Worship is a way of life

Photo: A Rainbow from our garden, November 2010

Sermon for Sunday 3/2/13

Text – Revelation 4

I remember as a ten-year-old the mixture of fear and curiosity as I waited outside the headmaster’s study, I had been summoned to see him but I did not know what it was about.  He was Scottish, he had no sense of humour (at least as far as I could discern) and he had the temper of a hungry polar bear that had just been hit with a stick…

What’s the most important meeting to which you have ever been summoned?  Can you remember what it was like; the mixture of emotions that were going through your mind and how time seemed to pass by either so quickly or so slowly, depending upon how you felt?

In our second reading today, John, the disciple of Jesus has an important meeting, but it is not one that he had been expecting or could have planned for.  John was a prisoner on the Island of Patmos, about 35 miles off the coast of south-western Turkey.  The authorities put him there, in exile, as a punishment for being a follower of and such effective witness for Christ.  Of course, rather than stopping John from being effective for Christ, the exact opposite happens; he has the chance to pray and to reflect and he receives the most explosive vision of God’s power and love, written down in this incredible last book of the Bible called ‘Revelation’.^[1]

John has a vision in which he sees a door, but it is no ordinary door, this one opens up into heaven!  No doubt John is aware of his surroundings, the sky is still blue (remember, this vision is not happening in Ireland), he can still hear the waves crashing on the shore nearby and he can still feel the wind on his face, but nevertheless there is a door that is clearly from a different realm and it is open.  And a voice, like a trumpet speaks to him saying,

‘Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.’ (1)

The voice belongs to Jesus, John recognised the voice, it was loud, clear, penetrating, (like a trumpet), this was the voice of the risen Jesus.  Different but perhaps similar to Jesus’ voice with which John would have been so familiar from the three years they spent together during Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Once Jesus has spoken the vision becomes deeper, John now tells us that

‘at once I was in the spirit.’ (2)

What John sees next could not be seen with ordinary eyes, what he sees is the throne of God in heaven, yet he sees a highly symbolic view, perhaps an ‘actual’ or ‘real’ view of God’s throne would be too overwhelming to even approach, let alone describe.  He writes:

‘… and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne!  And the one seated there looks like jasper and cornelian, and around the throne is a rainbow that looks like an emerald. (3)

Then in verse 5 we see that:

‘Coming from the throne are flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and in front of the throne burn seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God;’

Last Wednesday night do you remember the thunder and lightning we had?  Together with the howling wind and driving rain it was quite a night of weather!  On Thursday morning I opened the back door and I could see that we had a visitor – it was next door’s dog, he’s quite an old fella and he was cowering in the corner of the porch looking frightened.  The cat was there too, looking quite pleased with himself, thinking that he was the cause of the dog’s terror, but no, the dog had escaped from his own enclosure during the night because of the thunder and lightning.

Why is it that as John looks at the place where God is, it is terrifying? Why is there lightning and thunder and flashes of fire?  Perhaps this is to remind us all that God is holy, He is powerful and mighty and awesome and scary – He is not some cuddly granddad figure floating on a cloud!  In the Old Testament for an Israelite to even touch the mountain where God had come down to meet Moses would mean certain death (Exodus 19:12,13,21).  God in all His glory is utterly unapproachable, He is so incomparably perfect in every way and we are so sinful and imperfect that the gulf between us is too big.  Yet His love for us is far greater than our sin.  He is determined that we should be able to approach Him and to know Him and love Him as our heavenly Father.  The good news is that He has made a way for us to approach Him and that is through Jesus.  As well as the thunder and lightning, John also tells us that there is a rainbow that looks like an emerald.  Perhaps the most famous rainbow in the Bible is the one God showed to Noah and his family when they came out of the Ark.  That rainbow was a promise from God that never again would there be a flood like the one Noah and all in the Ark had to be rescued from.  Every time a rainbow has appeared in the sky ever since it is a reminder to humankind that God always keeps His promises.  Yes we imperfect people will break promises and go back on our word, but God never has and He never will.  So the rainbow here in the vision that John is seeing in heaven is a reminder to us all of God’s faithfulness; He will never betray us and His love for us is perfect and holy and total and that love has been fully expressed to us in Jesus.  It is a love so great that it allowed His own Son to be nailed to a cross in our place, to die the death that we deserved (Isaiah 53:5).

There’s a lot more going on in this vision; we see that around God’s throne in the centre are twenty-four thrones and seated on those twenty-four thrones are twenty-four elders.  There were twelve tribes that made up the nation of Israel and there were twelve Apostles at the birth of the church, so put the two twelve’s together and you have ‘ta daa’ … twenty-four!  So this represents all God’s people through the ages; through the time of the Old Testament and through the age of the Church (which is where we are to this day).

Then we come to what are called ‘four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind’. (6) Often when you talk to someone who has a group of rowdy children to look after they will say something like ‘you need eyes in the back of your head with this lot’!  Of course, what they mean is that it is really difficult to see everything that is going on and they are afraid that they might miss something, such as a child injuring themselves or another child during the course of play.  So these four living creatures being covered in eyes is symbolic of the fact that they see everything, there is no pulling the wool over their eyes, they don’t miss a trick!  As well as all the eyes, each creature has a different appearance; the first one has the appearance of a lion, the king of the untamed animals and who represents power.  The second creature has the appearance of an ox, the greatest of the tamed animals, representing strength.  The third creature has the face of a human, representing intelligence and showing the importance of the human race in God’s creation.  The fourth creature is like a flying eagle, the undisputed king of the birds, representing swiftness.  These creatures appear elsewhere in the Bible (Ezekiel 1, Isaiah 6) and they are called Seraphim, high ranking Angelic beings, they are the ones who surround the throne of God and who lead worship – and what worship it is!

I’ve sometimes heard grumpy people complain that in some other churches they sing too much (indeed I know I have sometimes moaned about it too); whether it be charismatic praise lasting twenty minutes or more, or choral evensong in a Cathedral taking far longer than we think it should.  If we think that is bad we might be in for a bit of a shock in heaven, where in this vision of John, the four angels around the throne of God never stop singing, day and night!  Of course this would be no ordinary singing; this would be the most beautiful noise and well beyond the scope of our earthly ears to fully appreciate… and what do they sing?

‘Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God the Almighty, who was and is and is to come.’ (8)

The thing that happens next is so beautiful that I had tears in my eyes as I was typing the words at the computer – the twenty-four elders join in the worship too.  We as the church of God are included; the day will come when we are around the throne of God, there are absolutely no words to describe what that will be like; it will be beyond spine-tingling, it will be the most beautiful and awesome thing beyond what we could ever imagine and with countless numbers of others we will join in the worship and we will sing, with beautiful new voices:

‘You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.’ (11)

All Creation exists because of God the Creator and all creation exists to worship Him.  God made us as the pinnacle of His Creation and the whole point and meaning of our lives now and that new life which is to come finds its purpose and meaning only in worshipping Him who made us.  Let us worship him now and never let us stop worshiping Him in the way that we live our lives for Him who gave His life for us.  Worship is indeed a way of life and we will never be fully content or find peace and joy until we realise that God is worthy, more than worthy of our worship, not just singing worship but to worship Him with all of our lives, every moment, with all that we are and everything that we have… Amen.

Bibliography:

Tom Wright, ‘Revelation for Everyone’, SPCK 2011 (Kindle edition)
William Hendriksen “More than Conquerors”, Tyndale Press, 1962
John Richardson, “Revelation Unwrapped”, MPA Books, 1996

---

^[1] Tom Wright, ‘Revelation for Everyone’, SPCK 2011 (Kindle) Location 315

The day they wanted to throw Jesus off a cliff

Photo: Sea Thrift flowers at Inchydoney, on the side of the small cliffs there.

Sermon for Sunday 27/1/13.  Text Luke 4:14-30

Many of you have I’m sure lived away from home for a time and if you have, can you remember what it was like coming home?  Perhaps you were nervous, perhaps you were excited about seeing your family and friends again and revisiting those places that were so much a part of your upbringing.  Think too of what it was like going back to the church in whose pews you sat as a child…

The Lord Jesus had been away from His home town for a while; He had been down in the south of the country and there he had been baptised by John in the river Jordan and then he had been in the desert wilderness and Samaria.  Now he was back in the North, back in Galilee and was returning to His home town of Nazareth, to his Mother and family and to the houses and streets and Synagogue with which He would have been so familiar from his growing up years.

Luke tells us that Jesus was ‘filled with the power of the Spirit’ (14)  There was something different about Jesus now, of course, he had always been different, he had after all never sinned (2 Cor.5:21), and as fully man and fully God, he had always been full of the Holy Spirit.  Now though there is a new power about him, his ministry has fully begun – He has been baptised and filled anew with the Spirit and he has overcome the devil in the desert.  He has a new focus, a new passion and commitment.  He has been going around the synagogues in the area and everyone has been really impressed with him and sung his praises.

So, the Lord is back in Nazareth and on Saturday morning, the Sabbath, he goes to church (I mean synagogue, but it really was quite like church).  The Synagogue in Nazareth would have been small, it would have been traditional, they wouldn’t have had the latest worship songs.  I think it’s safe to say that Mary and perhaps Jesus’ younger brothers and sisters would have been there and it’s not hard for us to imagine the anticipation in the air as the Lord stood up to read from Isaiah.  He unrolls the scroll and reads the words:

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’ (from Isaiah 61:1,2).

As he rolls up the scroll and hands it back to the attendant you would have been able to hear a pin drop, all the eyes are fixed upon Him.  This is Jesus, the local boy made good.

It all starts off very well.  Jesus says in response to the reading from Isaiah:

‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’ (21)

Now this is a very bold statement, these words from Isaiah are part of a prophecy about the Messiah, that He will be the one sent to Israel to set them free from oppression and captivity and to usher in a new era of God’s blessing and favour.  Jesus’ audience like what He has to say; Luke tells us that, ‘All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.’ (22)

But the honeymoon doesn’t last long.  The awe of the people in the ‘pews’ doesn’t linger, they say, ‘hang on a minute, isn’t this Joseph’s son, we’ve known him since he was knee-high to a grasshopper?’  It is always easier for the outsider to be listened to; we take them at face value and give them the benefit of the doubt.  But when it is one of our own, one whom we have known since they were a child then it is much more difficult for us to accept them and what they have to say.  So for these people of Nazareth it is a difficult thing to accept that this child of Joseph as they thought, (see 3:23) is the Messiah.

The people are confused and that confusion will very soon turn to anger.  They had heard about the miracles that Jesus had been performing and His reputation was growing all the time, but could He really be the Messiah?

Perhaps any ordinary preacher would have snuck out the back door by now, but Jesus is no ordinary preacher, and He will certainly not let anyone get in the way of God’s Word.  There is more to say and He is going to say it:

‘…there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine all over the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.’ (25, 26)

The citizens of Nazareth were just like their fellow countrymen and women throughout Israel, they were a proud people.  As far as they were concerned, they had the monopoly on God.  Their history showed that they were God’s chosen, special and blessed people.  They would have treasured the promise of Deuteronomy 7:6, which says:

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

The Lord Jesus is saying that God also loves the other nations; Jesus will die not just for the sins of Israel but for the world: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.’ (John 3:16)  Jesus reminds them of how God sent the prophet Elijah to a foreign widow for food and shelter when he was on the run from king Ahab (1 Kings 17,18).  In case the point has not hit home, Jesus gives them another example, of the Syrian army commander Naaman, who was healed of leprosy through the ministry of Elisha.  In other words yes God loves Israel, but He also loves the rest of the world and He wants to reach out and save them too.

For the people of Nazareth this was a great insult, it wounded their national pride and conceit.  It would be like God saying to the flag-waving Unionists that He also loved and deeply cared about their Roman Catholic neighbours and wanted them to do the same.  How outrageous, how insulting, how blasphemous!  We don’t mind hearing that God is great and just and holy and pure, but when we are told that he will have mercy on people who we don’t like and with whom we strongly disagree, we cannot stand it.[1]  To find out that God loves those whom we hate will make us furious and so it was with the people in church that morning.

‘They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.’ (29)

What drove the people to fury was that God was rescuing the wrong people.  It would be someone in Britain or France during world war two speaking about God’s healing and restoration for Nazi Germany[2].

One of the beautiful things about the unity service we shared in the Roman Catholic Church last week was the joy of just being able to be together, free of the past, the past where we were suspicious of each other, the past where each saw themselves as the ‘real’ church and the other somehow not part of God’s true church on earth.  The joy was not ours alone but a joy that, I believe, was and is a gift given to us by God.  Generations of mutual suspicion and mistrust are, all over the country coming to an end.  None of us know what God has in store for His united Church on this Island, but the Spirit is leading us and it is wonderfully exciting.  Yes, there will always be those who will cling on to the past, who are able to give lots of reasons and examples as to why this cannot be God’s will, but so long as we keep focusing on the Lord Jesus, we will not fall into that trap.  We don’t want to find ourselves unwittingly in that angry mob as they bundled Jesus out of the church and marched Him to the cliff edge.  Jesus had returned to the town and to his home church full of the Holy Spirit and they did not like it.  God was in their midst, it should have been the start of a wonderful revival, there should have been many conversions and healings, it should have been a time of wonderful blessing and joy.  But what did they want to do when God showed up in power?  They wanted to kill Him, to kill God!  No longer was God in the box they wanted to keep Him in, so they wanted to hurl Him off a cliff.

What on earth must be going through Mary’s mind at this point?  Luke doesn’t tell us; instead we are left to ask ourselves the question, ‘What would I have done had I been there?  Would I have gone along with the crowd, would I have tried to stop them?  Am I angry at Jesus for loving the people that I don’t like, the people I disagree with and the person I can’t forgive?’  It’s OK to be angry, but in that place of rage let’s not push Jesus away, rather let us fall on our knees and surrender.  Remember that He loved us even though before we gave our life to Him, we were God’s enemies (Colossians 1:21).  Let us surrender ourselves now and always to the one who loves even us, loves us so much that He gave His life in our place.  Not only does He love us, He loves our enemies too and He wants us to do the same (Matt.5:44)… Amen.

 

---

[1] J.C. Ryle, Expository thoughts on the Gospel, Luke, Vol.1, James Clarke & Co. 1956, p.122

[2] Tom Wright, ‘Luke for Everyone’, SPCK 2004, p.47

Rejoice

(Photo: St. Brendan the Navigator, Bantry, perhaps rejoicing at the discovery of distant new shores.)

Sermon for Sunday 16th December, text: Philippians 4:4-7

Rejoice is not a word we use much, it seems quite old-fashioned sounding; we are not used to seeing it in a text message, or hearing it said on the nine o’clock news. Yet it is a beautiful word. It means ‘to delight in God’s grace’, to express our joy at the experience of His undeserved favour and to be conscious of His unconditional love for us[1]. See, I told you it was a beautiful word. As followers of the Lord Jesus, we have good reason to do a lot of rejoicing and our reading today from Paul’s letter to his friends in Philippi should help us rediscover the urge to rejoice that we may have lost somewhere along the way of our everyday lives.

Paul writes:

Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.

It seems that the Philippians needed a reminder about rejoicing too, as Paul thinks it is worth repeating; “again I will say, Rejoice.”

In this season of Advent, let us rejoice in God’s love for us in sending Jesus, God born a baby to show us how much He loves us. God doesn’t keep his distance; He does not want or need us to work our way up to Him (we couldn’t anyway, even if we tried). God has come down to us in Jesus, and that is something to greatly rejoice about. Let us be like the wise men, who rejoiced when they saw the star leading them to Jesus (Matt. 2:10).

I saw something recently, which reminded me of Christmas and what it’s all about; it was at the swimming pool, where one of our boys was having a swimming lesson. The teacher was standing on the edge of the pool while her class were splashing away in the water beneath her. Everything was going fine except that there was a little girl who was getting increasingly frustrated; she just couldn’t keep us with the others in the class and she had started crying. So the teacher, wearing a tracksuit, got into the pool and held the little girl and spoke encouraging words to her and walked with her up and down the pool along with all the other children. Soon the little girl was smiling again. It reminded me of how God came down to us, to help us, to show us the way but of course Jesus did so much more than that; He was not only born for us, but as we know, he died on the cross for us too and rose again for us as well. What a God we have. Rejoice we must.

Next Paul wrote:

Let your gentleness be known to everyone.

The word ‘gentleness’ (ἐπιεικής), means to be gentle in terms of being fair and reasonable, not to judge by the ‘letter of the law’ but by the ‘spirit of the law’[2]. So when Paul says “Let your gentleness be known to everyone.” He is talking about the way that the Philippians (and us) should live our lives everyday. What kind of reputation do we have outside of the walls of this church? Are we known as a hard-nosed businessman, as a ‘chancer’ or ‘cute hoor’? When people think of us do they think of someone who is gentle, someone who is fair and kind-hearted? We are to live lives where we reflect Jesus. Are people drawn towards Jesus or away from Jesus when they encounter us?

We have another link with Advent when Paul writes the four-word sentence:

The Lord is near.

There is a clever double meaning here. Yes the Lord is near to us, closer than we would think and there is nowhere we can go in this life where the Lord would not be near to us (Psalm 139:7-10). There is also the sense that the Lord is near as in the second coming. So the point is that we should be encouraged to let our gentleness be known to everyone because Jesus is with us and He will help us, but also that we should let our gentleness be known to everyone because time is short, we need to seize the opportunities that God gives us because we never know when time will come to an end. We could die tomorrow, the person we are trying to show God’s love to could die today. The Lord could return at any moment, so for God’s sake and for the sake of those around us, let our gentleness be known to everyone.

Next comes the bit we’ve all been waiting for; they are some of the most famous and popular verses in the whole Bible. Paul writes:

Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Q. What lies at the bottom of the ocean and twitches?
A.  A nervous wreck.

The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety. (George Muller.)[3]

I heard a good definition of worry recently, that it is ‘meditation but without the prayer!’ I really hope that we all make time to meditate on Scripture, that is why we have our ‘memory verses’ in the Service Guide each week to help us get started. The idea is that you read the verse or verses over and over, again and again and you let the words sink into you and soak into your soul. You absorb them so that they become a part of you. Have you ever seen a professional wine taster at work? The way they breathe in deeply as they sip the wine and let flavours wash back and forth over their tongue and they savour the different nuances and characteristics of the grape is amazing to watch. Meditating on Scripture is a bit like that, though of course we do not spit it out at the end! When we worry about something, we let it roll over and over in our mind and it can be so bad that it can stop us eating or sleeping properly (or worse). Worry is self-destructive, but meditation is something that builds us up and gives us strength, it is nourishing and life-giving. Paul tells us not to worry about anything at all but instead to turn what is on our minds into a prayer. It is very easy to turn a worry into a prayer is it not? We just have to direct what is on our minds towards God; give Him a list of all the things that are worrying or concerning us. As we do this, we are to be thankful, thankful that we have a God who hears and answers our prayers. When we post a letter into the letter box, we don’t think that it is going to disappear into a hole in the ground and never be seen again, we have faith that it will arrive at its intended destination and that the person will read it. In a much greater way, when we pray we know that without delay our Heavenly Father hears us and that our prayer is answered even before we have finished praying.

When we realise this, it should fill us with a peace that can only come from God, a peace which is beyond all human understanding. The word used for peace (εἰρήνη) includes the idea of being whole or complete; when you have your shoe-laces undone the laces are all over the place and you may well trip over them, but when they are tied, they are whole and complete and as they should be. Similarly our minds are not at peace when we have thoughts all over the place, but in the place of prayer, where we lay all before God, He takes our thoughts, concerns and worries from us and onto Himself. Remember the Lord Jesus said:

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  (Matthew 11:29)

Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. (1 Peter 5:7)

It’s funny isn’t it how often we seem to want to hold on to our worries, fears and anxieties, it is almost as if we find that they give us purpose and something to live for.  But God wants us to be free (John 8:36), Has has a wonderful plan and purpose for our lives, He longs for us to trust Him; trust Him with our hearts, our lives, our family, trust Him with our past, trust Him now and trust him for the future. He wants us to trust Him with our parents, our children our spouse and all our relationships. He wants us to take a hold of His outstretched nail-pierced hands and let Him lead us through the fullness of a life lived not for ourselves, but for Him, who made us for that very purpose, to have a relationship with Him.

If you are still awake at this point you might very well ask me:  How can I have this life that you are talking about? I go to church, I pray, I pay all my taxes but I just don’t know God the way you are describing. What do I need to do?

It’s all about passion. How much do you want to know God? Do you hunger after Him, thirst with longing, or are you just content with an on-off relationship without real commitment? What if you were to say to your wife or husband: “Well I can see you this Sunday morning for an hour and maybe one evening a week for another hour or two, but that’s all.” They probably wouldn’t be too impressed would they! In fact you couldn’t have a marriage like that, so what makes us think we can have a relationship with our Creator like that?[4]  We need to be in relationship with God ALL THE TIME, and if we only limit God to a couple of slots a week, then that is why our relationship with him is lukewarm at best. In Jeremiah 29:13, God says to His people:

When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart.

If we seek God with all of our heart, we really will find Him.

May we pray: … Amen

---

[1] http://biblesuite.com/greek/5463.htm

[2] http://biblesuite.com/greek/1933.htm

[3] both from http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/a/anxiety.htm

[4] Idea from an Andrew Wommack sermon I heard once.

mind at peace

You keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on you,
because he trusts in you.

(Isaiah 26:3)

I found it very helpful recently when I heard this Bible verse quoted in a sermon I was listening to.  Staying or fixing or focussing our minds upon God, whether in the quiet place of prayer or in the midst of a hectic day results in peace.  God is the fixed point of focus when everything else is all over the place, it is great to remember that He is the God of peace…

Stillness

Something that I find hard to do (and I know I’m not alone in this), is to be still.  To be able to just sit or stand and listen, listen to the noises around me; traffic in the distance, birds in the tree outside the window, the sound of my breathing, even my heartbeat, is a wonderful thing to do now and again.  One of my favourite quotes from the Bible is from Psalm 46 where the LORD speaks and says:

Be still and know that I am God.

It seems that in all our rushing around and in all our busyness we can miss something that is very important – connecting with God and hearing his ‘still, small voice’.  God taught this lesson to Elijah a long time ago and to this day His voice to us is often no more than a ‘gentle whisper’:

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. (1 Kings 19:11,12)

If I am reading the Bible and am surrounded by noise and busyness then it is a lot harder to hear God ‘speak’ through the words I am reading.  Similarly, in the place of prayer, how much do I rattle on to God about this and that, say ‘Amen’ and then jump back into hectic hurry once more? It is important to be still, to listen, to connect with God, to receive His word, blessing and strength for that which lies ahead.

Stillness is good.

——————————————————–

Photo notes:  Kinsale Harbour on the morning of the 29th November.  Nikon D7000, Nikkor 35mm f1.8.  (ISO 400, f11, 1/350 sec) out of camera jpeg with no post processing, (part of my ‘one camera, one lens, one year’ project).

Art

 

He stood there for a long time, lost in thought and completely oblivious to my taking his photo.  What is it about the painting that has so caught the man’s attention?  I would imagine that the artist would be delighted, the painting was achieving the desired affect; the viewer was being drawn in, captivated, connected with.  Art is many things, but as a means of communication it is a very powerful medium.

Last night I read this:

The first thing we learn about [God] in the Scriptures is that He was an artist. … God moved across the chaos and began to imagine.  Colours – blue and green and red and yellow.  All the colours somehow mixed together.  What would green look like alongside blue, with a little thin band of gold to join the two?  Mountains.  Oceans.  Beaches.  Rivers.  Trees. Canyons.  Valleys.  Shapes and textures and smells and taste.  All these things existed in God’s imagination, even before he decided to make them into a reality and create His artistic masterpiece – the world…

(Steve Stockman, “Walk On”, the Spiritual Journey of U2.  Relevant Books, 2005, p.88)

God is the great Artist, He has communicated to us through His great canvas.  Are we drawn in, captivated, connected?

…

Or do we just walk on by?

Garden life and colour

Some recent pictures from the garden…

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good…

(Genesis 1:31a)

Lenticular Cloud

This is not the best example that I have seen pictures of, but it is the only Lenticular (lens-shaped) cloud I have seen in real life.  Have a look at this Wikipedia article for more info., sometimes they are even mistaken for U.F.O’s!

He loads the clouds with moisture,
and they flash with his lightning.
The clouds churn about at his direction.
They do whatever he commands throughout the earth.

Job 37:11-12

(Larger version of photo on Flickr here.)

Unity

Today’s Sermon.  Text: Psalm 133.

Parents, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents and teachers love it when the children they are looking after are getting on together. It makes life so much easier doesn’t it? When we see children sharing and caring, when they remember to say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ when they use their knife and fork rather than shoveling the food into their mouths with their hands (or something they have found in the garden), it makes us happy and realise that all the hard work in trying to bring them up was actually worth it. Of course the reality is that often children are selfish and rude and forget how to behave towards each other and to grown-ups and it can often be very difficult for those who have responsibility for them.

One of the greatest privileges for those who are parents is that the actual experience of bringing up children gives them a deep insight into the relationship we all have with our heavenly Father. When confronted with a stubborn child stamping their foot and shouting ‘NO’, we hopefully realise that we too have done this sort of thing with our heavenly Parent, God! We might not have actually stamped our foot and stuck out our bottom lip, but we have been just as defiant in wanting our way rather than the right way.

As we look at the church, we remember that we are all God’s children and as such we ought to admit that we are not particularly obedient children at that; we are always bickering about this that and the other thing (and that is even within our denomination, let alone between different Christian traditions). Every way that we can let our Heavenly Father down we have and every way we could have hindered Christ’s mission, we have. Have you ever been in the supermarket and seen and heard a child screaming at their poor mother of father? Perhaps the child is lying on the floor, clutching a bag of sweets they are not allowed to have and the red-faced parent is trying in vain to be in charge. In looking at so much of the debate and dissension in the church today, are we not just like that child in the supermarket? We shout out ‘I am right, my way is best’!  Worse still, we mock our brothers and sisters who disagree with us, if not face to face, then in hushed conversation with others in the church car park, or on the pages of the Gazette or on Facebook or Twitter. Sometimes it is just heartbreaking, that whether it be between members of our own church congregation, or between different churches or between clergy there always seems to be some issue that threatens to divide and break up any kind of fellowship that we have. What does God think of all this I wonder? Perhaps our Psalm for today, Psalm 133 will help us:

How very good and pleasant it is to dwell in unity.

When we walk into a house where everyone is at each other, arguing and fighting, we can sense the atmosphere almost immediately. On the other hand, when we walk into a house where the occupants are together and at peace with one another, what a difference it makes! Isn’t it lovely to walk into a peaceful and unified home, a genuine pleasure? The context of today’s Psalm could have originated in a number of different places – perhaps it refers to the relationship between Abram and Lot in Genesis chapter 13:8, where Abram said:

Let there be no strife between you and me … for we are kindred.

Perhaps this verse refers back to tensions between the tribes of Israel or perhaps even between the sons of King David, but I don’t suppose any of that matters to us too much because it is as wonderful today when people live together in unity as it always was.

The next couple of lines are interesting, we read:

It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, Even on Aaron’s beard, running down upon the collar of his clothing.

Interesting it might be, but what on earth is it saying? You may remember the character of Aaron, as Moses’ brother, Israel’s spokesman to Pharaoh and the first high priest in Israel’s history. When Aaron was made priest, special and expensive oil was used to anoint him (and all those after him too). The oil was consecrated, which means dedicated, devoted and set apart for God. A generous amount of oil was used, hence the fact that it ran down over his beard and the collar of his robes. So how then is living together in unity like this oil? The idea is that when God’s people are unified then it is a community of people that are genuinely set apart for Him and carrying out their calling in the world. Unity, like the sacred oil, is a precious thing.

When we as brothers and sisters are living in disunity then we are set apart from God, but when we are together then we are set apart for God.

I think that there are few things that give the devil more pleasure than infighting between God’s children; it is a gift to him and a gift that we should at all costs avoid giving to him! But when we are together, when (as it were) we are all singing from the same hymn sheet, all pulling in the same direction, all playing for the same team, then wow, look at what God can do!

Next in our Psalm we read:

It is like the dew of Hermon running down upon the hills of Zion. For there the Lord has promised his blessing: even life for evermore.

Mount Hermon is a high snow-capped mountain in the north of the land. Today the region is between Syria and Lebanon. We might not think too much of dew in our green and wet climate, but if you are a farmer in an arid climate then the morning dew is crucial for the survival of vegetation during the dry season. The dew ran down the sides of the mountain and gave life to the plants round about. This then is a picture of what unity does amongst God’s people, it brings life and blessing to the church, it brings growth and a harvest. Without the water from the mountain, the plants would wither and die; without unity the church withers and dies and there is no blessing, no harvest and no future.

It is very exciting to see God at work in this Parish; I could not even begin to list the many great things He has done, they are too many to mention here. Someone recently had the idea of writing a book of people’s stories and I think that would be an excellent idea. We must not be complacent though because the enemy is constantly trying to sow seeds of disunity amongst us.  We must fiercely and jealously guard our unity. We need to pray for each other and we need to look out for each other. When someone comes at you with some gossip, ‘Did you know, so-and-so did this, and they didn’t do that,’ remember this: gossip is not harmless fun, it is evil, it destroys. Every time we say an unkind word we destroy a little bit of that person’s character and the devil gets very excited about it.

Sadly I hear a lot of gossip and I have to tell you that I hate it. I have never seen any good come from gossip, it destroys friendships and trust and unity, it is an evil thing that has no place in the life of the church where we are to dwell together in unity. We have to learn to fight each others corner, to stand up for each other, we are family! If someone or something attacks one of us, then we are all attacked, if one of us is gossiped about then all of us are gossiped about – we are one body – does a body fight itself? No! All the parts of one body work together to fight off the common enemy, and that is how we as the body of Christ should be, fighting off all that comes against us with God’s strength, which is there for us when we live together in unity. God loves it when we get on together and He will continue to bless us so long as we are.

Let us pray … Amen.

You’re the colour of my world.

Driving along listening to a C.D. by the Rend Collective Experiment, a line caught my attention and reawakened an old, precious memory.  The song is called ‘Exalt‘ and the line I got so excited about is the title of this post, ‘You’re the colour of my world.’  The music brought me back to when I was nineteen, when after several years of ‘off and on’ trying to understand Christianity and Jesus in particular, one afternoon as I was reading the Bible, it was like everything suddenly made sense.  It was a ‘Eureka’ moment; Jesus, the cross, my sin, His forgiveness just suddenly all made sense.  I knelt, I prayed and was overcome with sheer blissful happiness at the newfound realisation of God’s love for me, even me.  It felt akin to seeing everything in black and white throughout my whole life until that point and now suddenly I was seeing in colour for the first time!  I ran downstairs and much to my poor Mother’s amusement and confusion I shouted out ‘Mum, Mum, I know everything!’  Of course I didn’t know even the tiniest fraction of ‘everything’ but at that brief moment it felt like I did; even though I was less than the minutest speck in the universe I actually mattered to God and He actually cared about me…

Here’s the rest of the lyrics to ‘Exalt’:

I’m bare before You, O risen Jesus.
I can’t hide from You, Your kindness is too strong.
Today You kneel, You wash my feet,
Where the dirt of sin has harmed me.
Who has heard of such majesty?
Glorious One, I let down the walls again.
There’s nothing that’s sweeter than Your friendship,
There’s nothing that’s greater than Your Lordship.

I exalt You, I exalt You,
I exalt You and enjoy You.
I exalt You, I exalt You, I exalt You,
You’re the colour of my world.
You’re the colour of my world.

There’s nothing that’s sweeter than Your friendship,
There’s nothing that’s greater than Your Lordship.
There’s nothing that’s stronger than Your overwhelming grace,
And Your truth is my wide open space.

You are my sight, my life’s guide;
Though I’m blind, You brighten the way.
The troubles they are many,
And I feel I’m losing,
But You rescue me in Your time.
Glorious One, You redeem all my mistakes;
There’s nothing that’s stronger than Your overwhelming grace,
And Your truth is my wide open space.