Monday, March 31, 2014
Robert's Tale
Readings: Psalm 23, 1 Samuel 16:1-13, Ephesians 5:8-14, John 4:5-26
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on March 30th 2014
A printable PDF file can be found here
One of the delightful things about Scottish culture, and indeed Celtic theology in general, is the love of story-telling. In our bible passage today one translation describes the man’s problem as 'Being of blindness', which I noticed gives us the initials B.O.B; which of course spells Bob, a shortened version of the very Scottish name Robert.
As today is Tartan Sunday, I have attempted to spin a wee tale from out of our gospel reading, you can call it 'Robert's tale'... or if you like even refer to it by the initials 'B.O.B' which stand both for 'Being of blindness' and 'Born Occularily Benighted'.
So... are you sitting comfortably? Then I shall begin. Roberts Tale A.K.A. - B.O.B.
“I was given the name Robert at birth.
But these days it's just 'BOB'.
Used to be ‘Blind Bob’.
Now it’s just ‘Bob’ because... I’m not blind any more.
Being called Blind Bob, you learn to see with things other than Roberts’ eyes.
You see through sounds
and smells
and touch
and taste.
Blind Bob learned to sense peoples emotions,
To know without being told.
‘Blind Bob’ was often treated as ‘Stupid Bob’.
Because I was non-functioning in the ocular area,
The presumption was made that Blind Bob
Was also ‘Dumb Bob’ and ‘Deaf Bob’.
‘Would Bob like this?’
‘Is Robert all right sitting there?’.
‘Does he take cream in his coffee?’.
‘Blind Bob’ learned that it was best to play the game of ‘Deaf and Dumb Bob’.
Blind Bob saw a lot going on that others missed.
Jesus came to town.
Could sense in His touch that He was different.
He put clay on my eyes.
Vision! Wow... So that’s what colors are!
Sent me to Siloam pool.
Good-Bye ‘Blind Bob’.
Hello just ‘Bob’.
Now here comes trouble.
Those religious folk didn’t care much for Bob.
They didn’t care much for Jesus either.
Particularly as it was the Sabbath Day when He told me;
“Here’s mud in your eye”.
So they call me in for a conference.
“What did that Jesus do to make you see?”
Bob explained about the mud on his eyes and the pool washing.
They are mad.
Some say this.
Some say that.
Bob senses these folk are having a hard time with themselves.
Asked me what I thought of Jesus.
‘He’s a prophet’ said Bold Bob.
They threw me out and sent for my mother and my father.
Oh the questions they asked;‘Was he really born blind?’
‘Are you making all of this up?”
‘How can he see?’
‘Are you sure he is really your son?’
They answered; ‘Of course he is our son and of course he was born blind!
Why can he see? Well you ask him,
He’s of age. He’s got a tongue in his head.'
They call me back in for another consultation.
‘Praise God’ they say.
‘Right on’ thinks Bountifully Blessed Bob.
‘No more stories Robert’ said the getting madder religious folk.
‘We know that this Jesus is a sinner,
Just tell us what really happened’
Insightful Bob sees it all.
These religious folk were blinder than Bob born blind had ever been.
Couldn’t see a good thing staring them in the face.
Bob decides to play their game.
‘I don’t know if he is or he is not a sinner, good sirs,
All I know is this. I was ‘Blind Bob’ and now I’m just ‘Bob’.
Some of them started getting really, really, really angry.
Playful Bob started to chuckle deep down in his heart.
“Bu-Bu-But what did he do-do-do,
Hu-Hu how did he oh-oh-open your eye-eye-eyes?”
Splutters one of them important folk.
‘Oh I see it now’ I say,
'You fine fellows want to be His disciples as well, do you?'
“No, No, No, No, No,
You’re the disciple,
We don’t even know where this man’s coming from?”
Bob looks at them posturing, pontificating, puffed up, pathetic, peacocks.
'Now here’s a strange thing.
A man going round,
Doing stuff that has never been done since the foundation of the world,
And you, the religious folk, who know all about God,
You Don’t know where He’s coming from?
Bob finds that rather strange!'
Pandemonium.
“You, you, you... sinner,
Conceived in iniquity, scum of the earth,
How dare you lecture us, Get out of here...”
So I left them to it.
Further down the road,
Bemused Bob meets Jesus again.
‘Threw you out did they?’
‘Aye, they did’ smiled Relieved Bob.
“Do you believe in the Son of Man?” asked Jesus.
“Point Him out to me, and I will” says Hopeful Bob.
“Don’t you recognize my voice?” said that Good Shepherd.
‘Master’ said Believing Bob.
‘I’m here’ said Jesus, ‘To make things clear;
Some of those who have never seen,
Are going to see it all,
Some of those who pretend to have great insight,
Are going to be seen for what they really are.’
Some Pharisees heard
With their ears.
Just like some who will never see Bob’s point,
They said to themselves,
“You’re not calling us blind are you?”
Bob mused on these on these things.
“If you’re born physically blind,
You learn to see things differently,
How sad to have all your faculties functioning fine,
But never see a thing.”
And to God's name be all glory.
Amen.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Monday, March 24, 2014
My Reality Check Just Bounced!
Readings: Psalm 95, Romans 5:1-11, Exodus 17:1-7, John 4:5-26
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on March 23rd, 2014
A printable PDF file can be found here
Certain passages of Scripture invite us to take a look at our lives and question our motives, our prejudices, our actions, our decisions and a whole lot more. Such passages may make us feel like the comedian who said “I just took a reality check. It bounced.”
Last week we were bounced by Nicodemus and were told to be born again and give our hearts to Jesus. This week we have been taken into the desert by Moses and revealed to be people of little faith who grumble and complain against God at the slightest change in our fortunes. Now Jesus takes us to encounter a person convention said He should have nothing to do with.
Please don’t underestimate how scandalous this passage must have appeared to it’s first century readers. Rabbinical teachers like Jesus were not meant to hang around wells with unaccompanied women, let alone beg drinks from them and engage in conversation.
Samaritans and Jews were separated by intense prejudices of both culture and religion. They hated each other. They spoke of each other as feared and despised enemies with whom the least contact would result in them being contaminated and having to seek some form of ritual cleansing.
In Luke's gospel we are given a parable about a ‘Good Samaritan’, a phrase which to Jewish ears must have sounded like an oxymoron. Johns gospel takes this scandalous encounter even further by opening up the Good News not just to one solitary Samaritan woman but to the whole Samaritan community.
Underlying this situation is a statement about the difference between false religion and true religion. Samaritans and Jews were divided about both the right way and the right geographical place to worship God. They had both received a great heritage, they could both lay claim to the intervention of God in their past and they were both a people who could point to evidence of God’s blessing.
Jesus cuts through all of that with a simple statement. 'True worshipers worship God in spirit and truth'. Religion was a matter of the heart, not outward convention. It was a real connection with God that truly affected the way decisions are made and life is lived. It is a matter, as he told Nicodemus, of re-birthing your life in the values and priorities of the Kingdom.
Real worship takes place when we bring our true selves to God. That was a discovery that the Samaritan woman made in her encounter with Jesus at the well. There were things about her life that she tried to hide. She tells Jesus that she hasn’t got a husband. That wasn’t the whole truth. The reality was that she had had five husbands and the man she was living with was wasn’t her husband.
Of greater consequence is simply that, as a woman, in her culture at that time, she was a person with little significance. A woman's worth was measured by her relationship to a man. A woman with no husband or male to relate to couldn’t survive. That’s why in the New Testament letters there are many injunctions for the early church to care for the single women and the widows... to grant to them an independent status and value that the world denied.
Which is exactly what Jesus does for this woman by the well. Her value in God’s eyes is not her relationship to any male, not her gender, nor her ethnic identity, but her ability to be a worshiper in spirit and truth. If you read further in the chapter you see the disciples returning from their downtown shopping trip and being totally astonished that Jesus was granting such rights to a woman.
The heat of this passage goes deeper than just gender prejudice, it is a no holds barred attack on all forms of prejudice, a caution to never prejudge any person or situation on the grounds of rumor or reputation.
Sadly it’s something we all do. Like the people Moses led through the desert, we thank God when all is rosy but complain when our immediate needs aren’t met. Our physical thirst is often a stronger driving force than our spiritual one. To often judgments are made on the basis of outward appearance.
I remember being in school and hating Richard Perry. Richard Perry was born with more muscles than I could ever develop. Richard Perry’s hair was a different color to mine and was always immaculately dressed. Even though we had school uniforms, his made him look good, mine just made me look awkward. Richard Perry was good at sports, good at maths, good at science, good at everything. He never studied for a test but always passed. He never got picked on by the bullies.
Girls loved Richard Perry. He was a babe magnet. Teachers loved Richard Perry. Parents loved Richard Perry. He was rich, he was handsome. In fact everybody loved Richard Perry. Everybody except me. Because secretly... I wanted to be Richard Perry!
How stupid we can be to measure ourselves by other people. The beautiful thing about each of us is that we are all different. We all have unique gifts and talents that we should treasure rather than envying others. For some people, if only they could let go of their desire to be somebody that they’re not and start making the most of who they are, then their lives would be so much happier.
Jesus treats the Samaritan woman as a full human being. He doesn’t talk down to her. He doesn’t treat her as any less of a full person because her circumstances weren’t ideal. He doesn’t treat her differently because she was of a different religion and a different race.
He treats her as a unique and worthy recipient of the grace of God, as He does each of us. If we can but recognize ourselves accepted and loved by God how much freer we are to be individuals that don’t have to live up to anybodies expectations except that of being the person God wants us to be.
The dilemma isn’t just self acceptance. We’ve already seen the hatred that existed between Jews and Samaritans. The problem is the human preoccupation with creating fences and protecting boundaries, our limitless capacity to divide people into 'In-Crowds' and 'Out-Crowds' ; 'The Chosen people' and the 'Rejected people'.
The New International Bible Commentary points out:- “Throughout human history, people and nations have defined themselves over against other groups. The history of race relations in the United States, the notion of racial purity that was at the ideological heart of Hitler’s Germany, the ethnic wars that wax and wane across the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe all have their roots in the same fears that divided Jews from Samaritans: the fear of contamination, the fear of sharing one’s gift and privileged call with others.”
This passage calls us to turn the heat on our own heart, to dig deep and root out any prejudices that may be there. If we have a prejudice then let it be a passionate prejudice AGAINST all forms of prejudice. If we find our self being judgmental then pass judgment AGAINST being judgmental. If we have a bias then let it be a bias AGAINST showing a bias. If we have a preference than let it be a preference AGAINST showing a preference.
This is not rocket science. Treat others as we would like them treat us. Accept others as we would like to be accepted by them. Take down fences, not build stronger ones. Welcome strangers, for as Scripture says, by doing so some have entertained angels.
Jesus meets a supposed enemy, and accepts her. We are called to respect all people, not because they share our values, or our ethnic group, or speak our language, or belong to the same social class, not because they are ‘our sort of people’ or ‘people with the right connections’.... we are called to respect all peoples because every person is a women, man or child that Jesus Christ hung on a cross and died for as He prayed “Forgive them Father for they don’t know what they are doing”.
In the heat of the afternoon sun, Jesus meets a person whom the society of the day regarded as unimportant and insignificant. He engages her in conversation, He refuses to judge her, He welcomes her presence, He lets her know how deeply loved she was by God. He grants to her life a significance her world denied. This passage functions on so many different levels.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on March 23rd, 2014
A printable PDF file can be found here
Certain passages of Scripture invite us to take a look at our lives and question our motives, our prejudices, our actions, our decisions and a whole lot more. Such passages may make us feel like the comedian who said “I just took a reality check. It bounced.”
Last week we were bounced by Nicodemus and were told to be born again and give our hearts to Jesus. This week we have been taken into the desert by Moses and revealed to be people of little faith who grumble and complain against God at the slightest change in our fortunes. Now Jesus takes us to encounter a person convention said He should have nothing to do with.
Please don’t underestimate how scandalous this passage must have appeared to it’s first century readers. Rabbinical teachers like Jesus were not meant to hang around wells with unaccompanied women, let alone beg drinks from them and engage in conversation.
Samaritans and Jews were separated by intense prejudices of both culture and religion. They hated each other. They spoke of each other as feared and despised enemies with whom the least contact would result in them being contaminated and having to seek some form of ritual cleansing.
In Luke's gospel we are given a parable about a ‘Good Samaritan’, a phrase which to Jewish ears must have sounded like an oxymoron. Johns gospel takes this scandalous encounter even further by opening up the Good News not just to one solitary Samaritan woman but to the whole Samaritan community.
Underlying this situation is a statement about the difference between false religion and true religion. Samaritans and Jews were divided about both the right way and the right geographical place to worship God. They had both received a great heritage, they could both lay claim to the intervention of God in their past and they were both a people who could point to evidence of God’s blessing.
Jesus cuts through all of that with a simple statement. 'True worshipers worship God in spirit and truth'. Religion was a matter of the heart, not outward convention. It was a real connection with God that truly affected the way decisions are made and life is lived. It is a matter, as he told Nicodemus, of re-birthing your life in the values and priorities of the Kingdom.
Real worship takes place when we bring our true selves to God. That was a discovery that the Samaritan woman made in her encounter with Jesus at the well. There were things about her life that she tried to hide. She tells Jesus that she hasn’t got a husband. That wasn’t the whole truth. The reality was that she had had five husbands and the man she was living with was wasn’t her husband.
Of greater consequence is simply that, as a woman, in her culture at that time, she was a person with little significance. A woman's worth was measured by her relationship to a man. A woman with no husband or male to relate to couldn’t survive. That’s why in the New Testament letters there are many injunctions for the early church to care for the single women and the widows... to grant to them an independent status and value that the world denied.
Which is exactly what Jesus does for this woman by the well. Her value in God’s eyes is not her relationship to any male, not her gender, nor her ethnic identity, but her ability to be a worshiper in spirit and truth. If you read further in the chapter you see the disciples returning from their downtown shopping trip and being totally astonished that Jesus was granting such rights to a woman.
The heat of this passage goes deeper than just gender prejudice, it is a no holds barred attack on all forms of prejudice, a caution to never prejudge any person or situation on the grounds of rumor or reputation.
Sadly it’s something we all do. Like the people Moses led through the desert, we thank God when all is rosy but complain when our immediate needs aren’t met. Our physical thirst is often a stronger driving force than our spiritual one. To often judgments are made on the basis of outward appearance.
I remember being in school and hating Richard Perry. Richard Perry was born with more muscles than I could ever develop. Richard Perry’s hair was a different color to mine and was always immaculately dressed. Even though we had school uniforms, his made him look good, mine just made me look awkward. Richard Perry was good at sports, good at maths, good at science, good at everything. He never studied for a test but always passed. He never got picked on by the bullies.
Girls loved Richard Perry. He was a babe magnet. Teachers loved Richard Perry. Parents loved Richard Perry. He was rich, he was handsome. In fact everybody loved Richard Perry. Everybody except me. Because secretly... I wanted to be Richard Perry!
How stupid we can be to measure ourselves by other people. The beautiful thing about each of us is that we are all different. We all have unique gifts and talents that we should treasure rather than envying others. For some people, if only they could let go of their desire to be somebody that they’re not and start making the most of who they are, then their lives would be so much happier.
Jesus treats the Samaritan woman as a full human being. He doesn’t talk down to her. He doesn’t treat her as any less of a full person because her circumstances weren’t ideal. He doesn’t treat her differently because she was of a different religion and a different race.
He treats her as a unique and worthy recipient of the grace of God, as He does each of us. If we can but recognize ourselves accepted and loved by God how much freer we are to be individuals that don’t have to live up to anybodies expectations except that of being the person God wants us to be.
The dilemma isn’t just self acceptance. We’ve already seen the hatred that existed between Jews and Samaritans. The problem is the human preoccupation with creating fences and protecting boundaries, our limitless capacity to divide people into 'In-Crowds' and 'Out-Crowds' ; 'The Chosen people' and the 'Rejected people'.
The New International Bible Commentary points out:- “Throughout human history, people and nations have defined themselves over against other groups. The history of race relations in the United States, the notion of racial purity that was at the ideological heart of Hitler’s Germany, the ethnic wars that wax and wane across the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Europe all have their roots in the same fears that divided Jews from Samaritans: the fear of contamination, the fear of sharing one’s gift and privileged call with others.”
This passage calls us to turn the heat on our own heart, to dig deep and root out any prejudices that may be there. If we have a prejudice then let it be a passionate prejudice AGAINST all forms of prejudice. If we find our self being judgmental then pass judgment AGAINST being judgmental. If we have a bias then let it be a bias AGAINST showing a bias. If we have a preference than let it be a preference AGAINST showing a preference.
This is not rocket science. Treat others as we would like them treat us. Accept others as we would like to be accepted by them. Take down fences, not build stronger ones. Welcome strangers, for as Scripture says, by doing so some have entertained angels.
Jesus meets a supposed enemy, and accepts her. We are called to respect all people, not because they share our values, or our ethnic group, or speak our language, or belong to the same social class, not because they are ‘our sort of people’ or ‘people with the right connections’.... we are called to respect all peoples because every person is a women, man or child that Jesus Christ hung on a cross and died for as He prayed “Forgive them Father for they don’t know what they are doing”.
In the heat of the afternoon sun, Jesus meets a person whom the society of the day regarded as unimportant and insignificant. He engages her in conversation, He refuses to judge her, He welcomes her presence, He lets her know how deeply loved she was by God. He grants to her life a significance her world denied. This passage functions on so many different levels.
- It invites us to know ourselves loved of God and so love others.
- It encourages us to take a reality check on our own life, and if it bounces, make the right adjustments.
- It beckons us to come before God in spirit and truth and seek for His love to be born from above in each of our hearts.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Monday, March 17, 2014
Are you saved?
Readings: Psalm 121, Genesis 12:1-4, Romans 4:1-17, John 3:1-17.
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on March 16th 2014
A printable PDF file can be found here
I am not a great fan of the sort of Christianity that turns religion into an isolated decision to follow Jesus Christ. I'm not the sort of preacher who punctuates every sermon with invitations for "Y'all to come down to the front and get saved". I consciously try not to manipulate peoples guilt or emotions so as they make a misguided decision to be a disciple of Jesus.
I well remember the lady who told me that she had been saved by Billy Graham five times and she couldn't wait for him to come and preach again so she could go down and be saved once more. I believe that discipleship isn’t that easy or that shallow.
My personal reservations aside (and being a white, middle class British male I probably have more personal reservations than many of you) certain texts of Scripture call us to ask the most direct, searching and personal questions about our faith and our salvation. John Chapter Three is one of those passages.
In this passage Jesus tells us that unless we are born again we shall not see the Kingdom of God. That unless we are born of water and Spirit we shall not enter the Kingdom of God. Spiritual birth is related to both seeing and entering into the things of God. We are given some of the most well known verses of Scripture in John 3, verses16 and 17; "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.”
These passages compel us to ask the question, "Are we saved? Do we know the experience of being born again, or as it can also be translated being born "from above"? Have we considered the alternatives that Jesus offers? We are asked to make a choice between eternity or perishing, salvation or judgment, light or darkness, earthly things or heavenly things, to believe or not to believe in the saving work, the name and the person and the witness of Jesus Christ.
Elsewhere we are told that it is by faith that we are saved, and by implication, that where there is no faith in Jesus Christ there is no salvation. Our Old Testament passage gave us the account of Abraham's calling and setting out on his journey of faith.
Abraham’s experience was one of new birth. At birth we are born into a family, a nation and a certain heritage. Abraham is called, by the Spirit of God, to leave behind his family ties, his ties of nationality and his heritage. Those things that were naturally his by birth. He is called by faith to abandon and spiritually lay claim to a new family, a new country, a new life, a new hope, a new vision of who he was, how he related to God and all that was in the world around him.
Through the waters of birth he was born into an earthly heritage. Through the Spirit of God he is born again, born from above, to a different way of being. Just as Jesus called Nicodemus to embrace a new way of life, a way not envisioned by the natural inclinations of man but by the vision of God, so Abraham was called. We also are called to be born again, to embark on a new journey, to leave the old behind and be part of something new.
For Nicodemus it was not going to be easy. He had intellectual difficulties to work through. He had pictures in his mind of what birth was about and what religion was about and how a person should serve God and who Jesus was and what life was all about. He had thought deeply about these things. He was a man with an education, a teacher of Israel, a judge, a ruler amongst his people. He had his social position and political position to consider. He had economic and religious commitments to take into account.
Then again it wasn't easy for Abraham. He also was a man tied to his tradition and his position. He had commitments to things that made it hard to say "Yes" to God. How could God bless him as being the Father of a new nation when he had no child and his wife was barren? How could he leave behind his established way and venture into the unknown for places he knew not where? You’re born, you make a life for your self, you have responsibilities, you’re settled, things are good... who wants to be born again and have to face all that over again?
Abraham’s journey turned out to be, not one isolated decision, but a continuous coming to terms with all that God was calling him to be. Wrestling with tough decisions, being prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac, conflicts with family and neighbors, mistakes and misunderstandings, all this and so much more.
About Nicodemus we know less, but at the end of John's gospel he is one of those who, along with Joseph of Arimathea, comes to prepare the broken body of Jesus for burial; bringing spices and myrrh and laying his body in the tomb. Nicodemus, in time, came to believe enough in Jesus to sacrifice all that he was in order that his life may bring honor to that of Christ's.
So what of ourselves? Are we on that journey? The born from above, re-birthed journey? The salvation journey? Every journey has to have a point of departure. Earthly life begins as we depart from the waters of the womb and start to breathe the air and relate to the world around us. Until that point we are an embryo, a human in the making, an unborn child.
Likewise spiritual life has to have a point of departure. For Abraham it was a movement out from all that he held dear to embrace a vision that he couldn’t precisely define. For Nicodemus it was having to choose between all that his life had so far taught him and to embrace the teaching of Jesus Christ.
That process of moving from a position of unbelief to a position of faith is what Jesus describes as being born from above or being born again. It is seen as a different kind of birthing to human birth, because it is a response to the work of God’s Spirit upon a persons life. It is a super-natural thing, dependent upon the initiative of God.
In Matthew’s gospel (16:17) when Peter came to make his confession of Jesus as being the Son of God, Jesus praises him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonas, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Simon Peter is praised for showing evidence of spiritual rebirth by testifying to those things God was revealing in his heart.
Spiritual rebirth takes place as we draw near to Jesus. It takes place as we hear His words and act upon them. It takes place as we pray and open our hearts to God’s influence. It means asking Jesus to be at our center, not as a one off and once for all decision, (although that may well be our point of departure) but constantly seeking for His love to be at the heart of all things in our lives.
From my standpoint, which admittedly is extremely biased for I am after all a Presbyterian minister, I can only see what you have to gain by committing your life to Jesus Christ. It is a marvelous thing to have the assurance that your sins are forgiven. It is such freedom to not have to live with the guilt of past mistakes and daily lapses into sinfulness, because Christ died for our sins.
It is a liberating thing to know that my life and my death are in God’s hands. Whilst I don’t always understand and often become frustrated with God for the injustices, the personal failures, the annoying things, the things I don’t understand, it is like a rock below the surface to know that despite my questions there is a God who knows all, sees all and loves us despite it all.
At times I do become pessimistic when I think of the state of the world and all the stuff that’s wrong with it, but at other times I get excited at the prospect of the world as it shall be and what Scripture calls the hope of Glory. I don’t have all the answers and a lot of the time don’t even ask the right questions, but God let’s me in on all that I need to know, so even my ignorance is something God is working on.
I’ve heard people say sometimes, “Well, I would be a Christian but I can’t take all that giving up stuff... all those do’s and don’ts are just so repressive”. Personally I don’t have a problem with giving up death, which is where my life would be heading without Christ. I don’t have a problem with giving up on doing stuff that is ultimately life cheapening or addictive or sometimes just plain stupid.
May God forgive us for at times portraying God as somehow being the invisible policeman, the great Mr Kill-Joy in the sky. The prohibitions that Scripture presents us aren’t for any kind of sadistic divine pleasure, they are there because we are fallible, unpredictable and certainly misguided creatures with a tendency to make bad choices and wrong decisions. Christ came that we may have life.... so we can really live.
I can guarantee you that as you draw near to God, God won’t force you into giving up or taking up anything that’s against your will. God's Spirit will work on you and change you. Things you once thought really mattered will become of minor importance. Relationships will form with the most unlikely of people and situations. Life won’t be the same.. but who wants more and more and more and more of the same?
I said at the start that I am not a "Y'all to come down to the front and get saved" sort of
preacher. At least not usually. But a text like John 3:16 invites a response.
Because it could be you are one of those who has never consciously made the decision to be a disciple of Christ. You know others have, but you have never really invited the Spirit of God to be the driving force of your life. Don’t fool yourself.
Till you take that step of commitment you are in the womb of the world but have not yet started to enjoy the life of the Kingdom. You will neither see the point nor feel the need to do things God’s way, but mistakenly believe that you know best.
Maybe you presume your sins are forgiven, but are not really sure. You hope your headed for somewhere good when you die, but you’re not convinced. Could be you blame God for as many things as you thank God for. All this might be an indication that you have never really opened your heart, never really asked Jesus to come in, never seriously considered His call to follow.
It doesn’t have to be that way. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
Maybe you have taken that initial step, but have become bogged down, like the good seed that fell among the weeds. There was a time when it all seemed so clear, but now... well time has extracted a heavy toll. Today would be a good time for renewing your commitment. Why not join me in this commitment prayer.
“Lord Jesus Christ
I ask you to come afresh into my heart this day
Forgive me and renew me
That I may know Your salvation,
To the Glory of God. AMEN!”
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on March 16th 2014
A printable PDF file can be found here
I am not a great fan of the sort of Christianity that turns religion into an isolated decision to follow Jesus Christ. I'm not the sort of preacher who punctuates every sermon with invitations for "Y'all to come down to the front and get saved". I consciously try not to manipulate peoples guilt or emotions so as they make a misguided decision to be a disciple of Jesus.
I well remember the lady who told me that she had been saved by Billy Graham five times and she couldn't wait for him to come and preach again so she could go down and be saved once more. I believe that discipleship isn’t that easy or that shallow.
My personal reservations aside (and being a white, middle class British male I probably have more personal reservations than many of you) certain texts of Scripture call us to ask the most direct, searching and personal questions about our faith and our salvation. John Chapter Three is one of those passages.
In this passage Jesus tells us that unless we are born again we shall not see the Kingdom of God. That unless we are born of water and Spirit we shall not enter the Kingdom of God. Spiritual birth is related to both seeing and entering into the things of God. We are given some of the most well known verses of Scripture in John 3, verses16 and 17; "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.”
These passages compel us to ask the question, "Are we saved? Do we know the experience of being born again, or as it can also be translated being born "from above"? Have we considered the alternatives that Jesus offers? We are asked to make a choice between eternity or perishing, salvation or judgment, light or darkness, earthly things or heavenly things, to believe or not to believe in the saving work, the name and the person and the witness of Jesus Christ.
Elsewhere we are told that it is by faith that we are saved, and by implication, that where there is no faith in Jesus Christ there is no salvation. Our Old Testament passage gave us the account of Abraham's calling and setting out on his journey of faith.
Abraham’s experience was one of new birth. At birth we are born into a family, a nation and a certain heritage. Abraham is called, by the Spirit of God, to leave behind his family ties, his ties of nationality and his heritage. Those things that were naturally his by birth. He is called by faith to abandon and spiritually lay claim to a new family, a new country, a new life, a new hope, a new vision of who he was, how he related to God and all that was in the world around him.
Through the waters of birth he was born into an earthly heritage. Through the Spirit of God he is born again, born from above, to a different way of being. Just as Jesus called Nicodemus to embrace a new way of life, a way not envisioned by the natural inclinations of man but by the vision of God, so Abraham was called. We also are called to be born again, to embark on a new journey, to leave the old behind and be part of something new.
For Nicodemus it was not going to be easy. He had intellectual difficulties to work through. He had pictures in his mind of what birth was about and what religion was about and how a person should serve God and who Jesus was and what life was all about. He had thought deeply about these things. He was a man with an education, a teacher of Israel, a judge, a ruler amongst his people. He had his social position and political position to consider. He had economic and religious commitments to take into account.
Then again it wasn't easy for Abraham. He also was a man tied to his tradition and his position. He had commitments to things that made it hard to say "Yes" to God. How could God bless him as being the Father of a new nation when he had no child and his wife was barren? How could he leave behind his established way and venture into the unknown for places he knew not where? You’re born, you make a life for your self, you have responsibilities, you’re settled, things are good... who wants to be born again and have to face all that over again?
Abraham’s journey turned out to be, not one isolated decision, but a continuous coming to terms with all that God was calling him to be. Wrestling with tough decisions, being prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac, conflicts with family and neighbors, mistakes and misunderstandings, all this and so much more.
About Nicodemus we know less, but at the end of John's gospel he is one of those who, along with Joseph of Arimathea, comes to prepare the broken body of Jesus for burial; bringing spices and myrrh and laying his body in the tomb. Nicodemus, in time, came to believe enough in Jesus to sacrifice all that he was in order that his life may bring honor to that of Christ's.
So what of ourselves? Are we on that journey? The born from above, re-birthed journey? The salvation journey? Every journey has to have a point of departure. Earthly life begins as we depart from the waters of the womb and start to breathe the air and relate to the world around us. Until that point we are an embryo, a human in the making, an unborn child.
Likewise spiritual life has to have a point of departure. For Abraham it was a movement out from all that he held dear to embrace a vision that he couldn’t precisely define. For Nicodemus it was having to choose between all that his life had so far taught him and to embrace the teaching of Jesus Christ.
That process of moving from a position of unbelief to a position of faith is what Jesus describes as being born from above or being born again. It is seen as a different kind of birthing to human birth, because it is a response to the work of God’s Spirit upon a persons life. It is a super-natural thing, dependent upon the initiative of God.
In Matthew’s gospel (16:17) when Peter came to make his confession of Jesus as being the Son of God, Jesus praises him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonas, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.” Simon Peter is praised for showing evidence of spiritual rebirth by testifying to those things God was revealing in his heart.
Spiritual rebirth takes place as we draw near to Jesus. It takes place as we hear His words and act upon them. It takes place as we pray and open our hearts to God’s influence. It means asking Jesus to be at our center, not as a one off and once for all decision, (although that may well be our point of departure) but constantly seeking for His love to be at the heart of all things in our lives.
From my standpoint, which admittedly is extremely biased for I am after all a Presbyterian minister, I can only see what you have to gain by committing your life to Jesus Christ. It is a marvelous thing to have the assurance that your sins are forgiven. It is such freedom to not have to live with the guilt of past mistakes and daily lapses into sinfulness, because Christ died for our sins.
It is a liberating thing to know that my life and my death are in God’s hands. Whilst I don’t always understand and often become frustrated with God for the injustices, the personal failures, the annoying things, the things I don’t understand, it is like a rock below the surface to know that despite my questions there is a God who knows all, sees all and loves us despite it all.
At times I do become pessimistic when I think of the state of the world and all the stuff that’s wrong with it, but at other times I get excited at the prospect of the world as it shall be and what Scripture calls the hope of Glory. I don’t have all the answers and a lot of the time don’t even ask the right questions, but God let’s me in on all that I need to know, so even my ignorance is something God is working on.
I’ve heard people say sometimes, “Well, I would be a Christian but I can’t take all that giving up stuff... all those do’s and don’ts are just so repressive”. Personally I don’t have a problem with giving up death, which is where my life would be heading without Christ. I don’t have a problem with giving up on doing stuff that is ultimately life cheapening or addictive or sometimes just plain stupid.
May God forgive us for at times portraying God as somehow being the invisible policeman, the great Mr Kill-Joy in the sky. The prohibitions that Scripture presents us aren’t for any kind of sadistic divine pleasure, they are there because we are fallible, unpredictable and certainly misguided creatures with a tendency to make bad choices and wrong decisions. Christ came that we may have life.... so we can really live.
I can guarantee you that as you draw near to God, God won’t force you into giving up or taking up anything that’s against your will. God's Spirit will work on you and change you. Things you once thought really mattered will become of minor importance. Relationships will form with the most unlikely of people and situations. Life won’t be the same.. but who wants more and more and more and more of the same?
I said at the start that I am not a "Y'all to come down to the front and get saved" sort of
preacher. At least not usually. But a text like John 3:16 invites a response.
Because it could be you are one of those who has never consciously made the decision to be a disciple of Christ. You know others have, but you have never really invited the Spirit of God to be the driving force of your life. Don’t fool yourself.
Till you take that step of commitment you are in the womb of the world but have not yet started to enjoy the life of the Kingdom. You will neither see the point nor feel the need to do things God’s way, but mistakenly believe that you know best.
Maybe you presume your sins are forgiven, but are not really sure. You hope your headed for somewhere good when you die, but you’re not convinced. Could be you blame God for as many things as you thank God for. All this might be an indication that you have never really opened your heart, never really asked Jesus to come in, never seriously considered His call to follow.
It doesn’t have to be that way. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
Maybe you have taken that initial step, but have become bogged down, like the good seed that fell among the weeds. There was a time when it all seemed so clear, but now... well time has extracted a heavy toll. Today would be a good time for renewing your commitment. Why not join me in this commitment prayer.
“Lord Jesus Christ
I ask you to come afresh into my heart this day
Forgive me and renew me
That I may know Your salvation,
To the Glory of God. AMEN!”
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Hearts of Faith
Readings: Psalm 32, Genesis 2:15-17,3:1-7, Matthew 4:1-11, Romans 10:8-13
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on March 9th 2014
A printable PDF file can be found here
The first Sunday of Lent. The cross that draws our attention reminds us that we are on a journey. In our Bible Study groups this year we began a study on the Book of Romans. We're actually taking a break from that theme as we join with other churches for a joint study during Lent, but I'd like to draw your attention this morning to a verse that appears in Romans 10:10: "For with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation".
Paul was the greatest architect in forming the beliefs of the early church and his writings continue to shape the beliefs of today’s church. He writes as a pastor, deeply concerned for the people of the different congregations he has seen emerging around the Roman world. He writes of his own struggles and victories. He writes, above all, to deepen peoples relationship with Jesus Christ.
He had a special concern for the Church in Rome. Rome, after all, was the center of power and influence throughout the whole empire. What happened in Rome affected the whole wide world. And it is in the book of Romans that he gives his most comprehensive outline of what being a Christian involved.
One word rings out through the book of Romans again and again. The word; "Faith". Faith is the essential ingredient in Christian life. The word of faith brings salvation. Faith sets people free from legalistic religion that would keep them down. Faith releases people for service. Faith works miracles. Faith is the guiding factor when there are moral choices to be made.
But that faith is not some wispy, indefinable, quality. It is faith that is consciously and deliberately nurtured by the words of Scripture and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is faith that is nurtured through active participation in a worshiping community.
The verse we are considering makes a distinction between ‘faith’, as an inner quality that shapes our beliefs, and ‘The Faith’, the way we give expression to what we believe. The first part of the verse talks about our personal faith. “With the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness”. The second part speaks about ‘The Faith'; the way our inner beliefs are expressed to the world around us. “With the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
The two things need to be held together. Paul places them in the right order. Faith has to start somewhere deep within us. As we are changed by God’s Spirit working within our lives, God’s ways come to be seen in our actions. As we share that faith, through acts of service, words of confession and times of worship in community with others, the salvation of God takes on a fresh reality in our lives and influences others. Let’s dig deeper!
“With the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness”
True faith does not lie in simply saying ‘yes’ with our words to the claim of the gospel on our lives, nor simply agreeing that the gospel is true. True faith does not lie in the brain or in the tongue, but in the heart. It’s not about intellectual understanding. Neither is it about simply saying that we believe in something. It is heart work.
God seeks for those who will believe in Him with all their heart, with all their understanding, with all their will, with all their soul and with all their love. As Christian people our faith is focused on Jesus. Faith encourages us to see Jesus in all His glory and to understand the ability of God’s Holy Spirit to work in our lives. Faith sees how Jesus willingly came to this earth to be our Savior and places all hope of salvation in God’s saving work.
As one commentator puts it, faith is the ‘going out of the soul to Christ’. It is expressed in our lives in different ways. It is being prepared to spend time in the presence of God in prayer, meditation and study of God’s word. It is humbling ourselves before God, for His love is so much greater than any we can conceive. It is seeking to discover God's love though serving those less fortunate than ourselves.
It is being prepared to do whatever, go wherever, act however, God desires us to. It is having total dependence on Christ as our Savior and not assigning that work of salvation to any other. It is leaning and relying upon Christ. It is living in Him. It is allowing the teaching and influence of Jesus to be such an important part of our life that He becomes the rock upon which all other things are built.
Faith is a heart thing. God wants us to be people with a heart of faith. For it is having a heart of faith that leads to the quality the apostle describes as righteousness – which is essentially being in a right relationship with God and others. Righteousness is a gift, a gift of grace. The righteousness God offers is based upon heart felt faith in Jesus Christ.
Paul is keen to impress upon the Romans, righteousness is not about keeping the Laws of Moses or even the law of the land. Righteousness didn't involve the accomplishment of great things. It was about receiving the love that God offers to us. The first part of Romans 10;10 talks about our personal faith. “With the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness”. The second part speaks about ‘The Faith’, the teachings that we give assent to with our words.
“With the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness……...
With the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
When Paul uses the word ‘confession’ here, he is not talking about confessing our sins, as we do in the prayer of confession that appears in the bulletin. The confession that he speaks of here, relates to the previous verse. “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you shall be saved.” (Romans 10:9).
'Confessing Jesus as Lord' doesn’t mean ramming your beliefs down other people’s throats at every given opportunity. It implies rather, acting upon the hope you have in your heart, in such a way as it encourages others to want to share in the life of the Kingdom.
As those of you who come to the Bible Studies know, when it comes to understanding the Book of Romans I'm a big fan of Eugene Petersen's transliteration 'The Message'. He has a way of bringing out the meaning of the text. Here is how he interprets the passage we've been thinking about;
“It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God --"Jesus is my Master” --embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting God to do it for you. That's salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between Him and me!"
These verses remind us that faith is both an 'inward' and an 'outward' thing. We welcome God's influence in the center of our being. We recognize that at the Cross something life changing was taking place... and we allow ourselves to be changed. But we don't leave it there.
The change that God works in us needs to be expressed in concrete ways. We give expression to the fact that through Jesus God has set everything right between us by seeking to make things right for others. We express our faith through the service we give. We express our faith by learning and understanding what our faith is about. We express our faith by joining with others in worship and fellowship and community.
The season of Lent offers us a wonderful opportunity for reflecting on our faith. How does the message of the cross impact our hearts? And how does that work out in the way we live our lives? We rejoice that God in Christ has done everything we need to live in a right relationship with Him. But what things can we do to help put things right for others?
As we travel towards Easter we can find many opportunities both to deepen our personal faith and to serve and work with others to give expression to what we believe. Paul reminds us that 'faith' is a big word, related to both what we believe and what we do on the basis of our beliefs. May God help us to be those who are both in a right relationship to God and who are working to see that others are aware of the love God has for them.
And to God's name be all glory. Amen.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on March 9th 2014
A printable PDF file can be found here
The first Sunday of Lent. The cross that draws our attention reminds us that we are on a journey. In our Bible Study groups this year we began a study on the Book of Romans. We're actually taking a break from that theme as we join with other churches for a joint study during Lent, but I'd like to draw your attention this morning to a verse that appears in Romans 10:10: "For with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation".
Paul was the greatest architect in forming the beliefs of the early church and his writings continue to shape the beliefs of today’s church. He writes as a pastor, deeply concerned for the people of the different congregations he has seen emerging around the Roman world. He writes of his own struggles and victories. He writes, above all, to deepen peoples relationship with Jesus Christ.
He had a special concern for the Church in Rome. Rome, after all, was the center of power and influence throughout the whole empire. What happened in Rome affected the whole wide world. And it is in the book of Romans that he gives his most comprehensive outline of what being a Christian involved.
One word rings out through the book of Romans again and again. The word; "Faith". Faith is the essential ingredient in Christian life. The word of faith brings salvation. Faith sets people free from legalistic religion that would keep them down. Faith releases people for service. Faith works miracles. Faith is the guiding factor when there are moral choices to be made.
But that faith is not some wispy, indefinable, quality. It is faith that is consciously and deliberately nurtured by the words of Scripture and the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is faith that is nurtured through active participation in a worshiping community.
The verse we are considering makes a distinction between ‘faith’, as an inner quality that shapes our beliefs, and ‘The Faith’, the way we give expression to what we believe. The first part of the verse talks about our personal faith. “With the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness”. The second part speaks about ‘The Faith'; the way our inner beliefs are expressed to the world around us. “With the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
The two things need to be held together. Paul places them in the right order. Faith has to start somewhere deep within us. As we are changed by God’s Spirit working within our lives, God’s ways come to be seen in our actions. As we share that faith, through acts of service, words of confession and times of worship in community with others, the salvation of God takes on a fresh reality in our lives and influences others. Let’s dig deeper!
“With the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness”
True faith does not lie in simply saying ‘yes’ with our words to the claim of the gospel on our lives, nor simply agreeing that the gospel is true. True faith does not lie in the brain or in the tongue, but in the heart. It’s not about intellectual understanding. Neither is it about simply saying that we believe in something. It is heart work.
God seeks for those who will believe in Him with all their heart, with all their understanding, with all their will, with all their soul and with all their love. As Christian people our faith is focused on Jesus. Faith encourages us to see Jesus in all His glory and to understand the ability of God’s Holy Spirit to work in our lives. Faith sees how Jesus willingly came to this earth to be our Savior and places all hope of salvation in God’s saving work.
As one commentator puts it, faith is the ‘going out of the soul to Christ’. It is expressed in our lives in different ways. It is being prepared to spend time in the presence of God in prayer, meditation and study of God’s word. It is humbling ourselves before God, for His love is so much greater than any we can conceive. It is seeking to discover God's love though serving those less fortunate than ourselves.
It is being prepared to do whatever, go wherever, act however, God desires us to. It is having total dependence on Christ as our Savior and not assigning that work of salvation to any other. It is leaning and relying upon Christ. It is living in Him. It is allowing the teaching and influence of Jesus to be such an important part of our life that He becomes the rock upon which all other things are built.
Faith is a heart thing. God wants us to be people with a heart of faith. For it is having a heart of faith that leads to the quality the apostle describes as righteousness – which is essentially being in a right relationship with God and others. Righteousness is a gift, a gift of grace. The righteousness God offers is based upon heart felt faith in Jesus Christ.
Paul is keen to impress upon the Romans, righteousness is not about keeping the Laws of Moses or even the law of the land. Righteousness didn't involve the accomplishment of great things. It was about receiving the love that God offers to us. The first part of Romans 10;10 talks about our personal faith. “With the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness”. The second part speaks about ‘The Faith’, the teachings that we give assent to with our words.
“With the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness……...
With the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”
When Paul uses the word ‘confession’ here, he is not talking about confessing our sins, as we do in the prayer of confession that appears in the bulletin. The confession that he speaks of here, relates to the previous verse. “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead you shall be saved.” (Romans 10:9).
'Confessing Jesus as Lord' doesn’t mean ramming your beliefs down other people’s throats at every given opportunity. It implies rather, acting upon the hope you have in your heart, in such a way as it encourages others to want to share in the life of the Kingdom.
As those of you who come to the Bible Studies know, when it comes to understanding the Book of Romans I'm a big fan of Eugene Petersen's transliteration 'The Message'. He has a way of bringing out the meaning of the text. Here is how he interprets the passage we've been thinking about;
“It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God --"Jesus is my Master” --embracing, body and soul, God's work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That's it. You're not "doing" anything; you're simply calling out to God, trusting God to do it for you. That's salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: "God has set everything right between Him and me!"
These verses remind us that faith is both an 'inward' and an 'outward' thing. We welcome God's influence in the center of our being. We recognize that at the Cross something life changing was taking place... and we allow ourselves to be changed. But we don't leave it there.
The change that God works in us needs to be expressed in concrete ways. We give expression to the fact that through Jesus God has set everything right between us by seeking to make things right for others. We express our faith through the service we give. We express our faith by learning and understanding what our faith is about. We express our faith by joining with others in worship and fellowship and community.
The season of Lent offers us a wonderful opportunity for reflecting on our faith. How does the message of the cross impact our hearts? And how does that work out in the way we live our lives? We rejoice that God in Christ has done everything we need to live in a right relationship with Him. But what things can we do to help put things right for others?
As we travel towards Easter we can find many opportunities both to deepen our personal faith and to serve and work with others to give expression to what we believe. Paul reminds us that 'faith' is a big word, related to both what we believe and what we do on the basis of our beliefs. May God help us to be those who are both in a right relationship to God and who are working to see that others are aware of the love God has for them.
And to God's name be all glory. Amen.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Stop It and Tidy Up
ASH WEDNESDAY
Readings; Psalm 51:1-17, Joel 2:1-2, 12-17, 2 cor. 5:20-6:10, Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, March 5th, 2014
A printable PDF file can be found here
The book 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry' by British author, Rachel Joyce, weaves the delightful tale of Harold, who having received an unexpected letter from an old work colleague battling terminal cancer, writes a note. On his way to the mail he makes the unlikely decision to walk the length of England and visit them instead.
Along the way he uncovers much about himself through the encounters with the people he meets. He encounters a man, smartly dressed in an immaculate suit, with perfectly shaped hair, who exuded an air of self confidence that had eluded Harold for all of his life. Harold is somewhat in awe.
Whilst they share a tea-cake together the distinguished silver haired gentleman breaks down and confesses to Harold that he is having an affair with a person he dearly loved, but the kind of affair that if ever came out, would destroy him. The object of the mans affections needed some new shoes. “I can't bear to think of them walking the streets with a hole in their shoe. What should I do?” the distinguished gentleman asks him.
“Harold sat in silence. The silver-haired gentleman was in truth nothing like the man Harold had first imagined him to be. He was a chap like himself, with a unique pain; and yet there would be no knowing that if you passed him in the street, or sat opposite him in a cafe and did not share his teacake. Harold pictured the gentleman on a station platform, smart in his suit, looking no different from anyone else.
It must be the same all over England. People were buying milk, or filling their cars with petrol, or even posting letters. And what no one else knew was the appalling weight of the thing they were carrying inside. The inhuman effort it took sometimes to be normal, and a part of things that appeared both easy and everyday. The loneliness of that. Moved and humbled, he passed his paper napkin. 'I think I would buy them the shoes', said Harold.”
Many people carry stuff they would rather avoid. Skeletons in the closet. Places, emotionally or literally that they don't want to go. I remember as a child being told to “Stop it and Tidy Up” and how I used to try and put all my junk into one closet. As long as the room looked clear, then everything would be fine. But please; don't open the closet. I think we all do it. We have a garage, or a shed or an attic, or even a closet where we put all the stuff we don't want to sort out. But there comes a time when you can't ignore it any longer and things have to be sorted.
Maybe that's what Jesus is hinting at when he teaches about secret giving, praying and fasting. That the outward acts, though laudable and recommended, could be deceptive. That it was the things we did in private, that truly revealed our relationship with God.
We are familiar with politicians being criticized when their secret life does not square up with their public face. Where would the news media be without the occasional political scandal involving somebodies mistress or some funds used inappropriately? Likewise with celebrities.
They are put on a pedestal and live in the glare of the spotlight, yet often become train wrecks. You fear what fame is doing to young stars like Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus. How much of their behavior is simply kicking back at the unreal world they are forced to live in? In many cases, like the tragic death of Philip Seymor Hoffman, what is found in the closet is toxic and dangerous and life destroying.
This teaching on secret place giving, praying and fasting, recalls to us the truth that life is not about appearances. That only when our outward acts are balanced by inner reality can wholeness come. It is recognition that the One we need to seek approval from over and above all others, is God. That security comes, not through our ability to make an impression on others, but found through resting secure in the knowledge that we are God's children, accepted, forgiven and cherished in Jesus Christ.
The season of Lent offers a wonderful opportunity to go beyond re-arranging the furniture and actually sort out the junk in the closet. In our bible study group that has been focused on Romans we have been studying Paul's teaching that there is a fault line that runs throughout all humanity, that none of us is immune from the destructive tendencies of sinful behavior. That all of us experience, to quote from the novel I mentioned earlier, 'The inhuman effort it took sometimes to be normal, and a part of things that appeared both easy and everyday. The loneliness of that.'
Easter comes in Spring. And one of the things that a lot of folk do in Spring is 'Spring Cleaning'. Spring cleaning properly executed is a lot more than 'Stop it and Tidy Up'. It goes deeper then that. It may even involve clearing out those areas we have been neglecting or ignoring.
In the marking with ashes we use the phrase “From dust you have come, to dust you shall return”. Life is not infinite. We live in the period between dusting! And life can be delightful. But not if we are hiding our real ourselves or in denial of our private selves. God invites us to seek true wholeness.
To pursue in the secret places and the public places the things of Christ's kingdom. To live, not for the benefit of self or to make an impression on others, but live secure in the knowledge that through Jesus Christ our lives are blessed with purpose, meaning and significance.
As the imposition of ashes takes place, seek for God to act in your secret place though the influence and power of the Holy Spirit. Bring those tender places that they may be healed. Expose the dark corners to the light that they may be cleansed. By God's grace, may this be a time to 'Stop It and Tidy Up' and clear out the closets of our hearts. Amen.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Readings; Psalm 51:1-17, Joel 2:1-2, 12-17, 2 cor. 5:20-6:10, Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, March 5th, 2014
A printable PDF file can be found here
The book 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry' by British author, Rachel Joyce, weaves the delightful tale of Harold, who having received an unexpected letter from an old work colleague battling terminal cancer, writes a note. On his way to the mail he makes the unlikely decision to walk the length of England and visit them instead.
Along the way he uncovers much about himself through the encounters with the people he meets. He encounters a man, smartly dressed in an immaculate suit, with perfectly shaped hair, who exuded an air of self confidence that had eluded Harold for all of his life. Harold is somewhat in awe.
Whilst they share a tea-cake together the distinguished silver haired gentleman breaks down and confesses to Harold that he is having an affair with a person he dearly loved, but the kind of affair that if ever came out, would destroy him. The object of the mans affections needed some new shoes. “I can't bear to think of them walking the streets with a hole in their shoe. What should I do?” the distinguished gentleman asks him.
“Harold sat in silence. The silver-haired gentleman was in truth nothing like the man Harold had first imagined him to be. He was a chap like himself, with a unique pain; and yet there would be no knowing that if you passed him in the street, or sat opposite him in a cafe and did not share his teacake. Harold pictured the gentleman on a station platform, smart in his suit, looking no different from anyone else.
It must be the same all over England. People were buying milk, or filling their cars with petrol, or even posting letters. And what no one else knew was the appalling weight of the thing they were carrying inside. The inhuman effort it took sometimes to be normal, and a part of things that appeared both easy and everyday. The loneliness of that. Moved and humbled, he passed his paper napkin. 'I think I would buy them the shoes', said Harold.”
Many people carry stuff they would rather avoid. Skeletons in the closet. Places, emotionally or literally that they don't want to go. I remember as a child being told to “Stop it and Tidy Up” and how I used to try and put all my junk into one closet. As long as the room looked clear, then everything would be fine. But please; don't open the closet. I think we all do it. We have a garage, or a shed or an attic, or even a closet where we put all the stuff we don't want to sort out. But there comes a time when you can't ignore it any longer and things have to be sorted.
Maybe that's what Jesus is hinting at when he teaches about secret giving, praying and fasting. That the outward acts, though laudable and recommended, could be deceptive. That it was the things we did in private, that truly revealed our relationship with God.
We are familiar with politicians being criticized when their secret life does not square up with their public face. Where would the news media be without the occasional political scandal involving somebodies mistress or some funds used inappropriately? Likewise with celebrities.
They are put on a pedestal and live in the glare of the spotlight, yet often become train wrecks. You fear what fame is doing to young stars like Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus. How much of their behavior is simply kicking back at the unreal world they are forced to live in? In many cases, like the tragic death of Philip Seymor Hoffman, what is found in the closet is toxic and dangerous and life destroying.
This teaching on secret place giving, praying and fasting, recalls to us the truth that life is not about appearances. That only when our outward acts are balanced by inner reality can wholeness come. It is recognition that the One we need to seek approval from over and above all others, is God. That security comes, not through our ability to make an impression on others, but found through resting secure in the knowledge that we are God's children, accepted, forgiven and cherished in Jesus Christ.
The season of Lent offers a wonderful opportunity to go beyond re-arranging the furniture and actually sort out the junk in the closet. In our bible study group that has been focused on Romans we have been studying Paul's teaching that there is a fault line that runs throughout all humanity, that none of us is immune from the destructive tendencies of sinful behavior. That all of us experience, to quote from the novel I mentioned earlier, 'The inhuman effort it took sometimes to be normal, and a part of things that appeared both easy and everyday. The loneliness of that.'
Easter comes in Spring. And one of the things that a lot of folk do in Spring is 'Spring Cleaning'. Spring cleaning properly executed is a lot more than 'Stop it and Tidy Up'. It goes deeper then that. It may even involve clearing out those areas we have been neglecting or ignoring.
In the marking with ashes we use the phrase “From dust you have come, to dust you shall return”. Life is not infinite. We live in the period between dusting! And life can be delightful. But not if we are hiding our real ourselves or in denial of our private selves. God invites us to seek true wholeness.
To pursue in the secret places and the public places the things of Christ's kingdom. To live, not for the benefit of self or to make an impression on others, but live secure in the knowledge that through Jesus Christ our lives are blessed with purpose, meaning and significance.
As the imposition of ashes takes place, seek for God to act in your secret place though the influence and power of the Holy Spirit. Bring those tender places that they may be healed. Expose the dark corners to the light that they may be cleansed. By God's grace, may this be a time to 'Stop It and Tidy Up' and clear out the closets of our hearts. Amen.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Monday, March 3, 2014
Trust the Process
Readings; Psalm 99, Exodus 24:12-18, Matthew 17:1-9, 2 Peter 1:16-21
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, March 2nd, 2014
A printable PDF file can be found here
Matthew's gospel gives us an account of the events that we recall on Transfiguration Sunday. Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a mountain to pray. Whilst in prayer the mountain top is bathed in light and they see two great figures from the old Testament, Moses and Elijah standing with Jesus. A voice is heard form the Father in heaven “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, listen to Him”. It truly was a mountaintop experience that prepared them for the difficult days of Christ's betrayal and crucifixion.
The second letter of Peter, from which our reading this morning was taken, is thought by most scholars to be one of the later writings in the new Testament. By the time it was written the church had already started to become established throughout the Roman empire. At that point in history they had no canon of Scripture and there were many different stories and accounts of the life and significance of Jesus in circulation.
One of the aims of the writer of the second letter of Peter is to invite the reader to discern which stories were reliable and which should be discarded. The writer addresses the problem in two ways.
Firstly, the author insists that the true gospel message was built upon events that actually happened, upon things that the first disciples had seen and heard. The first letter of John begins in a similar way. 1 John 1:1 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” So in 2 Peter 1:18 we read, “We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with Hm on the sacred mountain.”
There was a well known Welsh comedian by the name of Max Boyce, who was a marvelous story teller and used to finish up his stories with lines that become his catchphrase - “I know” he would say, “Because I was there!”
The second way the writer of second Peter seeks to affirm the validity of the gospel message is to remind the reader of the intricate relationship between Old Testament prophecy and the life of Jesus. The gospel writers, and in particular Matthew, were insistent that everything that happened in and through and around the life of Jesus was not an accident, but part of a plan that God had had for the world since the dawn of creation.
The life of Jesus was the fulfillment of everything that the law and the prophets had said would come to pass. Nowhere is that theme more dramatically reinforced than on the mountain of Transfiguration, where we see the greatest representative of the law, Moses who had brought down the 10 commandments from the mountain, and Elijah, the greatest representative of the prophetic tradition, standing there, alongside Jesus, and a voice from heaven declares... “This is my beloved Son, Listen to Him.”
Of course it's been a long time since even the later books of the New Testament were written down. We are removed from them by a vast distance of time, and also have to travel across barriers of culture, language and understanding to truly appreciate the significance of the 66 books that make up that amazing collection of sacred scripture we collectively refer to as 'The Bible'.
Even as some of the later letters of the New Testament, like Second Peter, were being written, there were questions being raised as to what could be trusted and how the gospel story should be told. For 2000 years those questions have been asked by every generation and in every land. Some seek for fresh revelation, some seek for historical verification, some seek for external proof or outside evidence before they feel comfortable accepting the gospel message as being genuinely the word of God.
Where does that leave us? Twenty first Century disciples trying to define our lives with documents dating back to the first and second centuries! We would never dream of going to a dentist or doctor who practiced first century medical techniques, so why do we trust our spiritual health to prescriptions that are from such a distant age?
Maybe the second letter of Peter can help us.
One of the things that it encourages us to do is to 'Trust the process.'
Second Peter is thought to belong to a body of literature known as 'testament' – as in a last testament or a will. It reflects the thoughts of a person nearing the end of their life and passing on what is of most importance. Often, and many scholars suggest this is the case with second Peter, such 'testaments' may not have been composed by the person whose book bears their name, but are the reflections of an anonymous author who speaks for them. Usually this would be somebody close to them and well acquainted with their ways. This was a common practice at the time such writings were composed.
There is a lot that we will probably never know about who actually wrote many of the books in the bible, when they were written or exactly why they ended up being amongst the 66 we know as the Bible. Yet we believe in a living God, whose Holy Spirit was active and working throughout the process and is still active and guiding us to understand those things God needs us to know in our day and our time.
There is a fascinating passage in Matthew's gospel (22:31- 32) where Jesus is debating with the Sadducees over the question of resurrection. The Saduccees were a group of people who held to a very narrow interpretation of Scripture and rejected many of the traditional religious ideas.
They had come to Jesus with a trick question about whose wife somebody would end up being if they had married multiple brothers who had all passed away. Jesus answers them like this:- “About the resurrection of the dead--have you not read what God said to you, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."
Jesus is telling them that they didn't get it! There was a process. There was a bigger eternal picture that they were totally missing. God had been at work in history. God was at work on the mountain when Jesus stood there with Moses and Elijah. God was God of the living, not of the dead. Peter suggests we trust the process by which the scriptures have come to us, as an expression of our faith in the living God.
A whilst ago I was able to visit the Discovery exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Times Square. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of scriptures discovered in a cave in a place called Qumran in 1947. Some of the scrolls date back 250 years before even Jesus was born.
It was a goose-bump moment to view such an ancient version of the first chapter of Genesis, and realize the care that had gone into maintaining the message over countless centuries. To be doing so at one of the hubs of twenty century life, Times Square, NYC, just made the experience all the more a mountain-top type experience. Trust the process!
I sense that second Peter also encourages us to seek for our own transfiguration experiences. Of course, in saying that, it's not as if such an experience can be engineered or orchestrated. Such moments... call them 'epiphanies', call them 'thin-places', call them 'transfiguration’s', rarely come our way.
What is needed is a consistent Christian life. The disciples who witnessed the light of that mountain-top moment had been faithful in hearing Jesus call and seeking to follow. They were there when He said, 'Let's go up the mountain'. They'd still be there as they came down from the mountain. Such experiences were not those of casual or part-time disciples.
The transfiguration was also an experience that was preparing them for something. It was not a random act to make them think good thoughts about Jesus. Trouble was coming. Jesus, as He came down from the mountain, set His face and headed for Jerusalem. There would be no turning back. The shadow of the cross loomed over them.
The disciples were about to face different kinds of darkness. Peter totally misinterprets the events, tries to talk Jesus out of His mission and is accused of being a mouthpiece of the devil. All of them would, in different ways, deny, betray and abandon their Lord. None of them were truly prepared for either the crucifixion or the resurrection.
Yet in days following those awesome events they would reflect back on that time they went up a mountain and witnessed the presence of Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus and heard a voice saying 'This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.” It was only after the fact that it truly started to make any sense to them.
We all experience those times in our lives that as we pass through them, we ask 'Why?” 'Why did this happen?” or 'Why didn't that turn out when it looked like everything was so right?” Relationships, opportunities, life events... often can only truly be interpreted retrospectively.
So I finally suggest that this passage encourages us to nurture our lives through spiritual disciplines. To be regular in our devotions and worship and service. To be consistent and faithful in pursuing those things we believe discipleship of Jesus Christ invites us to.
For each of us that doesn't have to be the same. There are as many different ways to serve as we are different people. We are not all made the same. Some of us gravitate to one thing, some to another. That's part of what being a community is all about.
But one place we are invited to all come together is around a table laid with bread and wine. As we do so, we remember our purpose and our calling. That we are called to be disciples of One who so loved us that He laid down His life. One who suffered as redemption for sin. One who died that we may live and was raised that we may have life in all it's abundance.
There are times when the communion table can be a place of transfiguration. A time when we realize we are at this table, not only with Moses and Elijah, but as part of a huge cloud of unseen witnesses. That we see here how God's beloved Son was content to give His life that all may know God's love.
Returning full circle I'd again say, 'Trust the Process'. Travel down the ancient paths that lead to this table. Trust in God's ability to guide our lives through scriptures that resonate with authenticity. Trust in the daily disciplines that guide us and lead us. Trust in God's presence to be our inspiration in the here and now.
Hear for yourself... the words spoken on the mountaintop... "This is my beloved Son, Listen to Him.”. And to God be all glory, honor and praise. Amen.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, March 2nd, 2014
A printable PDF file can be found here
Matthew's gospel gives us an account of the events that we recall on Transfiguration Sunday. Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a mountain to pray. Whilst in prayer the mountain top is bathed in light and they see two great figures from the old Testament, Moses and Elijah standing with Jesus. A voice is heard form the Father in heaven “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased, listen to Him”. It truly was a mountaintop experience that prepared them for the difficult days of Christ's betrayal and crucifixion.
The second letter of Peter, from which our reading this morning was taken, is thought by most scholars to be one of the later writings in the new Testament. By the time it was written the church had already started to become established throughout the Roman empire. At that point in history they had no canon of Scripture and there were many different stories and accounts of the life and significance of Jesus in circulation.
One of the aims of the writer of the second letter of Peter is to invite the reader to discern which stories were reliable and which should be discarded. The writer addresses the problem in two ways.
Firstly, the author insists that the true gospel message was built upon events that actually happened, upon things that the first disciples had seen and heard. The first letter of John begins in a similar way. 1 John 1:1 “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” So in 2 Peter 1:18 we read, “We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with Hm on the sacred mountain.”
There was a well known Welsh comedian by the name of Max Boyce, who was a marvelous story teller and used to finish up his stories with lines that become his catchphrase - “I know” he would say, “Because I was there!”
The second way the writer of second Peter seeks to affirm the validity of the gospel message is to remind the reader of the intricate relationship between Old Testament prophecy and the life of Jesus. The gospel writers, and in particular Matthew, were insistent that everything that happened in and through and around the life of Jesus was not an accident, but part of a plan that God had had for the world since the dawn of creation.
The life of Jesus was the fulfillment of everything that the law and the prophets had said would come to pass. Nowhere is that theme more dramatically reinforced than on the mountain of Transfiguration, where we see the greatest representative of the law, Moses who had brought down the 10 commandments from the mountain, and Elijah, the greatest representative of the prophetic tradition, standing there, alongside Jesus, and a voice from heaven declares... “This is my beloved Son, Listen to Him.”
Of course it's been a long time since even the later books of the New Testament were written down. We are removed from them by a vast distance of time, and also have to travel across barriers of culture, language and understanding to truly appreciate the significance of the 66 books that make up that amazing collection of sacred scripture we collectively refer to as 'The Bible'.
Even as some of the later letters of the New Testament, like Second Peter, were being written, there were questions being raised as to what could be trusted and how the gospel story should be told. For 2000 years those questions have been asked by every generation and in every land. Some seek for fresh revelation, some seek for historical verification, some seek for external proof or outside evidence before they feel comfortable accepting the gospel message as being genuinely the word of God.
Where does that leave us? Twenty first Century disciples trying to define our lives with documents dating back to the first and second centuries! We would never dream of going to a dentist or doctor who practiced first century medical techniques, so why do we trust our spiritual health to prescriptions that are from such a distant age?
Maybe the second letter of Peter can help us.
One of the things that it encourages us to do is to 'Trust the process.'
Second Peter is thought to belong to a body of literature known as 'testament' – as in a last testament or a will. It reflects the thoughts of a person nearing the end of their life and passing on what is of most importance. Often, and many scholars suggest this is the case with second Peter, such 'testaments' may not have been composed by the person whose book bears their name, but are the reflections of an anonymous author who speaks for them. Usually this would be somebody close to them and well acquainted with their ways. This was a common practice at the time such writings were composed.
There is a lot that we will probably never know about who actually wrote many of the books in the bible, when they were written or exactly why they ended up being amongst the 66 we know as the Bible. Yet we believe in a living God, whose Holy Spirit was active and working throughout the process and is still active and guiding us to understand those things God needs us to know in our day and our time.
There is a fascinating passage in Matthew's gospel (22:31- 32) where Jesus is debating with the Sadducees over the question of resurrection. The Saduccees were a group of people who held to a very narrow interpretation of Scripture and rejected many of the traditional religious ideas.
They had come to Jesus with a trick question about whose wife somebody would end up being if they had married multiple brothers who had all passed away. Jesus answers them like this:- “About the resurrection of the dead--have you not read what God said to you, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? He is not the God of the dead but of the living."
Jesus is telling them that they didn't get it! There was a process. There was a bigger eternal picture that they were totally missing. God had been at work in history. God was at work on the mountain when Jesus stood there with Moses and Elijah. God was God of the living, not of the dead. Peter suggests we trust the process by which the scriptures have come to us, as an expression of our faith in the living God.
A whilst ago I was able to visit the Discovery exhibition of the Dead Sea Scrolls in Times Square. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of scriptures discovered in a cave in a place called Qumran in 1947. Some of the scrolls date back 250 years before even Jesus was born.
It was a goose-bump moment to view such an ancient version of the first chapter of Genesis, and realize the care that had gone into maintaining the message over countless centuries. To be doing so at one of the hubs of twenty century life, Times Square, NYC, just made the experience all the more a mountain-top type experience. Trust the process!
I sense that second Peter also encourages us to seek for our own transfiguration experiences. Of course, in saying that, it's not as if such an experience can be engineered or orchestrated. Such moments... call them 'epiphanies', call them 'thin-places', call them 'transfiguration’s', rarely come our way.
What is needed is a consistent Christian life. The disciples who witnessed the light of that mountain-top moment had been faithful in hearing Jesus call and seeking to follow. They were there when He said, 'Let's go up the mountain'. They'd still be there as they came down from the mountain. Such experiences were not those of casual or part-time disciples.
The transfiguration was also an experience that was preparing them for something. It was not a random act to make them think good thoughts about Jesus. Trouble was coming. Jesus, as He came down from the mountain, set His face and headed for Jerusalem. There would be no turning back. The shadow of the cross loomed over them.
The disciples were about to face different kinds of darkness. Peter totally misinterprets the events, tries to talk Jesus out of His mission and is accused of being a mouthpiece of the devil. All of them would, in different ways, deny, betray and abandon their Lord. None of them were truly prepared for either the crucifixion or the resurrection.
Yet in days following those awesome events they would reflect back on that time they went up a mountain and witnessed the presence of Moses and Elijah talking with Jesus and heard a voice saying 'This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.” It was only after the fact that it truly started to make any sense to them.
We all experience those times in our lives that as we pass through them, we ask 'Why?” 'Why did this happen?” or 'Why didn't that turn out when it looked like everything was so right?” Relationships, opportunities, life events... often can only truly be interpreted retrospectively.
So I finally suggest that this passage encourages us to nurture our lives through spiritual disciplines. To be regular in our devotions and worship and service. To be consistent and faithful in pursuing those things we believe discipleship of Jesus Christ invites us to.
For each of us that doesn't have to be the same. There are as many different ways to serve as we are different people. We are not all made the same. Some of us gravitate to one thing, some to another. That's part of what being a community is all about.
But one place we are invited to all come together is around a table laid with bread and wine. As we do so, we remember our purpose and our calling. That we are called to be disciples of One who so loved us that He laid down His life. One who suffered as redemption for sin. One who died that we may live and was raised that we may have life in all it's abundance.
There are times when the communion table can be a place of transfiguration. A time when we realize we are at this table, not only with Moses and Elijah, but as part of a huge cloud of unseen witnesses. That we see here how God's beloved Son was content to give His life that all may know God's love.
Returning full circle I'd again say, 'Trust the Process'. Travel down the ancient paths that lead to this table. Trust in God's ability to guide our lives through scriptures that resonate with authenticity. Trust in the daily disciplines that guide us and lead us. Trust in God's presence to be our inspiration in the here and now.
Hear for yourself... the words spoken on the mountaintop... "This is my beloved Son, Listen to Him.”. And to God be all glory, honor and praise. Amen.
The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
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