Taking the Heat

Readings: Psalm 80:1-19, Isaiah 5:1-7, Hebrews 11:29-12:2, Luke12:49-56
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, August 18th 2013

A printable PDF file can be found here

Fire has many benefits. Fire can be put to positive uses. One of the images of the Holy Spirit is that of a fire that inspired the disciples at Pentecost.  The love of Jesus Christ is a desirable thing – to have a burning passion for the Kingdom of God is something most preachers would encourage in their congregations. 

But – careful - FIRE BURNS!  This mornings reading counsels that if we want to be on fire for God then we have to take the heat that comes with it. It's not always to take a stand for what we believe. Luke talks of taking the heat of the Cross, of taking the heat of criticism, and of taking the heat of our choices.

1. Taking the Heat of the Cross.
Luke 12: 49-50  "I have come to cast fire upon the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled!  But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!”

There are a whole host of biblical images all mixed up in these two verses. You may recall John the Baptist describing himself as one who baptized with water, and Jesus as baptizing by fire. We have the image of ‘tongues of fire’ in the Upper Room. Jesus appears to be speaking in this verse of the fiery baptism of suffering upon the Cross.

He is feeling the heat of opposition as the crisis of His crucifixion approaches. There is a sense of “Let’s get this over with”… in the phrase “How I wish it was already kindled”.  There appears an element of judgment and anger as Jesus speaks of casting “fire upon the earth”. He appears to be under such tremendous pressure that He is almost buckling under its weight.

What had brought Him to this point of crisis? More than anything it was His unwavering commitment to be One through whom the unconditional love of God would flow to the lives of everyday people.  Time and time again this meant pushing against the social, religious, political and sexual boundaries of His society.

He counted lepers amongst His friends and sat down at table with unholy tax-collectors. When challenged about breaking Sabbath law he proclaimed Himself ‘Lord of the Sabbath’. To a woman caught in the act of adultery He says, “I don’t condemn you, go and sin no more”.  He told stories that made heroes out of enemies (like Samaritans) and was outspoken against any form of religious legalism or hypocrisy.

I recall as a child playing ‘tug-of-war’ with a rope between my hands. Though my side was losing I wasn’t going to give up.  When everybody else let go, I tried to keep hold and the rope slid through my hands. Only when the pressure got too much did I realize my hands were hurting and looked down to see the rope burn marks across them. You can bet that was the last time I played tug-of-war for a while.

Friction. Caused by going against the way everybody else wants to go. Being a faithful disciple means getting burnt is part of the job description.  It’s an inevitable consequence of going against the flow. At times our faithfulness will produce stress and the going will be hard. We may become angry and even judgmental. 

The ‘New Interpreters Bible’ comments, “Some of the most unexpected crises we have to face come when we set out to do what we perceive to be the good, moral and right thing to do. Jesus Himself knew how devastating such crises can be, and He warned His followers to be prepared to encounter them also.” 

Take courage! If you are feeling the heat because you are making a stand for what you believe, then Jesus stands with you. He knows how that is. He knows how that feels. He warns us that His road involves taking up our cross and following wherever He may lead. 

2. Taking the Heat of Criticism

Verses 52-53 “From now on five members in one household will be divided, three against two, and two against three. They will be divided, father against son, and son against father; mother against daughter, and daughter against mother ...”

The Hebrew word “Shalom” speaks of more than our narrow description of ‘peace’. “Shalom” involves healing and justice and reconciliation and wholeness. Such things do not come into being without conflict. Division often precedes reconciliation. Wherever the Word of God has been heard, division has occurred among the people who heard it. 

We are blessed in this country to have religious freedom.  Such is not so in many other parts of the world.  In some lands where religious or political Fundamentalism holds sway then to convert to Christianity can mean facing death. In some it can mean that upon finding you had become Christian your family would go through a ceremony to pronounce you dead. Certain political philosophies will only tolerate Christianity as long as it produces social change along the lines the powers that be proscribe.

You would think that for us, prosperity and religious freedom would create an ideal situation for Christianity to flourish. But the Kingdom of God is an upside down and inside out concept.  Materialism creates such a desire for the acquisition of ‘stuff’ that very rarely do we stop and ask why no matter how much we have there’s always something more.

Freedom brings with it the temptation to treat belief, in anything, as an option.  Where others make many decisions for us, life can just roll along, uninterrupted by questions of purpose or meaning or truth.  If we get mad, we can bring a lawsuit. If we become anxious, we can find therapy. And for everyday life, just stick your brain in neutral and turn on the television, because it’s back to work on Monday morning.

Throw yourself into the life of your local church, spend some serious time in Bible Study and prayer, tell others about the faith that burns in your heart and shapes your commitments and people think your just going through a religious phase. “Hey.. it’s their choice, they’ll get over it… they always were a bit... y’know … religious”.

The faith destroying factor about living in a world of freedom and prosperity is that we rarely have to make a stand for anything.  And you know that when you do, then it’s going to be frowned upon. That’s when those closest to you come and say, “Hey, back off, slow down a bit”. That’s when people start saying, “Don’t rock the boat.”

In this passage from Luke, Jesus warns us that making a commitment to Him changes our relationship to others. That even those closest to us will be affected by that commitment.
Take courage! If you are feeling the heat of personal criticism, because you are making a stand for what you believe, then Jesus stands with you. He knows how that is. He knows how that feels.

The reverse of that is the challenge I saw on a poster the posed the question, “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” It seems appropriate therefore that the third element in this passage has to do with;

3. Taking the heat of our choices

In verses 55-56 Jesus speaks to our complacency: “When you see a south wind blowing, you say, 'It will be a hot day,' and it turns out that way. You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time?”

Personal Responsibility. Two words our affluent society has a real problem with.  Personal Responsibility. “Yes Lord, I know I’m a sinner, but I’ve got some really good excuses!” In the Garden of Eden, Eve says, “Hey, don’t blame me, it was the snake”. Adam says, “Don’t blame me, it was the woman”. Cain says of his brother, “Am I my Brothers Keeper?”

“Analyze this present time”, says Jesus.  Analyze this present life, the one we live in, moment by moment, hour by hour, day by day, year by year. Analyze. Where is God in it all? Analyze, where our real commitments are, what really burns inside of us, what are our motives for being part of God’s church?

Analyze what we think, what we say, what we believe, how we act, how we react, what you do with our money, what we do with our time, what we do for pleasure, what we do to help others, what we expect of others, how we react to others who are not the same. Analyze.. our fears, our prejudices, our motives, our beliefs, our values. Where is God in it all? “Analyze your present time” invites Jesus.

In the Scriptures the concept of judgment is all about personal responsibility. All about taking the heat of our choices.  Scripture teaches us that we cannot stand before God on the last day saying, “It wasn’t me, Its not my fault, I’m not responsible”.

God holds us personally responsible for our relationship with Jesus Christ.  That’s our business. The Church cannot do that for us. No pastor cannot do that for us. God holds us personally responsible for our spiritual growth. That’s our job. God holds us personally responsible for our knowledge of God’s Word.  God holds us personally responsible for our prayer life.

God holds us personally responsible for loving our neighbor.  God holds us personally responsible for our commitment to God’s church, for our stewardship within the community of faith, for our living and loving and our thoughts and our words and our deeds.

“Analyze your present life”. Before God we do not have the luxury of blaming our spouse, our parents, our children, our peers, our brothers or sisters, our environment, our temperament, our church, our pastor, our doctor, our diet, our dog, our Cable operator, our representative in Congress, or any thing else or anybody else.

Jesus calls us to Personal Responsibility. If we are burning with love for God , then it means we can expect to face some heat. In this mornings passage Jesus tells us three areas we can expect things to heat up. He encourages us...

• Take the heat of the cross
• Take the heat of criticism
• Take the heat of our choices

Take courage!
If we are feeling the heat, then Jesus stands with us.
He knows how that is. He knows how that feels.
Let us place our life in His hands.
Amen!

The Rev. Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

The Infinite Improbability Drive

Readings: Psalm 107:1-9,43, Colossians 3:1-11, Luke 12:13-21, Hosea 11:1-11
 Preached at First Presbyterian Church Baldwin, NY, August 4th 2013

A printable PDF file can be found here

Some years ago the late author Douglas Adams wrote a Science Fiction/Comedy book entitled “The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy”. The book became a radio show, in Great Britain a T.V. show, and eventually a Hollywood Movie. Much featured in all interpretations is a renegade two-headed character called Zaphod Beeblebrox who  hijacks a spaceship called ‘The Heart of Gold’ that is powered by something called “The Infinite Improbability Drive”.

“The Infinite Improbability Drive” enables the spaceship to pass through numerous points in space at the same time, whilst it’s computer intones “We are now cruising at a level of two to the power of two hundred to one against and falling” against a background of screen images such as monkeys working at typewriters and coming up with scripts for ‘Hamlet’. If all that sounds just a little to improbable for a Sunday Morning service, well watch the movie, or buy the book, and maybe it will make more sense.

But… have you ever considered this? Improbability drives Christianity. The Christian message when viewed in the cold light of reason and logic makes so little sense.  Just how probable is it that an Almighty God would somehow become a baby in a stable at some lonely Eastern outpost, and in Jesus Christ act to obtain the salvation of the world? 

How improbable is it that a man should rise from death and found an organization that during it’s first 300 years of existence is mercilessly persecuted, yet nearly 2000 years later has become the worlds most adhered to religion? How improbable is it that our lives should become caught up in that experience, or even that a kid who grew up in the suburbs of Liverpool should end up as a preacher on Long Island, after spending a number of years in West Virginia...and that you should be right now a part of the congregation listening to him?

Maybe there should be a computer in here intoning “We are now traveling at a level of three to the power of seven hundred to three against and falling” whilst displaying on a screen events of Christian history that have, against all the calculations of probability changed the world and continue to change the way we live in the world.

But... to our Bible Reading. In Chapter 11 of the prophet Hosea, the first 11 verses fall into three distinct sections. In each of them God is pictured as a caring parent and Israel as a rebellious child. Verses 1 – 4 speak of how God had called Israel out of Egypt, picked them up when they fell, bent down to them and fed them, yet, despite such loving acts, they sought time and time again to go there own way.

Verses 5 –7 speak of the judgment that should fall upon them for rejecting the parental care of God. If there was any justice in the world, then they deserved to go back to Egypt. As they continued to rebel against God and go after other gods they were placing themselves in a position of alienation from God and deserving of God’s anger.

Section three begins at Verse 8, which is the key verse. The parent sees the child who rebels and is angered. But even as the anger wells up, the love of the parent causes a change. God looks at Israel and declares, “My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender, I will not execute my fierce anger, for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst and I will not come to destroy.”

That third section closes with a picture of the disobedient child returning home, not in confidence, but trembling and fearful, unsure of their parents love, knowing that their separation had been a result of their disobedience, but nevertheless seeking to be back within the family circle of God’s blessings.

There are similarities in this picture painted by Hosea to the parable Jesus told of the prodigal son, in which the erring younger child returns, rather fearfully, to the undeserved embrace of a Father whose love is greater than his anger. In both cases the improbability factor is high. The logical outcome of a life of willful disobedience is that of separation. But the Fathers heart is greater! The Fathers heart turns what is improbable to possible!

Something we never learn about the story of the prodigal son is how things turned out in the end. There is that elder brother who has a hard time accepting the Fathers love. And who is to say that the younger son did not once again turn away? There is no guarantee to the story. Maybe the elder saw the wisdom in the Fathers words and came into the party only to have the younger son whisper in his ear, ‘Who’s the fool now big brother? Didn’t I tell you I could always get my own way?”

Certainly in the case of Hosea’s prophecy we know that Israel did go far from home and return again, but that was not the end of the story. Further passages of unfaithfulness and turning away were to come. Has not that been the story of the Church throughout her history? As the centuries have rolled by time and time again the Church has got it wrong and needed reformation and renewal, only to go and make the same mistakes all over again. And you and I know, time and time again, it has also been the story of our own lives.

The power of the gospel message lies not in the probability that it will solve every problem and answer every question known to our world; but the power of the gospel lies in the fact that when we receive it’s message it creates possibilities for our lives that were not there before.  Where there has been judgment, the love of God creates the possibility for forgiveness. Where there is hurt, the love of God creates the possibility of healing. Where there is conflict and striving the love of God opens the door to the possibility of peace and wholeness.

There is no guarantee with any of this. It’s a question of trusting in Gods promises. It’s a matter of faith. Break it down with the cold light of logic and reason and in all probability the likelihood of such a message receiving a positive response are maybe “three to the power of seven hundred to three against and falling”.

All the mechanisms for failure are in place. We are self-centered people. We like the things of this world. We are sinners who fall short of the Glory of God.  We are fully occupied most days of our lives doing what we can to get by. We are daily bombarded with thousands of messages that tell us that we need this or need that or need to look like this or look like the other, or accept this or accept the other in order to live full and satisfying lives.

If life runs on probability then the chances are we are going to want nothing to do with a gospel that calls us to live in a way that can be the opposite of what all the other voices are telling us. Our innate tendency is to pull further and further away from this demanding God who seeks obedience and sacrifice. But then the improbability drive kicks in.  The voice of God speaks through the prophet Hosea. “I will not execute my fierce anger, for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst and I will not come to destroy.”

God’s love, demonstrated to us on the Cross of Calvary and shining to us from the empty tomb, available to us through the Holy Spirit, creates possibility. God speaks not as the One who is far off and absent but as the Holy One who is working in our midst. God reveals the intentions of the Divine heart, that God’s work is not to devastate and destroy, but to bring home and restore and open the doorway to a life in which God’s love can be both received and shared.

Our calling is to be people, who having been embraced by the love of God, now seek to make the most of the possibilities a new life in Jesus Christ lays open to us. It’s a new day. Every day with Jesus Christ is a new start, a new opportunity, a new beginning.

Improbable as that may seem, the reality of God’s love turns the improbable to the possible. Let us then be advocates for possibility. Be a disciple, not because being a follower of Jesus Christ is some kind of equation.. that if we do this and add this then the result will surely be this… but be a disciple precisely because when your life is in God’s hands the rules of probability no longer apply, and the door is open on possibility.

Take the risk of faith. Love, not because it will surely change the world, but because it just might change the world. Don’t be consumed by the evidences of failure, rather by the possibility that this time it may actually come out right! Get your improbability drive in motion and trust in God to work in unlikely ways in and through and around your life.

For God is in our midst... improbable as that may seem! The possibilities that are open to us, by the presence of God in our midst, are completely mind boggling.

AMEN.

Adrian Pratt

Amos and a Basket of Summer Fruit

Readings: Psalm 52, Colossians 1:15-28, Luke 10:38-42, Amos 8:1-12
 Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY July 21st, 2013

A printable PDF file can be found here

How Long, Oh Lord, How Long? How long is this mans sermon going to be? How long do I have to sit here and endure his blah, blah, blah, God this and God that. How long before I get out of here?

How long before I can back into the real world and do the important stuff. There’s money to make, golf balls that need putting in holes, fish to catch, TV programs I need to watch, home decorating tasks to complete, relatives to visit, food to eat. How long oh Lord?

And into the church walks Amos carrying a basket of fruit. “We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land”. Come and taste the fruit of the harvest! So we bite into the fruit. And Amos asks, “Enjoying it”. ‘Uh-huh’ we reply.

“Well you better enjoy it, because it’s the last bit of good fruit you are going to taste. The harvest is over and the time is ripe for getting your life sorted out. I’ve got news for you. You are the people of God and that means God is on your case. God has been watching you. Not from a distance, but up close and personal.

God has witnessed the true intentions of your heart and noticed that you keep shutting Him out. God has seen the dodgy deals, heard the unkind words, watched over your compromises, heard loud and clear your secret thoughts, witnessed your sins, walked through your world and God’s verdict is; ‘What a mess!’.

And even as you take your last bite the tidal wave of God’s judgment is poised and about to come crashing down on you. Splash! But this time it’s not a few ‘Plip plip plop little April Showers’, but a raging flood that is descending, and it will wash away all that is not of God. It’s going to the bad day of bad days, the fat lady is going to be shedding so many tears she won’t be able to sing a note and not a single hair of your head that isn’t rooted in the love of God will survive.” Such is the uncomfortable message that Amos offers!

Amos 8:11-12 “The time is surely coming, says the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land; not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from North to East, they shall run to and fro, seeking the Word of the Lord, but they shall not find it”.

Always seeking. Never finding, Wanting God so much, but still failing to make the connection. Moving from this philosophy to that religion, from this way of life to that way of thinking, Dropping in, dropping out, dropping off the edge. Amos sees this kind of behavior as a sign of God’s judgment. And it is something that we see replicated time and time again all around the world.

In this land a variety of voices tell us that there is a huge thirst for spirituality. There is a whole smorgasboard of options to choose from. People try a bit of this and a bit of that and never really make a lasting, long-term commitment to anything, always keeping their options open.

That was how it had become in the nation of Israel under the influence of King Jeroboam and the prophet Amaziah. They had set up altars to other gods than the God of Israel, the One who had told them. “I the Lord your God am a jealous God”, and “I shall be Your God and you shall be my people”.  They were a covenant people, established in a covenant that had the force of marriage. A covenant that lifted up faithfulness. ‘No other gods but me”. A covenant of love and life long commitment.

“If you want to be someone,
And you want to go somewhere,
You better wake up and pay attention.”

How does God wake us up and call us to be His people? The scriptures point us to a number of ways. Not everybody has that Apostle Paul experience of heading totally the wrong way and then God breaking in and sending them immediately in the right direction. Some do. But for most it seems a more gradual process.

It seems for many that as we journey through our lives God offers windows of opportunity where we sense a call to commitment. These can be whilst we are or on a retreat or on a mission trip or at a Conference, or they can come at times when we’re just reading a novel, or taking a hike or working out.

Sometimes these moments strike during a crisis, a pregnancy or a birth, an illness or the death of a loved one, the loss of work or the taking on of a new task.  Sometimes they just come out of nowhere, unanticipated, unsuspected, even unwelcome. A word of warning. Sometimes these moments even happen in Presbyterian churches on a Sunday morning.

Windows of opportunity, what the Irish would call ‘thin places’ where heaven seems for a moment to make contact with the earth. Moments when we catch a glimpse, or sense a word outside of ourselves, or there is just a quiet understanding that is saying “Commit Your way to the Lord Your God and He will guide your path”.

These moments can be fleeting and transitory and if our mind is so much caught up with the things of this world they so easily pass us by. I know I’m not alone in having that experience where we have a mind to do something, or call somebody, or express concern, and then something else comes along, something usually of much less significance, and the moment is lost, that window of opportunity is gone forever.

“If you want to be someone,
And you want to go somewhere,
You better wake up and pay attention.”
Be attentive because it is peculiarly in those moments that God is calling us to commitment. Not calling us to join the club, or sign up to attend a class for a week, or change our long distance provider. Calling us to make a life-long commitment.

Calling us to then and there to say, “Lord God, I will be Yours forever”. “As for me and my house we shall serve the Lord from this point on and for evermore”. A commitment not to a course of action or even a particular place, but to Jesus Christ, who died upon a Cross to free us from our sins, whom God raised from the dead, and whose Holy Spirit can reconstruct our lives.

If we miss that opportunity, if we don’t take that moment, do you know what happens? It’s back to the Smorgasboard. It’s back to running after this and running after that. Remember the story of the prodigal son? The one who went after this and went after the other, who thought he was doing so well and even at his lowest point thought he could still make a deal. “I’ll go and offer to be a slave and work on the family farm”.

The running only stopped when he felt the embrace of the Fathers arms. Then came the security. Then the hope flooded in. Then everything turned around. Then he knew he could stop running, because he was home.

Amos tells Israel that God knew how things really were between Himself and those He had chosen. They may physically be present on the Sabbath, but their heart was somewhere else.  And their hearts weren’t even in a good place. They were just out for themselves and were prepared to take whatever measures they could get away with to get their own way. But a day of reckoning was coming. A day when whatever was not of God in their lives would be put to the test.

None of us lives forever. Scripture teaches us that there will come a day when the curtain closes on our earthly existence and our lives will be up for their evaluation before God. How much of what we now invest our time and our effort in and are orientating our lives towards will stand? What is there that we are doing in our lives that has eternal worth?

This is the challenge that the prophet Amos lays before us. That there comes a day, for all of us, when the opportunity for harvest is over, when the fruit is consumed, when there is no more time left to decide. He points us to the consequences of not making a whole-hearted commitment to God.

That though we may outwardly be living a reasonable life, may even go to church and do and say the right things, if whilst doing all of that whilst our real ambitions have little to do with serving God, then God is not mocked and somewhere down the line, as surely as the harvest produces good fruit, whatever we sow in our lives, will come to fruition. 

He pictures for us a world in which people just keep running from one thing to the next until they find their home and their Center in God. How if they avoid commitment the only option open to them is to keep seeking, but never find, to hear a thousand words, but never acknowledge the one Word that matters, the Word that became flesh and dwelt amongst us, the Word that is our Lord Jesus Christ.

Such a message as this calls us to respond in a number of ways. It calls us to repentance. To say to God, “That person who sits in church but their mind is somewhere else, Lord  that’s me. I’m the one who’s holding back. I’m the one who keeps looking rather than wholeheartedly committing. I’m the one who needs to come home.”

This message calls us to belief. Belief in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins. Belief that only by Grace can we be saved. Belief that God raised Christ from death. Belief that through the Holy Spirit God’s resurrection love can work in and through our lives to transform both ourselves and the world we live in.

Most of all it’s a wake up call. To see the bigger picture. To see where our lives are headed if we choose not to walk God’s way. To make a commitment that the number one priority in our life will be acting and living and loving in a Christ-like way in the midst of an ungodly world.

“If you want to be someone,
And you want to go somewhere,
You better wake up and pay attention.”

May God help us to wake up to our need to commit our lives into His hands. Because until we take that decisive step, we are destined to be seekers who never find, and wanderers who never reach home. And then, at the end of the road, when we stand before God, all we will have to offer is that which will not stand. Our empty promises, our compromises and our failings.

What is offered to us in Jesus Christ is a home in God, hope in the security of His love, forgiveness for our sins and the chance to live every day in the freshness and vitality of the Holy Spirit. Let us make such things our own. Amen.


Rev. Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

Amos and the Plumbline

Readings: Psalm 82, Colossians 1:1-14, Luke 10:25-37, Amos 7:7-17
 Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, July 14th 2013

A printable PDF file can be found here

In the late nineteen sixties Bob Dylan looked around at some of the perceived injustices of the day and out of his artistry produced the classic folk protest song, “Blowin’ in the Wind”. Let me remind you of some of the pictures he paints with his words.

'How many years must some people exist
Before they're allowed to be free,
How many times can a man turn his head
And pretend that he just doesn't see’

Such phrases form a fitting introduction to the message of the prophet Amos. Amos doesn’t write a song but delivers a series of prophetic indictments relating to injustices that lay at the heart of the nation of Israel. One of those indictments formed our bible passage this morning.

In a vision Amos sees a plumb line being held up against a wall. The wall is straight. He hears the voice of God telling him that a plumb line was also being held up to the life of Israel, and the wall that represented Israel was way out of shape. So out of shape that the best thing to do would be to demolish the wall and start all over again.

His message is “There’s something wrong here. And if it is not put right there will be serious trouble heading your way” Trouble in the form of defeat and exile and fear and death. Horrors almost unthinkable would descend upon Israel.

Now Amos wasn’t a local boy. He was an outsider from Israel’s southern neighbors Judah. Israel already had their own prophets, the top man being Amaziah, the head honcho at King Jereboam’s shrine. Amaziah addressed the court with messages of peace and prosperity.  The people liked what Amaziah had to say. So did the King. Amaziah spoke about blessing. Then along comes Amos with his visions of doom and gloom and judgment and the people don’t want to know.

But isn’t that the way it is? We want to hear that everything is getting better. We want to know that God will prosper and bless our lives. We want to know that, although we’ve made mistakes, there’s still time to put things right. Amos brings a message that says, “Game over. Get it sorted now or face the consequences”. That’s not a message we want to hear.

A particular concern that Amos has is that of the economic injustice that existed in the land of Israel. The rich were becoming richer at the expense of the poor. The poor were experiencing increasing oppression and burdens being placed upon their lives. And nobody was listening to their complaint, people were turning the other way. The people with power weren’t listening, but God was. And God was going to act if the people with power refused to do so. Act in judgment. Righteousness in the land lifted up the nation in Gods eyes. Injustice bred problems.

If you put that picture into a global perspective, it’s not a comforting one, at least not from where we sit as living in the richest country on the face of the globe. It suggests that if we do not hear the voices of those under oppression and suffering from hunger and abject poverty and who are denied basic human rights, then we place ourselves under the shadow of the judgment of God, because God sides not with those who refuse to hear the poor, but on the side of the poor themselves.

Our temptation is the same as that of the wealthy in Israel.  That because we enjoy prosperity, because we enjoy many blessings, because we are free and richly graced with opportunities and possibilities, we make the presumption that God is with us. And if God is with us, then the plight of the poor is not our problem. It must be something that they have caused. They must be reaping the fruits of bad seeds that they themselves have sown. It’s unfortunate, but they are only getting what they deserve. Why should we make it our concern?

Amos suggests that if we are not part of the solution we are part of the problem. That unless we show concern for those less fortunate than ourselves, then the plumb-line is held up against our lives, and no matter how straight we may appear, how materially blessed we may feel, however graced and free we are, in reality it is only a matter of time before what goes around comes around.

One of the failures in the response to the terrorism that occasionally rears its ugly head in our land, is that few want to dig deeper into the causes of why small groups of extremists feel that their actions are necessary and justifiable. The response is often to increase security, to show them who they are messing with, to take them out before they try anything like that again. I’m not saying that such steps are not necessary, simply that they do not dig deep enough into questioning the causes of the problems.

And one of the causes is the tremendous inequality that exists in the world. Whilst we will go home and eat a good meal, countless numbers will today die of starvation. Whilst we will watch nervously to see how the gas prices are fluctuating, others will forage for a bite to eat on garbage dumps they call home.

Because these are not things that are constantly bought to our attention in our daily news, because they go on every day and take place far away, we make the assumption that we have no responsibility, that it is not our problem, that these tragic situations have no immediate consequence or bearing or connection with the lives we lead. Now here’s Amos saying “You are the people of God. Let’s hold up the plumb-line and see how you are living up to your call’.

What is the good, saying what you want to hear, prophet Amaziah’s reaction? He says “Amos, go back to where you came from. We don’t want to hear this. It’s upsetting. It’s disturbing. It doesn’t make us feel good. The kings not going to like it”. Amaziah sends a message to King Jeroboam, in verse 10 “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel; the land is unable to endure all his words”

This is a tough passage for anybody to preach. Because even as you prepare it you are aware that it is getting under your skin. That the plumb-line is being held up against your own life. Worse still you see how the message bought problems upon the messenger. The people didn’t just dislike the message, they turned on the messenger. Who wants to bring a message like that? The best a preacher can say is, “Hey, I’m just the message bringer. I don’t find this message an easy one either.”

“How many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?”

Bob Dylan suggests the answer is blowing in the wind. One of the words that the Old Testament uses for the Holy Spirit is ‘Ruach’ indicating the breath or the wind of God.  John 3:8 tells us “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."

Our need is to ask ourselves “What is it that the Spirit of God is telling us through these words from Amos?”  For myself this passage challenges me. Saying “We didn’t know” or “We didn’t hear”, just doesn’t cut it. That as the people of God we have a responsibility to be listening for and looking out for those to whom we can restore hope.

That injustice in the world is our problem. A problem that if we do not become involved with and respond to and deal with will have terrible consequences for our lives further down the road. That protecting ourselves and shielding ourselves from all the bad stuff out there is not enough. That we need to dig deeper. Prevention is a better option to pursue than dealing with the outcome.

It’s our problem, not because we are the fortunate ones, or the rich ones, or the free ones, but because we are the people of God. Being the people of God means involvement in the reconciliation and love and grace of God that is seeking the best for every man, woman and child in creation.

That’s a tall order isn’t it? Rather like all that “If somebody asks for your coat, give him your shirt as well”, “Walk the extra mile”, “Turn the other cheek” “Love your enemies”

 “The answer my friend is blowing in the wind.”

The wind of God’s Holy Spirit. Who challenges us. Who convicts us. The Holy Spirit who empowers us with a resurrection message that conquers death, brings hope and healing and renewal and revival. Our calling is to follow Jesus Christ, who in the words of Philippians 2:  “Though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave...  He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death”

Let us allow God to hold up the plumb-line to our own lives. We might not like what we see.  But hopefully it will move us forward into being the people God wants us to be and attempting the tasks that God wants us to fulfill.

To God’s name be the glory.

Rev. Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

Backyard Mission

Readings: Psalm 30, 2 Kings 5:1-14, Galatians 6:1-16, Luke 10:1-11+16-20
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY on July 7th, 2013

A printable PDF can be found here

A friend of mine was a pastor of a number of small Welsh language chapels on the Island of Angelsey in North Wales. He recounted one day a problem he had. There was a lady, 80 years or so in age, whom he had volunteered to take to the hospital for some minor surgery. The trouble was, this lady had never been off the island. In fact she'd rarely gone outside the village.

She hardly spoke a word of English. She shopped, spoke, dreamt and did everything else in her native tongue of Welsh.  She'd heard all sorts of things over the years about those people over on the mainland and had no desire to be anywhere else than her village; everything she needed was there on the Island. But now for health reasons she had to go.  My friend had a hard time to convince her that everything would be all right!

Now that lady is probably an extreme case, but many folk are happy with what they know and comfortable with their surroundings and wouldn't dream of being anywhere else. A significant number of people grow up, live and die in the same geographical area and only venture outside when it is absolutely necessary. If you are such a person then you'll echo Dorothy's sentiments in the Wizard of Oz, "There's no place like home".

When I looked at this mornings passage, about Jesus sending out the disciples, with nothing but the clothes on their back, my first thought was "What a great text to use at a Missions Conference, but what a strange one to use in the setting of a local church!”

What should I do?  Suggest you give up your homes and settled lives and abandon all to go on a mission to who knows where? And all this business of 'shaking the dust off your feet', how does that apply when you live in a community where you are going to meet the same people time and time again? What does this passage about "Sending People Out" have to say to people who feel called to "Stay where they are"?

Then I realized that the point of contact is simply this; the things that the disciples are sent out to do in the world are the same things that God calls us to aspire to as a church within our own community. We are called to mission in our own backyard.

The disciples are sent out to do a number of different things.

·    They are to be people who proclaim the peace and wholeness of life that is possible through Jesus Christ.
·    They are to expect that not everybody will accept or understand their message.
·    They are to trust in God to provide them what they need to fulfill God's purpose.
·    They are to pray that God will prompt others to join them in this mission, for "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few"

1. We are called to proclaim the peace and wholeness of life that is available in Jesus Christ.

'The Kingdom of God is near' and it remains near. God is not far off, but at the circumference of our lives, with the desire to be at the center. It is not uncommon for people to feel that God is distant, unconcerned and unrelated to the way they are living. When trouble comes, when disaster strikes, when hardships and misfortunes attack, when loneliness, anxiety or depression set in, then it can feel like God has left town and won't be coming back.

The challenge for us as a Church is that we live as a community of people amongst whom the presence of God can be known as a tangible reality. Our calling is to 'model' for the world what being a part of the Kingdom of God can be like.  Through caring for each other and being open to needs in our community, we bear witness to there being a God who cares and can supply what we need.

In our worship services the Word of God is proclaimed. Yes, that is very important. But unless the Word becomes embodied in our lives, then the Word becomes just words, with no function, power or purpose. No-ones going to get to heaven by listening to sermons, or singing hymns or saying prayers alone, it's not just the words, it's who we really are that determines our standing with God. If our relationship with God is a reality then people will notice.

Of course, they might not always like it or even acknowledge it!

2. We should not expect everybody to accept our message.

Jesus speaks of sending His disciples out 'like lambs into the midst of wolves'.  The wolf really doesn't care about the lamb, except as a source to satisfy it's appetite. It cares not about the lamb’s morality, about the lamb’s beliefs, about whether or not the lamb is having a good day or bad day. All the wolf is saying is "Feed Me!” If the lamb gets swallowed up in process, then that's just tough.

There are those within all communities, and even within churches themselves, whose primary aim is simply to satisfy their appetite. The politician who mysteriously appears when votes are needed.  The down and out who comes asking for money, mouth brimming with promises, "I promise I'll pay it back when I get myself back on my feet". The couple who want to get married and promise that once they are settled they'll be in church every Sunday. The youngster who is confirmed only never to be seen in church again.

I confess to have developed a 'Yeh, Right!' attitude to some of these situations. Don't get me wrong, I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't support our leaders, or minister to those going through hard times or wishing to make commitments to each other or the church. It’s just that the wolf will do anything as long it gets what it needs.

The gospel is not good news to those who are busy building their own little empires at the expense of others. It’s not good news for the self-satisfied or self-seeking. It’s not good news to somebody trying to evade responsibility or seeking to get the most for as little as possible. Inherent in the notion of discipleship is the unpopular idea of discipline.

To minister within any situation, be it an unknown frontier or a mission in our own backyard, be it in a time of need or a time of plenty, there has to be an acceptance that no body can reach everybody. Some won’t be reached. Some just don’t want what we have to offer. Some will take advantage. It is fruitless to beat ourselves over the heads worrying about it. Jesus said it would be that way.

God does not call us to do everything for everybody. Yet God does call us to particular tasks. And the things to which God calls us are also the things for which God supplies our need.

3.We are called to trust in God to provide us with what we need to fulfill God's purpose.

No genuine work of God ever failed because of a lack of God's support. The trouble is that God works through people. And people can be fickle. People can get the wrong end of the stick. People can misinterpret God's desires or take action on their own behalf rather than seeking God's will.

That is why I believe the Church has to be a praying community. That’s why this time we spend in worship together is so important. We can waste a lot of time doing things we think we should be doing instead of getting involved with what God is doing. The only way to discern God's will is through prayer and knowledge of God's ways, a great deal of which can be obtained through regular worship, bible reading and study.

As we apply ourselves to such disciplines, our faith and trust increase. We dare to attempt greater things because we have an enlarged vision of God. It is not an easy task to discern the will of God. Not easy - yet not impossible. Small churches can accomplish big things when they are in harmony with God's will.

4. We are to pray that God will prompt others to join us in our mission, for "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few"

It is a sad fact that in most churches the majority of the Churches day-to-day business is taken care of by a minority of a churches membership. Every church member should review their involvement.

If our church were a ship, are we a passenger or a crew-member?
If our church were a corner shop, are we a consumer or an assistant?
If our church were a bank, are we a teller or a customer?
If our church were a factory, would we be a worker or a visitor?
If our church were a football game, would we be on the field or in the stands?
If our church were a fast food restaurant would we be tending at the drive thru window or just be driving through?

Don't get me wrong. I know some of you are giving a tremendous amount of time and effort to this churches work. Yet Jesus tells us that we are to pray that God will prompt others to join us in our mission, for "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few".

As we come to the table, may God help us to find strength for mission in our own backyard. Let us think again on some of the things this passage teaches us.

1. We are to be people who proclaim the peace and wholeness of life that is possible through Jesus Christ.
2. We are to expect that not everybody will accept or understand our message.
3. We are to trust in God to provide us what we need to fulfill God's purpose.
4. We are to pray that God will prompt others to join us in our mission, for "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few."

Around this table let us prayerfully seek for God to lead us and guide us. AMEN.

Rev. Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

GALATIANS : THE GOSPEL OF GRACE 5.”Faith and Freedom”

Readings: Psalm 77:1-20, 2 Kings 2:1-14, Luke 9:51-62, Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, June 30th 2013

A printable PDF file can be found here

As we approach July 4th the notion of freedom looms large. The Declaration of Independence declares; “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights – that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Throughout the book of Galatians Paul speaks of how it is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that truly sets people free. Teachers had come into the midst of the Galatian Church and attempted to introduce legalistic practices into their lives. They suggested that if they didn't observe certain rituals, then they weren't really true Christians. Paul combats their teaching by speaking of how in Jesus Christ a new age had dawned, the old religion of 'Do's and Don'ts' had been superseded by a relationship with God; characterized by acts of service in response to the love God revealed through the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

In the Message Bible the first verse of our passage reads, “Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.” When Paul writes of 'Freedom', he has a particular notion of freedom in mind.

1. Freedom is not doing whatever we want to do.
2. Freedom is an invitation to service.
3. Freedom is found through following the leading of God's Holy Spirit.

1. Freedom is not doing whatever we want to do.

The spirit of our age could be described as “Do whatever suits you”. Tired clichés such as “It doesn't matter what you believe as long as you are sincere” and “It doesn't matter what you do as long as you don't hurt anybody” continue to color peoples views of freedom.

In the United States, some people even see freedom as being related to the ownership of  weapons that daily inflict tremendous tragedy. How do we create boundaries around the notion of freedom, without actually imposing restrictions upon what people are freely allowed to do? Paul warns us (again from the Message Bible) “If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then? ”

For Paul it is as simple as the second commandment. The determining principle he suggests is “You shall love your neighbor as yourself”. He allows no room for behavior that is either self-destructive or community destroying. Staying with the Message Bible; verses 19 – 21.

 “It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn't the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God's kingdom.”

Paul was well aware that his theology could be dangerous. By putting such a strong emphasis on grace it could be possible for somebody to say, “I can do what I like, all restraints are lifted, I can follow my inclinations wherever they lead me. Law is gone, and if I mess up, forgiveness is freely given.'  Paul would say 'No way'. Your freedom came at a price. Do not treat so lightly the death of Christ. He did not die so you can do as you please. He died to make it possible for you to live in a way that pleases God, a way that flows from gratitude and responds from a heart overwhelmed by love.

2. Freedom is an invitation to service.

Verse 13 “It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows.”

When we respond to the Grace of God through mission and service of others then our lives begin to be changed. Christ sets us free, but not free to do we as we please, but free to serve. I’ve had people say to me, not only here, but in other churches, “You know, I don’t know what it is, but I just don’t feel as connected to the church as I used to be .” If I were given the opportunity, the question I would like to ask them would be; 'How is your serve?'

Not, 'What have you been getting out of services', or 'How much have you been putting in the offering plate', or 'How many services or meetings have you been to lately', but 'How’s Your Serve?' Are you about serving God and serving those you share membership in your church with, or... what’s going on?

Yes we are Free! Praise God, Jesus Christ died upon the Cross of Calvary to set us free. By His blood we are forgiven, by His stripes we are healed! But unless we allow that freedom we are given to be translated into service and mission, than that freedom soon becomes taken for granted and we become disconnected and worship becomes less than it could be and our commitment a lot less than it should be.

The 20th century religious thinker Reinhold Niebuhr put it this way: "Basically love means … being responsible, responsible to our family, (and it is fair to say the word family applies to both our physical relations and our church family), responsible toward our civilization, and now by the pressures of history, responsible toward the universe of humankind."

Paul's definition of freedom implies liberation from the prison of 'me, myself, and I'. To be truly free is to be able to move beyond the self and to take the risk of love and give oneself to the demand of service. To be free is to be free for responsibility, not from responsibility. As Paul wrote to the Philippians church, Jesus had everything in the world going for Himself, power, status and safety, yet He freely chose to empty Himself and take on the form of a servant for the sake of the world.

Freedom grows, not through individual pursuit, but through our efforts to create loving community. Only as we acknowledge that each person has a place in the Kingdom of God, and work towards offering to others the freedoms we ourselves enjoy, does Paul's great vision of there being in Christ neither 'Jew nor Greek, nor slave or free, nor male or female', approach reality. (Galatians 3:28).

But, of course, humanly speaking that's hard. Some days it feels impossible! Where do we find the strength to live that sort of way? Even though we know it's right, even though we recognize servant-hood as permeating the life of Jesus, how do we make those sort of changes in our own lives?

3. Freedom is found through following the leading of God's Holy Spirit.

By speaking so much about the danger of law-dominated religion, Paul has created a dilemma for the Galatians. If religion wasn't about staying within the guidelines and not about 'doing this and not doing that', then how on earth were they supposed to live? If religion was about being free, yet as they looked at their own lives they realized they were not free, but driven by all sorts of compulsions and desires and prone to sin as broadly and freely as their neighbors, then where were they to turn?

There are those who view religion as being a balancing act. If you chalk up enough good points, enough merits, if you achieve enough positives in your life, then maybe they will outweigh the bad points, the de-merits and the negative actions of our lives. At the end of the day, God will add them up and say, 'Hey, you didn't do so bad, c'mon and enjoy everlasting bliss!'

That, Paul would claim, is the religion of the law, and it will never set anybody free. What sets us free is accepting Jesus Christ as the One who died for our sins, putting our trust, not in what we can do, but on what He did for us on the Cross, putting our hope, not in our own capacity to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, but in the glory of His Resurrection and Ascension.

The way that becomes actualized in our lives is the work of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised He would send to His disciples, the Holy Spirit that on the Day of Pentecost changed a room full of terrified disciples into a dynamic band of gospel proclaimers who literally were prepared to face anything for the glory of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Three times in this section Paul counsels the Galatians 'Walk by the Spirit' (16) be 'led by the Spirit' (18) 'Live by the Spirit' (25). “I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” “If you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law.” “If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.”

The Message Bible comments this way on a life lived, not under the law, but under the direction of the Spirit (22-23) “But what happens when we live God's way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.”

Maybe we are more familiar with the translation that speaks of nine fruits of the Spirit as being 'Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness, and self-control'. Now... please notice that Paul does not describe these characteristics as 'virtues' but 'fruits'. These are not qualities we are invited to work towards making a feature of our life, but gifts that emerge within a deepening relationship with Jesus Christ, a relationship nurtured, directed and guided by the Holy Spirit.

God does not call us to impossible living but to experience a life that is filled with possibility because it is open to God's love, a life of gratitude that recognizes the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ as being central to God's purposes, a life that is empowered, not by human striving alone, but that is being recreated, remoulded and renewed by the inner presence and working of God's Holy Spirit.

“Since this is the kind of life we have chosen, the life of the Spirit, let us make sure that we do not just hold it as an idea in our heads or a sentiment in our hearts, but work out its implications in every detail of our lives.” (Verse 25: The Message)

July 4th sees the nation celebrating it's freedoms. Paul suggests to the Galatians that Christian freedom is not found through independence from God, but through nurturing a relationship dependent on the love of Jesus Christ and the empowering of God's Holy Spirit.  He challenges us. "Since the power of the Holy Spirit has set you free, then why not trust the power of the Holy Spirit to direct you to a life of genuine freedom?"

Galatians chapter 5 offers a particular view of Faith and Freedom.

• Freedom is not doing whatever we want to do.
• Freedom is an invitation to service.
• Freedom is found through following the leading of God's Holy Spirit.

May God help us to allow the freedom of Jesus Christ free reign in our lives. May we understand that law-dominated religion leads us away from grace, and may we experience gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit that enable us to be faithful servants living, moving and having their being in the Kingdom of God. And to God's name be all honor, praise and glory. Amen!

Rev. Adrian J Pratt B.D.

GALATIANS : THE GOSPEL OF GRACE 4.”The Faith Factor”

Readings: Psalms 42 & 43, 1 Kings 19:1-15, Luke 8:26-39, Galatians 3:23-29
Preached at First Presbyterian Church, Baldwin, NY, June 23rd, 2013

A printable PDF file can be found here

There is a popular TV show called the 'X' Factor. The 'X' factor is that hard to define attribute that marks the difference between somebody who is simply a talented performer, and somebody who has an innate ability to stand out from the rest of the crowd. What exactly it is, can be hard to put into words, but people recognize it when they experience it.

This morning I don't want to talk about the 'X' Factor' but about what I'm calling the 'Faith Factor' – something that I believe can give to our lives an indescribable difference and offer us opportunities for our lives that we had never before dreamed possible.

I claim no originality in telling  you about the 'Faith Factor'... I am completely indebted to the apostle Paul and his letter to the Galatians which in our passage today talked about the difference between having a religion that was all about what you could or couldn't do for yourself, and a faith that is based upon what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

 At the start of our passage Paul is talking about the laws that Moses had given to the people of Israel; the ten commandments and all the other things written down that flowed from them. Paul approved of the laws. They surrounded and protected the people. They created boundaries that created a sense of safety and gave an idea of right and wrong.

But in the church he had helped start in Galatia, things had got out of hand. After he had left them, some teachers had come and along and told people that simply believing in Jesus and being baptized wasn't really enough to be truly acceptable to God. They also had to take on a whole load of the customs of the Jewish people such as circumcision, and observing special holy days and not eating certain kinds of foods.

Paul had been born and raised as a Jewish person and he loved their laws and customs. But since his life had been turned around by his encounter with Jesus, he realized that the thing that set Christianity apart from the religion he had been brought up with, was the Faith Factor. He could see that if the church in Galatia was led away from the teaching he had given them about faith, then they would lose the freedom God had given them in Christ.

As well as the 'X' factor, there is also a program on TV called 'Fear Factor'. Paul recognized that there had been a time in his life when his religion was not about faith but all about fear. He had been so fearful of disobeying God's laws that it led him to persecuting the early church because he thought they were destroying and perverting true religion.

Then, whilst on a road to capture some Christian's, he had a blinding vision of Jesus, that changed his views for ever.  One of the monumental changes in his life was that religion became for him no longer a matter of doing things to earn the love of God, but about doing everything in response to the love and grace he had received from God.

If you turn the 'X' in 'X' Factor' on it's side, it makes the shape of a Cross. ( + ).  It was as he realized what Jesus Christ had done for the world, at the cross, that Paul became transformed. Later in his letter to the Galatian church he writes them, “But may it never be that I should boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Galatians 6:14). If we wanted to say with TV illustrations, we could say that because of the X Factor (that is the cross factor) ... Paul moved away from the 'Fear Factor' and became a proclaimer of the 'Faith Factor'.

He talks of how, before faith came, he had been 'imprisoned and guarded' under the law. If you are in prison, you are in a fearful place. If you are living under a guard, then you are not living free! He talks about the law as a 'disciplinarian'. Such a term offers me the image of a cruel, boarding school head master, a despot, rather than a nurturing teacher.

For some people religion can be about fear. They believe that they need to 'do' something, bring up their lives to a certain standard, in order for God to love them. They feel a need to find practices and  make offerings and in some way discover ways to justify themselves before God or repay God for the wrongs they have done. They come from a place of fear, not of faith.

Because they are coming from a place of fear they have to find ways of separating themselves from others. The only way they can accept themselves, is to say, “Well I know I'm not all that and a bag of chips, but at least I haven't murdered anybody or robbed a bank. At least I'm not as bad a person as so and so.” They find it hard to accept other people as equally being loved by God as much they are. Why? Because they are struggling to accept that they themselves are children of God, not because of what they can do, but because of what God has done for them, in Christ, upon the cross.

Again, in our reading this morning; verse 25 “Now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith'. We can understand therefore why he was becoming so upset at those teachers who were coming along to the Galatian church and telling them; “No! Your faith isn't enough! You need to do this and do that, not eat this and observe the other! Otherwise you can't be real people of faith like us!” They were being offered the 'Fear Factor' when Paul wanted them to be changed by the 'Faith Factor'!

He then talks to them about baptism. Verse 27 “As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ”. I like the way the Message Bible trans-literates this verse. “Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe—Christ's life, the fulfillment of God's original promise.”

Baptism, whether it be as a child or an adult, is associated with new beginnings. Martin Luther used to preach to his congregations about 'living into their baptisms'. Eugene Petersen pictures that well, in the Message, as he talks about moving from a fresh start to a position where you are putting on a whole faith wardrobe. In other words, in Christian life, we have never arrived. We are to 'keep on keeping on', keep on growing in grace and love and hope.

Paul could see that returning to a religion of 'do's and don'ts' that gave people comfort by designating them as 'true insiders' and everybody else as 'definite outsiders', was not growing towards maturity but taking a huge step backwards. It was a step that failed to grasp the enormity of what Jesus had achieved through His death on the Cross. At the Cross Jesus had broken every barrier down. The old had gone, the new had come. The gospel author's speak of how at the moment Jesus died the curtain in the temple was torn in two, and the gateway for all people of all faiths and all generations became opened to the holy presence of God.

So Paul writes in his next verse “There is no longer Jew of Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (verse 28).

One of the things that made the life of Jesus such a scandal to His religious critics was that He refused to play by the rules of who was 'in' and who was 'out' in the Kingdom of God. Sometimes they suggested He was hanging out with the wrong crowd. Samaritan women by wells, tax collectors who hid up trees, lepers who you were supposed to avoid. He gave far too much significance to the life of people who didn't matter. Little children. Sick people. Unbalanced people. Demon-posessed people.

And on top of that He just wouldn't stick to the really important laws. Like not eating grain on the Sabbath day.  And not praying at the proscribed time of day. And He had a disturbing habit of answering questions with questions that made you question what you were asking in the first place.  He may say all the right things, but... really... He had to pay more attention to the social barriers that were in place... instituted by God no doubt... for the protection of our privileges and to keep the wrong sort of people in the wrong sort of situations they deserved.

Even now, I think we fail to grasp just how radical this statement is. That we are all one in Christ Jesus.  That, because of what Jesus has done on the Cross (the X-Factor) , we don't have to question if we belong to God, or be afraid that we don't belong to God (the Fear Factor) but are called to live our lives in such a way that all people, regardless of religion (Jew or Greek), social standing (slave or free) or gender (Male or female) can experience the Faith Factor. We are called to live our lives in a way that all people come to understand that they are children of God, whom Jesus died for and in whom the Holy Spirit of God can work with transforming, renewing and energizing effect.

Our passage closed by Paul telling us (verse 29) “If you belong to Christ, them you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise”. Paul wants us to understand that what I'm calling the 'Faith Factor' had been part of God's plan right from the start. That the faith factor was something that had been transforming peoples lives as long as people had been hearing and responding to the call of God.
Abraham had it.  Joseph had it. Moses had it. David had it. The prophets preached it.

He talks about all of us being the inheritors of the promises of God. What are the promises of God? All we need to do is open our bibles and read about them! The greatest promise of all is that if we trust our lives into the hands of the life and love of Jesus Christ, then through God's Holy Spirit, God will guard us, guide us, comfort us and lead us.

God will lead us to see our own lives as places where God's promises can come to reality. God will lead us to see others through the loving eyes of Jesus, to see that there are no barriers to the actions of grace, to see all people as those whom He welcomes to be part of the family of God.  God will lead us to embrace Kingdom lives that have the 'X-Factor' – that factor which can be hard to put into words, but people recognize it when they experience it.

So with Paul I encourage you to make the Faith Factor a defining feature of your own life. Don't slip into the mistake of thinking religion is about 'who's in and who's out' or about 'do's' and 'don't's'. We are saved by grace though faith in what Jesus has done for us. We are called to grow into our baptisms and enable others to see that, they too are welcome, in the family of God!

Rev. Adrian J Pratt B.D.