Sermons

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9th of October 2011

INTRODUCTION TO READINGS
Now, it may be a bit on the early side, but over the next few weeks, we're going to meet three wise men – and a wise woman. They're all wise about, in one way or another, the same thing – time. Yes, they're all wise, in one way or another about time.
Our first wise man is a very wise man – king Solomon, son of David. At his own request, God gave him the gift of great wisdom. Solomon mixed that wisdom with his experience of life and, guided by the Holy Spirit wrote down his wise thoughts in the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon.
His thoughts about time in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 make up one of the best known and best loved parts of scripture. Of course, Solomon is not talking so much about tick-tock time – seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks and how we measure them, use them, waste them, but stretches of time, seasons of time. The question for him would be not so much what time is it on our watches, but – what time is it - what time is it - in our lives? For there is a time, says Solomon, for every purpose under heaven. There is a time for everything.

READING
Ecclesiastes 3.1-11,1

COMMENT
From the deep thoughts and words of Solomon's wisdom we move to the deep thoughts and words of the Apostle Paul. He is talking about very familiar things – Jesus, our faith, God's grace, Christian character and perseverance, the Holy Spirit, God's love. All very familiar Christian themes. Then he seems to take a step back into the deeper waters of the kind of time, season Solomon was talking about, that kind of 'right time' for all things, including the time for Christ to die for us.

SERMON
Michael and Milyet were two Sudanese friends sharing our compound in Omdurman in Sudan. How old are you, I asked one day? When is your birthday? No answer. Then Michael and Milyet spent about half an hour deciding how old they might be, what year they might have been were born in. Well, I was born after the big storm when the bridge fell, but before my uncle came to live with us. Oh yes, well, were you born when the great famine struck and we lost half our cattle? And so it went on until they decided they must be about 50 or maybe 55 years old. And as for an actual birthday …..Dates meant very little to them. They knew they had been born. The events, the activities mattered more.
In our western, scientific world we've reduced time to minutes and seconds, and we chase after those minutes and seconds, are, often rightly, concerned about saving them, using them, keeping to them. And that is often necessary for we are responsible before God for living life well and responsibly, using our time well. But sometimes I feel, in our modern western world, we measure time so much, we obey the clock so strictly that far from us controlling time, time controls us. We see the world through our watch. We think of time in minutes, seconds, days, dates and deadlines. And we often miss the meaning of Solomon's wisdom in Ecclesiastes. For everything there is a time, and a season for every activity under heaven. Such 'wisdom' sends us chasing after time, trying to work out the 'when', the 'correct time' of each of these things. For Milyet and Michael and Solomon this verse simply tells us 'that' these things happen: birth happens, death happens, there will be a time when buildings are built and when buildings are demolished.
Solomon is not saying at all that our first priority is to work out when these things will happen. Our first priority is to accept that, at some time or another, they will happen. That they are part of life. Accept war and peace as part of life.
Accepting. That kind of wisdom does its work best when we needlessly, unproductively kick against the goads, rail against realities that we don't like.
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the things that perhaps have all the signs of not being the right time, or I could be doing without this. Why now when something bad happens? Why not now when something good fails to come our way? We are human. There will be activities, purposes, circumstances in our lives that we just don't want to be happening right at this point – maybe next year, maybe when we're older, why not when we were younger, healthier, richer, had more people to help us? God knows that we are human. He guides us, he comforts us, he speaks to us, he reasons with us, he loves us, he gives us people to guide, comfort, speak to and reason with us, love us. Praise the Lord for all of them.
The wisdom of accepting the time that it is, the season that it is. It can be very difficult for us to do that, but such acceptance allows us to be fruitful sometimes even joyful when life is at its most difficult.
I remember one time in Sudan a friend and I had been invited to a thanksgiving and blessing for the baby of some Christian friends of ours one Monday afternoon after work. The service was due to start at 4.00 giving us, we thought time to be at the service and reach home in time for a Monday night bible study that I found really enjoyable and challenging. 4 by our watches came and went, as did 5.00 o'clock. The reason for the 'delay' was that the family had run out of water to make tea for all the guests so had to buy more from the boy with the donkey cart who carried and sold the water. 6.00 clock came. There was no way now we could still attend the service and make the bible study. I wasn't very happy. I was mad, disappointed, ranting and raging. Eventually my friend said with great compassion and seriousness: Don't miss what God has for you here. Don't miss what God has for you hear and now – in this time, in this season. I couldn’t turn my negative feelings around quickly enough that day to take her advice and let that time be God's time of giving me something very particular in and of and from that moment. But, at other times, that wise advice has helped me channel God's blessings into my life through accepting his timing, being sensitive to his season.
To everything there is a time and a time for every purpose under heaven. God grant me the serenity to accept that, to accept the things I cannot change.
The other side of the coin of accepting that these things will happen, is that ,for each of these activities there is a limit. There cannot be continual sowing, reaping must happen, or continual reaping, sowing must happen. There is a season. There is a limit. Isn't that good to know? There is a season there is a limit. Tears may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning. I think Solomon would have loved sell-by dates: there is a time for embracing and a time when that kind of activity is not appropriate to the circumstances and refraining from embracing takes over. It's good to know that some things, circumstances in our lives will not last forever. There is a sell-by date on our sadness, on our struggles, on our times of difficulty and despair. God grant me the serenity to accept the things that he wants me simply to accept that he does not want me to fight to change.
But not being able or willing to tell the time, God's time in our life leads us to the opposite kind of behaviour: accepting when we should be rejecting a situation or set of circumstances in our life. A time to reap a time to sow, a time to build and time to break down. Don't accept breaking down when the time is the time for building. Don't accept breaking down when the time is God's time for building. Don't give in to hate when it is God's time to love. Don't accept an easy peace, the way of least resistance, anything for a quiet life, when it is God's time to wage war, to fight back, to move against the enemies of his kingdom and our community.
A very sincere Christian friend let's call him John had a very sick child called, let's say, Simon. John and his wife took Simon to a nearby hospital. They prayed, treatment was given, the child made some progress but finally the doctors said, sorry, there's nothing more we can do. They saw more doctors. Same thing. John prayed fervently, seemed to get the answer that the child was in God's hands – if he wanted him to live, fine, if not, fine, but to take the child to yet another medical expert seemed to John not to be accepting God's will since people had prayed so hard. All of his Christian family and friends begged him to try one more hospital. Eventually John gave up his 'acceptance' and took the child to yet another more specialised hospital. Simon is now a fit and healthy 29-year-old with a family of his own.
God grant us the courage to change the things we can. God grant us the courage to change the things he is crying out for us to change because that time is now.
How do we do all of that? How do we know what time it is in our lives, in the life of our community, our Church, nation, world?
Read the word of God and let the word of God read you. Read the word of God and read the circumstances of your life (community, church, nation, world) through his eyes, in the light of his truth. Fill your mind with the wisdom of these verses from Ecclesiastes. Read them over and over again. Meditate on them, think deeply about them. Take time over them. Let the truth of them, the wisdom of them really sink in. Let that word, as the writer to Hebrews promises it will, penetrate to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. Let that word judge the thoughts and attitudes of our heart. (Hebrews 4.12) As we do so, we who live very much in the maze of life, find that there is an open channel of communication between ourselves and the man in the tower. Between ourselves and our God.
There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven. What part of you is that word reaching this morning? What thoughts, what attitudes of your heart is it judging? What time is it in your life? What do you need to accept? What do you need to change? What do you need to accept that you would rather change? What do you need to change that you would rather accept?
There is a time for everything, a season for every activity under heaven. There was a time, as we read in Romans, for the most important of activities under heaven: the death of Jesus Christ for us. It was, and what a relief that it was, just at the right time. Of course, it was God's timing completely – we had nothing to do with it all, and what a relief that is. Just at the right time – while we were still sinners. Oh boy, we would have had a great time with that timing – no wait, just wait a while, we might get better you know, we might find another way, don't be too hasty, things could improve, the human race is making progress all the time is it not? God did not wait – what a relief. At the right time, at just the right time, while we were still the sinners that we could never not be, Christ died for us. Now there's a time in our life for us to think about. There's a time in the history of our world to ponder. How right God's timing was then. How right God's time is – always. Amen.

16th of October 2011

INTRODUCTION TO READINGS
These few weeks we're in the company of three Wise men and a wise woman or two. They're helping us hear God's message to us about the time of our life. Last week our first wise man was Solomon who wrote down his wisdom in three books of the Bible including the most famous of all passages of time - Ecclesiastes 3. We read it last week, but it is worth hearing again for it's wisdom takes hold of us, we can settle into it like into a solid armchair or a comfortable bed because we know that what it says about life, about time is oh, so true.

READINGS
Ecclesiastes 3.1-8

COMMENT
A time for everything. Our wise man this week, is Jesus, the wise man of all wise men. He knew in his life there was a time for everything, a season – a right time for God's purposes in His life. In our Gospel readings he talks about that – but did those who listened understand him?

READINGS Matthew 16.1-4; John 7.1-9

INTRODUCTION TO SERMON
Fill in the blanks: Red sky at night – (is the shepherd's delight), red sky in the morning (is the sailor's warning).

A bit closer to home: When Corsoncon has on its hat (we know that it will soon be wat); when Corsoncon has on its tie (we know that it will soon be dry)

Time, the right time. Is there such a thing? Can we know it?

Who better to follow, to observe and learn from than the Lord of time, the eternal Son of God.

PRAYER
Lord Jesus, you are eternal, come down from heaven to take your place on the conveyor belt of a human life – and you handled it well, the perfect time-keeper of your 33 years on earth. Help us to learn from you how to handle our time well, not so that we can do this or that or the next thing, but so that in our time we can meet and follow you. We ask this in your Name. Amen.

SERMON
A man had driven a long way overnight to a city for a meeting. He had arrived early so decided to park the car and grab a couple of hours' sleep. He hadn't realised that his parking spot was near to a jogging circuit. Tap tap on the car window. He opens it. An out of breath jogger running on the spot, Excuse me, sir, what's the time? It's 8.15. Settles down again. A few moments later. Tap tap. Opens the window, another jogger. Excuse me sir, what's the time? It's 8.30. Eventually the man puts a note outside his car window writes in block capitals. I DO NOT KNOW THE TIME. Settles down again. Tap tap. Opens up. Excuse me sir – it's 8.45.

The Pharisees and Sadducees, the religious leaders and teachers of Jesus' day, were a bit like these joggers. Tap tap, give us a sign, they harped on at Jesus. But, he didn't. He didn't give them a sign. He gave them a flea in their ear and walked off.

Why was Jesus so wound up? Because they should have known the time. These were people who had studied the scriptures, who should have been as wise and knowledgeable about God's timing as they were about red skies and dark clouds. They should have recognised Jesus – that in Him, God's time had come.

The bible, our Old Testament, that they studied were like the hands of a clock – and they were all pointing to Jesus. We read loads of them at Christmas:'And a virgin shall bear a Son', 'Out of you, Bethlehem will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people.' 'The prophet Isaiah's words, He himself took our sickness and carried away our diseases pointed straight at the works of healing that Jesus carried out The time had come. The time for Jesus, God's Son on earth had come and they didn't see it. They didn't see him – for who he was. And he was angry – not because he wanted the popularity, the recognition. Not because he wanted to find fame from them, but because he wanted them to find life in him.

'You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.' Couldn't or wouldn't?
I'm very lazy when it comes to changing the clock in my car. I just leave it at the same time all year – so it's right for half the year and an hour slow the rest of the time. These Pharisees and Sadducees. They would not move either, they would not reset the dial of their understanding of God and his ways onto Jesus. Which put them in the wrong - all of the time.

Just last night I was changing the battery in one of our clocks that had stopped days ago. Then I reset it, moved the hands to right time. I had to go into another room, to do that - check what the time actually was before I could set the clock. It's important for everyday living to get the time right, to look at the already right clock and set the time by it.
It is even more important for everyday living to be right with God, to look at his already right person and set our lives right by his life.

It's what happens in Baptism. We bring our children because we want their lives set on Jesus. It's what happens when we 'join the Church', on our own behalf we set and sometimes reset our lives on Jesus. It's what happens when we know we've wandered away from God, we have to reset our lives on Jesus.

All of God's clocks were chiming in Jesus. All of God's promises of comfort and joy, peace and plenty, justice and mercy, freedom and forgiveness, life and eternity came true, had their time in the life-time of Jesus and these people were deaf to the ding-dong that Jesus' life made. You're wicked, adulterous, not close to God at all. And off he walked.

Jesus was just as Mr Angry with a different group of people – his own brothers. They were having a go at Jesus, too, making fun of his popularity. Come on, go up to the big city for the festival – let your fans there see how good you are, make a name for yourself. Go up to Jerusalem we dare you. Everything we said about the Pharisees and Sadducees we could say about Jesus' brothers. They didn't recognise who he really was. Come on big brother, go up to Jerusalem – we dare you. But Jesus didn't rise to their bait. He bided his time.

Some of the ladies with us today will remember peppers – not the green and red kind that you get in salsa or stir fry but the peppers you have when your playing at skipping and the enders caw the rope extra fast. I love salsa and stir fry, but I hated peppers. It took me all my time to jump in with the ropes at normal speed. Peppers were impossible. I tried as hard as I could to jump after somebody was out. That way, the rope hadn't started and it was much easier. Watching the rope and judging the time, the right time to make my move was a skill I didn't have.

Jesus did. He knew what time it was. He knew when to jump in or not, when to make his move or not, when to go into Jerusalem and face his enemies, meet with his death on the cross and it wasn't yet. 'You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.” My time has not yet fully come.' His time?

I'm sure most of us at some time or another set not just the clock but the alarm. I remember one morning sleeping in because I'd set it for 7 pm instead of 7 am. Setting an alarm - a time when you want something to happen and the clock ticks round and round and round and (brrrringgggg) off it goes.

There was an alarm set in Jesus' life, a time when something would happen. It wasn't 7 am or 7 pm, Jesus' life was set on the cross and on his death there. That is why he had come. That is why he had come. That was his purpose, everything pointed towards it. It was waiting for him.

He chose the cross and he had to be very wise in all the choices he made so that he did reach the cross and did die there for us. My time has not yet fully come. Not this year, boys, not this festival – you go, but not me. He was very popular but he also had deadly enemies. He knew that if he had gone to Jerusalem then, he may have been either made a leader of the people or quietly done away with in some back alley. Either way, the cross would have been avoided.

His life was set for that. He knew God's purpose for his life and was very careful about how he lived it so that God's purpose was fulfilled. My time has not yet come. The time of God's purpose for my life has not yet come.

Someone once said if you take care of the big decisions, the small ones will fall more easily into place.

When will we retire? When will we move to a bigger/smaller house? When will I start/change/move jobs? How long will I wait for this to happen or that? These may seem like big decisions. They are, but they're smaller than the biggest decision: choosing to follow Jesus, to set your life on him. When you wonder about the time to do this or that – don't check your watch, check your motivation. Do your motives for going, staying, changing match God's will of God for your life?

'Love God, said St Augustine, and do what you will.' For if you truly love God, your will will become his, your life will be set to his.

Your instincts, your decisions will be influenced by the Holy Spirit, by God himself, by the life, death and teaching and the very presence of the risen Lord.

Eric Liddel trained to be a missionary in China, and he was also an athlete. In the film Chariots of Fire, we see the constant struggle between him and his sister who wants him to go straight away to China.
There's a scene in the film where he and his sister argue about this. Eric says to her: God has called me and I will go to China, but He has made me fast and when I run, I feel his pleasure. Eric Liddel's clock was set on God's heart. He loved God. He knew the God he loved had made him to run. And, in the end, he did what he (Eric) and God willed winning, as we know, two Olympic gold medals, breaking world records.
Later he did go to China as a teacher, became a minister, helped in a medical centre, and finally died in a Japanese prisoner of war camp. His last words, speaking of the Christian life were,'It's complete surrender.' That's how he knew the time, that's how Jesus knew the time. And that's how we'll know the time. That's how Jesus knew the time, setting the clock to God's will for him. Love God. Love God through faith in Jesus Christ. Your clock will be set. Amen.

23rd of October 2011

INTRODUCTION TO READINGS
We're thinking on Sunday mornings about the three wise men and a few wise women and we've been looking especially about being wise about time, how we use time, how we think of time, our attitude and approach to it. This morning we widen our thinking to wisdom itself. What does it mean to be wise? What is wisdom? It's one of these things that you know it when you see it but which is hard to describe. It often goes by other names – cleverness, sound judgement, good instincts, knowing what's what. For us as Christians, people who believe that there is a God, an only-wise God and believe in and follow His Son Jesus, wisdom is surely defined and described in terms of him.

To be wise means, and the Bible tells us this, to know and understand God. (Jeremiah 9.23) To be wise is to know and follow Jesus.

This morning we could say we had two wise women – and we do. There's a bit more to it than that for we see wisdom indeed at work in their lives because we see Jesus at work in their lives.

Our wise women of the day are sisters - Mary and Martha. We meet them first when Jesus comes to visit them.

READING: Luke 10.38-42

COMMENT
When it was our birthday my granpa never said happy birthday, his pet phrase for such occasions was, 'well, ah hope yer a year the wicer!'

Jesus again visits the sisters, this time on the death of their brother, Lazarus. Has their friendship with Jesus changed them in any way or are they each still the same? Are they 'a year the wicer' in the wisdom of their Lord and God?
John 11.17-37

COMMENT
Our final reading is, in many ways, a summary of what Christian wisdom is.
READING: Ephesians 4.17 and 20-21

INTRODUCTION TO SERMON
I was talking with some friends one day, and we got round to school days and the subjects we liked and didn't like. Suddenly one of my friends, came out with this great big long poem – in French. Beautiful accent, every word perfect. I was very impressed. When she'd finished, I asked her some questions in French, made some comments, tried to start a conversation in French with her. She looked at me, blankly, then laughed. Oh, ah don't speak French, 'I don't know what you're saying. 'But, that poem was great, you recited it as if you knew exactly what you were saying. Oh no, she said, I don't even know what it means. I learned it off by heart when I was at school and I've never forgotten it.

I learned it off by heart, but I don't know what it means. It can be the same with wisdom. It can be the same with Jesus. I learned about him by heart, but I don't know what he means.
Beware off by heat wisdom. Beware recited creeds or beliefs. Beware chapter and verse here (head) that have really not communicated the light of the Gospel here (heart) or here (life). Jesus longs for me and for you to have wisdom that is not 'off by heart' but taken to heart.

PRAYER
Change our hearts oh God Make them ever true Change our hearts oh God May we be like You. Amen.
SERMON
One of our friends calls my mother the 'wise one' – and she is. But who's the wise one in these stories of Martha and Mary?
Mary seems to win the title hands down in our first story. We may have sympathy with Martha, even defend her – somebody has to do the work. Yet we have to listen to what scripture says: Martha was DISTRACTED by all the preparations that had to be made. Distracted, drawn away from, her mind was drawn away from – Jesus. Perhaps Martha chose to be distracted, her mind drawn away from Jesus and blustering around about the preparations.
There are preparations and there are preparations. Martha seems to have gone overboard – you are worried about many things, said Jesus, but few things are needed. Sounds as if Jesus is advocating cut-backs. Few things are needed – or indeed only one. Even greater cutbacks!
Perhaps that's the thing about wisdom – it's focused, not fussy, doing what Jesus needs you to do, not overdoing what you think he needs you to do.
So Mary, here, takes the wise prize. It's given to her by Jesus himself. 'Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her. No, Martha, I do care about you, but I'm not going to tell her to help you. Everything's fine, you've done enough, come and sit down and listen to me.

What part of our personal life, what part of our family life, what part of our work life, what part of our Church life do these words of Jesus speak to? You are distracted ….drawn away from me ….... You are worried and upset about many things, but only a few things – indeed only one thing is needed?
Round 1 in wisdom to Mary.
We meet the sisters again after the death of their brother.

Since Mary's in the lead, we'll look at her first. She goes out to meet Jesus, at his request. Her obedience hasn't changed. She falls at his feet – her devotion hasn't changed. She makes the same point as her sister: 'Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.' Her faith in Jesus hasn't changed.
She says and does no more than that as her grief overwhelms her. But it's enough. Mary's still the same. Still wise with that wisdom that moves towards Jesus' amid the things in life that would distract us, draw us away from him whether they be work or weariness, graft or grief, busyness of mind or heaviness of heart. Mary was still the 'wise one', amidst her tears, despite her sadness, with her questions, she made her way to Jesus and fell at his feet – in worship, in humility, in the usual expectation of an answer to her questions, a word from him for her need.
And Martha. Martha's still Martha in a way – preoccuppied, as usual, but this time with her brother, with Jesus doing something about her brother, raising him from the dead.
But Martha has grown in wisdom. Her dealings with Jesus as a friend of the family, as her Lord have brought her a wisdom that perhaps was missing that day when Jesus told her off for being preoccupied with the preparations.
She's learned a way of life - stopping to talk to Jesus. She's been taught in Christ - I believe you are the Messiah, the Son of God who was to come into the world.' She's living out the truth there is in Jesus – 'I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.' No 'off by heart wisdom here'. Martha
places her life in Jesus' hands. Martha trusts and expects Jesus to place his hand of power and blessing on her life.
Did you notice how, halfway through the conversation, Martha even swapped some learned-by-heart-wisdom - I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day, for the truth there is in Jesus 'I am the resurrection and life'.
It's like going to a shop to buy a DVD – you pick up an empty box, an empty DVD case with the picture on the outside and take it to the counter where you're given the real thing. That's what happens when we, too, deal directly with Jesus – in prayer, in worship, in scripture, on our own or in company with others, in obedience. Learn-by-heart wisdom gives way to take-to-heart wisdom and we are changed, transformed as Paul says, through the renewing power of Christ's wisdom in our minds.
And we see Jesus' wisdom in these stories, too. A wisdom that's not distracted, not waylaid, that meets people in their homes during ordinary days – a meal with friends, in their homes during difficult days – the funeral of a friend. For Jesus knows it's the only way to bring heaven to earth, to be with us, meet with us, listen and speak to us – no fuss, no distractions.
Wisdom all the way, it would seem. But, sadly, there's a twist in the tale.

See how he loved them, the Jews said of Jesus when he wept by Mary's side. But some of them said,'Couldn't he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?'

A fair question, you might say, even a wise and reasonable and intelligent question. But it's the question, even the intelligent question, of the unwise of those who refuse to learn a way of life, those who choose not to be taught in Christ, those who reject the truth there is in Jesus.
I'm sure we've met people like that. Perhaps, at one time, we've been people like that. People who always have an objection to raise, a point to make, a conundrum to challenge you with. We talk about pat answers. Like learned-by-heart wisdom, they won't do. But there are also pat questions – about suffering, about evil, about God's seeming inactivity, about life's unfairness, about why the Church does this or doesn't do that. We cannot avoid these questions. When they're real – we should answer them honestly, even if the answer is I don't know. But when they're not real, when they are 'pat questions', just for the sake of argument, we should avoid them for such questions and arguments are often themselves a distraction, a smokescreen, a way for the questioner of avoiding Jesus Christ himself. A way , if the questions are a way, for the person who asks them of avoiding the question Jesus is asking them: Will you come and follow me?
Wisdom, the wisdom that, avoiding all distractions, seeks out Jesus Christ, learning his way of life, being taught in Him, knowing and living out His truth. May God grant us such wisdom. Amen.