Reading: Psalm 48, Ezekiel 2:1-5, 2 Corinthians 12:2-10, Mark: 6:1-13
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, July 8th 2012
A printable PDF file can be found here
It's always a strange experience visiting your homelands after you’ve been away for a while. Things are so familiar, yet at the same time so different. Time moves on. People move on. Things change. There’s a new building here. An old landmark is no longer there. Who we are, is not who we were.
There is the awareness that you have moved onto other things, whilst some of those who stayed where they were are much the same as they have ever been. You see them through different eyes, but often they see you as they always did.
I was reading of the Welsh singer Tom Jones, (who had hits like, "It's not unusual" and "The Green, Green, Grass of home"), and how, for him, visiting his home village was a unique experience. In the eyes of the world he was perceived as a glitzy Las Vegas nightclub superstar. In his hometown he was still 'Tom, y’know, Mrs. Jones's boy, who sings a bit and went off to America.'
He found it a liberating thing to walk around his town and be treated just the same as everybody else. There’s something in being around folks who knew us when we were growing up that is a great leveler and which can be very accepting and comfortable.
The reverse side of it is that it can limit people’s expectations of us. It is almost as though the people who think they know you the best, feel a need to set limits on what you should and should not be able to achieve in life.
That’s seems to be what happened when Jesus went to his hometown after being on His first mission trip. People wouldn’t accept Him. “Why, He’s just Mary’s boy, the carpenter. We know his brothers and sisters! He’s nobody special.”
It could even be that the townsfolk thought He was dodging His responsibilities. As there is no mention of Mary’s husband Joseph in the account, the presumption is that he had died and left Jesus, as the oldest child, as the head of the household. To walk out on the family and go on some crazy preaching tour was not the thing to do!
For whatever reasons, be it familiarity or just resistance because of actions He had taken that were socially out of line, Jesus is met with rejection when He returns to His hometown. The people are offended by His teaching, viewing it as alien to their understanding of what should and shouldn’t happen in their locality.
Jesus marvels at their unbelief, quoting them a parable, “A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house”. A few receive Him. A number receive healing, but these are a small number in comparison to the multitudes that were touched elsewhere.
It has been said that home is where the heart is. As one who has lived in a number of different situations, I take a lead from the phrase “Wherever I lay my hat, is my home”. I know that, right now, where I grew up is not where I‘m meant to be. Home for me, right now, is here in Baldwin, NY.
When I lived in West Virginia, I found I could whole-heartedly throw myself into singing, “Country Roads, Take me Home, To the place where I belong, West Virginia…” because back then that's where I lived. Now I find myself singing along and feeling all homely when any of the classic New York songs come on the radio. 'If you can make it there, you can make it anywhere, New York, New York...'
Returning to our passage. Reflecting on the thought of Jesus not being welcome in His homelands, challenges me to ask the question, “How welcome is Jesus in my heartlands?” By that I mean, that there is no more familiar place to us than our own lives. In our own experience we can easily become content with the way things are and not face the challenge of developing in our spirituality
We have heard the gospel message so many times that it has become familiar to us, so familiar that maybe we think we know what it’s all about and see no need for change or greater understanding. We can become so satisfied with the status quo of church life that we lose the expectation of God’s Spirit breaking in on us, renewing us, and changing us.
Jesus could not do the work He wished to do in His homelands because the people were imprisoned by a view of life that allowed no room for the unexpected in the common daily life of their community. They knew the mighty works He had done, they recognized His teaching as having great depth, and they didn’t deny great things were taking place.
What they had a problem with was fathoming how a man from their little village had been anointed with such great wisdom and power. They found the thought that He had a divine work to do in their midst an offense. Who was He to tell them how they should be living their lives? Wasn’t He, after all just a carpenter, just a local boy? Things like that didn’t happen in their town!
In a similar way in our inner heartlands we can limit the work of God. We find the thought that Jesus wants to do some divine work in our midst somehow unbelievable. After all, that’s not our daily experience. Of course we believe Jesus can do great things, and we know He gave great teaching, but does it really penetrate our hearts?
William Barclay, in his commentary on Mark, tells the story of the poet Thomas Campbell, a man of considerable talent. His father had absolutely no sense of poetry whatsoever. When Thomas achieved his long time dream of having his poems published, he sent a copy to his father. The old man looked at it.
At least he looked at the cover and the picture on it. He never actually opened the pages and read anything. His only comment was “Well, who would have thought our Tommy could have a book made with a nice picture on it?”
“Sometimes” comments William Barclay, “when familiarity should breed a growing respect it breeds an increasing and easy going familiarity. Sometimes we are too near people to see their greatness”. I would want to add; “Sometimes we are so familiar with our limitations that we fail to see the possibility of there being anything more.”
Yet there were some in Jesus hometown who were not content. Though the majority reacted with an unbelief that Jesus marveled at, some were healed. So there is a way to break beyond our familiarity barriers and expand our horizons! It may not be the way the majority takes, but has not that always been the case with those who desire to walk with God?
Consider Ezekiel, the prophet of our Old Testament reading. God addresses him as ‘mortal man’ (for that’s what he was) yet identifies him as being a person of faith amongst a nation where many disbelieved. (Ezekiel 2:3) “Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have turned against me”.
Consider how, after His rejection by most of His own folk, Jesus does not despair or change His plans, but rather carries on expanding His work, training His small band of twelve disciples by sending them out two by two to give them their first taste of preaching the Good News of the Kingdom.
Consider how, though initially rejected by His family, His mother Mary was one of the few who stood by Jesus to the end, when the rest of the disciples deserted Him. Consider how His brother James, after the resurrection, came to be regarded as the apostle and the leader of the Jerusalem church. Though their familiarity was a stumbling block, it was one they eventually overcame.
We have stumbling blocks in our faith journeys. We have problems that we don’t seem to be able to get over. We become content with our unbelief and our unfamiliarity of God’s ways. We give up on ourselves. We give up on each other. We give up on our churches. We let hope pass us by. The familiarity of our heartlands causes us to feel nothing can change or will change. We become so hardened by our familiarity that we reject even the words of those who tell us change is possible.
It doesn’t have to be that way. It wasn’t that way for Ezekiel. It wasn’t that way for those in Jesus town who found healing that day. It doesn’t have to be that way for us if we heed Christ’s words that we should seek the things of His Kingdom over and above all the other things we want in life.
This passage challenges us today, that though we are simply mortal women and men, it is in our lives, cluttered as they are with everyday concerns and mixed motives, that God wishes to work in the power of God’s Holy Spirit. It is for us to invite Jesus into our heartland, to see not the limitations that both ourselves and the world around us place upon us, but the vast possibilities that the Grace of God opens up to us.
Let us not be like those, whose familiarity with Jesus actually prevented His work taking place in their lives. Rather let us be those who, day by day, are being renewed and recreated by the love of God, found in Jesus Christ and known in our hearts through the working of the Holy Spirit.
Let us pray that today is a day that we make room in our heartland for the work of God. Amen.
Rev Adrian Pratt
Monday, July 9, 2012
Monday, July 2, 2012
JESUS THE HEALER
Communion Service
Readings: Psalm 130, 2 Samuel 1:1 & 17-27, 2 Corinthians 8:7-15, Mark: 5:21-43
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, July 1st 2012
A printable PDF can be found here
As we come to the communion table this morning I offer a few thoughts upon our bible reading, an account of two healings that Jesus performed; firstly that of Jairus’s daughter, secondly of a woman who had a hemorrhage. The two accounts have a number of things in common.
Consider firstly this. That both these people were outsiders.
They were not the sorts of people who normally thronged around preachers. Jairus was a part of the ruling minority that considered the likes of Jesus to be dangerous. Scripture describes him as a “synagogue official”. The unnamed woman, because of the nature of her illness, was not the sort to get out and about much. Her illness made her unclean in the eyes of Jewish law. Any person she came into physical contact with would also be considered unclean by the law. They were outsiders.
There was a song some years ago that said, “I’m in with the In-Crowd, I go where the In-Crowd goes”. One of the things I’ve never figured out in life is exactly who the “In Crowd” are. In fact if some of the people who suspect they are 'in' the 'in crowd' are anything to go by, then I’m certainly sure I don’t want to be in with them, what ever that may mean.
When it comes to the love of God, we are outsiders whom God wants to be insiders. We all fall short of being the sort of people we could or should be. We’re all misfits. Sometimes we may be foolish enough to believe other wise. Numerous religious and political groups will invite us to be a part of their thing, and suggest to us that every body else’s thing is the wrong thing. But the testimony of scripture is clear. We are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God.
So remember this. Jesus healed these two outsiders. They were not outsiders in His eyes. Neither are we. He invites us, not to become part of the “In crowd” but to be part of a fellowship that meets around a common table. He invites us to be in His love. He invites us to a table around which there are as many 'diverse' people as there are people.
The love of God invites outsiders to come inside. To taste and see that the Lord is good.
Notice secondly about this unclean woman and synagogue official, that though in the eyes of the world they were outsiders, in the eyes of God, they were insiders by virtue of being people of faith.
Faith is such a hard a thing to define. What makes it harder is that sometimes we seem to have it and some times we don’t.
I’m not a person who has tremendous confidence in air travel. The smaller the plane, the more angst-y I become. I remember being on a flight from Atlanta, GA to Charleston, WV, that was one of those tiny commuter planes with noisy propellers and engines that seem to splutter. The pilot didn’t actually increase my confidence. He kept coming on the loudspeakers saying things like, “Duh, this your ..er.. pilot… erm. There might be some bad weather ahead. I guess… erm.. we’ll go round it some way. Erm.. Don’t know what time we’ll be getting in tonight… but hey, we got a whole lot of fuel on board!”
Of course everything went fine. There were no problems. Statistically I knew I was safer in a plane than crossing the road, but.. well faith.. it’s a strange thing. Some times we seem to have it. Some times it eludes us.
In our bible passage, the woman and Jairus the synagogue official have it. Big time. “If I just touch His garments,” says the woman. Jairus says about his daughter“Lay your hands on her so that she will get well and live”. If they have any doubts in their minds about the ability of Jesus to heal, their words certainly don’t express them. They have complete confidence in Jesus.
That sort of confident faith is elsewhere described in Scripture as a gift of the Holy Spirit. An experience that God grants to us through God’s grace. Faith is not something that we can artificially manufacture or achieve through the power of positive thinking. It’s a gift to be received.
But there are things we can do to be in a better position to be more receptive. We can be regular in our worship and personal walk with Christ. We can nourish our lives through scripture and prayer. We can be more trusting in God and less trusting in our selves. These things don’t guarantee instant abundant faith experiences, but they do pave the way to recognizing a gift when God is offering it to us.
So I invite you to come to this table laid with bread and wine in faith. Not the faith that you don’t have, but the faith that you do have. How much faith is necessary? Jesus said a little less than a mustard seed is quite sufficient! Just a grain. That’ll do it. Just a whisper worth that tells you God loves you in spite of everything!
The love of God invites outsiders to come inside.
The love of God invites us to come with the faith we have, and trust God for the rest!
Finally, notice this about these two people of faith. They didn’t care what anybody else thought about them.
So many people worry endlessly about what others think of them whilst considering so little how their lives may look in God’s eyes. Jairus had reached a point where he couldn’t give two hoots what his influential friends made of him. His little daughter was sick. He believed Jesus could change things. So he went to Jesus.
The woman with the hemorrhage didn’t care that the law branded her unclean. She didn’t care that she’d seen this doctor and that physician and they’d all declared her condition incurable. She didn’t care about the social customs and niceties that every society inherits. She needed a touch from Jesus to be made well. Forget everything else. She went for it.
Sometimes, like the two in our story, we have to reach rock bottom before we stop wondering what other people think of us and start reaching out to God. But that does not have to be so.
If we can simply recapture the idea that God loves us, simply because we are God's children and precious in God's sight, that God sent Jesus into our world not to condemn the world, but that the world might through Him be saved, then we understand how outsiders become insiders. We recognize that it's the work of the Holy Spirit, a work of grace that accepts us, not what we can do or what others think of us.
Today we have an opportunity to come to this table laden with symbols of God’s unconditional love towards. Here is a place that speaks of healing and freedom and joy this world cannot even put into words. It is here that Jesus invites to experience His touch as we share together in bread and wine.
Let us to come to this table with the awareness, that like Jairus and the woman in our scripture reading, we are outsiders that God wants to make insiders.
Let us come with the knowledge that however anybody else perceives us, God sees us as children in need of spiritual nurture.
Let us come to this table, not with the faith we would like to posses but with the little faith we do have, aware that if it were only as much as a mustard seed that is sufficient.
Let us come to this table, not in any need for approval from others, not even caring what others may think. This is a time for us to set our hearts right with God. To ask what God requires of us. To commit our lives to Christ that we may know His touch upon us and within us. To rededicate ourselves to living in community with others, and to serving wholeheartedly wherever God calls us to invest our time, talents and treasures.
And to God's name be all honor, glory and praise. Amen.
Readings: Psalm 130, 2 Samuel 1:1 & 17-27, 2 Corinthians 8:7-15, Mark: 5:21-43
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, July 1st 2012
A printable PDF can be found here
As we come to the communion table this morning I offer a few thoughts upon our bible reading, an account of two healings that Jesus performed; firstly that of Jairus’s daughter, secondly of a woman who had a hemorrhage. The two accounts have a number of things in common.
Consider firstly this. That both these people were outsiders.
They were not the sorts of people who normally thronged around preachers. Jairus was a part of the ruling minority that considered the likes of Jesus to be dangerous. Scripture describes him as a “synagogue official”. The unnamed woman, because of the nature of her illness, was not the sort to get out and about much. Her illness made her unclean in the eyes of Jewish law. Any person she came into physical contact with would also be considered unclean by the law. They were outsiders.
There was a song some years ago that said, “I’m in with the In-Crowd, I go where the In-Crowd goes”. One of the things I’ve never figured out in life is exactly who the “In Crowd” are. In fact if some of the people who suspect they are 'in' the 'in crowd' are anything to go by, then I’m certainly sure I don’t want to be in with them, what ever that may mean.
When it comes to the love of God, we are outsiders whom God wants to be insiders. We all fall short of being the sort of people we could or should be. We’re all misfits. Sometimes we may be foolish enough to believe other wise. Numerous religious and political groups will invite us to be a part of their thing, and suggest to us that every body else’s thing is the wrong thing. But the testimony of scripture is clear. We are all sinners who fall short of the glory of God.
So remember this. Jesus healed these two outsiders. They were not outsiders in His eyes. Neither are we. He invites us, not to become part of the “In crowd” but to be part of a fellowship that meets around a common table. He invites us to be in His love. He invites us to a table around which there are as many 'diverse' people as there are people.
The love of God invites outsiders to come inside. To taste and see that the Lord is good.
Notice secondly about this unclean woman and synagogue official, that though in the eyes of the world they were outsiders, in the eyes of God, they were insiders by virtue of being people of faith.
Faith is such a hard a thing to define. What makes it harder is that sometimes we seem to have it and some times we don’t.
I’m not a person who has tremendous confidence in air travel. The smaller the plane, the more angst-y I become. I remember being on a flight from Atlanta, GA to Charleston, WV, that was one of those tiny commuter planes with noisy propellers and engines that seem to splutter. The pilot didn’t actually increase my confidence. He kept coming on the loudspeakers saying things like, “Duh, this your ..er.. pilot… erm. There might be some bad weather ahead. I guess… erm.. we’ll go round it some way. Erm.. Don’t know what time we’ll be getting in tonight… but hey, we got a whole lot of fuel on board!”
Of course everything went fine. There were no problems. Statistically I knew I was safer in a plane than crossing the road, but.. well faith.. it’s a strange thing. Some times we seem to have it. Some times it eludes us.
In our bible passage, the woman and Jairus the synagogue official have it. Big time. “If I just touch His garments,” says the woman. Jairus says about his daughter“Lay your hands on her so that she will get well and live”. If they have any doubts in their minds about the ability of Jesus to heal, their words certainly don’t express them. They have complete confidence in Jesus.
That sort of confident faith is elsewhere described in Scripture as a gift of the Holy Spirit. An experience that God grants to us through God’s grace. Faith is not something that we can artificially manufacture or achieve through the power of positive thinking. It’s a gift to be received.
But there are things we can do to be in a better position to be more receptive. We can be regular in our worship and personal walk with Christ. We can nourish our lives through scripture and prayer. We can be more trusting in God and less trusting in our selves. These things don’t guarantee instant abundant faith experiences, but they do pave the way to recognizing a gift when God is offering it to us.
So I invite you to come to this table laid with bread and wine in faith. Not the faith that you don’t have, but the faith that you do have. How much faith is necessary? Jesus said a little less than a mustard seed is quite sufficient! Just a grain. That’ll do it. Just a whisper worth that tells you God loves you in spite of everything!
The love of God invites outsiders to come inside.
The love of God invites us to come with the faith we have, and trust God for the rest!
Finally, notice this about these two people of faith. They didn’t care what anybody else thought about them.
So many people worry endlessly about what others think of them whilst considering so little how their lives may look in God’s eyes. Jairus had reached a point where he couldn’t give two hoots what his influential friends made of him. His little daughter was sick. He believed Jesus could change things. So he went to Jesus.
The woman with the hemorrhage didn’t care that the law branded her unclean. She didn’t care that she’d seen this doctor and that physician and they’d all declared her condition incurable. She didn’t care about the social customs and niceties that every society inherits. She needed a touch from Jesus to be made well. Forget everything else. She went for it.
Sometimes, like the two in our story, we have to reach rock bottom before we stop wondering what other people think of us and start reaching out to God. But that does not have to be so.
If we can simply recapture the idea that God loves us, simply because we are God's children and precious in God's sight, that God sent Jesus into our world not to condemn the world, but that the world might through Him be saved, then we understand how outsiders become insiders. We recognize that it's the work of the Holy Spirit, a work of grace that accepts us, not what we can do or what others think of us.
Today we have an opportunity to come to this table laden with symbols of God’s unconditional love towards. Here is a place that speaks of healing and freedom and joy this world cannot even put into words. It is here that Jesus invites to experience His touch as we share together in bread and wine.
Let us to come to this table with the awareness, that like Jairus and the woman in our scripture reading, we are outsiders that God wants to make insiders.
Let us come with the knowledge that however anybody else perceives us, God sees us as children in need of spiritual nurture.
Let us come to this table, not with the faith we would like to posses but with the little faith we do have, aware that if it were only as much as a mustard seed that is sufficient.
Let us come to this table, not in any need for approval from others, not even caring what others may think. This is a time for us to set our hearts right with God. To ask what God requires of us. To commit our lives to Christ that we may know His touch upon us and within us. To rededicate ourselves to living in community with others, and to serving wholeheartedly wherever God calls us to invest our time, talents and treasures.
And to God's name be all honor, glory and praise. Amen.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Leasowe Lighthouse
Graduation/Teacher Appreciation/Sunday School Sunday
Readings: Psalm 43:1-5, Genesis 1:1-5, Matthew 5:13-16, Revelation 21:22-27.
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on June 17th, 2012
A printable PDF file can be found here
Have any of you visited the lighthouse at Fire Island or at Montauk or anywhere else?
I used to live in a place called Moreton, in England, which had as it’s most prominent feature – guess what? A chocolate factory – but it also had a lighthouse called Leasowe Lighthouse
When I was growing up the Leasowe lighthouse stood disused and neglected because a new sea wall had been built to stop the land eroding away – and actually reclaiming some land – so much so that the lighthouse stood about 2200 yards away from the sea—behind a wall – and was abandoned. A lonely little lighthouse, with no light to shine.
It was not always so. Originally the river I used to live by, the River Mersey, was one of the busiest in the world. Ships from all over the world would make their way through a narrow channel on their way to the great port of Liverpool. Very dangerous waters with dangerous rocks just below the surface.
One day a ship came through full of cotton bales, hit the rocks, and its cargo washed up on the shore of Moreton. This was about the same time as they were thinking about building a lighthouse. So they used, as a base, cotton bales mixed with sand, hard and solid as the toughest concrete, and they built a lighthouse.
That shone its light. Bleep. Bleep.
And all the ships were safe. UNTIL. ..Da Da Da Da DAH..
Some naughty people in Moreton had a really bad idea.
“The Wreckers of Moreton’ came into being. ‘The Wreckers of Moreton’ were on-land pirates (they didn’t have parrots, eye-patches ships or wooden legs) a dangerous gang of villains, as there had ever been in those parts. It was not a good time in history to be a lighthouse keeper.
What the wreckers used to do was build a fire out near the rocks, break into the lighthouse, knock the keeper on the head, and put out the lighthouse light. Then Captain Smith aboard the Good Ship Pennsylvania, navigating his ship, would be coming into the deep channel, watching for the lights. He didn’t know that the light he was looking at was a bogus light. His ship would be guided onto the rocks, whereupon the “Wreckers of Moreton” would attack the crew, seize whatever goods they could and sometimes murder the poor ships crew.
That didn’t last for long. Eventually the militia were sent from Liverpool to guard the lighthouse and the lighthouse was able to get back to doing what it was meant to do. Shine the light Bleep. Bleep.
That was until they built a great big sea wall. And a new lighthouse that didn’t need a lighthouse keeper that was miles away on the other side of the channel. But the old one just stayed where it was.
Poor little lighthouse. What was it to do now? No Bleep. Bleep. Nobody looking after it. No ships to guide.
Then, way back in the year 1930 or so Moreton had become, not a place of Wreckers, but a place for a vacation. The sea wall had created a lovely beach. A railway station had opened making it a place holiday makers from the city of Liverpool could easily reach. And they came in their hundreds.
Somebody had a bright idea. What about “The Lighthouse Café” What a novelty! All the holiday makers came and got a cup of tea and an ice cream and suddenly the lighthouse was back in business.
The years went by. Good years of fun and laughter. Till a great war broke out. And the holiday makers stopped coming. And the wall became fortified with concrete and bunkers where they placed guns to shoot down the bombers that were raiding Liverpool. And barbed wire to stop any enemy landings. And anti-tank barricades. (When I was growing up some of them still there and it was an exciting place to play). But the little lighthouse once again stood empty.
After the war Moreton no longer was so attractive for a holiday. The river had become so polluted and muddy that no-one dared swim in the sea. And air travel had arrived taking people to nicer warmer beaches in Spain rather than old Moreton in the Mud. So for many years the lighthouse stood tall and looking sad. It’s only visitors were people who broke in and smashed its windows and wrecked its staircase and sprayed it with graffiti and left behind their trash. “It’s not much fun being me” thought the little light house.
Then, around fifteen years ago, the area around the lighthouse started to take on a new life as what today is known as the ‘Wirral Coastal Park’ started to be developed. Some said they should knock that old lighthouse down as it had become a liability. But more enlightened souls recognized its potential as a visitor center for those who came to walk the coastline and observe the wildlife, plants and birds and breathe the sea air.
So it was given a smart white coat of paint. New windows. New stairs. And these days thousands of school children visit every year to learn about its history. And you can once again get a cool drink on a hot summer’s day! You can even climb to the top and see the view.
In fact if you go to www.leasowelighthouse.co.uk you can find a “Friends of Leasowe Lighthouse” website that features a webcam that shows you a minute by minute panoramic view from the top of the lighthouse. These days the little lighthouse provides pictures to the whole wide world of the views from its heights. Once more it is a happy proud little lighthouse!
Jesus tells us to shine our light for Him. He is the Light of the World.
There are other tempting lights in the world, but some if we follow them will lead to trouble and ruin like the “’Wreckers of Moreton”.
As we go though life Jesus may ask us to serve Him in different ways.
Sometimes to be a light and a guide for others. Like the Leasowe Lighthouse when it guided ships through the dangerous rocks.
Sometimes to serve and help others. Like the Leasowe Lighthouse Tea-Rooms and Restaurant.
Sometimes to inform and teach people. Like the Leasowe Lighthouse as it serves as a center for the Wirral Coastal Park.
Sometimes maybe we can offer something to the whole world. Like the Friends of Leasowe Lighthouse Webcam.
We may have days or seasons when we don’t feel like we are much use. When we hardly shine at all. Just like the lighthouse. Just like Good Friday became Easter Sunday; God loves us and has a plan for us and will help us through!
Rev Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Readings: Psalm 43:1-5, Genesis 1:1-5, Matthew 5:13-16, Revelation 21:22-27.
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on June 17th, 2012
A printable PDF file can be found here
Have any of you visited the lighthouse at Fire Island or at Montauk or anywhere else?
I used to live in a place called Moreton, in England, which had as it’s most prominent feature – guess what? A chocolate factory – but it also had a lighthouse called Leasowe Lighthouse
When I was growing up the Leasowe lighthouse stood disused and neglected because a new sea wall had been built to stop the land eroding away – and actually reclaiming some land – so much so that the lighthouse stood about 2200 yards away from the sea—behind a wall – and was abandoned. A lonely little lighthouse, with no light to shine.
It was not always so. Originally the river I used to live by, the River Mersey, was one of the busiest in the world. Ships from all over the world would make their way through a narrow channel on their way to the great port of Liverpool. Very dangerous waters with dangerous rocks just below the surface.
One day a ship came through full of cotton bales, hit the rocks, and its cargo washed up on the shore of Moreton. This was about the same time as they were thinking about building a lighthouse. So they used, as a base, cotton bales mixed with sand, hard and solid as the toughest concrete, and they built a lighthouse.
That shone its light. Bleep. Bleep.
And all the ships were safe. UNTIL. ..Da Da Da Da DAH..
Some naughty people in Moreton had a really bad idea.
“The Wreckers of Moreton’ came into being. ‘The Wreckers of Moreton’ were on-land pirates (they didn’t have parrots, eye-patches ships or wooden legs) a dangerous gang of villains, as there had ever been in those parts. It was not a good time in history to be a lighthouse keeper.
What the wreckers used to do was build a fire out near the rocks, break into the lighthouse, knock the keeper on the head, and put out the lighthouse light. Then Captain Smith aboard the Good Ship Pennsylvania, navigating his ship, would be coming into the deep channel, watching for the lights. He didn’t know that the light he was looking at was a bogus light. His ship would be guided onto the rocks, whereupon the “Wreckers of Moreton” would attack the crew, seize whatever goods they could and sometimes murder the poor ships crew.
That didn’t last for long. Eventually the militia were sent from Liverpool to guard the lighthouse and the lighthouse was able to get back to doing what it was meant to do. Shine the light Bleep. Bleep.
That was until they built a great big sea wall. And a new lighthouse that didn’t need a lighthouse keeper that was miles away on the other side of the channel. But the old one just stayed where it was.
Poor little lighthouse. What was it to do now? No Bleep. Bleep. Nobody looking after it. No ships to guide.
Then, way back in the year 1930 or so Moreton had become, not a place of Wreckers, but a place for a vacation. The sea wall had created a lovely beach. A railway station had opened making it a place holiday makers from the city of Liverpool could easily reach. And they came in their hundreds.
Somebody had a bright idea. What about “The Lighthouse Café” What a novelty! All the holiday makers came and got a cup of tea and an ice cream and suddenly the lighthouse was back in business.
The years went by. Good years of fun and laughter. Till a great war broke out. And the holiday makers stopped coming. And the wall became fortified with concrete and bunkers where they placed guns to shoot down the bombers that were raiding Liverpool. And barbed wire to stop any enemy landings. And anti-tank barricades. (When I was growing up some of them still there and it was an exciting place to play). But the little lighthouse once again stood empty.
After the war Moreton no longer was so attractive for a holiday. The river had become so polluted and muddy that no-one dared swim in the sea. And air travel had arrived taking people to nicer warmer beaches in Spain rather than old Moreton in the Mud. So for many years the lighthouse stood tall and looking sad. It’s only visitors were people who broke in and smashed its windows and wrecked its staircase and sprayed it with graffiti and left behind their trash. “It’s not much fun being me” thought the little light house.
Then, around fifteen years ago, the area around the lighthouse started to take on a new life as what today is known as the ‘Wirral Coastal Park’ started to be developed. Some said they should knock that old lighthouse down as it had become a liability. But more enlightened souls recognized its potential as a visitor center for those who came to walk the coastline and observe the wildlife, plants and birds and breathe the sea air.
So it was given a smart white coat of paint. New windows. New stairs. And these days thousands of school children visit every year to learn about its history. And you can once again get a cool drink on a hot summer’s day! You can even climb to the top and see the view.
In fact if you go to www.leasowelighthouse.co.uk you can find a “Friends of Leasowe Lighthouse” website that features a webcam that shows you a minute by minute panoramic view from the top of the lighthouse. These days the little lighthouse provides pictures to the whole wide world of the views from its heights. Once more it is a happy proud little lighthouse!
Jesus tells us to shine our light for Him. He is the Light of the World.
There are other tempting lights in the world, but some if we follow them will lead to trouble and ruin like the “’Wreckers of Moreton”.
As we go though life Jesus may ask us to serve Him in different ways.
Sometimes to be a light and a guide for others. Like the Leasowe Lighthouse when it guided ships through the dangerous rocks.
Sometimes to serve and help others. Like the Leasowe Lighthouse Tea-Rooms and Restaurant.
Sometimes to inform and teach people. Like the Leasowe Lighthouse as it serves as a center for the Wirral Coastal Park.
Sometimes maybe we can offer something to the whole world. Like the Friends of Leasowe Lighthouse Webcam.
We may have days or seasons when we don’t feel like we are much use. When we hardly shine at all. Just like the lighthouse. Just like Good Friday became Easter Sunday; God loves us and has a plan for us and will help us through!
Rev Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Monday, June 11, 2012
“Confronting God”
Readings: Psalm 138,
Exodus 3:1-15, 2 Corinthians 4:13-5:1, Mark
4:35-41
Preached at First
Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on June 10th, 2012
God said to Moses,
"Don't come any closer. Take off your sandals
because you are standing on Holy Ground." (Exodus
3:5)
A man went from the USA on a pilgrimage
to Europe to visit some of the Holy places associated with the
Reformed faith. He went to Aldersgate in England, where John Wesley
had an experience of the Spirit that left his heart 'strangely
warmed'. He went to Wittenberg in Germany and to Rome in Italy, to
where Martin Luther's incisive turnings took place. He went to
Geneva to walk where John Calvin walked.
All he found were plain buildings and
ordinary towns. It took a lot of money and time to bring him to the
conclusion that places weren't that important. What ever had happened
there was long gone and could not be distilled or captured.
If we were to go to the area of Horeb
that our Old Testament lesson spoke of, and by some chance discover
the very bush where God spoke to Moses, I'm sure it would look just
like any other desert bush. The bush only had significance because
God spoke and a person responded.
Often we look for a special place or
dramatic circumstance in which we can be confronted by God. But in
reality any place can be our special place. The problem is that
because we so easily dismiss the common place and the ordinary, we
often miss out on what God is trying to say to us or do for us. To
counteract this:-
- We need an awareness of God
- We need an openness to God
- We need obedience to God
1. Confronting God requires
awareness of God.
We can glibly say, "God is always
with me". Our actions often betray our words. We don't act like
God is always with us. We don't expect to meet God everywhere and
anytime.
Back in Horeb, had it been someone
other than Moses, they might not have taken much notice of the
burning bush, nor heard God speak. "Oh.. look.. there is a bush
on fire. That's strange, it isn't burning up. Oh well. Whatever. I'll
be on my way."
The theologian J.S. Whale observes that
if most of us saw a bush on fire not burning up, we wouldn't take off
our shoes in reverence, we'd pull out a camera and take a snapshot to
show the folks back home.
Sometimes things happen in our lives
that other people call coincidences or accidents. The eye of faith
interprets them differently and sees the working of God's Holy
Spirit. As one lady said, "I've noticed that when I pray
coincidences start to happen!"
Carrying with us an awareness, that God
can confront us through the ordinary and the every day, transforms
our every day lives. When faith is active in our hearts, any place
becomes a Christian shrine, a place of meeting with God. A school
canteen, a kitchen sink, a chance encounter with a stranger, behind
the desk at work... God can and will meet with us, if only we can
keep alive an awareness of His presence.
2. Confronting God requires
openness to God.
You can come to church and sit down in
the pew and be aware that someone is sitting next to you. They may
have sat next to you last week and may even be there next week. You
are aware of their presence. That doesn't mean any communication
takes place between you.
In order to establish a relationship
you have to talk, communicate, open up. That's why we often have
times for fellowship after services. We don't want to be just a
bunch of observers at worship services. God calls us to be a
fellowship. Openness takes communication. It has at least two
benefits.
a) Openness to God allows us to
recognize Him when He does confront us.
I used to have a friend in Wales who
used to call me up, put on a deep voice and say things like, "I
know where you are!" Tried to scare me. I always figured out
it was him, because I knew His voice and knew he was the sort of
person who played such pranks .
By the time he encountered the burning
bush in the desert, Moses had learned enough of God to recognize when
something significant was taking place. He identified God's voice.
He realized he was standing on holy ground. He took off his sandals
as a sign of devotion. It was more than an awareness of God's
presence. He opened up to hear what God had to say.
In a service of worship, we need to be
aware that God is present. But more than just awareness, there needs
to be in us a reaching out, an opening up, a heartfelt desire to hear
what God wishes us to hear. A divine initiative has taken place. In
Christ God calls to us. It is for us to respond.
b) Openness to God allows us to
truly be ourselves.
Moses was a man with an identity
crisis. His questioning of God at the burning bush was also a
questioning of himself. "Who am I? A child of Israel or a child
of Egypt? A fugitive? An outlaw? An adopted son of Pharaoh? A priests
son-in law? A shepherd of Midian?" Who was he?
In his book "The Cost of
Discipleship", Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes from his prison cell
in Nazi Germany;
"Who
am I?
Am
I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am
I both at once?
A
hypocrite before others and before myself a contemptible, woebegone
weakling?
Or
is something within me still like a beaten army ,
Fleeing
in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who
am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever
I am, Thou knowest O God
I
am thine!"
Who am I?
We know we are products of our
background, our families, our environment.... so many complex
factors. We know our lives are a strange mixture of darkness and
light, of victories and defeats, that like Bonhoeffer there is
something in us "like a beaten army fleeing in disorder from a
victory already achieved".
An encounter with God cuts through all
of that self questioning and brings freedom. To God we are someone
special. Someone God wants to confront, wants to talk with. To God we
matter enough for God to send God's son Jesus Christ to die on a
cross for. To God we are a child of potential with a capacity for
grace and who will find fulfillment in the seeking and doing of God's
will.
Be aware of God. Be open to God. And be
mindful...
3. Confronting God requires
obedience to God.
Imagine how the whole thing would have
turned out if Moses had said, "God, I hear you, but I'm not
doing what you suggest. Me? Become the spokesperson to lead the
Israelites out of Eygpt? You know me God... I can hardly put a
sentence together... let alone lead a nation!"
Jamie McDougal was a forester in
Scotland. He was the size of a house. Legs like tree trunks,
shoulders more like a grizzly bear than a human being. He was once
asked if there was anything he was afraid of."Och, I'm not
afraid of any man that walks on this earth". Then he paused and
through his beard there traced a slow grin, "But I am afraid of
one wee lassie"
"And who might that be" he
was asked.
"Why, the wife!" he replied.
Jamie McDougal was over 250 pounds, a
punch like a sledgehammer, his wife less than half his size and
didn't look like she could punch a hole through a wet paper bag. An
explanation was required.
"Oh, I'm nae afraid that she can
hurt me. I'm afraid of doo-een something she would na like. I'm
afraid of her feelings - that I might do something stoopid - and hurt
them".
If you know somebody loves you, you
don't trample on their feelings. On the contrary, love is the
greatest possible incentive towards obedience.
The love of God can confront us anytime
and anywhere. Let us be aware of God's presence. Let us be open to
God. Above all, by the grace of God, may we respond with an obedient
heart of faith, not because we are fearful , but because we know of
God's great love for us in Jesus Christ, because we know that to love
God is to keep God's commandments.
(Exodus
3:5) God said to Moses, "Don't come any closer.
Take off your sandals
because you are standing on Holy Ground."
It is the presence of God
that turns the commonplace into the holy.
May God teach us how to
honor and worship Him with our whole lives.
To God's name be all
honor, power and glory.
AMEN.
Rev
Adrian J Pratt B.D.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
PENTECOST 2012 "TUNE IN AND TURN ON!"
Readings: Psalm 104:24-34, Ezekial 37:1-14, John 15:26-27, 16:4-15, Acts 2:1-21
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on May 27th 2012
A printable PDF file can be found here
I can remember last year when the storm hit, and some of us ended up sleeping overnight in the church. To cap it all, when we got home, the power went out. It was a little annoying. For some folks it was really annoying; because their power was out for days!
Today, Pentecost Sunday, celebrates the day the power came back on. Not electric power but the power of the Holy Spirit. The disciples had seen Jesus crucified. They had seen Him alive again. He had taught them, and made promises to them.
"I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you." (John14:18)
"I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever" (John 14:16).
Christ ascended to be with the Father and instructed the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for a promise to be fulfilled, for the Helper to come. On the day of Pentecost, as we read in Acts Chapter 2, the personal presence of God, came upon them in a new and powerful way. As they tuned in to God, so they became turned on to the power that was God equipping them with to take His message into all the world.
So my message for this Pentecost morning is ... tune in and turn on.
1. Tune in to Jesus and be turned on to following Him.
The church that was born in Jerusalem was a mixture of the many different strains of Christianity that would emerge from it. It was charismatic and evangelistic. It practiced both a social gospel and preached a gospel of personal salvation. They worshipped. They studied. They prayed. They served. They shared.
They were activists, working for the rights of the widows and orphans. They were reformers, working to bring social change. They were communists, in the sense that they sold everything they had and shared a communal life. They were preachers and teachers and healers.
They were Methodists. They methodically ordered their life together. Baptists, in the sense that they called people to evidence their commitment to Jesus Christ through public baptism. They were Pentecostals. They believed in the supernatural power of God to work signs and wonders. And of course, they were also Presbyterians, for everything was done with decency and in order.
Over and above everything else, the disciples were people who were tuned into God to such a degree that their lives turned on Jesus teachings. One of Jesus invitations was "Follow me".They treated that invitation with the utmost seriousness.
They left their homes, as He did; took on voluntary poverty, as He did; taught in villages and cities, as He did; and tried to heal the sick and cast out demons as He had done. They were not always successful. They were at times amazed and shocked by the things Jesus taught and did. At times they were afraid of where following Him might lead them.
We can tune in to Jesus. Following Him we will encounter the unexpected, the surprising and the shocking. We cannot follow and stay the same. He will ask much of us, in fact everything. That is because He gave everything for us. Tune in to Jesus, who tells us that life is a matter of the heart. A heart in tune with His Fathers will, a life empowered by His Spirit will change not just our self but those whom we share our life with.
2. Tune in to your church and be turned on to loving each other.
Jesus only ever gave one commandment. "Love one another as I have loved you". We are called to love people of flesh and blood, not abstract theological concepts or distant ideals. "By this shall all men know you are my disciples" says Jesus, "If you have love one for another".
The community where that love is to be expressed is within the church, and for many of us here that means this church and this body of people we are seated with today. Remember that old disco hit... "We are Family, Brothers, Sisters, together are we..." (or something like that). That's our calling. To be concerned with each other, to be like a family, a community. That's how it went at Pentecost.
"I don't have to be involved with a church to be a Christian" some will tell me. "I've made a decision for Jesus Christ... that's it, I'm saved". Yes, it is important to decide to be a follower, and to realize in a personal way what Jesus has done for us, but that's not where it ends! The gospel is not about individuals being saved... it's about people together working out what it means to be a salvation community.
It's easy to say "I love you" to a vacuum. (That's an empty space.. not a vacuum cleaner! If you go around saying "I love you" to vacuum cleaners they will probably lck you up). It's easy to say "I love you" to something faceless and nameless. It's not so easy to love those whom you don't always see eye to eye with, or those who have different views of life and standards for living by… but that is our calling. To be a diverse group of people, who through the love of God, see each other as those for whom Jesus died and love each other with the love His Holy Spirit puts in our hearts.
Be tuned in to all that the church here is trying to do. The worship services, The Sunday School, the music and the choir, the Bible studies, Youth trips, Service opportunities, Nursery school, the way we try and make our facilities available to different groups in the community... get excited about these things;- commit yourselves to these things.. they are tangible, physical ways we fulfill the command of Jesus to love one another as He has loved us.
Get excited… tell your friends, bring them along so they can be a part of it. Turn yourself on to the nitty gritty of church life. Don't listen to the unscriptural, unhistorical, illogical voice that will tell you.. "You don't have to go church to be a Christian". Fact is… there is not one scripture in the whole Bible that gives one single indication that you can be a Christian without involving yourself in the lives of other Christians... that you can follow Jesus as a lone ranger.
Of course there are times when health or work or other unavoidable things makes it impossible to come to church. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm saying that to be faithful to God, the scriptures insist you be faithful in loving your brothers and sisters in Christ. And the place that should be happening is within a local congregation. Tune in to your church and be turned on to loving one another.
The Christian life is not an easy option. In fact in our own strength it's an impossibility. That's why we need to…
3. Tune in to the Holy Spirit and be turned on to possibility.
The disciples had to wait for a baptism of the Holy Spirit before they could get on with the business God was calling them to. It is no different for us present day disciples. We to have to wait on God to be powered up for service. We need regularly to recharge our spiritual batteries through worship, study and prayer. We need to ask God to turn the power on.
Think about the way God works in our lives through the Holy Spirit.
"God has poured out His love into our hearts by means of the Holy Spirit." When we accept the call of Jesus Christ to be His followers, He doesn't just leave us to it. As he promised His disciples, He comes to us, in a new way... as the Holy Spirit, to equip us for the task.
Until He comes we are a barren tree. But when He comes he works in our lives produce good things. "The Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control".
A hymn we sometimes sings has the line ; "Open my eyes that I may see the wonderful truths in your word." It was the theologian John Calvin who spoke of the work of the Holy Spirit being like a pair of spectacles, interpreting to our hearts the written word of God so that it becomes the Living Word of our lives. The Spirit tunes us in, so we can turn our lives on, to serving God.
After all, what is there more positive than the scriptures testimony regarding Jesus Christ. A death that was turned into a resurrection, a defeat turned into a victory, a hopeless situation becoming a cause for rejoicing, a powerless group of disciples in an upper room, by the Holy Spirit, becoming fearless proclaimer’ of a gospel that has changed, is changing, and will change the world.
Tune in. Turn on. Tune in to Jesus and be turned on to following Him.
Tune in to your church and be turned on to loving your Christian family.
Tune in to the Holy Spirit and be turned on to possibility.
On this Pentecost Sunday,may the power come back on, in our lives
and the life of this, His church. AMEN!
Rev. Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Monday, May 14, 2012
Messages from the First letter of John - 5. GOD BIRTHED FAITH
Mothers Day/CWR Blanket Sunday
Readings: Psalm 98, Acts 10:44-48, John 15:9-17, 1 John 5:1-6
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on May 13th 2012
A printable PDF file can be found here
Mother's Day is a time that we honor those who bought us into this world, nurtured us, cared for us and guided us. In many homes, the hub of the action, the centering force of all that the home is, revolves around mother. That can be the same for single parent families, working mums, soccer mums, stay at home mums, every kind of mum that you can think of. In the absence of a mum there still has to be someone in the home who plays a mother-like role in the nurturing of a child. It all goes around mum!
Our reading this morning, from 1 John 5, brings us to the end of a series that has dealt with his themes of 'sin, forgiveness and love'. Last time we saw how it was John who penned the awesome words. 'God is Love'. In this mornings reading he again brings us back to the theme of love, but reminds us that unless we act upon the love that God offers to us, then we haven't really got it.
Today in our church calendar we are trying to act by receiving an offering for Church World Service's 'Blanket+' program. This offering helps provide blankets, food and other emergency supplies all over the world when disaster strikes. Love in action.
I like to think that John would approve of such efforts. Our reading this morning takes us a little further than just suggesting that because we are loved we should love others. He also suggests that our loving actions need to revolve around a center. In the home the center is often the mum of the household. In the household of faith, John tells us that our center is faith in Jesus Christ. He writes in verse 5 “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
Isn't John's focus on faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God is a little restrictive? What's the big deal about believing in Jesus? Isn't it enough that we are generous and charitable and get along with each other? Why does John insist on muddying the waters by telling us we need to get our focus right about what we believe about Jesus Christ?
As far as John was concerned there could be no separation between belief and action. 'In fact', he says (Verse 3) 'This is love for God: to keep His commands”. Earlier in his letter he spoke about people who had become so sophisticated in their believing that they had fallen into all sorts of wrong ways of thinking that led them into wrong ways of acting. For John what you believe determines what you do, and what you do shows what you really believe.
John believed that faith is something that God has to birth within us through the action of the Holy Spirit. Faith is something that in John's gospel is described as being 'born from above' that effects the individual as though they had been 'born again'. Truly believing in God, for John is about having a God birthed faith. He gives us some reasons.
Only a God-birthed faith could give us a true love perspective.
Only a God birthed faith could create true community.
Only a God-birthed faith could conquer the world.
1. Only a God-birthed faith gives us a true love perspective.
In previous chapters John has been very careful to define what he means when he uses the word love. He always uses the Greek word 'agapé'. There were other words in Greek that he could have used. They had a word for family love 'storgé', they had a word for physical love, 'eros', they had a word for brotherly love 'philia'. John uses none of these, but uses the word 'agapé' which was particularly descriptive of the kind of love that was seen in the life of Jesus.
'Agapé' love described a life lived for the benefit of others. A love that healed and recreated and went beyond what was expected. A love that lifted up the fallen and was more concerned for the needs of the other than needs of the self. John outlines this love in chapter 4:9-10 “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins.”
John sees Christian action as a response to what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. The act of God in Christ is the motivation and the centering point for loving the world. When we get it right about who Jesus is and why He came, it changes the way we live.
It changes the way we see others. We cannot look down on any body else or see any person as beyond the reach of God. Because Christ died for us, He died for them. Through the eyes of Jesus there is no 'us' and 'them'. All people are people who need the love and grace of God.
'That's love' says John. It's not a feeling. It's not an emotion. It's not something we fall in or out of. It's not being benevolent or feeling charitable. It's not giving out of a sense of guilt or acting out of duty. It is centering our life in Jesus Christ, being empowered by the Holy Spirit, opening our hearts and lives to the grace of God and acting in gratitude for the blessings of salvation Jesus obtained for us through His death and resurrection. Only a God-birthed faith gives us a true love perspective.
2.Only a God-birthed faith creates true community
John also insists that if we say that we love God, but do not apply ourselves to loving each other, then we are deluding ourselves, and the truth is not in us. He goes as far as saying that people who act like that, think they are children of God, but in actuality are walking in darkness, not in the light.
In previous chapters we see that John takes sin seriously. One of the most pernicious of sins is that of failing to work at creating community. We had these words in our reading this morning:- (verse 2) “This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands.” The stress is on centering our lives in Jesus Christ, and allowing Jesus to be the hub around which our community life revolves.
To truly be a community of faith we have to look to Jesus and see each other through the lens of the love of God. If we look to each other, if we look to having common interests or being like-minded as a center for our life together, then we become nothing more than a civic organization organized around a particular sense of values.
There's nothing wrong in having community organizations. They can do some great things. But they are not the Church of Jesus Christ. The Church of Christ has a higher calling. To be a place where all people can discover the love of God in Jesus Christ. A place where the outcast can find a home and those who feel unloved can be embraced by God's love. An oasis in the midst of a barren uncaring world where the hurting can find healing and the hopeless be inspired by the action of the Holy Spirit renewing their lives.
Unless we make Jesus Christ our focus none of that can happen. Unless we make Jesus Christ our center we quickly become exclusive rather than inclusive. Believe me, I am well aware that bills need to be paid, the building needs looking after and that we have to plan our programs and have our committees and maintain our records. But, please, never let us stop asking “Why?”
“Why are we a church?” Because God has called us to be a community that demonstrates to the world what living a life together focused on Jesus Christ looks like. Because God has a task for us, a task that can only be accomplished through our faith in Jesus Christ, a faith that we demonstrate by having love for each other and inviting others to be in on it. Only God-birthed faith gives us a true love perspective. Only a God-birthed faith creates true community.
3. Only a God-birthed faith conquers the world.
1 John 5: 4-5 “For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
Conquer the world? Lord, who are You kidding? Lord, it's all I can do to hold my life together! You expect a 'pulled in one thousand directions, conflicted, stressed out, not always sure what I'm doing or what I really believe, things to do, places I need to be, person' like me, to conquer the world?
Friends that exactly why what we believe about Jesus Christ is so important. Verse 5... one more time... “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
When John says 'Believe' he is not asking us to intellectually give a reasoned response to a number of theological formulations or do a check-list on the Apostles Creed. He is challenging us to consider where we are coming from, what our lives are revolving around, what we are centered upon.
If we can get it in our minds, that we, you and I, here today, at this time, in this place, are God's ultimate concern, than it can change the way we see ourselves, those around us and everything about our lives. If we can see that God's love really is so committed to us that in and through Jesus Christ, God can transform everything we are and everything we do, then it's going to make more than a little difference to the way we live.
It as we allow God to make a difference in us, through the working of the Holy Spirit, that our lives start to make a difference to the world. It happens in simple ways. Like supporting a Church World blanket + program. Like inviting a friend to church. Like visiting one of our shut-ins. Like being a little more attentive to prayer and Scripture reading.
To do any of that it is important we get our center in the right place. We celebrate on Mother's Day that at the center of a loving home is the love of a celebrated mum. John reminds us in his first letter that the center for both our personal faith and corporate life as a church is our faith in who Jesus is and what God is seeking to do in our lives and the life of God's world through the Holy Spirit. Why does he do that? Because...
And to God's name be all glory. Amen.
Rev. Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Readings: Psalm 98, Acts 10:44-48, John 15:9-17, 1 John 5:1-6
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, on May 13th 2012
A printable PDF file can be found here
Mother's Day is a time that we honor those who bought us into this world, nurtured us, cared for us and guided us. In many homes, the hub of the action, the centering force of all that the home is, revolves around mother. That can be the same for single parent families, working mums, soccer mums, stay at home mums, every kind of mum that you can think of. In the absence of a mum there still has to be someone in the home who plays a mother-like role in the nurturing of a child. It all goes around mum!
Our reading this morning, from 1 John 5, brings us to the end of a series that has dealt with his themes of 'sin, forgiveness and love'. Last time we saw how it was John who penned the awesome words. 'God is Love'. In this mornings reading he again brings us back to the theme of love, but reminds us that unless we act upon the love that God offers to us, then we haven't really got it.
Today in our church calendar we are trying to act by receiving an offering for Church World Service's 'Blanket+' program. This offering helps provide blankets, food and other emergency supplies all over the world when disaster strikes. Love in action.
I like to think that John would approve of such efforts. Our reading this morning takes us a little further than just suggesting that because we are loved we should love others. He also suggests that our loving actions need to revolve around a center. In the home the center is often the mum of the household. In the household of faith, John tells us that our center is faith in Jesus Christ. He writes in verse 5 “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
Isn't John's focus on faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God is a little restrictive? What's the big deal about believing in Jesus? Isn't it enough that we are generous and charitable and get along with each other? Why does John insist on muddying the waters by telling us we need to get our focus right about what we believe about Jesus Christ?
As far as John was concerned there could be no separation between belief and action. 'In fact', he says (Verse 3) 'This is love for God: to keep His commands”. Earlier in his letter he spoke about people who had become so sophisticated in their believing that they had fallen into all sorts of wrong ways of thinking that led them into wrong ways of acting. For John what you believe determines what you do, and what you do shows what you really believe.
John believed that faith is something that God has to birth within us through the action of the Holy Spirit. Faith is something that in John's gospel is described as being 'born from above' that effects the individual as though they had been 'born again'. Truly believing in God, for John is about having a God birthed faith. He gives us some reasons.
Only a God-birthed faith could give us a true love perspective.
Only a God birthed faith could create true community.
Only a God-birthed faith could conquer the world.
1. Only a God-birthed faith gives us a true love perspective.
In previous chapters John has been very careful to define what he means when he uses the word love. He always uses the Greek word 'agapé'. There were other words in Greek that he could have used. They had a word for family love 'storgé', they had a word for physical love, 'eros', they had a word for brotherly love 'philia'. John uses none of these, but uses the word 'agapé' which was particularly descriptive of the kind of love that was seen in the life of Jesus.
'Agapé' love described a life lived for the benefit of others. A love that healed and recreated and went beyond what was expected. A love that lifted up the fallen and was more concerned for the needs of the other than needs of the self. John outlines this love in chapter 4:9-10 “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a propitiation for our sins.”
John sees Christian action as a response to what God has done for us in Jesus Christ. The act of God in Christ is the motivation and the centering point for loving the world. When we get it right about who Jesus is and why He came, it changes the way we live.
It changes the way we see others. We cannot look down on any body else or see any person as beyond the reach of God. Because Christ died for us, He died for them. Through the eyes of Jesus there is no 'us' and 'them'. All people are people who need the love and grace of God.
'That's love' says John. It's not a feeling. It's not an emotion. It's not something we fall in or out of. It's not being benevolent or feeling charitable. It's not giving out of a sense of guilt or acting out of duty. It is centering our life in Jesus Christ, being empowered by the Holy Spirit, opening our hearts and lives to the grace of God and acting in gratitude for the blessings of salvation Jesus obtained for us through His death and resurrection. Only a God-birthed faith gives us a true love perspective.
2.Only a God-birthed faith creates true community
John also insists that if we say that we love God, but do not apply ourselves to loving each other, then we are deluding ourselves, and the truth is not in us. He goes as far as saying that people who act like that, think they are children of God, but in actuality are walking in darkness, not in the light.
In previous chapters we see that John takes sin seriously. One of the most pernicious of sins is that of failing to work at creating community. We had these words in our reading this morning:- (verse 2) “This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out His commands.” The stress is on centering our lives in Jesus Christ, and allowing Jesus to be the hub around which our community life revolves.
To truly be a community of faith we have to look to Jesus and see each other through the lens of the love of God. If we look to each other, if we look to having common interests or being like-minded as a center for our life together, then we become nothing more than a civic organization organized around a particular sense of values.
There's nothing wrong in having community organizations. They can do some great things. But they are not the Church of Jesus Christ. The Church of Christ has a higher calling. To be a place where all people can discover the love of God in Jesus Christ. A place where the outcast can find a home and those who feel unloved can be embraced by God's love. An oasis in the midst of a barren uncaring world where the hurting can find healing and the hopeless be inspired by the action of the Holy Spirit renewing their lives.
Unless we make Jesus Christ our focus none of that can happen. Unless we make Jesus Christ our center we quickly become exclusive rather than inclusive. Believe me, I am well aware that bills need to be paid, the building needs looking after and that we have to plan our programs and have our committees and maintain our records. But, please, never let us stop asking “Why?”
“Why are we a church?” Because God has called us to be a community that demonstrates to the world what living a life together focused on Jesus Christ looks like. Because God has a task for us, a task that can only be accomplished through our faith in Jesus Christ, a faith that we demonstrate by having love for each other and inviting others to be in on it. Only God-birthed faith gives us a true love perspective. Only a God-birthed faith creates true community.
3. Only a God-birthed faith conquers the world.
1 John 5: 4-5 “For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
Conquer the world? Lord, who are You kidding? Lord, it's all I can do to hold my life together! You expect a 'pulled in one thousand directions, conflicted, stressed out, not always sure what I'm doing or what I really believe, things to do, places I need to be, person' like me, to conquer the world?
Friends that exactly why what we believe about Jesus Christ is so important. Verse 5... one more time... “Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”
When John says 'Believe' he is not asking us to intellectually give a reasoned response to a number of theological formulations or do a check-list on the Apostles Creed. He is challenging us to consider where we are coming from, what our lives are revolving around, what we are centered upon.
If we can get it in our minds, that we, you and I, here today, at this time, in this place, are God's ultimate concern, than it can change the way we see ourselves, those around us and everything about our lives. If we can see that God's love really is so committed to us that in and through Jesus Christ, God can transform everything we are and everything we do, then it's going to make more than a little difference to the way we live.
It as we allow God to make a difference in us, through the working of the Holy Spirit, that our lives start to make a difference to the world. It happens in simple ways. Like supporting a Church World blanket + program. Like inviting a friend to church. Like visiting one of our shut-ins. Like being a little more attentive to prayer and Scripture reading.
To do any of that it is important we get our center in the right place. We celebrate on Mother's Day that at the center of a loving home is the love of a celebrated mum. John reminds us in his first letter that the center for both our personal faith and corporate life as a church is our faith in who Jesus is and what God is seeking to do in our lives and the life of God's world through the Holy Spirit. Why does he do that? Because...
- Only a God-birthed faith can give us a true love perspective.
- Only a God birthed faith can create true community.
- Only a God-birthed faith can conquer the world.
And to God's name be all glory. Amen.
Rev. Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Messages from the First letter of John ' 4. "FEARLESS LOVE"
Readings: Psalm 22:25-31, Acts 8:26-40, John 15:1-8, 1 John 4:7-21
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, May 6th,2012
A printable PDF file can be found here
Everything I know about growing plants could be written on the back of a postage stamp. I claim zero experience in the green finger department. But this much I know. Nothing grows by coercion. Things only grow through nurture. If you plant tomatoes you cannot go out in the garden and terrify them into maturity. “Now come on little Tommy Tomato plant. Grow up or I'll give you a such a thrashing that you'll never even be able to say the word fertilizer'. You have to tend plants, carefully and gently.
Spiritual growth is no different. Fear can not produce spiritually mature believers. The only fertile ground for true spiritual growth is the love of God. 1 John 4:18-19 tells us“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because He first loved us.”
The last few weeks we have been following a series on John's first letter that has taken us through the themes of sin, forgiveness and love. Last week we were considering the great legacy of love that has been passed on to us .We affirmed that love is a great mystery which opens us to amazing possibilities. In chapter four John takes us further. He gives us the famous phrase 'God is love'.
One of the amazing things about the life of Jesus was how He never acted out of fear but always out of love. That is not to say that Jesus was never afraid. In the Garden of Gethsemane He prays that He may be spared from the pain and agony He would face at the Cross. There's nothing wrong in being afraid. It's part of what makes us human. But being afraid and living in fear are different things.
There are two kinds of fear.
The first is best described as 'Honor' or 'Respect', the second as 'Dread'.
When the Book of Proverbs tells us 'Fear the Lord' the intention is not for us go through the whole of our lives being afraid of what God may do to us if God finds out what we are really like. The fear we are to have towards God is by the way of honor and respect. That was the kind of fear that Jesus had towards His Father. He refused to do anything or be anything that didn't represent the love of God. His whole ministry was built upon respect for and trust in what the love of God could do.
The opposite of respectful fear, the unhealthy, negative kind of fear that John tells us to have nothing to do with, is best described as dread. John writes “Perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment”. Dread is the fear that has to do with punishment. Fear of punishment can never help us build a mature relationship with God or with each other. Jesus lived fearlessly because His life was centered in the loving heart of God.
He didn't care what people thought about Him. He was totally secure in His relationship with His Father God. He didn't have to gain favor with people or use people to get where He wanted to be. He was right where He wanted to be, in the will of God. He was able to act in complete freedom and without dread because He knew Himself a child of God. Both at His baptism and on the mountain of Transfiguration He found His identity in His Father's claim on His life “This is my beloved Son”.
What might it take for us to live lives defined by fearless love?
How can we apply these words about 'perfect love casting out fear' to our own lives?
In 1895 a lady called Clara Scott had a hymn published called “Open my eyes”.
Open my eyes, that I may see, glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key, that shall unclasp and set me free.
Only through having a clear picture of God, ourselves and each other can we unlock the mystery of fearless love. Or to put it another way...
We need to:
Redefine how we see the Divine,
Remember the claim of God's name
Reach out to others as sisters and brothers!.
Let us explore those themes a little more!
1. We need a clear picture of God … redefine how see the Divine
What are we afraid of that prevents us from letting the love of God enfold us and envelope us? Our fears can come from an irrational picture of God. Even with my lack of gardening skills I recognize that nothing grows by coercion. Growth takes place through nurture. The first picture the Bible gives us of God is as the Creator. The second picture is the Gardener. As you read New Testament the images Jesus uses are often nurture related. Sowing seeds. Vines and branches. Seeds and Weeds. Springtime and Harvest.
Many of us have picked up on negative images of God. A tyrannical father. A mean dictator. An uncaring judge. A strict disciplinarian. A God of hell-fire whose greatest delight is to punish unrepentant sinners with eternal torment. A warped policeman on high. A God of disapproval. Unapproachable. Unrelenting. Irrational. Making rules we can never keep. A Scary God.
Many times I have had people say to me,'Oh, I wouldn't want to set foot in church, probably make the roof cave in or cause the place to be struck by lightning'. A God who toys with people, who is a despot, a blue meanie, a dark disturbing brooding figure from our worst nightmares. I have heard people describe to me the god they don't believe in and found myself thinking that I don't believe in that kind of god either!
If ever those negative images of God start creeping in on you, read this passage from 1 John and see how many times life affirming love is mentioned. ' This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.' 'We know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.' 'There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.'
In order to leave fearless lives we need to put our faith, not in a God we dread, but one whom we have the utmost respect for and seek to honor in the way we live our lives.
2. We need a clear picture of ourselves... remember the claim of God's name
Verse 19 reminds us 'We love because He first loved us.' Our capacity for loving others comes from the security of knowing that we ourselves are loved by God. Every Sunday following our confession of faith we celebrate that through the grace and love of Jesus Christ God claims us as God's own. There is nothing we have to do or can do to be God's children other than thankfully accept our salvation as the huge, undeserved , unwarranted gift that it is. 'Jesus loves me, this I know, For the Bible tells me so'.
“ If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”
In order to live fearless lives we must claim our baptismal heritage as beloved sons and daughters of a God who calls us by name and desires only the utmost best for our lives.
3. We need a clear picture of each other... reach out to others as sisters and brothers
The final verse we read this morning reminds us that the love of God isn't just about us. True, Jesus loves us, but He calls us to share that love with each other. 'Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.'
John is keen to point out that unless love is also transforming the way we see each other, then God's Spirit is not truly at work in our lives. We are called to see each other as God sees us, as people God sent Jesus to die for, as people God loves, as people, who, like us, are marred by our sins, but nevertheless have all the potential that being human gives us.
In order to live fearless lives we must treat others how we would like them to treat us. Grant them all the respect and honor that we ourselves receive from God.
There's a whole lot of teaching that John packed into these verses we've been looking at this morning.
So let me finish with a quick review.
We can't grow spiritually by coercion but only by love. And the greatest source of love in all creation is the love of God, that we see demonstrated in Jesus Christ and which impacts our lives through the action of the Holy Spirit.
In order to live fearlessly we need to;
1. Have a clear picture of the nature of God, redefine how see the Divine.
2. Have a clear picture of ourselves, remember the claim of God's name.
3. Have a clear picture of each other, reach out to others as sisters and brothers.
May God help us, through the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to live lives of fearless love that truly reflect the light of Jesus Christ. AMEN!
Rev Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, May 6th,2012
A printable PDF file can be found here
Everything I know about growing plants could be written on the back of a postage stamp. I claim zero experience in the green finger department. But this much I know. Nothing grows by coercion. Things only grow through nurture. If you plant tomatoes you cannot go out in the garden and terrify them into maturity. “Now come on little Tommy Tomato plant. Grow up or I'll give you a such a thrashing that you'll never even be able to say the word fertilizer'. You have to tend plants, carefully and gently.
Spiritual growth is no different. Fear can not produce spiritually mature believers. The only fertile ground for true spiritual growth is the love of God. 1 John 4:18-19 tells us“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because He first loved us.”
The last few weeks we have been following a series on John's first letter that has taken us through the themes of sin, forgiveness and love. Last week we were considering the great legacy of love that has been passed on to us .We affirmed that love is a great mystery which opens us to amazing possibilities. In chapter four John takes us further. He gives us the famous phrase 'God is love'.
One of the amazing things about the life of Jesus was how He never acted out of fear but always out of love. That is not to say that Jesus was never afraid. In the Garden of Gethsemane He prays that He may be spared from the pain and agony He would face at the Cross. There's nothing wrong in being afraid. It's part of what makes us human. But being afraid and living in fear are different things.
There are two kinds of fear.
The first is best described as 'Honor' or 'Respect', the second as 'Dread'.
When the Book of Proverbs tells us 'Fear the Lord' the intention is not for us go through the whole of our lives being afraid of what God may do to us if God finds out what we are really like. The fear we are to have towards God is by the way of honor and respect. That was the kind of fear that Jesus had towards His Father. He refused to do anything or be anything that didn't represent the love of God. His whole ministry was built upon respect for and trust in what the love of God could do.
The opposite of respectful fear, the unhealthy, negative kind of fear that John tells us to have nothing to do with, is best described as dread. John writes “Perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment”. Dread is the fear that has to do with punishment. Fear of punishment can never help us build a mature relationship with God or with each other. Jesus lived fearlessly because His life was centered in the loving heart of God.
He didn't care what people thought about Him. He was totally secure in His relationship with His Father God. He didn't have to gain favor with people or use people to get where He wanted to be. He was right where He wanted to be, in the will of God. He was able to act in complete freedom and without dread because He knew Himself a child of God. Both at His baptism and on the mountain of Transfiguration He found His identity in His Father's claim on His life “This is my beloved Son”.
What might it take for us to live lives defined by fearless love?
How can we apply these words about 'perfect love casting out fear' to our own lives?
In 1895 a lady called Clara Scott had a hymn published called “Open my eyes”.
Open my eyes, that I may see, glimpses of truth Thou hast for me;
Place in my hands the wonderful key, that shall unclasp and set me free.
Only through having a clear picture of God, ourselves and each other can we unlock the mystery of fearless love. Or to put it another way...
We need to:
Redefine how we see the Divine,
Remember the claim of God's name
Reach out to others as sisters and brothers!.
Let us explore those themes a little more!
1. We need a clear picture of God … redefine how see the Divine
What are we afraid of that prevents us from letting the love of God enfold us and envelope us? Our fears can come from an irrational picture of God. Even with my lack of gardening skills I recognize that nothing grows by coercion. Growth takes place through nurture. The first picture the Bible gives us of God is as the Creator. The second picture is the Gardener. As you read New Testament the images Jesus uses are often nurture related. Sowing seeds. Vines and branches. Seeds and Weeds. Springtime and Harvest.
Many of us have picked up on negative images of God. A tyrannical father. A mean dictator. An uncaring judge. A strict disciplinarian. A God of hell-fire whose greatest delight is to punish unrepentant sinners with eternal torment. A warped policeman on high. A God of disapproval. Unapproachable. Unrelenting. Irrational. Making rules we can never keep. A Scary God.
Many times I have had people say to me,'Oh, I wouldn't want to set foot in church, probably make the roof cave in or cause the place to be struck by lightning'. A God who toys with people, who is a despot, a blue meanie, a dark disturbing brooding figure from our worst nightmares. I have heard people describe to me the god they don't believe in and found myself thinking that I don't believe in that kind of god either!
If ever those negative images of God start creeping in on you, read this passage from 1 John and see how many times life affirming love is mentioned. ' This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him.' 'We know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.' 'There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.'
In order to leave fearless lives we need to put our faith, not in a God we dread, but one whom we have the utmost respect for and seek to honor in the way we live our lives.
2. We need a clear picture of ourselves... remember the claim of God's name
Verse 19 reminds us 'We love because He first loved us.' Our capacity for loving others comes from the security of knowing that we ourselves are loved by God. Every Sunday following our confession of faith we celebrate that through the grace and love of Jesus Christ God claims us as God's own. There is nothing we have to do or can do to be God's children other than thankfully accept our salvation as the huge, undeserved , unwarranted gift that it is. 'Jesus loves me, this I know, For the Bible tells me so'.
“ If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.”
In order to live fearless lives we must claim our baptismal heritage as beloved sons and daughters of a God who calls us by name and desires only the utmost best for our lives.
3. We need a clear picture of each other... reach out to others as sisters and brothers
The final verse we read this morning reminds us that the love of God isn't just about us. True, Jesus loves us, but He calls us to share that love with each other. 'Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.'
John is keen to point out that unless love is also transforming the way we see each other, then God's Spirit is not truly at work in our lives. We are called to see each other as God sees us, as people God sent Jesus to die for, as people God loves, as people, who, like us, are marred by our sins, but nevertheless have all the potential that being human gives us.
In order to live fearless lives we must treat others how we would like them to treat us. Grant them all the respect and honor that we ourselves receive from God.
There's a whole lot of teaching that John packed into these verses we've been looking at this morning.
So let me finish with a quick review.
We can't grow spiritually by coercion but only by love. And the greatest source of love in all creation is the love of God, that we see demonstrated in Jesus Christ and which impacts our lives through the action of the Holy Spirit.
In order to live fearlessly we need to;
1. Have a clear picture of the nature of God, redefine how see the Divine.
2. Have a clear picture of ourselves, remember the claim of God's name.
3. Have a clear picture of each other, reach out to others as sisters and brothers.
May God help us, through the guidance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to live lives of fearless love that truly reflect the light of Jesus Christ. AMEN!
Rev Adrian J. Pratt B.D.
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