Sermon 18th September 2011

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Trevor Tayleur, preaches, based on the reading from Matthew 10 verses 1-10 and 16-20.

Sent Out

When have you felt under pressure? The Rugby World Cup in New Zealand is well under way. The New Zealand All Blacks are the hot favourites. But at every World Cup since 1987 they’ve been one of the favourites, if not the favourites, and every time they’ve lost a crucial match. In 1995 South Africa beat them in the final, as portrayed in the film Invictus. At other World Cups the French and Australians have proved their downfall. So the pressure is really on the All Blacks now the World Cup is on their home territory. Will they at long last win it, or will they choke yet again, as the pundits are rather unfairly asking?

A lot is written about the pressure on leadings sportsmen and women. Next year the likes of Jessica Ennis, Tom Daley and Mo Farah will be under great pressure to win gold medals for Great Britain at London 2012. But actually it is possible to overstate the pressures of sport. Keith Miller was a famous Australian cricketer after the 2^nd World War, and during the War he had been a fighter pilot. An interviewer once asked him if he ever felt under pressure on the cricket field. "Pressure, I'll tell you what pressure is,'' he replied. "Pressure is a Messerschmitt chasing after you, playing cricket is not.” Keith Miller did express it a bit more graphically than that, but he’s right. Life and death situations are undoubtedly far more pressurised than anything anyone ever experiences while playing sport. Fire fighters putting out a blazing inferno and soldiers preparing for battle know what real pressure is.

Jesus’ 12 disciples must have felt under a lot of pressure here in Matthew chapter 10. At the end of chapter 9 – in vs 36-8, we read that when Jesus “saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. [And] he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.’”

So Jesus sent out some workers to minister to the crowds. And those workers were in fact the disciples themselves – the twelve. It was they who were being sent out to spread the good news of the kingdom of God. I wonder how the twelve felt? They must have felt the pressure, for Jesus had given them a daunting mission, to go out and to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven has come near. They were to heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who had leprosy and drive out demons. Expansion was on the agenda, and the twelve had been given authority over disease and evil spirits. They had seen Jesus do mighty works; now it was their turn. That must have been rather daunting. But then Jesus piled on the pressure. “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves,” he told them.

We’ve perhaps lost the impact of these words through becoming familiar with them, but this is a brutal image. What happens to a sheep if it’s sent into a pack of wolves? A sheep amongst wolves! What a metaphor! The shepherd sent his sheep amongst the wolves. There are a lot of images in the Bible of the Good Shepherd rescuing his sheep. Indeed, we’ve had a sermon earlier this year about Jesus, the Good Shepherd. But the image of sheep amongst wolves is not one we think about very often. The message to the disciples was clear. They must expect opposition.

Yes, Jesus was saying to the disciples, as he sent them out on their mission, You must expect opposition. And where was this opposition going to come from? In vs 17, we see that it was going to come from the synagogues, from the religious leaders. From vs 18 we see that it was going to come from governors and kings, from the government. And if we look ahead to vs 21, we see that opposition would come even from family. Jesus was making it clear that the world was going to be opposed to God and to his people.

Now it’s probably fair to say that we as Christians in London in the 21^st Century do not face a lot of opposition in the way the early Christians faced opposition, or indeed in the way millions of Christians have faced opposition throughout the history of the church. Richard Dawkins and the new atheists have launched some strong attacks on Christianity. Some Christians have had problems in their workplace and indeed been sacked, but it’s still the case that we have it fairly easy compared to the disciples. We don’t expect to be hauled off to the courts for what we believe. We don’t expect to be beaten up because we speak about Jesus. We don’t expect to be charged with treason because we declare that Jesus is our king. We tend to take it for granted that we live in a tolerant society.

On the other hand we also know that in some parts of the world Christians do face persecution. And we shouldn’t be surprised when that happens. The message that Jesus brought was revolutionary, and revolutionaries are usually regarded as dangerous people. So Tom Wright, the former Bishop of Durham, issued this challenge in his commentary: “The question we face is not so much, ‘Isn’t it a shame that the rest of the world isn’t as tolerant as we are?’, but ‘Is this a sign that Christianity in the West has somehow compromised itself?’”

Certainly the history of the church has borne out Jesus’ warnings to his disciples. They were indeed beaten up, persecuted, thrown into prison and killed. They incurred the anger of religious and political leaders. Families have been divided by their response to Jesus’ message.

So, how does this apply to us? Some of Jesus’ instructions were very much specific to the twelve. For example, he said to them: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.” (vs 5-6) That obviously doesn’t apply to us, for the good news of Jesus has now spread far and wide. But there are also principles that apply to us today.

Jesus saw that the people were in need. Jesus himself healed the sick, raised the dead, cleansed those who had leprosy and drove out demons. Jesus sent out the twelve to continue that mission, to proclaim that the kingdom of God was near. He also gave them the authority to perform great miracles on his behalf. He gave them authority to act and speak on his behalf – to heal the sick, to raise the dead and drive out demons. The mission that Jesus gave the twelve was the same as his own mission. It’s not as if Jesus had a mission that stopped and came to an end. Jesus gave the twelve the authority to carry out his mission. Their mission was Jesus’ mission. And at Pentecost God sent the Holy Spirit, so that we can continue to carry out the mission of Jesus – which was the mission of the twelve.

Now the mission that we have takes a different form. We don’t raise the dead as dramatically and obviously as Jesus raised the dead. We don’t cast out demons in the same way as Jesus and the apostles did, though perhaps we should take the powers of evil more seriously than we do. But the mission that Jesus gave to the twelve - to proclaim the Good News that the kingdom of God is near – is the same as the mission given to the church throughout the ages. We have been caught up in the mission of Jesus, the same sending. We don’t necessarily cast out demons, but we do fight against the powers of evil. We may not raise the dead, but we do proclaim a Gospel of life that will release people from the sting of death, the last enemy. We may not cleanse lepers in the literal sense, at least not in Britain, but we are called to bring people who are outcasts into the fellowship of the church. And while we may not see healing miracles on the same scale as in the time of Jesus, many Christians can testify that miracles of healing happen today.

This is our mission. It may take a different form, but it’s the same mission that we have been given from Pentecost to the end of the world. It sounds a very impressive mission, doesn’t it, to go to out to the world with the authority given to us by Jesus and empowered by the Holy Spirit. Jesus sent the twelve out with the power to heal the sick, cast out demons and raise the dead. But then there’s a sudden shift of emphasis in vs.16 when Jesus said, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.”

What happened to the power then? Jesus warned the twelve that people were going to hate them, that they were going to be arrested and thrown into prison. So what happened to the power? Now the church’s mission does entail power. Jesus gave the twelve power; he has given the church the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of the resurrection. Yes, he has given the church power, but that power is shown in a way that contradicts the normal understanding of power; it is shown in suffering. Jesus’ mission means power, but it also means the Cross. The Cross is as much a part of the mission of the church as is power over death and demons. The church will face opposition, and sometimes that opposition will be vicious and murderous.

An interesting feature of our Gospel passage is that the twelve were both shepherds and sheep. Jesus saw the need of the people, harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. And so he sent the twelve out to them. And then he told the disciples that he was sending them out like sheep among wolves. They were shepherds, but also sheep vulnerable to wolves. If we are involved in mission, are we shepherds trying to gather together the vulnerable and oppressed, or are we sheep ourselves, vulnerable and oppressed? It’s both. When the church goes into society that is divided between wolves and sheep, there is only one place the church should be. And that place is with the sheep and overcoming the wolves by suffering alongside the sheep.

While I was growing up in South Africa, while apartheid was in force, the division between the sheep and the wolves was obvious. The division in Britain is more subtle, but our mission is to be on the side of the sheep and not the wolves. And standing on the side of the sheep can sometimes be a difficult to place to be in. And if we are going out as sheep amongst wolves, then Jesus has given us some advice on how we should act. In vs 16 Jesus went on to say: “Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.”

To be shrewd means to be acute in perception and sound in judgment. And in Jesus’ time the snake was seen as an animal of great wisdom and cunning. Snakes know the right time to strike and the right time to back off. That’s shrewdness. But also be as innocent as doves, Jesus urged. Doves were seen as symbols of peace, because of their non-violent nature. And they were also seen as a symbol of purity because of their natural innocence.

Innocent shrewdness seems an odd concept, but it’s something we do need. Jesus not only knew his followers would have to exist in a sinful environment, he actively "sent" them into that environment. But before he sent them he called them to consider where it was that they were going. Christians that are naive and unprepared for the reality of the world in which we live will fall down. Christ has sent us out into a world that is full of challenges, dangers and difficulties. We live in a culture that is often at best uninterested in Christianity and at worst hostile. There is pressure on us to compromise our standards, to blend in with the rest of the world. As Christians we need to know the challenges that we will face in a fallen world. We need to be ready to meet those challenges, but at the same time we need to keep our innocence.

Jesus sends out into the world, a very different world from the one the twelve encountered. But it is still a world full of need, full of people who are lost and who need a shepherd. And even if we in London don’t face the dangers that the twelve faced, there is still plenty of pressure on us. The church is under a lot of pressure today, but so were the twelve. That didn’t stop them, because the church has an unstoppable mission, but that mission must also involve bearing the Cross. Jesus had compassion on the crowds, so he sent the twelve out to them, on a mission to tell them the good news of his Kingdom. Do we have the same compassion as Jesus had for people in need? Are we willing to follow in the footsteps of the twelve?

Let’s pray: “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves.” Lord God, we pray that you will give us innocent shrewdness as we seek to stand for Jesus in a world that increasingly doesn’t care about him or is indeed hostile to him. And in the midst of the pressures we face, give us compassion for a world that needs Jesus, but so often fails to realise it.

Amen.

Sermon 11th September Racial Justice Sunday

Today our Curate, Gill Tayleur, preaches based on Matthew 5 continuing the study series on discipleship.

8 year old Sally brought her report card home from school. Her marks were mostly good, As and a couple of Bs. However her teacher had written across the bottom:
Sally is a clever girl, but she talks too much in class. I have an idea I am going to try, which I think may break her of the habit. Sally’s dad signed the card, adding the note:
Please let me know if your idea works on Sally, because I would like to try it out on her mother.

Who teaches you?
Whose disciple are you?
Who do you follow?

“No-one!”? Much as we like to think of ourselves as ‘our own person’, the truth is we are greatly influenced by others, and often learn from them how to live. Aristotle said that we owe more to our teachers than to our parents, for though our parents gave us life, our teachers taught us the good life. So, whose disciple are you? Who do you follow?

Probably, like me, you’re the disciple of several people, living and dead. People who’ve been there at crucial times in our lives, and influenced our responses to what’s happening, our thoughts, feelings and actions. First our parents and family, school teachers, friends, and later our colleagues, maybe bosses or mentors, politicians, musicians or public figures. Or maybe we just follow the crowd. Whoever it is, we’re still influenced; we still learn from others, what life’s all about, and how to live it.

BUT we can choose who we follow! As we heard last week at the start of this series on discipleship, Jesus calls people to follow him. “Follow me!” he says. Learn from me, how to live.

We’ve just read the opening paragraphs of the Sermon on the Mount, in which Jesus teaches his listeners about how to live, as his disciples, as his followers. He teaches them about the OT law, about money, sex and power. He teaches them the attitudes they’re to have, the thoughts they’re to have, the words to speak and the behaviours to live. He spoke primarily to his disciples, we read in the first 2 verses. But others obviously listened in too, as at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in chapter 7 it says the crowd was amazed at his teaching. Well for all who heard it, and for us hearing it today, this sermon is all about how to live as a follower or disciple of Jesus.

Jesus starts this sermon with these famous verses known as the Beatitudes.
Each of 8 statements that start with “happy!” or “blessed!”

Blessed are the poor in spirit! Blessed are those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and the persecuted.

We may be familiar with these Beatitudes, but let’s try to look afresh at them and see how topsy turvey they are, how upside down to how we naturally see things. They’re counter intuitive and counter cultural. Since when was it a good thing to mourn, or to be persecuted? Since when did it pay in life to be meek or merciful?! How do those things show us to be happy or blessed?

Before we go on, a quick word about this happiness or blessedness. The Good News Bible we use at St Saviour’s says “happy” but Bible scholars point out that happy isn’t a very good translation here. Blessed, the more traditionally used word, is probably better.
The state of happiness depends on hap, that is chance, or on our outward circumstances, what HAP-pens to us. Whereas the state of blessedness, is a deeper joy and hope that we can know regardless of our circumstances. This blessedness comes from knowing God’s love and following Jesus, whatever situation we’re in. It’s untouchable by life’s circumstances! Isn’t that wonderful?!

So these Beatitudes show the mindset, the attitudes, the Beatitude attitudes (!), that Jesus says will cause us to be profoundly fulfilled and have a deep sense of joy and hope.
And these attitudes reflect Jesus’ own attitude, his humility and self sacrifice, in contrast to that of the world around. That’s particularly obvious in the last Beatitude, blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness! The verse that follows has one more blessed about being persecuted and insulted and lies told about you.
When you behave in a way that reflects Jesus’ topsy turvy beatitude attitudes, others don’t like it, don’t like it at all. Today is Racial Justice Sunday and we don’t have to think very hard to remember brave men and women who have been ill treated for working for righteousness, for being merciful and working for peace.
We could think of someone like Martin Luther King, or Nelson Mandela, or countless less well known people whose sacrifice and work has brought racial justice to many, in our land and across the world. And of course such justice is still denied many people today, and we think of them and pray for them especially this Sunday. The focus of this year’s Racial Justice Sunday is on human trafficking, as there are 480 people every day who are trafficked, that is forced into slavery or abuse, mostly girls and women for commercial sexual exploitation. Thank God for those who are fighting for justice for such people, even at a cost to themselves. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness!

So each of the 8 Beatitudes shows an attitude, and a reward, a blessing. A blessing in our life with God, for now and later, now and for eternity.

Well there’s lots more that could be said about the Beatitudes and their blessings, but in this series on discipleship, today I want to move on to the next verses, about what Jesus said the consequences would be of living these Beatitude attitudes. He says that if you live like this, with these attitudes, and your actions reflect them, if you live as true disciples, then you’ll have a profound effect on the world around you. You’ll make an enormous difference. “You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world.”

The Message paraphrase of the Bible, says, “Let me tell you why you’re here. You’re to be the salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavours of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste Godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage. Here’s another way to put it: you’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world.”

Salt was, and is, used to give flavouring and act as a preservative. Without it food can be bland, and goes off. Followers of Jesus, his disciples, are to make the world a purer and more palatable place, preventing corruption and bringing God’s love and hope to the world.

And light is crucial for life! Perhaps we don’t appreciate the light we have, because we always have it, we’re not used to real darkness. Here in London there’s always some light, even at night. When we were on holiday abroad a few weeks ago, there was a power cut, just for a minute or so, but for that little while we literally couldn’t see A THING. Couldn’t see our hands in front of our faces. It was scary! Even a little light, one small candle, makes a huge difference in complete blackness. And a lot of lights, in a city on a hill, give light for all to see for miles around.

So salt and light can and should have a huge impact. But only if the salt stays salty. Strictly speaking pure salt can’t lose its salinity, saltiness. But the impure salt dug from the shores of the Dead Sea could gradually become unsalty as the actual sodium chloride dissolved.
And light is only effective if it’s on a stand, not hidden under a bowl! That would make it useless!

Jesus is saying that if his disciples make no effort to affect the world around them, they’re of little use to God. We shouldn’t blend in. We should affect others positively, be a Godly force for good, bringing out those God-flavours and God-colours in the world! To do so, we must preserve our distinctive character, that comes from the attitudes in the Beatitudes. To do so, we must learn from Jesus how to live as his followers.

A few months ago I read this very interesting and challenging book by Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy. In it, he says being a follower or disciple of Jesus means we choose to be students or apprentices of him. We choose to learn from Jesus, every day, actually learning to do what Jesus taught.

He says being a disciple means being with Jesus, to learn from him, how to be like him.
He says, “I am learning from Jesus to live my life, as he would live my life if he were me. I am not necessarily learning to do everything Jesus did, but I am learning how to do everything I do, in the manner that he did things.

This is learning from Jesus how to live our lives, our real lives, our whole lives, the lives we’ve been given with the time, place, family, neighbours, personality, talents, finance, challenges and opportunities that are ours.

Let’s be specific and think about how we spend our working hours. Most of us spend a huge chunk of our life working, whether it’s paid or unpaid work, for someone else, or we’re self employed, or the work we do caring for our family, young or old. Or if we’re retired, the things we do in the week, to care for ourselves and others. Let’s call this our work, whichever of those things it is.

To be a disciple of Jesus, is to be learning from Jesus how to do our work as Jesus himself would do it. He was a carpenter, but might equally have been in another job. If he were to come today as he did then, he might be a school classroom assistant, a postman, a dentist, a bus driver, a lawyer, a physiotherapist, a cleaner, a full time parent, a student, an estate agent, a small businessman or a care assistant.
How would Jesus do that work, your work?
...
How would Jesus deal with the particular people you work with? The children, the customers, your boss?
What issues would Jesus be concerned about, in your work?
What might he want to challenge or change?
What would his priorities be?
Who would he watch out for?
How would Jesus do your work?
...
This idea that Jesus can teach us in our work, as well as everything else, really struck me. In Colossians we read that everything was made through Jesus, and he has knowledge and wisdom about everything! And that includes your field of work and mine.
This may be a new idea to you too, that Jesus is the authoritative expert on nursing, and accounts, and toddlers, and driving, and dementia, and European law, and dealing with rude customers and difficult colleagues?!
So we can learn from Jesus, as his disciples, how to do our work as he would, and our job can be a primary place of apprenticeship to Jesus. If it’s not, we’re cutting out a big chunk of our life from him!

So, how can we do our work as Jesus would?
Not by being the Christian critic, or being self righteous, or a killjoy, that’s for sure.
But perhaps by sensitive service to others.
By genuine love for everyone involved in the work.
By refusal to press for financial advantage.
By non-retaliation.
By gently but firmly not cooperating with things that everyone knows to be wrong.
By routinely sacrificing one’s comfort and pleasure for the quality of the work.
And by watching out for any obvious spiritual need or interest in Jesus, and being willing to speak up when there is. Sometimes, actions alone are not enough. These days, people accept that others behave and live in all sorts of ways, without questioning them. “Live and let live” is the slogan; so no-one may ever know why you are different unless you’re willing to speak up about your faith in Jesus.
Wow! Wouldn’t that lot bring God-flavours and God-colours to the place you work?

Finally then, HOW do we become a serious disciple or apprentice of Jesus?
First, we ask him! We emphatically and repeatedly express to Jesus our desire to see him more fully as he really is, as the one who can teach us everything we need to know – everything! We will discover that he is so wise, powerful, beautiful and good that we want to be guided, instructed and helped by him in every aspect of our lives.
So, secondly, we need to spend time in his presence, to learn from him, that’s praying and reading the Bible, and meditating on it, mulling it over, sometimes for extended periods. Trying to get wet from standing under a few drops of water every day, just doesn’t work. It’ll keep you damp, but to get soaked, sometimes you’ve got to have a shower! So sometimes we need to spend more than a few rushed minutes with him, we need an hour or a day put aside to be with and learn from him as our teacher.
Third, we decide to! Make it a deliberate intention, a priority. It’s your choice, and mine! So, will we take seriously the challenge to be a real disciple of Jesus?

If we do, then not only will our lives be turned upside down, but the impact we’ll have on those around us will be like salt and light. We’ll be part of bringing out the God-flavours and God-colours of our world.

And the point of it all? That God may be praised! “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
Yes, we’ll be “blessed!”, in the Beatitude sense, of a deep joy and hope that circumstances can’t touch. But as Cameron reminded us last week, the Christian life, the life of discipleship to Jesus, is NOT ABOUT US. It’s ALL ABOUT HIM, ALL ABOUT JESUS.
And so let’s follow him.

And now let’s pray...
Jesus we thank and praise you that we can have the privilege of following you. Help us to learn how to do that, in every aspect of our lives, day by day. May we have a deep, far reaching impact for good, in our homes, neighbourhood, work and the world around us. Amen.






DISCIPLESHIP
MATTHEW 5: 1-16
QUESTIONS TO PONDER

How would Jesus live my life?

How would Jesus do my ‘work’?
How would Jesus deal with the particular people I am with each day?
What issues would Jesus be concerned about, in my ‘work’ and life?
What might Jesus want to challenge or change?
What would His priorities be?
Who would He watch out for?

In my ‘work’, how do I measure up on:
Being a critic, self righteous or a killjoy?
Sensitive service to others?
Genuine love for everyone involved?
Refusal to press for financial advantage?
Non-retaliation?
Gently but firmly not cooperating with things that everyone knows to be wrong?
Routinely sacrificing my comfort and pleasure for the quality of the work?
Watching out for any obvious spiritual need or interest in Jesus?
And a willingness to speak when there is?

Sermon 4th September 2011

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches based on the reading from Matthew 4 verses 18-25

Peter had a temper;
Miriam was a gossip;
Jacob was a cheater;
Noah got drunk;
David had an affair;
Jonah ran away from God;
one Mary was a worrier;
another Mary was a prostitute;
Thomas was a doubter;
Paul was a murderer;
Sarah was impatient;
Elijah was moody;
Moses stuttered;
Gideon was insecure;
Zacchaeus was short;
Abraham was old;
and Lazarus was dead!

So what's YOUR reason for thinking that God isn't interested in, or can't do anything, with you, then?

As ever, chances are that I am – quite literally – preaching to the converted. You are probably listening to this sermon because you have already made the fundamental decision: to respond to God's call to you. At some time, in some way, however gradually it may have been, you have found yourself following after Jesus – even though he died some 2 000 years ago. Doubtless you are also all too aware that taking that key decision didn't make you perfect. You don't always get it right. In fact, if you're anything like me, you're probably amazed that God still bothers with you at all! How many times has He shown, or taught you this, or that, already? And how many more times will it take, until you do actually learn, and live, it, finally? Maybe, that is. Until the next time!

Well, that's why this autumn's series is for you, no matter where you are with God. It may be that you have already been well described. Maybe you're one of those who has been experiencing the ups and downs along this discipleship road for some time. Or it may be that you are at a rather earlier stage of this journey. Perhaps you're still wondering what this being a Christian lark is all about. Wherever you are along that spectrum, though, this series is for you. That's because it's inviting each one of us to take the next step forward. Your next step may well be different to mine, and to anybody else's. But what is for sure is that there is a next step for you. You see, faith in Jesus is a journey, and an adventure. It's one that is never over, until you meet him, face to face. So come on, then: it's time to press onwards.

Now, to coin a phrase, the greatest journey always begins with the first step. That's why we're beginning our term’s journey here, at the start of Jesus' public ministry in Matthew. Yes, it is half-way through Chapter 4 already; but Matthew had much to say to his readers before he could get to this point in his story about Jesus. To explain it briefly, the headline summary of this gospel is that it was most likely written for a mainly Jewish readership. I say “most likely”, because of course we don't know for sure. As with many of the books of the Bible, we don't know much very exactly: we don’t know when it was written; or where; or who for; or even who by, in this case!

This one has been known as Matthew since the 1st Century; but no such claim is made anywhere in the book itself. So it could have been written by Matthew, who might formerly have been known as Levi, the ex-tax-collector, who was one of Jesus' 12 disciples. In many ways it doesn't matter who wrote it – any more than it matters who it was particularly written to. There is plenty that we can work out from going at it backward; but what matters most is the fact that this is a book about the life of Jesus. Whoever wrote it, at whatever point in the 1st Century, what they wanted people to know above all is about who Jesus is. More than that, they wanted people to know not just what he did, but how anyone, at any point in history, can also become one of his followers. And of course that includes you, in the 21st Century!

Discipleship is one – of four – of the clear major themes in Matthew's gospel; and those other three are very closely related to it. It's also no surprise that each of the other three gospels also have discipleship as one of their own main themes. We certainly saw this theme in our series on John before the summer break. In case you missed it, it's best summed up by where we ended – with Jesus' call for us to go and bear fruit for him. Well, in the same way, Luke and Mark have discipleship among their major themes too. Like Matthew and John, they each bring their own distinct flavour to the subject. I won't name those other two now – mostly because our focus in this series is solely on Matthew's gospel.

What we do need to know from the outset, though, is the Matthew-take on discipleship. It's best summed up by this phrase: “Examples with a commission”. That's at the heart of what it means to be a disciple in the story of Jesus as it is told by Matthew. Disciples above all are those who serve as examples to others. They / we can and do serve as examples both positively and negatively – as we will see time and again between now and Advent. I don't want to spoil any of the fun, but that's good news for anyone – so that's all of us – who gets it wrong occasionally. We, and others, can learn as much from our mistake as we can from our successes. As is often the way, maybe we and others can learn more from those failures than we can from the successes. And the biggest lesson is surelythat it's more about God than it is about us.

That feeds into the second part of this discipleship picture in Matthew. Examples, yes, we are indeed meant to be – but examples with a commission. We have been chosen, by Jesus. That's not often how WE see things, of course! We tend to think more in terms of a decision that we have made. We have decided to follow Jesus, we think. But if I were to say that 'It's not about you', that will hopefully be familiar to those who were here in Lent. If I then add, 'It's all about Him', some will recognise both statements as among the classic one-liners from our “Purpose Driven Life” study book. More importantly they both remind us how this is all God's plan, God's initiative, and God's action, in Jesus.

It is also important to say that this discipleship course that we are doing from Matthew is part of a bigger picture. It's based on our commitment to keep learning from all that God taught us at the start of this year. To be purposeful about it, then: this is to help us learn more of our Godly purpose of having been Created to become like Christ. That's what it means to be a disciple, or follower of Christ, after all – to become like him. The word ‘Christian’ literally means ‘little Christ’. But, as we have already seen in Matthew, it's more than that as well. Disciples aren't 'just' those who have been called to be with Jesus; or 'just' to be examples; we're also commissioned by Jesus, to continue his work and ministry.

That's another theme which we will see time and again in this series, then. After spending time being with Jesus, learning from him, watching him, his disciples are sent off to go and do what he has taught them. Matthew then ends his gospel with the risen Jesus sending his disciples out, literally to the ends of the earth. That's where we will end this series on discipleship. We will see how Jesus then gave his disciples their job. It is the same job that his disciples today also have: to carry the message, work and ministry of Jesus to all people everywhere. And the sharp-witted will surely recall how that is the last of our five life-purposes too. Yes, we have each been Made for Mission: to carry on Jesus' work.

So there's the outline agenda for adults here over the next three months. We'll be seeing, and learning, what it means to be examples, with a commission. We'll be doing that from selected stories told in Matthew's gospel; and doing it in the context of two of our life-purposes: that we have been Created to become like Christ; and that we have been Made for a Mission: Jesus'. But I dare to suggest that none of that will even be possible unless we get our starting point right. What we have to admit today, then, is that this is all about Him, and not about us. Unless we can let go of any clinging illusions that we are in charge, we won't be able to follow where God is wanting to lead us, personally or as church.

If you have any doubts about that, look at what happened with these two pairs of brothers in today's reading. As so often with Matthew, this is shorthand, a summary of events. The second part of today's reading is also a summary, but more obviously so. Although his is the longest gospel, Matthew was a pithy story-teller, usually in a hurry to get to the meaty bits. Both sets of brothers had already heard and seen Jesus around their fishing town, Capernaum. Matthew left others to tell that part of the story. He jumped straight to the brothers’ point of decision: in response to Jesus' call. Jesus took the initiative: he approached them – which was very unusual at that time. He told them to leave everything and everyone they knew; and it was a lot! As fishermen, they had families, thriving businesses, and a secure future. Jesus simply told them to come and follow him – and expected them to obey instantly. They did; and just look what happened.

If you're not sure what happened, make sure that you are here to hear it as this series unfolds. Either way, I encourage you to read Matthew at home in the week too; and to catch up or re-read the sermons on our website. No matter where you are on this journey there will be steps to take that will lead you further along. All you have to do is be willing to answer Jesus' call obediently; no matter what the cost, or the risk. You see, the bottom line is that you too have been made to be an Example with a Commission. Wouldn't it be great if by us being that, people rushed here from all over to meet with Jesus? Let’s pray that it will indeed be so, then ...

Sermon 21st August

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Adjoa Andoh Cunnell, preaches based on the reading from Acts 10, verses 1-8

Last Sunday Do you remember Adrian managed the marvellous feat of 2 sermons in 1; snapshots from the riots in one, Vanessa throwing the pink fluffy dice, Ben as Aeneas getting healed by Freya’s Peter in the other. But both sermons talked about the way God communicated with people through the miracle of healing, for Aeneas who was able to walk ,and for Tabitha who was raised from the dead.
And Adrian asked us to think about what God had said to us last week through the riots. What had He communicated to us?
Well we’re going to try a little speaking listening and communicating of our own this morning…

Do What The Angel Tells You
Whisper phrase from both sides. Simon will start it and the last ones come and tell Me.

Quietly pass it on to your neighbour, so they can hear it but not so we can all hear it. Let’s see if what Simon says reaches us at the front….
After
Sometimes we can clearly make out what God is trying to communicate with us and do what he asks,
sometimes it gets confused, because we aren’t listening carefully or don’t want to hear what he has to say to us,
or we haven’t realised that was God speaking to us.
God can communicate with us in all sorts of ways.
And fantastically along with miracles, answers to prayer, he sometimes sends angels; as he did with Cornelius in this morning’s passage.
Cornelius, the Roman commander of an Italian Band, not a bunch of musicians, but a troop of Italian soldiers , 600 of them, working for the Roman Empire.
Cornelius is an officer in the Roman Army.
This would have made him hated by many patriotic Jews, since the Roman army was the army of occupation in Israel at that time, and Caesarea where Cornelius is stationed is the headquarters of the Roman Governor of Judea.

So it must have seemed a strange thing that a Roman Officer as powerful as Cornelius would choose to worship the God of the people whose land he and his army were occupying…
I imagine some of the officers he worked alongside might have laughed at him, even disliked him for it.

All the same Cornelius and all his family believe in God. Cornelius loves God and makes sure to do all the things he is supposed to in obedience to God, praying to God always and giving money generously to those in need.

So, following the rules of the Jewish faith at the 9th hour, what we would call 3 o’clock in the afternoon (9 hours after dawn) he and his family and servants are praying.
Now at the 9th hour as Cornelius prays an angel appears to him and tells him what God wants him to do.
The Bible tells us of over 300 times when Angels are sent by God to communicate with people, from Genesis to Revelations and sometimes people hear clearly what God wants them to do ….like in our whispering ….and sometimes they don’t.
Can anyone here think of some of those times when angels appear to people in the Bible?
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Elizabeth, Mary

Well God sent me an angel this week, a lady angel, in fact I think she’s here (…she was at St Sav’s , Simon saw her didn’t you Simon…can you describe her….). Do you think I’ve gone bonkers…can you stand up Lady Angel… yes her name’s Melissa.
I don’t think Melissa is an angel for everyone or even if she will ever be an angel again, but last Wednesday morning she was for me.
I was walking from my house to Herne Hill station to catch a train to work in North London, and when I got to the station who should I see sitting in the waiting room but Melissa.
She looked busy texting or reading something on her mobile so I thought ‘oh I won’t bother her,’
but I then I thought ,’oh go on then there’s a little while till the train goes, go and say hello she can always tell me to clear off…tho you probably wouldn’t would you??

Now unbeknownst to Melissa, as I walked to the train station that morning, I had been praying to God about this morning.
‘Oh God’, I was praying, ‘can you help me out here, I have a sermon to give on Sunday as you know and I can’t hear what you want me to say.
It’s the 41st anniversary of Linus Van Pelt falling in love with Sally Brown in the Peanuts, Charlie Brown cartoons , I like the Peanuts cartoons, they’re fun can I do something about that?
Or what about the riots,should I talk about them?... Oh but Adrian talked about that last Sunday, have we had enough of that?
Or has anything funny happened to me this week…anything funny about Roman soldiers? How about Asterix?
Or how about how Cornelius’ name sounds a bit like corned beef….
No? Oh I don’t know God but it’s Wednesday already and I’ve got loads of other stuff to think about work stuff and home stuff and holiday stuff please can you help, so I don’t waste everyone’s Sunday morning…’.

So that’s what I’d been thinking of on my walk to the station.
So now I saw Melissa, sat down with her and we started chatting….she and Dan the boys had been away on holiday to Jersey to visit family… and they hadn’t seen any news… and then they came back and oh my goodness! Riots!
What’s been going on?? They thought.
Well a train arrived and it turned out Melissa and I were both getting that train and Melissa was only getting off one stop before me, she Kentish Town , me West Hampstead…so quite a lot of stops, and quite a long time to talk….
As it turned out we didn’t talk about Peanuts and Charlie Brown, we didn’t talk about Asterix or even Corned Beef but we did talk about the riots - almost the whole way - and I talked about Adrian’s sermon last week, about ‘what has God been saying to you this week’
and Melissa said, ‘and when are you next talking in church…
ME: ooh this Sunday actually…
MEL: and are you talking about the riots…
ME: no Adrian did that last week
MEL: oh but you can still talk about it…
ME: oh I don’t know…
MEL: well I’d like to hear some more about it….

And then it struck me….
What had I been asking God for help with as I walked to the station?
And who did I start chatting to at the station?
And what did she keep going on at me to talk about?

Now I am not saying that anyone who speaks to you just after you’ve been praying will have a communication for you from God…it might just be the man who’s come to read the gas meter, or it might be the dog lady come to shampoo and blowdry your pooch with the firminator…
But sometimes I believe God may have things to say to us that we may hear from the gas man or the dog lady, or our friends or neighbours, our teachers, workmates or who knows - maybe even the preacher….
So we need to be alert….listening for God.

In this morning’s reading Cornelius is following God as well as he knows how, then the angel comes - an angel comes!! Can you imagine! and tells Cornelius to do something that seems quite odd, to send his servants to find a strange man in another city and do whatever that strange man says…. odd, but Cornelius does what he’s told, is obedient, and the man who comes to his house changes his life forever.
That man is Jesus’ disciple Peter, who tells Cornelius, that Jesus, the son of the God he worships, came to earth and died and came back to life, so that he Cornelius and all people no matter who they are Jews or Romans or whoever, could live with the God forever, be loved by him and have the love and the life God made them to have.

That news changes Cornelius’ life. He now understands that because of Jesus his relationship with the God is no longer that of just an obedient Roman follower of God, but as a child of God, blessed with the gift of the Holy Spirit which fills him and all his family as Peter preaches to him., God loves ALL people.
Peter says vv 34-35
GOOD NEWS
‘I now realize that it is true that God treats everyone on the same basis.
Those who worship him and do what is right are acceptable to him no matter what race they belong to.’
NIV
I now realize how true it is that God does not show favouritism.
But accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.

‘do what is right– doing good things for God, living the way God wants us to live.

Luke who is thought to have written the book of Acts’s , emphasizes that a life of faith in God needs to be a strongly ethical one, where we think about all we do in terms of whether our behavior pleases God.

It’s interesting that the time Cornelius is praying when the angel comes to him is the same time in (Acts 3:1) that Peter and John had been praying at the Beautiful gate when Peter healed the lame man in Jesus’ name.
As a result of that doing good, that healing and Peter’s preaching afterwards about 5000 people come to believe in Jesus; and even though it means Peter and John are arrested, once they are released they and all those believers in Christ with them are filled with the Holy Spirit as Acts Ch 4 verses 34-35 says:
. GOOD NEWS
With great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God poured rich blessings on them all. There was no one in the group who was in need. Those who owned fields or houses would sell them, bring the money received from the sale and hand it over to the apostles; and the money was distributed to each one according to his need.
NIV
With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them and brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

In the community of Christian believers Peter and John are a part of no one is ever short of the things they need everything is shared out according to what a person needs.
Luke says Jesus’ Good news is Good news for the poor.
And we see healing and preaching and doing good happening all through Acts.

I wonder how God is communicating with us, to tell us how we can change people’s lives in this country today?
How are we doing good?
Just as Cornelius life was changed forever because he did what God told him and Peter did what God told him.
When we reflect on the riots and what happens next in our community and our country, how can we share what we know about living as Christians?
- that we believe there is more to life than getting stuff, trainers, clothes, games, tv’s ,music players.
- How can we encourage our brothers and sisters to be part of the fun that were the clean up posses in Clapham,
- the fun of handing out cupcakes like Ms Cupcake did in Brixton,
- the we love Peckham post it notes people; writing the reasons why they love Peckham on post it notes stuck to a boarded up shop.
How do we all stop thinking about getting stuff and start thinking about doing stuff?

Luke thought to have written the book of Acts was also thought to have been a doctor:
So Dr Luke as Adrian as calls him, is, as we might expect , a great believer in healing, in doing stuff to make our world more like God’s kingdom.

Perhaps we can all pray that when God tries to tell us the things he’d like us to do for him, to change his world to be more like the world he wants for us,
perhaps when he communicates with us, maybe through something we read in our Bibles,
through something someone says to us a bit like Melissa with me on Wednesday,
however it may happen, perhaps if we pray and listen and give God the time, so we can do things for Him and his world, rather than get things for ourselves,
perhaps then we can change the burning buildings and the smashed up streets and all people’s lostness and sadness, into Ms Cupcake kindness, cleanup fun, Peckham love and a world where we are not consumers, buyers and sellers, but a family, brothers and sisters who belong to each other, who care about each other.

Jacques Ellud In his book on money –Jacques Ellud describes money as a loan from God, entrusted to us for the purpose of investing in the kingdom of heaven.

We are to bring in the Kingdom Of Heaven to the world around us through what we do, how we share God’s love, how we use his Loan.
MP’s Bankers Newspapers, Rioters we have seen all sorts of our brothers and sisters all trapped in the desperate need to get more stuff.
As Christians following the example of Jesus we must counter the getting more stuff with the giving of Christ’s love.
It doesn’t mean giving away all your lovely stuff, or never buying another thing, but perhaps we can just pause maybe and question
how we spend your money, on what;
where we give, for what purpose:
how we spend our time,?

Is what we do everyday repaying God’s Loan to us,
is it investing in his kingdom with our time , our love , our money,
Peter heals, an Angel speaks, Cornelius learns that God’s love is for everyone.
Are we hearing God when he speaks to us however it is he communicates?
Is our presence a healing one, is our message a loving one?
Perhaps we can show by example following in Jesus’ footsteps, that there is another way to live.
It’s not about getting more stuff it’s about giving God’s love.
Giving not getting. In God’s strength.
Amen