Readings: Psalm 111, Deuteronomy 18:15-20, Mark 1:21-28, 1 Corinthians 8: 1-13
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, January 29th 2012
A printable PDF file can be found here
As Christian people we are not 'finished articles' but 'works in progress. None of us can claim to have yet become everything that God wants us to be or to perfectly exemplify the life of Jesus Christ. And as ‘works in progress’ we are all at different stages of development. As a community of God’s people it is an incredibly important thing to recognize that about each other. None of us has all the knowledge or all the insight or the total view on reality that God has upon our lives together.
That is not to say that none of us has anything. On the contrary, God has blessed us all in as many different ways as we are different people. God has given us each all a little light to shine. ‘You’ve got yours and I’ve got mine. You let yours shine, I let my shine. Shine ‘em all together it’s going to be fine.” Right? No. Wrong.
When I pastored in West Virginia I was the moderator for a couple of churches that didn't have an installed pastor. Basically that meant having to visit them once every couple of months to moderate their session meetings. One time I entered the fellowship hall of a little church in Colcord, WV, and was startled to hear a loud beeping noise coming from their kitchen. Upon investigation it was emanating from a fire alarm box that had a red light flashing with the message “Action Needed” written underneath.
One of the session members arrived and set about solving the problem. “Action Needed”. Press the reset button. No, that didn’t work. Was there an overload on the electric supply? Had the battery gone flat? It had been real cold, had a pipe burst or something flooded? Was there a fuse out? As people arrived, various suggestions were put forward.
Eventually one of then tried turning the mains power on and off at the breaker box and that did the trick. We think the box was trying to tell us that the power had gone off earlier that day and it was necessary to check what had happened to various electrical devices when the power had been restored.
In this mornings reading from 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 Paul used the word ‘conscience’ a number of times. (In verses 8, 10 and 12). In Greek the word for conscience is syneidēsis. I’m continuing today on the theme of “Living a Holy Life in an Unholy World”.
Paul suggests that people have their own individual syneidēsis . He describes some as having a weak syneidēsis, some as having a strong syneidēsis. This ‘moral conscience’, this syneidēsis, functions as a sort of internal red light, a moral scanner that is set off when a contemplated action arises doubt. It is the moral equivalent of an 'action needed' light.
The other word that Paul uses a lot in this passage is “knowledge”. (verses 1-3, verse 10-11). For each of us Paul suggests that the way our little internal red light, our syneidēsis, our moral conscience, works, is closely connected to how we understand the world around us, and how we relate to others.
Paul is talking about how a community that is committed to following Jesus Christ should come to their moral decisions. He is writing about how best we can live in a way that encourages others to be faithful disciples. The particular issue he uses as a ‘Case Study’ is that of “Food offered to idols”. Maybe not a burning issue to most of us, but a thorny problem for the Corinthians.
We know from archeological evidence how downtown Corinth was laid out. Let’s say you’re a Corinthian citizen. It’s Saturday afternoon and you are off downtown to get the shopping from the market. What would the area be like? You come into town by the Laecheum Road. On your right would be the theatre, in front of the theatre, the market. If you were after some recreation you headed through the Propylea, a monumental arch that was the entrance to the Forum area.
In the Forum area not only would you find an office selling tickets for the Isthmian Games, a baths, some restaurants and taverns and a number of administrative and governmental buildings, but also 5 temples dedicated to different gods. One would be to Aphrodite, another to Apollo or Athens. By far the largest building in the whole Forum area would be the Temple of the Imperial Cult where you could offer worship and offerings to emperors past and present.
When you went shopping to the market or ate meat in one of the restaurants, often the stall or the eating-place would be dedicated to a particular deity or god, the food having come through the temple they identified with. The same would happen when you went out to dinner. “Today’s steak is bought to you by Apollo, Healthy Food for healthy men”. “Get a little romance in your life by tasting our Aphrodite Chicken!”
It was customary in some way or other to dedicate the food on offer to a deity or god that Christians recognized as being an idol. As people became Christians and they started to place their lives under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, every time they went out to eat or on a shopping trip to the Mall, their little internal red lights would start flashing, “'Action needed, Action needed', We’re not supposed to be honoring idols, we’re supposed to be honoring God”.
Paul begins chapter 8 with the words “Now, concerning things offered to idols”. His overall concern is building up the community of believers, rather than speaking to any particular individual. The first thing he does is warn them that knowledge can be a dangerous thing if used in a selfish way.
“Knowledge” he says can make you puffed up and arrogant, but “love”... love builds things up. And when you have a love for God then you can be sure that God is going to guide you and help you through these decisions in a way that works best for everybody.
He then talks about the idols and the way different people of faith had their red lights firing off. Some of them were being “Know-it-alls” and saying, “Well we know that idols don’t really exist, so why worry about eating meat that’s offered to a deity that was just a figment of people’s imagination. After all, Jesus has set us free from worrying about what food we should eat, so we can eat whatever we like”.
‘Hold on now’, says Paul, ‘Not only does that sound rather arrogant, but suppose somebody comes along, who’s not as sure about their faith as you are, and makes the conclusion that because you are going along with all these prayers that there is something in the reality of those idols? You’re actions are going to hurt them.’ In verse 9 he plainly says, “Beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who are weak”.
Most of the new believers in Corinth were not coming out of the belief system that Israel had of just believing in One God. They were in the Gentile World, which suggested a whole pantheon of gods could control your destiny and govern your life. It wasn’t easy for them to break that understanding when it was the one they’d been taught by their parents and that dominated the culture around them.
Jiminy Cricket sang, “Always let your conscience be your guide”. The problem was that in Corinth the Christians had warning lights that were guiding them in different directions. Some of them were claiming that their knowledge of things meant they could do stuff that others wouldn’t involve themselves in. But Paul declares in verses 11-12 “Because of your knowledge shall the weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.”
The teaching in this passage is about a whole lot more than meat offered to idols. It’s about how we relate to all the things in our lives. You can apply it to a whole host of things. Alcohol use, tobacco, the lottery, our driving habits, the way we react when we are wronged, the words that come out of our mouths, the jokes we tell, the courtesy we use to others when we are out and about, relationships at school, at home, at work.
Am I living in a way that is encouraging others to be disciples? Am I prepared “To yield my spirit to God” even if it means not doing some things that my freedom in Jesus Christ would make it permissible for me to do.
As Paul’s’ concern was particularly to build up the community of the church, this passage can be applied particularly to the way we see our church involvement. You know, when you skip a Sunday for anything less than a truly valid reason you are giving out a message that says ‘belonging to the church is not that important’.
If you are able to serve on a committee or perform a particular service to your church and you say, “I don’t have to do that, my salvation doesn’t depend on works, I’m saved by the Grace of God, then... true you are not endangering your salvation... but you are sending out a message that clearly proclaims to others, “My church community doesn’t matter that much”.
If God has blessed you financially and people see that most of your money is invested in your personal fulfillment and only what is left over goes to support your church, then they will conclude that God is only worth your left-overs and not seriously worth investing their lives in when it comes to the real world.
Worship is a lifestyle. In the context of the church it’s a lifestyle that looks, not to self-interest, but to the building of your church community.
‘Paul writes: 'Now about meat offered to idols…’. ‘My little light, your little light.’ May God help us, through the Holy Spirit, to live in a way that not only builds our personal lives but also encourages others to commit their lives to Jesus Christ in the context of belonging to a church community.
To God be the glory.
AMEN.
Rev Adrian Pratt
Monday, January 30, 2012
Monday, January 23, 2012
DIRTY HANDS Living a Holy Life in an Unholy World (2)
Readings: Psalm 62:5-12, Jonah 3:1-5, Mark 1:14-20, 1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on January 22nd 2011
A printable PDF copy can be found here
I was watching a football game. Actually it was what you call a soccer game. Manchester United playing Chelsea in the English Premier League. Whilst not a crucial game it was nevertheless an important one that could gain either side important points. A soccer game lasts 90 minutes, with time added called stoppage time at the end.
It was 91 minutes into the game, (that is already one minute into the two minutes of stoppage time). The score was one goal to each side. The Manchester goal keeper had the ball. Instead of staying in the goal-mouth, the usual procedure for a goal-keeper, he started kicking it up the field, gesturing at the rest of the team to move up, to get in shot of the goal.
With just a few seconds to go, he passed it to another player, who crossed the ball across the goal mouth, “Wham” one of the other players headed it into the back of the net. Victory to Man. United! A classic goal in the closing seconds of a tightly fought match.
Have you noticed though, that when a championship game of any sport draws near to a close, teams will take on some unusual tactics? Goal-Keepers come out of their areas. There will be crazy passes or plays that wouldn’t normally be tried. When time is short, the game plan can dramatically alter.
I want to continue on my theme of “Living a Holy Life in an Unholy World”, looking at Paul’s teaching in chapters six to nine of 1 Corinthians. In our passage this morning we have Paul recommending to the Corinthian Church that, as time was of the essence, they should examine the game plan of their spiritual lives. It was important for them to concentrate on what was really important, maybe even take unusual steps to see that they remained spiritually on the winning side.
As history was headed towards the final whistle, the coming of Jesus Christ had set in motion waves of change that could not be ignored. Things were not going to remain the same, particularly for those who embraced His message. In particular their relationship with Jesus Christ was going to affect the way they related to everything else in their lives. Enthroning Jesus Christ as Lord meant other things had to move over.
Our passage this morning is very much an exercise in perspective keeping. It calls us to look at our lives, with the knowledge that life can be very uncertain, and take stock as to what really matters.
I am reminded of conversations I’ve had with folk who have been victims of flood or fire. The things that were seen as being the greatest loss, where not necessarily items of material value, but things that had some personal worth attached to them. Photographs, letters, memories of people and places, things that could not be replaced.
In a similar way Paul sees the possibility of Christ’s return as energizing us towards thinking through where our commitments should lie. What are we investing our lives in? Things that outlast them, or things that won’t even last as long as them? What’s the bottom line? Is it relationships? Is it feeling good? Is it buying and selling and owning? What are the defining factors in our relationship to the world in which we live?
Paul seems to say, “Look, if tomorrow where the last day of history, how would you live your life today?” I’m sure I’m not the only guy here who can remember late night conversations as an adolescent along the lines of, “What would you do if you knew there was a nuclear bomb on its way from some foreign power and you only had a few hours left to live?”
I’ve heard some guys suggest that they would like to find the prettiest girl around, head for the nearest nuclear shelter and set about the business of seeing the world became repopulated as soon as possible. But of course I’m not allowed to say that sort of thing in church.
But you know what, I said it, and it fits right in with what Paul is saying. I’m not talking about the fact of adolescent desire clouding genuine understanding, but Paul is shouting at us “Get Real”. If your religion is just an escape, forget it. If you come along to church and want it to be totally unrelated to the real world in which you live your daily life; if your looking for something to sort out your spiritual life by providing neat, inoffensive solutions, then find another religion.
Get Real. Christianity is the religion of the Cross. Pain and punishment. Flesh and blood. Desire and Frustration. Crucifixion, Sweat and tears. Rolling Stones and empty tombs. Don’t confuse faith with fairy tales. Don’t settle for Disneyland faith and Hallmark spirituality. Don’t commit yourself to anything that is not reaching deeply into your daily world. Don’t put up with anything that does not deal with the actual life you live, the desires that shape your existence, and the thoughts that fill your mind.
There were those in Corinth who took it that Paul was preaching that 'Jesus was coming soon' and therefore they didn’t need to do much except hang around, say their prayers, read their bibles and “Woosh” any moment Jesus would whisk them away to happy clappy heaven. The last thing they wanted to do was get their hands dirty through involvement with the real world. ‘Just wait for the Lord to sort it all out. You don’t have to worry. You don’t have a care in the world. God will look after everything”
‘Get Real’ says Paul, because Christ has come, because time is of the essence, then you have to get your hands dirty. You have to throw yourself, body, soul and spirit, into sorting out what’s right and wrong for you, where your real commitments lie and how you will live in the light of those decisions.
He identifies for us a dilemma, a crisis that genuine Christian commitment will eventually lead us to. Namely, the pervasive human problem of competing goals and loyalties. We are called to relate to every indifferent matter in such a way as to neither overvalue it or to confuse it with what is most important.
Putting it simply, Paul gives instructions for being active disciples. Being a disciple, he tells us, is more important than anything else in life. It is more important than what we wear, what we own, how we feel, who we marry, what we get to do and don’t get to do, be it at home, at work, at school, wherever. To be a disciple is to take active steps to see that Jesus is enthroned as Lord over and above every other thing in your existence.
He speaks of particular things. “Those that have wives should act as though they had none” (verse 29). Now there’s a phrase that could be open to misinterpretation! In this same chapter Paul says a whole lot about honoring your relationships and how a husband needed to have his mind set on his wife. About how that sometimes meant that a married person couldn’t commit to everything a single person would be able to commit to. If you had a family, you had responsibilities.
Looking at it through that lens, Paul seems to be saying, “Treat your partners in marriage as though you only had a short time together”. If your partner wasn’t your partner, what sort of things would you be doing to convince them that you should be the special one in their lives? If today was the last day of your lives, what would you say to each other, how would you behave towards to each other?
Verse 30 “Those who mourn should act as though they were not mourning, those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing”. Plainly, it would be psychological suicide to repress every emotion of mourning or rejoicing. Again, I don’t think that’s what Paul is getting at. To me Paul is saying that we should not allow either mourning or rejoicing to be the framework through which we interpret everything else in our lives.
Our lives are full of experiences of loss and experiences of blessing. If, in the long term, we allow those experiences to become our focus, then they will shift our eyes away from Christ and cause to interpret our lives only on the basis of our emotional experiences. Mourning and expressing joy are important dimensions of life, but they are not the totality of human life. We must make room for them, but not build our lives upon such experiences.
Verse 30 continues “and those who buy, as though they did not possess”. Elsewhere the gospel plainly teaches that materialism is not a sound base upon which to build a spiritual life. Jesus told a parable about a ‘Rich Fool’, a man who works hard, stores up everything for a rainy day, only to find that, as Paul is warning the Corinthians, sometimes life is cut short. On his entry to heaven the man is told, “You fool, Now what are you going to do with all that wealth you accumulated for yourself?” How many times have you heard people say “You can’t take it with you”? Yet so much time is spent in acquisition. As Paul says, “What if there is no tomorrow? How is all that stuff going to help us?”
Finally, verse 31, he instructs “those who deal with the world (should act) as though they had no dealings with it”. So what Paul? We’re supposed to live our lives as though this world had no influence on us what ever? Isn’t it time you got real? Chances are Jesus isn’t coming tomorrow, you got that wrong! 2000 years and He hasn’t shown yet!
I can’t answer for Paul, but maybe he would direct us towards these words in Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 18 and verse 18 “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" It wasn’t Paul who said that, but Jesus. Nevertheless…if today were the closing seconds of the Game, how then would we live? We really don’t have all the time in the world. Knowing that is a fact that can help us value the time, and use the time that we do have, a whole lot more wisely.
There is time for sowing and a time for harvesting. In both cases we get our hands dirty. Christian discipleship involves actively seeking for our life to be under Christ’s Lordship in all areas. Our relationships. Our time. Our emotions. Our stuff. That world we walk though on a daily basis. Evaluating all of that isn’t easy. But, as Paul seems to suggest, what if tomorrow was our last? How would we invest our lives today? May God help us to answer such questions in a way that draws us deeper into God’s love.
AMEN!
Rev Adrian Pratt
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on January 22nd 2011
A printable PDF copy can be found here
I was watching a football game. Actually it was what you call a soccer game. Manchester United playing Chelsea in the English Premier League. Whilst not a crucial game it was nevertheless an important one that could gain either side important points. A soccer game lasts 90 minutes, with time added called stoppage time at the end.
It was 91 minutes into the game, (that is already one minute into the two minutes of stoppage time). The score was one goal to each side. The Manchester goal keeper had the ball. Instead of staying in the goal-mouth, the usual procedure for a goal-keeper, he started kicking it up the field, gesturing at the rest of the team to move up, to get in shot of the goal.
With just a few seconds to go, he passed it to another player, who crossed the ball across the goal mouth, “Wham” one of the other players headed it into the back of the net. Victory to Man. United! A classic goal in the closing seconds of a tightly fought match.
Have you noticed though, that when a championship game of any sport draws near to a close, teams will take on some unusual tactics? Goal-Keepers come out of their areas. There will be crazy passes or plays that wouldn’t normally be tried. When time is short, the game plan can dramatically alter.
I want to continue on my theme of “Living a Holy Life in an Unholy World”, looking at Paul’s teaching in chapters six to nine of 1 Corinthians. In our passage this morning we have Paul recommending to the Corinthian Church that, as time was of the essence, they should examine the game plan of their spiritual lives. It was important for them to concentrate on what was really important, maybe even take unusual steps to see that they remained spiritually on the winning side.
As history was headed towards the final whistle, the coming of Jesus Christ had set in motion waves of change that could not be ignored. Things were not going to remain the same, particularly for those who embraced His message. In particular their relationship with Jesus Christ was going to affect the way they related to everything else in their lives. Enthroning Jesus Christ as Lord meant other things had to move over.
Our passage this morning is very much an exercise in perspective keeping. It calls us to look at our lives, with the knowledge that life can be very uncertain, and take stock as to what really matters.
I am reminded of conversations I’ve had with folk who have been victims of flood or fire. The things that were seen as being the greatest loss, where not necessarily items of material value, but things that had some personal worth attached to them. Photographs, letters, memories of people and places, things that could not be replaced.
In a similar way Paul sees the possibility of Christ’s return as energizing us towards thinking through where our commitments should lie. What are we investing our lives in? Things that outlast them, or things that won’t even last as long as them? What’s the bottom line? Is it relationships? Is it feeling good? Is it buying and selling and owning? What are the defining factors in our relationship to the world in which we live?
Paul seems to say, “Look, if tomorrow where the last day of history, how would you live your life today?” I’m sure I’m not the only guy here who can remember late night conversations as an adolescent along the lines of, “What would you do if you knew there was a nuclear bomb on its way from some foreign power and you only had a few hours left to live?”
I’ve heard some guys suggest that they would like to find the prettiest girl around, head for the nearest nuclear shelter and set about the business of seeing the world became repopulated as soon as possible. But of course I’m not allowed to say that sort of thing in church.
But you know what, I said it, and it fits right in with what Paul is saying. I’m not talking about the fact of adolescent desire clouding genuine understanding, but Paul is shouting at us “Get Real”. If your religion is just an escape, forget it. If you come along to church and want it to be totally unrelated to the real world in which you live your daily life; if your looking for something to sort out your spiritual life by providing neat, inoffensive solutions, then find another religion.
Get Real. Christianity is the religion of the Cross. Pain and punishment. Flesh and blood. Desire and Frustration. Crucifixion, Sweat and tears. Rolling Stones and empty tombs. Don’t confuse faith with fairy tales. Don’t settle for Disneyland faith and Hallmark spirituality. Don’t commit yourself to anything that is not reaching deeply into your daily world. Don’t put up with anything that does not deal with the actual life you live, the desires that shape your existence, and the thoughts that fill your mind.
There were those in Corinth who took it that Paul was preaching that 'Jesus was coming soon' and therefore they didn’t need to do much except hang around, say their prayers, read their bibles and “Woosh” any moment Jesus would whisk them away to happy clappy heaven. The last thing they wanted to do was get their hands dirty through involvement with the real world. ‘Just wait for the Lord to sort it all out. You don’t have to worry. You don’t have a care in the world. God will look after everything”
‘Get Real’ says Paul, because Christ has come, because time is of the essence, then you have to get your hands dirty. You have to throw yourself, body, soul and spirit, into sorting out what’s right and wrong for you, where your real commitments lie and how you will live in the light of those decisions.
He identifies for us a dilemma, a crisis that genuine Christian commitment will eventually lead us to. Namely, the pervasive human problem of competing goals and loyalties. We are called to relate to every indifferent matter in such a way as to neither overvalue it or to confuse it with what is most important.
Putting it simply, Paul gives instructions for being active disciples. Being a disciple, he tells us, is more important than anything else in life. It is more important than what we wear, what we own, how we feel, who we marry, what we get to do and don’t get to do, be it at home, at work, at school, wherever. To be a disciple is to take active steps to see that Jesus is enthroned as Lord over and above every other thing in your existence.
He speaks of particular things. “Those that have wives should act as though they had none” (verse 29). Now there’s a phrase that could be open to misinterpretation! In this same chapter Paul says a whole lot about honoring your relationships and how a husband needed to have his mind set on his wife. About how that sometimes meant that a married person couldn’t commit to everything a single person would be able to commit to. If you had a family, you had responsibilities.
Looking at it through that lens, Paul seems to be saying, “Treat your partners in marriage as though you only had a short time together”. If your partner wasn’t your partner, what sort of things would you be doing to convince them that you should be the special one in their lives? If today was the last day of your lives, what would you say to each other, how would you behave towards to each other?
Verse 30 “Those who mourn should act as though they were not mourning, those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing”. Plainly, it would be psychological suicide to repress every emotion of mourning or rejoicing. Again, I don’t think that’s what Paul is getting at. To me Paul is saying that we should not allow either mourning or rejoicing to be the framework through which we interpret everything else in our lives.
Our lives are full of experiences of loss and experiences of blessing. If, in the long term, we allow those experiences to become our focus, then they will shift our eyes away from Christ and cause to interpret our lives only on the basis of our emotional experiences. Mourning and expressing joy are important dimensions of life, but they are not the totality of human life. We must make room for them, but not build our lives upon such experiences.
Verse 30 continues “and those who buy, as though they did not possess”. Elsewhere the gospel plainly teaches that materialism is not a sound base upon which to build a spiritual life. Jesus told a parable about a ‘Rich Fool’, a man who works hard, stores up everything for a rainy day, only to find that, as Paul is warning the Corinthians, sometimes life is cut short. On his entry to heaven the man is told, “You fool, Now what are you going to do with all that wealth you accumulated for yourself?” How many times have you heard people say “You can’t take it with you”? Yet so much time is spent in acquisition. As Paul says, “What if there is no tomorrow? How is all that stuff going to help us?”
Finally, verse 31, he instructs “those who deal with the world (should act) as though they had no dealings with it”. So what Paul? We’re supposed to live our lives as though this world had no influence on us what ever? Isn’t it time you got real? Chances are Jesus isn’t coming tomorrow, you got that wrong! 2000 years and He hasn’t shown yet!
I can’t answer for Paul, but maybe he would direct us towards these words in Luke’s Gospel, Chapter 18 and verse 18 “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" It wasn’t Paul who said that, but Jesus. Nevertheless…if today were the closing seconds of the Game, how then would we live? We really don’t have all the time in the world. Knowing that is a fact that can help us value the time, and use the time that we do have, a whole lot more wisely.
There is time for sowing and a time for harvesting. In both cases we get our hands dirty. Christian discipleship involves actively seeking for our life to be under Christ’s Lordship in all areas. Our relationships. Our time. Our emotions. Our stuff. That world we walk though on a daily basis. Evaluating all of that isn’t easy. But, as Paul seems to suggest, what if tomorrow was our last? How would we invest our lives today? May God help us to answer such questions in a way that draws us deeper into God’s love.
AMEN!
Rev Adrian Pratt
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
“BODY BEAUTIFUL” Living a Holy Life in an Unholy World (1)
Reading: Psalm 139, 1 Samuel 3:1-10, John 1:43-51, 1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on January 15th 2012
A printable PDF file can be found here
What do you think? How am I looking this morning? Pumped up? Ready to go? How would you like a body like mine? (Please don’t answer that question, I may be offended!).
Have you ever considered how much time and energy is spent in this nation in trying to get our bodies into whatever others tell us is the shape they should be in? We’re too fat, we’re too thin, we have bulges in the wrong places, we’re not eating this or doing this, we need to wear this in order to emphasize this, wear that to cover up the other… and all for what, for whom, for why?
The Western World is obsessed with the shape and size of bodies. The quest for beauty, the idea that somehow the only way to be anybody in life is to look like somebody else is a slippery, wasteful path to pursue.
The older you get the harder it becomes and maybe we reach a point where we don’t exercise to keep in shape but to stay alive! Years of neglect and abuse eventually take their toll. Some get up in the morning and are just thankful that the joints still move (though nowhere near as easily as they once did). I’m told that some check the obituary column just to be sure they are not in it. The aging process plays cruel tricks.
I’m starting a series this week that looks at chapters six through nine of 1 Corinthians which I’m calling, “Living a holy life in an unholy world”. This morning our reading focused on the human body. In particular how we should as Christians regard our bodies and the sort of things we should or shouldn’t do with our bodies.
The people to whom this letter was first addressed were the church at Corinth. Corinth was a cosmopolitan seaport with not the best reputation. It wasn’t that there were not good people in the place, but rather that there was such an attitude of uncritical tolerance that it became a place where ‘anything goes’. Some commentators describe Corinth as “Sin City”.
The church there was strongly influenced by the climate of ‘freedom without responsibility’ that many of its citizens embraced. To their credit they had actually used such a situation to their benefit. They experimented with spiritual gifts and made much of ‘experience’ being a validation of truth. No congregation that Paul founded had such a charismatic emphasis as the Corinthians. Speaking in tongues and words of divine prophecy, utterances and experiences attributed to the work of the Holy Spirit appear to have been an important part of their worship experiences.
A significant number of these believers were Gentiles with wealth and property to their name. Enough for them to accommodate meetings in their homes and organize banquets around the Lord’s Supper. Indeed later in the letter Paul takes them to task for using such times as opportunities not for service but for self-promotion, the rich exploiting the poor and the whole thing becoming something it was never intended to be.
Corinth’s libertarian attitude led to the development of a dangerous teaching. Putting it simply they came to believe that what you did with your body was unimportant, that it was only the state of your soul and the experience you had of the Holy Spirit that counted for anything.
Things had deteriorated to such a point that in the church people were entering into all kinds of relationships that did anything but glorify God and made the congregation as a whole look bad. Back in chapter five Paul has heard about all this and he chastises them, “It is common knowledge that there is immorality among you, immorality of such kinds as even the godless don’t approve of” (paraphrase of 1 Cor.5:1).
Paul speaks of the body using the Greek word “Soma”. He sees our bodies as one of the great gifts that God has given to us. So we are to care for them and be careful how we use them. He notes how our bodies are driven by appetites, and singles out two particular passions. Firstly, our appetite for food. Secondly, our appetite for physically connecting with others. In both cases he warns that the unrestrained expression of desire could result in tragedy, both personally and for the church.
It seems in Corinth they had a few catchy little expressions they used to justify their actions. It may be they even heard these things from Paul when he had been amongst them. We know that Paul was keen to preach a gospel of ‘Freedom in Christ’. No longer did people have to live under the law, but they were saved by grace through faith.
So in verse 12 we find Paul quoting to them one of these maxims. “All things are lawful for me”. You see the logic the Corinthians had applied? ‘All things are lawful for me’. ‘Jesus has set me free from law, so I can live however I please. What I do with my body doesn’t count. I live by the Spirit not by the flesh.’ ‘All things are lawful for me.’
Paul is keen to retain the truth he has preached to them. ‘Yes’, he tells them, ‘You are right, all things are lawful for you. You are set free in Christ!” But, he then goes onto say… not everything you do benefits you and anything that you are doing that has become a bad habit you can’t get out of has robbed you of your freedom in Christ.
He then deals with another Corinthian catchphrase; “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”. They were using this maxim to justify a lot more than an occasional binge on chocolate. It was descriptive of the attitude they had towards all their bodily appetites. If your body felt like eating, then go ahead eat as you like. If your body feels like drinking, go ahead, drink whatever. If your body feels like it needs the companionship of another, then go ahead, indulge that need.
Corinth was a port, with a reputation for being a place to indulge the self. Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll, if you could you name it then you could probably find it. So if somebody felt the need for some physical companionship then it was no big deal, you just went out and indulged yourself.
We know from elsewhere in Paul’s letters that he had taught them about unclean and clean foods and how it was not what they ate that made them unclean, because it was after all only food, and that they could, within reason, eat whatever their stomachs approved of… but this “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”, was twisting that idea as to accommodate just about anything a person did.
“Hold on a minute” he seems to say, “All this body and eating and relating and all the rest of it, you know and I know that ultimately the body decays, we die and that’s it.” In Verse 13 he tells them “God will destroy both the one and the other”. “But there is a bigger picture. You are Christian people, redeemed by the work of Jesus Christ.”
Paul’s argument is something along these lines: - You recall what happened to Jesus. He died but God raised Him from the dead, and something new came about. That power, that Holy Spirit, resurrection power is at work in your lives now that you have accepted the message of Jesus Christ by putting your faith in Him.
So how you treat your body, what you put into it, where you take it, is for you a really important issue. It didn’t used to matter when you just lived to die, but now you are seeking to live in a way that glorifies God and lasts for ever so you have to look at your body in a new way.
Now, you are a part of a community, a church, a body of people known as the body of Christ. What people see you do affects of how they look at God. Christ’s love now lives in you. Your body is a little church all on it’s own, a temple of the Holy Spirit. That’s why you can’t just go on living by satisfying whatever appetite may arise in your body.
Whether it’s food, or physical companionship, or even what you wear and how you behave, a whole host of things. Once these weren’t important, but now they are. They are important because God desires His temple to be a beautiful place. A place through which others can find His love. You are called to be that beautiful place.
He warns them to be particularly careful when it comes to physical relationships. Whilst your body, with its needs and appetites and changing seasons is important… remember that you are more than just a body. You are not your own. Jesus claims you as His.
This claim Jesus places on your life places you in a position of tremendous security. This claim Jesus makes over you is above and beyond the claim any other person or thing or appetite or desire makes over you. This claim Jesus makes over you puts you at the center of God’s attention, the apple of His eye, and the object of God’s affection.
That’s a strong place to be coming from. God simply says, "Be the Man, Be the Woman, Be the Person I made you to be". The words of Psalm 139.
How do we live a holy life in an unholy world? One way is by remembering that each one of us, in God’s eyes, is already body beautiful. Beautiful enough to send Jesus to be our Savior. Beautiful enough to be called a temple of the Holy Spirit. They do say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Well... behold… God made you. Jesus saved you. The Holy Spirit lives through you. Leave this place in the confidence of the security that comes from knowing yourself a child of God.
Rev Adrian Pratt
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on January 15th 2012
A printable PDF file can be found here
What do you think? How am I looking this morning? Pumped up? Ready to go? How would you like a body like mine? (Please don’t answer that question, I may be offended!).
Have you ever considered how much time and energy is spent in this nation in trying to get our bodies into whatever others tell us is the shape they should be in? We’re too fat, we’re too thin, we have bulges in the wrong places, we’re not eating this or doing this, we need to wear this in order to emphasize this, wear that to cover up the other… and all for what, for whom, for why?
The Western World is obsessed with the shape and size of bodies. The quest for beauty, the idea that somehow the only way to be anybody in life is to look like somebody else is a slippery, wasteful path to pursue.
The older you get the harder it becomes and maybe we reach a point where we don’t exercise to keep in shape but to stay alive! Years of neglect and abuse eventually take their toll. Some get up in the morning and are just thankful that the joints still move (though nowhere near as easily as they once did). I’m told that some check the obituary column just to be sure they are not in it. The aging process plays cruel tricks.
I’m starting a series this week that looks at chapters six through nine of 1 Corinthians which I’m calling, “Living a holy life in an unholy world”. This morning our reading focused on the human body. In particular how we should as Christians regard our bodies and the sort of things we should or shouldn’t do with our bodies.
The people to whom this letter was first addressed were the church at Corinth. Corinth was a cosmopolitan seaport with not the best reputation. It wasn’t that there were not good people in the place, but rather that there was such an attitude of uncritical tolerance that it became a place where ‘anything goes’. Some commentators describe Corinth as “Sin City”.
The church there was strongly influenced by the climate of ‘freedom without responsibility’ that many of its citizens embraced. To their credit they had actually used such a situation to their benefit. They experimented with spiritual gifts and made much of ‘experience’ being a validation of truth. No congregation that Paul founded had such a charismatic emphasis as the Corinthians. Speaking in tongues and words of divine prophecy, utterances and experiences attributed to the work of the Holy Spirit appear to have been an important part of their worship experiences.
A significant number of these believers were Gentiles with wealth and property to their name. Enough for them to accommodate meetings in their homes and organize banquets around the Lord’s Supper. Indeed later in the letter Paul takes them to task for using such times as opportunities not for service but for self-promotion, the rich exploiting the poor and the whole thing becoming something it was never intended to be.
Corinth’s libertarian attitude led to the development of a dangerous teaching. Putting it simply they came to believe that what you did with your body was unimportant, that it was only the state of your soul and the experience you had of the Holy Spirit that counted for anything.
Things had deteriorated to such a point that in the church people were entering into all kinds of relationships that did anything but glorify God and made the congregation as a whole look bad. Back in chapter five Paul has heard about all this and he chastises them, “It is common knowledge that there is immorality among you, immorality of such kinds as even the godless don’t approve of” (paraphrase of 1 Cor.5:1).
Paul speaks of the body using the Greek word “Soma”. He sees our bodies as one of the great gifts that God has given to us. So we are to care for them and be careful how we use them. He notes how our bodies are driven by appetites, and singles out two particular passions. Firstly, our appetite for food. Secondly, our appetite for physically connecting with others. In both cases he warns that the unrestrained expression of desire could result in tragedy, both personally and for the church.
It seems in Corinth they had a few catchy little expressions they used to justify their actions. It may be they even heard these things from Paul when he had been amongst them. We know that Paul was keen to preach a gospel of ‘Freedom in Christ’. No longer did people have to live under the law, but they were saved by grace through faith.
So in verse 12 we find Paul quoting to them one of these maxims. “All things are lawful for me”. You see the logic the Corinthians had applied? ‘All things are lawful for me’. ‘Jesus has set me free from law, so I can live however I please. What I do with my body doesn’t count. I live by the Spirit not by the flesh.’ ‘All things are lawful for me.’
Paul is keen to retain the truth he has preached to them. ‘Yes’, he tells them, ‘You are right, all things are lawful for you. You are set free in Christ!” But, he then goes onto say… not everything you do benefits you and anything that you are doing that has become a bad habit you can’t get out of has robbed you of your freedom in Christ.
He then deals with another Corinthian catchphrase; “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”. They were using this maxim to justify a lot more than an occasional binge on chocolate. It was descriptive of the attitude they had towards all their bodily appetites. If your body felt like eating, then go ahead eat as you like. If your body feels like drinking, go ahead, drink whatever. If your body feels like it needs the companionship of another, then go ahead, indulge that need.
Corinth was a port, with a reputation for being a place to indulge the self. Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll, if you could you name it then you could probably find it. So if somebody felt the need for some physical companionship then it was no big deal, you just went out and indulged yourself.
We know from elsewhere in Paul’s letters that he had taught them about unclean and clean foods and how it was not what they ate that made them unclean, because it was after all only food, and that they could, within reason, eat whatever their stomachs approved of… but this “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”, was twisting that idea as to accommodate just about anything a person did.
“Hold on a minute” he seems to say, “All this body and eating and relating and all the rest of it, you know and I know that ultimately the body decays, we die and that’s it.” In Verse 13 he tells them “God will destroy both the one and the other”. “But there is a bigger picture. You are Christian people, redeemed by the work of Jesus Christ.”
Paul’s argument is something along these lines: - You recall what happened to Jesus. He died but God raised Him from the dead, and something new came about. That power, that Holy Spirit, resurrection power is at work in your lives now that you have accepted the message of Jesus Christ by putting your faith in Him.
So how you treat your body, what you put into it, where you take it, is for you a really important issue. It didn’t used to matter when you just lived to die, but now you are seeking to live in a way that glorifies God and lasts for ever so you have to look at your body in a new way.
Now, you are a part of a community, a church, a body of people known as the body of Christ. What people see you do affects of how they look at God. Christ’s love now lives in you. Your body is a little church all on it’s own, a temple of the Holy Spirit. That’s why you can’t just go on living by satisfying whatever appetite may arise in your body.
Whether it’s food, or physical companionship, or even what you wear and how you behave, a whole host of things. Once these weren’t important, but now they are. They are important because God desires His temple to be a beautiful place. A place through which others can find His love. You are called to be that beautiful place.
He warns them to be particularly careful when it comes to physical relationships. Whilst your body, with its needs and appetites and changing seasons is important… remember that you are more than just a body. You are not your own. Jesus claims you as His.
This claim Jesus places on your life places you in a position of tremendous security. This claim Jesus makes over you is above and beyond the claim any other person or thing or appetite or desire makes over you. This claim Jesus makes over you puts you at the center of God’s attention, the apple of His eye, and the object of God’s affection.
That’s a strong place to be coming from. God simply says, "Be the Man, Be the Woman, Be the Person I made you to be". The words of Psalm 139.
O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, You know it completely. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me! (Psalm 139:1-6)
How do we live a holy life in an unholy world? One way is by remembering that each one of us, in God’s eyes, is already body beautiful. Beautiful enough to send Jesus to be our Savior. Beautiful enough to be called a temple of the Holy Spirit. They do say beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Well... behold… God made you. Jesus saved you. The Holy Spirit lives through you. Leave this place in the confidence of the security that comes from knowing yourself a child of God.
Rev Adrian Pratt
Monday, January 9, 2012
BAPTISM OF THE LORD SUNDAY "REAFFIRMATION AND BAPTISM”
Readings: Genesis 1:1-5, Psalm 29, Mark 1:4-11, Acts 19:1-7
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on January 8th 2012
A printable PDF file can be found here
Today, as we ordain and commission new elders and deacons, I invite us to reaffirm our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Today, Baptism of the Lord Sunday, I’m inviting us to reconsider the promises made at baptism, confirmation or membership. Last week we met around the Lords table. This week we meet around a font that has been filled with the waters we use in baptism. Baptism, be it that of an infant or an adult, is always a sign of new beginnings.
Our Scripture reading from Acts 19, gave us an intriguing story of Paul, on one of his missionary journeys, encountering a group of believers in God in Ephesus, who had been baptized by John the Baptist, but had not received the gift of the Holy Spirit, nor fully accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ.
At first Paul seems confused. They were doing all the things church folk were meant to do. They were disciples. Meeting together. Sharing. Praying. They believed in God, no doubts about it. But as he talks with them he realizes that their experience with Christianity was minimal. They start discussing the role of the Holy Spirit in religious life and these folk are saying, “Holy Spirit? Nobody told us about the Holy Spirit?”
Paul quizzes them some more. ‘But I thought you said you’d been baptized? How did that happen?” “Well” they explain “There was this man of God called John who taught us how to turn our lives around. We went down into the waters with him and have committed ourselves to following the Lords leading as we look for the One John said was to come.”
“I’m with you now” Paul seems to say. Filling in the gaps we can presume that these folks just hadn’t got the message that Jesus had come! They were out in Ephesus, a very different place to Jerusalem. So Paul explains what has been going on and they break through to a new level of understanding.
In the story of the book of Acts the significance of their acceptance of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that Acts tells the story of the spread of Christianity “in Jerusalem, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth”. At each significant advance the spread of the gospel to a new area is marked by Pentecost like signs. The acceptance and baptism in the Holy Spirit of twelve disciples in Gentile territory beyond Jerusalem marked another milestone in the advance of Christianity.
The story reminds us that though we may believe, there still needs to be moments and times when we refocus and reaffirm what we believe. These disciples had been baptized and they were people seeking to be God's people. God honored their search by granting them a fuller and deeper revelation of His love, filling them with the knowledge of Jesus as their Savior and empowering them for service through the Holy Spirit.
We still stand near the dawn of a New Year, and we can choose what forces are going to shape our lives in this new age. We like to think of ourselves as free agents. Not really! Our lives, our thoughts, our values, our spirituality, our whole outlook on life is shaped by the forces around us and our reaction to them. Admittedly, we can, like the folk in Ephesus that Paul came across, not always be in possession of all the facts, or aware of the full story. But as God reveals the way of discipleship to us there remains a decision to make as to how we will respond.
We are not all basically good or basically bad. We are a complex mix of emotions and desires, often in conflict with others and with ourselves. We are conditioned by our culture and our upbringing and our expectations. We are miserable sinners who wouldn't recognize an act of God if it came to us wrapped in box that said, "God was here"; yet at the same time we are glorious, possibility laden, miraculous, unique, creations of a loving God, full of destiny, purpose and meaning.
I bid you to pray that just as God gifted those disciples at Ephesus with Spiritual gifts, so our lives, both individually and together as a church community, will show increasing evidence of being molded and recreated and blessed by the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
We shall in a moment commission and ordain some of our members to serve their church through the office of deacon or elder. Many of you have served in the past. Others will do so in the future. We stand together in the service of Christ as His baptized and sent into the world people.
On this baptism of the Lord Sunday I invite you to again consider what the waters of baptism mean.
Paul went to Ephesus. He found some faithful people. Faithful people who were ready to take the next step of their journey of faith. As we stand with those being commissioned and ordained this day, may we recognize the call of God that extends to every one of us. Amen.
Rev Adrian J Pratt
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on January 8th 2012
A printable PDF file can be found here
Today, as we ordain and commission new elders and deacons, I invite us to reaffirm our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Today, Baptism of the Lord Sunday, I’m inviting us to reconsider the promises made at baptism, confirmation or membership. Last week we met around the Lords table. This week we meet around a font that has been filled with the waters we use in baptism. Baptism, be it that of an infant or an adult, is always a sign of new beginnings.
Our Scripture reading from Acts 19, gave us an intriguing story of Paul, on one of his missionary journeys, encountering a group of believers in God in Ephesus, who had been baptized by John the Baptist, but had not received the gift of the Holy Spirit, nor fully accepted the gospel of Jesus Christ.
At first Paul seems confused. They were doing all the things church folk were meant to do. They were disciples. Meeting together. Sharing. Praying. They believed in God, no doubts about it. But as he talks with them he realizes that their experience with Christianity was minimal. They start discussing the role of the Holy Spirit in religious life and these folk are saying, “Holy Spirit? Nobody told us about the Holy Spirit?”
Paul quizzes them some more. ‘But I thought you said you’d been baptized? How did that happen?” “Well” they explain “There was this man of God called John who taught us how to turn our lives around. We went down into the waters with him and have committed ourselves to following the Lords leading as we look for the One John said was to come.”
“I’m with you now” Paul seems to say. Filling in the gaps we can presume that these folks just hadn’t got the message that Jesus had come! They were out in Ephesus, a very different place to Jerusalem. So Paul explains what has been going on and they break through to a new level of understanding.
In the story of the book of Acts the significance of their acceptance of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that Acts tells the story of the spread of Christianity “in Jerusalem, in Samaria and to the ends of the earth”. At each significant advance the spread of the gospel to a new area is marked by Pentecost like signs. The acceptance and baptism in the Holy Spirit of twelve disciples in Gentile territory beyond Jerusalem marked another milestone in the advance of Christianity.
The story reminds us that though we may believe, there still needs to be moments and times when we refocus and reaffirm what we believe. These disciples had been baptized and they were people seeking to be God's people. God honored their search by granting them a fuller and deeper revelation of His love, filling them with the knowledge of Jesus as their Savior and empowering them for service through the Holy Spirit.
We still stand near the dawn of a New Year, and we can choose what forces are going to shape our lives in this new age. We like to think of ourselves as free agents. Not really! Our lives, our thoughts, our values, our spirituality, our whole outlook on life is shaped by the forces around us and our reaction to them. Admittedly, we can, like the folk in Ephesus that Paul came across, not always be in possession of all the facts, or aware of the full story. But as God reveals the way of discipleship to us there remains a decision to make as to how we will respond.
We are not all basically good or basically bad. We are a complex mix of emotions and desires, often in conflict with others and with ourselves. We are conditioned by our culture and our upbringing and our expectations. We are miserable sinners who wouldn't recognize an act of God if it came to us wrapped in box that said, "God was here"; yet at the same time we are glorious, possibility laden, miraculous, unique, creations of a loving God, full of destiny, purpose and meaning.
I bid you to pray that just as God gifted those disciples at Ephesus with Spiritual gifts, so our lives, both individually and together as a church community, will show increasing evidence of being molded and recreated and blessed by the Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
We shall in a moment commission and ordain some of our members to serve their church through the office of deacon or elder. Many of you have served in the past. Others will do so in the future. We stand together in the service of Christ as His baptized and sent into the world people.
On this baptism of the Lord Sunday I invite you to again consider what the waters of baptism mean.
God adopts us as God's children.
God commissions us for service.
God forgives us, cleanses and renews us.
God equips us for ministry.
God claims us as God's own.
God sends us into all the world.
God calls us by name and longs to fill us with the Holy Spirit.
God commissions us for service.
God forgives us, cleanses and renews us.
God equips us for ministry.
God claims us as God's own.
God sends us into all the world.
God calls us by name and longs to fill us with the Holy Spirit.
Paul went to Ephesus. He found some faithful people. Faithful people who were ready to take the next step of their journey of faith. As we stand with those being commissioned and ordained this day, may we recognize the call of God that extends to every one of us. Amen.
Rev Adrian J Pratt
Tuesday, January 3, 2012
DO THE DANCE!
FIRST SUNDAY OF 2012
Reading: Psalm 72:1-15, Jeremiah 31:7-14, Ephesians 3:1-12, Matthew 2:1-6
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin on January 1 2012
A printable PDF file can be found here
On this first day of a New Year I want to ask you,
“Have you got your dancing shoes on?”
I want to think this morning about a verse that appears in Jeremiah 31:13,
“Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
and the young men and the old shall be merry.”
Consider the changes that have taken place since our great-grandparents days. Industry. Technology. Health Care. Education. Media. Music. Transport... air travel, not a dream, but a common way of getting around... men on the moon... computers.. i-phones...the list just goes on and on.
Consider the changes that have taken place as the centuries have rolled by. The population explosion. The discovery and settlement of a world that didn't turn out to be flat. The founding of nations and peoples. The constant interaction of tribes and ethnic groups and language and power.
Consider the rise and fall of great Empires, the Spanish, the French, the British. Consider the survival of nations of old... the Asian nations, India and China, the Middle Eastern nations whose ancient conflicts remain unresolved. Consider how only a short time ago in earths history the geographical land mass of the Australia’s and the America's were not known to have been in existence to most Europeans.
Also consider the role of the Christian Church within the scheme of things. The might of Rome and the power of the Eastern Orthodox tradition shaping the religious landscape. The bloodthirsty crusades by followers of both Mohammed and Christ. The phenomena of the Reformation, the growth of Protestantism and more recently Pentecostalism, TV evangelists and Mega-Churches.
History, the nations, the tribes, the religions, it’s like a great dance; the partners weaving in and out, sometimes one taking center stage, sometimes another taking a seat at the sidelines only to reappear once more on the floor. And all the time, the ship of progress, the growth of knowledge, taking us ever forward, to.... well, who knows?
Consider also the terrible mistakes that are made as the ship heads onwards. In the last century - two world wars and countless thousands of other conflicts. In this century, 911, Iraq and Afghanistan. Refugees. Holocaust. Ethnic Cleansing. Chemical Warfare. Atomic Bombs. World Hunger.
The technology and know how and resources available to put an end to poverty, and so much more, which instead have been squandered on weapons of destruction that can destroy us, and every other living thing on the planet, a million times over. Consider how nations continue to live in fear of each other, building walls to separate themselves, some seeking to be the biggest and the best and the most powerful, others seeking only to survive.
The history of the nation of Old Testament Israel gives us a fascinating picture of what it means to dance in and out of the will of God. Created out of a faith experience, a people called to reveal the One true God to the world, so often they just do not keep step with what God is doing.
The Old Testament does not just span a few centuries, but talks of time in terms of generations. Noah and Moses and Abraham and David and Isaiah and Daniel, were not contemporaries. They are separated by hundreds of years and many generations between them.
I fear that we sometimes forget what an enormous slice of history upon this planet is contained within the books of the Bible. They contain the earliest stories about the dawn of Creation itself and conclude in the relatively recent past, just a couple of millennia ago when the early church was founded after the resurrection of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Think about that the next time you open it's pages. Here is wisdom as old as language. Even before people had figured out what writing was, some of the earliest stories circulated as tribal memories and folklore, told around campfires and family meals, not one thousand, but many thousand years ago. It's the original, the real thing.
And what a story it tells! We look to the turbulent events of our fore-fathers, the last two hundred and fifty years, the last thousand years, but see... the stories in our Bibles - sometimes their frankness and warlike imagery startles us, it's tales of genocide and immorality and violence leave us with as many questions as we find answers.... but has it not always been so?
As century rolls over to century, can we not see how the Spirit of God dances in and out of the history of the whole world, sometimes recognizable, sometimes unseen, sometimes misunderstood, sometimes mistaken?
Look again. The stories of the Bible are not about nameless characters or faceless individuals. We know these people. Abraham and Sarah. Moses being placed in the bulrushes and his struggles to come to terms with who he was and what he was called to do. David the little shepherd boy who became the King. Ruth and Naomi. Amos. Daniel in the lions Den. The list goes on.
And we see God dances, not as a wandering spirit searching for a home, but as the Holy Spirit in the lives of people with names and character faults, and jobs to do and homes to live in, people not wholly removed from this world, but who would be unrecognizable from the average person we walk past in the Mall on a shopping trip.
To such people, people such as you and I, come the promises of God. People with a tendency to walk away from God rather than towards God. It is as though God catches us by the arm, turns us around and says, "Let's Dance!". It as though, when we are sitting alone, feeling left out, feeling nobody understands what we are going through, God whispers in our ear, "Dance with me".
Again our text (Jeremiah 31:13) "Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow"
The suggested New Testament reading for today gives us the account of the Wise Men following the Star to Bethlehem. Wise people keep seeking. Wise people do not disregard the religious insights of generations of spiritual folk. Wise people unravel their Bibles for they recognize a Sacred Story that weaves throughout time. Wise people are prepared to travel within the mystery. They treasure the questions as much as the answers.
And for those who are not so sure, the Savior goes seeking them. Seeking people to bring their gifts and talents into God's service. Seeking people who are prepared to dance to the beat of a different drum than that which their current generation or surrounding culture suggests. Seeking people who are prepared to travel through life with an angels song in their hearts that rings out, "Glory to God in the highest and on the earth be Peace!"
So my message to us all as we face a new year is simple; "Do the Dance". With God as your partner allow God to show you the steps, let the rhythm of the Holy Spirit be the rhythm that runs through your life, allow the harmony of each others fellowship and the melody of the living words of Jesus Christ that come to you through the Scriptures be the music that fills your days.
Do the Dance!
Rev. Adrian J. Pratt
Reading: Psalm 72:1-15, Jeremiah 31:7-14, Ephesians 3:1-12, Matthew 2:1-6
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin on January 1 2012
A printable PDF file can be found here
On this first day of a New Year I want to ask you,
“Have you got your dancing shoes on?”
I want to think this morning about a verse that appears in Jeremiah 31:13,
“Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance,
and the young men and the old shall be merry.”
Consider the changes that have taken place since our great-grandparents days. Industry. Technology. Health Care. Education. Media. Music. Transport... air travel, not a dream, but a common way of getting around... men on the moon... computers.. i-phones...the list just goes on and on.
Consider the changes that have taken place as the centuries have rolled by. The population explosion. The discovery and settlement of a world that didn't turn out to be flat. The founding of nations and peoples. The constant interaction of tribes and ethnic groups and language and power.
Consider the rise and fall of great Empires, the Spanish, the French, the British. Consider the survival of nations of old... the Asian nations, India and China, the Middle Eastern nations whose ancient conflicts remain unresolved. Consider how only a short time ago in earths history the geographical land mass of the Australia’s and the America's were not known to have been in existence to most Europeans.
Also consider the role of the Christian Church within the scheme of things. The might of Rome and the power of the Eastern Orthodox tradition shaping the religious landscape. The bloodthirsty crusades by followers of both Mohammed and Christ. The phenomena of the Reformation, the growth of Protestantism and more recently Pentecostalism, TV evangelists and Mega-Churches.
History, the nations, the tribes, the religions, it’s like a great dance; the partners weaving in and out, sometimes one taking center stage, sometimes another taking a seat at the sidelines only to reappear once more on the floor. And all the time, the ship of progress, the growth of knowledge, taking us ever forward, to.... well, who knows?
Consider also the terrible mistakes that are made as the ship heads onwards. In the last century - two world wars and countless thousands of other conflicts. In this century, 911, Iraq and Afghanistan. Refugees. Holocaust. Ethnic Cleansing. Chemical Warfare. Atomic Bombs. World Hunger.
The technology and know how and resources available to put an end to poverty, and so much more, which instead have been squandered on weapons of destruction that can destroy us, and every other living thing on the planet, a million times over. Consider how nations continue to live in fear of each other, building walls to separate themselves, some seeking to be the biggest and the best and the most powerful, others seeking only to survive.
The history of the nation of Old Testament Israel gives us a fascinating picture of what it means to dance in and out of the will of God. Created out of a faith experience, a people called to reveal the One true God to the world, so often they just do not keep step with what God is doing.
The Old Testament does not just span a few centuries, but talks of time in terms of generations. Noah and Moses and Abraham and David and Isaiah and Daniel, were not contemporaries. They are separated by hundreds of years and many generations between them.
I fear that we sometimes forget what an enormous slice of history upon this planet is contained within the books of the Bible. They contain the earliest stories about the dawn of Creation itself and conclude in the relatively recent past, just a couple of millennia ago when the early church was founded after the resurrection of Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit.
Think about that the next time you open it's pages. Here is wisdom as old as language. Even before people had figured out what writing was, some of the earliest stories circulated as tribal memories and folklore, told around campfires and family meals, not one thousand, but many thousand years ago. It's the original, the real thing.
And what a story it tells! We look to the turbulent events of our fore-fathers, the last two hundred and fifty years, the last thousand years, but see... the stories in our Bibles - sometimes their frankness and warlike imagery startles us, it's tales of genocide and immorality and violence leave us with as many questions as we find answers.... but has it not always been so?
As century rolls over to century, can we not see how the Spirit of God dances in and out of the history of the whole world, sometimes recognizable, sometimes unseen, sometimes misunderstood, sometimes mistaken?
Look again. The stories of the Bible are not about nameless characters or faceless individuals. We know these people. Abraham and Sarah. Moses being placed in the bulrushes and his struggles to come to terms with who he was and what he was called to do. David the little shepherd boy who became the King. Ruth and Naomi. Amos. Daniel in the lions Den. The list goes on.
And we see God dances, not as a wandering spirit searching for a home, but as the Holy Spirit in the lives of people with names and character faults, and jobs to do and homes to live in, people not wholly removed from this world, but who would be unrecognizable from the average person we walk past in the Mall on a shopping trip.
To such people, people such as you and I, come the promises of God. People with a tendency to walk away from God rather than towards God. It is as though God catches us by the arm, turns us around and says, "Let's Dance!". It as though, when we are sitting alone, feeling left out, feeling nobody understands what we are going through, God whispers in our ear, "Dance with me".
Again our text (Jeremiah 31:13) "Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. I will turn their mourning into joy, I will comfort them, and give them gladness for sorrow"
"Dance then wherever you may be, I am the Lord of the Dance said He,
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be, And I'll lead you all in the Dance said He"
And I'll lead you all, wherever you may be, And I'll lead you all in the Dance said He"
The suggested New Testament reading for today gives us the account of the Wise Men following the Star to Bethlehem. Wise people keep seeking. Wise people do not disregard the religious insights of generations of spiritual folk. Wise people unravel their Bibles for they recognize a Sacred Story that weaves throughout time. Wise people are prepared to travel within the mystery. They treasure the questions as much as the answers.
And for those who are not so sure, the Savior goes seeking them. Seeking people to bring their gifts and talents into God's service. Seeking people who are prepared to dance to the beat of a different drum than that which their current generation or surrounding culture suggests. Seeking people who are prepared to travel through life with an angels song in their hearts that rings out, "Glory to God in the highest and on the earth be Peace!"
So my message to us all as we face a new year is simple; "Do the Dance". With God as your partner allow God to show you the steps, let the rhythm of the Holy Spirit be the rhythm that runs through your life, allow the harmony of each others fellowship and the melody of the living words of Jesus Christ that come to you through the Scriptures be the music that fills your days.
Do the Dance!
Rev. Adrian J. Pratt
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