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

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

A printable PDF file can be found here

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rev Adrian Pratt

BAPTISM OF THE LORD SUNDAY "REAFFIRMATION AND BAPTISM”

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

A printable PDF file can be found here

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rev Adrian J Pratt

DO THE DANCE!

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

A printable PDF file can be found here

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do the Dance!

Rev. Adrian J. Pratt

"LET IT HAPPEN!” (ADVENT FOUR)

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

A printable PDF file can be found here

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amen!

Rev Adrian Pratt

THE WIND CRIES MARY(ADVENT THREE)

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

A printable PDF file can be found here

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dr. Hyers concluded his sermon with these words:-

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

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

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

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

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

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

To God’s name be the Glory.

Rev. Adrian Pratt

"THE CRISIS” (ADVENT ONE)

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

A printable PDF file can be found here

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And the Advent message speaks right into that situation.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rev Adrian Pratt

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

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

A printable PDF file is available here

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

The hymn’s first verse reads;

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rev Adrian Pratt