Luke 14 v I5-24

Have you ever been in a situation where someone says something that sounds innocent enough, maybe even right and good – but you think “Well, that’s me put in my place!” When Jesus was out to dinner with respectable, well-to-do religious types, there was always a bit of tension in the room. This time was no exception. Jesus has already healed someone and it was the Sabbath when “work” – including healing – was forbidden. Then he’s given some free advice about not homing in on the most important seats at a banquet; then he’s talked about inviting the people who can’t invite you back instead of just your rich friends. He says “you’re blessed if you invite the poor, the maimed, the blind and the lame to dinner.”

And someone says “Blessed is he who will eat bread in the Kingdom of God!” At best, is was just sentimental, religious smugness. The speaker clearly thought he would be there. “Won’t it be lovely when we – the righteous – all get to heaven!” And there may have been a sting in the tail. Jesus has said you’re blessed if you care for the poor – but the man says “Everyone who gets to heaven is blessed – so we don’t need to bother too much about the poor.” It’s a challenge.

So Jesus tells a story. That’s a good way of breaking the tension, making people think and hammering home truth. It brings something important out into the open. It’s a story about a well-to do chap who decides to throw a banquet and and when everyone he invited doesn’t turn up, he invites the poorest people.

Now when we look at the parables Jesus told, we need to remember that a parable is not an allegory (or a alligator!) In other words, we are not supposed to look for a meaning in every detail of the parable. A parable has usually one main point. The details are there for local colour: they turn what could be a drab, dull story, into an interesting, imaginative one; and they illustrate the main point. So, what is the one main point in this story? How do the details lead us to that main point?

Firstly, whenever Jesus – or the Jews of his own day – talks about a banquet – he’s talking about salvation, the Kingdom of God. Of course, the Pharisees only thought of future Kingdom, in Heaven. Jesus was thinking about the present as well as the future Kingdom: the “sweet here and now” as well as the “sweet bye and bye”. Okay, so the banquet is the Kingdom, and the Kingdom is a banquet.

Now 2000 years ago without being able to “Create an Event” on Facebook, or even get invitations printed, the normal thing to do was, well in advance, to tell people when and where the party was and that they were invited; then on the day you’d send messengers to tell them everything was ready. But in the story, those who were invited made excuses – and not very good ones: two had bought things – a field, a team of oxen – and “needed to try them out”. The third claimed he had just got married, so he couldn’t come. Maybe his new bride wouldn’t let him out of her sight! Possibly he was thinking about the old law that said a newly-wed was excused military service for a year (that was to make sure the man had an opportunity to father children before putting his life in harm’s way). There is a world of difference between an invitation to a banquet, and call-up papers. So this was another excuse. Basically the same thing applied to all three of them. They didn’t want to go, or had other things that they wanted to do. Their excuses amounted to a plain, blunt refusal to attend.

So the host sends out his servants, to bring in anyone they can find. They are to begin with the broken people inside the city, first of all. For the second time, Jesus mentions four groups of people, “The poor, maimed blind & lame”. (see v 13, 21) Still there are empty places, so the servants are sent out again to find the rough sleepers out in the field. “That my house may be full!” Never mind trying to figure out who these represent. Think rather what kind of picture is painted of the host? He’s got a big heart. He cares about the broken, the outcasts, the people everyone else looks down upon.

The one tough thing the host says is “none of those originally invited will get a taste!” It was common to send portions to people who couldn't get to a banquet – like sending pieces of wedding cake to people who couldn’t get to the reception. The master is in effect saying “I know your excuses are just excuses. If you don’t want to come, you don’t want to eat my banquet – well, nobody’s forcing you, so you don’t eat it. Simple as that.”

So the main point is – our big-hearted, generous God invites everyone to his kingdom banquet. The only way you can eat it is by accepting the invitation; the only way you can be locked out, is by rejecting the invitation.

So are some people God’s “first choice”? And other second choice? That’s not what the parable is saying. Even in Old testament times, God has had a heart for all people in the world: for all nations. Isaiah 45. 22 says “turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth!” The one main point is that God invites everyone, and we only exclude ourselves if we turn that invitation down.

That leaves us with what we do. Basically, we need to hear the heartbeat of God

Firstly, whoever you are, you are invited to the kingdom banquet. Hear the father’s heartbeat. Rich or poor, old or young, male or female, smart or not so smart, you are invited. The banquet is ready. Are you coming? You need to accept the invitation God gives you.

Secondly, if you’re already on the guest list, if you're already enjoying the banquet hear the father’s heart-beat. Can you see around the table, everyone you want to? Can you see around the table, everyone the father wants to? Sometimes we can get a bit smug, a bit lazy, a bit self centred.

Rick Richardson in his book “Evangelism outside the box” describes a childhood experience, going to the beach in a big car with two adults and six kids. Only on the way home, one of the kids noticed that Chris, aged three, wasn’t in the car. Rick says his mum spun the car around and the trip back to the beach was a white-knuckle ride to find the lost kid. An illustration of the father's heart for the lost. God wants his house full!

So does God play the “numbers game?” Right about now, the numbers game is giving the Church in Scotland a wake-up call. Attendance in Scottish Churches is half of what it was thirty years ago. Being bothered about our church’s survival, about keeping the thing going, getting people in so they can pay their tithes and go on the rotas, is not a good motive for mission. Being bothered about our reputation as a lively growing church, is not a good motive for mission. We have lots of good things in our church. We have hard working and generous people of all ages; we have a few families, a worship band, a prayer team, and a relaxed atmosphere. What about all the people we’re not reaching? We can’t be complacent. God wants his house full – so survival, or even growing – is never enough. God wants his house full. But it’s not about the church. The banquet is the kingdom, not the Church. God – quite simply – loves a party. We need to hear the father’s heartbeat. To enjoy the banquet and to take the risk of going to the last the lost and the least “That my house may be full”.

© Gilmour Lilly April 2017

Luke 11.. 1-13

The story
This weeks "food story" is not about a banquet.  It's about ordinary food: bread.  It’s a story of working class people. The house that’s described has only one room:  the opposite of the luxurious villa  where Levi lived.   Parables are often a story within a story.  When his disciples asked Jesus “Teach us how to pray”, part of his answer was this story. And it goes like this...

So a few hours after dark,somebody knocks your door. It’s your old buddy from the coast, on a journey on foot.  No mule, no chariot.  So he’s travelling at night to stay cool.  Halfway through the night, he’s tired and hungry; and courtesy demands you give him hospitality.  Water to wash his feet isn’t a problem; and there’s a skin of wine hanging up – but no bread.  So you go next door and start banging the door – until eventually a window opens, and a bleary eyed and rather angry head appears.  

“Oh, it’s you. What do you want?”   

“I want some food.  I know your missus made extra bread yesterday: can I borrow some? You see, a friend has just arrived on a journey, and I have no food in the house.”   

“You got to be joking mate.  You know what time it is?  If I start blundering about in the kitchen cupboard looking for food, I’ll end up waking the kids.”

“Yes, I know.  But look, this is so embarrassing.  He’s got another few hours walking to do so he can’t stop the night.  And I really have no food.    Can you please lend me these three flat breads: My missus will make some fresh first thing in the morning and pay you back!”  

“Come in and shut up, and I’ll get you the bread.  You really have a blooming cheek.”

The point
 We are looking for one main point.  (Remember the alligator?)    Jesus says ”You want to know how to pray?  Well, learn that God delights to hear and answer our prayers.”  Go on praying because God graciously responds to the needs of his children.  We are not talking about the old “traffic lights” illustration, you know, how we sometimes tell kids 'sometimes God says “No!”, sometimes he says “Wait”! And sometimes he says “Yes!”   “He will give you whatever you need”'.  That's not what Jesus is saying.    

The problem
Some of us have stories of answered prayer.  All of us have stories of un-answered prayer.  And we have – or we should have –  an ethical question about whether it is OK to order God around.  Whether it is OK to ask God for an easy life just because I am a Christian? Whether it is OK to become myopic in our praying for local needs when there is a world of suffering out there?  Whether it is OK to “pray in” thousands of pounds for a Church refurbishment – when there are thousands forced to make use of Foodbanks in the UK, and millions starving worldwide.  

The difference
Prayer is about relationship.  In the first parable, the first thing the guy said when he knocked his neighbour's door was “Friend.”   Their relationship was one of friendship. (That wasn't why the request was granted, but it was why the man felt at liberty to go knocking on his neighbour’s door!)  In the Lord's Prayer the first word Jesus gives us is "Father"   “Abba!”  
In Aramaic, that was the word a child would use.  Pete Greig tells the wonderful moving story of a wee boy in Palestine who fell off a swing in the park. There was a that few seconds of silence as he realised what had happened, then he started to wail “Abba!” Sometimes our prayers are like that.  “Daddy, it hurts!”  

It’s also the word of respectful familiarity a grown man would use.  So it’s the word Jesus used in the garden of Gethsemane.  

In the second parable, a son asks a Father.  Our relationship with our heavenly Father is the guarantee that he sill not play tricks on us.     Which of you fathers would give his child a scorpion?  There is trust and generosity and compassion in the parent-child relationship that won't play tricks on us. There was once a Dad who was an astute and hard-headed businessman.  One day he set his small son on the mantlepiece, and told him “jump off and I will catch you!”  the boy jumped.  The dad did nothing, and the wee boy was crying on the floor.  When he stopped crying, Dad said to him “There is a lesson for you my son. Trust nobody – not even your own Father!”  The point is that a good father doesn’t do that – no dirty tricks – not even to teach us a lesson.   Jesus use the “how much more” argument, to show that God doesn’t give us bad things when we ask for good.  In the first parable, we are asked to put ourselves in the place of the person banging the door.  In the second we are asked to take the viewpoint of the Person being asked! In all of Jesus’ teaching on prayer, it is the relationship between us and our Father that is all-important. 

Prayer is about the kingdom. Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer is cut right back. No Frills. "Hallowed be your Name. Your kingdom come".  We ask the Lord to bring about a situation where people honour God’s name and character.  We ask for the blessings that come when God is acknowledged as King and allowed to rule.  Then and only then do we say “give us, forgive us, lead us”.  We pray for the generous, gracious impact of God’s name and character and rule, in our lives, in our community, and in our world.  In the parable of the friend, the man was not asking for something for himself.  He was asking for bread to give away. That's kingdom prayer. It's about mission.  What does God want to do in our world?  

Prayer is about Need.  I wonder if the story of the friend at midnight illustrates where we are at in our churches?   Someone comes to us, on a journey; tired, hungry, needing food – maybe physical food; maybe companionship, belonging, healing; certainly spiritual food – answers to serious questions; forgiveness; a direct encounter with God.   Have we anything to give them?  Or do we sometimes not even want to be hospitable to people on their journey?  Maybe even, people have got so used to our having nothing to give them, or not wanting to let them in, that they have giving up knocking our door.   We’re on our knees.  We’re crying for help. Lend me three loaves, for I have nothing to set before him!  We need to be giving people the good things of the Kingdom.   And God has the resources. Ask the Father.  And Jesus says, “how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask!”  The resource we need – so that we have food for those who come to us hungry – is the Holy Spirit. 

So God wants to give us what we ask.  We need to recover the Kingdom impact of the Church.  We need to recover the desire to reach the lost.  We need to see a recovery of spiritual hunger. We need to  have something to give people. We need the holy Spirit to come and fill us again.  That is stuff we need to pray about.  That is what “Thy Kingdom Come is all about.”  Praying for men and women to find Jesus.  Bashing God’s door with a sense of urgency.  I want to encourage all of us to get involved.  If you do internet, log in, find some resources, and use them.  And if you don’t do the internet we will provide some printed resources you can use.  If you have family members who know Jesus, pray with them. If you don’t, find someone else to pray with.  We will be having times to pray together.   

Our world needs Jesus, and we need the Holy Spirit.   Having the cheek to ask. It was “because of his shameless audacity (NIVUK)” that the man got what he asked for. I’m not like that.  I’m polite.  Last Sunday, we were walking out at Limekilns, and I really needed a pee.  As we walked past the Scout hut, out came Andrew Mitchell, who had just come back from a camp. We talked for a minute or two about his weekend and then – we walked on.  I thought it was just too cheeky to ask if I could nip in and use their facilities, so I kept it in!  Too embarrassed. And probably too proud. And I suspect that pride so often lies at the core of our inability to come to God with outrageous requests.  God wants to give us what we ask.  How desperate are you?

© Gilmour Lilly May 2017

Luke 5. 27-39 New Wine for new mission.

We begin a mini-series on the Kingdom banquet – looking at some texts involving Jesus and food, from the writing of Dr Luke.

You have to ask, at the very start, what made someone like Levi the tax collector (who gained the nickname Matthew meaning “Gift of God”) do what he did.  To walk away from a prosperous business as an independent agent collecting taxes for the Romans. 

He certainly wasn’t a loner: he had a fairly wide circle of friends who were ready – at moment's notice – to come and feast at his house.  Maybe not the type of people you would want at a the Sunday school tea-party. A bit loud, especially after they had had a few drinks; language could be a bit off.   But they are having a great time.  In fact, Levi had a pretty good life.  He was well off.  The Romans would look after him if – or when – he got any trouble from his fellow-Jews.
  
He would probably not be one naturally to agree with Jesus.  He was a hard-headed, pragmatic businessman who didn’t mind cheating people to line his own pockets .  Jesus was spiritual, an idealist, who never pulled his punches.   He believed in taking the Bible seriously.  He believed in the life everlasting.  He believed in the reality of the spiritual world: in miracles, in deliverance.  He believed in high standards.  

But Levi had probably heard what Jesus was doing.  The thing immediately before the calling of Levi (in Matthew Mark and Luke) is the healing of the man who was lowered through the roof.  Matthew  probably knew something of what had happened.  Jesus had healed the guy.  Jesus had forgiven him.  Jesus had behaved like a bit of a rebel, an outsider, risking everything.  Power to heal.  Authority to forgive. Courage to be different.  Jesus had some qualities that piqued Levi’s curiosity.  So when Jesus said “Follow me” Levi was up for it.  “I’m in.”  

And “I’m in” meant “I’m ready to change!”  The words Luke records in verse 28 are clear and explicit.  Levi left everything, stood up, and began following Jesus.  There was going to be some sort of handover of the job he had been doing.  That was taken care of immediately.  That done, he stood up, in a decisive and meaningful action.  Billy Graham’s famous catch-phrase when he made an appeal at the end of his talk, was “I want you to get right up out of your seat.”  We need that – whether it’s standing up, going to the front, getting baptised, receiving the bread and wine of communion – we need decisive moments when we articulate decisions by doing something.  Levi stood up and followed Jesus.  Followed isn’t a one-off action, as though he followed Jesus down the street.  It is an “imperfect” verb.  That is to say, it describes an incomplete action.  He stood up and began to follow Jesus.   He began, as he stood up from his desk, a journey of following Jesus, a journey of discipleship.  

The next thing he did was invite all his friends, colleagues, acquaintances, to a banquet, a huge feast, so they could get to know Jesus too.  He was a fairly well-off sort of guy.  That was about to change.  But at this moment in time, Levi had the resources to throw a party with Jesus as guest of honour.  He was new to following Jesus; he was utterly unjesus

prepared.  But he had an instinct for the ways of the Kingdom that set the scene for much of Jesus’ ministry.   He saw the connexion between the Kingdom and a banquet.  In the NT, especially in Luke, the banquet is the Kingdom and the Kingdom is a banquet. Often it’s a Chinese banquet – because it included sweet and sour.  For broken people, the Kingdom offers healing, hope, new wine and new clothes.  It is genuinely a gift, an enrichment and a blessing.  But it is also a challenge and carries a cost.  Levi left everything as he began to follow Jesus.    To put it in a more nuanced way, he saw the connexion between the Kingdom, discipleship, mission and hospitality.   

Now word gets around.  The Pharisees heard that Jesus had gone to eat with this crowd of tax  collectors and others – the implication being "other low-lifers, other undesirable types”.  Two questions emerged from what people observed, and they’re sharp, searching and aggressive questions, fired at the disciples but answered by Jesus.  What is thrown at Jesus is thrown at his People, and vice versa.  “A servant is not greater than his master” (Jesus said Matthew 10. 24).  

1. “Why do you guys hang around with tax collectors and sinners?”  Luke may be delicate and sensitive about how he describes Levi's friends.  But he doesn’t mind letting us know that the Pharisees weren’t so delicate.  
2. “Why do you guys not fast like John the Baptist’s followers do, but eat and drink?” Jesus knew he couldn’t win with these people.  See Luke 7. 33f For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, “He has a demon.”  The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, “Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.”   

Jesus was no more able to avoid contact with broken people than a doctor is able to avoid contact with sick people.  And he was no more able to suppress celebration, than a bridegroom is able to prevent a wedding feast.   Jesus’ presence with the broken was a healing presence.  And his presence with them was the centre and the cause for celebration.  Jesus is here.  He is present….  Isn’t he?   So the life of the Church, as it experiences the Kingdom of God and the presence of Jesus, is a life of celebration.  We are together, guests at the same sort of outrageous banquet, as the one Jesus went to at Levi's house.

To answer the question about fasting versus feasting, Jesus finished off with two short parables, almost word-pictures, that say the same sort of thing…
1. ‘No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old.” (v.  36)
2. “And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined.  No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.  And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’”  (v. 37ff)

There’s a golden rule for interpreting the parables.  They are not allegories.  We are not meant to find meaning in every detail.  They have one main point.  And in this case, both parables have the same main point.  The new clothes of the Kingdom and the fresh young wine of the Kingdom don’t match the old clothes and old wineskins of traditional Judaism. 

Levi’s banquet was a celebration of the new thing – the new Kingdom – that had come with Jesus.  A celebration of the healing, the joy, the forgiveness.  A celebration of clothing for people’s nakedness and wine for their thirst.   But sometimes, in that banquet, there is a sense of the sweet and sour:  things we don’t want to accept.  There’s a cost. New means change, and change can hurt. For the Pharisees, “the old was better”.  They preferred to old, the familiar, the comfortable, the controllable and predictable, to the new, unfamiliar, slightly gritty and edgy and surprising.   Their mindset, their assumptions, their rules and structures – keeping themselves separate from dodgy people, washing before they ate, fasting regularly, keeping the Sabbath, and so on – that was better.   And sometimes we do as well!   

The Kingdom, the banquet, the new cloth, the new wine, the healing and forgiveness that Jesus. brings, are not there to patch up the old structures of religion.  For religious people, that’s the “sour” bit.   The  DNA of the Kingdom is reaching out to the lost. It doesn't think we are better than they are.  The Kingdom won’t be boxed in by our Baptist – or any other – structures.     And the Kingdom, the banquet, the new cloth, the new wine, the healing and forgiveness that Jesus brings, are not there to patch up our old lives.  Sure, it makes life better.  But we don’t just buy it to  make life better – like hair colour or Thomson holidays or whatever.  The Kingdom challenges us to full commitment.  To a process of inner transformation.  Living for self, to living for others. Grasping to giving.  Isolated to connected.  Individualism to community. Critical to encouraging.  Hatred to love.  Prejudice to open-ness.

The Kingdom banquet, the new wine needs new wineskins.  New ways of thinking.  New ways of living.  Religious or not, the message of the Kingdom invites us to a life of celebration – of transformation – and of mission.  We hear Jesus' invitation to feast with him, to know the joy, to celebrate the grace, to undergo the transformation that the Kingdom brings.

© Gilmour Lilly 7 May 2017

We believe in The Life everlasting

John 20. 30 – 21.14

John is bringing his Gospel – his story of the life of Jesus – to an end, a glorious climax, as he describes the resurrection and the encounters that people had with the risen Jesus. And as he tries to wrap the story up, he is using words and themes that have been there throughout the Gospel. In particular, the word “life”. With a great literary flourish, he writes, “Jesus did loads of other things, which I am not going to write about. But this book is written so you may believe, and by believing, have life in his mane.” It’s a carefully crafted echo of what he said at the beginning of the book: “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. To those who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1 verses 4, 12)

And in referencing the first verses of the book, John effectively references all the other times he has mentioned “life” in the book. And John uses the word “life” more than any of the other Gospel writers!

• 
  
  John 3. 15f “Everyone who believes in him will have eternal life.”
• John 4. 15 the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life
• John 6. 54 Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.
• John 10. 10. I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

So at the end of his Gospel, John once again talks about his gift of “life”. It is “Eternal life”. Literally “The life of the ages” or the Life of the age to come. This is the life we believe in. The Creed uses the same words as John, ζωὴν αἰώνιον. The life of the ages.

The first thing to note about this life, is that it is everlasting. So Jesus promises that “he will raise us up in the last day.” In possession of the “life everlasting”, we face our own mortality, believing in the “resurrection of the body”. We are confident in this because Jesus has promised that we have life. We have eternal life. So we are able to anticipate our own resurrection and know that we will live for ever.

Image: G Lilly

But the second thing about this life, is that it is abundant. It is life to the full. It is not just “Pie in the sky when you die”. It is also “Steak on your plate, while you wait!” And it enables us to do so much more than “Wait.” My Dad, bless him, used to be terribly morbid at times. He would say, “Roll on death; retirement’s too far away”. As a Christian, he loved to sing these old hymns: “In the sweet bye and bye, I will look on his beautiful face.” But what about the hymn that says “The men of faith have found glory begun below. Celestial fruits in earthly ground, for faith and hope may grow. The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred sweets, Before we reach the heavenly fields, Or walk the golden streets.” Isaac Watts got the balance. Life everlasting is the life of the ages, the life of the new age, the life of the Kingdom, already received and begun in us today.

We are not just waiting. We live the life of the Kingdom, today. Steak on your plate, is the power of the Kingdom, the continuing Presence of Jesus with us by his Spirit, life to share with those around us, today.

The Life everlasting is a two way traffic. It promises us entry into a safe, solid and lasting future in God’s presence: resurrection, and life for ever. And it promises us that future, the safe, solid and lasting future in God’s presence, invading our lives now.

So as John finished his Gospel, someone asks him “Did you put in about meeting Jesus on the beach?” and John is persuaded to write an extra chapter – which serves to illustrate some of the qualities of the Life of the Kingdom as we experience it today. Indeed, William Temple wisely suggests that the person who persuaded John to write a wee bit extra was right. Because “the victory was won; but its fruits had still to be gathered.” (Temple) Luke tells that story in the Acts of the Apostles. John does it by writing this last chapter of his Gospel, before finally concluding with “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.” Those many things, were done by Peters and Andrews and Johns and Sallys and Maureens and Allans throughout the history of the Church. I want to use the first story of John 21 to illustrate what the present-day life of the Kingdom is like.

1. 

   Image: Eilif Peterssen, Public domain

   It is experienced in the challenges of everyday life. Peter and his friends, struggling to come to terms with the events of Holy Week and Resurrection day, went fishing. The Greek word has a particular force: “I’m going off fishing”. It seems almost as if Peter has decided it is time to get his life back. Maybe it was an expression of a sense of failure; a sense of doubt or uncertainty; of not knowing what the future might hold; maybe a bit of economic necessity. It is in that fishing trip, that wasted journey, that the Risen Jesus had something to do for and to say to his friends. Jesus had a deep conversation with Peter when he addressed Peter’s failures. Peter, like us, was keen to compare his ministry with that of John. But Jesus says “never mind him. You follow me.” What is our context for the experience of eternal life begun today? Lots of fear and failure. But Jesus calls us to follow Him
2. It is about miracle. Night-time was the best time for fishing. When the sun starts to heat up the water, the fish go to the bottom to stay cool. So the first miracle was that there were any fish to be caught. The second miracle – I believe – was that Jesus knew exactly where they were. The third was that the nets didn’t break despite the size of the catch. It’s at that point that John realises that the stranger on the shore is Jesus. We are promised power. That power reveals who Jesus is. And sometimes the power of God is revealed in ordinary things: in addition to the miraculous catch, Jesus has a few fish grilling on a fire on the beach. We can expect the miraculous, and we can expect God to be at work in ordinary things too.
3. It is about mission. Jesus chose to perform his miracle, in the context of a fishing expedition. He had done it before, when he first called Peter. And on that occasion, he had told Peter, “Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for people!” We have the life of the Kingdom, worked out through our struggles, in the power of the Spirit, in spectacular ways and ordinary ways – so that we can engage in the Mission of the Kingdom; so that we can bring other poeple to that same life everlasting that we have. Some scholars suggest that 153 was believed to be the number of species of fish. A huge underestimate we know; but that is what people believed then, And it is also a “triangular number” (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11+12+13+14+15+16+17) I believe that the number 153 is there because it was exactly the number of fish that the disciples caught. Possibly John missed the significance of that number; but I believe that Jesus knew. It suggests that Jesus wants all people to hear the Gospel and be caught up in the Kingdom net.

One last thing. John has a clear purpose in writing his gospel. It is so that those who hear it read, may believe. It is believing in him, that is the key that opens the door, to this amazing “Eternal life.” Although he plays around with the word order, he finishes as he starts. To those who believed in his name he gave the right to become children of God. These things are written that you may believe and believing may have life in his name.”

That life is about our lives. It is about God’s power. It is about mission. To those of us who have that life Jesus says one simple thing, day by day. “Never mind anyone else. You follow me.”

© Gilmour Lilly April 2017

Mark 11: Jesus disrupts everything.

Introduction
We have a whole load of things that we would call routine… some are the routines for our day: you get up at 7, you have breakfast at 8 you go to school at 8.30, you have lunch at 12.30, school finishes at 3.30.  You do your homework, you watch TV; you have tea at 5.30; you go to bed at 8.   Others are things we call normal.  It rains, the sun shines.  The electricity works.  Mum does the cooking.  Your friends all turn up for school.  But what if something breaks the routine: you wake up late and don’t have breakfast before school.  School finishes at dinner time; the electricity doesn’t work, it rains all week, your best friend stops coming to school… Or you move to a new house, maybe a new house in a different town.  Routine gets challenged and changed.  

Jesus disrupts the routine….
Suddenly the whole city of Jerusalem is in an uproar… people  shouting, celebrating, vandalising the palm trees…. I guess for some of the local employers, it would be a matter of shouting “get back to work!”  For people carrying on their business, “Hey, coming through, you’re blocking the street here! We have to get these sheep and these doves up to the Temple”  For some of the ordinary people, “Get out of the way, I want to see what’s happening!”  For the authorities, Do you hear what those kids are saying?”  (Matthew 21. 16  I love the New testament in Scots translational: “Do you hear what thir loons is saying?”  

Jesus Declares the Kingdom
As he rides into Jerusalem, fulfilling Old Testament prophecy (Zechariah 9. 9)  and generally behaving like a celebrity.  Welcomed like a loved King he lays claim to be just that: a King.  The promised, coming king.  The one who comes in the name of the Lord.  The beginning of an age of salvation is recognised by the crowd who shout out “Hosanna!  Lord Save!”  It’s a quote from Ps 118. 25, and was used in both the Passover and Tabernacles festivals.  The people are beginning to get hold of the idea that Jesus is the rescuer, the saviour who will bring them out of “captivity” and through the “desert” into a new and better time.  

And the more Jesus does, the more people are asking, what right does he have to do this? The next day,  as Jesus enters Jerusalem again, he passes a fig tree growing by the roadside,  comes looking for fruit on a fig tree , finds none, and curses the tree “May nobody ever eat fruit from you again!”  It seems kind of peevish and immature.  But we are missing the point.  It isn’t the time of year for figs, and Jesus starts pushing the leaves aside, peering into the tree, as though searching for fruit: his disciples are watching; it’s an acted parable.  Jesus co0mes as “Lord “ of the fig tree, with the right to look for fruit on it; just as he comes as “Lord” of Jerusalem, with the right to rule. 

Then he goes straight to the Temple, and drives out the people who are selling animals and birds (for sacrifice) and changing Roman money into Jewish money (that would be acceptable as offerings to God.   He quotes the Old Testament as he refers to the Temple as “My house” (Isaiah 56. 7; Jeremiah 7. 11).  God’s house, but his house.    No wonder people the next day after that, are saying “What right do you have to do these things?”  So Jesus declares that the Kingdom has come.  HE declares that He is King.  

Jesus defines normality.
As he rides into Jerusalem, Jesus is taking himself nearer than ever to the day of reckoning, when he will die on he Cross. As he rides in to Jerusalem, he makes some enemies. The next day as he clears all the traders out of the temple, he makes even more enemies. HE says “you have made this temple a den of thieves.”   He doesn’t mean pickpockets – he means armed robbers. “You have made this temple hang-out for the mob.”  It’s all intentionally moving towards the cross. And through the Cross,  he redefines reality and reconciles people to God.

This king is humble, riding on a donkey.  No longer is greatness and kingship a matter of some propel throwing their weight around. No longer is humiliation and suffering something to be avoided – it is his way to victory.  He clears the temple so it can be “A house of prayer for all nations”, not just for Israel. The Kingdom is an upside down kingdom where victory comes through sacrifice, where small people are important, where life comes from death.  

Jesus has made miracles almost a matter of routine.  There’s a hint of the miraculous even in the provision of the donkey.  No longer must the blind and disabled beggars sit and beg.  No longer must the demonised live in torment. 

And all of that demands faith. 
Remember the fig tree Jesus cursed.  The next day it had withered to the roots.  We already learned that  Jesus was bothered about something more important than simply getting a few figs to eat.  The point becomes clear: ‘if you believe, you can say to this mountain, “be thrown into the sea”…  When we are pursuing the purposes of the Kingdom, our faith is a powerful thing. 

Even at this stage, as he moves his ministry into the lion's den that was Jerusalem, as he disrupts the routines of the city, as he declares the Kingdom, and defines reality by the upside down values of the Kingdom, as he faces the Cross… he wants to point out the powerful effects of faith.  He demands faith from his followers.  It takes faith to go with the disruptive flow of Jesus ministry.  It takes faith to welcome his Kingdom.  It takes faith to follow the upside down realities that the kingdom defines as normal: to be humble instead of pushy; to give instead of grabbing; to know that on the Cross Jesus has carried your sin so you don’t have to; to move mountains emotionally, physically or spiritually.  Palm Sunday demands faith.  

Conclusion
So Jesus comes to us to disrupt our routines.   The little things that we are comfortable with.  Going to work; going to the shops… watching TV or spending time on social media… going to temple, making your sacrifice, ignoring the gentiles who can’t pray because their place in the temple is full of market stalls.  Going to Church and having everything just the way we want it… 

Do we need to allow Jesus to disrupt our routines?  How about fasting a day a week – from food, from chocolate, from tea or coffee, from social media?  What about stopping and thinking – just thinking – before buying things like clothes? What about spending an hour a week doing something kind for other people (maybe for someone difficult to like), or intentionally getting to know one or two people better so you can encourage people in the Church, or getting to know someone who doesn’t know Jesus? 

He defines "normal"   Sacrifice becomes normal.  Co-operation instead of competition becomes normal. Humility becomes normal.  Trust becomes normal.  Dependency on God instead of an “I can do it” attitude becomes normal. The supernatural becomes normal.  Caring for others rather than our own group becomes normal.  

He declares the Kingdom – and declares himself King. Why should we allow Jesus to disrupt our routine?  Who does he think he is?”  He is King.  He has the right to our obedience, our service and our worship.  

He demands faith!   Faith to accept who he is; faith to accept his forgiveness and grace. Faith that the king's new “normality” is possible.  Faith that he can bring you through.  Faith that his Kingdom will triumph in the end. I want to offer you some faith prayers.  Say the one that is most appropriate for you today.

• Lord Jesus, by faith I receive you as King. I receive your gift of forgiveness and new life.
• Lord, increase my faith.  
• Lord, I acknowledge you as my King, and I dare to believe that the norms of your Kingdom can work in my life.
• Lord, you are welcome to disrupt my routines and define “normality” in my life.
• Lord, I need to see some mountains moved.

© Gilmour Lilly April 2017

Forgiveness: Matthew 18. 21-35

Conflict is part of life.  In every relationship, every group of people, there are disagreements.  It happens in families; it happens in schools and factories and offices.  It happens in clubs – and even in churches.  And sometimes it has to happen – whether it’s carrying out the rubbish or complying the Protection of Vulnerable Groups guidelines, sometimes people need to be challenged.  So we all know something about this thing that happens when relationships are strained.   Peter the fisherman turned disciple certainly did.  Excitable, impetuous,  the sort of guy who would say what he thought first and ask questions later –  I dare say he attracted a fair share of criticism.  Later on he even had a bust-up with Paul. So he knew what it was to be offended at someone, as he asks “How often do I have to forgive my brother?  Seven time, maybe?”  He thought that was pretty good.  The Rabbis recommended forgiving 3 times. Jesus says “no, seventy times seven” – 490 times, but of course the point is that you will lose count before you get anywhere near that number.

So to get the point across about forgiveness, Jesus tells a story… about a king, and two servants.    Bear in mind the story is not an allegory – so we’re not supposed to try to find meaning in every detail. And it’s not  a factual narrative either – so we shouldn't try to guess what the servant was thinking.  It is a parable – and what we are meant to do as we hear it is figure out the one main point.

In the parable, the first servant was released from a ridiculous amount of debt;  “ten thousand talents.”   A  talent was worth “about 20 years of a day labourer’s wages”.    Let's do some sums.  The Minimum wage is £7.20/h, that means £288/wk, or £14976/yr. One talent was twenty years worth of minimum wage, or £299520; and the servant in the story owed ten thousand talents – £2,995,200,000.  When the first servant says “I will pay you back” he was desperate – and offering the impossible.  It would take him two hundred thousand years to earn enough to pay the king back – and the Romans hadn’t invented the National Lottery yet. But  the king cancelled the debt.  “You don't’ need to pay it back.”  That is God’s heart; that is God’s love.  That is like our situation.  That is how we have been treated by our heavenly Father.   

That is what the cross is all about.  The cross cleans us up.  The Cross destroys our criminal record.  The Cross pays our bill. The Cross gets Satan off our backs.  The cross breaks the hold of sin in our lives.  It sets us free. It ransoms us .  Through the Cross,  God bears the cost of forgiving us our sins. As the passage says the first servant owed his master nearly £3 Billion,  and as there are over 7 billion people in the world today, that means that if we were trying to but a monetary value on it, the cost God bears in writing off our debt, our sin, for just our generation is £21 quintillion (£21x1018 ).  But of cousre money is only an illustration. 

There are a number of things we are not supposed to do.   
1. Some of us carry a lot of shame.  We have done things, said things, been places, been in relationships, that leave us feeling a great deal of shame and embarrassment.   What we owed, to use the picture from the parable – was an amount we could never pay back.  But we are not supposed to live with the embarrassment, the shame, the guilt, over the debt we owe. God wants to forgive us, so we need to come to him and receive that forgiveness.   Yet even after we have trusted in Jesus,  some of us live with shame and guilt, all the  time.  Most mornings I pray three prayers: One is “Come Holy Spirit.”  The second is “Set a watch over my lips.”  The third is called The Jesus prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, son of God have mercy on me, a sinner.”  I need to pray the last one because I am aware of the ways that the second one hasn’t been answered!  It may just be the consciousness of stuff inside us that is just difficult to tame. Or it may be about big mistakes and sins. We truggle with guilt. But we are not meant to be living with guilt.  God forgives us.  

2. And we are not supposed to try to trade with God.  We try to make a deal with God.  “I’ll try harder;  I’ll give to OXFAM; I’ll go to church.”   But simply, that’s not going to swing it.  We just don’t have what it takes to pay God back, to make amends.  We need to receive God’s forgiveness.    But God cancelled the debt.  “You don't need to pay it back.”   That is God’s forgiveness.  We need to receive it.   

But Jesus isn’t talking about cheap grace.  In the Bible, God’s forgiveness has  a transforming effect on our lives.  “Because of God's great mercy to us I appeal to you: Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to his service and pleasing to him”  (Romans 12. 1 GNB)  Forgiveness leads to surrender, through the process of love.   Jesus once was invited to a posh meal – and in Jesus’ time, if you invited a guest of honour to your house, your guests would eat the food, but other people could come in and listen to the conversation.  So this woman turned up and poured ointment on Jesus, and began crying and washing his feet with her hair.  Jesus said that how much we have been forgiven reflects in how much we love.  (Luke 7. 36-50)  If we love him, we keep his commands.  (John 14. 15)  

That is the only deal you can make with God.  You receive his forgiveness and his transforming Spirit into you life.  And in so doing, you surrender your life to his forgiveness and his transforming Spirit.   God makes us different to the world round about us.  It means being shaped by the character of a forgiving and loving God.  

The servant in the story as he is coming out from his interview with the king, bumps into another servant, who owes him a hundred denarii; a denarius was the usual daily wage of a day labourer (£7.20/hour =£57.60 so 100 days = £5760). So it wasn’t a few pence – it was a serious debt. The cost of a good second-hand car. But it was only a tiny fraction (0.0002% or two millionths!) of what the first servant had been forgiven.   He attacks, threatens and finally imprisons the other servant.  And as a result, the master backtracks and un-cancels his debt.  For someone who has received God’s huge and costly forgiveness, the most inappropriate thing, the most unfitting thing that we can do, is to harbour any unforgivingness, resentment, ill-feeling or grudge, towards another human being.  

Now, we sometimes struggle with "forgiveness". It seems harsh that someone brought up by a real "wicked step-mother" & half-starved as a small child, should have to forgive those who caused that harm.  It seems harsh that the person who suffers through medical negligence or drunk driving should forgive that doctor or drunk driver.  It's as though you're asking me to say "it doesn't matter."  But forgiveness doesn't mean "it doesn't matter." It does matter. Perhaps that's why Jesus said the second servant owed over £5,000. It is a big deal. Forgiveness says "what you did was really wrong, and caused real pain & maybe lasting damage. It was serious, but I forgive you. I give up the right to get even. I give up the right to feel resentful. I give up the right to keep hurting you back. I give up the right to know you're losing sleep over what you did. I give up the right to damage your reputation."   For us, as for God, there is a cost attached to forgiving.  But the cost of not forgiving is so much worse.  

Corrie Ten Boom was a Dutch Christian who was imprisoned in Ravensbruck concentration camp for hiding Jews during the Nazi occupation.  Her father and older sister died in that camp.  She was starved, humiliated and tortured.  Then after the war at a Church Service, she recognised a man walking towards her to shake her hand: he had been one of her guards.  Overcome with feelings of hatred, she hesitated, then stretched out her hand towards the man: it was then, in the act of obedience, that the feelings of resentment and anger left her.  

If there is a behaviour that has the potential to loosen our grasp of salvation, to rob us of the benefits of our relationship with God, it is unforgivingness.. It can imprison us. It can torture us. It can cause us to be obsessed with the person we have come to resent. When we don' t forgive someone, it can be like allowing them to live rent-free in our heads. It can make us physically ill. the person who said "Not forgiving someone is the drinking poison & hoping the other person will get sick." If you are struggling with something physically or emotionally, it is always yourself "is there someone I haven't forgiven?" Especially if there is a connexion between a trauma event and the dis-ease. 

So the Creed says “We believe in the forgiveness of sins.”  And as be believe it, we need to live it!  I want to say that all of us can walk out of this building today, knowing that we are forgiven.  Maybe you’ve lived by trying to make a deal with God.  Maybe despite being a Christian you are still living with shame over stuff in the past and present.  God wants to forgive you.  Maybe you are feeling resentful today because of something that happened, maybe years ago: you need to let it go.  Maybe you carry pain because of something that happened to you.  The fact that you are forgiven, can release you to let it go, and healing can come.   

 Forgiveness isn’t a feeling it’s a choice; and it needs to become a habit as we do it over and over again. 

© Gilmour Lilly March 2017

We believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints

Opening Activity: Discuss in small groups

Church…. What is it?

Reading 1: Colossians 1. 15-29

We move on to the second part of the creed. The first part is all about God - Father, Son & Holy Spirit. Who God is, what God does... Now we look at what happens when we encounter God... Church, Forgiveness, Resurrection, and Eternal life…These are all outworkings of believing in (and knowing) God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit...

At first glance, “The Church” seems the odd one out in all this. We begin by saying we believe in God, father Son and Holy Spirit. We end by saying we believe in forgiveness, resurrection, eternal life. But in the middle, we believe in this “Church” business … Sunday services, Missionary prayer letters and tea and biscuits.  From the sublime to the ridiculous! 

The word “Church” in our Bibles translates the Greek word ecclesia – assembly. Literally, the group called out. In ancient Greek cities, when an important decision had to be made the town crier would call everyone – at least all the adult free men – to meet. The same thing happened for great festivals and sacrifices in the Old Testament: the people would assemble to worship. That is the word Paul uses in our reading…And he uses the word in the singular: the Church; the assembly; the worldwide body that has Jesus as its head. And Jesus uses the word in the same way when he says “On this rock I will build my church”. (Matthew 16. 18)

So what is the Church?

• Not a place, but people. I shouldn’t have to say that. But I will anyway. (After all we still have a sign outside that calls this building “Church”.) When the King James Version talks about “robbers of churches” (Acts 19. 37) it is actually wrongly translating a totally different word that really means temple-robbers.
• Not just any people, but God’s people. And in fact, God has always had “his People” and has always chosen to relate to and enter into covenant with “his People”. Although it translates the word assembly, our English, Scots and Germanic word “Church” or “Kirk” comes from the Greek word “Kurios” meaning “Lord” and it was invented because Church is the people who belong to the Lord.
• The Church is not just a collective noun for "all the Christians in the world." The, Church, the people of God, is an entity in its own right. It is a “Thing.” The Church is there. Philosophers sometimes talk about “nominalism & realism” in the use of language. "Geography" is the name we give, to the study of what we know about the physical features of places on earth, and how people have developed and used its resources. Geography doesn't exist - it isn't REAL. Mountains,oceans and cities are REAL. Church isn’t just the name we give to the vague idea of a group of Christians. It is real.
• The Church is not an institution or organisation but an organism. It is a living thing. It’s not just for people. It is people. Of course it needs an element of structure, leadership, and so forth. The structure – the leadership, the particular way a group of Christians do something, is not in itself the Church. Any more than some of our family traditions are the same as family. When I was a kid we always had Christmas at home, we always had our tea at 5.30 when Dad came home from work, and we always did what Dad said even if we tried it on with Mum… But that was simply the way we structured our life together. We were family. We belonged together.
• The Church is not merely a natural, human thing but a supernatural and spiritual thing. It is not merely something we do in response to the Gospel, But something God does, as we respond to the Gospel. (1 Cor 12. 13: “In one Spirit we were all baptised into one body”) It is an ongoing, living miracle of unity and reconciliation. What Paul means in verse 20 is that through Jesus we are right with God – and we are are as a consequence all reconciled with one another – Jews and non-jews who used to be considered aReading 1:s outsiders are now insiders to a relationship with God and therefore to the people of god. (Eph 2. 14-17 ¹⁴“For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility. ¹⁷ He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. ¹⁸For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”) The Church is Christ’s body. It is a result of what Jesus has done on the Cross. It exists because of what God has done.
• It looks not inward but outward. The Church has spiritual authority derived from Jesus who is over all things "whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities;" but its authority is not about grabbing but giving; not about self-advancement but self-sacrifice. Not coercive or exploitative but generous. Paul says he completes "what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church". That doesn't mean there is more to do to put us right with God. What it does mean is that Jesus continues to suffer as his body, the Church suffers. Before he was a Christian, Paul made the Church – and Jesus – suffer. Now as a missional leader his not afraid to take his share of Jesus' sufferings. The Church's victory in mission is accomplished through sacrifice. When we were in Gloucester there was a Pastor who advertised his healing ministry with the question "Why suffer?" Of course it's a rhetorical question. But the answer is simple. "Because Jesus suffered". The world wide church does triumph, & heal & grow, But it does so through living sacrificially and generously.

When the emperor Constantine became a Christian & tried to “Christianise” the Empire (about 300 years after Christ) it made life a lot easier for the Christians. "No more persecution, guys!" But what resulted was a disaster – because the Church became an institution, it became humanly resourced, and it moved away from the Jesus way, the outward looking way of sacrifice & generosity, and instead began to me coercion & conquest.

So we believe in the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints. One Church, that belongs to God (that's what “Holy” means), and exists all over the world (that is what “catholic” actually means – the “hol” in catholic is the same as the “hol” in holistic and hologram and in our world “Whole”). It is the Church across the whole world. The Hcurch is “The communion of saints.” It is the shared lfie of the saints. We may not always be that saintly but we are all “saints. We belevie in one church which is the shared life of all the disciples of Jesus all over the world. We are all apart of it; we all contribute to it; we all benefit from it. And the Church never loses a member by death. The communion of the saints, lasts forever. The church is not only on earth but in heaven. What a privilege to be part of that amazing community/family/body.

But what is the practical, concrete difference that believing in this Church makes to our lives.

Paul – and Jesus – also use the word ecclesia in another way. ways. Paul speaks about the churches, and refers to the church in a city, the church in someone’s home. You will find that in Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, 1 and 2 Thessalonian.) Jesus talks about sorting disputes between his followers by taking them “to the Church”. That has to be a locally focussed gathering of people. It is in the local Church that we our faith in the holy catholic church, the church all over the world, finds solidness, becomes thick and visible and practical. Anglican Renewal Ministries was a Church organisation that had as its strap line at one time “To be real it’s got to be local...”

If we believe in the church, the holy, catholic church, the Communion of saints, then that affects how we live in the LOCAL CHURCH...

The local Church must be

• people of God not a building.
• A real thing; not just a name for something we do together
• organic not organisation; family not an institution.
• Supernatural not merely physical...As Chris said last week "it is the Holy spirit that makes the difference between a meeting of the Church & any other meeting". The Spirit makes it a community of love and reconciliation; the Spirit makes it a community of practical care; the Spirit makes it a community of healing.
• generous and sacrificial not exploitative or manipulative.

The Church began, with 120 people receiving the Holy Spirit in power, and going out to speak about Jesus; four thousand responded by turning to God and being baptised, and becoming the first ever local church. The life they lived in that local church in Jerusalem was a miniature version , of the one holy catholic church. We hear about their life together in our closing reading.

Reading 1: Acts 2. 42-47

© G Lilly March 2017