Sermon from 22nd July 2007

Today's sermon, from our Vicar, Cameron Barker, is based on the reading from Luke 9:1-6

Well, there's an alternative summer holiday plan for you! I wonder how attractive it sounds. Go on foot. Take nothing with you for your journey: no stick; no bag; no food; no money; not even a change of clothing! Stay in the first house that invites you to stay. Rely entirely on your host's generosity, whatever standard it is. If you're not welcome in a place, leave, and go somewhere where you will be. But first, make clear the consequences of rejecting the message you bring. In every place you go to, tell people the good news of the Kingdom of God. And show them what that looks like – by healing the sick and driving out demons! Who fancies a bit of that for their summer, then?

It must be said that it may not offer five-star comfort – but it certainly is hugely rewarding. So surely the only pity is that so many people have already gone on holiday without hearing about this possible alternative. But then, lots of you do already know about it. At least some of you will be spending part of this summer doing pretty much this. You'll be doing these things that Jesus sent his disciples out to do, on different camps up and down the country. The level of comfort at them varies, I'm told. But, far more importantly, the aim - for campers and leaders alike - is to learn more about Jesus, and what it means to live for him.

Now that was basically what Jesus was trying to teach his disciples here – how to live for him. What his disciples did not yet know was that soon they were going to have to live for Jesus without him being around. But Luke began chapter 9 with one of his famous summary passages. This was Luke's way of pausing, allowing his readers to draw their breath, before hearing the next exciting instalment of his story about Jesus. I've already given the game away about what that next instalment is. We won't study how Jesus told his disciples he was about to die, though. This is the end of our series from Luke, for the rest of this year! But today we can draw breath, after two solid months of action and excitement. As we end this series, and head for our summer break, we can – and must – think about what all this means for how we live for Jesus today. And, of course, mission has got to be high on our learning agenda!

Now we can probably do with drawing breath after what we've been through! If we feel a little breathless after just hearing these stories, though, imagine how the disciples must have felt! They hadn't just read about these amazing things that Jesus had said and done. They had been very close to the action – and often even part of it! As we end this series it's well worth reminding ourselves of where they – and we – have been, of what we have heard and seen. So: we began with the story of the Roman centurion whose servant was sick. He had so much faith that he didn't even want Jesus to come to his house! He believed that if Jesus just gave the order his servant would be healed – as indeed he was!

And, if that wasn't amazing enough, Jesus followed it up by bringing a widow's dead son back to life! Then we had a visit to Jesus from the disciples of John the Baptist. On John's behalf, they wanted to know if Jesus truly was the Messiah. In reply, Jesus pointed them to the evidence of what he was doing – in fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy. We did then get something of a break from the action – by looking at how Jesus taught. We studied the nature of parables in general, and the parable of the soils in particular. At its heart that's a challenge about how we respond to Jesus' message. But it's also an important reminder that Jesus was – and is – about so much more than 'just' performing miracles. Jesus only ever performed miracles to point people to the message that he came to bring.

Even so, we were quickly back into the miraculous action. This time Jesus stilled a storm – just by speaking. And then he drove a bunch of demons out of a man and into a herd of pigs – which drew a rather fearful response from those who were there. That brought us to last week, when Jesus raised a dead 12-year-old back to life – and healed a woman who just touched his cloak. When John spoke on those stories he reflected very helpfully on the nature of miracles, in Bible times and now. If you missed that sermon, do read it on our parish blogsite – because it puts these stories into context. It also raises a crucial question that we all need to answer, of how we respond to God at work today.

That, in effect, was the question Jesus put to his disciples in this summary passage that ends our series. It was as if Jesus was asking them, 'How do you respond to God at work? Do you want to be part of it, as I've called you to be? If so, here's how you do it. You do it by going – in this way I've described – to do just the same things yourself'! We mustn't miss this fact – that Jesus sent the disciples to do exactly the same things he had done himself. He sent them out to preach the kingdom, drive out demons, and heal the sick. We mustn't miss it because of course it has huge implications for how we live for Jesus today. To be Jesus' disciple is to be called to do the same thing now as Jesus himself did – just as it was for the disciples back then.

That sounds like a big job – probably because it is a big job! It is a big job, for which big help is available, though. It's available to us, as it was to those first disciples. Did you note how Jesus gave his disciples 'power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases'? That was how they were able to do the same things that Jesus did – because Jesus gave them his power and his authority to do them. I recently got a whole new insight into what that means from a friend. He was talking about his job, which he says isn't very senior. But he's directly responsible to the UK Director of his multinational company. So when he says in a meeting, 'my boss wants ...', people do what he says. They know that my friend speaks and acts with far higher authority than just his own – and they respond accordingly.

It's also worth noting at this point how Jesus did hold his disciples to account for what they had done in his name. Luke tells us that they went out and did what Jesus had told them to. The disciples did travel 'through all the villages, preaching the good news and healing people everywhere'. Then, in verse 10, we read how they came back 'and told Jesus everything they had done'. That's a pattern that's repeated later in Luke, when Jesus sent out 72 disciples with a very similar mission. In the same way, they came back and reported to Jesus what they had done in his name – which is a pattern that we also need to follow ourselves as Jesus' disciples.

I should also point out that most commentators agree on a key fact about this story. They are sure that Jesus didn't mean his disciples to live like this all the time. They were not to spend all their time travelling to preach and heal. And we don't read in Luke's other book (Acts) about the Early Church following such a pattern either. In other words, these were specific instructions, for specific circumstances. What we do read about, though, is how the first Christians found other, equally effective ways to tell and show others the good news of God's kingdom. That instruction, to tell and show others the good news of God's kingdom, remains constant – then and now. Our job is to find the best way to do it today.

As I said, Luke paused at this point in the story. The tone of it was about to change dramatically. What had gone before was this this whirlwind of amazing action and excitement round Jesus as he'd travelled through Galilee. His disciples had seen it, been part of it, even. But now it was time for them to grow up a little more. Jesus was starting to prepare them for life without him. The disciples were going to have to carry on Jesus' ministry – in word and in deed – after he had gone. So Jesus sent them out, with his full power and authority, to practise what they had seen him do. They were to move quickly, to travel light, and to depend completely on God for everything they needed along the way. Then they were to report back, to listen and learn some more, before Jesus left them to get on with it alone.

The position we're in is somewhat different, of course. We have never been with Jesus in the way the first disciples had, obviously. We do live in the age of the Spirit, though. By his Spirit, Jesus is just as much with us as he was with those disciples. He has been teaching and showing us who he is and what he's like – not least through these stories that we read about him week by week. But many of us have more to go on than 'just' Bible stories. These have been exciting times for many of us. There have been good things happening, in many ways, often in the midst of difficulties. I've even heard the phrase 'life-transforming' used several times of our recent parish weekend away.

That is great, of course; but it's not a place to stop and enjoy just for its own sake! As the disciples discovered, to see and experience Jesus at work is to be invited to become part of his work. As we see Jesus at work in our own life, so we are called to share the good news of his kingdom with others, in word and in deed. Today it's as if Jesus turns to us as he turned to his disciples then. He asks us too: 'How do you respond to God at work? Do you want to be part of it, as I've called you to be?' It may well be that Jesus does not want us to go off in quite the way that he sent those first disciples. But the same principle applies. Jesus wants us to go and tell, and show, others the good news of his kingdom.

As I say, for many of us that's quite an alternative summer holiday plan, perhaps. But we have seen God at work too. So, for us also it's a question of how we respond to that. Are we ready to grow up a little more? Are we willing to receive the power and authority that Jesus offers to give us? Will we go and tell and show others the good news of God's kingdom that has so impacted our own lives? We know how the first disciples responded to that challenge. We know what impact they had – at this time, and when Jesus had left them. But will we be equally obedient in response to what we have seen God do? All this year we have gone on thinking and working on what it means to be a mission-shaped church. We have made real progress, and that's great. But today, and this summer, we have the chance to step it up again. So how will we respond to seeing God at work? Lets pray ...

Sermon from 15th July 2007

Today our sermon is given by our Associate Vicar, John Itumu, based on the reading from Luke 8: 40-56

Miracles and faith

A Sunday school class was presenting their end of the year program for the congregation - telling about the life of Jesus. When it came to the part about Jesus' miracles, one little child said, "Yes, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead!" The teacher urged the child to say more.He said, "Well, Jesus told them to open the tomb, and then He said, 'Lazarus, come out!' And it's a good thing he didn't just say 'Come out!' because there would have been a stampede of dead guys."

I wonder what your reaction is to these incredible stories of one miracle after another. A woman who has been bleeding for twelve years touches the cloak of Jesus and is instantly healed; then Jesus resurrects a twelve year old dead girl. Just what do you make of that?
We live in a questioning age where rationalism rules. It is very difficult – if not impossible to easily convince anyone of anything that cannot be logically explained. The need to show cause and effect in an occurrence or phenomenon has never been greater.
Scientific rationalism which has infused western culture for about 300 years would rather put the miracle stories of Jesus down to the ignorance and superstition of these ancient people who lived more than 20 centuries ago. That way it is easier to help make sense of these bizarre happenings. Why don’t we see them anymore? Show me a miracle – people easily challenge!

Doubts have been expressed on the authenticity of miracles, and the evidence for miracles dismissed as unconvincing. Alternative explanations have even been often sought:
for instance, Jesus did not walk on water but on a half-submerged plank – heard that one?
the loaves and fish were so many because people followed Jesus’ example of sharing – his example was so infectious that soon people produced their own and shared it around…
So where do we stand? What do we understand by a miracle? Do you believe in miracles?

15 years ago, electronic mail would have been a miracle to me..
A couple that has been trying for a baby after many years may regard it a miracle when the baby finally comes.
Someone else may attribute that to fertility treatment. A similar event, depending on our perspective may elicit different explanations/responses.
We need to broaden our understanding of miracles. Personally, I think being alive today is one!
So were there miracles in the bible before Jesus?
Yes. It’s full of them. The waters in the Red Sea separated to allow the Israelites to pass through. The sun stood still overhead for one day when Joshua asked God for more time to fight Israelite’s enemies. Joshua 10:12ffd
What other evidence is there?
A secular historian called Josephus (AD 37-100) who was a contemporary of Jesus has recorded an exorcism which he witnessed. Elsewhere he also writes: ‘… about this time a rose Jesus, a wise man, if indeed it be lawful to call him a man. For he was a doer of wonderful deeds…’
Another ancient document The Babylonian Talmund reports that Jesus was executed because he practised sorcery. Actually this seems to reinforce the comment made by the teachers of the law in Mark 3:22 when they say, He is possessed by Beelzebul! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons!
Religious people seem to have had no quarrel about Jesus’ ability to perform miracles – just that his miracles were not considered as indicators of God at work.
What about other religions/pagans?
Belief in miracles is not peculiar to Christianity; almost all religions feature miracles in their teachings. People have even debated as to which of the miracles - pagan or Christian are backed by more credible evidence.

The miracles of Jesus are however different and unique. They point to the wider context of his mission and ministry. He himself puts them in the context of the kingdom of God. When accused of using demonic powers to perform his miracles he responds: Luke 11:20
If I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. His miracles point people to God. They are not intended to impress or even satisfy idle speculation about the supernatural. That is why he categorically says no when Pharisees ask for a miracle to satisfy their curiosity. Matthew 12:38ffd

We also need to view and understand these miracles against the background of the Old Testament expectations the prophecies; that the long waited for kingdom had at last come. Jesus is the final fulfilment of all that there was to be. If we deviate from this understanding, then we easily fall into the trap of seeing Jesus’ miracles as simply magic actions which pagans and other religions easily claim. The ancient world was full of them. Remember the magicians in Pharaohs palace in Egypt? Our world is full of them – witchcraft and the occult.
Jesus is unique and different. Jesus is God!

So, yet another day out with Jesus! He has just returned from Gentile country, from interacting with a demoniac and in close proximity with pigs – not exactly ritually clean. He is then confronted with the needs of a synagogue leader, Jairus, whose duty is to keep up the teaching of the commandments and reading the law. Jairus’s twelve year old and an only daughter is dying. Matthew records that she had died…. This is a critical age, at the point of puberty and nearing betrothal and preparation for marriage. It was a common Jewish practice to betroth a 12 year old girl. She is therefore dying just before life can really begin!

Leaders like Jairus didn’t typically respond well to Jesus. We don’t know what his attitude was before this time, or even as he fell down on his knees.
Did he believe that Jesus was the Messiah? What about all the synagogue rules and issues of purity? There is pushing and pulling and yelling; including the presence of a ritually unclean and bleeding woman. But none of this seems to deter the determination of Jairus. His daughter is dying! And so this synagogue leader, with humility, falls at Jesus’ feet.

When nothing else is left to hold onto, it becomes possible to reach for Jesus. It is impossible to hold on to Jesus when our hands are full, holding onto other things. And he does not disappoint; he embraces us.

Someone once said; faith is not faith until it’s all you are holding on to.
It is George Muller who also wrote:
Faith does not operate in the realm of the possible. There is no glory for God in that which is humanly possible. Faith begins where human power ends.
Faith in God begins when we stop looking sideways, being distracted by others, feeling embarrassed, worrying what others will think…

Jairus was a leader in his community that people looked up to. Deep inside he knew of a deep human need that his synagogue leadership credentials and powers could not sort – and fortunately he came to the one person who could make a difference. So Jairus falls at the feet of Jesus. The kingdom of God is also for synagogue/church leaders like Jairus and the centurion that we heard about recently. If only they will submit, they will find Jesus waiting with good news! He is accessible to all!

But that is not the end. The ministry and compassion of Jesus is even broader. It accommodates the down trodden and the marginalised like this woman whose sickness is socially devastating. Her bleeding had made her perpetually unclean. She would have lived in isolation from her community for the 12 years, the length of time that Jairus’ daughter had lived! When she presses forward to reach Jesus, it is guaranteed she will infect others with her impurity. What will the synagogue leader say – presumably he was walking with Jesus back to his home to heal his daughter. What will other people say?

This was clearly a premeditated thought – but nothing would stop her. And just what was in her mind as she planned to touch the one who the synagogue leader had just bowed to? Her touching Jesus was irregular and ‘wrong’. It was open to misinterpretation. It violated the biblical purity code. However, for her to cross over from the land of the dead – for that is where she had been for twelve years –to the land of the living, some radical decisions had to be made.

Such is the determination of anyone who really wants an encounter with Jesus. Her faith drove her actions and was actively expressed. For faith to express itself freely, it must traverse the perimeters of our piety and religiosity that stifles and suffocates our little faith. The good news is that Jesus receives us – just as we are! He knows who we really are and nothing is hidden from him.

We must watch out for ‘faith killers’ in our lives and in our world!
why is it more comfortable to hide our Christian identity and faith in public?
why does our faith and believe in Jesus increasingly become a very private matter?
why am I afraid that my colleagues know that Jesus is my Lord and Saviour?

Friends we need to cross the boundaries of acceptable worldly behaviour and standards in order to obtain salvation. Our feet cannot be at both sides! Jairus and this woman crossed difficult boundaries and met the Saviour. Faith is the bridge over which we cross from the world of disbelieve to believe.

Do you feel alienated from all this faith stuff we are talking about? Does Jesus feature anywhere in your life? Would you like him to? Life is/can be tough, and Jesus offers an easier way of going about life, whether we meet with spectacular healing miracles or not. He says elsewhere (Matthew 11:28) come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
That is an offer, for us to take or reject. Taking this offer is radical, counter-cultural and inconsistent with the world, but it is life changing. The world hates this tune. May be you took this offer a while ago but feel you need to touch base again with Jesus. He has not moved. He is still waiting. He says, come.

One thief on the cross joined the worldly chorus –aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!
His friend crossed the boundaries of acceptable worldly response and instead sung a different radical tune. He said:
We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. This man has done no wrong.
The turning to Jesus he said:
Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
And Jesus answered:
Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.

So what?
Something begins to happen in our lives when we raise our expectations from God. Something happens when we begin to pray with a conviction that God indeed listens.
Something happens to our relationship with God when we refuse to give in to fear – what others might say…
Something happens when we truly mean as we often sing – and I will trust in you alone…
Something happens when our optimism with God takes us to a point of hoping and being certain of what we do not see.
That’s the stuff called faith!
Amen.

Sermon from 8th July 2007

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Adrian Parkhouse, bases his sermon on
Luke 8: 22 – 39

1. A derivation on a camp fire game: Do you want a day out? Come on then: on to the boat – {get balance} oh-err; calm water – {relax} very nice; bit of a wind {shiver} brrrrr; {shout} bit of a storm! - Help!; calm again {relax} very nice; off the boat – {stand firm} – that’s better; a naked lunatic!! {panic} – Help!; flying pigs {astonishment} – what?; a grateful man – that’s nice; ungrateful pig-owners! – time to go. [and return through the events].

A day out with Jesus. “One day Jesus got into a boat with his disciples and said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake””. And what a trip!

While we are not told it, one senses that the trip was suggested as one of those “time outs” that Jesus made for himself during his ministry – a time for rest, for peace, for prayer. Quite often we read that he had left the disciples and gone out alone to pray. This time he takes the disciples with him. We read that he is leaving a crowd that is so thick about him that his own family can’t get to him (v19) –and immediately after our passage we see that “When Jesus returned to the other side of the lake, the people welcomed him, because they had been waiting for him”: v. 40. An intensity of ministry, so it is no surprise that almost as soon as they are aboard the boat Jesus falls asleep.

2. It is a fearful day out. Literally, as told by Luke, it is a day that seems filled with fear. In one form or other the words “fear” or “afraid” occur 3 times in the passage; but even when they are not used, the dominant emotion is fear. For example Luke does not say (as Matthew does) that the disciples – experienced sailors though many of them were – were scared by the storm – but he doesn’t need to: clearly they were terrified. Nor does he say tell us how they react to the dangerous, naked, demon-possessed madman in Gerasa/Gerasenes, but if in doubt, think how you would have felt and apply it to them: scared witless? And, to me, this atmosphere of fear is magnified by the begging and the pleading on the part of the demons possessing the lunatic: don’t torture us, don’t send us into the Abyss! They too are scared.

A day out with Jesus.

3. A derivation on a camp fire game: Do you want to come on a Parish Weekend? Come on then.... . No, I won’t set out the stages in the journey through last weekend or else you will only see it through my eyes – those who were there, give me one or two word memories that might inform those who could not make it. [record the replies on the board].

It was – for most – a tremendous weekend; a great 2 days out with Jesus.

If I can share a particular thought I came to me early last weekend - from John’s meditation on Saturday morning – set simply around the opening passages of Genesis “and God saw all that He had made and behold it was very good”. And we looked to at Jeremiah’s visit to the potter’s house: “whenever a piece of pottery turned out to be imperfect he would take the clay and make it into something else”. It struck me how I read these passages in the negative: it was good but then came the Fall and it was ruined; we are the imperfect item under judgment from God. But the positive understanding is that God made everything good and wants it like that; and that He is forming us into something perfect.

And it was easy then to hear the teaching on being the people of God from Ephesians in that context: God wanting us to be good and perfect.

4. Not a lot of fear then? A bit of a contrast between our day out and the disciples’?

Actually, I think not. I think they might have felt at home in the woods and lakes of Ashburnham. Why? Two thoughts:

A. In it simplest form, the lesson the disciples were learning on their day out was that Jesus was in charge. He was in charge of what threatens us from the outside; and he was in charge of what threatens from the inside. Some commentators will say that the storm on the lake was the act of the Enemy; I don’t go that far. It is enough to describe what Jesus was doing as being to control both the devil without and the devil within.

Fear – in the negative sense – and we will come to the positive sense - we know to a very powerful thing. It can be good and natural that it is – fear stops us taking unnecessary risks. But often it is powerfully harmful. At its most extreme, irrational phobias, eg of flying or of spiders, can impede the development of a full quality of life; they can amount in themselves to an illness. Gill reminded some of us last week that her Parish Audit recorded “fear of crime” as the number one concern among those living in this Parish – a fear that has practical consequences on how we live and how we feel.

If I was ask and to build up a list of things that scared you, what would be on it? Fear of the future for the children; fear of losing a job; fear of loneliness; fear of illness or of dying; fear of addiction…..I guess the list would go on and on.

““Where is your faith?” he asked his disciples.” Note: Jesus rebuked the storm – not the disciples. You may recall my love of JB Phillip’s rendering of these words: “O little-faiths”.

The teaching is that faith and this kind of fear are in opposition. This kind of fear is cast out by the love of God; it is to be dealt with; in the potter’s house, God’s remodelling of you and me involves replacing these fears with faith. Jesus is in control of the devil inside you and without.
And if that what was the disciples learned, I think I saw people at Ashburnham for whom a day out with Jesus was bringing them to precisely the same point.


B. And then there is the other meaning of “fear”: the “fear of God” – the sense of awe and wonder that is the reaction to the holiness and majesty and power of the Almighty. That is the sort of fear displayed both by the demons in the madman, who recognised the power in Jesus and by the swineherds and villagers, who saw enough of it to know they could not cope. “They were overcome with fear”.

And it was, I think, the greater part of the fear of the disciples on the boat when the storm was quelled. Their fear of nature turned to awe and astonishment and amazement; (“they were amazed and afraid/ In fear and amazement”). This could only be re-doubled after the events on the lakeside?

A fear of God like this brings us to worship: hesitant, respectful perhaps – but to worship. And at Ashburnham, reminded as we were by the teaching of what God wanted to do through His church and reminded as we were of the importance of each one of us to one another, we worshipped. And I like to think that, notwithstanding the differences of time and culture, at the end of a long day out with Jesus, the disciples will have felt at home in that worship

5. Do you want a day out?