Sermon from 28th January 2007

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, first spoke about the Parish's Listening day which took place the day before - he then spoke about Jesus' tempations - his trials against the devil and how we should consider its relevance in our own lives.

The readings today were from Luke 3:21-22, 4:1-13

A wise and learned Rabbi once said: “My child, if you come forward to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for temptation”.

Those words are a particularly appropriate starting place for today, in the light of what happened in our church life yesterday. If you sniff – genteelly! – you may well catch more than a hint of the whiff of burning rubber in the air!

That’s based on the catch-phrase at our long-anticipated – and very well attended – Parish Listening Day. We talked much – in the planning and then on the day itself – of how the rubber needs to hit the road in our quest to become a more mission-shaped church. And that’s exactly what it did, with a vengeance! Starting today, and carrying on, no doubt, in the weeks and months to come, we’ll be hearing about the practical steps that we agreed to take yesterday.

They’re steps to help us become a more mission-shaped church in any number of ways. For example, they’ll help us to be more mission-shaped in how we pray, and worship. They will help us to be more mission-shaped in how we relate to one another in the church. They’ll help us to be more mission-shaped in how we relate to people outside the church. They’ll help us to be more mission-shaped in the courses and events that we offer to people, in the church and outside it. They’ll help us to be more mission-shaped in how we develop and use our buildings. In short, the rubber will be hitting the road here in a whole host of new and exciting ways in the weeks and months ahead.

It’s going to do so because yesterday various people did come forward to serve the Lord! There’s a good chance that if you’re not one of those people yourself, then you’re sitting very close to one of them. So the Rabbi’s words are specially for you. But they’re not just for you. There’s an even better chance that either you yourself or someone near you is already doing something mission-shaped! Part of what we acknowledged, and celebrated, yesterday is the much good that is already happening here. So many people have come forward to serve the Lord, in so many different and valuable ways. The rabbi’s words are for you too!

And the rabbi’s words may well also be for you even if you didn’t make it to the Listening Day or aren’t doing something mission-shaped already! We went into yesterday with a long list of ideas that we’d come up with as a church. Those who came yesterday agreed almost without exception that the items on the list are all good and valuable things to do. All we lacked yesterday were people with the time and energy to make those other mission-shaped things happen. In other words there’s still loads of room for other people to come forward to serve the Lord. You’re warmly invited to do that, of course – either to help with what is going to happen, or to make other things happen. But, if you do that then remember the rabbi’s words: ‘if you come forward to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for temptation’.

Now we can’t compare our Listening Day, or any mission-shaped activity, to what Jesus experienced, of course. But there’s no doubt that yesterday was a real spiritual high for us. There’s even less doubt that Jesus’ baptism, which we heard about in the first part of our reading, was an even bigger spiritual high for him. It marked the official start of his public ministry – and it did so with a rather large bang! The way Luke tells it, the main focus of the action is not on the baptism, but on what followed it. Heaven opened, the Holy Spirit came down on Jesus, and his Father spoke!

The words his Father spoke were significant for Jesus too. They confirmed out loud, in front of witnesses, what Jesus already knew about who he truly was. This wasn’t news to Jesus, that he was God’s Son. But this exchange did help him to know that he really had chosen the right time, and the right way, to launch his public ministry. And that, as any such affirmation does, gave Jesus the spiritual high that helped him to go forward with his God-given mission. What is so instructive for us after yesterday is what followed on for Jesus after this great spiritual high at his baptism.

Perhaps we might expect to read about Jesus having an even greater spiritual high next – maybe performing some spectacular miracle. Instead, what Luke records– as Mark and Matthew also do – is that the Spirit led Jesus out into the desert. And there Jesus faced what we read about in the second part of our reading – a 40-day period of temptation by the devil! I realise that in itself that’s not an issue-free statement. But this is a reality that we have to deal with if we are to take Jesus and the Bible seriously. Think about it: Jesus was on his own in the desert. How could any of the gospel-writers possibly have found out what happened there – unless Jesus himself told them about it?

There is no doubt that Jesus believed in the existence of the devil. And it doesn’t take much reading of either the Old Testament or the New Testament to discover that he was far from the only one in the Bible who did. I’ve said here before, and I’ll say it again now, that I too believe in the existence of the devil. In fact, I believe it even more strongly than the last time I said it. I say that largely because I’ve had rather more experience of this reality in the last year. But I don’t want us to fall into the opposite trap, of paying the devil too much attention! What we need to recognise is that God has an enemy – who, by definition then, is our enemy too. And we need to recognise that this enemy wants to disrupt God’s plans.

That was exactly what the devil was trying to do to Jesus – to disrupt God’s plans. We’ll see in a moment how the devil tried to do that, though not in too much detail. But it is worth pointing out the obvious at this stage. We believe that we did hear something of God’s plans for this parish and these churches yesterday. So we – and particularly those who came forward to do so yesterday – do need to be aware that the devil is going to try to disrupt those plans! The good news is that we can’t find a better example anywhere – either of the devil’s tactics, or how to combat them.

As I said, we don’t have time now to go into the details of Jesus’ temptation in the desert. That’s not a big problem, though, because we do hear a version of this encounter every year – usually around the start of Lent. It is a familiar story, then. But it’s one that repays studying again and again – because of the important lessons it can teach us. Those lessons are both about the devil’s tactics, and about how we can stand against them. As I say, the devil’s basic intention is to undermine, to disrupt, to stop God’s plans. But just how he goes about doing that will vary, depending on who he’s facing, and their strengths and weaknesses.

We see that in the first temptation which the devil tried on Jesus. In it the devil came at Jesus both where he was weak and where he was strong! The weakness should be quite obvious. Having not eaten for 40 days, Jesus was hungry! So the devil invited Jesus to turn stones into bread – which was where he was strong! Jesus did have power to do things like that, as we know from his later ministry. So this was a clever, twin-pronged approach – aimed at both Jesus’ weakness and his strength: ‘You’re hungry, so make yourself something to eat’, the devil said. But there was also a subtle subtext to this temptation, which emerges from the way the devil started: ‘If you are the son of God …’

At his baptism Jesus’ identity as the son of God had been wonderfully affirmed. Now the devil was inviting Jesus to prove his identity, by using his strength to bolster his point of weakness. As one commentator has helpfully pointed out, all the devil can do is to tempt, or invite us to do the wrong thing. We then have a choice to make: will we do as he suggests; or not? Jesus chose not to, because he saw the trap for what it was. He was secure enough in himself not to need to prove his identity. And he knew that his priority at that point was to fast and pray, not to eat. So he chose to resist this temptation – by quoting the Bible.

Those of you who have, or will, come forward to serve the Lord, learn this lesson. Beware of the devil coming at you where you are weak – and you know where that is. And beware of the devil coming at you where you are strong. And you know where that is too! Be sure you know what God wants from you at this time; and let that be founded on the truth of God’s word. But be sure that you know your Bible well! In the third temptation we read how the devil himself quoted the Bible at Jesus! Once again he there invited Jesus to prove his identity – before he misquoted Psalm 91. Jesus knew that Psalm – and its meaning – well enough to know how the devil was wrong. And he was then able to quote another verse that put the devil straight.

We can’t ignore the second temptation that the devil put before Jesus. This was the devil’s seductive invitation for Jesus to get to where he would anyway, but without the pain. It was the offer of an easy short-cut on the basis that the ends justify the means. What the devil offered Jesus, (though he wouldn’t offer any of us this!) was that kingship over the whole earth that he would gain in the end. But of course there was a price to pay for that – worship of the devil. Once again Jesus saw the trap, and avoided it. And once again he did so by quoting the Bible. Jesus chose to worship God alone, and to go his way alone – to the cross.

Those of you who have, or will, come forward to serve the Lord, learn this lesson. Beware of the devil offering you an easy-looking short-cut to what you’ve promised to do. The ends don’t justify the means. It may be costly, in many ways, for you to do what you’ve promised – but remember whose example it is that you are following. Jesus refused the devil’s short-cut, and chose instead the pain of the cross – because of the reward to be gained by going God’s way all the way. And if that’s not enough to convince you, then look for the devil’s barb – because there will be one!

I should say, of course, that in the rest of our series from Luke we’ll see the implications of these key Godly choices that Jesus made in the desert. But I’ve wanted to focus today on what this passage means for us after yesterday. In closing I want to flag up one more of the devil’s tactics, which didn’t feature in this story. The devil may well come at us where we’re weak, and where we’re strong. He may well offer us short-cuts. But one tactic that he’s most likely to try on us is that of inertia, or passivity. We may be tempted to think that it doesn’t really matter if we do what we’ve said or not. Or that we don’t really need to check the list for what we might do. But it does! It matters that we each hear God’s call, and obey it. It matters that we resist the devil, and go God’s way. So let’s pray …

Sermon from 14th January 2007

Here is the sermon from our Vicar, Cameron Barker, based on the reading from Luke 3:7-18

We’d best begin with a straw poll! So, who was here – and listened to the sermon! – last week? Congratulations to you on coming back for Part 2, then! For the rest of you, please just stick with it, and all should become clear.

“You snakes! Who told you that you could escape from the punishment God is about to send? (GNB) / You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? (NIV)”

In terms of how to win friends and influence people, a line like that is never going to be hugely successful. But John the Baptist wasn’t the slightest bit interested in trying to win any friends. Mind you, he was very interested in trying to influence people. And there’s plenty of evidence that he did so very successfully too! So, what was John’s secret – and what does his message have to say to us today?

Last week we began to look at the life and times of this man who God sent to prepare the way for Jesus. We learned when he appeared – between 28-30 AD. We discovered what the circumstances were at that time – just how bad it was for Israel, and for how long that had been so. And we found out too why the word of God came to John in the desert. His calling was to prepare the way for the Messiah – and to do so in a fashion that enabled everyone to see God’s salvation. We also had a short summary of John’s work. He told people to repent, to turn away from their sin, and to be baptised as a sign that they were serious about it.

What we left for this week was the practical working out of John’s message. Today we also need to think about how John set the scene for Jesus, who followed on soon after him. Talking about how things fit in, this is the start of our series that will take adults through to Easter. We will work our way through the early part of Luke’s gospel, seeing how he followed up the Christmas story. And this is how Luke launched into the next stage of the story of Jesus – with the groundwork done by John the Baptist. As we’ve heard, it was very much an in-your-face work that John did! What’s so amazing is that this is how John preached to the people who were desperate to hear from God!

As we learned last week, it had been 400 years since there was last a prophet in Israel. John spoke and acted in a way that was very similar to the Old Testament prophets. Like them, John pulled no punches about who was chiefly responsible for the sorry state of their nation. It was the people of Israel themselves who’d brought slavery onto their own heads – by turning away from God as they had. But John didn’t lay it all at the door of collective responsibility. As we heard in today’s reading, John really wanted God’s people to take personal moral and social responsibility for how they lived.

Before we get to the details of what John said about that, we need to note this fact. For John, there was no hiding place – for anyone. He warned his hearers straight not to think that having Abraham as their ancestor cut any ice with God. John told them that if they thought that, then they really had missed the point. God hadn’t chosen their nation because they were so great. Far from it: God had actually chosen Israel because they were so small and insignificant! God’s purpose was to show the world who he is – by what he could do in the life of this insignificant people. God was just as capable of turning stones into people to do that same job, John reminded his hearers!

There’s an obvious, and important, application of that truth for us too, of course. But first we also need to note how for John there was a real urgency to his message. God’s axe was already ready to cut down the tree at its roots. And John’s hearers would have known that the tree was a common Old Testament image for Israel. Their responsibility as a nation was to produce the kind of fruit that made other peoples ask who their God was. If they failed in that task – as Israel often had – then they weren’t doing what they’d been chosen to do, and so they faced the penalty for their failure. It’s a very sobering thought for anyone who calls themselves a Christian – because God hasn’t changed his requirements of us.

The urgency that John felt about all this was because of who he knew himself to be. As we heard at the end of our reading, people got very excited when John appeared. So excited in fact, that they even wondered aloud if he, John, was the Messiah! John knew that he wasn’t, though – and he told people so too. John knew that his calling was ‘only’ to prepare the way for the Messiah. He couldn’t do more than baptise people in water. The Messiah would be so much greater, do so much more – and John said that he wasn’t worthy to do even the most menial task for him.

John was convinced that the Messiah would appear soon - even if he didn’t know when, or who that would be. John also knew what this Messiah would do when he came. We heard John’s views on that in our reading too. He said that the Messiah would come with his winnowing shovel / fork in his hand. He would use that to separate the wheat from the chaff; the fruit from the deadwood; the productive from the useless. The Messiah’s baptism would be one of fire! It would consume the useless chaff in a blaze of God’s judgement – while the good wheat would be stored.

Now that may not be the most common picture we in the West have of Jesus today! But we have to depart a long way from the Old Testament and New Testament truth to escape the fact, that we believe in a God of judgement as well as of love. Those two - love & judgement - are more like sides of the same coin, which need each other to balance out. Where is love if there is no judgement to go with it? The good news of the gospel is that we believe in a God who loves us enough to save us from judgement. We may prefer to focus more often on the aspect of God’s love. But if we truly hear this message of John the Baptist then we dare not ignore the other side of the coin – where we see God’s judgement.

Jesus had just as much – if not more – to say about how his followers need to produce the right kind of fruit. He had plenty to say about God’s judgement too. Jesus didn’t just talk about what God’s kingdom looks like: he wanted his followers – then and now – to live as members of that kingdom, by its values. So if we want to say that we are a Christian there needs to be the evidence of a changed life to support that claim. It needs to be the kind of evidence that the presence and the power of God’s Holy Spirit alone makes possible. And there’s no escaping from this uncomfortable fact: what God wants is the kind of change that has to begin – and continue – with repentance.

Repentance lay at the heart of the message of John the Baptist; as it did of Jesus! The Greek word literally means to turn around, through 180 degrees. It involves heading in a completely new, and opposite, direction. As I said last week, repentance is both a turning from and a turning to. The major, and key, act of repentance that anyone ever makes is when we turn from a life of sin to a life with God. That was what John called his hearers to. John urged the people of his day to turn away from a life focused on themselves, and to a new life focused on God. If they did that as a matter of principle then God would forgive them their sin – and help them to live a new life, John assured them.

That remains God’s promise today, by the way. So if you have never taken that initial step, then today is surely the day to turn from your sin, and to a new life in God. But many of us will already have done so, as John’s hearers had. So they asked John what they were to do then. And of course his answer speaks to us as loudly today as it spoke to the crowds then. John told people to live lives that showed the fruit of repentance – with evidence of real, Godly change. This may only be a summary, or a sample of what John preached, but it’s all good, practical stuff. John told them that if they had more than they needed – food or clothes – then they were to share it with others who had less.

That’s the sort of advice that most of us are in a position to follow, because generally we have more than we need. We may need to apply the principle more than the specific advice – like by giving away our money to Godly causes, rather than giving our things away. If we do have more money than we need, might we not give some of it to a project that supplies clean water to a village in the Third World, for example? More controversially, perhaps, might we not consider spending some of our extra money on paying a higher price for goods that have been fairly traded, so that the producers are paid a fair price?

But perhaps we can take it one step further too. The i-phone has been all the rage in the media this week. Maybe Christians should refuse to buy one – and other products like it – as part of the fruit of repentance! Is it not obscene, sinful even, to spend that amount of money on developing technology that’s needless in the context of a world where so many people are starving? How about repentant Christians using our consumer power to send that message to producers, perhaps with words to the same effect?

John was very much into ordinary people doing what they could to live out repentance in their ordinary lives for God. Luke gives two concrete examples here of how people with ordinary - though much-hated - jobs asked John what they could do. We don’t have time to go into why tax collectors and soldiers were quite so hated back then. But do note that John didn’t tell either of them to find new jobs! Instead he told them act justly in the jobs they already had – not to cheat, lie, rob, or abuse their position. That was to be their repentance, their changed life for God. They had to stop doing the wrong thing in their jobs, and to start doing the right thing. And it surely can’t take you very long to work out how that principle applies for you in your life!

We can tend to think of repentance as stopping doing the major things wrong. Of course ‘major’ is usually defined as anything that’s worse than what I happen to be doing! But in God’s eyes sin is sin is sin – and by that standard we all have things that we need to repent of. Then we need to live a life that shows the fruit of our repentance – by finding new, Godly ways to live out our faith. The process begins by us recognising sin for what it is – those ordinary ways in which we live for ourselves instead of for God. We need to repent of those ways, to say sorry to God – and to mean it!

The way that we show that we mean it is by living a new and different life – for God instead of for ourselves. That is what it means to be a Christian. It’s not about speaking the right words, or coming to church on Sundays (though of course that’s important). It’s about living a new, different and changed life that’s obedient to the ways of God. So, in summary, here are the 4 Rs that we need to do: Recognise our sin for what it is; Repent of it; Receive God’s forgiveness; and then Replace the sin with the fruit of repentance. No, it’s not easy, or simple, but it is what God has always required of his people if they are to be his people. So let’s hear the word of God today, and obey it – which means, repent! Amen.

Sermon 7th January 2007

Here is the first sermon of 2007 from our Vicar, Cameron Barker. It is based on the reading from Luke 3: 1-6

2007 in church begins with a short quiz – to test your knowledge of contemporary history. In case this idea doesn’t grab you, by the way, let me say that it’s light relief compared to how next week’s sermon will begin!

Anyway, this week I’m inviting you to identify the year. So, what year was it, when: Leonid Brezhnev was leader of USSR; Mao Tse-tung was leader of PR China; Nicolae Ceausescu was the leader of Romania; Idi Amin ruled Uganda; Pol Pot was in charge in Cambodia; Paul VI was Pope; and Donald Coggan was Archbishop of Canterbury. What year was that, then? … (1975 or 1976)

That’s a relief! I started to feel old when my computer’s spell-check questioned so many of those names. But I did hope that several of you would at least get close to the year. I trust that none of you cheated by using your Blackberry to access the Internet – which would have defeated the object of the exercise! The point simply was to get you to identify the year – in the same way that Luke invited his readers to identify the year that he was writing about.

Luke was most likely writing 30-something years after the events he described at the start of chapter 3. That makes it very similar to the exercise we’ve just done – as does that list of names! Luke’s list may not mean much to most of us nearly 2 000 later. But, like our list – the Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury excepted, of course! – these were names to strike fear into the hearts of their hearers.

Tiberius was the second Roman Emperor – and he ruled the known ancient world with a rod of iron. By this point in his reign he was already insisting on being worshipped as a god. Anyone who refused – as any honourable Jew would have done – faced summary execution. Rome never brooked any opposition – and Rome ruled Israel, as the people who lived there knew all too well!

In the 1st Century AD Rome had ruled Israel for about 100 years. In the southern part, Judea, it was now direct rule – in the person of Pontius Pilate, the Governor. He may have lived mostly on the coast, but he also kept a palace in Jerusalem. As we know from the life of Jesus, Pilate was well capable of visiting Jerusalem to sentence rebels to death in the name of Rome. It may have been another source of outrage to the natives – but they were a subject people, who therefore wouldn’t dare complain too much.

And the natives were equally powerless to challenge the status quo in the north of their country too. Up there the spoils were being divided between the half-brothers Herod and Philip. Their father, Herod, the so-called ‘Great’, was one of the most hated people in Israel’s recent history. He had founded the local self-declared ‘royal’ household that had welcomed the Romans in. And his sons were no better than he had been. They also collaborated with the enemy occupier, willingly doing Rome’s bidding, in Rome’s brutal way – and making themselves even richer as they did so.

These were desperate days for Israel back in 28-30 AD, the time that Luke wrote about. For devout Jews it’d been desperate for a much longer time. 400 years had gone by since God had last sent a prophet to his people. 400 years of silence and apparent divine abandonment. And now the Romans were taking charge of even that area of Israel’s life! High priests?! Any decent Jew would tell you that there could only ever be one of them, and that he had the job for life. But the Romans hadn’t liked Annas. So they’d replaced him, with Caiaphas – his own son-in-law! How bad was that? But what could anyone do about it? Nothing!

But then, at that time, in those circumstances, the word of God came to someone again, at last. It came to someone about whom we heard rather a lot in the run-up to Christmas. Actually what we heard about was the promise of this person’s birth; his father’s reaction to that promise; and also his father’s reaction to the birth itself. No, not Jesus – but John the Baptist! In about 28-30 AD the word of God came to John the Baptist, the son of Zechariah. He was in the desert, ready and waiting for it. He’d spent his whole life since his special birth to elderly parents preparing for this moment.

Now, John and Jesus were born at pretty much the same time, and certainly less than 9 months apart. So, to state the obvious, some time had passed since their births! We may only be starting Luke chapter 3, but there’s been quite a time-gap since the story that chapter 2 ended with. That itself had already been a big step forward in time. Luke had skipped from when Jesus was 8 days old, to when he was 12 years old! This step is even larger – on another 18 years or so! But by now Luke was keen to get to the meat of this amazing story that had changed his whole life.

Luke wrote down in full the results of his careful research into the story of Jesus. He did that deliberately, both for himself, and for the people he wrote his book for. Luke was a Gentile, a non-Jew. Like his fellow gospel-writer, Mark, he hadn’t been one of Jesus’ disciples himself. But, also like Mark, he’d quickly become involved in the life of the early church. We don’t know how Luke got involved. But we know that he wrote the book of Acts, where he appeared as one of Paul’s travelling companions. Again like Mark, Luke had talked to those who’d had first-hand experience of Jesus. He had heard and recorded their stories. And now he wrote them all down, so his non-Jewish audience could also know who Jesus was.

It’s important that we know the background to this book. This is basically what adults will be studying here for the next 3 months – Luke’s account of what came after the Christmas drama. This is a good book to study in its own right anyway, but we have extra reason to do so. Those who were here last week heard Adrian say that our Year of Growing Outwards can’t be over! And it isn’t! At the start of this year we’ll go on thinking about how we can be more mission-shaped as a church. We’re also going to do things about becoming more mission-shaped. So do make sure that you are at the Listening Day on 27th January – to find out and help shape the what! Don’t worry if you can’t make it – looking at Luke on Sundays is going to help us too!

We won’t reach the key verse in Luke in this series. So let me read you now the verse that tells us what Luke believed is at the heart of the Gospel. In Jesus’ own words, this was – and is – his purpose: “The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost”. That was what Luke wanted to communicate to his readers. He wanted them to know how Jesus longed to find them and save them, just as he’d done for Luke himself. And that is the same task that the church has been engaged in ever since: telling and showing people this good news about what Jesus has done and why!

This is why we want, and need, to be more mission-shaped! We believe in a God who in his son has come to seek and to save the lost. This is the truth that we were reminded of at Christmas. This God gave up the splendour of heaven for the squalor of a stable. He chose to be born in that place, in those dark times – to seek and save the lost. So how can we, who once were lost but now have been found by him, not do what Luke did? How can we not tell and show as many people as we can the good news of God in Christ?

The next big event in the Christian year is Easter. That’s when we’ll remember exactly what Jesus did for the lost, and just how high a price he paid for us. But we’ve got some time before we get there. So we can concentrate now on being prepared for it; which is just what we’re going to do! This week and next, before the big joint Churches Together service, we’ll look at the ministry of John the Baptist. He was the one to whom the word of God came, in the desert, at that time. As we heard in our reading, the specific task that he was given was to get people ready for Jesus. John’s job was to prepare the way for the Lord – and to do it in a fashion that enabled everyone to see God’s salvation!

That was an important part of the prophecy for a Gentile like Luke. It’s important for us too, though much less of an issue for us today. What’s more important, though – then and now – is how John got people ready to receive the Lord. We’ll look at that in much more detail next week, and it’ll get very practical too! But I’d best alert you now to this fact – that it’s all about repentance! This isn’t a topic that we have spent much time on – yet, anyway! The Christian life is more than ‘just’ about repentance, of course; but it’s never less than it. And John’s message to that effect may be a very timely one as we try to become more mission-shaped.

As I say, we’ll go into it in much more detail next week. But in case you won’t be here, or to whet your appetite, I’ll say this now. This is how John the Baptist preached to the people who were desperate to hear from God! They knew what God had done for them in the past. They knew – even if only vaguely – what he’d promised to do for them in the future. They knew that they needed God to rescue them from this slavery now, like he had done before. They hoped and trusted that he would do it. But John’s message still came as a shock. He echoed the OT prophets rather too closely – by saying that repentance had to go before God’s rescue!

John offered people a symbol of repentance, in the form of baptism. Again as we’ll hear next week, the sign didn’t mean anything in itself. What mattered were the changed lives that had to go with the sign: that’s what made it real. And so that’s what I want to offer to you for a possible New Year’s Resolution – not baptism, but the evidence of a changed life that makes your baptism real!

All significant spiritual advances begin with a turning from something that gets in the way of us obeying God. For all of us there are things that get in the way of obeying God. So, at the start of 2007, will you repent of whatever that is for you? And will you then go on repenting of it, by living a changed life this year? If we do want to be more mission-shaped this year then it will take all of us being obedient to where God is leading us. And that means you as well as me! So will you use these next two weeks to prepare the way for what the Lord wants to do here this year; by repenting? And will you then choose to obey God, by finding ways to tell and show others the good news of God in Christ? I’m going to be bold enough to pray that we will. So let’s pray …