PARISH WEEKEND AWAY 26th - 28th June - ASHBURNHAM SERMONS
The third sermon from our guest speaker, Andrew Rumsey:
COME AS YOU ARE
John 15:1-7
Say Psalm 90 together
Read excerpt from My Cat Jeoffry
How can you and I be like Jeoffry? This is our task in the hour or so before lunch – to consider how what we do with our lives can respond wholeheartedly to God, even in the smallest detail.
Recap
The first and outer ring was our call as humans to subdue the earth – to take responsibility for it so that it may flourish and be fruitful. The middle ring is our specific call as Christians to bear witness to Christ – so that all people and things might be brought back into fruitful relationship with him.
Now we are going to home in on the centre of the circle, the question mark about what we are meant to be doing. What is my call as Andrew, or Chloe or whoever….
Discovering our own purpose in life involves deepening our relationship with ourselves and with God. The God who created us (first circle) – and made us to be creative like him, and to take responsibility for the earth; the God who calls us in Jesus Christ (second circle) to live a particular way of life, according to his new commandment of love, through which others also will come to know him; and the God, lastly, who made you as you (middle circle) – with all your strengths and weaknesses.
These are the three rings of the target which hopefully enable us to pinpoint our personal vocation.
And whilst we’ll be darting around scripture a bit, our starting point today is found in Jesus’ advice to the disciples about bearing fruit. Read John 15v8.
Like the relationship between a gardener and a vine or a rose, God’s intention for us is that we might become fruitful under his care and attention, that in becoming followers of Christ we might be all that we can be, that we can flourish as men and women. As we saw last week, the flourishing of creation is God’s good plan. So, the centre of our target is what we might call personal fruitfulness.
According to scripture, the call to work (by which I don’t just mean paid employment but all the tasks that fill our day) is basically good; the idea that we should have a purpose and a job to do is affirmed by God as part of the goodness and givenness of creation. As we saw last week, God gives man a job to do as soon as he has created him – to fill the earth and subdue it. The second account of creation in Genesis 2 says much the same thing – read Gen 2v15 – God put Adam in the garden to till it and keep it. And this basic goodness of work is affirmed throughout scripture, right down to Jesus’ own profession as a carpenter and his apostles’ work as fishermen and tax collectors.
But in Genesis we also see that work is affected by the fall of man – Adam’s sin. In Gen 3 we read that a sense of the drudgery of work is part of God’s judgement on Adam; that the good earth is also cursed because of his sin, and God says to him:
Read (v17c) ‘…in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life…..up to v19.
A sense of the weariness of work comes through these verses; work becomes labour.
[I was trying to think this week what was the hardest or worst job I ever did. And I think it was working as a kitchen porter in a hotel…]
Psalm 90vv9-10 – weariness of toil is part of being under God’s judgement
Scripture suggests that the toiling aspect of work – its drudgery – is part of the fall and therefore needs redeeming and rescuing from what Paul calls its ‘bondage to decay’, just like any other area of life – just like the world itself. And the call to those who are in Christ is to find freedom and redemption within the drudgery and labour that comes our way. The question, of course, is how?
I was joking before coffee that I might not feel called to bath the children, but I still had to do it. While writing these talks I came across this quote by the great protestant reformer Martin Luther, from the year 1522, where he said ‘God and the angels smile when a man changes a nappy’. I took that as a word from the Lord that even this was part of his will for my life. Like any word from the Lord, though, I am testing it thoroughly and awaiting further confirmation before I obey it…
In a similar vein, William Tyndale, the man who first translated the Bible into English, wrote in the 14th century that ‘if our desire is to please God, pouring water, washing dishes, cobbling shoes and preaching the word is all one’.
Both of these men were working out St Paul’s advice to the Corinthians church ‘whatever you do, do it to the glory of God’. The same sentiment is contained in the lovely George Herbert hymn… Teach me, my God and king - read verse?
And this has to be our first step to redeeming work:
1) To do all things for God’s glory as creatures made in the image of God (outer circle) who have dominion over creation.
In this way we subvert the jobbiness of work and return to work’s original, creative purpose.
Read Wendell Berry quote
Isn’t that wonderful? Christ, St Paul tells us in Colossians 1, is the firstborn of all creation, the one in whom all things hold together, and so, in him, we can do all things for God’s glory - even the dullest and most unpleasant tasks.
The New Testament is very strong on this – and to our ears quite controversially so. Even slaves, Paul says, can find freedom within their chains. Later in Colossians (3) he writes… read Col 3:22-4v1.
This is a fascinating passage: Paul is realistic about the working situations of his own time, however undesirable they might be. And within that both slaves and masters are to serve God within that work, as if they were serving Christ, and aware that each will be judged by God according to how they have done so.
There are doubtless many things about our work which future generations will look upon as unfair and appalling – Christians are called to work within the system as it is, and transform it from the inside out – by serving Christ in our work and at the same time, letting his righteousness transform the structures we work within.
More and more people are facing exploitation in their work at the moment – employers know that people are so keen to keep their jobs that they are squeezing them tighter and tighter, for less and less.
2) As for the second way to redeem work comes from a bit of scripture I stumbled upon by accident.
Not far into Wales from England is a charming village called Crickhowell, where several generations of my family are buried. Here, an inscription commemorates my forbear Walter Rumsey, who died in 1834. Under his name, is engraved a quote from the Psalms: Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace. Trusting that this was a sentiment volunteered by his family and not Walter himself, you read on: Also of Anne, relict of the said Walter Rumsey…‘She hath done what she could’.
At first view, this glaring contrast with her stainless spouse looks like a rather unkind slight, a sort of glossed-over version of ‘poor dear’. That is, until you notice that it, too, is a direct quote from scripture (Mark 14v8), being Jesus’ words of rebuke to the dinner guests who moan about the woman pouring the jar of costly perfume over his head. ‘Let her alone’, he growls, ‘She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial’, adding that her action will live on in memory wherever the good news is proclaimed.
Suddenly Anne, relict of Walter, emerges from the shadows: not as a paragon, perhaps, but someone who did what they could. Someone who, given their lease of life and aware of its constraints, invested each opportunity with devoted, even extravagant, attention. The more you think about it, the finer an epitaph it becomes. After all, much of the time I don’t do what I can: I avoid the possible task by pondering on what I would do if things were different.
The woman is commended by Jesus for doing what she could with what she had. And I think this apparently offhand phrase contains a great deal of wisdom for us.
Doing what you can is a great motto to take through life. Do what you can with circumstances as they are. Make the most of every task, however small.
All too often I don’t do what I can: I’m either thinking of all the things I would like to do if only – if only I didn’t have to do this, this and this – if only I had more time, if only the children didn’t need bathing, if only someone was there for me. I have probably wasted years thinking this sort of thing. The fact is that life is just as it is and no different – no better and no worse.
Finding the call of God within life as it is requires us to do no more and no less than what we can. Doing what we can is both an opportunity and a restriction.
I know that many of us have very frustrating and limiting restrictions on what we can do – persistent ill health or disability; immigration control issues that forbid is from working as we would like to; retirement and all that brings; personal needs and problems that limit what we can cope with emotionally. These are all very real and each of us has different ones. There are plenty of things I wish I could do and which I could if circumstances were different – I’m sure it is the same for you.
Doing what we can means accepting that I can’t do what I can’t do – what I might want to do but life simply doesn’t allow it. But equally it means rising to the challenge of what I can do. With the time or strength or freedom I do have – I can do this…or this… or this…. And I should do what I can with immense devotion, even extravagance, and do it as if I was doing it for Christ himself.
So redeeming work means doing everything for God’s glory, and it means doing what we can within the opportunities and restrictions life places upon us.
Group work: 20 mins
Do you see your everyday work (paid or otherwise) as part of your Christian calling?
If so, in what ways?
If not, why?
How can you exercise dominion over it?
What are some of the things which prevent us from doing what we can?
Feedback
3) Thirdly, we should aim as far as possible to do what we are.
By this I mean that we should try to shape the responsibilities and the work we have around the talents that have been given to us. This is an obvious but really important point. Ideally we should both do what we can and do what we are. You and I have been given a unique combination of talents and characteristics which have immense potential.
In as far as you are free to decide, make your decisions about work according to how they fit with what you know you can do well and what you love to do, what you care and feel passionately about; what you find satisfying and fulfilling. To focus in the fruitful things in your life rather than the fruitless ones.
Read Ex 31:1-6.
Bezalel, about whom we know nothing more, is called by name to do what God has skilled him to do. He is an artist and he will serve God by being artistic. Now you can bet that Bezalel also had his limitations. When Moses visited him and said ‘ok Bez, this is what the Lord wants you to do, Bezalel replied ‘you’re joking aren’t you? Have you seen this pile of washing? You do know that Mrs B and me aren’t getting on at the moment, don’t you; you do know that I have 13 children…and only three fingers, etc etc’. There will have been things in Bezalel’s life that did limit what he could do, but he was still called to do what he was, to make the most of his gifts.
If we can do what we are without restriction we are very blessed indeed; there are proportionally very few people who have the luxury of doing what they love to do and be paid for it. But that doesn’t mean that each of us cannot also pursue doing what we are, within the choices that are available to us.
Quite often that has to happen outside work – so that the things we love to do are in our spare time. But that also redeems the jobbiness of our work – it refreshes us so that we can face the things we wish we didn’t have to do. In whatever time you have, think how you can do what you are; how the gifts God has given you can flourish, knowing that God has also called you by name.
When God calls people it is with a good purpose, it is so that the whole earth might be blessed and be filled with his glory. You have a vital part to play in that. So, as we close, hear the words of Christ to his disciples:
Read John 15:1-2, 5, 8-9.
Prayer ministry for our personal calling
COME AS YOU ARE
John 15:1-7
Say Psalm 90 together
Read excerpt from My Cat Jeoffry
How can you and I be like Jeoffry? This is our task in the hour or so before lunch – to consider how what we do with our lives can respond wholeheartedly to God, even in the smallest detail.
Recap
The first and outer ring was our call as humans to subdue the earth – to take responsibility for it so that it may flourish and be fruitful. The middle ring is our specific call as Christians to bear witness to Christ – so that all people and things might be brought back into fruitful relationship with him.
Now we are going to home in on the centre of the circle, the question mark about what we are meant to be doing. What is my call as Andrew, or Chloe or whoever….
Discovering our own purpose in life involves deepening our relationship with ourselves and with God. The God who created us (first circle) – and made us to be creative like him, and to take responsibility for the earth; the God who calls us in Jesus Christ (second circle) to live a particular way of life, according to his new commandment of love, through which others also will come to know him; and the God, lastly, who made you as you (middle circle) – with all your strengths and weaknesses.
These are the three rings of the target which hopefully enable us to pinpoint our personal vocation.
And whilst we’ll be darting around scripture a bit, our starting point today is found in Jesus’ advice to the disciples about bearing fruit. Read John 15v8.
Like the relationship between a gardener and a vine or a rose, God’s intention for us is that we might become fruitful under his care and attention, that in becoming followers of Christ we might be all that we can be, that we can flourish as men and women. As we saw last week, the flourishing of creation is God’s good plan. So, the centre of our target is what we might call personal fruitfulness.
According to scripture, the call to work (by which I don’t just mean paid employment but all the tasks that fill our day) is basically good; the idea that we should have a purpose and a job to do is affirmed by God as part of the goodness and givenness of creation. As we saw last week, God gives man a job to do as soon as he has created him – to fill the earth and subdue it. The second account of creation in Genesis 2 says much the same thing – read Gen 2v15 – God put Adam in the garden to till it and keep it. And this basic goodness of work is affirmed throughout scripture, right down to Jesus’ own profession as a carpenter and his apostles’ work as fishermen and tax collectors.
But in Genesis we also see that work is affected by the fall of man – Adam’s sin. In Gen 3 we read that a sense of the drudgery of work is part of God’s judgement on Adam; that the good earth is also cursed because of his sin, and God says to him:
Read (v17c) ‘…in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life…..up to v19.
A sense of the weariness of work comes through these verses; work becomes labour.
[I was trying to think this week what was the hardest or worst job I ever did. And I think it was working as a kitchen porter in a hotel…]
Psalm 90vv9-10 – weariness of toil is part of being under God’s judgement
Scripture suggests that the toiling aspect of work – its drudgery – is part of the fall and therefore needs redeeming and rescuing from what Paul calls its ‘bondage to decay’, just like any other area of life – just like the world itself. And the call to those who are in Christ is to find freedom and redemption within the drudgery and labour that comes our way. The question, of course, is how?
I was joking before coffee that I might not feel called to bath the children, but I still had to do it. While writing these talks I came across this quote by the great protestant reformer Martin Luther, from the year 1522, where he said ‘God and the angels smile when a man changes a nappy’. I took that as a word from the Lord that even this was part of his will for my life. Like any word from the Lord, though, I am testing it thoroughly and awaiting further confirmation before I obey it…
In a similar vein, William Tyndale, the man who first translated the Bible into English, wrote in the 14th century that ‘if our desire is to please God, pouring water, washing dishes, cobbling shoes and preaching the word is all one’.
Both of these men were working out St Paul’s advice to the Corinthians church ‘whatever you do, do it to the glory of God’. The same sentiment is contained in the lovely George Herbert hymn… Teach me, my God and king - read verse?
And this has to be our first step to redeeming work:
1) To do all things for God’s glory as creatures made in the image of God (outer circle) who have dominion over creation.
In this way we subvert the jobbiness of work and return to work’s original, creative purpose.
Read Wendell Berry quote
Isn’t that wonderful? Christ, St Paul tells us in Colossians 1, is the firstborn of all creation, the one in whom all things hold together, and so, in him, we can do all things for God’s glory - even the dullest and most unpleasant tasks.
The New Testament is very strong on this – and to our ears quite controversially so. Even slaves, Paul says, can find freedom within their chains. Later in Colossians (3) he writes… read Col 3:22-4v1.
This is a fascinating passage: Paul is realistic about the working situations of his own time, however undesirable they might be. And within that both slaves and masters are to serve God within that work, as if they were serving Christ, and aware that each will be judged by God according to how they have done so.
There are doubtless many things about our work which future generations will look upon as unfair and appalling – Christians are called to work within the system as it is, and transform it from the inside out – by serving Christ in our work and at the same time, letting his righteousness transform the structures we work within.
More and more people are facing exploitation in their work at the moment – employers know that people are so keen to keep their jobs that they are squeezing them tighter and tighter, for less and less.
2) As for the second way to redeem work comes from a bit of scripture I stumbled upon by accident.
Not far into Wales from England is a charming village called Crickhowell, where several generations of my family are buried. Here, an inscription commemorates my forbear Walter Rumsey, who died in 1834. Under his name, is engraved a quote from the Psalms: Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace. Trusting that this was a sentiment volunteered by his family and not Walter himself, you read on: Also of Anne, relict of the said Walter Rumsey…‘She hath done what she could’.
At first view, this glaring contrast with her stainless spouse looks like a rather unkind slight, a sort of glossed-over version of ‘poor dear’. That is, until you notice that it, too, is a direct quote from scripture (Mark 14v8), being Jesus’ words of rebuke to the dinner guests who moan about the woman pouring the jar of costly perfume over his head. ‘Let her alone’, he growls, ‘She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial’, adding that her action will live on in memory wherever the good news is proclaimed.
Suddenly Anne, relict of Walter, emerges from the shadows: not as a paragon, perhaps, but someone who did what they could. Someone who, given their lease of life and aware of its constraints, invested each opportunity with devoted, even extravagant, attention. The more you think about it, the finer an epitaph it becomes. After all, much of the time I don’t do what I can: I avoid the possible task by pondering on what I would do if things were different.
The woman is commended by Jesus for doing what she could with what she had. And I think this apparently offhand phrase contains a great deal of wisdom for us.
Doing what you can is a great motto to take through life. Do what you can with circumstances as they are. Make the most of every task, however small.
All too often I don’t do what I can: I’m either thinking of all the things I would like to do if only – if only I didn’t have to do this, this and this – if only I had more time, if only the children didn’t need bathing, if only someone was there for me. I have probably wasted years thinking this sort of thing. The fact is that life is just as it is and no different – no better and no worse.
Finding the call of God within life as it is requires us to do no more and no less than what we can. Doing what we can is both an opportunity and a restriction.
I know that many of us have very frustrating and limiting restrictions on what we can do – persistent ill health or disability; immigration control issues that forbid is from working as we would like to; retirement and all that brings; personal needs and problems that limit what we can cope with emotionally. These are all very real and each of us has different ones. There are plenty of things I wish I could do and which I could if circumstances were different – I’m sure it is the same for you.
Doing what we can means accepting that I can’t do what I can’t do – what I might want to do but life simply doesn’t allow it. But equally it means rising to the challenge of what I can do. With the time or strength or freedom I do have – I can do this…or this… or this…. And I should do what I can with immense devotion, even extravagance, and do it as if I was doing it for Christ himself.
So redeeming work means doing everything for God’s glory, and it means doing what we can within the opportunities and restrictions life places upon us.
Group work: 20 mins
Do you see your everyday work (paid or otherwise) as part of your Christian calling?
If so, in what ways?
If not, why?
How can you exercise dominion over it?
What are some of the things which prevent us from doing what we can?
Feedback
3) Thirdly, we should aim as far as possible to do what we are.
By this I mean that we should try to shape the responsibilities and the work we have around the talents that have been given to us. This is an obvious but really important point. Ideally we should both do what we can and do what we are. You and I have been given a unique combination of talents and characteristics which have immense potential.
In as far as you are free to decide, make your decisions about work according to how they fit with what you know you can do well and what you love to do, what you care and feel passionately about; what you find satisfying and fulfilling. To focus in the fruitful things in your life rather than the fruitless ones.
Read Ex 31:1-6.
Bezalel, about whom we know nothing more, is called by name to do what God has skilled him to do. He is an artist and he will serve God by being artistic. Now you can bet that Bezalel also had his limitations. When Moses visited him and said ‘ok Bez, this is what the Lord wants you to do, Bezalel replied ‘you’re joking aren’t you? Have you seen this pile of washing? You do know that Mrs B and me aren’t getting on at the moment, don’t you; you do know that I have 13 children…and only three fingers, etc etc’. There will have been things in Bezalel’s life that did limit what he could do, but he was still called to do what he was, to make the most of his gifts.
If we can do what we are without restriction we are very blessed indeed; there are proportionally very few people who have the luxury of doing what they love to do and be paid for it. But that doesn’t mean that each of us cannot also pursue doing what we are, within the choices that are available to us.
Quite often that has to happen outside work – so that the things we love to do are in our spare time. But that also redeems the jobbiness of our work – it refreshes us so that we can face the things we wish we didn’t have to do. In whatever time you have, think how you can do what you are; how the gifts God has given you can flourish, knowing that God has also called you by name.
When God calls people it is with a good purpose, it is so that the whole earth might be blessed and be filled with his glory. You have a vital part to play in that. So, as we close, hear the words of Christ to his disciples:
Read John 15:1-2, 5, 8-9.
Prayer ministry for our personal calling
posted by Parish Administrator at 12:29 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home