John 4. 43-54: the Second Sign.

John 4. 43-54: the Second Sign. Healing the Official's Son

Chapters 2-4 of John seem like a section with a “Sign” at the beginning and end.  It begins and ends at Cana in Galilee, but in between, Jesus has been to Jerusalem – where he has driven the traders out of the Temple, performed many miraculous signs, had an important conversation with a Bible scholar called Nicodemus – and then he has stopped off in Samaria where he has had a great talk with a woman who though full of religious ideas had quite a messed up life.  So now he's back in Galilee, where he was brought up; some of the locals have proudly told what they saw him do in Jerusalem so they are pleased to welcome the local boy who has made it in the city.  John quotes the line about prophet having no honour in his own country.  And for John, although Jesus was raised in Galilee, the place where he belongs by right, is Jerusalem.  He is drawing the contrast between sophisticated Jerusalem where Jesus had a hard time and homespun Galilee where Jesus was accepted.  And along comes this troubled “Royal Official.”  He was either an army officer or a member of Herod’s civil service: if he was a soldier he would almost certainly be a gentile; if he was a member of Herod's retinue, he could have been a Jew, but probably not a very good law-keeping Jew.  Either way, he was on the margins of religious respectability.

And this guy comes to Jesus.  His son is desperately ill, at the point of death.  He's heard about what Jesus did in Cana; he has heard what Jesus did in Jerusalem.  He hopes that Jesus will do something for him in Capernaum.  You can feel his pain.  Previously, it was the matter of embarrassment and financial loss; this time it was a matter of life and death.  Jesus, you saved the day at the wedding; you can save my boy.

And again, Jesus seems reluctant to get involved.  Unless you people see signs, you wont' believe. And yes, sometimes we are mystified by Jesus' apparent reluctance to step in and do something.   Why does he do that?   We want to see a miracle.  “God if you do a miracle, I'll believe in you!”  And maybe we will. But Jesus is looking for a faith that will go beyond what we see.  And even seeing a miracle doesn't always lead to faith!)  Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things unseen.

The NIV is right to say “Unless you people...”  C K Barrett helpfully points out that both see and believe are plural: so Jesus isn't simply talking to the official but the crowd.  I believe he does it because he wants us to grow real faith, and that means stepping out from the crowd.  

And  that is what happens with this official.  The man presses home the urgency of the situation. Like Mary in chapter two, he isn't put off. He is different from the curious and and sensation-seeking  crowd. He is motivated more than anything else, by compassion for his son.  “Jesus, never mind the theology right now.  Do something before it is too late!”  

And Jesus says in effect “Okay, it's sorted.  Go home. Your son is going to be fine.”  No journey to Capernaum. No laying on of hands.  No prayer.  Just a promise.  And with Jesus, a promise is as good as a miracle.  That is the way the man sees things.  He believes the word Jesus has spoken.  (v. 50)  So he goes home.  That's a new expression of faith for the official.  He believes , puts his trust in the word Jesus has spoken.   So off he goes. I wonder how he was feeling as  he rested on his way home?  Maybe a bit apprehensive. “Will it be true?  Will my son be better?”  Maybe excitement.  “It will be so good to see the lad strong and healthy!”  I can only imagine!

And what wonderful news meets him the next day on the way home.  Servants running along the road to meet him.. As he recognises them, there may have been that flutter of anxiety, just for a second – but he knows by their body language it's good news.  “Master, your son is fine!”  The man has one question: When did he start to get better?  Was this some sot of a co-incidence?”   And he was told  “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”  He can remember it so well.  The very moment when he was talking to Jesus.  Every detail of that conversation burned into his memory including the heat of the sun.  What can he do?  He and all his household believed. Whole households turning to Jesus was something that happened in the Church (Acts 16. 31; Acts 18. 8); the phrase “he and all his household” was probably one John had already heard – and it was just right to describe what happened in Capernaum.    That's different from v. 50, where the official believed the word that Jesus had spoken.  Here he simply believed. He accepted that Jesus was the Christ. It's about Jesus' glory, who he is.  He put his trust in Jesus from that moment on.  CK Barrett boldly says “he became a Christian!”  I like that.  From that moment, this outsider was committed to following Jesus. Like the disciples of a few weeks earlier, this outsider trusted in Jesus and committed his life to Jesus.

So this sign says what, exactly?
This story is a pointer to the nature of true faith and the ways faith grows.  
Now these are not discrete boxes that are separate from one another.  One kind of faith doesn't preclude the others.  But the first two are markers along the way.

Firstly, there is faith that is associated with miracles.  It's the “Wow!” faith that sees a miracle and says “Yes, Jesus is powerful!”   It's the desperate faith that comes with a sense of urgency and need, looking for a miracle.  There is nothing wrong with that sort of faith – you may start there; you may come back there – but you can't stop there.  It's a faith that needs to grow.

Secondly, there is the faith that responds to the Word.  It is the faith that believes the promises of God.  We believe that what the Bible says is true.  We believe God's word for us today.  There is nothing wrong with that sort of faith.  Indeed, we need the faith the hears and believes the Word.  The Bible tells us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.    (Romans 10. 17)  So that kind of faith is necessary, and we do need to keep coming back to believe what God says to us in his word (instead of what our society tells us, or our inner broken emotions tell us).  

Thirdly, there is a  faith that is about allegiance not just agreement.  It is about commitment not just creed.  It is about belonging and behaviour not just believing. It involves a complete reorientation of a person's life; we no longer simply come asking Jesus for things.  We no longer simply agree with Jesus' word.  We hand our lives over to him.  That is why – although John doesn't make a big thing of it – the marker of faith in Jesus is baptism: enacting burial of our old self and rising to new life with Jesus.  Maybe at the beginning of this year we need to come back to the river – to re-state our baptismal commitment or if we've never done so to make that public commitment. 

And the sign says something about Jesus.  
It is about who Jesus is and what he does.  Jesus the Word, the Messiah, the Lord, is worth trusting in. 

He is Messiah.
He is the Christ.   Not only Son of God but god the Son.  All that God is, Jesus is.  Eh deserves our adoration and worship

He is mighty.  

• He has the power to heal, now.  And he's not limited by time or space
• His word is reliable.  His promise is as good as a miracle. 
• He can make the miracle of transformation, rebirth, happen in our lives. 

And he is on a mission.  
He's for Jerusalem and Galilee.  He's here for the sophisticated and educated; and he's here for the rough and ready farmers and fishermen.  He's here for the people who live decent, respectable lives and he's here for the ones who cause all the bother.  He's for Jews and non-Jews, insiders and outsiders.  Jesus can bring salvation, healing and hope to any – even outsiders – who are able to take Him at his word, trust in him and commit themselves to living for him. 

© Gilmour Lilly January 2016

John 2. 1-11, The first sign

John 2. 1-11- The Seven signs, (1) Water into Wine

A Middle eastern wedding would bring the entire village to a halt for a party that would last several days! Food would be prepared and wine provided for many guests. And at this wedding – the wine ran out! This as embarrassing; at best the bridegroom would be a laughing stock. At worst eh could be sued under a sort of first century trade descriptions act.

Jesus' Mum is in the thick of things and comes and tells Jesus about the terrible, embarrassing situation. But Jesus says “Why involve me? It's not my time yet!” That seems harsh – at first glance. (Even worse if your bible translates the literal Greek “Woman...” – though the translation doesn't give us the affection in Jesus' voice and Jesus calls Mary “woman” when in Jn 19. 27 he places her in John's care as a a surrogate son.) But “Why involve me? Is literally “What to you and to me?” which is exactly what the demons said when they disputed Jesus right to throw them out in Mark 1. 24. So Jesus is asking Mary what right she has to ask for his help. Clearly she can't tell him what to do just because she is his mother. And the key to this conversation is in the phrase “My hour has not yet come.” Jesus' “hour” in John always refers to his death and resurrection. It is the death and resurrection of Jesus that defeats the enemy, releases God's power, and gives those who trust in him the authority to expect God to be at work. So he is saying to Mary, “Mother, you can't claim some right to my help because you are my mother, and my hour – the time for the cross – has not come. So what makes you think I am going to step into this situation?”

It is important that we understand this idea of authority, of what right we have to expect God to be at work in our situation. or in the situations of other people. We need to address this. What right do we have to ask Jesus to help? Certainly not because we are his Mum! Not because we are related; not because we have been going to church all our lives or are nice, respectable people.

We are used – especially in Scotland – to the idea that we are miserable sinners, and “what's for you will no' go bye ye” so when the wine runs out, or we face embarrassment, or financial loss; or we are struggling with health or job or study or whatever, we think we have to just soldier on. What right do we have to ask Jesus to help? Only this – because his hour has come. He has died on the cross. He has defeated Satan. He has made us his friends and brothers. He has released his Spirit into our lives as we have put our trust in him.

Mary models faith

I love the impudent, indomitable faith that Mary brought to this situation.

Mary isn't put off by what Jesus says. I guess she knew Jesus' hour would come, and that even before that hour, there could be signs to say that hour was coming. So she tells the servants “It'll be all right: just do what he tells you to!” She wasn't going to be put off. And the amazing thing is, that for thirty years, she hadn't (I believe) seen Jesus perform one miracle.

(None of the canonical gospels record Jesus doing miracles as a child, and there is a reason for that – because they never happened. That's the difference between the restrained and intelligent way the Biblical Gospels are written, and the truly mythological stories of the other “gospels,” for example the “Infancy Gospel of Thomas” which describes Jesus as a spoilt brat with supernatural powers who made clay sparrows that came to life, yet could curse people to death.)

She knew who he is. She knew where he had come from. She had seen the other stuff like his ministry in the temple when he was twelve. Isn't that amazing faith?

We need to develop that quiet confidence in what Jesus can do, the ability to bring a situation. to Jesus – even to if you haven't seen a miracle for thirty years, and to bring situations to Jesus in the missionary context. The servants didn't have a clue who Jesus was... but Mary primes them to do whatever Jesus tells them to do. And Jesus does what she expects. "Mary approaches Jesus as his mother, and is reproached; she responds as a believer, and her faith is honoured," says Don Carson. Jesus responds when she takes her stand on the basis that although his hour had not yet come, it was coming.

Mary models Mission

It looks like Mary was in there in the middle of things – close enough to those who were serving to know what was happening. She is concerned for the poor bridegroom; she instinctively knows that Jesus can do something with this situation.; she wants to get the servants – maybe not slaves but simply those who were taking their turn to serve at table – involved. Mission, then, is about telling people who haven’t a clue who Jesus is, to do what Jesus tells them to do, in the expectation of Jesus performing a miracle.

So Jesus orders the servants to fill the six washing jars with water. 180 gallons, or about 600 litres. Fine, so far so good, the servants do what they are asked. The jars were made of stone not porcelain and as such would keep the water pure. Hard work, but a bit of a diversion. They probably don't imagine what Jesus is going to do next. Once the job is done, Jesus tells them to draw some water out of the jars and take it to the master of ceremonies. Aden it had turned in to wine: not just any wine but good quality wine, the best that had been served all day. That is about 800 bottles of wine – more that could have been “set aside”, or smuggled in. The master of ceremonies didn’t' know where the wine came form – but the servants knew and before long the word got out. This is what Jesus had done. Some of these servants must have told the story. And John and some of the other disciples hearing the conversation and seeing the results, must have realised that this was a miracle.

Aden by doing this – John calls it the first sign – Jesus showed his glory. That is first of all, who he is. Archbishop William temple says “The modest water saw its God and blushed.” In one simple act, for those who were in the know – in particular for his disciples – Jesus revealed his glory, and as John says “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1. 14)

And secondly, it is something of The nature of what he does: it is what we receive from him. “Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given” (Jn 1. 16) The six jars were used for ceremonial cleansing, the washing of hands, clothes, cups, that was part of Jewish religious life. He turns the water that was used over and over in ritual washing, into new wine that cleans and disinfects us from sin, fully and permanently. He changes the water of law that tells us how we should live, into the wine that makes us strong enough to live that new life. Jesus turns the “water” of Jewish religion, of into the “wine” of a living relationship with God, the water of religious duty into the wine of celebration and not just the “old wine” of a second-rate celebration but the new wine of the Kingdom, a living experience of God's power and presence.

John calls this story “the first sign Jesus did. ” There are seven of these signs in John's gospel. We are going to look at each of them. It's good to remember that there was something between Christmas and Easter: Jesus' life and ministry is as important as his birth and his death. And his disciples believed in him. That is what these signs are for. So can I finish by saying a word or two to disciples. At the beginning of 2016, I wonder how many of us are muddling through with just water; I wonder how many of us are feeling embarrassed because we have run out of wine. Life's not much of a party. We feel under-resourced; maybe even threatened; we don't know how we are going to get through it.

We need to renew our trust in Jesus. In who he is, and in what he wants to do in and through us. We need like Mary to step up and engage with who Jesus is – and encourage others to engage with who Jesus is.

© Gilmour lilly January 2016

Advent Hope

Luke 1. 68-79, Romans 8. 18-25
 
Let me tell you the back story to the wonderful piece of poetry we have just read.  It is a story that speaks to us – to the despair and pain in our personal circumstances and the terrible mess we see around us in our nation and in the nations of the world. The speaker was an old man called Zechariah, and the child (v. 76) was his eight-day-old  son, John.   Zechariah and his wife Elisabeth had tried for years to have a child, and had eventually given up.  Elisabeth's biological clock had passed the stage when she could expect to become pregnant, years before.  And then,  Zechariah had an encounter with an angel in the temple and was told he was going to become a father, in his old age – and the child would have a special job to do preparing for Messiah to come and sort out the mess that the nation was in.  Zechariah had hoped, and been crushed, so often that he didn't believe what the angel said – so was struck dumb, and could only watch as Elisabeth went through her pregnancy.  It was at the baby's circumcision that  Zechariah recovered his speech – and  out came this wonderful poem.
 
Zechariah knew, as he held this wee scrap of humanity in his arms, that God had not only visited him and Elisabeth and rescued them from the loneliness, shame, and insecurity of childlessness – but God had visited and redeemed his people from all the mess they were in.  Now, it hadn’t happened yet.   But enough had happened to assure  Zechariah that the job was as good as done... redemption was definitely on its way and nothing could stop it. 

Messiah wasn't even born yet – but Zechariah knew all about Mary’s pregnancy too, and was able to say “The Lord has raised up a horn of salvation -  a mighty saviour for us in the house of his servant David – and has shown his mercy” (mercy is chesedh – God's covenant-keeping love).

And Zechariah could see that John's task was to get people ready for Messiah by having their sins forgiven. He could see that Messiah's Kingdom was not just about politics but began with the mess inside.  And he just hints at the insight that Messiah's kingdom was going to be for all the nations who sit in darkness and the shadow of death.  

What an amazing thing, that this wee, old, disappointed and slightly cynical man, from a back water village, in small, occupied country could receive and articulate this hope!  

Hope is the big issue as we look towards this Christmas.  I know some of us have been through difficult and disappointing things in the past year: bereavement, illness, financial challenges.  And in our world, we see militant Islam and militant secularism squaring up to each other. There have been attacks in France, Kenya, Uganda, Lebanon. We see our country signing up to drop bombs on Syria.  We all get busy “doing Christmas” while food-banks do a roaring trade – and it's not all benefit scroungers.  A young army Lieutenant suffering from PTSD after action in Afghanistan, walked barefoot into a food-bank in Hillingdon.  A young couple had no heating, no money, and no food, when they were hit with a delay in benefits combined with Dad being off work with 'flu and getting no sick pay. A 21 year old student who has been in care so has no parents to fall back on, lost both her part time jobs; she's not got kids, so was not entitled to any benefits. It makes me feel a sense of despair.  This is Britain, 2015 years AD.  Anno Domini – in the year of our Lord.   What happened to this Kingdom?

And about 55 year AD, Paul writes to Christians  in the heart of the Roman Empire, in Rome itself.  Paul like  Zechariah was  a Jew, and  like  Zechariah his life had been turned around by a supernatural experience.  Paul had met with Jesus – which turned upside down, his assumption that Jesus was dead.  Paul's life-work from then on, was telling people about Jesus. The same words that  Zechariah uses – salvation, redemption – Paul also uses.  Messiah has come.  Messiah has brought the Kingdom.  Messiah has died to put us right with God – to bring us into the Kingdom.   But after Jesus, there was still disappointment, suffering, oppression.  There was still a Roman Empire.      Paul didn't always have it easy. The people he wrote to in Rome, didn't have it easy either: some as Jews struggled to fit into the pagan Roman culture.  And Rome was still the capital of an oppressive empire – and a city of inequalities, with the poorest living, or more accurately sleeping, in crowded tenements, and going out to street stalls to buy fast food.  Many tenements were shared by a number of families and had no space for luxuries like cooking.   So what has happened to this Kingdom?  

Paul says  “the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us...”   there is more to come.  Paul's vision is bigger than Zechariah's.  He expects the Kingdom to impact the nations and the whole created order.   He talks about the whole of creation being messed up. It is, he says,  
 “subject to fulility” - a  universe not functioning as God created it to do. And I think of Wilfred Owen's war poem “Futility” which ends
     Was it for this the clay grew tall?
     —O what made fatuous sunbeams toil     To break earth's sleep at all?

• In “bondage to decay” – and decay could mean destruction, shipwreck, ruin, 
• groaning in shared agony right up too the present time.  

Right on Paul.  We recognise it.  That's our world. 

But Paul also talks about creation as “Waiting, craning its neck forward to see....”  to see what?  To see the same thing we are waiting and groaning to see.  Paul says creation is waiting for the sons of God to be revealed – to be unveiled in all their glory.  He says we groan for the final completion of our adoption and our redemption.

These things are already done for us in Christ – we are the sons of god, we are adopted in his family, we are redeemed which means rescued through he paying of a ransom.  Paul says

• There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (v. 1)
• The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free  (v. 2)
• All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (v. 14)

That has all happened but is hidden away, obscured by the futility, decay and groaning.   So where's the Kingdom?

Paul says we have the “First fruits of the Spirit” (v 23).  That's an idea from Jewish and Greek religion: the idea that the first fruits of the harvest belonged to God – and certainly for a Jew to bring the first-fruits to the Lord  meant that the rest of the harvest belonged to the Lord too.  So, the first fruits of the Spirit – the Holy Spirit's present activity in our lives, means that the rest of the harvest is coming.  

• The Spirit sets us free.  When he comes, he puts his authority and constraint, God's rule, God's Kingdom, within us, setting us free from the other law of sin and death.  That doesn’t make us perfect  but it means that change is a possibility for us and legalism is not the pathway to that change. 
• The Spirit assures us we are God's Sons.  He enables us to call out to God “Abba (Daddy) Father”.  Pete Greig, in “God on Mute” describes seeing a wee Arab boy with his Dad at a swing park in Israel.  The wee boy fell off the swing, gasped for breath for a second or two, and then wailed “Abba!”  The Spirit enables us to call God “Father” with that level of intimate affection and trust. 
• The Spirit helps us pray – when we don't know how best to pray the Spirit prays though us in groans too deep for words.

Because he has the Spirit at work in his life, Paul, like  Zechariah, is able to say “it is as good as done.”    The Holy Spirit is the coming Kingdom, in our lives, now.    

There's plenty in our world and in our own lives that could make us despair. We don't yet see the triumph of the Kingdom – the justice, the peace, the wholeness the freedom from bondage to decay.   It's the fact that we don’t see it, that makes it a hope.  But God's word says it will happen.   We live hopefully,  and patiently; and prayerfully, knowing that in all things God is at work for good; we know he has his plan, and we know we are part of it. 

The activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives, is the foretaste for the whole of creation, of the coming Kingdom. So we welcome the Holy Spirit, the transforming, encouraging, praying, empowering Spirit,  in our lives. We allow him to work through us, so that all of creation can begin to get a  glimpse of who God's sons are, what God's rule is like. We co-operate with the Spirit so that the whole of creation can taste, in us, something of the freedom of the coming Kingdom. 
© Gilmour Lilly December 1016

Loving relationships

1 Corinthians 13
Love is the one thing you can't be without. 
Everything else – good things that are valuable and even essential contributions to the life of any Church – are worthless, they are nothing, without love.  Tongues of men (eloquent preaching?) And tongues of angels (heavenly language), prophecy, wisdom, knowledge, faith, generosity to the poor and courageous self-sacrifice (Surrendering one's body to be burned).  These are all  examples of power, gifting, and courage; they are all needed.  But they are all pointless without love.

We have been looking at the “Quality Characteristics” of healthy churches: Empowering leadership; Gift based ministry; Passionate spirituality; Effective structures; Inspiring worship; Holistic small-groups; and Need-based mission.  I can see connexions between these and Paul's list in 1 Cor 13: tongues, prophecy, knowledge, generosity...  They all help make the Church  better. Without them, the love can be a squandered resource.  But without love, the other stuff is nothing. 

Without love, the other seven characteristics and all the gifts and gestures in the world,  are

worth nothing.  They are like a computer or tablet without an operating system.  It may be brand new, have the clearest screen, the crispest sound, the latest wi-fi, vast amounts of memory.  But when you switch it on, all you will get is a blue screen.  Yes, all the other technical bits will make the computer work better: a rubbishy screen and tinny speakers will mean nobody can appreciate the wonderful operating system.  But without the operating system, all you have is a big paperweight!  Without love, gifts, planning and sacrifice are worthless.  Without gifts, planning etc., love may be unfocussed. 

So what is love? 
Love is more than a word; it is more than a feeling.  And it is more than a bunch of gestures.  It is more even than simply generosity or self-sacrifice.   What is it?  It is an attitude,  a way of thinking as well as behaving towards other people. What do loving relationships look like?
Loving relationships are ones marked by

• Patience, (literally longsuffering, the willingness to “put up with” people's mistakes and slowness) and kindness,
• Generosity.  Love does not envy (it does not long for what belongs to someone else)
• Humility.  Love does not boast.  Love is not proud (gk means “puffed up” – a difficult word that paul sometimes uses,  with implications of being impossible to challenge or correct.)
• Decency. Love is not rude (behaving unseemly, e.g. sexually inappropriate behaviour.  Same word is used in 1 Cor 7. 36, about a young man “not behaving properly” towards his girlfriend.) Rudeness, isn't jumping the queue, but wandering hands, sexually inappropriate humour.  Love doesn't use people or objectify them sexually.
• Unselfishness. We don't insist on “my own way”  No need to explain: Paul sums that one up perfectly!
• Anger management.

  

  Image by G Lilly

  Love isn't quick to fly off the handle, nor does it keep a grudge going.  Some of us are fireworks: the least provocation and “boom!”  Some of us are like a garden bonfire, that smoulders quietly for days – or years.  And some of are like both: quick starters and slow burners!
• Joy.  Love doesn't feel pleased when someone does something wrong.  We do, sometimes; we say “thank you Lord I am not like that sinner” (Luke 18. 11) and maybe get a secret pleasure from putting them right. Love rejoices with the truth.  When people do well, achieve something, overcome a difficulty, we celebrate with them.
• Strength.  Love always protects.  Or Love bears all things. The  word is related to the word for the flat roof of a house.  Thick, solid enough to keep the rain out, tough enough to walk on.  S of S 2. 4 says “his banner over me is love”.  We need to put a banner, a blanket of secure, protective,  love over one another.
• Full of Faith and hope.  Love believes all things is not about believing the best of people, but about always having faith and being hopeful.  When someone comes to the church door telling me a “sob-story” and asking for money, does loving them mean I will believe their story?  No; loving them means I believe God can do something for them!  It is part of love, to bring faith and hope into our life together. 
• Perseverance.  Gods love never ceases.   And true love never stops loving.  That doesn't mean allowing abuse to happen.  But it does mean we love when we don't feel like loving.

So, those are the kind of relationships we should expect to see in a Healthy Church.  Strong, lasting, faith-filled, generous, tolerant and sensitive relationships. And relationships like that “Never cease.” 

Love is the Kingdom
Paul goes on to talk about various gifts – tongues, prophecy, knowledge – as things that are going to disappear – eventually!  When I was a kid, we were taught, wrongly, that tongues and prophecy would disappear when the bible was completed.  That's not what Paul means at all.  “When the perfect comes” means being fully grown up, the final climax of everything. 
All we do and experience in this life, is like childhood.  When we are in eternity, we will be grown up.  We will think and understand in a different way.  

Now, what we have of Christian experience and knowledge of God, even with the wonderful gift of Scripture, is like looking in a not very good mirror that is just a square of polished brass or silver.  (And they made mirrors like that in Corinth!)   One day, we will understand God, how creation happened,  how Jesus can be both God and man, who the Holy Spirit is; we will understand why God allows suffering.  We have that understanding, and lots more,  to look forward to!   

And when that day comes, there will still be faith, hope, and above all, love.  So loving relationships in the Church, make that Church a foretaste of heaven, right here on earth.  Loving relationships in the Church, mean that the Church is living today in the experience of the Kingdom of God: a church where there are  loving relationships, is one where “our God reigns!” 

© Gilmour Lilly 2015

Need-oriented Mission: Matthew 11. 1-6, 25-30

On one occasion, fairly early on in his ministry (John was still alive) Jesus was travelling in Samaria, and feeling weary, he sat down beside  a well while his mates went shopping.  It was midday, hot, and as Jesus sat, he saw a woman approaching, carrying a water jar.  I wonder what was going through his head? 

Maybe, just maybe, “Come to me all you who are tired and heavily laden.... and I will give you rest...”  We often use these verses in the context of caring for overworked disciples: "Jesus' yoke is ready and his burden is light," we tell people who are too busy, trying too hard and beating themselves up themselves up because they can't do all that they feel is expected of them. I've quoted these verses myself in exactly that situation. But the context of these words was clearly mission.

In Matthew 10, Jesus has sent the Twelve out – on mission trip, to preach, heal the sick, drive out the demons.  Did you ever wonder what Jesus was doing while the disciples were out on mission?   We imagine him taking a few days off. Spending a few days at his Mum's place, maybe playing a few rounds of golf?  But Matthew tells us what Jesus was doing.  Chapter 11 verse 1 says quite clearly,  that “After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee”.  While the 12 were on mission, Jesus was on mission too.

We are on a mission: Jesus has sent us out. And when we are on a mission, Jesus is on a mission too! That is good news because we can't do it on our own. Recognising the truth of the Kingdom, knowing who Jesus is, depends on God revealing truth.  (see v25-27)  We need Jesus to be with us.

So it seems that Jesus is saying “Come to me all who are weary and heavily loaded...” to everyone who is tired and overburdened.  He is saying it to people who don't know him.  He is inviting people to put their faith in him and know his rest: not so much “inactivity;” more relief, from the stresses they are under.   

West were the burdens that Jesus' hearers might be carrying?
Jewish legalism.  Jesus described the Pharisees with their legalistic religion as laying heavy burdens on people.   (See Mt 23. 4).
Greek intellectualism.  The big thing for the Greeks was “the search for truth.”  But the Gospel is not so much for he wise and learned as for the little children.   (v 25f)
Roman tyranny.  Matthew 5.41talks about “going the extra mile” and that relates to something that the Empire could do – and had done, going back to the days of the Persians hundreds of years before Jesus. They could press gang people at random for short spells of forced labour.  Remember they forced Simon of Cyrene to carry Jesus' Cross. (Mt 27. 32)

What are the burdens and heavy loads that people have today?  Let me tell you a story about a young refugee. His wife and son are still in his home country, and he is waiting for his asylum case to be decided. He attends a Christian group and is learning about Jesus; and he has started another Christian group in his own flat where he tells his friends what he is learning about Jesus. What is his burden?  What is the heavy load of someone who works on the food industry, has to work long hours on low wages, who can't complain for fear of losing his job: he knows his company gets its business by being the cheapest supplier. What is the heavy load of someone working at Amazon or Sky? What is the burden for a single mum or someone in an abusive relationship? For someone with an ageing parent or a disabled child?  For someone living in Kurdistan, in fear for his life and with no prospects of improvement? What is the heavy load for somebody bereaved in Paris or Garissa (Kenya)? What is the heavy load for a young person caught up in ISIL?  We need to see that, to understand what the burdens are in people’s lives and to start there in reaching out with the Good News.

But the solution to the world's burdens and problems is not political or economic or military. It is not enough to change the government our kill the terrorists. The Problem will always come back. The solution is spiritual. It's not the UN, or the EU or Westminster or Holyrood; it's the Kingdom of God.  The Church's message is not Come to Jeremy (Corbyn) or come to George (Osborn)  but “Come to Jesus”.  We need to establish on our minds the supremacy of Jesus and his sufficiency, the sufficiency and potency of his Kingdom to change lives, circumstances and cultures. The point about verse 27 is who Jesus is.  God the father has committed (literally “handed over”) everything to him.  The father and the Son know each other as a matter of course, because they are the same.  They are God.  Unless God reveals Jesus to us we are only his acquaintances. 

When we come to Jesus, he gives relief, and places his yoke on us, his way of living, his "law", his demands. But Jesus the carpenter places on us an easy, well-made yoke.  He calls us to be learners, or disciples.  The Syriac NT – an ancient language similar to the Aramaic Jesus spoke – says “Come to me and I will rest you; for I am restful and you shall find rest for yourselves.”

So if you are weary and burdened today, Jesus says “come to me and I will give you rest!”  And I want to invite you to put your trust in Him – the Son of God –  for everything. I want to promise that as you put his yoke on you, and become his disciple, his learner, you will find rest.

And for all of us, I want to suggest four processes or habits, four things we can do, to engage in need-oriented mission. 

Image: G Lilly

Practical compassion .  We meet people at their point of need.  
Prophetic challenge. We speak the word of God, not only into people's need of a saviour, but into people's and society's need to repent.
Prayer for our world and for and with people. 
Presenting the Good news – one-to-one graciously presenting people with the truth that God loves them, and that through Jesus' death and resurrection, change is a possibility, and with the opportunity to repent and believe the Good News. 

We can see these worked out in the ministry of Jesus.  His life was empowered by prayer: an ongoing conversation with the Father.  He was constantly ministering to people's practical needs – healing the sick, feeding the hungry; once when he had raised a wee girl from death and people were staring at what had happened, Jesus said “Give her something to eat.”  The practical needs...  HE often spoke with prophetic insight and incisiveness as he proclaimed the Good News. 
Matthew 11. 1-6, 25-30We see several of these habits at work when this woman came to the well and began to draw water (John 4) …  When she arrived,  what were her burdens?  She had a sense of shame and was looked down upon for her lifestyle.  That is why she was at the well in the heat of the day: when everyone else was resting in the shade she could get her water without being looked at and spat upon.  She needed to be accepted and treated as a human being. 

Jesus took practical, sacrificial steps to meet her deepest human needs.  Men treated her as a sex object, women treated her as a slut.  Jesus treated her with respect and dignity, even asked her for a drink.  She was surprised to be asked.  Jesus took her questions seriously and answered them. 

All the while he is presenting the truth about who he is and what he can do. “If you knew who

Image: G Lilly

it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.  The water I give  will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 

When the woman heard that she said, “I want this water!”  Then Jesus says the thin the woman has dreaded hearing:  “If you want this water, your husband needs to be in on this. Go and get him!”   The woman is squirming.  I don't have a husband.  And then the embarrassing question becomes a bombshell: “You bet you don't have a husband – you've had five and you're now living with a guy you're not married to.”   Tough words; but they are true: how did Jesus know?   The woman recognises that Jesus is a prophet.  She's intelligent; she's also desperate to change the subject, so the conversation touches on other questions: who's got the right way of worshipping, and the promised Messiah.  Then Jesus tells her “I am the Messiah!”   She is so excited she rushes off to bring her friends to Jesus. 

That's need-based mission at work. 

© Gilmour Lilly November 2015

Inspiring Worship

Introduction: (Allan) What are our reasons for coming to church? Is it out of habit ? Been doing it for years? Take a pew and go through the motions sing a few songs fall asleep halfway through the seven week up for communion single a few more songs then have a chat and a cuppa and a biscuit is that how it's supposed to be? No!

Of course that's not how it is supposed to be. But we don't start with habit, or going through the motions. We may end up like that; but I believe most of us start with a desire to respond to God and to be “inspired”! But things can go pear-shaped quite easily and we end up swapping that sense of expectancy for one of habit. So how can we keep this things healthy and vibrant?

A number of years ago when I was in Gloucester, someone visited our Church and, on her way out said to me “I really enjoyed my worship this morning!” Now, as you know, I am very polite, so I bit my tongue. But what I wanted to say was “Well, it's nice to get a compliment, but we weren't actually worshipping you!”

So the first question I want to ask about worship actually is “Who are we worshipping?” It's important that our worship is focussed on God, not on our own needs or preferences; not on the needs or preferences of any group within the Church; and not even on the needs or preferences of outsiders or “seekers”. It's for God. To quote Mike Pilavachi, it's “For The Audience of One.”

Let's hear God's word.... Deut 6. 4-5, 13-15

Lomond Hill, Fife. Image by G Lilly

In its original context God's people Israel were living in an environment where many gods were worshipped; and as the Lord had revealed Himself to them the idea had slowly dawned in their minds that their god was different: he was the only god they should worship because he was really the only god. When Deut 6. 4 says “The Lord our God is One...” that “One” is important. It's almost like a name for God. He is “The One.” he is “Unique”. His name is Yahweh – the Eternal One, the one who was and is and is to come, the one who uniquely says “I am who I am!” Our first key word then, is The Eternal.

But still for Israel – as we as for us today – there was the constant pressure and temptation to take our minds off the Lord and worship other gods. We may not go down on our hands and knees in front of our computer screens, but it's easy for other things to become idols.

And that asks us – as it should do – a question that goes to the very core of our being. It's about more than “Who is A Church service for?” The Church by the simple fact of worshipping God, fires off this question to the whole of our society: “Who or what do you worship?”

Matt Redman's song says, “I'm coming back to the the heart of worship... and it's all about you, Jesus!”

That brings me to another question: What is worship?

Let's hear God's word again: Romans 12. 1-2

Bread and wine. Image by G Lilly

Remember what we learned last week: The wine is not the bottle. The ESSENCE of worship is not about singing or preaching or raising our hands or kneeling down. That's just the bottle. The wine, the essential core of worship is this: surrendering our lives to God, because of what he has done for us in Christ. The words sacrifice, offer, holy and acceptable (in Romans 12. 1-2) are technical religious words. Literally the Greek means “Present your lives to God, as a living, holy and acceptable sacrifice.”

Worship is not just what happens in here at 11 a.m. it is about the whole of life. It is about our home life; it is about how we spend – and earn – our money; it is about our sexuality, about health, about relationships, about forgiveness, generosity, balancing work and rest. It's about everything. To be a worshipper means that in everything, I give myself to God; in everything I am not accepting conformity to the world but seeking to be transformed.

Present your bodies as a living sacrifice... And I believe that, if we could nail that, we would end the whole thing of “Worship wars” that has blighted the Western Church for decades.

So How do we worship? We look at the EXPRESSION of worship...

Let's hear God's Word: Revelation 4. 8-11; Revelation 5. 11-14.

That's a sneak preview of the worship of heaven – and it's pretty way out: it's vibrant, colourful, active, loud, thoughtful, truth-centred.

My Dictionary of bible themes lists the following as aspects of “worship” Adoration, Praise, prayer, asking, blessing, doxology, enquiring of God, lifting up hands, celebration, longing for god, waiting on God, magnifying God, meditation, remembering, study, thanksgiving... sacraments, singing, spiritual gifts. In these and maybe in ways we haven't even thought of we connect with and respond to Yahweh, to Jesus the lamb, to the present Holy Spirit.

There is a prayer – we used it last week – that says it is right that we should worship God “at all times and in all places.” We can worship here in Church – but we can worship in the street, in the park, in the café... And we worship, primarily because Jesus is worthy.

Why worship?

The effects of worship (according to my Dictionary of bible Themes) include: Blessing, Guidance, Joy, Sense of God's presence, Deeper sense of Jesus' Lordship. Boldness in witness: Conviction of sinners.

Let's hear what the Bible says: 2 Chron 5. 13f cf Acts 16. 25f;

That's pretty inspiring. If I were Paul or Silas, chained up in prison, after being whipped, I'm not sure I would feel like singing God's praises, but despite all they had been through, that's exactly what Paul and Silas were doing. When God's people connect with him in worship, somehow we release his power into our situations.

So, Inspiring worship? Do we worship to get inspired? No, we worship because Jesus is worthy, even if we are not. But in worship, in connecting with the Eternal God, and offering our lives to Him, something is going to happen to us, too. We can't worship god and not be changed.

As we worship, we connect with god; we become aware of our own sinfulness; we know God's power to clean us up and forgive us; and we are inspired to serve him in his world.

We finish with the story of how one man was changed and inspired as he connected with God.

Isa 6. 1-8

©Gilmour Lilly November 2015

Matthew 9. 14-17. Effective Structure

He lived in Capernaum, so Matthew (or Levi) who worked for the Romans as a  tax-collector, was a familiar figure. One day, as Jesus was walking past his office, he called him to “Follow me”.  Without a moment's hesitation, Matthew left his office and began to follow, and then threw a party, with Jesus as the guest of honour.  All the outcasts and dodgy types were there.  Jesus was criticised for the company he was keeping, but that was why he was there: for the outcasts, the broken; the people whose lives had fallen apart.  The Kingdom was party-time for those with broken lives, who were ready to make a fresh start.  

But there was another question fired at Jesus – maybe not immediately – but in time. John the Baptist's disciples, hearing about  what was happening, wanted to know why they and the Pharisees were fasting, while Jesus was partying.  Michael Green says “Typical religious people. They engage in all sorts of actions and ceremonies but have not the least idea why they do it.” 

Fasting had originally been something people did in moments of grief or desperation – turning from sin or urgent prayer. The Jewish religion had turned it into a religious exercise.  For them, fasting was just part of the Structure of their religious life.  It went along with going to the Synagogue, and celebrating the great festivals through the year.  It was part of the structure of their faith community.

We talked last week about Spirituality: the processes by which we know God and grow in him.  Structures are what the Church brings to the equation to shape our lives as Christians and our life together.  I suppose they are the “organised” bit in organised religion.  There are structures that exist to manage our life together:  meetings at set times and in familiar places. A news bulletin; rotas for making the tea; Leadership and other Teams, a bank account; Kids' work, house groups, plans for Christmas. It's all part of our “Structure”.

Jesus comes to this old structure of Judaism with a new thing called “The Kingdom of God”.  It's exciting. It's fresh and creative and a bit intoxicating; it's alive and growing.  The Kingdom is often likened to a wedding.  A huge celebration: bigger and better than Mathews big party for Jesus.

And some people thought, “Good!  The Messiah's Kingdom will keep our religion alive. He will make it stronger; we will get rid of the Romans, rule ourselves and maybe rule the world.”  

But Jesus doesn't agree.  That's why he tells these three parables. “You can't call a fast at a wedding banquet.  You can't patch old clothes with new cloth.  You can't store new wine in old wine-skins.”

1.  Fasting wasn’t appropriate when Jesus was there, doing the stuff that shows God's rule. There would be times for fasting – like when Jesus was taken away and put to death as Jesus hints in the parable.  There are still times to fast and times for celebration for the Church today.

2. Patching up the old.  Jesus says you can't use the Kingdom to patch up the old and threadbare structures of man-made religion.  Your old shirt has already been washed many times and shrunk as much as it is going to.  When it gets a hole you patch it with a bit of new cloth, put it in the wash and the new bit shrinks.  You are back where you started, with a hole in your shirt! 

3. New wine in old wine-skins. You can't hope to carry the vibrant reality of the Kingdom in the tired bottles of man-made religion.   New wine is still alive, still fermenting, releasing bubbles of CO2.  Wineskins were made from the skins

Public Domain image

of goats, that were cleaned, tanned, stitched and sealed. New made ones were stretchy but older ones lost that stretchiness. New, fresh, young wine needs new-made, brand-new wine-skins. The wine of the Kingdom is always fresh, young, growing, bubbling and fizzing.  It needs constantly to be put in inventive, new-made wine-skins.

The wine is not the bottle. That is so obvious that I almost missed it until I read what Howard Snyder, a Methodist scholar wrote way back in 1978, “Jesus distinguishes between something essential and primary (the Wine) and something secondary but also

Image by G Lilly

necessary and useful (the wine-skins)”1   The wine is not the bottle, just as the tree is not the plastic sleeve used to protect it when it's a young plant.  As it grows, it outgrows that structure.

That's what Jesus says about structures.  That and very little else.  As far as worship, he gave one instruction: break bread in remembrance of me. As far as leadership, he appointed twelve to be with him and then to be sent out. 

In Acts 1 we find the Church has latched on to … the number 12: the structure.   Then in Acts 2, the Holy Spirit came.  So now the Church had two things:  it had people and it had the Spirit. (An it had the Gospel, and very little else!)  And out of the people, the Spirit made this thing called “fellowship”: koinonia is the Greek word for it.  Snyder says “This is the only explanation for the early Christian community described in Acts. The creation of genuine fellowship is an integral part of the work of the Holy Spirit.”2   The first believers were together; they obviously communicated with each other because they knew about one another's needs.  Snyder says “Communion without communication would be a contradiction in terms.”3  And the Spirit kept moving amongst them.   Paul says"where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom" (2 Corinthians 3. 17).  And as the Spirit moved, the Church continued to reach its neighbours with the Gospel.  Together, communication, freedom, and mission, were the key words for the earliest Church's life, and their structures were simply there to enable these values. 

What Jesus, the Acts of the Apostles, and indeed the rest of the bible models, is a flexible approach.  The seven were appointed for practical caring ministry in Acts 6 because what they had – the 12 doing all the work – wasn’t' working.  But isn't it interesting, that when the structures embody these values, both in Acts 6 . 7 and in Acts 2. 47, the church's mission leaps forward. 

In the Old Testament, as the people journeyed through the desert, Jethro told Moses to appoint judges because what they had – Moses doing everything – wasn't working. 

Even the physical structure of the Tabernacle was designed to work – to be waterproof when it was up and portable when it was down.  The holiest thing in the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, the greatest symbol of God's presence with his people, was designed to be practical. Designed by God himself, overlaid with gold, but with rings and carrying poles built in so it could be carried. It's about structures that work.  The Bible teaches us effective structures.  The test of effective structures are togetherness, communication, freedom and mission.

My Dad's family were hoarders.  In the sixties they still had things like the family's ID cards and ration books.  I still have bits and pieces I have saved up from when I was a teenager. But my Mum wasn't a hoarder. When I was in second year at secondary school, we did woodwork.  I can't remember anything Mr McClymonts taught us about woodwork.  All I can remember is how he swore at my poor workmanship. Each of us made a box for putting shoe polish and brushes in.  Mine wasn't very good, but I eventually took it home and gave it to my Mum.  It was kept, with brushes and polish, under the sink, and I forgot about it until one day, in the 80's I was back home for a family funeral, and wanted to clean my black shoes.  I went looking for the polish box – and Mum had thrown it out when they had moved.  I was a bit put out at the time.  But you know what – she was right.  My joints were not that neatly chiselled out, they were made good with wood-filler, and the whole thing had been given coat of red paint to hide the defects. It was not the kind of thing she was going to put on the coffee table when visitors came round.

We can be hoarders in the way we deal with our structures.   We try to make the new cloth of the Kingdom patch up the old, threadbare structures.  We try to justify the existence of the old wine-skins by putting the kingdom into them.  Sometimes we need to just chuck them out. 

Sometimes we suffer from an obsession with structures.  We forget that the wine isn't the bottle: the tree isn't the plastic sleeve.  Church structures don't have a sort of divine seal of approval on them. Thirty or so years ago some groups of Christians were obsessed with “restoring Biblical structures to the Church.” The one of those groups published a magazine article that asked “Who's got the right Biblical Structure?” And the answer? “Nobody!”  We can be obsessed with new structures when we are thinking “new”. And we can become obsessed with structures when we are thinking “old”. 

It's the new wine of the Kingdom that matters.  We need to create structures that work for the Kingdom: new wine-skins.  Effective structures that bring us together, and enable communication, freedom, and mission. And that brings us back to where we started, with Jesus partying with Matthew the tax-collector and his friends.  The new wine is the generous, vibrant, living Kingdom. the Spirit in the Church, is the spirit of the Kingdom.  And the Kingdom is about the lost. Effective structures are not there to keep the saints in or the lost out.  They need to have doors and windows.  Effective structures let the Kingdom do what it wants, where it wants, where it's needed.


© Gilmour Lilly November 2015