe we haven’t been looking? No problem. God’s looking for us!

So, on this first Sunday Advent, I invite you to let yourself be found. Believe the Good News. Christ was born in Bethlehem. May Christ be born in our hearts anew as we travel through this Christmas season! AMEN.

Rev Adrian Pratt

Three (actually Four) Thessalonian Songs 4."Blessed Assurance”

2011-11-14T07:07:00.000-08:00

Readings: Joshua 3:7-17, Psalm 107:1-7, 33-37, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, Matthew 23:1-12
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on November 13th 2011

A printable PDF file is available here

Our closing hymn this morning is to be one written by hymn writer Fanny Crosby. “Blessed Assurance”. It focuses on the themes of God’s salvation and the response that as Christians we should make to God’s Grace. Those themes complement our reading from 1 Thessalonians 5, a passage that gives Paul’s closing remarks of encouragement to the Thessalonican church.

The hymn’s first verse reads;

“Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine,
O what a foretaste of Glory Divine
Heir of salvation, purchase of God,
Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood”

Our scripture passage began with Paul talking of “Glory Divine” or rather “The Day of The Lord”. Whilst Paul insists that such a day would one day be here, he mixes illustrations in such a way as to leave us guessing as to when such a time could be. On the one hand it would come like a thief in the night. On the other hand it would also be like the onset of labor pains to a pregnant woman.

Thieves in the night can come at any time. However - your likelihood of being the victim of a thief in the night - depends a lot on where you live and how well prepared you are. For instance, if it’s the middle of winter and you live in a one-horse town somewhere in North Dakota, the chances of a thief arriving are minimal. If however you are in an inner city ghetto known for it’s high crime rate, then the chances are you will have locks, chains and security devices set to warn you of the event.

The image of a pregnant woman is equally ambiguous. Usually pregnant women have a due date when they expect their labor pains to begin. By the time that due date comes around it is fairly obvious by the bulge in mothers womb that the child will be arriving any day now. Labor pains may begin at any moment during that time of being very pregnant. You can hardly say the event is entirely unexpected. The signs are all there that something is going to happen!

Paul’s concern is not to give the Thessalonians a suggested date for the second coming but rather to ensure them that there will come a ‘Day of the Lord’ when all things will be well. As to dates and times, they really didn’t need that information any more than we do. What we need to know is that God is in control and that one-day, be it today or a billion years from now, God has the final word. Such is one of the “Blessed Assurances” Paul offers to us.

It was an assurance that the Thessalonican church needed to hear because they were a persecuted people. Paul and Silas had to escape from the city under cover of darkness. Some, like Jason, a leader of that earliest church, had been bought before the courts under the charge of harboring enemies of the state.

So Paul writes to encourage them, “On the last day, those who stand against you now will stand no longer. Hold onto the faith that you have, because, although it doesn’t look that way right now, ultimately the victory will be yours.” In a similar way Fanny Crosby’s hymn uses phrases such as “Visions of rapture”, Angels descending” and “Watching and Waiting and looking above” to interpret the faith that was her story and her song.

Paul then moves on to consider how the coming of this event in the future should influence the lives we live from day to day. The primary image that he employs is to identify the people of God as being “children of light and children of the day” (v5). To reinforce that picture he uses opposing images and speaks of people who were “of the night and of the darkness”.

Thessalonica, one assumes, was, like many larger cities today, the sort of place where some would spend their nighttime hours in what one older commentary describes as ‘the over-indulgence of carnal pursuits’. Paul speaks of how ‘those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night” (v7). So he exhorts the Thessalonians, “Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober” (v6).

Paul suggests that we know the difference between living a life that is out of control, self-indulgent and destructive and a life that is self-controlled, compassionate and productive.That first way he compares to a drunken sleep.

The second way, the better way, is to live a life enlightened to the dangers that are out there and being ready to defend yourself against them. It is an encouragement to know that on the last day, “The Day of the Lord” all will be well, but that doesn’t mean life can just drift along without there being any problems or struggles.

Even if you are a soldier on the winning side you are not going to last long if you go out and fight the enemy without wearing any armor. The Thessalonians had a battle to fight. A battle for survival. Paul tells them to equip themselves with two defensive items “to put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.”

The source for these items was in Jesus Christ, through the work He had accomplished on the Cross and through His resurrection presence; known to them through the Holy Spirit.

Because Jesus had died for them, they had hope. Because Christ was raised from the dead, they could live every day with the assurance of God’s presence. Because God had a purpose and plan for their lives, a plan that they should enjoy God’s salvation, then the way they lived their life should reflect the faith that held them sure. No part of their existence—present, future, or eternal—was seen as untouched by the saving work of Christ.

The outcome of their “Blessed Assurance” was a security that set them free to live their lives for others. They did not simply "rest assured"; they "acted assuredly" by providing others with the kind of encouragement that blessed their lives.

Fanny Crosby’s hymn speaks of being an “Heir of salvation, purchase of God, Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood”. She had the assurance that Christ had died for her and that she was destined therefore to live a life of purpose that would culminate in the blessings of a glorious eternity in Christ’s nearer presence. Let me tell you a little more about the lady who wrote those words.

Fanny Crosby was born on March 24th, 1820, in a one-story cottage in South East, New York. Her father, John, died before her first birthday. At six weeks old, she caught a slight cold in her eyes. The family physician was away. Another country doctor was called in to treat her. He prescribed hot mustard poultices to be applied to her eyes, which destroyed her sight completely. It was later learned that the man was not qualified to practice medicine.

At five years old, her mother took her to consult the best eye specialist in the country. Neighbors and friends pooled money together in order to send her. The diagnosis? "Poor child, I am afraid you will never see again." Such experiences of loss and human mistakes had the possibility of making her attitude to life bitter and resentful. Remarkably she considered her loss of sight as a great blessing, one time explaining to her mother, “If I had a choice, I would still choose to remain blind... for when I die, the first face I will ever see will be the face of my blessed Savior.”

Moving to Ridgefield, Connecticut, she came under her Grandmothers influence and set about memorizing as much of the bible as she was able. At 15 she returned to New York to attend a school for the blind, where despite discouragement from her teachers, she developed her poetic skills.

At 23 the school, in which she was now a teacher, sought to receive financial support from Congress. Fanny decided to write a poem in celebration of the work of Congress. It worked, and not only did the school receive support, but she herself became a friend to many of the most influential people of the day, including many presidents.

Time does not permit to recount her whole life story. By the time of her death in her nineties she had witnessed over 8,000 of her poems set to music and over 100,000,000 copies of her songs printed. She became associated with the Bowery Mission in N.Y. where the piano she wrote many of her hymns is still located. Some suggest that she was the greatest hymn writer in the history of the Christian Church. Not bad for a visually handicapped girl from a single parent family in New York!

All of which brings us back to Paul’s message to the Thessalonians. They hadn’t had an easy start to their life as a church. They faced much that was discouraging. But they fixed their hope on Jesus Christ. Their ‘Blessed Assurance’ was that the love of God was greater than the forces that opposed them.
Of Fanny Crosby’s hymns, they knew not a thing. Yet I can’t help thinking that they would identify with the words of this third verse: -

“Perfect submission, all is at rest
I in my Savior am happy and blest,
Watching and waiting, looking above,
Filled with His goodness, lost in His love”

So what of us and what of our lives?
What will be our story and our song?

May God’s Grace touch our lives in such a real way that we allow the love of Christ to encourage us and lead us through the many different circumstances that come our way, with the knowledge that one day… all will be well.

We may never have a life quite as productive as Fanny Crosby’s, or a church quite as famous as that of the Thessalonians, but under the touch of Jesus Christ our lives truly can be blessed with divine significance. The blessed assurance of God’s love is available to us all. It shouts to us from the Cross of Calvary and blazes forth from the empty tomb. May God help us to respond in fruitful ways to the many blessings Christ sends our way. May faithfulness become our story and commitment become our song. AMEN.

Rev Adrian Pratt

Three Thessalonian Songs 3."THOU ART WORTHY”

2011-10-31T07:11:00.000-07:00

Readings: Joshua 3:7-17, Psalm 43, 1 Thessalonians 2:9-13, John 3:16.
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin on October 30th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

What’s it worth? A question we ask about numerous things. We ask it about material things. In the T.V. program ‘Antiques Roadshow’ people bring their articles to the experts because they want to know, “Is this worth something; has it some value or is it just a piece of junk?” We’re asked to serve on some committee or invest our time in some activity and if we are sensible we will ask, “Is this worth my time? Do I have something I can offer? Is it worth the effort?”

We contemplate some new health kick “Will this diet work?” “Will giving up this and that or taking on a new exercise regime give us the results we are looking for?” What’s it worth to us to get in shape or alter our body weight or do this or do that?

Then there is the question of our faith. What of our beliefs? What is our religion to us? What is our church to us? How much does it matter? How much of us in invested in our relationship with God?

What of God? Let me pose the question in a peculiar way. How much is God worth? Is God a commodity that we can put a price on? Is time for God something we can choose to invest in or dismiss? What is God to us?

To Paul, God was worth investing his whole life in. The gospel inspired him and his fellow missionaries to go to extraordinary lengths that the message may be believed. The very question “What is God worth?” would be a no brainer to Paul.

Put a value on God? A price tag on the gospel? That idea would be incredulous, maybe even offensive, to Paul. His whole life was built upon the notion that what he had discovered through the Holy Spirit, the life of the resurrected Jesus Christ which was in him and around him and working through him was a priceless treasure! Paul’s heart response to God was quite simply, “Thou art Worthy O Lord”.

So it was in this morning’s lesson that he explained to the Thessalonians that when he came to them it was with the aim of preaching a gospel that had no price tag attached.
This idea of worth – he doesn’t here apply to God – but turns it around.

1Thessalonians 2:11-12 “You know how, like a father with his children, we exhorted each one of you and encouraged you and charged you to lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own kingdom and glory.” He exhorts them, he encourages them, and he charges them “Lead a Life worthy of God”

In other words - Respond to the love and light that God has cast in your way – in a manner that is appropriate – that fits in with who God is and what God has done – that goes along with the amount that God feels that your life is worth.

Ever considered that one? How much your life is worth to God? What value is there upon your head from God’s perspective? We began this month gathering around the Lord’s table on World Communion Sunday. The service that day began with the words of John 3:16 ‘God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but have everlasting life’.

If ever we doubt our worth to God, it is worth considering the simple truths that John 3:16 contains. For it was in the light of God’s commitment to us in Jesus Christ that Paul encouraged the Thessalonians to be faithful to God. Let us briefly think about John 3:16.

God so loved the world… Whose world? Our world! The one that we drift through day after day after day. Our family, our friends, our people, our situations, our problems, whatever it is that makes up our world, God so loved our world. When Paul went to the Thessalonians he didn’t stand far off, he sought to enter their world and understand their problems. He writes to them; ‘For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children’. He loved them because he was convinced that God loved them. He gave himself to their care because… well let us continue with our verse, God so loved the world …

That He gave His only begotten Son… Paul gave himself to them because he knew God had given Jesus Christ to live and die for them. Paul believed that this was the ultimate offering God could make. In Jesus Christ the gospel… the good news of God… had been revealed and had shown that God was willing to do the unthinkable to win the hearts of those who were alienated from God’s love.

In Jesus Christ God broke every barrier down that prevented people from feeling they could have no fellowship with the Divine. Sins were forgiven. Deliverance proclaimed. Forgiveness embodied. Reconciliation attained. Through Jesus Christ the doorway to God’s presence was flung wide open and we are invited to enter into fellowship with the God ‘Who calls you into His kingdom and glory.” (verse 12)

But how do we enter into and experience the love of God? Only through faith. Only through placing our trust and hope, not in what we can do, but in what God has done in giving His Son to die for us. Our verse continues God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…

So that everyone who believes in Him… ‘Believe in Him’. What does that mean? Believe He was a historical figure? Believe that He existed? Believe that He died? Believe that He rose again? No. That’s not belief – that’s assent – that’s just saying ‘Well. O.K. that’s what happened”. When Paul spoke about belief he was talking about an activity that revolutionized the way you live your life.

Believing in Jesus meant believing something about the purpose and nature of what happened on the Cross that touched you so deeply that you lived free and forgiven. Believing in the resurrection of Jesus meant that something had changed about the way the world is – something wonderful - that you can be part of - a something that is more powerful than death and decay and destruction. Our verse continues ‘so that everyone who believes in Him…

Should Not Perish.. Perish? What do we know about perishing? Look at what they did to Jesus! They accused Him falsely. They lied about Him. They spat upon Him. They beat Him and tortured Him. They forced Him to carry His cross through the insulting, unseemly, crowds that lined the street. They took His hands and feet and nailed them to the Cross. They pierced His side with a spear.

They left Him to die, as though He were an animal that had been hit by a truck and was left on of the road, of little consequence to those who sped by. Jesus Christ perished. This is the heart of the gospel. He perished that we might not perish.

As a young person I remember we used to have an evangelist come to speak at our meetings. I’ve never forgotten his name ‘Peter Partington’. The reason I’ve never forgotten his name was because on all his correspondence he used to write ‘Pastor Peter Partington Preaching Perfect Peace to Perishing People”

What does it mean to be perishing? Existing only to die. Living a life that has no future other than extinction. Having no hope for tomorrow. Just getting by. Just coping as best as you can with whatever life throws at you but never really knowing the peace that comes through faith that beyond it all is God trying to break into our everyday lives with little surprises of joy and grace and love.

At the end of our short passage from Thessalonians Paul rejoices at the way the church there had received the gospel. He praises them in verse 13 “You accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.” The message is pictured not as something static, but something that is life sustaining and active in their midst. So the ultimate purpose of John 3:16 God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish…

But have everlasting life… That we might not begin our days, live our days, or end our days far from God but live every day in the presence and with the blessing of God. Life today. Life now. Life Tomorrow. Life with God. And when this little slice of life is all burnt out and over, a life that continues with God.

Everlasting life is about the quality of life we experience. Life where eternity breaks in like the rays of the sun through a dark cloud. God didn’t send Jesus so that we can all live miserable lives today and only find redemption tomorrow in heaven. Jesus came that we may experience life, truth and freedom and joy in the now. The resurrection makes no sense until it is experienced in the present tense.

So Paul exhorts ... So Paul encourages… So Paul charges... “Live a life worthy of God” ... a life worthy of the God who loved our world with such great depth that Christ died for us whilst we were yet sinners.

This wasn’t just philosophy, or theology or any-ology. It was about the power of God transforming the way they lived. It was about realizing that they had lives deeply valued by God. The Cross confronts us with the value Jesus placed upon our lives. If we allow that gospel message to change us, truly we cannot remain the same.

It brings us to our knees. God cares more about us than we care about each other. The only enemies in the Kingdom of God are those He calls us to pray for. The only barriers to fellowship are the ones we put up through harboring resentments or not counting others as better than ourselves. And at times we lose sight of what God can do we need to address ourselves “Why so downcast Oh my soul, put your hope in God!”

We are called to do unto others as we would like them to do unto us, to forgive as we have been forgiven, to embrace others as God has embraced others, to see strangers as those God wants to bless… and so work for wholeness, to feed the hungry, heal the broken-hearted and proclaim release to the captives.

Let us then consider Paul’s challenge. He encourages us to live a life of worship to God, a life whose inner song is “Thou Art Worthy Oh Lord! He writes:

‘I exhort you,
I encourage you,
I charge you;
Live a life worthy of God.’

Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit may we seek to live such a life, instructed by His Word, empowered through our worship and realized through our daily service. To God’s name be the glory. Truly, as we will sing in our closing hymn; ‘To God be the glory, Great things He has done”. AMEN.

Rev Adrian Pratt

Three Thessalonian Songs 2. "PASS IT ON”

2011-10-24T06:42:00.000-07:00

Readings: Deuteronomy 34:1-12, Psalm 90:1-6, 13-17, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8, Matthew 22:34-46
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on October 23rd 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

I’m continuing this morning to look at Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians. Last week we saw how in the first chapter Paul gave thanks for the perseverance of the Thessalonian Church during a difficult time. He praised them for responding to God’s Call. He was pleased to see their concern for spiritual growth. He was delighted by the way they were allowing Christ to transform their lives.

In this second chapter He remains thankful for their faithfulness, and continues to encourage them in their walk with God. He had ignited the spark that started the fire of the gospel amongst them. It was now up to them to pass it on.

Before looking at chapter 2 it is helpful to read what happened the first time Paul bought them the gospel message. We are given that story at the start of Acts Chapter 17. (1-10).

“After Paul and Silas had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three sabbath days argued with them from the scriptures, explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, "This is the Messiah, Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you." Some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women. But the Jews became jealous, and with the help of some ruffians in the marketplaces they formed a mob and set the city in an uproar. While they were searching for Paul and Silas to bring them out to the assembly, they attacked Jason's house. When they could not find them, they dragged Jason and some believers before the city authorities, shouting, "These people who have been turning the world upside down have come here also, and Jason has entertained them as guests. They are all acting contrary to the decrees of the emperor, saying that there is another king named Jesus." The people and the city officials were disturbed when they heard this. And when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.”

The Thessalonian church was born in the midst of trouble! Jason, at whose home Paul and Silas were welcomed, was hauled before the courts and accused of disloyalty to Rome. Paul and Silas have to leave the town undercover of the night such is the strength of the antagonism against them. No wonder Paul started off his letter praising them for their perseverance.

The troublemakers are continuing to create trouble. Much of 1 Thessalonians Chapter Two answers accusations that were being made against Paul and Silas by those who were hostile towards the church. The fact that Paul and Silas escaped under cover of the night has laid them open to the charge that they were up to no good and being deliberately deceitful.

Some are accusing them of perpetrating some kind of scam, as though the apostles were only in it for the money. Others have accused the disciples of using fancy words and false doctrines that had ‘brainwashed’ their hearers into accepting their message.

The accusations made against Paul have upset the congregation in Thessalonica enough that in Chapter 2 he feels a need to defend himself. The only defense he has is the example of his own life. He reminds them of how he came to them and of how he acted whilst he was with them. He wants to teach them how they could keep the fire burning and so pass on the gospel message to others. So he offers the following defense.

1) The Way he lived backed up the Word he preached

Although Paul was only with the Thessalonians for a short time he left a deep impression on those he stayed with. So much of an impression that within a short time they were prepared to risk their lives to defend him and see to it that he could continue on his missionary journeys.

They witnessed his boldness in the face of opposition. They witnessed, as day after day, he counseled with people and on the Sabbath entered into debate with them, that here was a man who truly believed in his words and showed evidence of having his own life transformed by Jesus Christ.

The content of his message was clear. Jesus Christ was the one the Old Testament scriptures pointed to as the Messiah. In accordance with what the scriptures proclaimed He suffered and died, and was raised from death. Paul, the one time enemy of Christ, was now a witness to the resurrection and sought for others to know God’s love in Christ -through the Holy Spirit working in their lives.

He is quite clear that what he had done amongst them was not for greed or personal gain. If that were the case he could have made much of the fact that, here he was, an apostle of God, deserving of support. In verse 6 he explains; “We could have made demands as apostles of Christ”. But no such demands are made. His mission was in no way a pretext for greed or for him to in some way advance his worldly status.

The most pressing evidence for the genuineness of his mission was the fact that he didn’t have to be there for any other reason than he felt God had entrusted him with the task of preaching the gospel.

Which leads us to a second thing,

2) He was more concerned about being accepted by God than being approved of by people.

In verse 4 he says, “We speak not to please men, but to please God who tests our hearts.”

Maybe this is the most challenging statement of all to consider in this passage. Whose standards are we seeking to meet in our walk with God? The standards set by our church, or our culture, or our friends, or our family; or are we seeking to live a life that is being recreated and renewed and evaluated by God’s standards?

We can go through our whole life as people pleasers. Always concerned about what so and so may think or what such a person may make of us. There are times when it is a legitimate concern. If we go for a job interview, we try to make the best impression that we can, for we seek to be approved for the position we are applying for.

But living our whole life as though we were attending an interview is not advisable. In verse 6 Paul says, “we did not seek praise from men, whether from you or from others”. He’s crystal clear about whom he’s trying to be acceptable to. The desire for his life was to live life the way God wanted him to live. He didn’t care what people thought of that!

Now you could say, “Well I’m not Paul, I’m not on a mission from God to some strange city, I’m not a preacher, this is not my concern.” Fine. You are not all preachers, but you are all priests! One of the things that the Reformation rediscovered for the church is a doctrine known as the ‘Priesthood of all Believers”.

The plus side of the “Priesthood of all believers’ is that we don’t need to go through any body such as a priest or holy man in order to commune with God. We have a ‘direct prayer connection’ to God in Jesus Christ. The other side of the coin is that with that privilege comes a corresponding responsibility, which is to live as priests and ministers before God. It’s great being a star on the team, but guess what? If you are on the team, you have to play the game.

Paul knew that. The Thessalonians were getting the idea as well. If they were to ‘Pass it on’ to others they had to take on the responsibility of being people of God, shining as light in a dark world. They needed to be ambassadors for the Kingdom, torch carriers for the cause of Christ.

No doubt they had heard such a message before. But when Paul told them, they sat up and took notice. Why? Because of a third thing we see in this letter.

3) Paul had genuine love and concern for those He shared the gospel with.

They cared about what Paul said because they knew he cared about them. Paul cared about them, because he knew that God cared about him. It’s all about relationship. Our relationship with God and our relationship with each other. It all fits in with what Jesus said were the two most important commandments of all, “Love God” and “Love your neighbor as yourself”.

Paul tells them in verse 8 “Having thus a fond affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.”

True evangelism begins with people who realize that they are greatly loved by God. Anything less is not enough of a motivation to inspire us to “Pass It On”. But as we realize that we are chosen to be ambassadors of Gods love then our hearts cannot remain the same. As we begin to understand what the Holy Spirit can do in us and through us, we can’t help ourselves but share the love that is changing us.

As we consider the gospel message, the Cross of Jesus Christ, His life and message, His empty tomb, the dedication and lives of the apostles, and the witness of Christian people across the centuries, it can light a spark in our imaginations. Paul, through the example of his own life, offers us guidelines as to how we can go forward in mission. I’ve picked out three of those from our reading this morning.

1. Let the life you live enforce the words you speak.
2. Be more concerned about being accepted by God than for the approval of people.
3. Let your love be genuine.

That’s how we get the fire going.
‘Pass it On’
‘It only takes a spark to get a fire going
And soon all those around can warm up in it’s glowing’
AMEN

Rev Adrian Pratt

Three Thessalonian Songs "1. STANDING ON THE PROMISES”

2011-10-17T07:17:00.000-07:00

Readings: Exodus 33:12-23, Psalm 99, 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10, Matthew 22:15-22
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on October 16th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

Standing on the Promises. I’m starting this morning a short series I’ve called ‘Three Thessalonian Songs” focusing on one of the New Testament Letters, the first letter to the Thessalonians. Hopefully along the way we’ll learn a bit about their church and the challenges that they faced, and by doing so learn some good stuff from God about our own lives and situation.

This morning what I want you to know about the Thessalonians is that they were a church facing a hard time at a point in history when Christianity was barely tolerated. It was a risky business for them to practice and proclaim their faith. It could mean imprisonment or even death. Yet they kept hanging on in there. Right at the start of this letter we are given some clues as to how they managed.

Just like the Thessalonians, we are living in an age of great change. People are asking a lot of questions, about life’s purpose and meaning, about religion and the values that belief can promote. We are surrounded by conflicting lifestyles and viewpoints, and many of them are extremely negative and intolerant of what for many years might have been considered as ‘traditional values’.

Near the beginning of the last century, in fact just after the First World War, (the so called “Great War”!), when there was tremendous loss of life and hardship, the English poet W.B. Yeats wrote a piece called “The Second Coming”. Not to be confused with any modern day Armageddon saga, the piece was a prophetic poem about approaching anarchy.

In that poem he uses the phrase; “things fall apart, the centre cannot hold”. The whole verse is about how all around him, certainties upon which people had built their lives were starting to crumble and fall to bits. He sensed that the culture around his life was disintegrating beyond repair and that there was no longer a stable centre.

His words were prophetic in that it was that very climate of confusion that allowed for the rise of the Third Reich and Adolf Hitler’s taking control of a people desperate both for answers and somebody to blame. Through manipulating people’s fears and inflaming their prejudices countless numbers became part of a regime that justified unthinkable atrocities and led within a short time to the Second World War.

But – enough of ‘Adrian’s interpretation of European History – Volume One’ –back to the Thessalonians. They, like others before and after them, were living in one of those times where stability had gone. Worse still, they were being treated as scapegoats, as though they were the cause of some of the problems rather than part of the solution.

So how did they hold onto faith when, humanly speaking, it seems that faith was a rapidly evaporating commodity? To use the words of the hymn we will conclude worship with today, they traveled through that time by “Standing on the Promises of God”. Our latter identifies three ways that they did so, three centers that they gravitated towards that kept them on the right track.

One of them appears in verse 4. They found a centering for life as they:-

Responded Positively to the Initative of God

Paul, thanking God for the Thessalonians in Verse 4 uses this phrase:- “knowing brethren beloved by God, His choice of you”. Other translations speak of God’s election rather than God’s choice, but the meaning is the same. The Thessalonians could stand on the promises because they knew they were people that God had chosen; chosen to experience His love and care.

It’s very hard to put yourself wholeheartedly into something if you’re not sure you are the right person for the job. I’ve occasionally been asked to speak at functions and the person inviting me has said, “Well, we tried to get so and so and then we tried for what-is-name, but well none of them could make it so we thought you’d do instead.” In other words “We didn’t really want you, but we couldn’t get anybody else”.

Such invitations do not cause one to approach the engagement with great enthusiasm. “Hello, I’m sorry for being here tonight. I know you really wanted to hear Pastor Very Important speaking about the influential people he associates with or Rev Too-Good- to-Be -True on his latest mission to Mars, but here I am Reverend Last-on-the-List to speak to you about a topic you’re probably not the least bit interested in – so- unless you have something more interesting to do, like go home and watch paint dry - let’s get it over with shall we?”

On the other hand, if you’re invited to something where you know your input will be appreciated, where you actually have something to offer that is going to help others along, that there is significance to what you are doing, then it makes all the difference in the world.

Those Thessalonians, they knew that Jesus hadn’t called them to be disciples because He couldn’t get anybody else to do the job. The very fact that the Holy Spirit was at work in and around their lives meant they were at the center of something awesome, that then and there they were experiencing the Kingdom of God being near.

Be aware. God’s calling your name today. Jesus wants you on the team, not because He can’t get anybody else but because you are you and there is a uniqueness and significance to your life that makes you the ‘you’ God is looking for. He didn’t make another you! You are the only one. Take a look at your thumbprint. Think about your unique genetic coding, how it’s all working together to make you into the weird creature you’ve turned out to be!

Guess what? God’s calling you to make a positive response to the initiative launched on the Cross of Calvary where Jesus died for your sins. Wake up! There’s a resurrection going on and God wants it to be going on in your life! Know yourself called and loved and cared for and wanted by God and that’s going to center your life in a way nothing else can. Then truly, we can stand on the promises. The Thessalonians knew God’s call and were therefore empowered to face hard times.

A second thing that centered them was that they:-
Concentrated on Spiritual rather than Economic Growth.

Verse 2 Paul writes “We give thanks to God always for you all… constantly bearing in mind your work of faith.” Verse 6 speaks of how the Thessalonians had received the gospel “in much tribulation”.

Reading between the lines it is clear that, in economic terms, this congregation didn’t have a lot going for them. They weren’t growing in numbers or involved in any great outreach plan for saving the city. They were just hanging in there.

It is this tenacity of faith that greatly impresses Paul. He uses the Greek Words ‘pantote’ and ‘adialeipios’, meaning ‘always’ and ‘constantly’, to express how impressed he was and how much he thanked God for their persistence and courage in remaining faithful in the midst of continuing alienation by society at large.

In church circles, where we should know better, we often measure success by worldly rather than godly standards. How big is the budget? How many attend? What’s the membership? In a book called “The Cynical Society”, Jeffrey Goldfarb comments that we believe “that if something is profitable it is true, real and good; if it is not, then it is without true meaning”.

Paul was more concerned about their spiritual growth than their economic or numerical growth. ‘The quality of our witness to the wider world, depends not on our statistics, but on our stability as people of God’ (New International Bible Commentary). We could have the fanciest church in Baldwin, the biggest membership, the greatest choir, the most on the membership roll, and still be the least godly church on Long Island.

It is significant that when Jesus set about changing the world He did so by nurturing the lives of a small group. As that small group nurtured other small groups, so the message spread. The crowds? Well they were fickle, sensation seeking and shallow. He often withdrew from them or sent them away in order to concentrate on nurturing His disciples.

It challenges us to consider what we recognize as growth. On a personal level would we feel greatly blessed to have more money in the bank, or because we have broken through to a new level in our understanding of God’s Word? Would we consider that our church was successful because we were consistently reaching out to a lot of folk beyond our doors, or because we had a reasonable congregation once a week on a Sunday?

Finally, the Thessalonians were centered because,
They were allowing God to Transform Them

What they believed was making a difference to the way that they lived. People today say that they believe in all kinds of things. In this letter ‘Belief” was an activity, not just giving assent to a number of propositions. Belief was not reciting a creed or going through a ritual to make you feel better about yourself.

To believe that Jesus came into the world to make it a better place meant going out and working to make the worlds a better place in His name. Believing that the ‘Kingdom was Near’ meant going out of your way to see that others felt it’s nearness. Believing that God cared meant caring about those God cared for. Believing in love meant loving others in practical ways. So in verse 3 Paul speaks of their ‘work of faith,’ their ‘labor of love’ and their ‘patience of hope’.

A meaningful life of faith requires active participation. It is not a round of fads and fashions or words that fail to hold up when the hard times come. It is unfortunate that many people rest their lives on things that cannot hold; on beauty that fades, on supposed truths that last only for a season. If we build our lives on things that fall apart it is impossible to maintain a consistent faith.

What was it that helped the believers in Thessalonica remain stable?

They responded positively to the initiative of God. They knew God had called them for a purpose. They concentrated on spiritual rather than economic growth. They were allowing God to transform them. It was their active response to God’s unstoppable Word that provided stability to their faith and lives.

Today that unfailing truth of God's promises can provide us with a center that holds. When everything else goes crazy, the word of God remains a ready and reliable resource. It is both a bridge and a buffer—a bridge bringing security to otherwise insecure lives—and a buffer to shield us from self-destruction. R. Kelso Carter was right to sing:

“Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
When the howling winds of doubt and fear assail,
By the living Word of God I shall prevail,
Standing on the promises of God.”

Rev Adrian Pratt

WHO? ME? A DISCIPLE?

2011-10-11T06:06:00.000-07:00

Readings: Psalm 23, Exodus 32:1-14, Philippians 4:1-9.Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on October 9th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

“Who? Me? A person of faith? The sort of person who could be a disciple of Jesus? You must be joking! A person of faith. I don’t think so.”But…..

Our readings this morning gave us three examples of people who did not consider themselves full of faith or virtue. Jesus had room for each of them in His scheme of things. Three very different people in very different circumstances. If Jesus called them to be followers…. Why not you?

Case Study 1: Matthew
Matthew was a tax collector. A task that was considered unworthy for any decent person. It wasn’t that collecting taxes was a bad thing.. but the fact that these were taxes paid to an occupying force… and the fact that there were tax collectors who cheated those paying their taxes by way of taking extortionate commissions for their services.

Was Matthew one of these? We don’t know. Scripture seems to say that it was bad enough in the religious peoples eyes that he was a tax collector. They are deeply offended when Jesus goes to Matthews house, and eats there. After all everybody knew it was a place crawling with sinners and other tax collectors, and well, everybody knew what low life sort of people they were!

That’s not the way Jesus saw things. He says, that actually, it was sinners He was looking for, not the religious folk. The religious folk presumably had everything figured out, so what help could He be to them? “Those who are well” He explains, “Have no need of a physician, but those who are sick”

Jesus saw something in Matthew that the religious folk never saw. Faith. A heart that was ready to follow anything that was real and authentic. The capability for a faith that didn’t care what anybody thought about it. Matthew wasn’t trying to win any popularity contests. You didn’t do his job if you worried what people thought of you!

One suspects that Matthew saw right through the religious peoples thin veneer of righteousness and was not impressed. For sure he had encountered their hostility and rejection in some way or other. Jesus, however, was not like them. Matthew recognized something authentic and startlingly different about Jesus. Something that made it possible for the likes of him.. a tax-collector.. to say “Yes, I will follow You!’

Case Study Two : An unclean woman
Matthew made a choice to live outside the rules of polite and correct society. But the woman had done nothing to transgress any moral boundaries. She was unwell with some kind of blood related disease that rendered her unclean according to the Bible.

Leviticus 15:25-33 (selected passages) “Now if a woman has a discharge of her blood for many days….. she is unclean….. everything she sits on is unclean…anybody she touches is unclean. You shall keep the sons of Israel separated from such uncleaness, lest they die in their uncleaness by defiling my tabernacle that is among them.”

“This is the word of the Lord” explained the Pharisees. The woman was unclean and that was that. God had spoken and only a sinner would question the eternal, unchanging, everlasting Word of God. Either that or, well, go ahead defile and yourself and die in your sins.

She does the unthinkable. Pushes through the crowd and touches Jesus. According to the law that meant Jesus was unclean now as well as her! The dirty woman touches the holy man. Surely He would have something to say about that! He knew the Scriptures! But what happens? “Jesus turned, and seeing her He said, "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well." And instantly the woman was made well.”

Did you hear that? He called her his daughter! Imagine claiming a woman like that was His daughter? And if that wasn’t bad enough instantly the woman becomes well. Which is great for the woman, but as always the critics of Jesus would suggest that the end never justified the means. That she was irrelevant. It still went against the Word of God and therefore must be wrong.

Case Study 3: The Official whose daughter Died
This one is different again. Matthew was by choice, an outsider. The woman, by the twists of fate, had become unclean. This guy, the synagogue official, had a lot going for him. People didn’t get to his position in the synagogue without the approval of influential folk like the critics of Jesus. This man is in with the in-crowd.

His daughter just died. Like any Father would be, he is cut to the core by her loss. What could he do? The doctors had failed him. His religion had failed him. His prayers for his daughter’s recovery had been unproductive. All his position and power and prestige couldn’t do a thing.

Jesus could. Somehow he knew that. And right then, the awareness that Jesus could change things, made everything else he stood for completely secondary. He was past caring what others thought. In his heart was one thought, that he had to get Jesus to be with his daughter. Now!

Rather like Noah, in the midst of people who failed to hear God, he was hearing God loud and clear and God’s Word to him right then was ‘Trust in Jesus”. And like Noah, those who witnessed his actions thought it was a huge joke. “The situations hopeless, you confused idiot… she’s dead. All is lost. Let it go!”

What happens? Jesus went in and took the girl by the hand, and the girl gets up. “Not dead” explained Jesus, “Only sleeping”. How do you explain all of that? Not just the daughters recovery, but the fact that this leader in the synagogue, a leader amongst the very people who were against Jesus, is turned around, by God, to seek out the One he has previously condemned, seek Him out, not as a last hope, but with genuine faith that Jesus could make a difference!

Three very different people. In each case it would not be unreasonable to suggest that they could rightly say, “Who? Me? A Disciple?” Jesus saw in each of these, things that everybody else was blind to. In Matthew he saw leadership potential. In an unclean woman He saw a daughter needing a Father’s touch to make her whole. In a Father who had lost his daughter he saw an opportunity for the exercise of great faith in the midst of hostility.

We could spend a long time exploring the different aspects of these three faith examples. Instead I just want to pick out one thing about each character.

Firstly, Matthew. Matthew reminds me that it’s not my place to judge people, but to seek to ignite the spark of God that is in their hearts. O.K, so their lifestyle or their beliefs or their morals may not be everything that some of us feel is right. But if we wait for them to clean up their act to our standards, we’ll wait for ever. And who says our standards are so great in the first place? At best we are simply sinners redeemed by Grace. We’ve got nothing to boast about except the Grace of God.

Secondly, the healing of the unclean woman reminds me that, whatever life may do to us or we may do to ourselves and each other, we share a common humanity that goes deeper than religious rules or expectations. The Pharisees saw ‘the unclean woman’ as an impersonal object capable of defiling their holy lives. Jesus called her ‘daughter’. We need to look at others through the eyes of Jesus rather than the narrow perspective of our limited vision!

Thirdly, the synagogue rulers “Conversion to Christ” (for that truly is what happened to him!) calls me to embrace a vision in which not only those who are outside the faith can be motivated to discipleship, but also those who have lost faith can find their passion re-ignited. Maybe Jesus can say to them “No, your faith hasn’t died, it’s only sleeping” Under the touch of God’s Spirit faith truly can live again!”

There really is a whole lot more in these passages. I leave you with this one thought. That whenever you feel like saying, “Who? Me? A Disciple?” remember that God has a place for You.

Whatever you have been, whatever you are right now, wherever you feel life has taken you recently, God’s love for you has not let up. God’s not mad with You. Christ is calling you to come as you are and welcome His companionship.

So you have doubts? So you’ve made mistakes? Well, welcome to the club! You worry that what God asks is more than you are capable of giving? Guess what? You’re not the only one! So life has been unfair? You know... that’s life for a whole lot of people!

So quit with the excuses and open your heart to the Jesus who loved you so much that He died on a Cross for you, open your heart to the God whose awesome love can embrace anybody, open your life to the influence of the Holy Spirit, breathing into your days a clear fresh breeze of the peace and healing and refreshing of God.

Who? Me? A disciple?

Yes.
You.
A disciple!

Believe it.

Rev Adrian Pratt

MARI JONES AND THOMAS CHARLES

2011-10-03T07:31:00.000-07:00

WORLD COMMUNION SUNDAY
Reading: Psalm 19:7-10, Joshua 1:6-8, John 7:37-43, Romans 10:9-15
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on October 2nd 2011

A printable PDF file can be downloaded here

We all have things that we take for granted. We expect trains to arrive when we are waiting for them. We expect there to be food in the shops. We expect electricity to be provided in our homes. We expect water to come out of the tap when we turn it on. When things don’t run properly we are reminded of how important they are. In our better moments we even remember that there are many in our world that would consider what we call basic necessities to be luxuries.

Transport, Food, Medicine, Utilities… we take them for granted. But there’s something else that we take for granted; that we may not be so aware of. And that is this…. Our Bibles. Bibles today are so easy for us to find. We can go online and read scripture. You can go to almost any bookshop and find copies available for less than 10 dollars. If you go to a hotel you often find one in the drawer, provided by organizations like the Gideons.

But that has not always been so. If you go back a few centuries the only Bibles you could find would be chained to the pulpit in a church… and the only people granted access to them would be the clergy or the wealthy. In many countries today access to the bible is still restricted, either because the politics of the region or because the bible has yet to be translated into the language of that country.

So this morning I wanted to tell you a true story about a little girl who lived in the part of the world I came from before moving to the USA, the land of Wales. The girls’ name was Mari Jones and she was born on the 16th December 1784 in a small village called Llanfihangel-y-Pennant, at the foot of a mountain called Cader-Idris.

Now back in those days there were very few schools in country areas but a man named Thomas Charles had begun what were known as ‘Circulating Schools’… teachers who could travel from village to village teaching children to read and write and learn the basics of arithmetic and other subjects.

When Mari was eight years old a school was established about an hours walk away from her home. Every day school was in session she would walk the hour it took to get there, stay as long as she could, and then walk back home again. She quickly began to read and her favorite books to read were the books of the Bible. She wished she had a Bible of her own, but they were a poor family and there was no way they could spend all their money on such a thing.

A neighbor though did have a Bible, and every Saturday afternoon Mari went to read Mrs. Evans' Bible for several hours. Mrs. Evans was not poor like the Jones’s, and lived in a house filled with beautiful things. The comfort and riches around her, however, did not distract Mari. She read through book after book of the Bible.

One day as Mari was doing her chores, washing her family's clothes in the river, she had the idea that she could earn some money by washing for other people and save enough money for a Bible of her own. When Mrs. Evans heard of Mari's plan, she gave Mari some chickens to raise. When the chickens became hens, Mari could earn money by selling the eggs. Mari soon found other ways for earning money too; looking after children, weeding gardens, knitting socks.

It took Mari six years of working and saving until she had enough money to be able to afford a Bible. When she asked at school where she could buy one, the only place that sold them was the hometown of Thomas Charles, the founder of the circulating schools which was in a town called Bala, which was a long way to travel.

After six years of scrimping and saving Mari wasn’t going to let that stop her. In the summer of 1800, when just sixteen years old, Mary set out alone on the twenty-five mile journey over the mountains to Bala. Because she was worried about wearing out her shoes, most of the way she carried them and went barefoot.

There was a friend of her family who lived in Bala, who was able to take her to meet Mr. Charles. Mari was exhausted, but excited, because they had heard that Thomas Charles had just received a new shipment of Welsh Bibles from London.
Mari was introduced to Mr. Charles and she made her request.

But Thomas Charles only had one Bible left, and had told somebody else they could have it. Weary from her travelling poor Mari couldn’t hold back the tears. The look of disappointment on Mari’s face caused Mr. Charles to think again and he decided that Mari’s need was far greater than the person he was holding it for. So Mary had her bible…. and walked the 25 miles back to her home in Llanfihangel-y-Pennant, this time carrying both her shoes and her newly aquired treasure!

There are things we take for granted. The Bible surely is one of them. But our story isn’t over yet. Mari’s journey had more of an impact than she could ever have imagined.

Thomas Charles was an influential minister and his heart was greatly moved by Mary’s passion to have a Bible in her own language for her self. The next year he was in London and shared with some fellow ministers the story of Mary and her quest for a Bible of her own. He gathered together a group of leaders and business folk, from across the denominational spectrum; Episcopalians and Baptists and Methodists and Presbyterians and Congregationalists.

On March 7, 1804, the British and Foreign Bible Society was formed "for the wider distribution of the Scriptures, without note or comment." Their concern became distributing Bibles throughout the whole world, and within a few months the Gospel of John was issued in the Mohawk language. They continued to translate and distribute Scriptures. By 1907, the BFBS had distributed 203,931,768 Bibles, Testaments and portions of Scripture all over the world.

The work of the Bible Society continues today. More than half the world’s 6,912 languages still wait for even one book of the Bible. They are presently involved in more than 550 translation and re-translation projects, bringing the Bible for the first time to those who have never been able to hear or read it in a language they understand.

They are also aware that for millions, having the Bible in a printed format is of little or no help at all for those who don’t read, and those who are visually or aurally handicapped. So they also work to make Bibles available though audio, Braille and sign language. Aware that billions of people in our world live in poverty they seek to make scriptures available at no charge to those who could never afford to buy a bible in their own language. The spark that set the whole movement in motion? A little girl in a small Welsh village who simply wanted a bible of her own!

What became of Mari? She later married a weaver of Bryn-Crug named Thomas Lewis. She died in 1864 and was buried at the graveyard of Bryn-Crug Calvinistic Methodist Chapel. The bible she obtained from Thomas Charles is now kept at the British and Foreign Bible Society's Archives in Cambridge University Library. Written by her own hand on the inside cover it reads;
‘I Bought this in the 16th year of my age. I am Daughter of Jacob Jones and Mary Jones His wife. The Lord may give me grace. Amen.’

Where the cottage once stood in her village there is now a memorial obelisk that has inscribed upon it; -

IN MEMORY OF MARY JONES, WHO IN
THE YEAR 1800, AT THE AGE OF 16 WALKED
FROM HERE TO BALA, TO PROCURE FROM THE
REVD. THOMAS CHARLES, B.A.
A COPY OF THE WELSH BIBLE. THIS INCIDENT
WAS THE OCCASION OF THE FORMATION OF
THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.
ERECTED BY THE SUNDAY SCHOOLS OF MERIONETH

Our Scripture reading this morning contained the words of Romans 10:15 "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring glad tidings of good things!" The beautiful tired feet of Mary Jones launched a worldwide movement to make the Scriptures available to all. We are fortunate in so many ways. We live in a nation blessed with unimaginable riches. Amongst those riches are Bibles, freely and easily available to each one of us.

One of things our Bibles teach us is that Jesus asked that we remember His love by gathering around a table laid with bread and wine. All around the world people will be doing so, in their own lands and hearing the good news of Jesus love in their own languages.

So today I invite you to join with a vast community of the present, the past and the future around this table, around the world, to pray for peace and seek the love of God to strengthen us in the journey we make together.

Rev. Adrian J. Pratt

WATER FROM ROCK

2011-09-26T06:18:00.001-07:00

Reading: Psalm 78, 1-4,12-16,, Philippians 2:1-13, Matthew 21:23-32, Exodus 17:1-7
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on September 25th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

The Israelites are complaining. Here we go again. Déjà vu. Last time it was a lack of meat and bread and God provided them with quails and manna. This time it’s about water. “Give us something to drink, Moses... or else”.

Now Moses hasn’t got as much patience as he had the last time they started to complain. Everybody is getting a little on edge. Moses is afraid the people will stone him if water doesn’t turn up. He doesn’t calm things down any by reprimanding the people, for criticizing him, and in the process testing God.

So when Moses goes to ask God for help, there is a very personal element involved. He doesn’t ask God for water. He asks Him for protection. He’s afraid the people will attack him. “What shall I do with this people?” he asks God “They’re threatening to throw rocks at me!”

God, being God, has everything under control. What appeared to be a major crisis was about to be turned into a blessing. The Israelites were about to be given yet another sign that the Lord their God was with them, and a reminder that they didn’t need to moan and groan and quarrel, but rather trust in God.

As with the Quails that came and the manna that fell from heaven, it’s an unusual sign that they are offered. At first glance it seems to involve the sort of ‘trickery’ that would make Harry Potter proud. Moses is to take his staff, strike a rock that was at a place called Horeb, and ‘Hey Presto’ water would come flowing out from it. Lest there be any doubt that this was a genuine miracle, Moses is to take the elders along with him, so they get to examine the rock, observe the events and testify to the people. Picture the scene…

“I’d like to invite one of the audience here tonight to come and examine this rock. As you can see, ladies and gentleman, this is just a normal rock, solid granite through and through. You can check around the edges, on the top, underneath, there are no secret catches, latches or hatches, this rock is just rock. And now, prepared to be in awe. I take this staff and I smash it on the rock, and “Voila” water from the Rock!”

In one of those beautiful turn around moments that appear quite frequently in the Hebrew narratives, the people are turned from seeing rock as something they could use to hurt with Moses with, to the rock as a sign of God’s presence in a thirsty land.

The bringing forth of water in such a way answered for the people a question that had been troubling them for some time. “Was God still with them?” Yes, God had been there in Egypt getting them ready for deliverance. Yes, God had led them through the waters to freedom. Yes, God had fed them upon meat and bread from heaven. But was that it? Were they now on their own? Had Moses led them all this way, only to abandon them?

It turns out that Moses had very little to do with it. After all, he had gone to God to save his own skin, not to intercede for the people. The people weren’t the only ones who needed a sign that God was still with them!

In this account there are two wonderful pictures of the faithfulness of God.
Firstly… God is a God who is always ahead of us.
Secondly… God is a God of transformation

God is always ahead of us.

The words of Exodus17:6 are important in understanding this event. The Lord says to Moses, “I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb”. You may remember that at the burning bush God had revealed himself to Moses, as “I am who I am”, as a God who could not be contained by words or formulas.

This was not a case of Moses manipulating God into performing a miracle so the people would give up on the idea of stoning him. On the contrary the whole event, was an action of God, to remind the people that as they journeyed through the wilderness, He was their God and they were God’s people. Even though they complained and quarreled and fretted and worried God wasn’t about to give up on them!

We are not that different to those wanderers in the wilderness. When trouble comes our way, people start asking, “Where’s God?” and look for somebody in leadership to blame. As though tragedy and need, thirst and hunger were somehow a result of God leaving the building or a failure on the part of the administration. We trust God for the good times, but in the hard times are tempted to assume that any lack of blessing is due to either a failure in leadership or a lack of God’s Presence.

“I will” declares God, “Be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb”. God is here described as not being alongside you, or above you, or behind you, but “in front of you”. The God who goes ahead and prepares the way. The God who knows what is around the next corner and is in the business of preparing us. The God who is always ahead of us.

It is hard to look forward when the troubles of the day cause our heads to hang low. It is hard to think of future blessings when present troubles fill our agenda. When the sky turns black, and the thunder rolls and the rain starts to fall, we are not thinking about the sunny days that may be in the future, we’re just trying to stay dry and stay safe in the storm. Scripture tells us that God was not in the rock, but on the rock. God was going ahead of them. They hadn’t been abandoned. They could move on in faith.

So for ourselves, when we face the many trying circumstances that come our way, here is a reminder that the way forward is not to look for somebody to blame, nor is it to assume that the presence of problems equates to an absence of God’s activity. Rather here is a call to trust that God’s love is there for us, leading us and guiding us… always way ahead of us!
A second thing we see in this story is that…

God is a God of transformation.

The most powerful imagery in this chapter is the contrast between the rock of the desert and the water that flows to bring life. Under the touch of God stone is transformed into refreshment. It speaks of how the hard and bitter and dry places of our lives can become places where we experience God’s life and love.

In John 4:14 Jesus meets a women by a well in Samaria. The woman is between a rock and a hard place. She needs a transformation. Jesus tells her; “Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." Through her encounter with Jesus Christ she truly is changed and her life would never be the same again.

Time and time again the experience of faithful people has been that when they thought there was no way forward, the love of God came through for them. God takes situations that outwardly seemed hopeless and somehow everything was turned around as they put their faith in God’s ability to transform situations of desperation into opportunities for new life.

For was there ever a harder place than the cross? The cross of Calvary, upon which Jesus was crucified, has become for the church a symbol of faith. God took the hard place and used it as a means of blessing. God took that dreadful hour (that was the result of us having hearts of stone that could not recognize the Presence of God even as He walked before us) and transformed it through resurrection. God took that bitter hour, and bathed it in glorious light as the stone rolled away from the tomb and the church ever since has declared Jesus Christ as the ‘Rock of Ages’ from whom love and grace now flow freely.

Now notice, that Moses had to strike the rock before any water came out. I don’t intend suggesting that we go around hitting each other with sticks in order to release the blessings of God. That we become some weird cult. “So what church do you belong to?” “Oh, First Presbyterian of ‘Hit ‘em with a stick’ Baldwin.”

But, is it not true, that the hard knocks that life throws at us, refine our faith in ways the good times fail to do? It is the storms that we travel through that make us appreciate the daily blessings that surround our lives.

For sure wilderness times will come our way. In the wilderness the Israelites wanted to know, “Moses, Is God still with us? Or are we going to die of thirst out here?” Moses himself was fearful that God had only bought them so far and now had left them to work it all out for themselves.

Through this strange miracle of bringing water from the rock, the people received the assurance that God was still on their case. Through this account we are offered two wonderful pictures of the faithfulness of God.

Firstly… God is always ahead of us. Whatever our present circumstances we are called trust that God is the One who knows exactly where we are and has a way forward that Jesus calls us to follow.

Secondly… God is a God of transformation. Wherever we are right now, is not where God would have us stay. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to transform and renew, to bring blessings to the hard places and extract from the stony places the living water of life.

Just as the Hebrews were turned from seeing rocks as something they could use to hurt Moses with, to the rock as a sign of God’s presence in a thirsty land, may our hard places be turned to opportunities, and our hearts of stone be transformed to thanksgiving and generosity.

And all this to the glory of God. AMEN.

Rev Adrian Pratt

WATER FROM ROCK

2011-09-26T06:18:00.000-07:00

Reading: Psalm 78, 1-4,12-16,, Philippians 2:1-13, Matthew 21:23-32, Exodus 17:1-7
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on September 25th 2011

The Israelites are complaining. Here we go again. Déjà vu. Last time it was a lack of meat and bread and God provided them with quails and manna. This time it’s about water. “Give us something to drink, Moses... or else”.

Now Moses hasn’t got as much patience as he had the last time they started to complain. Everybody is getting a little on edge. Moses is afraid the people will stone him if water doesn’t turn up. He doesn’t calm things down any by reprimanding the people, for criticizing him, and in the process testing God.

So when Moses goes to ask God for help, there is a very personal element involved. He doesn’t ask God for water. He asks Him for protection. He’s afraid the people will attack him. “What shall I do with this people?” he asks God “They’re threatening to throw rocks at me!”

God, being God, has everything under control. What appeared to be a major crisis was about to be turned into a blessing. The Israelites were about to be given yet another sign that the Lord their God was with them, and a reminder that they didn’t need to moan and groan and quarrel, but rather trust in God.

As with the Quails that came and the manna that fell from heaven, it’s an unusual sign that they are offered. At first glance it seems to involve the sort of ‘trickery’ that would make Harry Potter proud. Moses is to take his staff, strike a rock that was at a place called Horeb, and ‘Hey Presto’ water would come flowing out from it. Lest there be any doubt that this was a genuine miracle, Moses is to take the elders along with him, so they get to examine the rock, observe the events and testify to the people. Picture the scene…

“I’d like to invite one of the audience here tonight to come and examine this rock. As you can see, ladies and gentleman, this is just a normal rock, solid granite through and through. You can check around the edges, on the top, underneath, there are no secret catches, latches or hatches, this rock is just rock. And now, prepared to be in awe. I take this staff and I smash it on the rock, and “Voila” water from the Rock!”

In one of those beautiful turn around moments that appear quite frequently in the Hebrew narratives, the people are turned from seeing rock as something they could use to hurt with Moses with, to the rock as a sign of God’s presence in a thirsty land.

The bringing forth of water in such a way answered for the people a question that had been troubling them for some time. “Was God still with them?” Yes, God had been there in Egypt getting them ready for deliverance. Yes, God had led them through the waters to freedom. Yes, God had fed them upon meat and bread from heaven. But was that it? Were they now on their own? Had Moses led them all this way, only to abandon them?

It turns out that Moses had very little to do with it. After all, he had gone to God to save his own skin, not to intercede for the people. The people weren’t the only ones who needed a sign that God was still with them!

In this account there are two wonderful pictures of the faithfulness of God.
Firstly… God is a God who is always ahead of us.
Secondly… God is a God of transformation

God is always ahead of us.

The words of Exodus17:6 are important in understanding this event. The Lord says to Moses, “I will be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb”. You may remember that at the burning bush God had revealed himself to Moses, as “I am who I am”, as a God who could not be contained by words or formulas.

This was not a case of Moses manipulating God into performing a miracle so the people would give up on the idea of stoning him. On the contrary the whole event, was an action of God, to remind the people that as they journeyed through the wilderness, He was their God and they were God’s people. Even though they complained and quarreled and fretted and worried God wasn’t about to give up on them!

We are not that different to those wanderers in the wilderness. When trouble comes our way, people start asking, “Where’s God?” and look for somebody in leadership to blame. As though tragedy and need, thirst and hunger were somehow a result of God leaving the building or a failure on the part of the administration. We trust God for the good times, but in the hard times are tempted to assume that any lack of blessing is due to either a failure in leadership or a lack of God’s Presence.

“I will” declares God, “Be standing there in front of you on the rock at Horeb”. God is here described as not being alongside you, or above you, or behind you, but “in front of you”. The God who goes ahead and prepares the way. The God who knows what is around the next corner and is in the business of preparing us. The God who is always ahead of us.

It is hard to look forward when the troubles of the day cause our heads to hang low. It is hard to think of future blessings when present troubles fill our agenda. When the sky turns black, and the thunder rolls and the rain starts to fall, we are not thinking about the sunny days that may be in the future, we’re just trying to stay dry and stay safe in the storm. Scripture tells us that God was not in the rock, but on the rock. God was going ahead of them. They hadn’t been abandoned. They could move on in faith.

So for ourselves, when we face the many trying circumstances that come our way, here is a reminder that the way forward is not to look for somebody to blame, nor is it to assume that the presence of problems equates to an absence of God’s activity. Rather here is a call to trust that God’s love is there for us, leading us and guiding us… always way ahead of us!
A second thing we see in this story is that…

God is a God of transformation.

The most powerful imagery in this chapter is the contrast between the rock of the desert and the water that flows to bring life. Under the touch of God stone is transformed into refreshment. It speaks of how the hard and bitter and dry places of our lives can become places where we experience God’s life and love.

In John 4:14 Jesus meets a women by a well in Samaria. The woman is between a rock and a hard place. She needs a transformation. Jesus tells her; “Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." Through her encounter with Jesus Christ she truly is changed and her life would never be the same again.

Time and time again the experience of faithful people has been that when they thought there was no way forward, the love of God came through for them. God takes situations that outwardly seemed hopeless and somehow everything was turned around as they put their faith in God’s ability to transform situations of desperation into opportunities for new life.

For was there ever a harder place than the cross? The cross of Calvary, upon which Jesus was crucified, has become for the church a symbol of faith. God took the hard place and used it as a means of blessing. God took that dreadful hour (that was the result of us having hearts of stone that could not recognize the Presence of God even as He walked before us) and transformed it through resurrection. God took that bitter hour, and bathed it in glorious light as the stone rolled away from the tomb and the church ever since has declared Jesus Christ as the ‘Rock of Ages’ from whom love and grace now flow freely.

Now notice, that Moses had to strike the rock before any water came out. I don’t intend suggesting that we go around hitting each other with sticks in order to release the blessings of God. That we become some weird cult. “So what church do you belong to?” “Oh, First Presbyterian of ‘Hit ‘em with a stick’ Baldwin.”

But, is it not true, that the hard knocks that life throws at us, refine our faith in ways the good times fail to do? It is the storms that we travel through that make us appreciate the daily blessings that surround our lives.

For sure wilderness times will come our way. In the wilderness the Israelites wanted to know, “Moses, Is God still with us? Or are we going to die of thirst out here?” Moses himself was fearful that God had only bought them so far and now had left them to work it all out for themselves.

Through this strange miracle of bringing water from the rock, the people received the assurance that God was still on their case. Through this account we are offered two wonderful pictures of the faithfulness of God.

Firstly… God is always ahead of us. Whatever our present circumstances we are called trust that God is the One who knows exactly where we are and has a way forward that Jesus calls us to follow.

Secondly… God is a God of transformation. Wherever we are right now, is not where God would have us stay. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to transform and renew, to bring blessings to the hard places and extract from the stony places the living water of life.

Just as the Hebrews were turned from seeing rocks as something they could use to hurt Moses with, to the rock as a sign of God’s presence in a thirsty land, may our hard places be turned to opportunities, and our hearts of stone be transformed to thanksgiving and generosity.

And all this to the glory of God. AMEN.

Rev Adrian Pratt

BREAD OF HEAVEN

2011-09-19T06:22:00.000-07:00

Reading: Psalm 105: 1-6,37-45, Matthew 20:1-16, Philippians 1:21-30, Exodus 16:2-15
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on September 18th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

I admit it. When I am hungry, I’m a grouch. Blame it on the blood sugar, blame it on the stomach sending negative messages to the brain, blame it on my “I eat, therefore I am” nature, but (and my wife Yvonne will agree with me on this one, and that’s not something a husband can always say about a wife), when I’m not a regular eater I become a complainer. A Big-Time Grouch.

Exodus16:2 tells us that ‘The whole congregation of the Israelites complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness.’ I read that and I’m thinking, “I don’t blame them. They were hungry! I can “High Five” and say “AMEN” to folks with that kind of temperament. I suspect that if I’d been there I’d have been in the line to put my complaint to Moses and Aaron.

In a lot of ways they have a very legitimate complaint. Being slaves under the Pharaoh’s repressive regime, was no picnic, yet it was preferable to starving to death in the desert. Some commentators suggest that the people had forgotten how bad it was in Egypt and point to how nostalgia has a habit of glossing over the bad and making too much of the benefits, but, from this stomach’s perspective, I beg to disagree.

There are times when it’s O.K. to complain. You meet somebody and you ask them, “How’s things?”. They sigh and say, “Oh.. well.. I can’t complain .. and even if I did nobody wants to listen”. When people say “Can’t complain” sometimes what they really mean is, “You wouldn’t believe how cruddy life is right now, and I’m at my wits end and I really don’t know how I’m getting through.”

British people have often got this off to a fine art! The Australians call the British “Wingin’ Poms”, because some of my fellow countryfolk have such a reputation for constant moaning and groaning, under the guise of saying “Hey everything’s O.K, really, don’t worry”.

I think it’s in the movie about the Griswald’s European Vacation, that there’s a scene where one of the ex-Monty Python actors, Eric Idle gets knocked off his bicycle, then he falls over, then something else bad happens and all the time he just keeps saying, “Oh no. No problem. Quite all-right.” Or I think of that scene in Monty Python’s “Holy Grail” movie where the two knights are in combat and after one of them is almost totally dismembered, he says, “Oh no, just a flesh wound, I’ve had worse”.

Nobody likes a complainer. People of all nationalities try and avoid making it look like they are complaining even when they are. Yet, in spite of all that, I maintain that there are times when complaining is legitimate. I think that if I were out in the desert, with a whole host of people facing starvation, without even catching a glimpse of the Promised Land I would feel I had grounds for filing a grievance.

From a human perspective it seems that getting mad at Moses and antagonizing Aaron would be justifiable. But, and I hate to say this, from a Divine perspective, their complaining was entirely the result of a lack of faith. Their problem isn’t that they had forgotten how bad it was in Egypt, but rather that they had forgotten how good God was in bringing them out from Egypt.

“God is Good.. all the Time
All the Time.. God is Good”

They failed to remember that this God who had led them into the wilderness, had, when they were in Egypt, heard their cries, seen their tears and acted on their behalf. They had lost sight of the fact that God still heard their fears, still saw their plight and was still acting on their behalf.

Being a disciple of Jesus Christ opens up to us options that are not available to people who don’t have faith. Become a disciple of Jesus Christ and you will unlock your life to a whole spectrum of possibilities. A disciple can, in any given situation, make a choice as to how they will view their circumstances. We can look at life from the human side, and find a whole lot to complain about, or we can look at things from a Divine perspective and discover whole areas of life in which we are called to exercise trust in God.

The community calls Moses and Aaron to account for themselves. “What are you doing, bringing us out here to starve?” Did you pick up on the answer that they give the people? Moses firstly assures them that by the time evening came around they would know that the Lord God had led them out of Egypt. Then, Exodus 16:8 ‘Moses said, "When the LORD gives you meat to eat in the evening and your fill of bread in the morning, because the LORD has heard the complaining that you utter against him - what are we? Your complaining is not against us but against the LORD."’

To complain about hunger and express legitimate fears was one thing. God had heard that complaint and was doing something about it. To suggest that the whole Exodus from Egypt had somehow been the work, not of any divine agent, but attributed to Moses and Aaron’s hands, that was the mistake.

It may be flattering that the people considered Moses and Aaron capable of coming up with such a cunning plan, but the dark side of the picture is that it revealed the people had shifted their focus from trusting God, to trusting in each other. One thing is for sure. We can’t always be sure about each other.

Fact is we make compromises, we forget promises, we lose sight of what God calls us to be, and we need each others prayers and encouragement, because at times our service of God feels like a wilderness and we get hungry for something better and the temptation is always for us to look to each other rather than to God to meet our needs.

When we hear of pastors who fall by the wayside or Christian leaders found guilty of some misdemeanor we think, “How can people called by God turn out to be such rotten apples?”

Reformed theology suggests the reason is simply that we are all rotten apples, that aside from the love of God we are all hopeless cases, that for all of us, be we pastors, elders, deacons, youngsters, oldsters, rich or poor, male or female, black or white, whether we put our milk in the coffee before we put the coffee in the cup or whether we prefer to put the coffee in the cup before we put the milk in it, for all of us the natural inclination of our lives is to do anything but serve God and do God’s will.

Presbyterian doctrine takes Grace seriously because it takes sin seriously. Somebody was once alleged to have said, “I didn’t know what sin was until I met a Presbyterian”. In our bulletin we put our “Confession of Sin and Assurance of Pardon” way to the start of our service because we know that it doesn’t take us long in the presence of God to realize that we’ve messed up and need God’s renewing and forgiving, before we can get on with anything else in our lives.

Our final hymn this morning, “Guide me Oh thy great Jehovah, pilgrim through this barren land” contains that wonderful stanza, “Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven, Feed me till I want no more, Feed me till I want no more”. Over here in America I’m afraid you don’t sing this hymn with the same passion as some of your brothers and sisters over in Wales.

See, when the Welsh sing that hymn, it builds to a roof-raising climax. The first “Feed me till I want no more” is echoed by the tenors and basses, “Want no more”.. that phrase is often held as long as whoever may be leading the singing can stand it, before it crashes back down to earth with a resounding and resolute “Feed me till I want no more”.

Quite what the significance is in that the Welsh seem to sing it as much at Rugby games as they do in chapel, I’ve never really analyzed, but I’m of the opinion that it’s got something to do with passion and feeling and the desire to be a winner – be it on a field of play or in the much less glamorous game of life.

The quails came. The Manna came. And the people turned to God in worship and in praise. They stopped complaining and they started rejoicing. And, (wow!), what a change it can make in a persons life if they can move from being a complainer to being a proclaimer of the Good News that Jesus Christ died for our sins, was raised that we might have abundant life and that the Holy Spirit of God can nurture our lives as though we were feeding on “Bread from Heaven”. So what’s it going to be? Complainer or Proclaimer?

As a church what a difference it makes when we can shift our focus from what we can do to what God can do. As a body of God’s people in this place, what a difference it can make when we face our challenges not as ‘cause for complaints’ but as “Opportunities to experience the Grace of God”. So what’s it going to be? Complainer or Proclaimer?

Of course we have bills to pay. Of course we have physical needs. But where are we finding the resources to meet that challenge? Are we making the same mistakes the Israelites did in the Wilderness? Trying to find somebody to blame when actually the problem is we’ve lost sight of trusting in God?

It is much easier to ‘murmur and complain’ than take up the challenge of carrying a Cross in Jesus name. There is nothing radical in pretending that everything’s all right when there are some things that are wrong and need putting right. I’m not suggesting to anybody that we should put a brave face on things and carry with us some vague hope that we’ll get by in the end.

What I am suggesting is that we put our focus where it ought to be as Christians, that we look to our savior Jesus Christ. So again I say; What’s it going to be? Complainer or Proclaimer?

In conclusion I’d remind you of some words that are recorded for us in John’s Gospel.

John 6:35, “Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”

Hear the Word of God.
Hear that invitation afresh today,
“Come to me and find satisfaction for your hunger”
Hear God’s call for us to exercise faith
“Believe in me and I will satisfy your thirst”

“God is Good.. all the Time
All the Time.. God is Good”
AMEN.

Rev Adrian Pratt

TURN OF THE TIDE

2011-09-12T06:03:00.000-07:00

Reading: Psalm 114, Romans 14:1-12, Matthew 18:12-35, Exodus 14:19-31
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on September 11th, 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

Geographically speaking, the area where I was born and raised was known as the Wirral peninsular. On one side of the peninsular lay the River Mersey, where you could, as Gerry and the Pacemakers once sang, catch a ‘Ferry across the Mersey’ to Liverpool. On the other side of the peninsular lay the River Dee, and over the other side of that river, the nation of Wales.

The River Dee side of the peninsular held the best beaches. One of the fun things to do there was walk across the sands, at low tide, to visit a bird sanctuary called Hilbre Island, where you could watch seals playing out in the estuary.

In fact when the tide went out it looked as though you could walk across the sands all the way to Wales. You couldn’t because there was a deep fierce channel of water that separated the English from Wales (something historically the Welsh were rather glad about) but when you were walking out on the sand, it looked as though there were just miles of sand stretching in every direction. A beautiful place.

Beautiful, but dangerous. Almost every year people lost their lives through not paying attention to the tide. If you did not know at what hour the tide turned, then it was not safe being out on the sands. Whereas when the tide was out the sands stretched for miles, when the tide turned the whole area became sea.

The frightening thing was how quickly the change from sand to sea took place. Little streams in the sand would become rivers. The rivers overflowed. You could be walking on sandbanks, unable to reach the coast, unaware that the waters were closing in. If you were out on the sand when the tide turned, you were lost.

One can only imagine the dread that the Hebrew people felt as they fled from Pharaohs’ chariots. There lay before them a seemingly impassable body of water. Their only hope was that God would intervene on their behalf. That somehow the tide would turn.

It is 10 years to the day since the terrorist attacks of September 11. The events of that day saw a turn in the tide of our consciousness. Our safety can no longer be taken for granted. Our security remains in question. We are no longer invulnerable. We are no longer isolated from the rest of the world.

On that occasion it wasn’t pursuing enemy chariots and threatening soldiers that were swept away but the lives of ordinary people going about their daily tasks and the many heroic souls who attempted to rescue them. When the tide turns, the waves do not care if their victims are aggressors or innocents.

The reasons behind the growth of terrorism are incredibly complex. Political, economic, geographical, religious, educational, historical. Issues of poverty and injustice and imbalance and empire and greed. Trying to isolate any particular aspect and suggesting that ‘this’ alone is to blame is as futile as investigating a single channel flowing through the sand and claiming that it alone caused the tide to turn.

In the story of the Hebrews escaping from the Egyptians are many different layers. Religion obviously plays a huge role (it is after all a bible story). But then so also do injustice and slavery and economics and politics and the search for national identity.

You will notice that the turn of the tide does not lead the Hebrews to the Promised Land but into the wilderness. The destruction of their enemies in the crushing waters leads them not into a place of peace, but one of fear, regret and dependence. The closing verse of the passage we read this morning; verse 31 ‘And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in Him and in Moses His servant’.

Since the events of ten years ago, surely we can identify with that picture. We are not out of the wilderness. There is a desire for strong leadership. There is mistrust. There is fear. The old certainties have been swept away and exactly where our anchor should be placed remains a topic for debate. The tide has turned. Many remain unsure which direction to go to find anything like a Promised Land.

The past month saw an earthquake and a visit from Hurricane Irene. Every passing year brings unpredictable turns of events. Not only can we not predict the actions of our fellow human beings, nature herself seems happy to remind us of our own frailty and insignificance in the larger scheme of things.

Against this backdrop it is important to remind ourselves that we still have choices. The Hebrew people had a choice. They could stay in Egypt in slavery. Or they could, as a community, follow Moses.

They may well have wondered at the wisdom of their choice when they were faced with the prospect of being destroyed at the water edge by the advancing Egyptian army. Even after their miraculous deliverance, though they saw their enemies’ dead and defeated, they knew their journey was far from over. They still faced an uncertain and unpredictable future.

On this our Rally Day we too have a choice. We can rally together and seek to be a community of God’s people. We can put our trust in God to lead us towards better days. We can choose to build our lives upon faith in Jesus Christ, over and above trust in any other institution.

We can choose, as did the Hebrews, to invest in nurturing the spiritual lives of both our selves and our children in the ways of God’s Kingdom. We choose our priorities. We can say ‘no’ to unreasonable demands on our time that take away our energy to invest in the things of God.

Events such as those we are recalling ten years ago, and events like the recent hurricane in which some lost so much, should indeed cause us to question ‘What is really important?” For a moment we are taken out of the normality of the hectic everyday race we are pursuing. For a moment the power goes away, the trains don’t run, the TV has no programs, the phone stops ringing because the connection has no connection. For a moment we realize our dependency. Do we treat it as a wake up call? Or do we just hop back onto the train and in six months time wonder why nothing has changed?

The Christian gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ, is that there is another way to live, a better way, and a higher way! But the rub is, in order to discover it, we have too choose to change. We have to let go of some of the things we are so reliant on. We cannot allow our I-pods and I-phones and I-pads to become our I-dols. We cannot pursue both God and wealth. We cannot keep seeking happiness and joy and fulfillment through every avenue but the love God and expect that somehow God will bless us anyway!

Scary, horrific events force us, just for a moment, to examine our choices. As the Hebrews gazed across the Sea at the bodies of their enemies, there was little rejoicing. I remind you again of verse 31 ‘And when the Israelites saw the mighty hand of the LORD displayed against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD and put their trust in him.’ In moments of crisis you have to choose in whom you place your trust.

Because of the tidal estuary that lay on the sands between England and Wales, I learned at an early age that you had to be aware of the changing tides. A best selling book in my home area was the ‘Tide-Tables’ that catalogued the times when the tides would turn. The tables told you how high the tides were likely to be, and all the vital information that would let you know when it was safe to walk out to Hilbre Island and when you needed to stay away from the sands.

God has not left us in the dark. We have God’s Word in Scripture. But we have to read it. We have the living presence of Jesus Christ to lead and guide us. But we have to discover the guidance of His Holy Spirit, which only comes through prayer and commitment. We have a community of faith to which we can belong. But we have to make life choices that enable us to be active participants.

On this day of remembrance we have an opportunity to rally together and consider in what we choose to invest our lives. The Hebrew people chose to trust God, to deliver them and lead them through the wilderness days that lay ahead. Seems to me, that’s the kind of choice open to us all.

Amen.

Rev Adrian Pratt

FAST FOOD - To Go!

2011-09-06T06:58:00.000-07:00

"FAST FOOD - To Go”
Reading: Psalm 149, Matthew 18:15-20, Romans 13:8-14, Exodus 12:1-14
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on September 4th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

“Is that for here, or is it to go?” asked the girl at McWendyKing (or some such fast food place). “To Go!” I replied, because I was on the go. A hundred things to do and a lot of folk to see. Got to keep moving. I would have gone around to the drive-thru but some days I just can’t stand talking into that little loudspeaker. I can never understand what the assistants saying on the other end.

And I don’t understand why you need to do that anyway. Couldn’t you just drive up to the window where you pay and give your order to the human being there instead of to the little box? Does it really save time? Usually there’s only about two or three cars distance to the window anyway! Seems less than efficient, particularly when, on some occasions I come away with exactly what I hadn’t asked for.

But, why worry? It’s not as if the food you are about to throw down yourself has any gastronomic integrity. It’s made as cheaply as possible, put together as quickly as do-able, and often consumed at a speed that deserves a mention in the Guinness Book of Records. FAST FOOD. – LET’S GO!

Meanwhile, back in Egypt, Moses has been having a hard time convincing Pharaoh to “Let my people go”. Although the land has been hit by a series of plagues, Pharaoh keeps changing his mind. First they can go, then they have to stay, then they can go, then they can stay. It’s becoming kind of repetitive.

But not for much longer. The Israelites days in Egypt are numbered. The numbers have nearly run out. There is to be one, final, decisive action on the part of God, that will finally convince the Pharaoh that it would be a deadly thing to keep the Israelites there any longer.

The final affliction is a plague of death. At the time Moses was born, the Pharaoh was murdering every first-born Hebrew Child, ordering them to be killed at birth or thrown into the river to drown. It was a miracle that Moses had escaped with his life, let alone grown up to be an ex-prince of Egypt who now led Israel.

They do say that what goes around, comes around. That certainly seemed to be the case in Egypt. The nature of the final plague is that the angel of death will take down every firstborn in the land, both humans and animals.

The only exception is to be those households whose doorposts are covered by the blood of a sacrificial lamb, a lamb that has to be prepared and consumed in exactly the way Moses tells them. This would be a sign for all the faithful that God had set them free. It would mark the beginning of a new era in the nations life and a new stage in Israel’s history. For them history would begin again. The month that they left Egypt would be considered forever more as the first month of a New Year.

Knowing that the angel of death was approaching, I’m sure that, if they were able back then, there would have been those amongst the Hebrews who would have ordered their sacrificial lamb from the Egyptian equivalent of McWendyKings.

“I’ll’ have seven lambs, (make that 8, better get one for the dog in case he turns out to have been the first born).. and oh.. an extra order of blood on the side, please”. “Is that for here or to go?” To Go! Fast food to go!” (Of course being in Egypt maybe they could also have said, “I’ll have a crocodile sandwich.. oh.. and make it snappy”: ) Hmm.

Like my jokes it really was no laughing matter, in any way. The events that were about to take place were horrific. There really hadn’t been anything to rejoice about for a long, long time in Egypt for the Hebrews. Were they really, after all this time, after all that had been taking place, were they really free to go?

The answer, right at that moment, was an extremely hesitant and cautious “yes”. They wouldn’t actually be free from Pharaoh until after they had passed through the Red Sea. They had hard times in front of them and most, including Moses, would not live to enter the Promised Land.

What they are about to do is something that would be, for all time, a symbol of faith. Something that turned that hesitant “yes” into a declaration of faith. They are given the Passover Meal. Exodus 12:14 “This day shall be a day of remembrance for you. You shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD; throughout your generations you shall observe it as a perpetual ordinance”.

Passover was a meal to go. Remember Moses instructions? Exodus12:11 “This is how you shall eat it: your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the LORD.”

Passover was something to prepare them for the journey. Something that would etch into their minds God’s saving power. A celebration that would always remind them of their deliverance from slavery and misery.

Deliverance came at a price. They would eat, amongst other things, bitter herbs and unleavened bread. There would be great mourning all around them, on the part of those who chose not to heed Moses instructions. The deep irony of the situation was that their deliverance to life would only come through death, the death of unblemished lambs and innocent firstborns.

There are startling parallels between the celebration of Passover and our own Christian celebration of Holy Communion, a fact that both the Gospel authors and the writers of the N/T letters are keen to point out.

The first time as a boy that Jesus goes to Jerusalem it is for the family to celebrate Passover (Luke 2:41). It is at the Passover meal Jesus takes the bread and cup (which represent the broken body and shed blood of God’s only begotten Son) and shares them with His disciples. To a Corinthian Church beset with division and troubles Paul writes “Therefore purge out the old leaven, that you may be …new …… For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. (1 Corinthians 5:7).

Communion is a time we draw together to recall the covenant promises God makes to us in Christ. A time to strengthen ourselves for our spiritual journey. A faith-meal that looks to a deliverance yet to come. A time to rejoice that the blood of Jesus, Lamb of God, forgives us, redeems us and sets us free from the fear of death

Passover was a meal that was eaten – ready to go. However Passover was not fast food. Passover was not something prepared hastily or carelessly or least expensively put together. It took time. It required understanding. It was costly.

Preparation for the meal began four days prior to cooking, when a lamb (from either a sheep or a goat) was chosen. The lamb was to be shared with those who were not able to afford a lamb of their own. Neighbors were to come together. Nobody was to be excluded.

The lamb had to be a yearling without blemish. In other words it was prime stock. Not the left over or the weakling. In economic terms it was the costliest. It had to be kept until at twilight there was a community act of slaughter. It was then that the blood had to be smeared on the doors of the houses where the lamb was to be eaten.

That same night it was to be eaten in equal portions by all those who came to supper. It was to be slow cooked over the fire.. not boiled or eaten raw. The whole lamb was involved… the inward parts, the head, the legs.. all had to be roasted. Anything that became left over had to be burnt up. Only then… after all of that… were they ready to go.

We live in a fast food world. People want answers, even to their religious questions, in quick, digestible bytes. Instant Spirituality. Sign up here today and tomorrow it will be yours! The problem is that ‘Fast-Food’ is sometimes called ‘Junk Food’. In other words it doesn’t sustain, it doesn’t really nourish, it doesn’t meet the dietary needs, it just makes the hunger go away for a while.

I can offer you no Fast Food this morning. But I can invite you to come to a table laid with bread and wine, and prayerfully and whole-heartedly seek for God’s presence to be Your inspiration and guide in the coming days. I can direct you to Jesus, our Passover Lamb, to feed your deepest needs.

Paul, when speaking of communion, talks of preparing yourself to receive the bread and wine. Now is the time to do that. To reflect on where our lives are and what these elements represent. A God who wants to travel with us, but in order to do so requires that we commit our lives into His care. A Savior who died that no barrier may prevent us from living in God’s Presence. A Holy Spirit that seeks to inspire us every step of the journey.

Rev Adrian Pratt

Recharging our batteries

2011-08-22T06:21:00.000-07:00

Readings: Psalm 73 , 1 Timothy 6:12-16
Preached at First Presbyterian Church Baldwin, NY, on August 13th 2006

A printable PDF file can be found here

Have you ever had a car that didn’t like to start in the mornings? You get up, ready to go, outside, shut the door, put on the seat belt and ‘UR-UR-UR-UR - CLUNK”. Not a thing. The batteries dead. The only way you are going to move is if somebody gives you a push or rescues you with jump leads.

The battery is still good. The cells in the battery are not dead; it just doesn’t have the power to operate. There are days when we know exactly how that battery feels! According to a poll in the Readers Digest a few years back one of the most frequently asked questions of pastors was “How do I recharge my spiritual batteries?”

The writer of Psalm 73 faces a similar dilemma. In Verse 2 he writes “My feet had almost stumbled, my steps had well nigh slipped.” The old English word for ‘the feeling that God’s grace was getting you through’ was ‘unction’. The psalmist’s problem? The ‘unction’ had ceased to function; their ‘Ford’ was no longer trucking for the Lord!

Let me offer three insights from the Psalmist on how we can recharge our spiritual selves.
1) Acknowledge the need
2) Share the load
3) Activation

Acknowledge the Need.

The Psalmist begins by being clear about their situation. They were losing it. They were stumbling and were in danger of falling. Their relationship with God was slipping away from them.

Be honest with God about your spiritual state. It’s no good before God saying that everything is all right if it’s not. We can fool each other, but we can’t fool God. If we feel like a spiritual wash out then we have to take that situation to God.

Rev. Lloyd John Ogilvie, retired Chaplain for the United States Senate and for twenty years pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Hollywood, CA, wrote a book called ‘Falling into Greatness’. In it he tells of an unsophisticated wild-west preacher who during a funeral service pointed to the coffin and said, “I want you to know that this corpse has been a member of the church for thirty years.”

Scripture suggests that we can either be spiritually dead or spiritually alive. That it is possible to be a member of a religious community yet be a corpse when it comes to having a vital life changing relationship with God.

One way of gauging how our relationship with God is going is to monitor our cynicism levels. When the psalmist looked to those who wanted to live in any which way but the way of God he became bitter and cynical.

The New Living Translation has him saying between verses 4 and 13: “I envied the proud when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness. They seem to live such painless lives; their bodies are so healthy and strong. They don't have troubles like other people; they're not plagued with problems like everyone else… These fat cats have everything their hearts could ever wish for! …Did I keep my heart pure for nothing? Did I keep myself innocent for no reason?”

Have you noticed how if you are feeling down or depressed or washed-out... how hard it is to keep a realistic perspective? Because you feel personally low, you paint the whole world gray. You make out things are worse than they really are, molehills become mountains, insignificant problems become tremendous causes for anxiety.

As the Psalmist struggles through he realizes that he needs to acknowledge his feelings. Verse 16: “Though I tried to understand all this, it was too difficult for me,”
Verses 21-22; “Since my heart was embittered and my soul deeply wounded, I was stupid and could not understand; I was like a brute beast in Your presence.”

Before we can be spiritually recharged we need to stop pretending and acknowledge we are washed out. We need to realize that the power has gone and we need to be charged up. That’s the first step, acknowledge our need. Step two is:

Share the Load.

When I was in seminary over in Wales, Great Britain, I possessed one of those cars that didn’t like the mornings. A 4 Cylinder Morris Marina Estate (as pictured above). Early one misty Sunday morning I needed to drive about two hours to preach in a church in another town. We got to the car park, turned the key and...”WURR-WURR-WURR – Click”.

Mr. Morris Marina’s 4 little cylinders were not playing ball. Now early on Sunday mornings in college towns in Wales you were not going to find a garage open to service your vehicle. Neither would anybody appreciate you knocking on their door asking if they could give you a push. “Lord” I said “Help!”

A short whilst later turning into the Car Park came a guy in a flashy Jaguar XJ6. He turned out to not only have jump leads in his boot – or rather trunk as you say in these parts – but was a good Samaritan prepared to lend a hand. He lifted up the bonnet – that is hood – of the XJ6 – his engine all shiny gleaming and purring – attached the jump leads to my little rather tired looking engine – I turned the key and I tell you – that Morris Marina – jumped to attention. ‘Yes Sir – let’s go! I am the Little Marina that can!’

Where do we go when we need spiritually recharging? The Psalmist tells us in verse 17: “Though I tried to understand all this, it was too difficult for me, Until I entered the sanctuary of God”. As the Living Bible has it, “I went into Your temple… and then I understood!”

Where do we go when we want to be spiritually recharged? To the pastor? To our Sunday School Teacher? To the elders on call? To the liquor store? To the video store to rent a game or movie? To the T.V and wait for Oprah or Dr. Phil to come on?

As Christians we have a direct line. Jesus Christ is our High Priest. He is the One who brings into our life the presence of God. He is our Sanctuary, our Holy place. He sends His Spirit to be the encourager, the Helper, the light, the guide. By-pass the middle man. When you need a recharge go direct to the source of power. When the Psalmist took his need to God, then He started to be charged up.

To meet spiritual need we need to connect with a spiritual source. When Mr. Morris Marina needed to be recharged, we connected him to a higher power, Mr. Jaguar. To meet our deepest needs we should go to God, for only God can meet those needs! It was only then that the Psalmist started to regain his perspective.

Through verses 17 to 20 you find him saying things like, “I understand now what will happen to the wicked… They are like a bad dream that goes away in the morning… What goes around will come around, and their end is destruction’. As he reflected upon and contemplated God’s Word life stated to make sense again. He became less cynical, more willing to make a go of things, more aware that he was not alone, but that God was still walking right alongside.

Listen to verses 23-26 “I am always with You; You take hold of my right hand. With Your counsel You guide me, and at the end receive me with honor. Whom else have I in the heavens? None beside You delights me on earth. Though my flesh and my heart fail, God is the rock of my heart, my portion forever.”

This is the same guy who early was saying, “Oh no, I’m losing it, I should just be wicked like everybody else’ Now he’s saying, “The wicked will get the welcome they should expect… as for me, I will serve the Lord. God is my Rock!” What happened? He realized his need and got serious with God about seeing that met.

If we take our need for recharge to God, I believe we will start to understand, something will happen, some word of encouragement, some Scripture will grab our attention, something that makes us sit up and take notice and regain the perspective of a child of God. But we shouldn’t leave it there. One final word.

Activation

There was a reason why the battery in my car that day had gone flat. I hardly ever used it. Everything I needed was in town, and the only time I left town was on those occasional Sundays when I needed to travel to a preaching engagement. So sometimes it would sit for weeks at a time in the Car Park or on the road. A car has an alternator, a dynamo that recharges the battery as you are driving along. If the alternator stops functioning the battery will go flat. The best way to prevent a battery from losing its charge is to keep it charged up.

The best way to prevent spiritual passion from sapping out of us is through staying fired up. Regular participation in spiritual things results in a life activated by the Holy Spirit. When we express our faith through regular habits, such as faithful attendance at worship, regular Bible Reading and corporate and private prayer, we have less opportunity to lose our focus.

Do something for someone else. Share your faith. Read a solid Christian book about some area of your faith that perplexes you. Take a greater role in a committee or mission of the church. Volunteer for something you haven’t tried before. Support financially a particular project you have not previously supported. What happens? Activation!

Hear how the Psalmist concludes his struggles. (Psalm 73:28) “But as for me, how good it is to be near God! I have made the Sovereign LORD my shelter, and I will tell everyone about the wonderful things God does”.

We all stumble on our spiritual journeys. But how can we relight the fire?

We acknowledge our need. We are honest with ourselves about our lack of spiritual vitality.
We share the load. We take our life to God, we ask God to renew our perspective, to help us
We Activate. We seek to live in a disciplined and spiritual way that keeps our aim true and our hearts centered in the love of Jesus Christ. To take the Psalmists words ‘We make the sovereign Lord our shelter and tell others about the wonderful things Gods can do!”

May God renew each of our lives today, through Jesus Christ and in the strength of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

JOSEPH THE DREAMER

2011-08-08T07:07:00.000-07:00

Readings: Psalm 105:1-6,16-22, Romans 11:1-2, 29-32, Matthew 14:22-33, Genesis 37:1-4, 12-28
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on August 7th 2011

A printable PDF version can be found here

Back in Joseph’s day, dreams were important. His father Jacob had been one whose life had been changed by that dream of a ladder with angels ascending and descending its rungs. Previously to Jacob’s encounter, Abimelech the King of Gerear (in Genesis 20:30) and also Laban (in Genesis 31:24) had received guidance from God in their dreams.

In Egypt and Mesopotamia the science of dream interpretation was a highly developed skill. An Egyptian papyrus that dates back to 1300 BC arranges dreams and their interpretations according to their symbol and meaning. It suggests that if we dream about a large cat then that is a good omen, for we shall be producing a large harvest. If however we dream of a deep well, that’s bad, for it is a premonition of being sent to jail.

If we happen to dream that we are wearing a pilot’s suit and being chased by a kangaroo through a field of Jello, then it means need to lay off the coffee before we go to bed at night.

Which is a round about way of stressing that there are dreams and there are dreams. Our subconscious likes to sort out the events of the day whilst we sleep. Sometimes, as this rearranging takes place, new insights may indeed come our way. The likelihood is, that whilst all of us dream, most of us will either awake with a confused recollection of our minds midnight ramblings or simply leave those dreams behind in our sleep and never recall them.

This morning we heard of the reaction of Joseph’s brothers to the dreams that he shared with them. At a later time in his life, his dreams would get him out of trouble, but right then, they were about to be his downfall. You have to be careful when it comes to dreams. As I say, there are dreams and there are dreams. The interpretation that you give to your dreams could lead to events that you hadn’t anticipated.

Joseph’s dreams appeared to be a two-edged sword. On the one-hand they did appear to be a communication from God, along the lines of what his father and the likes of Abimelech and Alban had received before him. They were certainly perceived as being enough of a ‘communication from the beyond’ that his brothers took these dreams to be a serious threat to their well-being.

The brothers also recognized that dreams were inseparable from the personality and goals of the dreamer. There was no doubt in the brother’s mind that Joseph, although he is their younger sibling, had it in mind to be the one in charge once their father was no longer around. After all, in his dream, Joseph pictured Jacob, his father, bowing down to him, as well as all of his brothers.

So the stage was set for a major confrontation between Joseph and his brothers. It had been coming for a while. Joseph’s father Jacob could sense it. One of the reasons he sends Joseph to meet his brothers is so that Joseph may make his peace with them. At first, in Shechem, Joseph cannot find them. Then through the help of a stranger he is directed towards Dothan.

I suspect that if he knew what was about to come his way, he would not have searched so hard. The brothers see him strolling towards them in that special coat his father gave him, and there, far from home, see their opportunity to put an end to his scheming and dreaming of domination over them.

For some of the brothers the decision to do away with Joseph had been made a long while back. It was simply a case of waiting for the opportunity. Others of the brothers, in particular Rueben, (who as the eldest would have to explain to the father what had happened to his favorite son), intensely disliked Joseph but felt that just removing him from their circle would be enough; that his death would accomplish no good purpose.

Joseph is set upon, his precious coat is torn into shreds, and he’s thrown into a pit whilst the brothers eat lunch and contemplate what they should do with him. Not a lot of love lost in that family!

Judah (an opportunist if ever there were one) sees the slave traders coming and sees a chance to benefit from Joseph’s misfortunes. Why kill the lad, when they could profit from his betrayal? Such a plan meets with all of the brothers’ approval. Rueben could have the satisfaction of knowing that they hadn’t murdered him, and the rest could be satisfied that Joseph was no longer a threat to their well being. All this and money in the bank!

The dastardly deed is done, and for the rest of the story.... well you know what became of him once he was taken into slavery. In the end he comes out on top. His dreams are fulfilled, but not in the way anybody could have predicted.

What can we learn from this account?

Sometimes life’s biggest setbacks turn out to be life’s great opportunities.

There’s a story about a man who becomes the sole survivor of a shipwreck. Building for himself a small raft he eventually drifts to a desert island. There, in a wonderful Tom Hanks ‘Castaway’ fashion, he builds himself a shelter and survives on the food he had rescued for himself.

A ship appears on the horizon and he hastily builds a signal fire, pours the last remnants of fuel he has upon it, and desperately tries to signal the ship. But all in vain. The ship sails past.

Worse still, he has been a little too generous with the fuel oil. The fire gets out of control. Sparks fly onto the roof of his hut and it is only a matter of time before the little that he owned, the very supplies he treasured for his survival, are being consumed by a raging inferno.

All was lost. Without those essentials he reasoned that he probably couldn’t survive. Suddenly he noticed that the ship, which had earlier passed by, was now heading in his direction. He was soon to be rescued. Once on board he needed to thank the Captain. But he had a question.

“What made you turn around when you had already passed me by?”
“Why” explained the Captain, “we saw that impressive signal fire you made by setting your hut on fire. Good thinking that man!”

The very thing that seemed to seal his doom had turned out to be his deliverance. Was it the same with Joseph? Down in that pit his optimism must have reached an end. As he was dragged away by slave traders, he may well have been thinking that death would have been a kinder fate.

Yet over the period of the next few years Joseph became the means by which his people were saved from starvation and ultimately the nation was delivered from being absorbed into the pagan landscape that surrounded them. Despite the dysfunction in the family, the bad motives and thinly veiled ego’s, the cruelty and the favoritism, through Joseph, new-life came to a people of faith who had lost sight of what faith should be about.

It is hard to see anything good when crisis strikes our lives. We are no different than Joseph. Though it may well be our own fault that we end up in the mess we get into, still we fail to see the hand of God in our misfortunes. Only through the eye of faith can any sense be made of trials and suffering.

That eye of faith may well abandon us at our point of need. Our faith may well simmer or be overcome by the darkness of circumstance. We may well cry out against God or question why God has let us down.

Yet is this not the mystery of the Cross? There were no signs of glory on that dark day when they did away with Jesus Christ. Only pain and death and loss and darkness and grief. There’s a haunting line in Don McLean’s song, “American Pie”; “The Three men I admire most, the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, they caught the last train for the coast, the day the music died”.

Was there ever a day that the music died more than upon than that day at Calvary? Was there ever a darker day than the crucified the One who came to save? Sometimes life’s greatest set-backs turn out to be life’s greatest opportunities.

Our Dreams are not always God’s Dreams

It was not the dream that God planted in Joseph’s life that caused his brothers to hate him. It was his arrogance in response to God’s calling and choosing that angered them. Maybe, if Joseph had the strength of character to see, that God chooses us as servants, not because of who we are, but in spite of who we are, there would have been a different story to tell.

Whilst the Bible speaks of the “Offence of the Cross”, I have a hard time believing that it is our authentic Christian lives, our faithfulness to Christ’s values that offends people. More often than not it is our assumption that when it comes to God, we hold all the high cards that turns people from God rather than towards them.

Like Jacob before him, it is only the grace of God that comes through for Joseph and his family and …his extended family… indeed for the whole nation. It is that same grace that is extended to us at the cross of Jesus Christ. His love is there for those who know they cannot deliver themselves, for those who are prepared to abandon their personal dreams in order dream great things for the kingdom of God.

Joseph will always be known as the dreamer. Yet he had to learn some important lessons about dreams. Learn the difference between his dreams and how God would fulfill God’s purposes. Learn to hold onto faith during times when the dream died. Learn that, at the end of the day, were it not for the Grace of God, there would be no hope in any persons dream.

May God help us dream dreams that guide us in the ways of true life, love and grace.

AMEN!

JACOB'S WRESTLING MATCH

2011-08-01T06:21:00.000-07:00

Reading: Psalm 17:1-7, 15, Romans 9:1-5, Matthew 14:22-33, Genesis 32:22-31
Preached at First Presbyterian Church Baldwin, NY, on July 31st 2011

A PDF printable version can be found here

Are any of you are familiar with the Wrestling programs on Television. The W.W.F. and W.C.W. and all the rest of them. Do you know who the most famous wrestler of all time is? The Rock? Jessie Ventura? Hulk Hogan? None of the above.

The most famous wrestler of all time, the one who has had more written about him, who has had the account of his one and only fight read in places where they have never heard ‘Wrestling Federations; the most influential wrestler of all time was a man called Jacob.

Jacob was born fighting, holding onto his twin Esau’s ankle as he came out of the womb. He fought and won the birthright that should have been his brothers by right. He fought to win the heart of the lady he loved. He was ready to fight Esau again should his twin brother seek to get his birthright back.

That’s how we find him at the beginning of our bible account. Getting ready to meet Esau. Jacob has a large family and many possessions. He splits them into groups so that if they were attacked, not all would be lost. Always the wrestler, he has alternative strategies up his sleeve. “I will win Esau over with gifts, and when I meet him, perhaps he will forgive me!”

As we’ve noted before, Jacob isn’t a particularly ‘godly’ person. Despite his visions of ladders descending from heaven and his life being the recipient of numerous promises and blessings from God, he is constantly maneuvering and manipulating, often without any thought of how his actions may have been hurting others. It’s almost as though God needs to finally get a grip on him and teach him that there was more to life than serving his own desires!

That seems to be exactly what happens. As he seeks to cross the river, Jacob is set upon. His attacker is sometimes described as a man, sometimes as an angel. Some suggest that the figure he wrestled was Jesus. The assailant’s exact identity is unknown. Yet when the bout is over, Jacob recognizes that it had been no normal fight, but that he had been struggling with God. Verse 30: "For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved."

That’s why Jacob is the most famous wrestler of all. He wrestled God and survived to tell the tale! Out of the struggle he gained a new name, Verse 28 tells us "You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed." He was also left with a limp in his walk having suffered a dislocated hip in the fight. Orthodox Jews today still avoid eating the muscle of the thigh, in honor of Jacob’s wrestling match!

Jacob never intended to be a wrestler. Neither do most of us. Even those who enjoy watching bouts on the television would feel very nervous if it was they who were actually in the ring with some big bad bone-crusher! Yet life has a habit of throwing us into the ring, time and time again. A sermon I saw on this passage had for its title; “Life’s a wrestling match”.

Life surely can be that way. A wrestling match. A struggle. A fight. Things come along and get a hold of us. Health problems. Money problems. Family problems. Personal struggles and private battles. Corporate problems and things we face together. It’s not all sweetness and light, is it? There’s so much that could get us down and keep us there if we let it.

Our dilemma is much like Jacob’s, in that some of these struggles are things we have bought upon ourselves. It has been our own selfishness, or unprepared-ness or sometimes just plain stupidity that has got us into a mess. We’d like to have a magic wand to wish it all away, but this isn’t Harry Potter, it’s the real world. Other struggles just seem to come at us from out of nowhere. “Didn’t see that one coming!”

One thing I like about this story is the vagueness of the attackers identity. Could be a man, could be an angel. Could be some manifestation of the pre-incarnate Christ or personification of the Holy Spirit. Could be something as earthly as the river in which Jacob stood, or as heavenly as the river of life that is pictured flowing through heavens garden.

We are not given an exact identification. But we are told that in some mysterious way, God is mixed up with it, involved in it, and a part of it! There are struggles in our lives that we can name and others that we cannot seem to get a handle on. Dare we believe that in the midst of our struggles, God is involved?

Dare we, as did Jacob, get such a grip on our struggles that we have the audacity to pray, “Out of this, there will yet be some blessing, some insight, some treasure that I have yet to glimpse and make my own!” Is it not the case that we learn far more from our struggles than from those times when things are just to easy?

These struggles may indeed leave us limping as we go, yet even that can be a reminder to us that we have wrestled and made it through to the other side. Whilst Jesus Christ promises us that in His name we have the victory, we are never promised that we should travel through the battles without receiving any scars.

I wonder, if through faith, we can see that in the midst of these struggles, we are not alone, but in the same mysterious way as God was mixed up in Jacob’s struggle, God is also there in the midst of our conflicts. Sometimes it can be about conflicts in relationships. Sometimes it can be about getting ourselves to live as God wants us to. Sometimes it can be a conflict going on inside of ourselves. In these different situations the mystery is that we can actually be wrestling with God.

Reflecting on this passage one writer reflects on the journaling that they had started to do at the end of each day.

“Finally I’ve found a space to be alone at the end of a hard day. I’ve just begun to relax when suddenly some monster out of the darkness jumps me and my face is in the mud. I’m pitched into battle with something I cannot see, but which, if I don’t struggle with it, shall be my downfall.

As I grow older, I’m aware that each major struggle I undergo takes on these same familiar characteristics. And so Jacob wrestling with the angel becomes an increasingly poignant metaphor for me. Every personal conflict begins to look like that one, with it’s many forms:
It’s a struggle in the darkness.
It’s a struggle with the unknown.
Jacob wrestles an angel who seems just as afraid as he is.
Jacob wrestles his own fears.
Jacob tries to kill the angel, who’s intent is to bless him.
The angel gently allows Jacob to defeat himself.
Jacob, remembering the consequences of stealing his brothers
blessing, stifles the angels blessing.
Jacob and the angel eventually collapse in exhaustion.
In the light of the morning Jacob discovers, that through wrestling
with God, he has been wrestling also with himself.

Inevitably, such a struggle leaves me wounded and I will limp forever afterward. But it’s not until later that I realize that I wasn’t wrestling with some other creature, but with that which we may call the spiritual, or the holy, or even the divine. And it is then that I realize that I too, have been blessed. The strange thing is that I never really remember who won!”

There’s the strange thing about this wrestling match between Jacob and God. Who won? It would be ludicrous to suggest that God would lose! The intent of the angel is to bless Jacob, to establish him in a new relationship with God. This is a defining moment, marked by Jacob’s name being changed to that of “Israel”, the name eventually adopted by the nation. God’s purposes were achieved. God won!

God won, but Jacob didn’t lose. Jacob won. He gained the blessing. Jacob is listed in the ‘Hall of Faith’ of Hebrews Chapter 11. Despite his many failings, weaknesses and subsequent sorrows, there remained an underpinning of faith that enabled him to rise above his often-misguided actions.

Such a faith does not come without struggle. It would not come to Jacob, which implies that neither will we reach a maturity of faith, without conflict and struggling and wrestling with both the things of God and the circumstances that life brings our way.

There is a line in the Presbyterian Confession of Faith of 1967 that reads, “Life is a gift to be received with gratitude and a task to be pursued with courage”. So, too, is faith. Faith grows and life becomes enriched only as we commit together to worship, work, study and pray. There are no short cuts on the spiritual road God places before us.

There are things in our lives we need to work through with God. There are things God seeks for us to let go of, and we don’t want to. There are things that will come our way that will catch us totally by surprise. They may be pleasant, or they may be harsh.

So take courage. Be empowered by the Holy Spirit. Seek for God’s blessing in the midst of the struggles and refuse to give up till the blessing is yours. May the example of Christ encourage us. May the promises of Scripture inspire us. Let us seek to help each other as we travel along, (or maybe limp along), the road that leads towards better days.

AMEN

Rev Adrian Pratt

JACOB'S WIVES

2011-07-25T09:54:00.000-07:00

Readings: Psalm 128, Romans 8:26-39, Matthew 13:31-33,44-52, Genesis 29:15-28
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on July 24th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

Jacob had a dream about a ladder full of angels. We looked at that last time. But that wasn’t the only dream that Jacob had. He had another one. This one was the kind of dream that a lot of people have had. The kind that has consumed generations before and ever since. He’s in love. His dream girl is called Rachel. Leah, Rachel’s sister was OK, she had nice eyes, but when Jacob thought about Rachel, “Oh mamma, that lady was fine”. He promises himself; “She will be mine!”

In our lives we have dreams and passions. We have dreams for our lives, for our relationships, maybe even for our community or our church. The lesson we learn from Jacob is that seeing our dreams come to something can take a while and we might not always get exactly what we expected.

Firstly, this passage reveals that we are broken vessels that have to live within the consequences of our own shortcomings.
Secondly, that we are surrounded by those who do not share our values and are as equally broken as our selves.
Thirdly, this passage has something overwhelmingly positive to tell us. That whenever love is real, it can change things. God has an unusual way of turning our dreams into His plans!

Firstly this passage reveals our broken lives

Let us remind ourselves of whom Jacob was. This is the mommy’s boy who deceived his visually handicapped father to get an inheritance that should have been his twin brothers. This is the Jacob who was doing all he could to avoid a confrontation with Esau, who had vowed, “If I ever see Jacob again, I’m gonna kill him!”

This is the Jacob who had become aware God was on his case after having a strange dream of a stairway to heaven. Far from comforting him, this dream terrifies him. It makes him rethink his relationship to God and gives him a sense that life may turn out better if he started trying to do things God’s way, instead of listening mostly to his mothers’ advice!

Jacob is no wide eyed innocent enduring his first teenage crush. Life was actually passing him by at speed and it seems relationships weren’t something he had a lot of time for. But then he sets eyes on Rachel and something goes ‘zzzinngg’.

Who can explain that? The mystery of human attraction! Crazy thing is that it doesn’t seem to matter if one is a sinner or a saint, once Cupid fires his arrow people are rendered helpless.

And it looks like things are going to work out. Rachel’s dad, Laban, seems to like Jacob. Because of family connections he takes pity on him and even offers him a job. When the subject of payment comes up Jacob says, “All I want is your daughter Rachel’s hand in marriage”. Laban smiles and it seems like it’s a done deal.

Seven years later it turns sour. Jacob is getting ready for his wedding night. No doubt there was much partying and probably a bit of drinking involved, but the upshot of it all is that when Jacob awakes in the morning, it is not Rachel laying at his side, but her sister, Leah.

Laban has turned out to be snake! He turns out to be as cruel and devious and sly and calculating and shifty and unreliable and untrustworthy and manipulative as … well … he turned out to be as much of a sneak as Jacob himself. They do say ‘what goes around comes around’ and Jacob encounters in Laban somebody who has ‘out-Jacobed Jacob’.

We sometimes think that in life we can escape our shortcomings and that we can gloss over our failures. The scary thing is they can actually confront us in the bad behavior of others who share our faults to such an extent that we finally see what fools we can be! How many times have we said, “There but for the grace of God, go I?” How often do we find that we recoil at others actions, because actually, we have a horrible fear we could have done that ourselves?

We never truly escape our upbringing or the mistakes of the past. They come back and haunt us in the most unlikely of ways. At events like school reunions, you go there recalling the good times, but sometimes memories of the bad times also resurface. ‘I can’t believe we used to call him that’ or “What were we thinking!”

Friends, we are all broken. Paul in the Book of Romans simply says ‘There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:22-23 NIV). Life can, as it did with Jacob, bring along experiences that reveal our broken-ness. That’s not a bad thing. Because oftentimes it’s only when we see where we are going wrong, that we start wanting to put things right!

A second thing revealed in this passage is that we are not the only broken ones.

The actions of those who are broken around us can cause us great pain. Laban hurts not only Jacob, but also Rachel and Leah. Because of the tension he creates between them all, he also will hurt their children. We don’t get to hear the whole story of Jacobs’ interactions with Laban, but I can tell you, things did not improve further down the line.

What we did get to hear in our story was Laban’s lame excuse for marrying Jacob to his older daughter instead of his younger one. He tells Jacob that, ‘Well, it’s just the custom around here. We don’t allow the younger one to get the inheritance before we’ve taken care of the senior child’s needs.’

Was this God’s way of making Jacob understand just what a rotten thing he had done to his brother Esau. Esau, was after all the oldest child who had deserved to be taken care of first, even if he was only older by an arms length! One of the twins had to be born first, and that counted for something back in those days. Once again some kind of negative karma seems to be impacting Jacob and enabling him to see the error of his ways.

We have no control over what others do to us. If folk are mad at us or uncaring towards us or disrespectful of us, then whilst we don’t have to be a doormat and let them walk all over us, we also have to accept that there are some folks we just can’t change. They are, like us, broken. That is not to excuse bad actions or reprehensible behavior, just to say that whilst we don’t have a choice in the way other people act towards us, we always have a choice in the way we respond to them.

In the midst of this crazy story we see a little miracle. Love changes Jacob. When Jacob realized he has been tricked by Laban, the natural ‘Jacob’ reaction would have been for him to totally lose it. To storm off back home to mother, who would create a fuss, and other family would get involved and pretty soon it would be like the set of a Jerry Springer show. Family Feuds part 2!

But what happens in this story? Jacob asks Laban; “What’s going on?” Laban lays it out for him and says if you want Rachel, then you have to work another 7 years. The miracle here is Jacob’s silence. There is no argument. Laban says, fulfill your duties to Leah, then get back to work”. We read “And Jacob did so, and fulfilled her week; and Laban (after 7 years) gave him Rachel his daughter as his wife” (Genesis 29:15-28)

And this moves us quickly to the positive point in this story.

When love is for real, it can change everything

There is, of course more going on here than the fact that Jacob is crazy in love with Rachel. That is a huge part of it, but the other side of it is that Jacob is beginning to realize that the love God has for him requires him to change.

Jacob already knew God was on his case. He had understood that when he experienced the dream of a ladder going up to heaven and was aware that God was covenanting with him to walk with him and lead him in his life. When he met Rachel, he must have thought, “Yes, this could work!”

But Jacob also had to come to a place where he could be confronted by his sins in such a powerful way that he would determine that this time around, things were going to be different. Through the love of a woman and the love of God, change was happening!

We can run from our sins and our failings for a long time. But there needs to come to all of us that day when we realize, we need help. And the only true hope of forgiveness and change is the love of God that we can discover in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Only His life-changing Holy Spirit can take what is broken and make something beautiful out of it!

We are victims of our own actions and we are victims of the actions of others. Jesus Christ went to the Cross, as a victim, to totally identify with our situation. The story did not end in death, but in new life. In the birth of the Church. In the blossoming of hope of in people who recognize their need and encounter God’s love.

We like Jacob, live our lives, may well fall in love and face many strange twists and turns. We will sin and be sinned against. So we can learn from Jacob.

We learn that we are all broken.
We learn that, through the love of God, broken lives can be remade.
We can learn to watch and wait and trust that in God’s time, all things are possible.
And to God’s name be all the glory. Amen.

Rev Adrian Pratt

JACOB”S LADDER

2011-07-18T06:29:00.000-07:00

Reading: Psalm 139:1-12, Romans 8:12-25, Matthew 13: 24-43, Genesis 28: 10-22
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on July 17th 2011

A printable PDF can be found here

Jacob has a dream. A leader reaching down from the clouds towards him. On the ladder, traveling up and down are angels. At the top, God, who identifies himself as the God of Jacob’s father Isaac, and grandfather, Abraham.

In this dream God promises Jacob that the land upon which he was sleeping would be the dwelling place for the numerous descendants who would be Jacob’s heirs. In addition God promises that wherever Jacob goes, God would go with him, never leave him or forsake him and at the last bring him to the land of promise. Jacob is left in total awe. “How dread-full is this place” he declares. “This is the gate of heaven”. He marks the place as sacred and vows to be a servant of God for the rest of his days.

Must have been a vivid dream! I’ve had some strange dreams, even some challenging ones, but nothing quite like Jacob’s ladder. And what does it all mean? To Jacob it is a life-changing encounter with God. But what about us? What can this passage of scripture say to people like us, so far removed from Jacob’s experience?

One thing I believe that it reminds us of is that;

God is a God of Mystery

The satirical movie Dogma has an image of Jesus as sporting a cheesy grin and giving the ‘thumbs up’ to life. This updated icon, known as the “Buddy Christ” is a satirical reflection on the church’s attempt to introduce the deity to a fun loving world.

At times we do indeed portray Jesus as the ‘best buddy we could ever have’ or in such homely, earthly tones that we are in danger of obscuring the fact of His deity. We create a very safe God for ourselves. A God we can define, a God who can be fully known and is in full agreement with our earthly desires.

Such is not the God revealed to us by Jacob. Jacob’s God is one who transcends time and space, a God whom can only be known through what that God chooses to reveal. A God whose holiness is of such magnitude that this God can only be approached through visions and dreams for a face-to-face encounter would surely destroy us.

One author uses the Latin phrase “Mystereum Tremendum”. Another, Rudolf Otto in his book “The idea of the Holy” coins the word “Numinous”, to describe the nature of God. This numinous God of tremendous mystery is known only through revelation. This God drops a ladder down from heaven and sends angels scurrying back and forth to do His bidding.

This God is wholly other than what we are. Rather like a scene in a Sci-Fi movie, this God occasionally creates a portal, a ‘Stargate’ to the other world, the other dimension, where we catch just a glimpse of a greater reality behind the external world of our everyday workaday lives.

As Christians we believe we have a broader picture of God than Jacob, in the life and work of Jesus Christ. However, if we lose the sense that God is ultimately unknowable and the One who remains beyond us and above us, then we are no longer worshipping the God of Scripture, but a deity created within our own imaginations. A God that will be contained by our prejudices, misunderstandings and unbelief.

Those angels going up and down, God working in unseen and scarcely comprehendible ways, a God who remains unpredictable and whose purpose we never can fully fathom… such appears to be a more realistic portrayal of the God of the Bible than the rather lame ‘good buddy Jesus’. Jacob’s ladder reminds us that God is a God of mystery.

Whilst mysterious, that does not equate to unknowable. We can know God through what God chooses to reveal to us. One of the revelations that comes to Jacob is that;

God is a God of Promise

Jacob is given particular promises in relation to his life’s journey. Supreme of these is that promise that wherever he goes and wherever life leads him, God was going to be there for him. In words reminiscent of Jesus’ commission to the disciples on the mountaintop, Jacob receives the assurance; “I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you” (verse 15)

That the unknowable, awesome, almighty God, should promise such a thing to any mortal man or woman took Jacob’s breath away. “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it” (verse 16). The promises of God that come to us are no less awe-inspiring! Think for a moment! Why should God even be bothered with the likes of you and I? What is there about us that is noteworthy to the Divine? Why should God care to be involved in our lives and interested in where we end up?

God has revealed Himself as a Father who cares for His children, as a redeemer who in Jesus Christ seeks to bring restoration and healing and renewal to our lives, and as the Holy Spirit who desires to be in us and around us and working through us the things of God’s Kingdom.

It makes no sense. In our lives we seem to be running from God as much as we run towards God. We know the commandments and seek to find ways around them. We know our inconsistencies and struggles and besetting sins. We know we are not all that we think we are, let alone all that others may be generous enough to think we are.

One of the glories of reformed theology is that it rests heavily upon the concept of the Grace of God. That we are saved, not by our acts of commitment to God, but by God’s promises and acts of commitment towards us. Supreme in those acts of commitment is the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross of Calvary. There is nothing we can do to win the favor of God. We are entirely dependant upon God for our salvation.

Jacob was no saint. He was a smooth talking mothers’ boy who tricked his brother Esau out of a birthright that rightly belonged to the elder brother. In the process he had deceived his own Father, played a trick on that man of honor whilst he in his old age was suffering from the loss of mobility and sight.

If you follow Jacob’s story, his romances, his deals with different families and powers, the times he runs away rather than face consequences, there is a lot about his life that is decidedly unsavory. Were it not for the Grace of God that called him and carried him and forgave him, and refused to let him go, Jacob would have ended his days as a nobody.

The love of God is such that it embraces all of us no-bodies and makes us somebody. Somebody that Jesus cared enough to die for. Somebody whose life can make a difference. A child of God. Unique.

And it’s all because of God’s grace. Acts of commitment come as a response to the love that God is showing us. Praise God! Jesus has secured our salvation! But we must claim it as our own. It’s no good having won a prize if you never claim it! A third thing we see in Jacob’s story is that;

God is a God who inspires our commitment

In response to the promises of God, Jacob makes some promises of his own. Verse 20 :- “If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my fathers house in safety, then the Lord will be my God”.

Can we say something similar in our lives? “You know God, you just keep on loving me, in spite of the mess I make of things, You keep showering down blessings on me and promising to lead me, You sent Jesus to make things so much clearer and deal with the things that could keep us apart. I keep reading in the Bible that there’s even some out of the world positive stuff at the end of the road for those who trust in You… So, Lord, Be my God and help me to be Your sort of person”.

The God of Jacob is a God of mystery. Let us not lose sight of the awesome wonder of the God of Scripture.

The God of Jacob is a God of promise. Let us claim the promises of Jesus for own lives, promises that He will always be with us, will guide us and help us draw others to share in the blessings of His Kingdom.

The God of Jacob is one who inspires our commitment. We love because we are loved. We forgive because we are forgiven. We are recipients of amazing grace!

Rev Adrian Pratt

JACOB AND ESAU

2011-07-11T06:04:00.000-07:00

Reading: Psalm 119:105-112, Romans 7:15-25, Matthew 13:1-23, Genesis 25:19-34
Preached at First Presbyterian Church Baldwin, NY, on July 10th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here.

Jacob and Esau never could get along. Even before they were born they fought for position in Rebekah’s womb. After they were born, things just got worse. As different as chalk and cheese, one favored by mum, the other favored by dad, they were a disaster waiting to happen.

It wasn’t that one was the sinner whilst the other was the saint. They were both equally capable of irresponsible and devious acts, a fact made worse by the fact that in Jacob’s case his mother positively encouraged his wrongdoing. Yet…both were also recipients of God’s blessing, and destined to become the father’s of great nations.

There’s a lot of different ways of looking at this story. On one level it’s about the sort of troubles that can arise in any family. The hierarchy and chain of command amongst older and younger brothers and sisters can be a tremendous source of conflict. It often seems people born into the same families just can’t get along and the passing of years can harden their animosity.

I was reading one commentary on this story that focused on the changes that were to coming in the nation of Israel. It saw Esau as representing the old agricultural ways, his whole personality being associated with the red earth. Jacob on the other hand represented the new economic order that would come into being, a life based around cities and settlements and the opportunities trade would bring.

The central image is that of conflict. There is conflict between Isaac and Rebekah. There is conflict between the lifestyles of Jacob and Esau. There is conflict between the purposes of God and the cultural traditions that society held regarding inheritances.

Even the naming of Jacob is a source of conflict. In Hebrew his name means, “he who grabs by the heel‘ or ‘the one who supplants’. Hebrew names carried with them a sense of character and purpose. Maybe giving a second born twin such a name as ‘Jacob – “the one who is grasping after his brothers rightful dues” was inviting trouble!

Esau, on the other hand, simply had the meaning ‘Red’. That ‘red’ theme reappears a number of times. We’re told he is born ‘red all over, like a hairy garment”. At the end of the story Esau wants the ‘red soup’ so badly that he’s prepared to give up his birthright for it! The red hairy guy loses it all for the sake of a pot of red stuff! Eventually he becomes so red mad in rage that he would happily spill some of Jacobs red blood as an act of revenge, a fact that causes Jacob much to worry about further down the road of his life!

The picture of conflict is everywhere in this story. Conflicting loyalties. Conflicting ideas. Conflicting desires. Conflicting loves. The first signs of conflict appear in the womb of Rebekah. Jacob and Esau were in conflict before they were born!

Scripture suggests that we are all conflicted people. In Paul’s letter to the Roman church, chapter 7, verses 14-19 he speaks of a conflict that, like the fighting twins in Rebekah’s womb, took place deep in his own life.

“For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am of the flesh, sold into slavery under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.”

Quite some conflict going on there with Paul! It’s a conflict that seems to be a fundamental part of his growth towards Christian maturity; that he recognizes that whilst he aspires to great things, his life didn’t always come up with the goods. This tension, between ‘how we feel should be’ and ‘how we actually are’ can be a frustrating inner conflict that, we never seem to master.

It is a conflict that is birthed in us from the moment we arrive on the planet. You see… I reckon that there’s a bit of the Jacob and a bit of the Esau in us all. Both their good points and their bad points!

We are told that Esau was the skillful hunter. He was the outdoor one, ‘the man of the field’. Yet he was also the one driven more by appetite than thought. His desire for ‘the red stuff’ led him to squander his birthrights. He lived only for the day and gave too little thought about the consequences of his actions.

Do we see a bit of Esau in our self? On the positive side, there’s a part of us that just wants to get the practical things done. You’ll work hard to get what you want. You are impatient with those who seem to be ‘all talk, but no action’. But on the negative side, a little voice now again whispers in your ear, “Just satisfy that immediate need you sense, and never mind the consequences!”

What about Jacob? Well he was the thoughtful one. Different translations use such words to describe him as ‘peaceful’, ‘plain’, quiet’ and ‘mild’, all of which are an attempt to translate the Hebrew word ‘tal’, which can mean ‘innocent and upright’. Later in the story he explains that his brother was a “an hairy man” whilst he was “a smooth one”. He’s a planner, which is good, but he’s also a schemer, a smooth talker, prepared to take advantage of others to get what he needs.

Is there something about Jacob in the way we are? We have those reflective moments when all is well with the world. But underneath the surface things are not always so pretty. There are motivations and desires that move us in the wrong direction. There is a devious side to Jacob. The Jacob voice whispers, “Just wait for the right time… and when it comes, forget about what’s right and what’s wrong, the end will justify the means.”

What to do about all this conflict? What happens in their story is this. Humanly speaking they are hopeless. It’s a wonder they never murdered each other. This is not though, simply a human story. It’s an account that speaks to us about the Grace of God. That God could take these two feuding brothers and, despite their animosity, still work towards the founding of Israel, is nothing short of a miracle.

It is in the grace of God that we also should place our hope as we travel through whatever conflicts touch our own lives, be they within us or around us. At the end of the day Jacob and Esau are what they are by the Grace of God. In our lives it can be no different. As I reflect on my own life, it’s fairly obvious to me who has been responsible when things have gone wrong. I take full responsibility for the mess ups!

But those times when things have gone well? I always feel that those times are the result of God’s grace working in my life. Like Paul I’ve often felt like “I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.” Like the fighting twins in Rebekah’s womb, it sometimes seems that that’s the way things have to be. Maybe we should give up on ourselves and just live as we please. Not so!

In verse 24-25 of Romans 7, Paul speaks of his reason for not being frustrated by the conflict his life experienced. “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

“Thanks be to God!” declares Paul. In the midst of this struggle Jesus Christ was working. In the midst of our conflicts, Christ can also do amazing things. The fact that we are in the struggle at all is testimony to the work of the Holy Spirit within and around our lives. If God were not on our case, we wouldn’t be concerned to even make the slightest effort to live in a Christian way.

Because God loves us, because Christ died that we might live, because the Holy Spirit is still the great creative force that enables order to emerge from out of chaos, we can, with Paul, say “Thanks be to God”.

God was at work in the conflicts of Jacob and Esau. So don’t give up on yourself. Don’t give up on others either. Conflict is an inevitable part of discipleship. When Jesus talked about taking up a cross and following Him, He wasn’t just playing with words or using imagery. There will be those times when, because we are human, our actions are more like those of Jacob and Esau, than what we would expect of a disciple of Jesus.

The great news is …God’s Grace is greater than our sin.
Such is a theme reflected time and time again in the bibles story.
It’s there in the conflict of Jacob and Esau. The grace of God brought them through!
There was conflict in the life of Paul. God bought him through.
That Grace is there for us. As we commit our lives to Christ.
In His strength … Through His grace…
Praise God…
We can live through the conflicts of our own lives!
AMEN.

Rev Adrian Pratt

HAGAR AND ISHMAEL

2011-07-05T06:07:00.000-07:00

Reading: Psalm 45:10-17, Romans 7:15-25, Matthew 11:16-19, Genesis 21: 8-21
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on July 3rd, 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here
Not that I’m an avid watcher of them myself, but there are those who find themselves faithful devotees of afternoon soap operas with titles such as “The Bold and the Beautiful” and “Bored and the Braindead”. There have been occasions when I’ve watched an episode, and I’ll be honest, it’s hard to figure out what exactly is going on.

All those relationships and so-and-so having something going on with somebody who is actually somebody elses half sister twice removed and then some dark figure from the past appears and upsets the whole thing… and all this in just the first five minutes.

Yet truth can be stranger than fiction, and our Bible reading this morning gave us a plot just as thick with twists and turns as your average afternoon soap. A tale of family betrayal, jealousy, separation and survival against the odds.

There is Abraham, the man of destiny, but a man who couldn’t always wait for his dreams to be fulfilled and tried to force the issue. There is Hagar, the mother of his firstborn son, Ishmael, a lady scorned by Abraham’s first wife, Sarah. Sarah has become increasingly jealous of Hagar and is fearful that her son, Isaac, will never inherit the promises she hoped would be all his.

And so, at a family celebration that should have been a time of great rejoicing, Abraham is convinced both by his wife and the intervention of God, to send Hagar and Ishmael away. Dispatched into the desert, Hagar struggles to survive, but all is well. Ishmael turns out to also be a child of promise. And in next weeks episode….

Of course it’s not the plot of a soap opera, it’s an account from the Word of God and therefore has a whole lot that it can reveal to us about our lives, as individuals and as a community of faith. It speaks to us and the situations that come our way.

1. Even with the best of intentions things can go terribly wrong.
2. Even with the highest aspirations we still mess up.
3. Although things go wrong and we mess up, God is the Redeemer.

Even with the best of intentions things can go terribly wrong.

As we go through our lives day by day we don’t set out with the intention of making everything go wrong. We don’t get out of bed and think, “Let’s see what we can make a total disaster of this morning”. Oftentimes the worse acts are done with, what seems to their perpetrators, the best intentions.

It was no different with Abraham. Abraham had entered into a covenant relationship with God in which God had promised that Abraham would be the father of a great nation. His wife Sarai was childless and the years were moving along. So, together, Abraham and Sarai agreed that Abraham should take Sarai’s maid, Hagar, as a wife and bear a child for them through her.

When Hagar proved fruitful and became pregnant, Sarai, far from being pleased becomes bitter and treats her unfairly, causing her to run away. After an angelic intervention Hagar decides to return and in due time a son, Ishmael is born. Abraham presumes that Ishmael is to be the child of promise through whom his line would be established.

Not so! The unthinkable happens. Sarai in her old age now becomes with child. This child is to be the one through whom Abraham’s line is established. After Isaac is born, Sarah’s enmity towards Hagar returns and Hagar is forced to separate from them and go her own way.

This wasn’t the first separation amongst Abraham and his kinfolk. He has been having a long running dispute with his nephew Lot. Such was the nature of their disagreement that they mutually agreed to go their separate ways, even though their paths were destined to cross again.

All of which I share with you to point out that in families, even families of faith, things don’t always run smoothly. If you’re looking around this morning at your family or somebody else’s family and you are thinking, “Good Lord, what a mess!” I encourage you to take heart and not to feel that your situation is unique or unforgivable. Families have always been complicated. Don’t beat yourself up over things that seem to be part of the way life is! Which brings us to our second observation.

Even with the highest aspirations we still mess up.

Sarai/Sarah was a woman of tremendous faith. She did indeed turn out to be the mother of all Israel. Yet her relationship with Hagar was disgraceful. She used her. She was abusive towards her. She was jealous of her and eventually got rid of her.

Abraham was without doubt a man of tremendous faith. But he also made some tremendous mistakes, because whilst he trusted God most of the time, there were those other times when he thought he could do a better job than God and tried to sort things out in his own way.

Back in Chapter 12 you can read of how, when Abraham journeyed to Eygpt, he was afraid that the Eygptian’s would find his wife Sarai so attractive that they’d kill him in order to take Sarai as their own. So he pretends Sarai is his sister, not his wife. It turns out that the Pharoah does indeed find her attractive and takes her to his house, rewarding Abraham with servants and material possessions.

Sounded like a good plan, but Abraham lost her in any case, so it backfired. Even worse, God is on the case and Pharoah’s household starts to be subject to all kinds of plagues, and they can’t understand why, until it is discovered that Pharoah’s latest wife wasn’t Abraham’s sister but actually Abraham’s wife. High aspirations, best intentions, but Abraham messed up.

He messed up when he fathered a child through Hagar. Again, that was him trying to take control of a situation God had all figured out. He shouldn’t have listened to Sarai’s idea, he should have kept trusting God, but, no, as we do so often in our lives, it was a case of, “I’m sure God’s Word is right… but I’ll do things my way, thank you very much”.

Was it not Frank Sinatra who had a hit with “I did it my way”? Very commendable, if by doing things ‘our way’ we mean taking responsibility for our own actions. Not so commendable if doing things ‘our way’ means neglecting to seek for our lives to be guided by God and nurtured by God’s Holy Spirit. ‘Our way’ can be the wrong way.

The bible plainly insists that we are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God. Even though we have the highest aspirations, we still mess up. The Bible story also insists that with God there is the hope of redemption.

Although things go wrong and we mess up, God is the Redeemer.

In spite of Abraham and Sarai’s mess ups and moral failings, Abraham did indeed become the father of a geographical nation and a spiritual father to many people of faith. God’s plans were not thwarted by their misunderstanding or disobedience. Maybe things may have taken a different course had their faith expressed itself in different ways, but that’s always going to be one of the “Well we just don’t knows” of history.

Nowhere clearer though in this account is God shown to be the Redeemer than in the situation of Hagar and Ishmael. They are not amongst the chosen people. They were not considered the inheritors of God’s promises by those who thought that God’s ways were something exclusive to them. A child seemingly born in circumstances that were not the will of God. A mother who is little more than a slave at the whim of Sarah’s manipulations. Their fate is uncertain and they languish in the desert, desperate for nourishment.

Hagar cries out to God. God answers. God tells her that she too is a child of promise. That her son Ishmael will also know God’s blessing. That there is room in God’s promises and within God’s covenant for all people of faith. Eventually things work out for Hagar and Ishmael in unexpected ways. Under God’s blessing they prosper.

Life may not have dealt us the best hand. We may well mess up and make wrong decisions that cause our selves and others harm. Our families, our relationships, our homes, may not be the places of refuge and picture of harmony that some would expect of people who know God.

So remember this. God remains the redeemer. God has sent Jesus Christ to be our Savior. Jesus Christ demonstrated through His life and works that every human life is of concern to God, even those lives whom others have little time or respect for. Know yourself loved by God, in spite of the fact that you make a mess of things and so often try and do things your way instead of living God’s way.

God is the Redeemer. Seek then for the Holy Spirit of God to redeem the times of your life. Ask Jesus Christ to help you through whatever the coming week may bring your way. The same God who heard the cry of Hagar and Ishmael knows the needs of our hearts and lives.

Do not then be afraid to commit your life to Him.
Seek the way of the Lord
and live for the service
of Jesus Christ,
to whose name be all
glory
honor
and
power
AMEN

Rev Adrian Pratt

LOOKING AT LIFE THROUGH TRANSITIONAL LENSES

2011-06-20T10:24:00.000-07:00

Readings: Psalm 8, Genesis 1:1-4, Matthew 28:16-20, 2 Corinthians 13:9-13
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, June 19th 2011

A PDF printable file can be downloaded here

I recently acquired some new glasses through which I now view the world. Not only can I better read the small print but these spectacles have lenses that respond to the sunlight. When the sun shines on them they magically become tinted so as to save me from squinting. Automatic sunglasses. ‘Cool’ I thought. Until one lady said, “Yes, a lot of old people enjoy them”. There’s always somebody who has to burst your bubble! Never mind. I am now looking at life through transitional lenses!

Our Scripture reading came from Paul’s closing words of the second letter to the Church in Corinth. The Church in Corinth were a people whose lives were changing and had become a church in transition. In an attempt to sum up all he had said to them Paul offers these words (and I share from the Message Bible) “That’s about it, friends. Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep your spirits up. Think in harmony. Be agreeable. Do all that, and the God of love and peace will be with you for sure” (2 Corinthians:13:11)

As a church here in Baldwin we are in a time of transition. A particular challenge we face is our Sunday School program. As a congregation we are committed to raising our children in the faith of the gospel. Some folk have been faithfully teaching over many years but can no longer continue. Others are moving away. Others are over-stretched and can’t commit for the coming year. As a result we need new people to step up to the plate in order to have a strong Sunday School program for the Fall.

I would encourage you to consider how God may be calling you to respond to this need we have. I’m not sure how it’s all going to work out, as right now we don’t have a plan. But I am sure God has a way for us to proceed and that as we commit to following God’s way then things will fall into place. I believe God is faithful. I worry about some of God’s people from time to time, but then so did Paul, which is why he kept writing letters and visiting them and encouraging them.

The Church in Corinth was, as I said, going through a time of transition. What did Paul offer them? Firstly he encouraged them to be cheerful. Let’s be honest, whatever lens you look at life through things can look bleak. And there is no shortage of folk to tell you that it’s only going to get worse. Some people always have room for doom and gloom. That’s true about life in the world. It also applies to the life of the church.

The thing is that the voice we are called to listen to is not that of the unfaithful gloom merchants, but the quiet, renewing voice of God’s Holy Spirit. The action of God’s Spirit is the one that brings joy to bear even in the midst of complex problems with uncertain outcomes. “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice!” wrote Paul to a struggling church in Phillipi. (Philippians 4:4)

So friends, I invite you to be of good cheer. Not because everything is right with the world, but because you are a child of God, much loved, much privileged, full of potential and destined for glory. Don’t allow anything to drain the joy out of you! Be cheerful.

Secondly, Paul encouraged the Corinthians to “Keep things in good repair and keep your spirits up” (or as our Bible reading from the NIV had it “aim for perfection”). We are blessed in this church with a great heritage. Folk from this church have taught the faith to others, impacted the community with good works and gifted us with a wonderful facility in which we continue to proclaim the blessings of God.

Let us set our standards high. Let us not only build on what we have received, but take it up a notch so that generations to come may also receive a godly heritage. Those who aim at nothing always achieve it. God invites us to aim high! ‘Keep your spirits up!” Again there are voices around us, like the lady who informed me transitional lens were a sign of my age, who pour cold water on our dreams and make light of our vision. But, again, we choose in what we invest our time and how to use our talents and treasures in the service of God. Let us make the right choices.

Thirdly, Paul encourages the Corinthians to “Think in harmony”. The Greek word used here is “Phroneo” which is a difficult word to translate into English as it has a variety of meanings. It can mean, “Be of one mind”. But it can also mean, “Do not let your opinion of yourself exceed the bounds of modesty”. Putting those together Paul is saying that in order to travel through times of transition everybody has to pull together. No one person can do it all. Every person’s contribution has significance.

It’s always a problem in church life to figure out where you fit in. The best way to work that out is just be yourself, and offer your life to God to serve in whatever way God thinks is best … and then let God take care of it. The Holy Spirit has a wonderful way of fitting things together in the most unique ways. I wish I could explain that in a precise way, but all I can do is encourage you to be sensitive to the gentle prodding of God and launch out in faith when you feel there is a need you can respond to!

When we open our hymnbook we see a piece of music in front of us. We see the words, but they need the melody. We see the melody, but then there are those other parts that fill it all out. And then there’s the accompaniment. And to have accompaniment we need the instrument. And somewhere along the way of course there had to be a poet who came up with the words and a composer who came up with the tune, not to mention a publisher who printed the hymnbook. Takes a lot of different people to sing a hymn in church. Likewise to run a Sunday School, or seek the best in any area of church life, we have to as Paul says, “Think in harmony”

Finally, Paul encourages the Corinthians to “Be agreeable”. Friends, although I’ve only been here a short while I know there are things we agree on. We agree that we want to see this church flourish and grow. We agree that we want to see our children nurtured in the faith of the gospel. There are other areas we need to agree on.

That what we do here on a Sunday and throughout the week has great significance and is more important than we dare imagine. That the world needs a Savior and that Jesus Christ is still calling people to be disciples. That the love of God is the ultimate framework in which we can live and move and have our being. That all is not right with the world, but in Jesus Christ hope can be reborn and real change can take place.

I encourage you today to look at life through the transitional lens of God’s love. To be cheerful, and not allow the doom and gloom merchants to steal away your joy. To “Keep things in good repair and keep your spirits up”, in other words to invest your time, talents and treasures in things that matter so your life has purpose and meaning. To think in harmony, that is see that everybody has a role to play in creating a church community that is faithful and able to do all the things that God calls them to. To be agreeable, to agree that what we are doing here at 717 St Luke’s Place is no little thing, but a great endeavor that invites our greatest passion, commitment and service.

If we do so … then we can also claim Paul’s final words in verse 13 as our own. “Do all that, and the God of love and peace will be with you for sure”

For sure! Did you catch that last little nuance? For sure! Be of good cheer. Aim for perfection. Be of one mind. Be at peace. In such ways we discover the love of God truly is amazing! Again I encourage us to see all things through the transitional lens of God’s love. “And the God of love and peace will be with you.”

To God’s name be the glory. Amen.

Rev Adrian J Pratt

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Y’ALL

2011-06-13T06:27:00.000-07:00

Readings: Psalm 104:24-34, 35b, 1 Corinthians 12:3b-13, John 7:37-39, Acts 2:1-17
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, June 12th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy birthday. "But it's not my birthday today!" Maybe not, but today is the birthday of the Church and you are the Church, the people of God, called to be God's servants and witnesses to the whole wide world.

The day of Pentecost, Whit Sunday, is the day that many traditions look back to the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples in Jerusalem, an event foretold by the prophets, promised by Jesus and that filled the disciples with a new sense of power and boldness to accomplish the things that God was calling them to do.

There are three great celebrations in the Christian Year. Christmas, well we know about that. Easter, we have just celebrated; yet in an increasingly secular society, the message of the cross and resurrection is often lost in the midst of Easter bunnies and Spring Break. However Pentecost is the churches almost forgotten festival.

Pentecost means "The Fiftieth", so called because it fell on the fiftieth day, a week of weeks, after the Passover (or for the church a week of weeks after Easter). For the Jews it was a dual celebration. It had a historical significance for it commemorated the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinia. It had a religious significance in that it was the day that thanksgiving offerings were offered to God for the blessings of the Harvest.

The coming of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples gave the celebration a deeper meaning for Christianity. As the Hebrews celebrated the completion of the law giving and the start of the old covenant of law, so Christians celebrate the completion of Christ's earthly ministry and the beginning of the New Covenant of Grace. As the Hebrews celebrated the Harvest, so the Church celebrates the spiritual harvest that the Holy Spirit brings to people’s lives.

Before the Jerusalem Pentecost, Christianity consisted of a very small group of disciples who had personally witnessed the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ. They had soaked up His teaching and been transformed by His works and words, but they didn't know what they were supposed to do with all that experiences, except their Master had told them to wait and pray in Jerusalem.

On the day of the Jerusalem Pentecost, the disciples became witnesses. Peter became a preacher. Many people believed the disciples message and the Church was born. So… happy birthday y’all. It all started in that place of waiting and prayer during the Jewish festival of Pentecost. It all started when the Holy Spirit of God came upon the disciples in a new and vibrant way, with the sound of a mighty rushing wind and the sign of tongues of fire and they were filled with spiritual energy and power.

On this birthday morning I'd like to reflect on the sort of people the disciples were who gave birth to the church. My hope in so doing is that the Holy Spirit can weave into our lives the grace necessary for us to be faithful.

Firstly, the disciples were ... A people of promise

From before He even called the disciples Jesus had recognized that they were people of great potential. What the world saw was a rag-tailed gang of fishermen, laborers, clerks and hangers on who were so insecure in themselves that they left everything to follow a local carpenter with delusions of being the savior of the world.

What the world sees is not how God sees things. By the grace of God those disciples were transformed. By the grace of God the deluded carpenter turned out to be the bearer of light, truth and all that God had promised since before the foundation of the world; the Word of life in whom all creation could find meaning.

We all have a choice. To see things as the world sees them or as God sees them. We can look at our own lives the way the world does or we can see them the way God does. People will tell us all sorts of things about ourselves. They will enclose us behind all sorts of barriers.

"You can't do that. You could never manage that. You aren't capable. You’re not that sort of person. We tried that and it didn't work. We don't do things that way around here. You don't understand. You’re not listening. Stay where you belong. Do as you are told. Don't think that you are anybody ".

They were the sort of things that people said about Jesus. They are the sort of things people say about the church today. "Happy Birthday, ya bunch of losers". That's the way the world looks at the church. Are we going to listen to that? Or do we hear the voice of a God who sees in us so much more than we dare dream?

What kept the disciples from being people of unrealized potential was that they became people of promise. We are all people of potential and as we listen to God we become inheritors of promise.

In John 7, during a previous Pentecost celebration, Jesus said, “He who believes in me, as the Scripture said, “From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water”. John explains, “This He spoke about the Spirit whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given.”

The Spirits coming was the fulfillment of a promise. There are many promises in Scripture, The promises are there to unlock our faith. They are things to believe upon, to act upon. They are things to help us realize our potential.

They are gifts of grace for our life. Miss out on them and we miss out on things God has for us. How sad it would be to have birthday presents you never get around to opening because you were to busy with other things.

The disciples were also... A people of prayer

In the Pentecost room the disciples weren’t just hanging out with no particular place to go. It wasn’t the dentists waiting room. They weren’t idly perusing back copies of the Readers Digest looking for some inspirational morsel that would take their mind off their coming examination.

These people were pumped up, excited, and expectant. Jesus had promised that if they waited in Jerusalem something good would happen. They had seen Him crucified then risen again. He had been coming and going, spending time with them, teaching them things that their minds could never have grasped before the resurrection. They had witnessed His Ascension and must have been wondering, well, what next? How much more awesome can things become?

Imagine the difference it would make to our services if every time we entered this sanctuary we were pumped up ready to meet with God? I’m reminded of those weightlifter characters from Saturday Night Live. “We are here to pump you up”

“We have been praying this morning and God has said He will meet with us in our service of Worship. We will hear God’s Words in the Scriptures and the Musik, God will speak to us through the preacher and through the prayers. And when we leave we will be ready to take on what ever the devil throws at us.”

The disciples weren’t weight lifters. They were wrestlers. They wrestled with God in prayer and by grace became empowered, not with muscle power, but Holy Ghost power. We need to be a people of prayer, to claim the promises of God and realize the potential God sees within us. In doing so we will discover another characteristic of the disciples.

The disciples were..... A people of praise.

What drew the people to marvel at the disciples on the day of the Jerusalem Pentecost was the way they were praising God. It didn’t matter where all the onlookers came from, when the Spirit fell, they all heard the good news in their own languages, they all heard those disciples praising God for what was happening to them.

It would be easy to get bogged down in theological debate, about speaking in tongues, and the significance of wind and fire and living water and a whole lot of other things in the second Chapter of Acts. Do that and we miss the point that praise in a universal language.

If your heart is lifted up to God.
If you believe on His promises...
If you build your life on His Word..
If you prayerfully live out your days..
then praise just bubbles out.

An exuberant British evangelist by the name of Ishmael had a little chorus that said:

“It’s amazing what Praisin’ can do,
It’s amazing what Praisin’ can do,
If you should doubt it
You should learn to shout
It’s amazing what Praisin’ can do”

It is the work of the Holy Spirit to turn dead end lives that can be self focused and full of ungodly troubles into eternity bound, Jesus focused, Spirit filled, God honoring, Grace empowered, experiences of the awesome love of a Creator God.

In a nutshell that’s what Pentecost is all about. The power of the Holy Spirit to take prayerful lives and turn them into something powerful for God. Good News in a world full of bad news. Seems to me that is something worth celebrating.

So “Happy Birthday y’all.”
As disciples of Christ may we seek to be filled,
with the power of the Holy Spirit,
that God’s church may continue to grow!

Rev. Adrian J. Pratt

The Faith of Stephen

2011-05-23T06:09:00.000-07:00

Readings: Psalm 31:1-16, 1 Peter 2:2-10, John 14:1-14, Acts 7:55-60
Preached at First Presbyterian Church of Baldwin, NY, May 22nd 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here.

Christian history gives us many examples of people whose faith stood firm when under threat. The great, great, granddaddy of them all is Stephen whose martyrdom was the subject of our Bible reading.

Today we have baptized a little one into the faith. These are challenging days for the traditional church. Many congregations are shrinking, some churches even closing. Others are just hanging in there. As we look ten, twenty, thirty, forty years down the road, it remains unclear exactly what the role of the church as we know it will be in people’s lives.

We have promised together this morning, parents, family and congregation to raise our children in the way of Jesus Christ. Are there lessons we can learn from the faith of Stephen that can help us pursue that journey?

A little about Stephen. Stephen never set out to be a great example of faith. He was somebody who became involved in the earliest Christian community attracted by their desire to help others. When the apostles were looking for someone to offer practical help caring for widows and orphans and ensuring jobs that needed doing were taken care of, Stephen was there. They made him a deacon in the church. As he was going about helping others he was challenged to explain what he was doing and why. Stephen became increasingly articulate and able to account for what he believed.

Because of his testimony to Jesus Christ he ran into trouble with the Sanhedrin, a body of religious people opposed to the message of Christianity. Put on trial before them he gives a long speech about the history of their faith, from Abraham, through Joseph and Moses all the way to Solomon who built the temple. He points out how every step of the way people opposed the work of God and even put to death some of the prophets.

His speech reaches a major point of confrontation when he speaks about Jesus, telling the Sanhedrin; “Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—“ (Act 7:52 NIV). It is at that point the Sanhedrin loses control and the trial turns into a lynching. They put him to death by stoning him. It is during this terrible ordeal that the faith of Stephen is truly revealed.

The first thing we see about Stephen’s faith is the Secret of his courage.

Stephen was aware that things were turning nasty. The trial he was being subjected to was based upon trumped up charges that he was part of a plot to overthrow the temple and destroy the way of life the good folk of the Sanhedrin had practiced for centuries. It was a double whammy of heresy and terrorism!

But Stephen has his eyes set on a higher prize. Stephen’s focus when he offered to serve as a deacon was the love of Jesus Christ. As he realized that Christ had died for him, he sought to live for others. As he experienced the Holy Spirit empowering him for service he knew that the living Christ was with him.

Jesus taught that whatever we do for those less fortunate than ourselves was service we were giving to Him. That as we sought to be His hands reaching out to serve others and His feet carrying the message of His resurrection to the world, then we would know His presence with us. Stephen kept his eyes on Jesus and kept in step with the things the Holy Spirit was seeking to do through his life.

Even as he faces death he lifts up his eyes and declares to his persecutors “Don’t you see Him?” As our text has it; “Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

Stephen had that wonderful ability of being able to look beyond the current circumstances, however bleak they had become, and see glimpses of glory. We could call that ‘seeing the bigger picture’ but it’s something more than that. He saw a need as an opportunity to serve. He saw a trial as an opportunity to testify to faith in Jesus Christ. He saw his death as a doorway into the nearer presence of God. Jesus Christ truly was the focus of his life.

A second thing we see in Stephen is the Selflessness of his prayer

We read in verses 59-60 “While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he fell on his knees and cried out, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." “

Robert W. Wall in the ‘New International Bible Commentary’ writes; “The most compelling evidence of the depth of Stephen’s spiritual life is the content of his prayers. Similar to Jesus’ dying words, Stephen prays for the forgiveness of his enemies at the very moment of their apparent triumph over him and his witness. He does not ridicule his executioners, nor does he express regret for his untimely death. He prays for their salvation: It is what and for whom he prays, and not that he prays, that gives his death its most profound meaning.”

Stephen hadn’t minced his words. He had accused the Sanhedrin of being one of the agents responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Yet all the time he is praying for them that they will see the error of their ways and come to the knowledge of the love of Jesus Christ that had so captivated his own heart. Jesus taught His disciples to love their enemies. Here was Stephen trying to put that into practice.

It is never easy to forgive those who have wronged us. We tend to hold grudges and hope, if not for revenge, that at least some negative karma will kick in and that those who hurt us will get what we think they deserve. How startlingly different is the way of Stephen. Even as the stones pound his body he prays for his executioners forgiveness.

We live today in a world that seems obsessed with vengeance and revenge. On an international scale down to the actions of individuals it seems it’s justifiable to hit back as hard as we can. As long as we continue to ride that hate train, so the violence continues to escalate. Only forgiveness and love can break that circle. Only when we stop looking for people to blame can we start rebuilding hope.

Our churches have a tremendous role to play in offering the forgiving love of Jesus Christ to others. In proclaiming that with God there is forgiveness and acceptance for all because Jesus Christ died for all, as He prayed “Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing”

The death of Stephen had an impact. Particularly upon one hate-filled zealot who held the coats whilst others threw the stones. We read in verse 58 “The witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul.”

A third thing we see about Stephen is the Strength of his witness.

This Saul who held the coats was to become Paul the great apostle to the Gentiles whose letters and theology are such an important part of the New Testament writings. St. Augustine, a great Christian writer of a later generation, tells us that “The church owes Paul to the prayers of Stephen.”

Later in the Book of Acts when Paul is giving testimony before a hostile crowd in Jerusalem he prays to Jesus, “When the blood of Your martyr Stephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and guarding the clothes of those who were killing him.” (Act 22:20 NIV). The strength of Stephen’s witness had left its mark.

We can not easily measure the results of faithfulness to God. The impact of our witness on others cannot be predicted. We are often faced with apparent failure. Being stoned for his faith wasn’t exactly what we’d call a high point in Stephen’s career! Looked at in any other way than through the lens of faith, it appears a pointless and tragic end to a life full of great promise.

The testimony of Scripture appears to be that God has a habit of turning places of hopelessness into places filled with possibility. A Cross of suffering and death became bathed in the light of Resurrection and Ascension. Disciples in an upper room cowering away in fear of the authorities were set aflame by the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost and openly began declaring the Good News of Jesus Christ. Saul, the great persecutor of the faith, is blinded by the light in the midst of his hatred, becomes a great spokesperson and interpreter of the faith.

Today we have baptized a new life into our fellowship. None of us can say what the future holds for any of us. But we can take encouragement and find direction from those like Stephen who were shining examples of what real discipleship looks like.

We saw the secret of his courage. Stephen looked beyond the immediate crisis and saw the glory and victory of Jesus Christ over all things. His focus was clear and true.

We saw the selflessness of his prayer. Stephens heart desire was to serve. He began as a deacon. He prayed for those he served. He prayed for those who persecuted him. So we are called to pray for each other. When we get along, but especially when we don’t. We are called to be forgiving of others because we are forgiven by God, in and through Jesus Christ.

We saw the strength of his witness. It turned people’s lives around. People like Saul who became the apostle Paul. We have no idea of the impact a faithful life can make upon others. But we can seek to be faithful!

No, these are not easy days for people of faith. Take courage from Stephen. Look to the glory of God for your inspiration. When others hurt you take no revenge but seek forgiveness and break that viscous cycle of recrimination. Be faithful not because you can see the results but because you know that’s how a person of God is meant to live!

And to God’s name be the glory. Amen.

Rev Adrian J. Pratt

TARTAN SUNDAY : CELEBRATING OUR HERITAGE

2011-05-16T06:12:00.000-07:00

" Presidents, Movie stars, Astronauts and I"
Readings: Psalm 32: 1-5, Hebrews 12:1-2, Matthew 4:1-11
Preached at First Presbyterian Church of Baldwin, NY, May 15th 2011

A printable PDF copy of this sermon can be found here.

For Tartan Sunday this year our readings focus on the account of the Temptation of Jesus in the Wilderness. The temptations that came to Jesus were devilish intents designed to make Him forget who He was, abandon His purpose, and declare Himself accountable to only Himself. A temptation for all church communities is to forget their roots, to lose their purpose and forget that they are not individual Kingdoms but part of the larger body of Christ.

In the first temptation, ‘Turn the Stones into Bread’ Jesus is faced with an urgent need; the most basic need of food. How easy it is in the face of pressing needs to want that which provides a quick solution at any cost.

The point that Jesus makes is that we can't live just by bread alone, we need something more. We need the Word, we need to know and hear that God is living and active in our lives and our world. Yes, there needs to be bread, but there also needs to be stones. Stones are for making roadways not feeding stomachs. Foundations can not be made out of bread.

There have always been congregations who prefer to separate from their roots, and cut themselves off from denominational ties. I am glad that this church is not some independent body that feels it has no need of any other part of the body of Christ. I rejoice that we do not put a message out to the world that we and only we have a monopoly on the truth. I celebrate that we are part of something larger than a church building at 717 St Luke’s Place, Baldwin.

I rejoice that there is a Presbytery of Long Island and a Presbyterian Church of the USA and a worldwide community of Presbyterian and Reformed churches. I rejoice that wherever I go in the world there are those who will identify me as their brother in Christ. I rejoice because if that were not so, I would not be here.

Celebrate the Stones. Celebrate the Rock of your Heritage. Celebrate the family God has called you to be part of. Yes we need our daily bread, but we also need the stones, representing something solid that has stood the test of time. We need stones and we need bread. We don't need to turn one into the other.

The second temptation Jesus faced was to ‘Throw Himself from the temple roof’, so as to demonstrate that those words in Scripture about God taking care of His chosen one would come to pass.

It would be quite a gimmick wouldn't it, to put an advert in the newspaper, "Come and see Pastor Adrian fly. Next Sunday he will be climbing the tower. At 10:15 he will launch out into the air, do a double back-flip, and return to the ground unharmed. See the angels descend from heaven and bear him up on their wings - Just as Scripture says - Come witness this amazing miracle - founded on the Word of Almighty God."

That would be the morning that an ambulance arrived and took me away in a straight jacket. I know I do some unusual things on occasions, but there's a difference between crazy and stupid.

"You shall not put the Lord your God to the test" counteracts Jesus to the devilish twisting of the Scriptures words. The tempter knew that there was a power in the Scriptures words. He sought to use those words for his own ends, as many do.

Our heritage calls us not to put the Lord to the test by foolish actions that would jeopardize our past. Our heritage reminds us that there is a difference between launching out in faith and jumping off the church roof.

Today we celebrate our Scottish roots. We celebrate those who in Scotland refused to compromise what they held most dear and turned a nation to embrace the Presbyterian faith. We celebrate the message that still comes to us through their confessions. We celebrate those who launched out in faith to bring that faith to a New World.

The Scots Confession insists that the marks of a true church are its faithfulness to scripture, its nurture by the sacraments and discipline in both its private and public life. On the solid rock of such teaching we continue to build.

Losing your heritage can be an expensive mistake. I heard recently of a man who on a trip to Scotland visited a Castle which bore his families name. Near the castle's entrance a woman was taking tickets. The man jokingly told her that he had come from the United States to claim his castle. "Oh, good!" she replied. "You owe us nine hundred years in back taxes."

Heritage matters. It’s something that is priceless, that can’t be replaced. We all need a sense of where we have come from in order to see where we are going. We need to be informed by the past to guide our decisions in the future, that we may be prevented from taking foolhardy actions that would dishonor those who came before us.

Then there’s the third temptation. Satan tempts Jesus by offering all the world to Him. "All these things will I give You, if You fall down and worship me." Jesus is not moved. He counteracts the devilish lie with a simple statement, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.'”

That too is our heritage. That too is our calling. Our Christian past has been formed by those who took that command with utmost seriousness, those who refused to bow down to the gods of their day but sought to live out their convictions with integrity and action.

In February 1549, Reformer John Knox, the man who would eventually become the great architect of Scottish Presbyterianism, spent 19 months as a slave on a French ship. Along with other prisoners he was chained to a bench and rowed throughout the day while an officer watched over them with a whip in hand. His French overseers also sought to re-convert him to the Catholic faith he had strongly rejected.

He tells of an incident on board when a picture of the virgin Mary was placed in front of a Scotsman on the ship (most probably himself) and was commanded to kiss the image, as a sign of worship. He refused and threw it into the sea, saying, "Let our Lady now save herself: she is light enough: let her learn to swim." Scripture says “You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.” After that, according to Knox, the Scottish prisoners were no longer forced to perform such devotions.

One could give many other examples of those who struggled to establish the Presbyterian faith in the midst of hostile circumstances. That is not to say they never made mistakes nor demonstrated all the signs of fallen humanity that are common to all of us, but rather to suggest to you that as Presbyterians we are in the company of many who have made their mark on history.

Presidents Andrew Jackson, James Buchanan, Rutherford B Hayes, Grover Cleveland, Benjamin Harris, Woodrow Wilson, Dwight Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan were Presbyterians. In 1963 Presbyterian Eugene Carson Blake was one of the speakers alongside Martin Luther King that addressed the crowd of 200,000 who marched in Washington. Presbyterian Condoleezza Rice served as Secretary of State from 2005–2009.

Presbyterians Mark Twain and William Faulkner had a huge influence on American literature. Presbyterian author Pearl Buck’s novel ‘The Good Earth’ won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938, she became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. Presbyterian DeWitt Wallace founded the “Readers Digest”. Presbyterian Henry Luce founded “Time” magazine.

One of my favorite movies of all time, “It’s a wonderful life’ starred a Presbyterian actor, Jimmy Stewart. John Wayne, Richard Burton, Greer Garson, Shirley Temple and Debbie Reynolds also claimed Presbyterian roots. Many of you (or at least your children) grew up being heavily influenced by an ordained Presbyterian minister, called Mr. Rogers, whose neighborhood still has a place on P.B.S.

In 1962 Presbyterian John Glenn took his first trip orbiting the earth. In 1983 Presbyterian Sally Ride became the first American woman in space as a crew member on Space Shuttle Challenger. Presbyterian Ralph Winter was the movie producer of Science Fiction classics such as Fantastic Four, X-Men, and the Star Trek series of films.

Of course I’m name dropping! But there’s a time and a place to hold your head up high and recognize that you belong to a body of faithful people that continue to shape the world. That alone gives a good reason to celebrate our Heritage on Tartan Sunday. There is, after all, nothing wrong being in the company of astronauts, movie stars and presidents.

Yet the real strength of Presbyterianism, as it is with any other tradition, lies not with how many of the influential or praiseworthy one can name, but how real in our own lives is worship of the Lord our God and service of Jesus Christ. Such devotion transcends any denominational barriers and unites us to faithful people of all places and all traditions.

Whilst history connects us with those who have gone before and helps us sort out what we need to keep and what we need to let go of, we also have to consider what legacy we are leaving to those who will come after us. My prayer is that we will be faithful, as those who came before us were faithful. That our faith will be something living and vibrant that calls others to share in the love of Jesus Christ.

Rev. Adrian J Pratt

A NEW COMMANDMENT

2011-05-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

Reading: Acts 9:1-6, (7-20), Psalm 139:1-14, Revelation 5:11-14, John 13:31-35
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on May 8th 2011

A printable PDF copy can be found here

Today is Mother's Day. Seemed like a good day for thinking about the nature of the most mysterious gift life offers to us, the one that many of us first experienced through our parents, the gift of love.

Our reading today gave us these words; Jesus says "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

This verse places before us three ideas about love.

Firstly; Loving each other is always new!

Inviting people to love one another really wasn’t a particularly revolutionary or even a new idea. Yet it seems every generation has a moment when they rediscover love. From the flower power hippies of the nineteen-sixties to the tunes playing in our teen’s headsets, words about love flow back and forth. But the love that Jesus speaks of is neither the romantic love of attraction or even the affectionate love shared in family life, but love defined by the Greek word – agapé.

‘Agapé’ love is love defined by self-giving. It is an action, not an emotion. You can’t dictate emotions. You only command actions. You cannot force a family to get along with one another. You cannot instruct a person to fall head over heels in romantic love with somebody else. Those sorts of love don’t work like that!

The new commandment of Jesus is not an invitation to wax lyrical about moonlight encounters or family life but is a call to action. That to be followers of Jesus Christ we are invited to choose to live in a way that counts others needs and aspirations as equally significant as our own. Love that is not all about us, but about all of us.

Many of us have seen a glimpse of the ‘agapé’ kind of love in our mothers (and fathers) or whoever brought us up. In retrospect we see how they sacrificed so that their children could have greater opportunities then they themselves ever enjoyed. As I think about the difficult times my own parents faced, particularly during the conflict of the second world war and the bleak years that came afterwards, I realize how much they sacrificed so that myself and my brother and sister could do things my parents could only dream of.

Jesus says, ‘A new commandment’ I give to you. But it wasn’t so much ‘new’ as ‘renewed’ and ‘refocused’. The Israelites had always been taught that to love God was of utmost importance. Likewise, the love of their neighbor was at the root of their system of both law and religion.

Jesus recasts the command, as though this were the latest edition or newest release and He declares ‘A new commandment I give you. That you love one another”. Self-giving love is always renewing love. Active ‘agapé’ love is a force that revitalizes and changes and creates new opportunity and new hope where previously there was hopelessness or despair.

As though anticipating that we will ask, “Well what does this kind of love look like? How can we follow this command to love when we have no example to follow?” the next part of our verses declares; ‘Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.’

2 We are called to love because we are loved

Christian love is response to the love of Jesus Christ. It is not love that seeks to gain anything or win any favor from God, but love that flows from the knowledge of what God has done for us, in and through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. God does not say, “If you just love me enough, I’ll bless your life”. Rather, through Jesus Christ, God declares “You are loved! You are blessed! You are my precious children!”

One of the most profound descriptions of the Christian understanding of God is given in 1 John 4:8. Three simple words. ‘God is love’. And the word used for ‘love’ is again “Agapé” self-giving, outpouring, love. Love that seeks the absolute best of the other. Love that never gives up or ever dies.

One of my favorite Bible commentators of old, Matthew Henry comments; ‘God is the fountain, author, parent, and commander of love; it is the sum of God’s law and gospel: And every one that loves… is born of God, The Spirit of God is the Spirit of love.”

Knowing that we are loved is such a tremendously empowering and freeing thing! Understanding that the love of God is nothing that we have to earn or qualify for but that it is the nature of God to claim us as God’s own, no matter what and no matter ‘who’, can revolutionize our spiritual life.

Some of us were blessed with mothers whom we knew just loved us because we were their children, because we were their offspring, their labor of love! And nothing could change that, even though we knew, at times, we must have nearly broken their hearts and caused them many sleepless nights and many prayers. They just carried on loving us and caring for us and wanting the best for us!

Such is the nature of love that God has towards us. Never gives up on us. Claims us as beloved children. Not because of who we are, but because God is ‘agapé’; God is self giving, self-abandoning love.

Lest we wonder how far that love is prepared to go, we need look no further than the Cross. At the Cross, God declares that whatever God-forsaken experience life may drag us through, God will go there for us and with us.

In Christ God takes our sins, our pains, our fears, all the hell of life, into His heart. Then through the light of resurrection God bathes the Cross in glory and declares, ‘See? Nothing can you take you from my love. Now go change the world!

Which brings us to the final part of this verse “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

3 Love is our primary way of demonstrating discipleship.

One of the joys for myself of belonging to the Long Island Presbytery is a small but committed book study group that meet occasionally to study together a book by author Brian Mclaren titled ‘A New Kind of Christianity’. In a chapter titled ‘What do we do about the church?” he ask what the churches main task should be and comes to a very basic conclusion.

He writes, “Of many possible answers, there is one to which I am continually drawn, embarrassingly obvious and simple to understand, but also embarrassingly challenging to do; the church exists to form Christlike people, people of Christlike love. It exists to save them from the great danger of wasting their lives, becoming something less than and other than they were intended to be, gaining the world but losing their souls.”

The purpose of the church is not to fill pews, create programs or moderate in matters or morality but to nurture lovers! Lovers who have the ‘agapé’ love capacity of wonderful mothers.

The reverse of that is of course to say that unless we dedicate ourselves to the pursuit of ‘agapé’ love then nobody is going to know that we are disciples and nothing is going to change. It’s just going to be the same old, same old.

That’s why we began today be considering that love, though nothing new, is always new, always fresh, always refocusing our lives and recreating opportunity. Such is the work of God in our midst. A refreshing wind. A ray of light. A beam of hope. Something that reminds us that because we are loved, so, in the security of Jesus love, we can discover the passion for loving others.

It is the work of God’s Spirit to both open up our hearts to the need of Jesus love, and to fill us with the presence of His love. It is not possible to obey the command of God to love others unless we allow ourselves to be loved by God. We learn to love in relationship. It is those who experience love who learn to pass it along.

On this Mothers Day as we celebrate love that has blessed us and formed our lives, I offer you again these words of Jesus; "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

May God enable us all to grow deeper in both our experience and practice of love. Amen.

TOM THE DOUBTER

2011-05-01T08:24:00.000-07:00

In many small towns in Wales you had a lot of people called ‘Jones’. E.g ‘Tom Jones’. To save confusion people used to refer to people by their occupation as well as their surname. So Tom Jones would be ‘Jones the pop-star”, the butcher would be ‘Jones the Meat’, the baker be ‘Jones the Bread’. We even had an undertaker known as ‘Jones the death’.

Our bible story today was about a disciple who became known to history as ‘Doubting Thomas’. If he had been a Welshman maybe he would have been ‘Jones the Unbeliever’.

The story.
Women to the tomb. See Jesus alive. Tell the men. They don’t believe.
Couple of men go to the tomb. Discover Jesus is alive. Tell the others they don’t believe!
They are all together… except for Thomas… in a locked room. Jesus appears to them. They all believe. Tell Thomas. ‘Where were you? We saw Jesus!” Tom says; “I don’t believe it! The Bible reading actually reads:-

John 20: 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."

We can all be like Jones the Unbeliever. The resurrection is a most unbelievable thing to understand. We don’t easily take other peoples words for it! We, like Thomas, want firsthand experience! Just because millions of people since the first disciples declare they believe it, doesn’t convince us.

Thomas had seen Jesus murdered. He knew that the Romans, when they crucified people, did a thorough job. They would be in big trouble if they didn’t… particularly when it came to getting rid of a troublemaker like Jesus. The last thing they wanted was rumors that they had not done their job properly.

The way Jesus died had really impacted Thomas. He remembered the cruelty of the nails. He remembered the moment a spear was stabbed into Jesus side to make sure He was really dead. It’s almost as though he believed that the other disciples had seen something… a ghost … an apparition… but whatever it was they had seen … it wasn’t Jesus. Couldn’t have been. Because Thomas had seen the nails and spear.

But a week later they were still arguing about it… and Jesus appeared to them again. This time Thomas was there. He singles Thomas out and says, as we heard in our Bible reading (verse 27)… "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."

It’s more than Thomas can take. He never does reach out his hand, but falls on his knees and says, ‘My Lord, My God!” Thomas the Doubter becomes Thomas the Believer!
Jesus said something very interesting to Thomas. He said "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

We cannot go back to that upper room and be with the very first disciples on that day Jesus appeared to them. That’s not going to happen.

But we are fortunate that Jesus has left us other ways we can experience His love. We have the stories and letters of the New Testament, that tell us, not only what Jesus and the very first disciples got up to, but also all about people who came after the first disciples. People like Paul, who never met Jesus before He was crucified, yet still experienced His love in ways that convinced Him that Jesus was alive.

We have the stories of people over two thousand years, from every generation and culture, who share that same message, that Jesus is alive and that His love can change our lives through the power of His Holy Spirit. I’m one of those people whom the love of Jesus has changed and who believes in His resurrection power to change.

We also have the communion that we are celebrating today. Thomas said that he needed to see the scars and touch the wounds of Jesus before he would believe it. Jesus invites us to remember Him, not through seeing and touching, but through taking and tasting.

We break bread to remind ourselves that Jesus body was broken on the Cross. And that He allowed that to happen in order that our broken lives can be put back together by the love of God just as His was in His resurrection.

We drink wine that reminds us of the blood that flowed from His side when He was pierced by a soldier’s sword. As we drink it down it can remind us that God wants His love to flow into our lives and fill us with the desire and strength to make this world a better place, by loving each other just like Jesus loved us.

People sometimes tell me that, for reasons they can’t explain, they feel the presence of Jesus in a special way as they share in bread and wine in community with others. They just know Jesus died for them and that His living love is going to get them through whatever life brings their way!

Jesus invites us all to place our faith in Him. To trust that God is able to do for us all the things we cannot do for our selves. Forgive our sins. Renew our lives. Grant us strength to serve. Grant us insight to understand His Word in Scripture. All this is the work of God’s Spirit going on around us and within us, guiding and leading us in the ways of God’s Kingdom.

A great place to travel on our faith journey is to come to this table and receive the elements of bread and wine, visible reminders of the scars and wound that Thomas said helped him believe. Maybe today in faith we also can come too Jesus and declare “My Lord and My God!”

Rev. Adrian J. Pratt

EASTER SUNDAY 2011 "DO NOT BE AFRAID”

2011-04-25T06:23:00.000-07:00

Readings: Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24, Jeremiah 31:1-6, Colossians 3:1-4, Matthew 28:1-10
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, April 24th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

Some scary stuff can happen from time to time. There’s good scary. And there’s bad scary. Sometimes we enjoy a scare. A ride on the ghost train. Watch a horror movie. Attend a Lady Ga-Ga concert. That’s scary. Some scares we welcome.

Then there’s the bad. Near misses that could have been a bad accident. When a child disappears at the Mall. When you receive some bad news that has an uncertain outcome. The scare of terrorism. The scare of disease and death. The Easter story – part of which is found in Matthew 28:1 -10 – is a mix of good scary and bad scary. Twice there appears the phrase: “Do not be afraid”.

There are a lot of bad things happening in the Easter account. The unwarranted execution and death of Jesus Christ. To those who were His closest friends they had to not only contend with the loss, but the fact that their lives were now at risk. Such was the reality of this threat that Peter went as far as denying any association with Jesus.

It was a heroic and dangerous action that the two Mary’s were taking in making the journey to the tomb with their spices. To be around Jesus, even a dead Jesus, was taking a huge risk of guilt by association. It was a risk the other disciples were afraid to make as they hid away behind closed doors.

Then there is an earthquake to contend with. In my first church over in Wales we experienced a couple of earth tremors of a very minor nature. (Actually the day of my instillation as a pastor, but that’s another story!). It’s a bad scary experience when the earth starts shaking beneath your feet.

Visions of angels and great stones moving away. That’s not a phenomena we can fathom. The guards at the tomb couldn’t either. We know that the experience was of such an intensity that the guards trembled and fell to the ground as though dead. The women however seem made of sturdier stuff. Still – they are scared. If seeing the angel wasn’t scary enough, to be told that the corpse was now alive and well and would see them later was just the icing on the cake of a scary story.

So it is hardly surprising that the angel’s words are “Be not afraid”. The implications of the resurrection are pretty scary. People who are executed tend not to recover. However good a person may be, and however innocent of the crimes for which they have been condemned, the fact is that dead folk don’t go on walkabouts.

It’s the sort of thing that should be preceded by angels and earthquakes. It is certainly the sort of thing that should shake us out of our complacency and move our cold hearts of stone. ‘Christ is Risen’ – “He is Risen Indeed’. This is amazing news!!!

Now the women are given another daunting task. They have to go and tell the disciples what’s going on. What if the disciples don’t believe them? What if the angel was a bad angel playing a real nasty joke on them? Jesus is alive, that’s great – but who’s going to believe it?

So – zoom – they are out of there – away from the tomb – carrying a message that’s going to change the world. Full of great joy – but still carrying a burden of fear and uncertainty. If they needed more evidence of the truth they had heard, that evidence in the person of Jesus himself is about to show up.

There they go – zoom – and Jesus shows up and says “Hey…. Wazzup!” (Actually He says “Hail” but “Hey… Wazzup” carries a more contemporary ring and gets your attention better). This stops the women mid gallop. It’s true. It’s real. ‘Christ is Risen’ – ‘He is Risen Indeed’. There they are – with Jesus – a face to face encounter with the Living God… “Wazzup Ladies!”
They fall to their knees, take hold of his feet, and worship Jesus. What else were they to do?

They had gone to the tomb to pay their last respects to somebody they thought they had lost for ever, and now… here He was … larger than life and victorious over death.

In the midst of our busy lives – in the everyday normality or even times of heightened excitement, let’s be honest, we don’t expect to find God showing up saying “Hey, Wazzup!” The message Jesus brings is simple. “Don’t be Afraid!”

On Maundy Thursday some of us gathered around the communion table to hear words about a broken body and poured out blood. We could get the impression that was some kind of macabre memorial service for a fallen hero. If that be so... then we are the biggest losers in town. If we are celebrating a death – or a memory – or a mistaken crucifixion – then we are to be pitied.

But I’m here today to side with the angel. I’m here to bring you the good and scary (in the most awesomely positive sense of the word) amazing news; I’m here to stop you in your tracks with a huge and heavenly “Wazzup!”, I’m here on Easter Sunday 2011 to declare that ‘Christ is Risen’ – “He is Risen indeed”.

I’m here to declare the Word of the Lord… “Do not be afraid”

Do not be afraid of the bad scary stuff and rejoice in the good scary stuff.

Do not be afraid of the storms that surround your life, because Jesus calms the storm.

Do not be afraid of the waves that disrupt your calm, because Jesus walks on the waves.

Do not be afraid of those who set their hearts against you, because they do not have the final
word.

Do not be afraid of sin or of sorrow or of sickness for Jesus died for your sins, sorrows and
sicknesses.

Do not be afraid of death for Jesus declares, “I am the Resurrection and the Life”

Do not be afraid to seek Jesus for direction and help and counsel for Jesus declares, “I am the Way. I am Truth, I am the Life”

Do not be afraid to believe in love, to believe in hope, to believe in life beyond anything that we can currently comprehend.

Do not be afraid to make a stand for Jesus, to take holy risks, to embrace Divine Foolishness, to set your life on a sacred course…..
… to boldly go where no man has boldly gone before.

( No wait.. that’s Star Trek)
I ‘m not here to recruit Trekkies for Captain Kirk, this is not science fiction, I’m here to say that there is a reality known as the resurrection, that Jesus died on the Cross but that God raised him from death on the third day and that the Holy Spirit can today confront us, convict us, empower us and move us forward along the road of discipleship.

Do not be afraid. Seek for the love of God to be renewed in your heart and for God’s life to be the lifeblood that flows through out your being.

Do not be afraid. Be assured. God has everything under control. One day we’ll see the whole picture. But for now be content to know today that the resurrection is making a difference to your life.

Do not be afraid “Christ is Risen’ ‘He is Risen Indeed” AMEN!

Adrian Pratt

Maundy Thursday 'What think ye of Christ?'

2011-04-21T08:32:00.000-07:00

Readings: Psalm110, Exodus 12:1-4,11-14;1 Corinthians 11–23–26, Matthew 22:36-46
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, on April 21st 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

As we meet around the communion table this evening I want us to think about some words that Jesus spoke to the Pharisees when He asked them, “What do you think of the Messiah?” (Matthew 22:41) or as the words appear in the Authorized Version, “What think ye of Christ?”

That could be the most important question in the world. How we answer it decides for us the sort of life we are going to live. Whether we are going to live a life that has room for the things Jesus did and said, or whether we are going to live our own way. It’s a challenge that causes us to reflect on what we truly believe.

Let us unpack our gospel reading. First of all we have Jesus asking the Pharisees “What think ye of Christ?”

Matthew 22:42 42 "What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?"

For the Pharisees the ‘Messiah’ or the ‘Christ’ was somebody important. He was the one in whom all their hopes and dreams would come true. They lived under the rule of Rome but longed for a day when they would be free to live the way they wanted to. They had a long history that carried with it the promise that God would raise up from among them a descendant of their greatest King, King David, who would come and put things right.

What are our hopes and dreams as we gather round this table? If I were to come around the congregation and ask you what you hope to happen in our world today, or what you long to see in your own life… what’s your dream?…. I wonder how you would answer?

I’m sure we’d all be different. Some of the younger ones may talk about what they’d like to do when they get older, some of the older ones of their hopes for their families. There may be things like hopes for peace and an end to war, for greater care of the planet, for a fair deal for those who suffer. We all have many hopes and dreams for our selves and our world.

Jesus asked the Pharisees “What think ye of Christ?” for an important reason. He wanted to help them understand that He was the One in whom their hopes and dreams could be fulfilled.

He also wanted them to understand that it wasn’t going to happen in the way that they thought. They were people with very fixed ideas about the way the Messiah would come and the things He would do. So He carries on and asks, about the Messiah, “Whose son is he?"

Matthew 22:42 They said to him, "The son of David."

That was the text-book answer. They were right. The Christ, the Messiah, was to be a descendant of David. But then Jesus throws a huge spanner in the works by asking them another question. Those Pharisees knew their scriptures, particularly the Psalms that they used regularly in their worship. And Jesus throws out to them a quotation from Psalm 110.

Matthew 22:43-45 43 He said to them,
"How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,
44 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet" '? 45 If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?"

This is the argument. Jesus is saying, “Look, are you telling me that the Messiah is going to be a Son of David?” Now in those days they lived in a very paternalistic culture. The Pharisees had strict ideas about authority in the home. Father was the head of the family and his word carried authority. When that Father also happened to be the King then that Father’s word carried absolute power.

"How is it then that David (the Father King) by the Spirit calls him Lord, (Calls who Lord? well… the One who would come into the world as the Messiah) saying, 44 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet" '? In other words, “How could David the King go around saying to one of his sons, ‘You are my Lord’?”

Matthew 22:45 45 If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?"

I guess it’s what we’d call today a riddle! He poses a problem for them to solve. If they could solve the riddle they would understand that Jesus was the Messiah that they had been waiting for. Psalm 110 is known as a ‘Messianic Psalm”. It talks about the Messiah being a great King, a great priest and a great judge between right and wrong. Jesus is trying to get the Pharisees to understand that in His life, all those things were being fulfilled and He was the One who had come to bring God’s Kingdom to the world.

But did they get it? We don’t know. Because the question is greeted with a stony silence. That could mean that they couldn’t work it out or maybe they knew what He was getting at but didn’t want to acknowledge it! All we are told in our scripture passage is this;

Matthew 22:46 46 No one was able to give him an answer,
nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.

Now we need to put this whole passage in the right setting. The Pharisees were not asking questions out of a thirst to know more, but asking questions in order to make themselves look right and Jesus look like He was in the wrong.

The section begins in Matthew 22:35 by telling us that “One of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.”. Another way of saying that would be that the lawyer was putting Jesus on trial! This was an interrogation, not a teaching moment.

They begin by asking Him which were the most important commandments and Jesus replies that all of the law and all of the prophets hung on two principles; Loving God with all that we were and loving our neighbors with as much love as we have for our selves.
They couldn’t fault Him on those answers. One suspects that it is right there the Pharisees would hope the conversation would end. But Jesus turns it around. Instead of Him being the one on trial, now it’s His accusers who are pushed to give an account of them selves. “What think ye of Christ?”

A similar thing can happen to us as we come to the communion table. This table is laid before us and we are confronted with the suffering and death of Jesus Christ. We are not being asked “Well, what about this teaching or this insight?” We are not being asked to think about our philosophy or theology or understanding.

Here around this table we are confronted with a straightforward question. “What think ye of Christ?” Not what do we think of our this person or that person, or First Presbyterian Baldwin or any other church, but “What think ye of Christ?”

It is a time for us to stop the questions and receive the Savior. Receive Him through taking bread and wine and allowing the Holy Spirit to draw us back to the center. We come to this table with all our hopes and dreams and questions. And it is as though God asks us to for a time lay them aside and consider the most important question of them all.

Is the poured out life represented by the wine truly the One in whom all our hopes are focused? Is His broken body our only hope for salvation? Do we believe that these dry bones can take flesh and live? “What think ye of Christ?”

What do we think of His betrayal and suffering and crucifixion? What do we make of His life of obedience and healing and casting out of evil? What do we think of His teaching and preaching that challenges all that we hold so dear? What do we make of His call to take up our cross and follow Him? What do we think of the glorious Easter message that He has been raised and will send His Spirit to transform and empower our lives both as a church and as individuals? “What think ye of Christ?”

Rev. Adrian J Pratt

Who a Donkey? (Palm Sunday)

2011-04-18T06:20:00.000-07:00

Readings: Psalm 31:9-16, Isaiah 50:4-9a, Philippians 2:5-11, Matthew 21:1-11
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, April 17th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

Do the names Groucho, Chico and Harpo mean anything to you? Three crazy actors, collectively known as "The Marx Brothers", whose whacky films graced the Cinema back in the days when everything was black and white.

I used to own a book, that was a collection of their pictures and sayings that was called "Why a Duck?" The title was a quotation from a scene where Groucho points out to the Italian accented Chico a railway bridge over a river, which he explains is called a viaduct.
Chico responds "Why a Duck? Why a no a Chicken?"
"Not 'Why a Duck'? - VIADUCT!"
"Like I a say … Why a no a chicken, Why a Duck?"

This morning I don't want to ask, "Why a no a chicken?" or even "Why a no a duck?" but I do want to ask "Why a Donkey?" Why did Jesus choose, on the first Palm Sunday, to come riding into Jerusalem on a donkey?

A good place to start is with the quotation from the Old Testament prophet Zecheriah we heard in our gospel reading. "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey”. Matthew is keen to point out that the events of Palm Sunday happen within a particular framework at a particular time for a particular purpose.

The Bible never talks about fate or chance. It speaks instead of what some call "Sacred Time". Scripture speaks of Christian life as being, not just a random collection of disconnected events, but life with purpose and meaning. Jesus rode a donkey into town, because there was a purpose and a meaning to the action. It was an event in sacred time.

Mark gives us a fuller account of Jesus telling the disciples to go and get the donkey. If I was one of the disciples I would have been sarcastically thinking, "Yeh, Right..this is going to work". A couple of them are sent to an unnamed village, where, hopefully they will discover that there just happens to be a donkey tethered there at the side of the street. This donkey is special, because no one has ever ridden it.

As they untie it there is a strong possibility that someone is going to come along and say, "Excuse me sir, What are you doing with that donkey?" and they are to say to them, simply, "The Lord has need of it". No need to explain who this "Lord" is, or even say why he needs it... because that is not something you know about in the first place!

Strange thing is, when the disciples do what Jesus asks, despite their questions and the fact that it all seems kind of vague, it turns out just like Jesus said. When God speaks, things happen.

I really can't explain 'Sacred Time’ but I do know that as I put my life in God's hands all kinds of connections, affecting what I thought were insignificant events, start to happen.

Think about it! For some reason or other we have all ended up here in church this morning together. Of course we have all come here for a different reason. Maybe we were dragged here! Maybe it's a good habit we have got into. Maybe we don't have a reason for it, just something we felt we should do.

I invite you to pay attention to what happens through the week. Some one will say something, or you'll meet some one or something will happen and there will be a connection to what we're doing here this morning. Ask yourself, "Is that a coincidence, or is there something more going on here?"

Was it a coincidence that a person just happened to have tied a donkey that had, coincidentally, never been ridden upon, to the side of that street in that town, on that day, at that time, when those two disciples came walking along?

Was it a coincidence that people came along and asked questions that Jesus said they would, and that as the disciples gave the answer that Jesus said they should, the disciples discovered that they were able to take the donkey to Jesus, as He said they could?

Was it a coincidence that as He rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, crowds lined the streets shouting "Hosanna to the King of David" - in a fashion similar to Zechariah's prophecy of years before? Were the crowds aware of the connection? Not likely! Did they realize that just a week later they would be shouting, "Crucify Him, Crucify Him!” No way!

Did they for even one moment consider that a death on a cross would be transformed into a resurrection from a tomb; that on a Pentecost holiday the Holy Spirit of God would descend on those disciples who witnessed His resurrection and that the church would be born? Of course not!

Why a donkey? “Why a no a horsee or a pony?” Because a connection was being made to what the prophet had said.

The donkey is a creature of peace. You would expect a King to arrive on a War Horse, or in a chariot pulled by a pony... not so Jesus. Just as His mother Mary is pictured by tradition as riding a donkey to Bethlehem, bearing the Christ Child in her womb, so in humility, Jesus enters Jerusalem, the City of God, riding upon a creature considered humble and gentle.

The donkey was not simply a method of transport for people. It was also a beast of burden. A donkey can carry a great deal on its back. It is sure-footed in rocky terrain. In many parts of the world it is still considered a working animal.

I remember Tom, a friend of my sisters from Greece, who visited with us when we lived in a seaside town in Mid Wales. On the beach were some donkeys that gave children rides up and down. Tom was astonished. “Donkeys? Why you have donkeys here?” In his culture the donkey was a working animal ... not something you amused the kids with on a sunny day.

In our Lectionary Palm Sunday is linked to Passion Sunday. We remember that Jesus took the burden of our sins upon Himself when He died upon the cross. The one who took the weight of our transgressions, rode into town on a beast of burden.

Why a donkey? When you think about it, there can be all kinds of connections.

But the most important one we need to make in this Easter Season is between our lives and the Jesus who rode into Jerusalem to die upon a cross and was raised to bring Resurrection life to bear on our daily lives.

If we can get that connection right, then a whole lot of other things in our lives start to make sense as well. We may well discover that sacred time is breaking into our daily lives.

An old friend I used to visit in a previous church always used to talk about ‘synchronicity’ as the reason she couldn’t help but believe in God. When she trusted in God to guide her, random things all seemed to fall into place. The reading in church, the song on the radio, the story in the paper, the conversation overheard in the Post Office, the book she was reading… it was as though they all were synchronized together in such a way as she became aware of something going on her life that was so much larger than herself.

Sacred Time. Synchronicity. You can call it whatever you like. It was there in the events surrounding Palm Sunday. There was a reason for the donkey. There was a purpose to the way Jesus rode into town.

Let us pray that we may have a faith in God that enables us to know His love as it is revealed in Jesus Christ as a reality guiding our own hearts and lives. As we remember this Easter Week the Christ who died upon the Cross for our sins, may we seek to live in a way that serves others and brings glory to God’s name. Amen.

Rev. Adrian J Pratt

The faces of Barabbas

2011-04-04T10:25:00.000-07:00

(Adapted in part from “For all the Family' by Michael Botting - ISBN 0-86065-314-5)

Outline.....

You can tell a lot by the look on someones face.

Sad Barabbas
In prison. Sad. Cold. Facing the death penalty. By crucifixion. (Point to cross)
Why?

Violent Barabbas
His name is Barabbas. John 18:40 (NIRV)
‘Barabbas had taken part in an armed struggle against the country's rulers.’
To some he was a Freedom fighter but to the government of Rome he was a terorrist!.
Luke tells us ‘Barabbas had been thrown into prison. He had taken part in a struggle in the city against the authorities. He had also committed murder.” (Luk 23:19) He’s a violent terrorist!

Imagine its early. Footsteps. Keys rattle. ‘Oh no. I’m going to die!’ The Cell door opens. Get up Barabbas!” – You are Free! What?

Surprised Barabbas
‘Watch you talking about Jailers?’ How come? No way? Yes way… and zoom he’s out of their like greased lightning. And he’s feeling very…

Happy Barabbas
He was going to die. Be crucified. And now he’s free! He can’t believe it.
No he really can’t believe it! In fact he’s rather puzzled!

Puzzled Barabbas
He’s even more puzzled when he finds out that a man called Jesus has been imprisoned and, although its very doubtful of any crime He has committed, Jesus is now going to be crucified upon the cross that should have been his!

Perhaps we’ve asked that question. Why did Jesus have to die?
It’s a question we should ask every time we come to communion.

Now I don’t know if any of you are violent terrorists. I really hope not. And maybe none of us have dome anything as bad as Barabbas. But the Bible tells us we all have lives that are less than they should be or could be.

Romans 3:23 ‘Everyone has sinned. No one measures up to God's glory.’

The Bible also tells in 1 Peter 3:18 “Christ died for sins once and for all time. The One who did what is right died for those who don't do right. He died to bring you to God. His body was put to death. But the Holy Spirit brought Him back to life. “

Peter explains that all of us are a little like Barabbas. None of us really measure up! We are people who do wrong. But that’s just the sort of people Jesus died for and was raised for. Jesus died to bring us to God.

The bread and wine remind us that Jesus has opened the door for all of us to experience the love and presence of God in our lives! No-one is excluded. No matter how good or bad. We can all ask God to fill us with the Holy Spirit so we can live our lives the Jesus way.

Barabbas was a man who knew like no other that Jesus died for him to set him free. God wants us to know that Christ died for all of us, that we may be free to love and serve each other. Every barrier is broken down at the cross.

There was once a minister called Isaac Watts who was one day reading his bible and he came across a verse in Galatians 6:14, that said "May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.''

Maybe it reminded him of Barabbas! We don’t know for sure, but we do know he picked up his pen and wrote a poem that could have been Barabbas’s song. It became a hymn which Christians often sing as they approach communion.

1. When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride.

2. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
Save in the death of Christ my God;
All the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to His blood.

3. See, from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

4. Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

These are things to think about every time we take bread and wine. The Jesus who died to set Barabbas free also died that we may live free and forgiven. All God asks is that we put our faith and trust and hope in what Jesus has done for us. Around this table is an awesome time and place for giving our lives into God’s hands.

STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN

2011-03-14T06:23:00.000-07:00

Readings: Psalm 32, Genesis 28:10-22; Romans 5:12-19, John 1:43-51
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, March 13th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

Back in the mid 70's the rock group "Led Zeppelin" released an album with a song on it called "Stairway to Heaven". In it's own way it became something of a classic. It remains one of the most requested classic album tracks on radio shows that play requested classic album tracks. For years, every budding rock guitarist had to prove their credibility by mastering its first few bars.

I realize that some of you here have no wish to hear about Led Zeppelin, however you will have heard, from our Bible reading in Genesis, of a "Stairway to Heaven" that was viewed by Jacob as he rested at a location he later called "Bethel", the place of God.

At the start of the story is darkness. Jacob is a man on the run with a lot on his mind, uncertain which way to turn. The central part of the story is a dream, a great discovery of the purposes of God for Jacob's life. The conclusion of the story has Jacob coming to a point of decision. If all that had taken place was of God, then it is God Jacob will follow.

Firstly, there is awakening from darkness.

Our reading didn't mention what had taken place before Jacob found himself out in the wilderness, sleeping rough, with a stone for a pillow. Jacob is in deep trouble. He has betrayed his brother Esau, stolen his Fathers blessing and is on the run because Esau has vowed to kill him. That's why he is out in the wilderness. Our reading tells us, "He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set." Jacob was in the darkness.

When we examine our lives in the light of God's holiness we don't have to dig to deep to find some pockets of darkness. We make mistakes. We compromise. We are unfaithful to God and unloving towards each other. Darkness. But what do we do with it?

Today, we have come to this place of bricks and mortar, this Bethel, this place of God, set apart to be a gateway that opens people up to the glory of God. We come, as we are, not as how we'd like to be. We come to hear the Word of God. 1 John 1:9 tells us:-"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness".

In Jacob's story of the events of Bethel, the first thing we see is an awakening from the darkness. He doesn't excuse what he has done, he doesn't try to wriggle out of the implications, but he does put it all behind him. In the forgiveness that Jesus Christ has made possible for us through his death on the cross, every day can be a new beginning.

Following Jacob's awakening from darkness there comes an awe-inspiring discovery.

The discovery that God's love was directed towards him.

For Jacob that discovery came through a dream. Dreams can be fascinating things. Psychologists tell us we should listen to our dreams. That our subconscious minds are trying to tell us important things that we are suppressing about ourselves. Those who have faith tell us that God, "Out there" is trying to tell us things "In here" about our relationship to Him.Of course that doesn't apply to all dreams. Some are just stupid and are most likely due to having to much cheese for supper! However, for Jacob, this dream of a Stairway to Heaven was a life changing experience and an awe-inspiring discovery.

We don't expect to interact with God as we go about our daily business. It's not that we forget about God or are antagonistic towards God, simply that we don’t expect to be interacting with the Divine during our lunch hour.

Time and time again in the Scriptures it is as people are going about their everyday tasks that receive a revelation from God. Moses was at work, looking after sheep, when God spoke to him through a burning bush. Saul was riding down the road on a horse trying to get to Damascus. Jacob was just after a good nights sleep.

Our N/T reading spoke of Jesus calling Nathaniel and Philip. We're not told what their daily business was but part of it involved sitting under fig trees. Nathaniel is very skeptical about Gods ability to interrupt their daily routine, particularly through the person of a carpenters son called Jesus from Nazareth. "Huh", he asks Philip, "Like anything good can come from Nazareth?" About as likely as the Queen dropping in for a cup of tea!

Then along comes Jesus. He points out Nathaniel and says, "Now there's a true Israelite". Nathaniel starts to say, "You know me?" "I saw you under the fig tree" replies Jesus. For Nathaniel it was as though a big hand in the sky was pointing right at him. He recognized Christ and life was never the same again.

That's how it should be for all of us. We need to recognize that God knows us intimately. We need to know that God’s love for us is as personal as a big finger pointing from the sky. We need to know personally that Jesus is our Savior. The love of Jesus is an awe inspiring discovery, as awe inspiring as Jacob's ladder to heaven.

Jacob didn't deserve the love of God. He had behaved disgracefully. His life was a mess. But God came to Him with words of promise and blessing. God promised him a home.
God promised him a future. God promised that wherever Jacob went, God would be there for him, that He would never leave him or forsake him.

When we throw our lives upon the rock of Jesus Christ then He promises our hearts will reach the end of their homeless searching. He promises a glorious future, He promises that wherever the road of life will take us, He will be there every step of the way.

Nathaniel's story and Jacob's dream are intimately connected. In verse 51, Jesus says to Nathaniel and Philip, "I am telling you the truth; you will see heaven open and God's angels going up and coming down on the Son of Man".

When Jesus spoke about the "Son of Man" He was talking about Himself. When He refers to the angels coming up and down He is referring to angels like those on Jacob's ladder. You see what that picture tells us? Jesus is our stairway to heaven. Through Him our lives can connect with the life of God. Through the work of His Holy Spirit eternal life is a quality of life we can enjoy every single day we live. His death on the cross opens for us a doorway into the presence of God that is always open.

The third element in Jacob's story was this.

He made an active decision to follow God's way.

St. Augustine, speaking of his own Christian pilgrimage, said that God had turned his sunsets into dawns. Jacob's story starts out with a sunset and concludes with the dawn of a new phase in his life. For dreams to become reality we must say with Jacob, "You are my God".

Those active moments of decision are not isolated, once and for all events, but come to us all the time through the daily challenges we face. Discipleship involves rising above making decisions only on the grounds of personal gain or satisfaction and instead asking, "What is the Will of Christ in this situation?" For Jacob his active decision making took different forms.

There was the dedication of himself to Bethel, the setting apart of that place as being special to God. So we in our hearts should have a desire to see our churches as "Special-places". We know that God does not dwell in houses of bricks and mortar, but we also know that to meet together to worship Him is a glorious privilege.

Jacob's life shows an implicit trust in God, for even his life's necessities such as food and clothing. We too need a faith that God can supply our every need.

Jacob offered a tenth of what God had given him, by way of an offering towards God. We too should worship God through time, talents and treasures.

Jacob and the Stairway to Heaven;
a story of darkness, discovery and dedication.

May God help us awaken from the darkness in our own lives and find the renewing power of Jesus Christ.
May God help us make the awe inspiring discovery of His love in such a way that it inspires us to live our lives for Him.
May God help us dedicate ourselves to applying the mind of Christ to our everyday lives.

May such things be a great help in our walk with Jesus Christ
and to His name be honor, praise and glory.
AMEN!

TRACING THE RAINBOW

2011-03-10T06:09:00.000-08:00

ASH WEDNESDAY 2011
Readings : Genesis 9:8-17, Matthew 6:1-6+16-21, 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

Our God is God of the Covenant. As our readings have reminded us, we are often guilty of breaking that covenant. Our Old Testament reading reminded us that though we are disobedient, God has established an everlasting covenant that stands as long as there are still rainbows in the sky. I came across an e-mail the other day that was titled “All I really need to know about life, I learned from Noah’s Ark.”

(1) Don’t miss the boat.
(2) Don’t forget we’re all in the same boat.
(3) Plan ahead—it wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark.
(4) Stay fit—when you’re 600 years old someone might ask you to do something really big.
(5) Don’t listen to critics, just get on with what has to be done.
(6) For safety’s sake, travel in pairs.
(7) Two heads are better than one.
(8) Build your future on high ground.
(9) Speed isn’t always an advantage; after all, the snails were on the same ark as the cheetahs.
(10) When you’re stressed, float awhile.
(11) Remember, amateurs (given directions by the master builder and teacher) built the ark; professionals built the Titanic.
(12) The woodpeckers inside were a larger threat than the storm outside.
(13) No matter what the storm, when God is with you, there’s a rainbow waiting.

No matter what the storm, there is a rainbow waiting! God does not abandon to us to our fate. God is with us. Yet a day like today reminds us that we are not as keen on keeping within the terms of the covenant as we should be. As our reading from Matthew reminds us, we have a tendency to do what we do for the benefit of self or as a show to others. Better to avoid that temptation and be sure that our devotion is not just something out in the open, where all can see, but is a matter of the heart, ‘in secret’, where nobody can see.

Sin is a wasting disease. It eats away at our souls, at our relationship with God and with each other. It causes us to do the right things for the wrong reasons and can corrupt the purest of intentions. And we are all victims of sins pervasive power. We all alike have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. We equally need the forgiveness, the strength, the healing, the restoration, the hope, the love that is offered to us in Jesus Christ.

As Paul writes: “We entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. As we work together with him, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain.”

Let me tell you about George. George was a student in theological college, engaged to a beautiful girl, the love of his life. Though extremely gifted and talented George had a problem. His sight was failing him. When he told this to his intended, she dumped him. George was nearly destroyed. His health and his love – fading away.

A little while later George was invited to a wedding. Actually it was his sisters wedding. As he struggled through his conflicting emotions and sort to apply his faith in God to the situation in which he found himself, he found a song forming itself in his mind. So there and then, he wrote it down.

You can find it in our hymnbooks, as it was later put to music. The words, which we’ll sing to close our service say this:-

“O love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee,
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths it’s flow may richer, fuller be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee,
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain that morn shall tearless be.”

No matter what the storm, there is a rainbow waiting! As Paul entreats us, “Let us not receive the Grace of God in vain”. Here on Ash Wednesday, as we come forward and share in the communion service, we have an opportunity to renew our covenant with God. Such is a great way to start the Lenten journey towards Easter.

Rev Adrian Pratt

CAN WE HEAL THE WORLD?

2011-02-28T06:23:00.000-08:00

Readings: Psalm 78:12-25, Exodus 16:4-8, 2 Corinthians 9:8-15, John 6:1-14
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on February 27 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

Listen to the news on any given day and you will know that all is not well with the world. Such is stating the obvious. Equally obvious is that as Christian people an essential part of our calling is to work to make the world a better place. But in the face of such a great challenge it is easy to become discouraged and feel our efforts are in vain. Can we do anything to make the world a better place? Can we heal the world?

In considering such a question I’d like to look at John 6:9, part of the story of the feeding of the 5000; "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?"

I want to suggest this morning that we can make the world a better place, as individuals and as a church community;

Firstly: Because everybody influences somebody.
Secondly; Because influence is an active thing. As the old campfire song declares ‘It only takes a spark to get a fire going.’
Thirdly; Because influence, like the ripples formed by throwing a stone into a calm pond, spreads.

Let’s look at the first of these.

1. You can make the world a better place because everybody influences somebody.

Picture that little boy sitting amongst the crowd of 5000 as Jesus preached and taught. He was nobody special. In fact he may have been rather bored, tired and fed-up. He must have been near the front. He hears Jesus asking the disciples how they intend feeding all these people. He sees the incredulous look on their faces, “Feed all these people, Jesus, you must be joking!’

So he gets his little brown lunch bag and pushes through the crowd to Andrew. ‘Excuse me sir, I’ve got some food here!’ And Jesus takes that rather comical and insufficient offering, raises His eyes to heaven and blesses it, and a miracle takes place. 5000 hungry folk are fed and go home satisfied.

It’s a miracle story and we do the text a great disservice if we try to over analyze or explain it. It’s a story about how one little insignificant person placed the little he had into the hands of God and it became a source of great blessing.

Most of us are small, insignificant and un-influential. Most of us don’t have vast resources to call upon or draw from. But if we can take what we have and allow God to use it, we become an influential force in making the world a better place.

There’s a child’s verse that says;
“I have a little shadow
That goes in and out with me
And what can be the use of him
Is more than I can see’

We all have a shadow and the shadow of our life falls on others and influences them.

We may never even be aware of the influence we are having. It can take place quite unconsciously. More things are caught than are taught. Which brings us to the second thing I wanted to share.

2. You can make the world a better place because influence is an active thing.

‘It only takes a spark to get a fire going’. But please bear in mind that fires are not always positive things. We can actively be a bad influence as easily as we can be a positive one. Scripture teaches us that if we sow seeds of unrighteousness they produce a corresponding harvest. In the world of computing ‘Garbage In’ results in ‘Garbage Out’.

I remember as a young person growing up in a church with an active youth group that was always ready to welcome new faces into our midst how somebody bought a friend along who started to become involved in the life of the church.

Then one day this guy was out on his bicycle and a man walked out in front of him as he approached a crossway causing him to fall off his bike. Rather than apologizing for causing an accident, the man cussed the boy out and walked away muttering something about “Irresponsible youth”.

This particular man was one of the elders of the church. The lad, who was starting to become involved in the faith, knew who he was. We didn’t see much of the lad after that. All these years later, he doesn’t go near a church and if you ask him why, he’ll relate that incident to you.

Actions speak louder than words. Influence is an active thing. It can promote a negative reaction or our influence can be actively for the good. Thankfully we can all point to many people who have influenced us in positive ways. Parents, Friends, Neighbors, sometimes even complete strangers or people whose names we have forgotten, who, influenced us in a good way that has helped us be the person we are today.

Even though we may not always be aware of it, the way we live our lives, how we react to the little things and the big things has an influence on others whom we are probably not even aware are observing us. We can help make the world a better place because influence is always an active thing.

This brings us to our third observation.

3. Influence, like the ripples formed by throwing a stone into a calm pond, spreads.

A woman once told a former university science teacher how he had helped her retain her faith. The professor was rather surprised because he could not recall the girl ever having been one of his students, or even attending the university where he lectured.

“I’m sorry” he said, “I don’t recall you being in my classes.”

“No” she explained, “I attended a different college altogether, I don’t even live around here, but one day my friend who was in one of your classes bought me to church and we sat behind you. She told me that you were her science lecturer. At that time I was struggling with how to relate my faith to all the new ideas I was absorbing.”

“It came to prayer time and I saw you bow your head in prayer. At that moment I realized that if a person like your self, a lecturer in the sciences, could have a life of faith, then it shouldn’t be too hard for somebody like me either.”

By being in church, by worshipping God with true and genuine hearts, we never can tell what influence we may be having. Influence has a rippling effect, like a stone being thrown into a calm pool of water. We cannot say how or when or where our influence will touch another’s life. It’s not something we can arrange or dictate. It is up to us to live our faith with integrity and commitment and with the awareness that consistent walk of faith has a way of spreading Christ’s love to others.

There’s a story I about an imaginary conversation that Jesus is having with the Angel Gabriel, sometime after the Ascension, but before the day of Pentecost, the birth day of the Church.

Gabriel is saying, “Jesus, what’s the plan? You died for the whole world down there didn’t you?

“Yes, that’s right Gabriel’

“You must have suffered much”

“Yes”

“And do they all know about it?”

“No, only a few in Palestine know about it so far”

“So what’s the plan? If you died for the whole world, how on earth is the whole world going to find out? There has to be a plan?

“Well” Jesus says, “It’s like this. I asked Peter and James and John and Mary and a few others to make it the business of their lives to tell others, and the others, others… and the others yet others, until everybody knows about it”

“That’s a plan” exclaimed Gabriel, “Suppose Peter fails. Suppose John decides not to tell anybody? What if Mary or James gets sick? Suppose their successors in the twenty-first century become so obsessed with their comfortable lives that they don’t see the need for passing on the Good News?’

“Gabriel” says Jesus, “I don’t have another plan. – I’m counting on them.”

Mother Teresa, the great missionary to Calcutta whose work continues to do so much to relieve the suffering of the poor in communities around the world, was once asked “What can I do to make the world a better place?” She replied, “Go home and love your families.”

John 6:9, "There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish. But what are they among so many people?" What they were was a source of sustenance to over 5000 hungry folk. The little boy had no idea what kind of influence sharing his lunch would have upon the events of that day. A miracle took place.

As we seek to minister to a hurting world we need to realize that God is counting on us. That’s God plan. That by allowing the Holy Spirit to influence our lives, our lives can be a positive influence for Jesus Christ upon others.

So don’t be discouraged. Be aware that your contribution to making this world a better place is making a huge difference. We may not always see the effects, or even receive any thanks for what we do… but no matter… we are servants of Christ… called not to seek accolades but simply to love as we have been loved.

Every act of service, large or small, in Christ’s name brings glory to God. The chief end of humankind, according to the Westminster Catechism, is “to glorify God and enjoy Him for ever”. So enjoy your service of God, because such brings glory to God. Never feel that what you have to offer is too small or that you are too insignificant. After all… remember what Jesus could do with a little boy, five barley loaves and two fish?

Truly we serve a God of miracles who calls us to heal the world.

WHY ARE PRAYERS NOT ANSWERED?

2011-02-20T08:34:00.000-08:00

WHY ARE PRAYERS NOT ANSWERED?
Readings: Psalm 5:1-7, Habakkuk 2:1-4, 2 Corinthians 12:1-9, Matthew 7:7-12
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on February 20th 2011

A printable PDF file is available here

Matthew 7:7-8 "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

In the light of such words, why is it our prayers often seem to be unanswered?

You knew somebody who was ill. You prayed fervently that God would heal them. They died. Was your prayer unanswered?

An opening came up in your job. All the pieces fitted together. You were prepared, a promotion was overdue, and it would do you and your family good. You prayed about that position. But they passed you over and brought somebody in from outside. Was your prayer unanswered?

You lost a stone out of your ring. It was a ring that had both actual and sentimental value. You prayed that God would help you find it. You never did. Was your prayer unanswered? Unanswered prayer is one of the challenges that we face as Christians. We believe in prayer. We practice prayer. We don’t always see answered prayers.

Let us start be putting the question in the right perspective. This is not God’s problem. This is our problem. A problem that stems partly from the fact that in asking the question, we show ourselves to have made up our mind what we believe prayer is and how prayer should work. Surely prayer is not just about asking, but also about listening and talking and meditating and thinking and dreaming and praising. Prayer is not begging favors from a big old Mr. Meanie in the sky!

If God is sovereign of the Universe, the all-powerful creator and sustainer, it seems fair to conclude that God is under absolutely no obligation to answer our prayers in the way we feel God should.

The Bible, that volume of 66 books that are designed to bring us to faith and to build our expectations in what God can do, gives us some startling examples of prayers that were not answered in the way people had hoped for.

Moses prayed that God would allow him to enter the Promised Land, but he died on top of Mount Nebo. The prophet Habakkuk begins his book with the words, “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not listen?” (Habakkuk 1:2)

Paul prayed three times for the removal of a thorn in the flesh that was hindering his missionary labors, but as far as we know the problem haunted him for the rest of his life.
Jesus, the Son of God and our Savior, prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane that the Father would remove His cup of suffering. But He drank that cup to its bitter depths!

How are we to understand these instances? Was God simply not listening, taking no notice? Again we have to question our own assumptions about how God should act. For some reason we expect God to say ‘Yes’ as an answer to whatever we ask.

There are other absolutely reasonable answers. Such as;

“Yes, but not in the way that you are thinking of”.
“Yes, but not yet”.
And of course, “NO” is also a valid response!

“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” But you may not receive exactly what you are asking for, (particularly if you are demanding a ‘yes’)… seek and you will find an answer, knock and the door will be opened, but behind it may not be precisely what you expected.

Unanswered prayer, I say again, is our problem, not God’s problem. God always has an answer; our problem is that it’s not the one we asked for. Now there is a biblical rationale to this.

God operates on a different agenda to our agenda. The things we count as all important, things such as money and possessions and status… God tells us these are insignificant… the things we invest with little significance, things such as solid relationships, honoring and respecting all peoples worth and dignity, looking to the needs of others as much as our own… God tells us that these are the big things about life on planet earth.

Listen… here is the answer in a nutshell. “Why are prayers not answered?” Because prayer is not all about asking. It’s about submitting our wills to the will of God. That’s why Moses died on mount Nebo. That’s why Habakkuk felt God would never come around, that’s why Paul never had the thorn in his flesh removed, that’s why Christ had to struggle and sweat blood in the Garden of Gethsemane…prayer is about disciplining our lives that the will of God may be done on earth as it is in heaven. Prayer is an attempt to line up our agenda with God’s agenda.

An illustration. Mum and a child are going shopping. So Mum makes up her list of what they need. Food. Drink. Bread. New socks. And so it goes. Maybe even a few treats thrown in. Meanwhile the child has heard they are going shopping and is making up their own list. Bike. Skateboard. Fishing line. Sponge Bob Square pants X-Box game, all the Disney DVD’s they have in stock, a dog, a monkey (if they sell monkeys... who wouldn’t want a monkey?)... .so the list grows.

It is obvious which list of items is going to make it to the check out. The child is going to be very disappointed if they expected their list to be fulfilled. Sad thing is, sometimes our prayer lists are more comparable with the shopping list of the child than the mother, more filled with wants than needs, more concerned with what we want than what God wants for our lives.

Now, if mum and child sat down together and made the list, then you know what? The child would know what to ask for! This also applies to prayer. In prayer we are called to line up our agendas with God’s agenda, in order that our service and worship of God may be effective and real and alive!

Rather than talking about unanswered prayers, let me phrase the question slightly differently; and ask, “How can we take steps to pray about the right things?” I suggest 3 steps;

1) Pray with Persistence

Be assured, God wants us to pray. Out text makes it clear it is a good thing to ask things of our Father in Heaven. Jesus tells us ASK, SEEK and KNOCK.

ASK: When we ask of God it means we see our need of Him. It means we believe God can meet our needs.

SEEK: This indicates there is some effort involved in our asking. We can pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”, but that does not remove from us the responsibility to work for our daily bread. We can pray “Thy Kingdom Come” but we still have to work to bring the values of God’s Kingdom to bear upon the kingdoms of this world.

KNOCK: When you were in school you wouldn’t go and casually knock on your principals study door, unless you had something you really needed to talk about. You wouldn’t go in there and say in a random fashion, “Hey dude, did you see the game last night!”

It’s not that God is too busy to hear our prayers, rather that our prayers have to be from the heart. ‘Knocking’ implies persistence in prayer. It doesn’t mean we have to go on and on and on about things to God. It does mean that when we pray, we have to be serious about the task.

2) Pray with Patience

The preacher C.H. Spurgeon said waiting was like a long sea journey that brought back treasure from distant lands. ‘Coasters’ were small boats that carried coal and ordinary things from port to port in the same country, hugging the coastline as they traveled. But the great treasures came from the larger ships that sailed out of sight on great oceans. The point being… some thing’s are worth waiting for.

Be patient. Prayers are answered in different ways. As we’ve seen “Yes, but not now” “No” or “Well, Yes but nothing like in the way you expected” are all valid answers. God’s agenda of importance differs from ours. Pray with persistence, pray with patience. And thirdly…

3) Pray to a Person.

Christian prayer is not asking that the “Force will be with you.” We are not channeling supernatural forces or seeking to be a conduit for some divine stream of consciousness. We address our prayers to ONE Jesus described as a heavenly Father, a Father who wants only the absolute best for all of His much loved and cherished children. In prayer we are seeking to meet with God up close and personal.

Why are prayers not answered? Well... it all depends on what you mean by prayer and what you mean by answering. If you are asking; ‘Why doesn’t God give us everything we ever dreamed of and run the world in the way that we think is best’… then the answer is simple. There is a God. And it’s not you.

Prayer is not trying to force God’s arm to do what we want, but an attempt to align our lives with the will of God. In that process the desires of our hearts often need to be refined and redefined. Such a process can not be determined by ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ answers.

The problem of unanswered prayer is best approached by seeking to deepen our personal relationship with God, through Jesus Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit. The “Who’ of prayer, is a whole lot more important than the “Why?” of prayer.

Trust that when you pray, God knows best! It is in that framework that Jesus offers to us these words. "Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Rev Adrian J Pratt

DOES IT PAY TO BE GOOD?

2011-02-13T08:27:00.000-08:00

Readings: Psalm 37:1-24, Romans 8:35-39, Matthew 5:21-26
Preached at First Presbyterian Church Baldwin, NY February 13 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

Many times in our lives we are faced with the question ‘Does it pay to be Good?”

When you first leave home and are no longer under your parents authority. When you are confronted with a temptation that seems to hard to handle. When you try and give up a habit that you know is doing you more harm then good. When business is going badly and an opportunity comes along that look’s rewarding but questionable. When problems in a relationship have appeared and somebody appears on the scene that offers everything your current relationship doesn’t have. When you have to make an honest decision that nobody else will ever know about.

I read recently of a woman who was mad at her husband for being good. He was a sales manager in a large firm and they lived well. One of the directors asked him to start pushing a household appliance that had been remade from defective products. He wouldn’t do it. He lost his job. His wife was bitter. She didn’t think that it paid to be good.

It’s not a new question. The ancient Hebrews throughout their history always felt that there should be an equation between conduct and reward. That when you did good you should be rewarded for it. Correspondingly, when you did bad you should be punished.

As they looked around they started to realize that life’s not like that. Some people served God wholeheartedly and seemed to get nothing but trouble. Others were out and out rogues and prospered. As we look at peoples experience today we may conclude that nothings changed. Does serving the Lord count for anything? Does it pay to be good?

To seek an answer I’d like to look at verses from Psalm 37.

The Psalm begins “Do not fret because of the wicked; do not be envious of wrongdoers.”

It starts with a warning. Do not become jealous of people who appear to be doing well but are living immoral lives. Do not emulate them or admire them. Don’t allow envy to cheapen your lifestyle or make you compromise your values. Just because somebody else appears to prosper from doing something you know in your heart is not right, that is not a call to follow their example. The Psalm goes on to say harsh things concerning wicked folk who prosper.

Verse 2 “They will soon fade like the grass”
Verse 9 “The wicked shall be cut off” (cut off that is from God’s love)
Verse 10 “Yet a little while, and the wicked will be no more;
though you look diligently for their place, they will not be there.”
Most cutting of all…
Verse 13 “The LORD laughs at the wicked, for he sees that their day is coming.”

Every action we take produces results. Decisions towards unrighteousness or wickedness in this life do not take place in a vacuum. Life has eternal consequences. What goes around comes around, if not in this life then for sure in the next.

Presbyterians believe in salvation by faith, not by comparison. We believe that saying to God, “Hey, I was just going along with the crowd”… is not a good reason for God to pat us on the back and say, “Good job!” We believe that God’s Word teaches that we are not to mould our lives according to any pattern of twenty first century morality but by dwelling in God’s love. We believe that whatever we welcome into our lives in the immediate future not only effects the way we live tomorrow but also the welcome we should expect in eternity.

Consider Psalm 37, verses 14 and 15 “The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy, to kill those who walk uprightly; their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.”

These verses are similar to the words of Jesus to Peter at the time of His arrest, “Those who live by the sword, shall die by the sword”

Maybe we are asking the wrong question. Instead of asking “Does it pay to be Good?” we should ask, “Does it pay to invest our lives in half-truths, deceit, violence, immorality, or prejudice?” Sometimes the short time answer may be, “Well it got me what I wanted!” but always the long term repercussions outweigh any temporary benefit.

When we want to take money out of the bank, we have to draw that money from funds that we have invested. Money lending agencies encourage us to take out money we don’t yet have so as they can profit from the interest we will return to them, but eventually we have to pay it all back.

Consider good actions and bad actions as a form of collateral. Bad actions contribute to a pool of negativity. Good actions reinforce our relationship with God. We can only draw strength from what we have invested in. If our actions create a pool of negativity then we are going to be lost when trouble comes. If we have invested positively in other peoples lives, then when trouble comes we have the strength of God to draw upon.

Verses 18, 19 and 24 illustrate this well.
“The LORD knows the days of the blameless, and their heritage will abide forever; they are not put to shame in evil times, in the days of famine they have abundance.”

Verse 24: “Though we stumble, we shall not fall headlong, for the LORD holds us by the hand”.

In the work God has called me to do I have had the opportunity to observe people from many different backgrounds in many different circumstances. I have observed one undeniable fact... it is those who have a mature and longstanding Christian faith that are stand the firmest when the hard times come along. There is no guarantee in Christianity against trouble, but there is a guarantee against defeat.

In times of illness or bereavement or tragedy, it is those who know themselves children of God, not because of any merit of their own, but because of Christ’s death and resurrection… it is those who have invested their lives in seeking to do things God’s way, who stand firm. They know, from accumulated experience, that God will not abandon them. Yes, they may fall, but they know God is able to pick them up again. Paul, a man well acquainted with setbacks and troubles, wrote to a Roman Church struggling with persecution;

“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? … No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”(Romans 8:35-39)

It is those who grow in the knowledge and love of God who gain an understanding that those who cut moral corners never find. ‘Good actions’ build resources into our lives that can hold us when the storms come along. Good actions do not earn for us our salvation. We are saved by grace alone through faith. Good actions, and by good actions I mean actions that are a response and reflection of the goodness of God, reinforce our relationship with God.

Verse 3 through 7 of Psalm 37 outline three principles that can guide people who desire to do good things.

The first principle is found in verse 3 “Trust in the Lord”

That’s the place to begin doing good. Trust that in God’s hand your life will come to no harm. That it will be fruitful and grow. That God only wants the best for you. That God’s love is the love of a perfect parent. Good actions grow out of a good relationship with God.

The second principle is found in verse 4 “Take delight in the Lord”

Some modern translations have, “Seek your happiness in the Lord”. Not everybody associates delight with God. They think of God - and words like service or holiness or wrath or judgment come to mind. They look for happiness elsewhere, in material things, in films or books, food or drink. The verse continues, “Take delight in the LORD, and God will give you the desires of your heart.”

Until our hearts find their true home in God they will always be restless. Until our hearts find their center in Christ we will always be off-center. Until we find the joy of the Holy Spirit we will always be seeking happiness in other places.

A third principle is verse 5 “Commit your way to the Lord”

Wholehearted, unreserved commitment to God results in God’s will being done in our lives and through our lives transforms the world. We may not see immediate results… verse 7 counsels us… “Be still before the LORD, and wait patiently” for God to act.

You may sometimes feel that by holding to God’s standards you are missing out on the things of this world. No matter. The things of this world are temporary and passing. Tempting, yes, but fulfilling, no. We must wait on God, relying on God’s timing. To wait on the Lord is to declare our dependence on God for all we need in life.

Three principles:-

Trust in God
Delight in God
Commit yourself to God.

Does it pay to be good? It’s a question we ask almost every day in numerous ways. The Psalmist points us towards an answer.

I’ll be honest, there have been times when I have doubted, when I’ve contemplated how, if my life had taken a different path, I could have earned higher wages, had less responsibility, had more influence, gained more ‘stuff’. I have questioned whether it pays to be good, whether whole hearted commitment to Jesus Christ pays off in this world.

But times of doubt have been outnumbered by times of blessing. I have discovered things about the love of God and the provision of God that have left me awestruck. I have a wonderful inheritance as part of the family of God. I have a life with an eternal perspective that goes far beyond anything this world can offer.

Following Christ pays great dividends, particularly when times of struggle and trial come our way. Does it pay to be good? There’s only one way to find out. Do it. Try it. Stick with it. Hold to it. Do the kind of good that reflects the goodness of God. Do the kind of good that brings glory to God and makes others feel they are also God’s children.

To God be all praise for His great goodness revealed in Jesus Christ through the action of His Holy Spirit in our midst, Amen.

Adrian Pratt

WHEN JESUS CAME TO CHURCH

2011-02-07T07:11:00.000-08:00

Readings: Psalm 112:1-10, Micah 6:6-8, 1 Corinthians 2:1-16, Matthew 25:31-40
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, February 6th 2011

A printable PDF file can be found here

SouperBowl Sunday is a day when youth groups across America raise money for a charitable cause that they wish to support, by asking their congregations to drop a dollar (or more) in a soup bowl as they leave church. The money our youth collect will go to support our local food pantry in Freeport.

In another place I served, Fayetteville, WV, their church was near a main highway that attracted traffic on the way from Ontario to Florida and everywhere in between. Sometimes vehicles would break down or people would find themselves stranded with nowhere to stay. So the church used the ‘Souperbowl’ money to establish a fund to help those who were ‘passing through’ get a room for a night. You never knew who they might be!

I arrived home from a meeting, to be greeted by Yvonne telling me I needed to get over to the church, because there was a man there saying wouldn’t leave till he had seen the pastor.

Arrive I did and found him sitting in the sanctuary. He was wearing denims, quite dark-skinned, almost Spanish in appearance, sitting on the back pew reading a small bible. After reading a few verses, he would close the book, kiss the bible then bow his head in prayer, before returning to another reading.

Some brief introductions and he made his request, “I will sleep here tonight”. “Well, I said (realizing that I had some money from the SouperBowl Fund for just such a purpose), “Let me see if we can get you a room somewhere”

“No pastor” he explained, “I will sleep here, in this special place” pointing at the church around him. I said something about it being more comfortable in places where there were beds, but again he spoke up.

“Pastor, I’m sure you know your bible. Does the Word not say, ‘In my Fathers house’. I don’t want to go elsewhere. I want to be here, in my Father’s house”.

“Hmmm” I thought, this could be a tricky one. The man obviously hadn’t a shower for a while, nor I suspected had a decent meal. It would be a liability to leave him unattended in the church overnight because I knew nothing about this man at all, apart from his own recommendations. He could be on the run, could be an arsonist or an axe murderer. I didn’t know him from Adam. Or he could be totally genuine.

We spoke some more. He explained how God had commissioned him as a church worker and that he was traveling the country taking the Good News with him. He considered himself a bishop appointed to build up the body of the church. He would stay with whomsoever would welcome him and teach them the things of God.

Bishop or no bishop I really didn’t want him camping out in the sanctuary. So after some persuasion he agreed that a night in the Comfort Inn wouldn’t be so bad after all. The poor fellow didn’t have two cents to call his own, so that’s where the fund came in handy. We could also get him a good meal.

When we got up to the Comfort Inn he had to register for a room. He needed some identification.
“Name” the lady asked.
“Jesus” he replied.
Unfazed the lady said, “I need to see some I.D.”
So he pulled out a driving license and sure enough, there was his name, ‘Jesus,’ followed by a Mediterranean sounding second name.

We found him a room and then I stayed to talk with him a while about a whole range of topics. From what he told me he was from a Jewish background, but had converted to Christianity. He’d spent some time traveling in Israel. He had particular views about a whole host of things, varying from the role of the church, Middle East politics and the end of the world.

By the way he spoke and some of his actions, rocking to and fro as he talked, sometimes being a little incoherent, it was apparent that this was a man who had his share of problems. I don’t mean that in any condescending way; he was polite, gentle, reasonable and intelligent, yet at the same time he was someone who needed help.

Driving home I reflected on the situation. Jesus had come to stay at a church where I was the pastor, a place he called ‘His Father’s house’ but I’d thrown him out. In a reversal of the Bethlehem story, there was room at the Inn, the Comfort Inn! Because of the money in the Souperbowl fund, not only did he get a bed for the night but also a good meal inside him as well.

There are always people in our own community and beyond who have material needs. There are those who need food from food pantries, help with bills, help with clothing for themselves and family and numerous other things. The amount of requests for help seems to be increasing, rather than decreasing.

I’m grateful for those who seek to offer support through initiatives such as Souperbowl Sundays.

I can’t help but think of those words from Matthew’s gospel, (Chapter 25) 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?' And the King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.' (37-40).

Later today two teams will be battling it out on the football field. One of them will go home knowing they are the winners, they are the champions. They deservedly will have their moment of glory.

Life’s not a football game. Yes, there are those who make it to the top of their personal dreams, there are winners. We rejoice with them. But there are also losers. There are those who never even make it onto the field.

So please be generous in supporting the SouperBowl fund, to help those like the roaming Jesus who wanted to sleep in the church. I realize that whatever we do is but a drop in the ocean. But oceans are nothing more than lot’s of drops of water. Every drop has significance and matters and counts.

With God’s help may we know the privilege of helping others in some practical, Holy Sprit inspired, Christlike way.

And To God’s name be the Glory.

Where are you going?

2011-01-23T06:43:00.000-08:00

Readings: Psalm 40:1-11, Isaiah 49:1—7, John 1:29-42, 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, January 23rd 2011

A PDF printable file can be found here

If someone asks you to follow them it’s reasonable to ask, “Where are you going?” As Jesus walked by the sea of Galilee He saw Simon and Andrew and asked them to follow. They didn’t ask questions. Neither, a little while later did James or John when He called them.

It’s a strange thing. When people hear the call of Jesus Christ to follow, they don’t ask “Where are you going?” When we encounter Jesus, that question is turned around. We are the ones challenged to ask ourselves where our lives will be heading if we refuse to respond to His invitation.

It’s a fair question isn’t it? ‘Where are we going?’ What paths are we following? Right now, on January 23rd 2011, as we sit here in the company of each other and in the presence of God, what are we about? The last couple of weeks our bible stories have addressed questions such as “Why are we here?” and “What do we want?” This text asks “Where are we going?”

Maybe someone here is looking forward to something happening this afternoon, or meeting someone tonight, or anticipating some event later in the week. Once church is over with, and this is over with and that is over with, then we’ll go bowling!

There are people who spend their whole lives so concerned about getting to the next thing that they really never stop long enough to hear the call of Jesus to follow. It is possible to be so task orientated that you never discover the joy of savoring the moment. Life is just a series of appointments and the spaces in between are times traveling between appointments. Modern life positively encourages that way of being. Instant answers, Fast Food, Drive through everything’s.

You know how the church is here, with roads on three sides? Maybe we could introduce a drive through service. We could mount a loudspeaker and intercom at the corner, and you could stop the car and confess your sins as you drive by. A little mechanical voice could say "Do you want to supersize that! For your assurance of pardon please drop off your tithes and offerings at the next window." Drop in your offering then move on to the next window, pick up a copy of the sermon and "Vroom" your away; Church, over and done with in two minutes.

Forget this having to fellowship with people, or sing, or find a place to sit and standing up and reading prayers and all the rest of it. None of this having to consider where you’re going, because you're on the way. You haven't got time for wasteful contemplation.

The frightening thing about the concept of a drive through church, is that some people genuinely think it would be a great idea. They don't seem to pick up on the message of Jesus that we are to love each other as He loved us, and we can only do that in community.

Observers note that America, the richest of all nations, has bred a form of consumer Christianity that disciples of the early church would have a hard time identifying with. The growth of Mega-Churches and Television has created worship experiences where the attendee is more of a spectator than a participant. Religion has become entertainment, a commodity to be consumed. How does that have anything to do with the Kingdom way of life of which the Scriptures talk?

The question to ask about the church is not; "What can this church do for me?" The disciples question should be; "How can I serve Christ in this church?” Are these the people God is calling me to have a special love for? Are these the ones in whose tears and laughter I will discover God’s presence?

When Jesus wanted to teach the disciples what discipleship was, He didn’t suggest a drive-thru! He took a bowl and washed their dirty feet. He shared with them in a fellowship meal and broke bread and drank wine. He told them to love each other as much as He loved them. He laid down His life for them.

He laid down His life for us, and that is why when we hear this invitation "Follow Me" it should raise deep questions in our hearts about where our lives may be going. In as much as we follow after other things, then we are not following Christ.

Do you have a phone with “Call Waiting?” Do you put people on hold to talk with someone else? With Jesus there is no “Call Waiting”, you don’t put following Him on hold. You are either following Him or going your own way. And if you go your own way, where is it leading? Your own personal Paradise? Some imaginary safe place where the concerns of life won’t weigh you down? Or maybe, as rock band AC/DC once screamed, we’re on a ‘highway to hell’?

We don’t know exactly what it was that produced an immediate response in those first fishermen disciples. We do know that there was something about the presence of Jesus that assured them that following Him was doing the right thing. That what they were being called to, was something far greater than anything they were being called to leave behind.

That presence of Christ, that makes “No” feel like the wrong thing to say to His invitation, is available to us all. As we worship together; as we hear and apply His Word to our lives; as we rethink our values in relation to the values of His Kingdom; something can change in us.

It’s a matter of grace, it’s a matter of allowing God’s Holy Spirit time and room to move. It’s a matter of getting off the treadmill and asking where, if anywhere, the things you follow are leading you.

Someone asked me, “When you moved to the USA was it hard for you to leave your home and family behind and come to another country?” You bet it was! Anybody who has made that kind of move will tell you the same. Some days it is still hard to be thousands of miles away from those loved ones who nurtured your life and whom you call family and friends.

But I have no regrets about the decision. It was a decision made in the Presence of Jesus. It was His call to follow that I listened to. It was another step in a journey that has so far led me to all kinds of places and experiences and joys and challenges that life would have otherwise not held for me. No regrets. Lots of blessings.

That means that right now, on January 23rd 2011, as we sit here in the company of each other and the presence of God, I am in a position where I can say to you with full assurance of faith; ‘Listen for the call of Jesus that says “Follow me” and do what ever it takes to be obedient to that call.’ Whatever Jesus calls you to leave behind is dull and empty in comparison to where He wants to take you. Your right! It is a matter of faith and of trust. But the fact that you are here this morning shows you know enough about trusting God, to trust Him a little bit more.

So get excited.
Get with the program.
Get into the Word so that the Word gets into you.
Get on your knees in prayer.
Hear Christ calling to you,
“Follow me.. Help me catch others up in the Kingdom”
And do whatever it takes to make it happen!
To the glory of God.
AMEN.

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?

2011-01-16T08:37:00.000-08:00

Readings: Psalm 40:1-11, Isaiah 49:1—7, John 1:29-42, 1 Corinthians 1:1-9
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, January 16th 2011

A printable PDF can be found here

I came out of the bathroom, walked down the corridor, and arrived in the kitchen. There I stood, with a quizzical look on my face.
“What are you looking for?” asked Yvonne.
“You know” I said, “I haven’t got a clue. I’ll just have to retrace my steps and maybe it will come to me!”

Has that ever happened to you? You’re looking for something, but you forget what it is? So you have to back up a little to try and reignite your memory. Well, if it doesn’t happen to you, watch out, it probably will!

Last week our passage of Scripture gave us the question “What are you doing here?” This week the question Jesus asks is, “What do you seek? What are you looking for?”

The circumstances surrounding the question are these. Two of John the Baptist’s disciples (one of them being Andrew) have been observing everything that’s been going on. John had been saying some impressive things about Jesus.

“Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!” (v29)
“This is the One about whom I said, ’After me comes a man of higher rank.” (v30)
“This is the one who baptizes in the Holy Spirit!” (v33)
“This is the Son of God” (v34)

They are obviously curious, because as Jesus walks by them, they start to follow after Him. They haven’t quite got the nerve to go up and ask Him “What’s all this stuff John’s saying about you?” They just seem to want to watch and see what happens.

In an almost comical moment, Jesus suddenly turns around, looks straight at them, and asks them, “What are you looking for?” It seems they don’t really have an answer. They just blurt out the first thing that came to mind, “Erm.. Rabbi ...ehm Teacher...we were just wondering, where in town are you staying?”

“Why don’t you come and see?” invites Jesus. And they go with Him and spend time talking with Him and as they open their lives to His teaching become convinced that He is the Messiah, the ‘Christ,’ John had been telling them to get ready for. So convicted is Andrew that he runs home to get his brother Simon and brings him along to meet Jesus.

By becoming disciples of John and then trailing after Jesus, it seems clear that the disciples were looking for something. At the same time, you get the impression they didn’t quite know what they were looking for. But, whatever it was, in Jesus, they had an idea they could find it.

When you start to dig deep into your own hopes and dreams and ambitions, it can be a confusing experience. Of course, because we’re here in church we could smugly smile and say, “Well, all I want to do is live the life God wants me to.” Yet, I have an impression that we would be fooling nobody but ourselves.

Fact is that we’re not always sure exactly what we’re looking for. We are here this morning because there is something in us that keeps telling us, “Well, whatever it is you’re after, somehow it’s tied up with the Gospel Message and the Will of God and the life of Christ.”

Sometimes we are driven more by curiosity than by certainty, more by coercion than by conviction, more by compulsion rather than by compassion. We are, even in our best moments, as much driven by wants, as we are by needs, and at times find the distinction between the two is blurred.

As people we need to be loved, but sometimes we do things simply for affirmation to make ourselves lovable. As people we need to have a sense of purpose, but sometimes we purposefully pursue things that are a hindrance rather than a help. As Christian people we realize there is a God shaped hole in our life, but so often fill that space with other things.

Now I say none of this in order that we should wring our hands and complain about what terrible people we are. I’m not taking us on any kind of guilt trip so that we hang our heads in shame with much weeping and gnashing of teeth. I am simply acknowledging that human nature is a mixed bag of conflicting ideals, emotions and conflicts.

Whilst in Christ we can know ourselves to be saved and forgiven and redeemed and all the other religious terminology that preachers like myself are so fond of confusing people with; we also know that we are, as Scripture says, still ‘working out our salvation’, are still, as Scripture says, people over whom Jesus prays, “Father, Forgive them , for they don’t know what they are doing”, people who, as Scripture teaches, are in a process of becoming... Paul writes “This one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Phillipians 3:13)

I was at home the other day, rummaging through some papers. Again my good lady caught me in my confusion.
“What are you looking for?”
“I don’t know” I said, “ but I’ll tell you when I find it!”

Everybody’s journey of faith has some wrong turnings within it. We are people, so we make mistakes. Maybe we feel some days that we have made more wrong turnings than right ones, but occasionally we stumble upon something that seems to be the genuine article.

Could be it was a little like that for those first disciples? They couldn’t really define what it was that drew them towards Christ, but once He’d found them, they knew that He was what they were searching for. There is that tension in the story that whilst they were looking for Jesus, He was also looking for them.

Many times religion is pictured as peoples search for God. Yet the image that comes through the New Testament is that God , in Christ, is looking for us. It’s a two sided picture, like any relationship where love can grow has to be.

We are given parables like that of the woman looking for the lost coin and being so happy when she finds it. We are told to seek that we may find. We are also given parables like that of the Good Shepherd who leaves ninety nine behind in order to go in search of one lost sheep. Jesus is pictured as the one who comes to seek and save the lost.

We look for God.
God searches for us.
Yet still the question hangs hauntingly in the air;
“What are you looking for?”

When two people are looking for each other, we call it searching for a relationship. Many newspapers have a personal ad section, dating agencies flourish, people search in CyberSpace for that special someone to make their dreams come true.

Some theologians have described that need for a relationship as an indication of our thirst for God. They suggest that all search for intimacy, all longing of the heart, all striving after another is a reaching towards God. Taking it one step further they also suggest that no relationship is ever truly fulfilled until its center is found in Christ.

To put it another way, no relationship we ever have, will be all that it could be unless our relationship with God is secure. If we are to have great relationships with each other here on earth then our relationship with God must be one that is constantly deepening and growing. For God’s love is the ground of all true love, God’s life is what gives all life true meaning.

Jesus had a recipe for contentment. He recommends trust in God, being happy with what you have, in the knowledge that God can take care of things; the release of anxiety and the acceptance of peace, the looking to God for all things, in all things and through all things.

What are we looking for in life? And what is God looking for in us? We may not be able give neat tidy answers to these questions. But John’s two disciples made the right choice when they decided to become disciples of Jesus. They still had a lot to learn and a lot to find. Yet in Christ they found the way, the truth and the life.

When you’re searching for something but don’t quite know what is, retrace your steps. Let them lead you back to God who gave you life. For God knows exactly what we are looking for. Even when we’re not so sure!

Hear, as did those first disciples, the invitation of Jesus. “Come and see”. Through prayer and time spent with God’s Word, through worship and service we open up all that we are to God’s Holy Spirit. We may not find every answer we are looking for, but the promise to us is this; God will give us everything we really need to be God’s people.

Rev Adrian J Pratt