"LET IT HAPPEN!” (ADVENT FOUR)

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)

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)

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”

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”

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”

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”

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?

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

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

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