Sermon 27th May 2012

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches based on the reading from 1 Corinthians 13.

I wonder who’s possibly feeling mathematical today? Do please note how that is a rhetorical question – very rarely, but just in case the answer is “Nobody other than me”!

So here I go then, solo if need be. To make it easier to join in, we’ll use rounded-up figures. Take that 651 million that I began this series with, then. Hold the 0.15 of a second in mind too. To the first figure add 2.37 billion; and to the other 0.2 of a second. Then slap on a further 8.23 billion, in 0.17 of a second. I’ll bet that you won’t possibly have got to 52 million in 0.14 of a second! If you’re really quick, you will have totalled up 11 billion 251 million, in 0.52 of a second. However, the only number that you should be looking for is ... Infinity, of course!

That’s the only figure to remember from all of that: infinity. To confirm where the rest of them came from, they are all internet search results. That’s how many internet links there are to faith, to hope, and to love: 651 million, 2.37 billion, and 8.23 billion respectively. Put in those three as a single phrase, though, and there are ‘only’ about 52 million links to ‘faith, hope, love’ (in 0.14!). But centuries before the internet had even been dreamed of, the apostle Paul knew that faith, hope and love are eternal qualities that never end. And that’s how we get to infinity! Yes, as Paul wrote: (GNB) “These 3 remain: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love / (NIV) And now these 3 remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Our series does end today, though, after a truly amazing exploration of what lies at the heart of our life, individually and corporately. Talking of that exploration, this week I read through all 5 sermons in it – the 2 on faith, 2 on hope, and the 1 that we have had on love before today’s. In passing, I noted again how well served this parish is by all those who preach. Even if you have heard all of these sermons, read them again: read them as a unit, for all their variety, richness – and for their challenge too. Give them the time and attention that they will require to sink deep into your brain and your life: and, if you need any incentive, think of it as an investment in eternity.

I’d then say that it’s vital that we take today’s opportunity to note where we have each reached in this venture. As is the case with any journey, it likely started well before this series; and it certainly should carry on beyond it. But our Bishop invites us to pause at this point, to look around intentionally, to see where we are, and then to carry on. I trust that’s something many of us have already done in preparing for today. We have had the response cards from the beginning, and reminders that this isn’t about our heads so much as our hearts. It may be that for at least some it’s a case of writing down that we will ‘just’ carry on learning, growing and living as we are, in faith and hope and love. But it’s also quite possible that at Pentecost God’s Spirit is wanting to start something radically new and different in the lives of others of us.

That would be entirely fitting, for this day, and for this series alike. We began it by learning that in the Bible faith is a verb, a doing word. We heard that message even stronger when we started our second look at these 3 eternal qualities. As James put it in his letter to early Christians, “God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense”. Most people already know that love is a verb too, of course; as today’s wonderful passage has further reinforced. Hope is rather harder to define, perhaps – but what we also saw at the beginning is that faith, hope, and love are inextricably linked, in the Bible and in Christian experience. So I don’t think that it’s going too far to say that hope too is doing word, and so leads us to take action.

The specific action that we then take is, of course, up to us. What matters is that we take it – be it having faith in the existence of God, and therefore trusting Him, even when we have little or no evidence to go on; or by having that sure, eternal hope because of who Jesus is and what he did on the cross; or by loving God and our neighbours in what we do and think and say. There is plenty of scope in each and all of those general areas for most of us to grow into, I’d suggest. Christians are called to keep on doing precisely that throughout our lives with God. We are called to keep on growing in faith and hope and love; and yes, by that I do mean on into eternity as well!

In his letter to 1^st-Century Christians in Corinth, Paul was keen to help them develop this eternal perspective. Not to put too fine a point on it, they were rather immature – and it showed, in many areas of their Christian life. So Paul essentially wrote to tell them to grow up! As ever, Paul’s teaching here is universally applicable. All people in all ages can, and must, learn from it; but we all need to keep an eye on the context of it too. The part that’s especially relevant for us in this series is that about growing to maturity. In order to grow up, as we do all need to do, we need to ask ourselves questions, like: What is it that will last, and so matters most in our life with God? How then can we not ‘just’ prepare for eternity, but start living in it now? Paul’s clear answer here is that we do so by focusing our time, energy, and efforts on faith, and hope, and especially love.

Paul wasn’t particularly trying to rank these 3 eternal qualities. There is one possible reading of the Greek text that might mean Paul was saying that the greatest of these is God’s love. In one sense that’s true anyway – because it’s God who shows us what real love is. What all the scholars are fully agreed on, though, is that the early Christians redefined the meaning of love. They took the most rare of Greek’s four words for love, and made it their signature word for this kind of selfless, giving love. When we see the word agape – and we do so literally dozens of times in the New Testament – this is what it means. Paul expanded it most helpfully for us, who live centuries later. First, in verses 1-3 he listed all the Christian ways that it’s possible to act without love. By contrast, agape (GNB) “Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud; love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs; love is not happy with evil, but is happy with the truth. Love never gives up; and its faith, hope and patience never fail. Love is eternal. / (NIV) Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails”.

The age-old test that you are bound to have come across is still the best one around. Try putting your own name, or ‘I’ where it says (or means) love in verses 4-7, and see how loving you are in this Godly meaning of it. Like me, you may well be relieved that you will have eternity to keep on trying to do it right. That’s not any excuse not to love in the here and now, of course. As Gill explained four weeks ago, it is in our present that we experience God’s kind of love. It was while we were still sinners that God died for us. This agape love stems from the one who loves; it’s not about whether the one who is loved deserves it or not. But the point is that being loved in this way has to be transformative. “Love one another as I have loved you”, Jesus told his disciples. That’s a command that applies no less today than it did in the 1^st Century.

On this Pentecost Sunday we should also note that the first fruit that Paul listed as a sign of the Spirit at work in someone is love. God is love: we can’t have Him living inside us by His Spirit and not then become more like him. It’s a process that must begin now, but there is so more to it than ‘just’ that. As usual, Tom Wright has much that’s helpful to say on this. In his commentary on these verses he invites us to picture agape love as being like God’s river. It flows on, into God’s future, across the border, and on into God’s new country, where so much is so different. We are invited to step into this river here and now – and to let God’s love take us along, to where it is going. Our aim along this way is, with the help of God’s Spirit, to become creatures of loving habit, by loving so much and often! So how does that prospect sound to you, as series ends?

I do wonder what it is in these past 6 weeks that has struck particular chords in you. Of course I am trusting that at least one of these general topics of faith, hope and love has spoken into where you have reached on your journey with God. I am clear on what I have needed to hear, and now have to act on myself – and I can tell you that doing it isn’t easy. I have shed tears in filling in this response card. I have also underlined the phrase “I will ...” on it, because faith and hope and love are doing words. But I do believe with Paul, that these 3 do, and will, remain. The ways in which we work on acting in faith and hope and/or love now will carry on into eternity. The delight of making these commitments on Pentecost is that it reminds us of how we can ask God for the help of His Spirit. We can ask for His help every day, to be God’s people of faith and hope and love – and we can particularly ask when we need help most.

That may be the very best note to end this series on, in fact: with this invitation to make an intentional choice, to work on faith, hope, and/or love. It does require action on our part to do that – as fits well with the nature of these eternal, Godly qualities. Here is how we can strive to play our full part in God’s on-going work in His world. Refusing to take failure as final, we have confidence in the ultimate triumph of God’s grace, in faith hope and love. And so let’s pray ...

“God of faith, deepen our faith

so we may bear witness to Christ in the world;

God of hope, strengthen our hope

so we may be signposts to your transforming presence;

God of love, kindle our love

so that, in a fragile and divided world,

we may be signs of the faith, hope, love

which we share in Jesus Christ. Amen.”

Sermon 20th May 2012

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Adjoa Andoh-Cunnell, preaches a sermon on Hope.

I’m about to go off to SUA to play Portia in Julius Caesar  - a play about what happens next, when an autocratic leader is toppled, what happens next without a plan for the future beyond the toppling, what will fill the vacuum, a better, a worse…There is great uncertainty.

As I back my car out tomorrow morning, leaving my family to deal with GCSE’s, with each other, with missing me even, I hope everything will be alright.

I hope, but I won’t be here and my power to affect anything will be limited.

My hope for my family lies in their taking care of each other.

Their hope for me perhaps lies in me taking care of myself….

But what power do we really have over the hope in our lives

I came across

 A small boy's prayer:

"Dear God, I hope you take care of yourself. 'Cause if anything happens to you, we would all be in a terrible mess."

I am sharing that boy’s prayer knowing if I can only let go of the reins a little, God is the Hope I’ll need to rely on…

Bishop Christopher has called on us to consider Faith Hope and Love as foundations from which to go forward in mission in the world around us.

And I was thinking about what certainties we can rely on in an uncertain world.

Because God loves us, he sent Jesus to rescue us,

Because we have faith that Jesus can rescue us

We can have certain hope that takes us through each day of uncertainty.

Paul’s letter to the Romans from which we’ve read this morning, was written to prepare the way for a visit to the church at Rome. In a way as with Paul, Bishop Christopher is writing to us to explain his understanding of the Christian faith and its practical implications for the lives of Christians

In Romans 15:13 Paul prays

GOOD NEWS

May God, the source of hope, fill you with all joy and peace by means of your faith in him, so that your hope will continue to grow by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The NIV has it as:

NIV

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Paul’s prayer to the church at Rome is that by the power of the Holy Spirit they may overflow with hope, not just have hope but overflow with a hope that keeps growing.

Like a cup that is overfull or a river that breaks it banks Paul prays that we may grow so brimful with hope that it flow from us and spread out and around, and beyond us.

Are we feeling that brim full to overflowing in hope this morning?

What does hope give us, what does it feel like, what does it do for us, for our lives?

Paul talks of the joy and peace that follow from that Hope.

His is an emphatic prayer in the face of all the obstacles he faced in his own life. In the face of the arguing and disharmony within the young church in Rome, Paul is not asking God to bless that church with the ability to just keep going, he prays for such an abundance of hope that they will be overwhelmed and swept along in the hope that we have in Christ.

His is not a sensible prayer, it does not stay within the bounds of what may be practical or feasible, but then sensible does not explain his transformation from persecutor of the followers of Christ to evangelizer for Christ.

Sensible does not explain Christ’s death and coming back to life.

The God Paul is praying to, is like the hope Paul prays for, beyond sensible, he is the source, abundant, overwhelming, in the world and yet beyond our understanding.

I want to think about beyond, beyond our present circumstances, beyond what we believe to be our limits or capacities.

To think about our Hope in Christ and his Hope in us.

Taking a leaf from Cameron’s book I googled ‘Definition of Hope in the Bible’ and was greeted with over 43 and a half million entries in 26 seconds

So many entries and yet we experience hope as a very personal thing.

Each one of us carries our own hope or our own despair (despair meaning literally outside of hope) and for most of us I’m sure, we veer between the two.

Many people understand hope as a wishful thinking, as in

"I hope something will or will not happen."

A standard dictionary definition is

“to FEEL that something desired MAY happen:”

There is perhaps a vagueness, an uncertainty,

This is not what the Bible means by hope.

The biblical definition of hope can perhaps be summed up as

 “Hope anticipates good from God”

or

 "Hope is confident expectation."

In 1 Peter1: vv3-4 we read,

GOOD NEWS

 "Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy he gave us new life by raising Jesus Christ from death.

This fills us with a living hope, and so we look forward to possessing the rich blessings that God keeps for his people”.

NIV

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade – kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power.

Hope here is the radical result of God’s raising Jesus from the dead—which defines everything to follow. Because of Easter, our future is no longer vague and uncertain. We have an inheritance ..

GOOD NEWS

‘..”that cannot decay or spoil or fade away (v. 4).

NIV

that can never perish, spoil or fade

So Hope, is not simply emotion, attitude, or a feeling. It is a confidence that defines us as Christians.

So ok job done, end of sermon..

Hmmm.

If this all so clear why does Paul need to pray this prayer at v 15?

Philip Yancey says

‘The most important purpose of prayer maybe to let our true selves be loved by God’…

To be loved by God who, as Psalm 103 v10- says  

GOOD NEWS

..does not punish us as we deserve or repay us according to our sins and wrongs.                                                       As high as the sky is above the earth, so great is his love for those who honour him.                                                As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our sins from us.                                                                  As a father is kind to his children, so the Lord is kind to those who honour him.                                                            He knows what we are made of: he remembers that we are dust.

NIV

…does not treat us as our sins deserve                            or repay us according to our iniquities                                 For as high as the heavens are above the earth              so great is his love for those who fear him;                        as far as the east is from the west,                                   so far has he removed our transgressions from us.          As a father has compassion on his children,                             so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him;        for he knows how we are formed,                                               he remembers that we are dust.

Left to our own devices we may be wobbly and uncertain, unconfident about the future, unable to expect good to be coming our way, unable to imagine how we could be in a position to contribute any good to the world.

In Lamentations there is encouragement

GOOD NEWS 3 18-24

I have not much longer to live:                                         My hope in the Lord is gone.The thought of my pain, my homelessness, is bitter poison: I think of it constantly and my spirit is depressed. Yet hope returns when I remember one thing: The Lord’s unfailing love and mercy still continue, fresh as the morning, as sure as the sunrise. The Lord is all I have, and so I put my hope in him.

NIV Lam 3 18-25

My splendour is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord. I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I remember them and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail; They are new every morning; great id your faithfulness. I say to myself The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him. The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him

So with that encouragement in mind, what about thinking beyond our present circumstances, beyond what we believe to be our limits or our capacities…

I fell into conversation with a man in Brixton on Friday night, his name is Dr John Carlos.

Those of us old enough to remember the 1968 Mexico Olympics or who have seen the particular photograph, might recall the medal ceremony for the 200 metres sprint.

Three men stand on the podium, receive their medals and then 2 of them black men, raise a black gloved fist as their national anthem plays.

The white man on the Podium was the Australian silver medalist, Peter Norman, the gold medal winner with arm aloft was Tommy Smith and the bronze medal winner arm also aloft was John Carlos the silver haired man with whom I spoke on Friday night.

Prior to the games there had a movement among elite American competitors to boycott the 1968 Olympics in protest amongst other things at the reinstatement of South Africa and Rhodesia their having been excluded for the 1964 games. The boycott was also in protest at the continued reign of the head of the US Olympic committee who had been instrumental in securing the 1936 games for Hitler’s Berlin and had ensured that American Jewish sportsmen and women were excluded from competing.

In the end after the firebombing of some of the athletes involved and much pressure from the authorities the boycott didn’t happen:

 but when they realized they were through to the semi finals Tommy Smith and John Carlos began to think that if they could only win their semis and then the final, this might be their moment to protest.

They knew they had first to win, they knew that it was potentially life threatening and they knew they had to be clear about what their message was.

In the 25 minutes between the end of the 200 metres final and the medal ceremony, along with the Australian Peter Norman who was ashamed at the treatment of Aboriginal people in Australia, the three men pinned on old boycott the games badges.

Smith and Carlos took off their shoes to express Solidarity with the worlds poor, they wore beads and a scarf around their necks in protest at lynchings and racially motivated killings and put on one glove of a pair as they raised their arms in solidarity with the civil right movement.

Don’t forget this was the year that both Dr Martin Luther King (who was also in favour of the boycott) and liberal politician Bobby Kennedy had been assassinated, so there was a real threat that the simple gestures on that podium in front of the world’s media could cost those athletes their lives.

And in a way it did.

All three were branded troublemakers and hounded on their return home having been expelled from the games. They lost their reputations, their livelihoods and their marriages.

Peter Norman died last year after battling nervous breakdowns and alcoholism.

But why am I telling you this story this morning?

One could say these men brought this trouble on themselves..it was an honour to represent their country and after all the work they had put in to be there, that should have been enough.

But as Dr John Carlos, a Christian, tells it he felt he had a particular platform, at a particular moment in his life, having achieved something with his God given gifts.

And he felt a duty to take a stand, an action that might provoke a thought, a conversation, that might make the world around question the justice and the hope so missing from the lives of many.

And it cost him dear for many years.

But in his 70’s, eyes sparkling, funny and articulate, he calls on those he talks to, sports fans and those who have no interest in sport alike, to be alert to the lives of those around them, to have courage and engage with love. He spoke at occupy wall street about poverty, he will speak at Stratford to ask how local people are benefitting from our games beyond the entertainment and corporate profits, he is sharing a platform with Doreen Lawrence to speak about racial justice.

He says he is fuelled by God, his strength and his hope; and asked for our prayers this morning as he continues his speaking tour and works with schoolchildren around the country.

Closer to this Parish, this week more prayers were asked for, in another moment where the overflowing of hope fuelled the God act that lead to the release of 16 people, 3 families, men, women and children from slavery.

It was in India at a rice mill and the action was taken by the International Justice Mission, headed up by Andy Griffiths.

One of those IJM helped rescue had been kept in enforced labour at that mill for 14 years with no hope of freedom. Now he has that.

The commitment and struggle and sacrifice of Rachel, and Phoebe and Fleur and Andy as they moved to live in India, have added up to the future hope of 16 people.               

The overflowing of their hope in the power of the Holy spirit, has brought joy and peace not only to those freed labourers, but also adds to the joy and peace of the Griffiths Family, in the face of all sensible arguments that said why are you moving - stay put, you have a good life here, a church, friends, work, raise your children, be peaceful.

But as we know ours is not a sensible God.

Cameron spoke last week of the The Message’s version of James, where he writes

God talk without God act is outrageous nonsense.

Now we are all blessed with different gifts, we are not all going to win Olympic medals or move to India, but look what we do already in Herne Hill and what more we can do and be encouraged.

Paul says in Romans Ch8vv31-32

GOOD NEWS                                                                    “If God is for us, who can be against us?                    Certainly not God who did not even keep back his own son, but offered him for us all!”

NIV                                                                                           If God is for us, who can be against us?                                 He did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all..

This is the calibre of the love God has for us.

So our hope is in Christ  and in the joy of knowing that if God is with us EVERYTHING is possible and in this knowledge we can fulfill God’s hope in us,

 we can transform God talk to God action

There is the story of a pastor who got up one Sunday and announced to his congregation:

"I have good news and bad news.

The good news is, we have enough money to pay for our new building program.

The bad news is, it's still out there in your pockets."

Hope anticipates good from God,

There is continuous joy ahead! Like a new long lasting building, but there is struggle ahead like finding ways of funding it.

 But may I add for those feeling terrible now because they do not feel continually suffused with hope and I am from time to time in amongst their number,

When we think of hope we must of course also be thinking of it's opposite, hopelessness.

We know that ours is a God of hope since by him we were gifted hope in Christ.

But as representatives of God's hope on earth working to towards the kingdom of heaven on earth as individuals and as a church body it is for us in the Parish of Herne Hill to be a place of welcome for all in our number who are feeling overwhelmed by hopelessness, however that manifests itself.

That hopelessness may be hard to be around..

Does it make us anxious, is it too close to how we're feeling?

Is it irritating, is the gloom too demanding?

Would we much rather just hang out with our sort of friends...

Or are we feeling so hopeless that we're ashamed to be with our church family?

We're not keeping our end up, what right have we to feel hopeless??

 It's like we're throwing God's grace back in his face...

Perhaps we look at all the in-fighting in our church communities, locally, nationally & internationally and we despair, are without hope,

perhaps that's when we can recall the little boys prayer and also what Philip Yancey says about prayer and allow ourselves to be seen by God in all our true colours, in despair or avoiding the desperate and we've remember Paul's words in Romans 15:

GOOD NEWS

We who are strong in faith ought to help the weak carry their burdens. We should not please ourselves. Instead we should all please our brothers and sisters for their own good, in order to build them up in the faith. For Christ did not please himself. Instead as the scripture says, “The insults which are hurled at you have fallen on me.” …And may God, the source of patience and encouragement, enable you to have the same point of view among yourselves by following the example of Christ Jesus.

NIV

WE who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For even Christ did not please himself but as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me…May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus..”

What does hope in Christ do?

as Simon shared with us a few weeks back Revelations 21 vv3-4 tells us

GOOD NEWS

He will wipe away all tears from their eyes. There will be no more death, no more grief or crying or pain. The old things have disappeared. Then the one who sits on the throne said, “And now I make all things new!”

NIV

 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of thing has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said, ‘I am making everything new!

We are here as the body of Christ, God’s hope in the world, here to contribute to the work of making all things new, to bringing in His Kingdom.

As we welcomed home the whooshers, we think about the charities who will benefit from all their legwork and sweat ,

Afghan Aid and for Fine Cell Work.

AS we buy cake (and perhaps clothes) after the service morning we think of our stall and afternoon tea in support of Christian Aid yesterday.

We think of those involved in the scouts and brownies of those who visit the sick and housebound, who run playgroup and cook for those whose new baby or ill health make cooking hard, those who share worship at Brixton Prison and all the many ways unknown to us but known to God that we overflow hope into the lives of others. This is what hope in Christ can do.

Hope anticipates good from God

And so for all the hope we bring, for all the hope yearn for,

I’ll end by praying for us all

May the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace as we trust in him, so that we may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Amen

Sermon 13th May 2012 (ALSO St. Paul's AGM)

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, preaches based on the reading from James 2: verses 14-21.

There’s a great story about a reporter interviewing the golfer Jack Nicklaus after he had won his record-creating 18^th Major title. “Jack, you are truly spectacular!” the reporter said. “You really do know your way around a golf course. What is your secret?”

With a dead-straight face Jack Nicklaus allegedly replied: “The holes are numbered.”

Far be it from me to suggest that a life of faith is in any way like playing 18 holes of golf! However, living faith may be far more straightforward than we often think it seems. Yes, of course, as anyone who has ever tried to play golf knows, there is much more to it than going from one hole to the next. It takes skill, selecting the right club, making the right shot-choices – and no little luck – to do well at golf; but hard work, experience, and lots of practice also make a big difference. The same is just as true of a lived-out faith, of course. The Godly way forward is clearly marked out for us all; but there is so much more to it than going from one place to next. Having the right tools, and making right choices is also key in living out faith; hard work, experience and lots of practice make all the difference in faith too – as anyone who has ever tried to live such a life knows only too well!

I’ll quit the golfing analogy there, while I’m possibly scoring at about par I’d hope. The more creative of you may want to develop it, or some other picture, further. Feel free: AGM Sunday is one good day for being creative. It can help us, to think in picture-language about how we have got to where we are now, on the way to where we are going, on this adventurous journey with God. It certainly can help us to cope with this strange fact of reviewing 2011 and goal-setting for 2012 in mid-May! However that is where we are; and, if nothing else, faith is about starting from wherever we are, and inviting God to be integral to the picture.

So, as well as it being the AGM, today we’re also starting the second run-through of the 3 key values underlying our Bishop’s Call to Mission. If you missed that first set, those sermons are all on the blog; if you haven’t had the letter, look for an envelope badged Faith, Hope and Love that’s at the back of church. We’re tackling these 3 key values in the same order as last time, not least because the subject of Faith is perfect for an AGM Sunday. How better could we measure ourselves than against this quality? So: how have we lived out our faith as church in the past year? Then: how might we want, or need, to do that differently this year? How does that apply: to us, personally; and to us, in our life together?

If you’re not sure that faith is the best test to use, then listen to how our reading sounds in The Message version: “Dear friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it?” As the saying goes, the proof of the pudding is in the eating; and that clearly applies to faith as well. As we can tell from this letter, it always has done. James is probably one of the earliest New Testament letters written, maybe when Paul was on his first missionary journey. There isn’t time to detail how New Testament thinking and theology developed. But Paul wrote his letters much later, when everything was far more settled. By contrast, James started from a very basic point: the core of Old Testament belief. “You believe that there is one God. Good!” James could then write about the living of that out in daily life.

It’s good practical stuff, usually! So “for instance you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, ‘Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!’ and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup; where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?” Well, yes it is, obviously; which is why it is vital that we use this time to see how our faith has worked out in practice. And not just in this one way either! You noticed that James referred to 2 classic biblical examples of faith here. Again there isn’t time to explain either context now, but we can still get the point. Both Abraham and Rahab put absolutely everything on the line in living out faith.

God promised Abraham he’d have countless descendants: at the time when he only had Isaac, Abraham trusted God enough to be willing to give up his only son. Then, by helping those spies, Rahab committed treason against her own people – because of what she believed God would do. That’s faith! That’s living it! And that is what we all have to do, God says through James. “You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove ... Isn’t it obvious that faith and works are yoked partners, that faith expresses itself in works?” as it’s put in The Message.

Here’s a summary of faith that works: help the poor, in practical ways; and live far beyond the limits of what you can see when it comes to trusting God. How did you do with that in 2011, I wonder? How have we done corporately? And, if this really what faith is, then what practical responses are you going to make when this series ends? As James put it here: “Separate faith and works and you get ... a corpse”. So, how will you keep faith alive in how you live, then – in the light of last year, on this road with God into the unknown that lies ahead? That’s the challenge of true faith: what will your response to it be, today and beyond? Let’s pray ...

Sermon 6th May 2012

Today, our Honorary Curate, Gill Tayleur, preaches based on the reading from 1 John 4: verses 14-21


GOD IS LOVE

What is love?

Some answers from young children when asked that question, what is love?

“Love is like a little old woman and a little old man who are still friends even after they know each other so well.” Tommy – age 6

“Love is when a girl puts on perfume and a boy puts on shaving cologne and they go out and smell each other.” Karl – age 5 

“Love is when Mommy gives Daddy the best piece of chicken.” Elaine - age 5

“When my Granny got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my Granddad does it for her, even though his hands got arthritis too. That’s love.” Rebecca- age 8

"Love is when someone hurts you. And you get so angry but you don't yell at them because you know it would hurt their feelings."

“What is love?” is a question asked by theologians, philosophers and ethicists; by romantic poets and adolescents; by betrayed spouses and abandoned children; by the hopeful and the hopeless; by the dreamy-eyed and the sceptic.

What is love?

In our Bible reading this morning we’ve heard what the apostle John wrote: “God is love.” It’s there in verse 8 and again later in verse 16.

God is love.

What does it mean?

Well it doesn’t mean, love is God.

John says, “God is love”, not “love is God”.

If we think love is God, that love is the final and supreme good, then love is what we will live for, what we’ll serve. That may sound OK, but sometimes experiences and people that make us feel loved aren’t actually good for us, or them, and sometimes they’re at the expense of others. We might want to turn our back on a relationship because another makes us feel more loved. Pursuing feelings of love as the ultimate good can lead not to God, but to selfishness. No, love isn’t to be our God!

John doesn’t say “love is God”. He says, God is love.

The North American minister and author John Piper explains what he understands God is love to mean, like this:

God's absolute fullness of life and truth and beauty and goodness and all other perfections, is such, that he is not only self-sufficient, but he is also, in his very nature, overflowing. God is so absolute, so perfect, so complete, so full, so inexhaustibly resourceful, so joyful, that he is by nature a Giver, a Worker for others, a Helper, a Protector. What it means to be God, is to be full enough always to overflow in such giving! That giving, overflowing, is love! God is love!

That giving, that overflowing of goodness one to another, happens even within God himself. Even within the Trinity, that is God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, separate but one in some inexplicable way, all God, - even within that Trinity, there is a constant flowing of love between themselves.

And this flowing and overflowing within and from God, flows on to us. So John can say in v7, “love comes from God”. It comes, as heat comes from a fire or light from the sun. The sun gives light because it is light. And fire gives heat because it is heat. God gives love because it’s his very nature. It’s part of what it means to be God. So “love comes from God.”

Love comes from God – to us! To all humankind in all times, and that includes you and me! From God, flows his goodness, his kindness, his joy, in his love-gifts to us. The gift of life, the gift of every day and every breath of air we take, every mouthful of food, every note of lovely music we hear, every beautiful flower, every smile on the face of a friend, a child, or one who loves us. All these and so much more are good gifts from God’s abundant generous ever-flowing love and we can see God’s love in each of them.

I’ve recently read this fabulous book called One Thousand Gifts. It’s by Ann Voskamp, a Canadian pig farmer’s wife. In it, Ann writes of how she learned to notice, see and receive God’s every day gifts of things that are lovely and beautiful - as gifts of LOVE to her from God. She starts to list them, one thousand of them just for starters!

So we can see God’s love in his many gifts to each of us, gifts of life and beauty and truth and those who love us. But there’s an even better way of seeing God’s love, and that’s in his best love-gift of all, his son Jesus.

How do we see God’s love for us? What does it look like?

v9 “This is how God showed his love among us: he sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved him but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”

There are plenty of other Bible verses saying similar things:

John 3:16 “God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him should not die but have eternal life.”

Romans 5:8 “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

How do we see God’s love for us?

We see God’s love in the flesh, literally, in his son Jesus. In Jesus. In his life and in his death. And we see it supremely in the cross. If you want to know what love looks like, look at the cross. Look at Jesus giving up his life, dying for our sins, in our place, out of love for each one of us. His love and Father God’s love. “Greater love has no man that this, than he lay down his life for his friends.” Look at the cross.

At the cross, we see love, love for each one of us, and it can change us.

There’s an Ian White song that goes,

Let me look deep, and stay there long, 
for the glance may save, 
but the gaze transforms.
Transform me Lord. 

A glance at Jesus, and the cross, can save us. In a glance we can understand and grasp that Jesus died for us, and throw ourselves on his saving mercy and love. But a gaze – a long, slow, hard, thoughtful, contemplative gaze, at Jesus and the cross, can transform us.

When we gaze long at him there, we become more like him. Because we see and receive his love and mercy, and it changes us.

In the light of the cross, we become more loving, as God is. In the light of the cross,

my selfishness, my pride, my control, my clamour for attention or praise, my unforgiving heart – all of that and more, is changed! Because I see them for what they are at the cross – sin, self-centredness not God-centredness, and at the cross I can be forgiven and set free from them.

At the cross, we receive God’s love. And it overflows through us to others around us.

And that’s the point. God is love, we see and receive his love supremely at the cross of his son Jesus, and then we go and love one another.

This passage, in v 11, and so many others in the Bible, tells us to love one another.

There are 51 times recorded in the gospels that Jesus spoke about love.

Including at the last supper when he had washed the feet of his disciples, and then said, “A new commandment I give you: love one another. This is how others will know that you’re my followers, because you love one another.”

Bishop Tom Wright says, love is to be the badge of the Christian community, the sign of who we are and also of who our God is.

How easy to say, how hard to achieve. Probably all of us have had experience of times when the love of people in the church has disappointed us, when we’ve been hurt, or let down by others. That, sadly, has always been the case in church life. That’s why, from St Paul onwards, Christian writers have been at pains to insist that it shouldn’t be like that with us. The rule of love is not an optional extra. It’s of the very essence of what we’re about. God’s love is to flow through us, to others.

How do we do it? We know, really. We put others first. We look to their needs, not ours. Their needs, and their wants, when they’re good ones – Henry Drummond (the famous Scottish evangelist in the 1800s) in this great little book called The Greatest Thing in the World, says, There is a difference between trying to please others and giving them pleasure. “Give pleasure. Lose no chance of giving pleasure. For that is the careless and anonymous triumph of a truly loving spirit.” Isn’t it great when we do something kind for someone that we know they’ll really love?!

Loving others, by serving others. Jesus gave the command to love one another after he had washed his disciples’ dusty, dirty, smelly feet; the servant’s job. What’s the grotty job in your household or workplace or wherever that people think is beneath them, and they avoid doing? Jesus would do it. And he said that’s how we should love and serve others.

I’m sure we’ve all heard it said that love isn’t just a feeling, it’s a choice and an action.

So how loving are our choices and our actions? How loving will they be today, this week?

And are we becoming more loving? We do that the same way we become more anything – practise! How do we become a better cook? Practise! How do we become a better cricketer? Practise! How do we become a faster runner? Practise! Any muscle becomes stronger with practice, and loving is no different.

There are opportunities to love better every single day. To show love to a stranger – on the bus, in the supermarket, just to treat them kindly. To show love to those we work with, to our friends, to our families. And maybe hardest of all in some ways, to show love to those we live with. To serve them, to put them first.

Yes this is hard, in reality, but this is what life is all about. Jesus said this is the most important thing, to love God with all our heart and mind and soul and strength, and to love our neighbours as ourselves.

And those 2 things are related. One of the ways we love God is by loving our neighbour. Verses 20 to 21 show this: “If anyone says I love God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

So our loving acts express our love for God as well as for others. A double whammy!

Henry Drummond again: “This is the supreme work to which we need to address ourselves in this world, to learn love. Is life not full of opportunities for learning love? Every man and every woman every day has a thousand of them. The world is not a playground; it is a schoolroom. Life is not a holiday, but an education. And the one eternal lesson for us all is how better we can love.”

In this series, based on Bishop Christopher’s Call to Mission, called Faith, Hope, Love – hopefully if you’re a regular here you’ve had a letter and leaflet about it – we’re looking at those 3 great foundations of the Christian life. In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul says faith, hope and love are the things that will last forever – and the greatest of them is love.

Love really is the greatest thing in the world, God’s love, flowing to us and on to others.

And whilst human love can and sometimes does let us down, God’s love is utterly trustworthy. God’s love is perfect, complete, whole, as he is, and nothing, nothing at all can separate us from it.

In Romans 8:37-39 Paul said,  “I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Come to the cross, come and gaze at God’s love on the cross seen in his son Jesus. Start that gaze now in our time of Holy Communion this morning, as  you come for bread and wine, or for a blessing, and carry on that gaze during the week ahead. Remember that there’s NOTHING that you can do to make God love you more – nothing! He already loves you immeasurably! You don’t’ have to do good stuff to make him love you more!

And that there’s NOTHING you can do to make him love you less – nothing! He knows you through and through, knows the good, the bad and the ugly, and still loves you to death. Literally, Christ’s death for you on the cross.

Come and gaze, come and receive the wonderful, limitless, inexhaustible, passionate love God has for you – and let his love flow out through you to others.

I end with a wonderful majestic prayer for God’s love to fill us, from Ephesians 3:

I pray that out of [God’s] glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge -that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Amen!