Sermon 3rd October 2010
Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches - based on the reading from Acts 16: verses 1-10.
Whilst on pilgrimage in Israel, Joe Bloggs decided to climb to the top of Mount Sinai. His fervent hope was to become like Moses, and get close enough to speak with God in person.
Once up at the summit, he found himself in a thick cloud of God's holy presence. With a trembling voice he asked: “Lord God, what does a million years mean to you?”
Instantly the Lord replied: “A minute.”
Emboldened, Joe Bloggs enquired: “And what does a million £ mean to you, Lord?”
And the Lord replied: “A penny.”
Then Joe Bloggs asked: “Lord, can I please have a penny?”
And the Lord replied: “Yes you can, my son – in a minute.”
OK, so in some ways it is another tenuous connection, because the action has been happening thick and fast here of late. After taking a mere 3 weeks for Paul's first missionary journey, today we're starting on his second. Not only did we zoom through the 2 years or so it took for that first journey. Since 2 weeks ago we've also jumped forward another 3 years in the story! In the process we've skipped over 1 of the key moments in the life of the Early Church – though I'll refer to that episode as we go along. But the connection to that story lies in the fact that today we are confronted by issues of how God's ways and timings can be so different from ours. And, as I said at the start of Paul's first journey, the reason Luke records incidents like this is for us to learn from them!
That's the issue which God most wants us to grapple with today, I'd suggest. How do we understand what and when and how He wants – and doesn't. But there's plenty more besides going on here in Acts chapter 16. So, if you have undone your seatbelt in the past month, fasten it back up! But let's then pick up the story with how the pace of real life did slow down after Paul's first journey. As we heard at the end of Acts chapter 14, Paul and Barnabas went back to the church in Antioch that had originally sent them out. They told them their adventures; and then settled back into being part of normal church life again, for up to the next two years.
As I've said, this was a crucial time for the Early Church. The biggest issue they faced was how to be God's people now as a mixture of Jews and Gentiles. There isn't time to explore it in any depth - though it is important to note that this really isn't an issue for Christians today. What that tells us most of all is that the church sorted it out then; and we can read of how they did in Acts chapter 15. If you despair of Synods and Councils, here's one that did an amazing job under God's guidance! Of course it wasn't perfect, and there remained vital practicalities to be worked out – as we'll see later. But these church leaders grasped the nettle of their day; they met in Jerusalem to talk it all out; and they found real solutions.
And we really must note how those solutions did just what they were intended to. Chapter 16 verse 5 is another of Luke's famous summary passages, when he paused to reflect on where the church had reached at specific points in its life. Once the church leaders had found God's best way forward on the Jew-Gentile debate, the results were remarkable. Just as they had before the Jerusalem Council, all the churches were made stronger in faith and grew in numbers every day! And of course it's easy to think that this was Luke putting the most positive spin on what was really a tricky time for the church. But he didn't do that kind of thing – as we know!
Again, there's not time to look at the detail now; but Acts chapter 15 ends with an explosion, between Barnabas and Paul! There's no getting away from the unpleasant facts: both of them thought they were right; neither was willing to give any ground; there's not even a sense that they agreed to disagree. They couldn't go on together, so they went their separate ways. Barnabas took John Mark with him, which is what Paul had refused to allow. Luke didn't try to cover this up in any way, or even hint that all was later resolved between these 3. We know from Paul's letters that it was – but Luke even left us to work out for ourselves that God took this mess and made 2 missionary journeys out of it.
That in itself is gracious and wonderful – and holds important lessons for us to learn. Like that God can use even the worst messes we make; but that's no excuse for having ungodly arguments, or leaving them unresolved. However, as he continued the story of Acts, Luke left the mess and God's grace in it to speak for themselves. He focused on Paul's journey, knowing that a critical moment lay ahead. So, in chapter 15 verse 40 Paul set out with his new companion, Silas (also known as Sylvanus), from the Jerusalem church. What better way to present a united front on the church leaders' key decisions on Jews and Gentiles! That's what they then delivered to the churches that had Paul set up on his first journey.
If you've got the journey map, you can see how Paul went overland, leaving Cyprus to Barnabas. By the start of chapter 16 Paul had got as far as Lystra, where the issues became very topical! Paul wanted to take a young local believer with him on his missionary journey – but Timothy wasn't circumcised. “So what?”, we might ask. Christians don't have to be circumcised: that's a Jewish thing – and precisely what the Council had just dealt with. This was all quite complicated, though. Timothy was ethnically Jewish, because his mother was; it was his Greek father who was the 'problem'. If Paul was going to keep starting preaching about Jesus in synagogues, local Jews needed to accept his whole party. The only way they would do that was if Timothy was seen as fully Jewish. So Rabbi Paul had to do the relevant deed before they set out.
Off the party then went, with Timothy included, not least to deliver the message from the Council to local believers. As we've seen, the effect of that was that the church grew in faith, and numbers – daily! That wasn't any reason to relax, though: the message about Jesus was for all people everywhere. It became clear that this was God's time to move on to new places; but to exactly where was the big question for Paul and his companions! At first all they got was a series of Divine 'No's'! It didn't matter which direction they tried to go: south into Pamphylia? No; north into Galatia? No. As they kept going west across modern Turkey, they tried again, to turn north, or south. Each time it was 'No'; so on westwards they went.
Eventually the party ran out of land. They'd made it all the way to the port of Troas, as far west as you can go in Turkey. From there many destinations were possible – but the question still was 'where?'. Then at last God made the way forward clear, in a positive rather than a negative fashion. This may only be projection, of course; but I think that Paul and company could've been rather fed up by this stage. They had walked for weeks, maybe months, never being sure of exactly where God was leading them – until Troas. Given their prior experiences, I'd guess that some of the 'No's' came with a bump. But Luke didn't ever detail how God's Spirit (who's also know as the Spirit of Jesus) told them where he didn't want them to go. It's not until this dream/vision in Troas that we know clearly what God's plan was!
It's also in Troas that Luke joined the story in person. Note how the party became 'we' in verse 10 for the first time. So if he'd thought it important that his readers know how God says 'No', Luke could easily have written a fresh record of that down here. Oasis leader Steve Chalke once said that our problem is that we understand life backwards. The hard part of that equation comes from the fact that we have to live life forwards! So I wonder if there's an element here of Luke's emphasis being on the positive, the exciting way ahead. The uncertainties had been resolved; the frustrations were all over; the path was clear as day; God had spoken in a vision; they could move onward and upward confidently.
There is no doubt that this was a truly significant moment for the gospel. Here the good news about Jesus crossed over into mainland Europe, in modern Greece. It took root there, spread across the whole continent, and has shaped it (and us) for 2 000 years. What an amazing dream God gave Paul; what incredible things he did off the back of getting Paul to Troas by hook or by crook. It's quite right that Luke should want to move events on, with stories of how the gospel began to shake Europe just as it had the Middle East. And of course that is what we'll be looking at – and hopefully learning from – in the weeks ahead. Our aim is still for this same good news of Jesus to shape, and shake, our lives and this community.
But in my final thoughts today I want to go back, though – to what we might see as those dark days for Paul and his companions. This is something most of us experience – no matter how much we pray, ask God to show us his way, and listen as best we can for answers. All that becomes clear to us is that whatever route we're trying to go in faith isn't God's way. We often then have to press on again, in a different direction, still in faith; and we may not seem to do much better next time either. That's certainly 1 description of the PCC's experience of trying to discern God's future for St John's, for example. For years we have tried different ways forward in faith, and no doors have stayed open. We're trying again, though, in faith. There are various ways to read what's happening there now – and only time will tell which of those readings is right.
And that is exactly my concluding point. There are these times in our walk with God when we must 'just' press on in faith, only hearing God's 'No', and not knowing for sure which way to turn next. Yes, that can be hard, frustrating, painful even. But this story encourages us to keep on trusting that God truly does have a plan, and that, when He gets us there, it may well be amazing. It helps greatly to know too that God can use any messes we may make along the way. But most of all we can be sure that in His right time God really will speak His glorious 'Yes' – and then there will be no more doubt. So if today you have not got there yet, to hearing that glorious Divine 'Yes', keep on keeping on, knowing what is surely yet to come. And so let's pray ...
Whilst on pilgrimage in Israel, Joe Bloggs decided to climb to the top of Mount Sinai. His fervent hope was to become like Moses, and get close enough to speak with God in person.
Once up at the summit, he found himself in a thick cloud of God's holy presence. With a trembling voice he asked: “Lord God, what does a million years mean to you?”
Instantly the Lord replied: “A minute.”
Emboldened, Joe Bloggs enquired: “And what does a million £ mean to you, Lord?”
And the Lord replied: “A penny.”
Then Joe Bloggs asked: “Lord, can I please have a penny?”
And the Lord replied: “Yes you can, my son – in a minute.”
OK, so in some ways it is another tenuous connection, because the action has been happening thick and fast here of late. After taking a mere 3 weeks for Paul's first missionary journey, today we're starting on his second. Not only did we zoom through the 2 years or so it took for that first journey. Since 2 weeks ago we've also jumped forward another 3 years in the story! In the process we've skipped over 1 of the key moments in the life of the Early Church – though I'll refer to that episode as we go along. But the connection to that story lies in the fact that today we are confronted by issues of how God's ways and timings can be so different from ours. And, as I said at the start of Paul's first journey, the reason Luke records incidents like this is for us to learn from them!
That's the issue which God most wants us to grapple with today, I'd suggest. How do we understand what and when and how He wants – and doesn't. But there's plenty more besides going on here in Acts chapter 16. So, if you have undone your seatbelt in the past month, fasten it back up! But let's then pick up the story with how the pace of real life did slow down after Paul's first journey. As we heard at the end of Acts chapter 14, Paul and Barnabas went back to the church in Antioch that had originally sent them out. They told them their adventures; and then settled back into being part of normal church life again, for up to the next two years.
As I've said, this was a crucial time for the Early Church. The biggest issue they faced was how to be God's people now as a mixture of Jews and Gentiles. There isn't time to explore it in any depth - though it is important to note that this really isn't an issue for Christians today. What that tells us most of all is that the church sorted it out then; and we can read of how they did in Acts chapter 15. If you despair of Synods and Councils, here's one that did an amazing job under God's guidance! Of course it wasn't perfect, and there remained vital practicalities to be worked out – as we'll see later. But these church leaders grasped the nettle of their day; they met in Jerusalem to talk it all out; and they found real solutions.
And we really must note how those solutions did just what they were intended to. Chapter 16 verse 5 is another of Luke's famous summary passages, when he paused to reflect on where the church had reached at specific points in its life. Once the church leaders had found God's best way forward on the Jew-Gentile debate, the results were remarkable. Just as they had before the Jerusalem Council, all the churches were made stronger in faith and grew in numbers every day! And of course it's easy to think that this was Luke putting the most positive spin on what was really a tricky time for the church. But he didn't do that kind of thing – as we know!
Again, there's not time to look at the detail now; but Acts chapter 15 ends with an explosion, between Barnabas and Paul! There's no getting away from the unpleasant facts: both of them thought they were right; neither was willing to give any ground; there's not even a sense that they agreed to disagree. They couldn't go on together, so they went their separate ways. Barnabas took John Mark with him, which is what Paul had refused to allow. Luke didn't try to cover this up in any way, or even hint that all was later resolved between these 3. We know from Paul's letters that it was – but Luke even left us to work out for ourselves that God took this mess and made 2 missionary journeys out of it.
That in itself is gracious and wonderful – and holds important lessons for us to learn. Like that God can use even the worst messes we make; but that's no excuse for having ungodly arguments, or leaving them unresolved. However, as he continued the story of Acts, Luke left the mess and God's grace in it to speak for themselves. He focused on Paul's journey, knowing that a critical moment lay ahead. So, in chapter 15 verse 40 Paul set out with his new companion, Silas (also known as Sylvanus), from the Jerusalem church. What better way to present a united front on the church leaders' key decisions on Jews and Gentiles! That's what they then delivered to the churches that had Paul set up on his first journey.
If you've got the journey map, you can see how Paul went overland, leaving Cyprus to Barnabas. By the start of chapter 16 Paul had got as far as Lystra, where the issues became very topical! Paul wanted to take a young local believer with him on his missionary journey – but Timothy wasn't circumcised. “So what?”, we might ask. Christians don't have to be circumcised: that's a Jewish thing – and precisely what the Council had just dealt with. This was all quite complicated, though. Timothy was ethnically Jewish, because his mother was; it was his Greek father who was the 'problem'. If Paul was going to keep starting preaching about Jesus in synagogues, local Jews needed to accept his whole party. The only way they would do that was if Timothy was seen as fully Jewish. So Rabbi Paul had to do the relevant deed before they set out.
Off the party then went, with Timothy included, not least to deliver the message from the Council to local believers. As we've seen, the effect of that was that the church grew in faith, and numbers – daily! That wasn't any reason to relax, though: the message about Jesus was for all people everywhere. It became clear that this was God's time to move on to new places; but to exactly where was the big question for Paul and his companions! At first all they got was a series of Divine 'No's'! It didn't matter which direction they tried to go: south into Pamphylia? No; north into Galatia? No. As they kept going west across modern Turkey, they tried again, to turn north, or south. Each time it was 'No'; so on westwards they went.
Eventually the party ran out of land. They'd made it all the way to the port of Troas, as far west as you can go in Turkey. From there many destinations were possible – but the question still was 'where?'. Then at last God made the way forward clear, in a positive rather than a negative fashion. This may only be projection, of course; but I think that Paul and company could've been rather fed up by this stage. They had walked for weeks, maybe months, never being sure of exactly where God was leading them – until Troas. Given their prior experiences, I'd guess that some of the 'No's' came with a bump. But Luke didn't ever detail how God's Spirit (who's also know as the Spirit of Jesus) told them where he didn't want them to go. It's not until this dream/vision in Troas that we know clearly what God's plan was!
It's also in Troas that Luke joined the story in person. Note how the party became 'we' in verse 10 for the first time. So if he'd thought it important that his readers know how God says 'No', Luke could easily have written a fresh record of that down here. Oasis leader Steve Chalke once said that our problem is that we understand life backwards. The hard part of that equation comes from the fact that we have to live life forwards! So I wonder if there's an element here of Luke's emphasis being on the positive, the exciting way ahead. The uncertainties had been resolved; the frustrations were all over; the path was clear as day; God had spoken in a vision; they could move onward and upward confidently.
There is no doubt that this was a truly significant moment for the gospel. Here the good news about Jesus crossed over into mainland Europe, in modern Greece. It took root there, spread across the whole continent, and has shaped it (and us) for 2 000 years. What an amazing dream God gave Paul; what incredible things he did off the back of getting Paul to Troas by hook or by crook. It's quite right that Luke should want to move events on, with stories of how the gospel began to shake Europe just as it had the Middle East. And of course that is what we'll be looking at – and hopefully learning from – in the weeks ahead. Our aim is still for this same good news of Jesus to shape, and shake, our lives and this community.
But in my final thoughts today I want to go back, though – to what we might see as those dark days for Paul and his companions. This is something most of us experience – no matter how much we pray, ask God to show us his way, and listen as best we can for answers. All that becomes clear to us is that whatever route we're trying to go in faith isn't God's way. We often then have to press on again, in a different direction, still in faith; and we may not seem to do much better next time either. That's certainly 1 description of the PCC's experience of trying to discern God's future for St John's, for example. For years we have tried different ways forward in faith, and no doors have stayed open. We're trying again, though, in faith. There are various ways to read what's happening there now – and only time will tell which of those readings is right.
And that is exactly my concluding point. There are these times in our walk with God when we must 'just' press on in faith, only hearing God's 'No', and not knowing for sure which way to turn next. Yes, that can be hard, frustrating, painful even. But this story encourages us to keep on trusting that God truly does have a plan, and that, when He gets us there, it may well be amazing. It helps greatly to know too that God can use any messes we may make along the way. But most of all we can be sure that in His right time God really will speak His glorious 'Yes' – and then there will be no more doubt. So if today you have not got there yet, to hearing that glorious Divine 'Yes', keep on keeping on, knowing what is surely yet to come. And so let's pray ...
posted by Parish Administrator at 12:37 pm
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