Becoming a Christmas People. John 1. 1-18

I love narrative preaching: to explore truth through story.  This is the biggest story ever told... “Once upon a time.” Or rather, “once upon an eternity”, before time began, God was already there: The Father of all things.  The Spirit, hovering over the face of the deep. And the Word, proceeding from the Father's heart and bringing  a  universe into existence....  A good world, but a world very quickly spoiled, filled with darkness. 

 John loves to make contrasts: light and darkness; Jesus and Moses.  He wants to show that Jesus is better than Moses.  It's as if he knew the Papa Charlie Parker blues song that says, “Your baby ain't sweet like mine!”.  Light for our darkness; sonship for our alienation. Fullness for our emptiness; truth for our ignorance, grace for our sins.  All of this happens when the Light comes into the world. This Word is life and light. The transformation that needed to happen in the lives of men and women, happens through him.  The light shines. 

Proxima Centauri.  Public Domain Image

But then there is “once upon a time...”  The Light-word came into a darkened world.... How did God come?  How did the light come?  As a blaze of shekinah glory, maybe?  Blinding the eyes that don't want to see, and laser-like, burning away the wrongs and injustices?  Light travels at 671 million mph.  That's amazing!  Our nearest star is over 4 light years away.  That means its light takes 4 years and 10 weeks, travelling at 671 million mph to reach us. But Proxima Centauri stays 4.2 light years away. That's not how God's light came.  He didn't just shine from the distance.  The source of the light came into the world.

Christmas People are missional.
 God comes.  Coming is the other side of giong. .  Coming and going is at the heart of His mission and ours.  It's interesting that John sees God's mission from our viewpoint.  You see, whether someone is coming or going depends on the viewpoint of the observer.  When I leave the house Pam says to me “Where are you going?”  And when I arrive at your house you say “Thanks for coming to visit.” 

Christmas People are incarnational.
The word became flesh. That's how the light came. Veiled in flesh.  We beheld his glory.  He entered our experience.  He became human.  Mission is not just about words.  It's almost hard-wired into our Scottish Baptist psyche that we need to tell people they are sinners in need of a Saviour.  Yes, that is the Truth that will set people free.  But in order to enable people to receive that truth, Jesus came, not simply to take on flesh and then die for sins, but also to live a life that demonstrated the truth – putting father’s love visibly in front of people.  Light, present with them.  God's Word, become flesh.  And if we are going to help people receive that truth, we need to clothe that truth in flesh, we need to be present among men and women.

Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka Kansas has a reputation for hate-based campaigning. In the aftermath of the Newtown, Connecticut School massacre, they wanted to hold a “praise service” praising God for supposedly “judging America” through these killings... Dr John Drane, a Scottish theologian and mission specialist, asked on Facebook: “What are Scottish Baptists going to do to distance themselves from this bunch? The average person in the street won't know the difference.”  I liked the answer of the Pastor from Girvan.  “basically we do everything we can to show the love of Jesus to all in our community, whether they live like we'd hope they would or not. That way, when folk around here read about Westboro Baptist, the 'average person in the street' recognises the difference.”  That's the answer.  Its' about incarnation.  

Christmas People are developing. 
They know coming involves becoming.   Mission means a transformation of us, a becoming.  Here's something difficult to grasp. God, who is complete, perfect, full of knowledge became flesh.  Jesus who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, became flesh. The lamb slain before the foundation of the earth, became flesh.  God is allowing something to happen to himself. God who is eternally perfect, adds frailty to his perfection.   He did it in order to bring light to our darkness; he did it in order to bring life to or death, grace for our sins. 

We can never ever do that for another human being. We don't have to because Jesus did it all, once for all.  But Jesus said – and John recorded it – “As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”  Mission for us will be patterned on what we see in Jesus.  Mission is incarnational.  And mission involves becoming... We learn; we grow; we understand; we adapt; we build bridges; we pay the cost.  We change.  How many Baptists does it take to change a light-bulb?  One answer:  “The majority at a Church meeting.”  Another answer: “Baptists – change?” But I'm not talking about superficial change – putting the service half an hour earlier. I'm talking about becoming.  Becoming like Jesus. Becoming like our neighbours.  Incarnation is at the heart of mission. 

Christmas People know mission is uncomfortable.
Becoming, change, is painful. Living internationally among people is painful.  Jesus knows this. He has experienced it. He came to his own and his own received him not.        There will be moments when we feel ill at ease in our world.  There will be moments when our world feels ill at ease with us.  How do we fit in while maintaining faithfulness to God's word?

I sometimes feel very uncomfortable in the world we live in.  On Christmas Day we woke up about 8 and I listened to Radio 4 at 8.30 a.m.   The discussion was about using Christmas leftovers.  Someone says “Everyone has ham, so why not make turkey and ham pie?”  This in a  world where 1/5 of the population have less than 50p a day to live on.  How do I live generously among my family while living radically among the poor?  How can we be an inclusive community and remain faithful the Biblical teaching on sexuality? 

Christmas People are expectantly generous.
v. 12f. “He gave  the right to become children of God.”  Christ comes full of grace and truth. He gives to us, grace upon grace. He transforms us – through generosity.  He became flesh so that we could become sons of God.  Have you spent some of your time amazed at the generosity of your heavenly Father this Christmas?  I was talking to our Pete after last Sunday  and he was saying that a couple of the carols brought tears to his eyes – and it wasn't my dodgy keyboard playing, it was the majesty of God's grace.  I know it wasn’t my playing because it happened to me on Christmas eve: “Silent night, Holy night, Son of god, Oh how bright love is smiling from they face, strikes for us now the hour of grace, saviour since Thou art born!”

To be Christmas people means generosity. We give like God gives.  One grace after another.  Grace is more than just undeserved favour. That's mercy.  Grace is joy-giving, generous, pleasing, thankful, makes the other person thankful...  and when one pleasing, generous favour is worn out, there's another one in its place.  That's how God gives and how he wants us to give.

Grace (charis) is charismatic.  The giving of a generous missional church is done in the expectancy that a miracle will happen, a rebirth not of flesh or of the will of man but of God.  A miracle happening in the life of the other person, just as it has happened in your life by God's grace. 

And the resources for all of this? 

 That's where we need to get back to the beginning. In the beginning was the word.  The word was God.   God could do it because he is God.  And God can do it with us – because he is God.  Because we have received of his grace, because the supernatural has touched or lives, grace upon grace, we can be the means by which words become flesh; we can live incarnationally, generously, in an uncomfortable world.

That's Christmas.  The word became flesh.  That's God's mission: not just words, but words become flesh.  And that's our mission too.  God calls us to be a Christmas people.  The world needs to see us come among them; making Gospel words become flesh.  And the glorious thing is that it is possible.



© Gilmour Lilly December 2012

Missional Spirituality 2. Luke 1. 25-45

Chelmsley Wood Baptist Church members turning up on Remembrance Day found their premises condoned off as a man had been murdered outside. Their Pastor said, 'To turn up for worship and be faced, literally, with a pool of blood and a police cordon brings home the importance of proclaiming and living the message of Christ in our community.' We live in a messy worldwhere mission is like birthing soemthing. Being – becoming – a missional Church is a lot like getting pregnant. Mary has a lot to teach us about the way God calls us and deals with us as we look at the mission context we live in today...

1. Missional spirituality begins with God. For Mary this pregnancy journey began when the angel Gabriel came to her. She wasn't looking for this. It took her by surprise.  God takes the initiative and comes to us with this surprising call to be involved in what he is doing. When I was in Gloucester, someone had a moan at me once because I was, he said “Always going on about Mission. People get bored hearing it.” Well, I don't want to bore you and I don't want to nag you or put you on a guilt trip.... What I want to do is be biblical, and say that it begins with God. In fact, you are here because God has taken the initiative. You are not here simply because you're the sort of oddball who is interested in religion like some people are into BSA motorbikes or Beatles or Buddy Holly records. You are here because God is on your case. Maybe you kind of wonder what you are doing here this morning. Well, I believe you are here because God is on your case. He wants to speak to you, he wants to do something in your life. We start right there. If you don't know Jesus personally this morning, God has something to say to you. He wants you to know that you are precious and loved, and he wants to come into your life. If you are feeling hemmed in buy the humdrum, just jogging along and not sure what the point is, God wants to let you know today that you are formed in his image, and formed for a purpose. God is taking the initiative. He always does. The whole Christian Good news, the whole Christmas event, the whole coming, life, death and resurrection of Jesus was about God taking the initiative. ”God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.” (Romans 5. 8)

You are here because God is calling you to be part of his mission in his world. The call to be part of what God is doing comes with the new birth package. Mission is God's initiative, but it is part of the same initiative God took when he sent Jesus into the world, it is part of the same initiative god took when he first got hold of your life. The way that will work out in your life., isn't something for me to nag you about today. It is not for me to say “You were saved to serve, so get on and find out how you are supposed to be serving.” Rather, it is god's initiative. Missional spirituality, the kind of walk with god that invo0lves us in God's mission, begins with god. Not with us. It is God's mission. He is coming not  just sending.

2. Missional spirituality is incarnational spirituality. Gabriel says to Mary, You're going to have a baby boy. Call him Yeshua, “the Lord saves”; he will be Son of God and messiah the “son of David.” It's time Mary; I am at work and I'm not just speaking words, I'm sending my Son; I'm coming into the world. This is more than a new time of the prophetic. It's going to have arms and legs. Mary, you're not just going to give birth to a prophet, you're going to give birth to the Son of God. Missional spirituality is incarnational spirituality. It takes seriously John 1. 14 which says “The Word became Flesh. That's what incarnation is: the “word becoming flesh.” Mary had the immense and scares privilege of being involved in God's missionary activity, God's saving work, God's incarnation, God becoming flesh.

And that is what Missional Spirituality is still about. It is about God becoming incarnate. It is about God touching lives. It is about God's love being seen. Learning to show the Father's love. Some of you dread mission because you find the whole idea of telling someone about Jesus scares; the whole idea of trying to talk to your husband or wife or son or daughter about Jesus – when they have made it plain they don't want to know – is difficult to say the least. But God isn't always or only calling us to talk. He's calling us to show... And while we can do a wee bit of that individually, through little acts of kindness, we are not able to make Christ incarnate on our own.

If we are going to do this, we need each other, just like Mary needed Elizabeth. They worked out their experience of god's miracles together. They shared Gods' word together, They affirmed each other. Elizabeth says to Mary, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb...” (v 42) How do you think this teenager felt, when a mature, godly, wise lady took her seriously, respected her humanity and honoured her ministry? You know what Paul says about the Church. It is Christ’s “body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” (Eph 1. 23) “You are the body of Christ, and individually members of it.” (! Cor 12. 27) God is in the business of shaping a Church that will make him incarnate, that will live out the life of Jesus in the world today. And he calls us who are part of the Church to be part of that incarnation. It's a new thing; and becoming an incarnational Church may seem like pregnancy and birth for us as individuals. Missional spirituality is incarnational spirituality. It's mope than words.

3. Missional spirituality is beyond us! Maybe, like Mary, you want to ask “How can this be – as you are.... too old, too young, not educated, not confident, not ready.” I hope you do! Mary's question wasn't one of unbelief (like Zechariah's, v. 18)); it was one of self-doubt. Her question, “how will this happen since...” accepts that it will but doesn't know. Mary may well be asking “What do I do? Do I marry Joseph tomorrow and start a family with him? I'm only a girl; am I ready for the responsibility of being Mother to messiah? Do I need to learn to read and start studying the Bible? What do I do? Nothing.

We are as Bible Believing Christians instinctively drawn to ask the question “What do we do?” We love a project. Define a problem in the Church, describe a group of unreached people, and we've got a programme for it. So we ask “What do we do?” And God says “nothing.” There's nothing you can do to make this happen. That doesn't mean it will be easy, effortless or pain free. Far from it. But it will not be achieved by your effort. Mary, what do you do? Nothing.

4. Missional spirituality is supernatural. The Holy Spirit will do what needs to be done. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (v. 35) It's that simple. God will do it. The Holy Spirit is at work. This is the realm of the supernatural. Elizabeth's baby kicked hard when Mary entered Elizabeth's house. Events like that were little reminders that they were dealing with miracles. “The Spirit will come upon you.”

You'll find similar words in Acts 1. 8, “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you,” and in Isa 35. 15 “When the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field.” As for Mary, so for the Church: the Holy Spirit comes upon us, incarnates god's life, brings in God's future, and makes a new creation.

God overcomes our obstacles by his Holy Spirit. He calls and equips all of us. He can do it, He can birth the supernatural in our lives. He can make the most ordinary of Churches into a body where God is incarnate. It's not about us. Malcolm Duncan, Pastor of Gold hill baptist Church, says “Genuine spiritual experience whether of faith, hope or love can never be manufactured by us it can only ever be received. Our lives are our response

5. Missional spirituality is surrender. Mary's response to this was so amazing as to be more or less iconic... This girl, asked to pay such an enormous cost, says to the angel, “OK. Let it be to me according to your word.” “Yes, I am prepared to sacrifice my plans; yes I am prepared to surrender my reputation; yes I am prepared to surrender my vision of how my life is supposed to pan out. I am you servant. Do what you want with me.” Missional spirituality is being available to God so that he can make himself incarnate.

That's it, in a nutshell. It is about the supernatural, not just the natural. It's not something we can do but something that God does... what he wants us to give to him is our availability, our co-operation; the surrender of ourselves to him. Whatever the cost. Whatever the obstacles; whatever our personality. And our God says “Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth?” (Isa 66. 9). As we say to God “Have your way,” he will bring his Kingdom to birth.

© Gilmour Lilly December 2012

Missional Spirituality (1) - Luke 1. 5-25: Meeting God and engaging in his mission

Zechariah wasn't expecting an angel (v. 12). Why should he after several hundred years of silence. People were used to faithfully carrying on the rituals and drilling into the Book.  The priestly duties were a family thing.  You didn't go to theological college to become a priest.  You were born into a priestly family, that could trace its roots all the way back to Aaron.  Zechariah was  a member of the priestly family, performing his duty.  Twice a year he and his section of the priesthood would have a week “on duty.”  As there were  about 18,000 priests, they would draw lots to decide who got to burn incense, and no-one got to do it more than once in a lifetime. Zechariah happened, also, to be a man of the Bible, “walking blamelessly in all the commandments ” (v 6). He wasn't just into the ritual  as some in the Priestly class were, without keeping the law. 

Picture by Olive Utney, in Public Domain

Zechariah had taken his turn to burn incense on the altar in the temple.  He was on the rota, his week came to be on duty and there he was.  That was enough.  He wasn't expecting an angel because he was just like us.  “Lord, isn't that enough for us, today?  We'll keep coming along: 11 a.m. Every Sunday...  We'll sing the songs, do the offering, have communion, listen to a sermon.  We'll read the bible, have our quiet time, go to Bible Study.”   We are so used to precisely that mix of routine ritual, and academic study.  But what if the angel Gabriel were to turn up today? What if he were to say, “Move over Gil; I have a message for Rosyth Baptist Church”? We would be surprised.  Because we think ritual and Bible study are enough. 

So the angel came with a  message of hope.  “Your prayers have been answered.  You are going to have a child, and he will be great, and will be the one who will prepare the way for the coming of the Lord.

Arguing with angels.
Not only was he surprised to see the angel, but Zechariah argued with the angel. Promise and hope were too much for him.  Because he as just like us.

He and his missus, Elisabeth, were getting on in years.  When they were young and got married,  the possibility that they wouldn’t have kids didn't even enter their heads.  But a year, two years, five years had passed, and Elisabeth hadn't become pregnant. They prayed about it.  The consulted the doctor; they tried various remedies... they got their friends to pray.  Ten years passed, then twenty, and eventually Elizabeth went through the menopause.   They had hoped and prayed; but God didn't seem to answer.

And Zechariah had watched the life of the nation.  There were promises of a new age, of Messiah coming... People had gone out into the desert, become hermits, too make themselves pure ready for Messiah coming. But the Messiah hadn’t come. The Romans had come instead... still people hoped and prayed.  As he burned the evening offering, he had prayed for the salvation of Israel as every priest who offered the evening incense offering did; but God didn't seem to answer.

"How am I supposed to believe this stuff?" are the words not only of a sceptic but of a cynic. How am I to believe a message of personal hope, or for that matter one of hope for the nation? We have personal disappointments and pains: hopes and dreams that have not been fulfilled. We have been part of a community that has had vision words from God and maybe we haven’t seen these words come to pass.

A Model for mission
 “I am Gabriel.”  The angel says.   “OK Zechariah, so this is your big moment; so you get to spend a few minutes in the temple, burning incense.... you think you know the truth because of your status, your background, your age, your experience... But I am Gabriel... my name means “God is my strength”.  I stand in the presence of God, beyond time, through eternal ages, that is my role. And here I am, sent to you, on a mission. I have authority from God to speak his word, and to execute his will.  The word I have spoken is God's word.  It will come to pass. But because you have spoken out in unbelief, it would be better if you didn't speak at all – so you will be unable to say a word until after this baby is born."  Because Zechariah was just like us, Gabriel models the missionary authority that should be present in Zechariah's life and I ours.

We need to stand in God's presence, and we need to go with a sense of authority to speak God's word and to execute God's will. It isn’t enough to have an education, to have a past, to observe the rituals and study the word.  We need to enter into that supernatural place where God is our strength, where we stand in his presence, receive his authority, and are sent to speak his word and execute his will.  Mission, God's call,  isn't just a matter of a bit of extra effort; it isn't just a matter of faithfulness to a tradition.  It isn't just the application of some new techniques (nothing wrong with being up to date but that is not what mission is about...) it is the outflow of the energy, the power of God, through us as he sends us to take part in his purposes for his world.  We are not just learning to tell people the message, or to show people love.  We are learning to show the Father's love.  Unless it's Father's love, from the Father, inspired and empowered by the Holy Spirit, bringing bit of heaven, the rule of God on earth, it's not really mission.

God is at work.
Eventually, white with shock, trembling, Zechariah stumbles out of the Sanctuary.  “What took you so long?  What happened?  Are you all right?” But Zechariah, literally dumbstruck, can't answer.  All he can do is gesture:  a kind of game of “give us a clue” and it becomes obvious that God is on the move...  “What, Zechariah? You saw an angel? You – and Elisabeth – a baby – at your age?  And he's going to be the one who prepares the way for the Lord?”  And all Zechariah can do is nod his head.  They could see that God is at work.  And they could see even more clearly that God is at work when the wrinkled old Elizabeth started to get morning sickness, stayed in for five months – but friends who visited could see that she was getting bigger week by week.  God is at work.

But it wasn't all God.
Zechariah had to do his part too!   Zechariah has to learn obedience. Active, counter-intuitive faith-filled obedience.  This new stage in history, this intervention of God, this fulfilment of promise, that God  is doing, involves you,  Zechariah. It's not just a spiritual experience but one with practical consequences.  Not just something to talk about and theorise about or argue about.  The angel certainly saw to it that Zechariah wouldn't waste time talking, discussing what had happened, arguing about whether God would keep his promises.  Zechariah had something to do. He has to father this child and in due course to name him “John”.

I wonder if some of us need to take control of our speech because the way we talk prevents our engaging with the Kingdom.   Job was a good man who had a string of terrible, devastating things happen to him.   Then three friends turned up to give him a bit of moral support.  Or so they thought.  The trouble was, all they could do was trot out the same old platitudes.  “We get what we deserve from God.  Suffering is a punishment and prosperity is a reward from God – always!  Job, brother, God is good and orders everything so  good people get blessings and bad people suffer.  Why don't you confess your sins to God and he will put everything right in your life.”  They were sincere enough – just sincerely wrong.

Our versions might be,  “These things are sent to try us;  what doesn't kill us makes us stronger.; God is teaching you something really special through this; we're all sinners – nobody deserves anything good from God; .”  But instead of murmuring platitudes and clichés that can undermine faith, let’s engage with what God wants to do in our world, through us. "Set a watch over my lips, Lord..."

God is at work.  He wants to break into our world.  He wants to bring his Kingdom, his reign.  And he wants you to be involved, to stand in his presence, to go where he sends you, to speak his word and execute his will.  He wants you to take responsibility for your part...

© Gilmour Lilly December 2012

Worship: Revelation 4

Introduction: Wasting time with Father
John was a dangerous man.  As a Christian leader he was preaching a dangerous message that encouraged people to be different, and thus he was seen as a threat to the community.  So he was sentenced to spend some time on Patmos (maybe in a labour camp). Patmos is a small island in the Aegean Sea – between Greece and Turkey. It was probably inhabited by no more than a thousand people.  Maybe John was the only Christian; maybe there were a few other believers.... whether he was all alone or whether there was  a small group, John was worshipping on the Lord's day.  That might have felt like a waste of time; if you have to spend every day labouring in a quarry, why spend your little bit of spare time worshipping?  But it's vital that we are prepared to waste time with God, individually and with other Christians.  We'll come back to the idea of one-to-one time with our heavenly Father; I want to look at corporate worship, the times we spend together with Father... Because as John took time to worship (I believe with a few others)  he was “in the spirit” - he had an intense Holy Spirit experience that caught him up into heaven. 

1.  We need to expect encounter
In 4. 2 he hears again the Voice of God who says “Come up here..come up and see....”  What began possibly as  an ordinary Sunday, became a time of intense encounter with God by the Spirit.  And one of the features of this heavenly experience was that he witnessed the worship of heaven.  He describes a bit of that in this chapter, and some more in chapter 5, and again in  7. 12; 11. 15-18; 14. 7; 15. 3f; 19. 5-7. Heaven is full of worship!  If you struggle with worship, if you feel that worship seems like a waste of time, you'd better get used to it, because you're going to be doing a lot of it in heaven!

It was the same for Isaiah – he says, “the year King Uzziah died I saw the Lord, high and lifted up and his train filled the temple” (Isa 6. 1)  From an ordinary day maybe reflecting on King Uzziah's foolish mistake of taking it upon himself to burn incense on the in the temple, Isaiah finds himself in the heavenly temple . 

We need to let every time of worship go beyond the routine, to anticipate a meeting with Father. We need to let every place where we gather, become a thin place, where there is no more than a curtain between us and the eternal, the invisible, the manifest presence of God.   We need to move from the prosaic and routine.  With angels and archangels and all the company of heaven we praise your holy name saying Holy Holy Holy Lord god of hosts....   We desperately need to recover  a sense of occasion.  That is NOT the same as a forced sense of reverence: it comes rather, from a sense of awe and wonder at the reality of the Lord's presence and a sense of expectancy that he is here and going to touch our lives.

2.  Eternal:
There is a timeless eternal quality about worship that incorporates both old and new. Much of what Isaiah and John describe was part of the temple worship of the Old Testament.    When we worship, we are entering in through the veil into the “holy of holies”.  The praise of the heavenly host in 4. 8 begins with a direct quote from Isaiah 6. 3.  Six hundred years of time, both open onto the same spot in eternity... We need to value the old and the new as we come together to worship God.  And that is not just a matter of pleasing different groups within the fellowship. It is deeper than that. It is about reflecting the eternal, timeless, ever old and ever new nature of our god. Jesus said that a scribe trained for the Kingdom brings out of his treasure both old and new things. (Matthew 15. 52)

4.  Style
John saw a throne in heaven.  The person sitting there looked like red and coffee coloured gemstones. There was a rainbow around the throne that looked like an emerald..  and on twenty-four other thrones,  sat twenty-four elders wearing white robes and gold victor's crowns on their heads.  Flashes of lightning, and peals of thunder came from the throne. There were seven flaming torches, which are the seven spirits of God.  In front of the throne was something like a sea of glass as clear as crystal. Around the throne were four living creatures: one like a lion, one like an ox, one with face like a human, one like a flying eagle..  (v. 1-7) There is a lot of colour and imagery, sound...  

Worship never stops.  The living creatures were constantly shouting out, Holy Holy Holy. And as they did, the elders fell down, and threw their crowns before the throne of God, then they too spoke out “Worthy!”  In chapter 5, they sang, and were joined by a crowd too big to number. There was action, there was drama. A non-stop, living choreography of adoration..... a flow that is both spontaneous and ordered, where everyone know the right way to respond.   Whole being is included: body and emotions as well as mind. 

John was caught up in all this.  He says in (Rev. 1.17) that he fell at the feet of Jesus like a dead man.  In chapter 5, he says he cried when no-one was found who cloud open the scroll.  In the same way Isaiah responded to what he saw.   

5.  Content:
The way worship was expressed may have been full of colour and variety, but the focus was always truth. The twenty four elders and the four living creatures seem to know their Bibles! That's because the truth of God's word is eternal truth – rooted in the realities in the heavenlies.  Jesus says those who worship God must worship him in spirit and in truth. (John 4. 24)  The truths that heavenly worship focussed on were:

Who God is: the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come!” (Rev 4. 8); the Lord of Hosts (Isa 6. 3);
What God has done: “you created all things, and because of your desire they existed, and were created!” (Rev. 4. 11);  You are worthy  for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood, out of every tribe, language, people, and nation. (Rev. 5. 9)
The finally on how that what he has done to us.  “You made us kings and priests to our God, and we will reign on earth. (Rev. 5. 10)

Worship that takes us into the presence of God will be rooted in truth. It will be rooted in Scripture and in good theology.  It will focus in particular on who God is, and on what God has done in creation and salvation.  It will focus on the big truths!  

Conclusion: what wasting time with Father achieves
we don't worship to get educated about the word – although learning from scripture can be a significant part of our worship.
we don't worship to soften people up so they will respond to the word
we don't worship in order to feel good
we don't worship in order to get healed
we don't worship in order to make anything happen
we worship simply to spend time with father together; to encounter him. 
But, none the less, when we worship God, something happens. Worship changes us! 

It moves us from despair to hope.  Rev. 5. 10 says “They will reign on earth.”  Jesus is coming back to establish God's Kingdom permanently and triumphantly. Isaiah 6. 1 says, “In the year king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and lifted up...”   It wasn't Uzziah on the throne any more, or messing around offering incense.   The Lord reigns! That is an intensely hopeful message.  The writer of Psalm 73 wonders why bad people prosper and what's the point of living right, “until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end”. (v. 17) 

It moves us from denial to repentance  Isaiah's experience in the thin place, led him to say “Woe is me for I am a man of unclean lips... (Isa 6. 5) and to be touched by the burning coal from the altar.  At the centre of worship is “The lamb has been slain.”  (Rev 5. 6)

It moves us from survival to mission. John got off Patmos eventually and wrote down what he had seen to encourage God's people and to invite the outsiders to come to Jesus. “let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.” (Rev. 22. 17)   Isaiah heard God say who will I send?” And Isaiah says “Here I am. Send me!” 

© Gilmour Lilly November 2012

To call God “Father”. Galatians 3-4

To call God “Father”

The Christians of Galatia had been brought to Christian faith from heathenism.  They were not circumcised (5. 2; 6.12) and had been following false Gods (4. 8).   Now, as Christians, they are threatened by a false religion that is every much of an enslavement as their pagan religion had been.  And this false system? Judaism.  The insistence on receiving circumcision.  Now Jesus was a Jew, as were Peter, John, Andrew, Mary and Paul.  Jesus came as the Jewish Messiah to bring the Kingdom of God that Jews had awaited for so long; only they had misinterpreted it and in so doing had turned it into a narrow and exclusive  nationalism.  And that kind of law-based religion was as much help in finding and walking with God, as their previous Greek gods had been. Paul refers to the idea of resorting to law-religion as a return to the “ basic principles of the world”  To take up with Jewish practise would not be a step forward, it would be a step back (v. 8f)  We have to be careful that we don't allow our beliefs and practises to become something of the same.  Church is more than OK, it is vitally important. So is Bible reading. So are  Hymns and songs and prayers. House groups are OK.  But when there is a sense of slavery instead of sonship in these activities, we are in danger of turning something good into something bad.  We are in danger of turning our system into an idol.    God wants us to serve him not as slaves but as sons.  So today I want to look at some of the characteristics of sonship rather than slavery...

Firstly, faith.
What we do, the one thing we do, to come to God, is exercise faith in Christ. We turn to Jesus in quiet confidence that what he did on the cross is all that needs to be done, to deal with the rubbish in our lives.  We trust that he died for our sins..  We trust this Kingdom Gospel: God is good and what he made, he made good.  Human wilfulness has spoiled god's good world and the people he made in his image; Jesus came to put his father back on the throne; by living with his Father on the throne in his own life, by demonstrating what the world is like when God rules through healing and deliverance and justice; through dying to take sin away.  So it's possible through faith in Christ to enter god's kingdom now and for eternity.   And we continue to live by faith.  We live in a trusting confidence in our heavenly father.  Jesus spoke about that sort of trust when he said “which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?  If you then,who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”  (Matthew 7. 9-11) . 

Secondly, identity.
Paul goes on: as many as have been "baptised into Christ have put on Christ like a garment” (v 27) Paul talks about begin”baptised into Christ”.  It's almost as if Christ were a place. He's certainly bigger than we are.  As believers, we are more than followers of Jesus of Nazareth (although we are his followers).. We are in Christ who Is seated at his Father's side.  That is where we live.  We have “put on Jesus” like a garment.  We are surrounded by Jesus.  Clothes keep us protected and identify us for who we are.  A uniform marks out a soldier of a nurse; a suit and tie identifies you as working for the Bank; a baseball hat and baggy jeans marks you out as a fan of a particular kind of music.  Paul may have been thinking of the grown up toga that a boy would start to wear in Roman and Greek society when he reached his teenage years, that marked him out as no longer just a kid...  Identity.  And part of our identity is in our parenting.  We are God's children.  He is our Father.  In our relationship with Father and with Jesus is where our identity comes from.  Not, as was  a problem for the Galatians, from Jewishness, or being free or slaves, or male of female.  I see three results of having our identity in our Heavenly Father
1. Esteem.  Jews are not to look on Gentiles as second-class citizens.  Masters are not to say to their slaves “You're only a slave. I own you.  If you or your ancestors weren’t' so useless you would never have been a slave in the first place.  Men are not to treat women with contempt.  And gentiles, slaves, and women can't say “I can't do anything; my opinion isn't worth anything, I'm only an outsider/slave/woman.  None of us are defined by our class or race or gender or sexual orientation. What we are is defined by who our father is. We ache our identity in Christ.
2. Unity.  We are “all one in Christ Jesus”. We are literally one  person in Christ.   Those differences that define a pecking order within the Church, actually don’t' exist.  God has been speaking to us about “Unity” and it is important that we lay aside our cultural differences and personal preferences, and live as one.
3. Inclusive. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, male nor female.  That narrowness that insisted the Kingdom was only for Israel, is not part of the Gospel.  In Jesus these distinctions don't exist.  God doesn’t' recognise them. And we are called upon to be  like Father. “I tell you to love your enemies and pray for anyone who mistreats you.  Then you will be acting like your Father in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both good and bad people. And he sends rain for the ones who do right and for the ones who do wrong.” (Matthew 5. 45)  Are there any people whose lives are so messed up that God can't save them?  Are there any people who would be better of without knowing Jesus?  Are there any people who have done things so bad that God isn't interested in them any more?

Thirdly, Respect.
The Jewish law had been a “Schoolmaster” (AV) or “Guardian” (NIV) to lead people to Christ (verse s 24-25). Now “Schoolmaster” is the Greek paidagogos, literally one who leads a boy around.  The paidagogos was the slave whose job it was to take the young master to school, and sometimes to sit behind him at his lessons and give him a slap if he misbehaved. The job of was often given to an old man who had got too weak to do the heavy work, too clumsy to serve tables, and was perhaps too uneducated or visually impaired to look after the accounts.  He wasn't, in other words, one of the most respected and appreciated members of the household. That's OK... It was something that had to be done. Paul isn't saying the law is a bad thing. But he is saying it isn't the kind of respect that God deserves.   We are not to look on God like that.  The Pedagogue is not Father.  A slave obeys his master out of fear. A son honours his father out of love.  As sons we are to respect our Father.  

Away back in the Old Testament, God had asked this question: “If I am a father, where is my honour?” (Malachi 1. 6)  Slave-religion does things out of a sense of duty – and then tries to get away with the least possible sacrifice.  In Malachi's day that meant picking out the 

Fourthly, Intimacy
By the Spirit, we are able to say to God “Abba, Father”.  I've heard that translated as calling God “Daddy” like a little child.  Now it's right that we need to come to God with that sense of Childlike trust and simplicity, not pretending to be more than we are.  Maybe some of us need to revisit childhood and find out where the idea of “Father” went wrong for us.  But that's not what “Abba” means.  Sure, it was the word used by bairns.  But it was also the word used by a grown-up son, who has become a friend of his Dad.  It speaks of informality, it is intimate, but it is mature, respectful, trusting.  It is the Hebrew word that Jesus used when he taught his disciples to pray “Father in Heaven.”  We need to be discovering a grown-up, listening, trusting, open and honest relationship with our Heavenly Father. One where we can tell him what is on our minds.  But one where we can hear what is on his mind. 
 
Fifthly, authority
Paul says we are heirs of our Father 3. 28; 4. 7)  Israel looked to God to fulfil promises made to Abraham and Moses. They stood to inherit, but not yet; at a time set by the Father.  So there were trustees and executors (verse 2) in the meantime.  But for believers, if you are a child, then you are also an heir and you receive your inheritance now.   We are all inheritors of the promises of god.    All god's promises, all the things god promised through Abraham, all the things God promises through St Paul in the New testament, all the benefits of living in the reality of the Kingdom of God; all of theses are for us, through the love of a heavenly Father. 

Conclusion...
But I don’t' feel much like a child of God.  How can I be god's child. Look at me.  I've done a load of stuff that makes me feel embarrassed.  I wasn't born to high status, I've never had much education, I haven't got much to offer really.  When I try to serve God I really fumble.    But God doesn't make us his children on the basis of our background, our training, or niceness or goodness. He makes us his children through Christ and by the Spirit.
God sent his Son ... to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as his children. (4. 4f).  If you want to be a child of God, to receive adoption papers, then come to Jesus.  If you have already trusted in Jesus, you are already a child of god.  You need to enter into what is already yours.
God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts to cry out, “Abba! Father!” If today you have trusted Jesus, but you don’t' know you are God's son, you need to Holy Spirit to be released within you to cry out “Abba Father.”

© Gilmour Lilly November 2012

Cosmic Christ, global vision :joined up spirituality. Colossians 1. 9-20

Christ Is Above All Colossians 1. 9-23

We had a real sense of an encounter with God when we came together to practise on Wednesday.  As we worked through the challenge of our national day of remembrance, and thought about the state our nation and indeed our world is in, we got a very real and sharp sense of what is on God's heart for our world.  There was almost a sense of frustration and bewilderment: how do we respond? What do we do?  I felt the Holy Spirit lay this scripture on my heart in place of what I had already begun to prepare...

You see, the Christians in Colossae, were not such a  bad lot.   They had faith and love and hope; they were fruitful and Spirit-filled.  Paul is thankful for all that – and yet knowing that, he prays for more... 

He prays that they may know God's will. (v. 9) There was a wrong idea going around and Paul knew it was adanger in Colossae. It was called Gnosticism, belief in a secret knowledge.  But knowing God's will is something fro every Christian.  Paul prays that they may be able to live out their salvation: strengthened with power in the inner man.(v. 10ff)...    He wants the amazing gift of salvation they have in Christ, being rescued from the authority of darkness and transferred to the Kingdom of Jesus, where their inheritance is light, redeemed (bought back from the devil) and forgiven. (v 34f) .. Paul wants all of that to become the dominating reality in their lives... and in ours.  Because that is our inheritance too.  As we have trusted in Jesus we have been rescued from the authority of darkness that oppressed us and dragged us down. We avhe been made citizens of Jesus' kingdom where our inheritance is light.

So what’s God's will? What is God's will for me?  Isn't it enough just to be saved? Isn't it enough just to be good?   We need a spirituality that takes that amazing salvation, and plugs it into every aspect of our lives.  We need to unleash what we have in Christ, the Jesus in our hearts, the power of the Gospel, the present reality of the Holy Spirit.   (Paul says “I have complete confidence in the gospel; it is God's power to save all who believe, first the Jews and also the Gentiles. Rom 1. 16)

Our encounter with Jesus, being saved, leads us to who He is.  Paul just can't stop talking about Jesus!  He declares that Jesus is the image of the invisible God, first-born of all creation.  (v. 15) Image doesn't mean he is only a picture of God.  It means he is the visible expression of the invisible God.   First-born of all creation doesn't mean Jesus was the first person to be created. “First-born” Is about status.  It speaks of the honour, dignity and rights of the oldest son.  Remember Jacob: we mentioned him last week. He was a grabber and he grabbed his older brother's birthright. Esau was the first-born but Jacob cheated him out of his rights as first-born.  Jesus existed first, before the world came to exist. He has the right to rule in this world.  He is first-born over all creation.  So does God have a will for the created order? If Jesus is the first-born of all creation, you can be sure God has a will for all creation. 

Paul goes on (v. 16f): Through Christ God made everything, (including all the spiritual beings, thrones, lordships, rulers, authorities) and in him everything holds together.  Just think about that.  Jesus created the universe.  He is the Word that came from the Father’s mouth at the beginning of all things and brought galaxies and stars, angels and amoebas and trees and people, into being.  They exist because of him and for him.  He is the glue that holds everything together.  Quantum physicists are trying to find out about the subatomic particles that hold everything together.   Whatever the scientific answer is, the theological answer is, Jesus.  If Jesus wasn't there, the universe would shatter like a plate glass window, each atom and molecule hurtling outwards into infinity at the speed of light (that is if light itself still existed!?)  Does God have a will for the created order, for this planet and its people? In Jesus everything holds together, so you can be sure God has a will for all things.

Jesus was raised from the dead so that he might have the first place. (v. 18)  He was raised from the dead, not just so you and I could know we are forgiven.  It's true, as the old hymn says, rising he justified, freely for ever (Romans 4. 25)   But it's also true that he rose so that in all things he might have the first place.  He rose to rule.   When Jesus started his ministry in Nazareth, he preached a really short sermon.   It was shorter than his text.  The text said  "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour." (Lk 4.  18f) And the sermon said “Today, this is fulfilled in your hearing!”  (Lk 4. 20)   What did Jesus come for? Not just to die for your sins and mine, but to bring the year of God's favour; to bring God's Kingdom.  When Jesus rose from the dead, he did so in order to rule. 

The very fulness of God lived (set up home) in Christ.  John 1. 14 says the word became flesh and camped among us; But Colossians 1. 19 says the fulness of God resided permanently in him.  Everything that God is, Christ  is permanently, and Christ became humanity, in order to reconcile all things to God. Reconciliation is a truth so deep Paul had to make a new word up: it's about both sides changing, so God's attitude to us changes as he forgives us, and our attitude to him changes as well.  And "all things" means  – all things.  Verse 20 elaborates: things on earth; things in heaven; peace, through the blood Jesus shed on the Cross. What or whom did Jesus come to reconcile? Well, he came to reconcile you and me to God.  But that is only the start. He came to reconcile all things to God and to each other in him...   So does God have a will for our world?  Jesus has reconciled all things to himself in Christ, so you can be sure God has a will for the world. 

God wants the world to be a peaceful place that holds together properly.  God is concerned about politics, about sexual morality, about economic justice, about oppression and freedom, about war and peace.  God cares about what happens in his world.  God isn't into private religion. God isn't into single issue politics. He is concerned for all things.

And in the middle of it all, Paul says “he is the head of the Body, the Church...”  The Church is his body.   F.F. Bruce says the Church, Christ’s body  is “Vitalised by his abiding presence, energised by his power.”   The Church is Christ’s body, doing - like a healthy body should - what the Head directs.  The Church is meant to be a working model of reconciliation between all different sorts of people, united because they know Jesus Christ.  The Church is meant to be a laboratory of the Kingdom, where we show what life is like when God reigns. The end of all this isn't to turn us into activists.  Yes, there will be action.  But I’m not telling you to join a political party, or to grow your own veg or become an eco-warrior.  I'm not saying we should all help out at the Food bank.  But I am saying that we should have a spirituality that makes the connections.  And these connections are not just between us and these things.  They are connections between Jesus and these things.

We need  a spirituality that makes connections... between
between our wonderful, individual personal salvation,
our growth in knowledge and strength. 
Between who Jesus really is,
what his kingdom purpose is for the created order.
the Church that is his body.

We need to draw deeper into God so we have something to say to the nation and to the nations.

We need to pray for ourselves, for one another, and for our world. Not just to pray for people to be saved, but to pray blessing into the society we live in.   To pray for political leaders. To pray for trade Union leaders and leaders of business. To pray for those who have suffered abuse and those in the frame for committing acts of abuse.  To pray “Lord, your Kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.  To pray that this Jesus in whom all things hold together, who died to reconcile all things to god; who rose again in order to have the pre-eminence, may reach out into our world.  And maybe that kind of praying will do something to us., the Church, his body.  Instead of feeling obliged to witness (too often so that the Church can grow!); instead of feeling obliged to do Christian Aid and generally try to make our world a better place... instead, we will go in the power of the Spirit to be the voice, hands and feet of Jesus, in the world for which we pray.  

© Gilmour Lilly November 2012

Psalm 24. Encountering God...

Don't you think it's kind of outrageous thing, this idea of making an approach to God?  The very idea that we can gather together in this wee building on a Sunday Morning, and dare to suggest that we are doing more than thinking about or discussing God; we are doing more than remembering god's actions; we are doing more than encouraging one another in our faith or trying to “Sell” the idea of faith!  The very idea that we can gather together in a place like this, and believe that we are encountering God himself.  Not just talking, not just theory, not just ideas or auto-suggestion, but a real encounter!

David wrote this psalm out of a real encounter with God.  There was a box – they called it the “ark of the covenant” – which was the most precious, most important symbol of God's presence with Israel.  1 Sam 4-6 tells how a priest called Phineas foolishly took the Ark into battle against the Philistines as if it was a magic charm.  They were defeated; Phineas' wife was pregnant and when the news came she gave birth to a baby boy whom they called Ichabod – the Glory (Heb Chabod) has departed.  The  Philistines stuck the Ark in the temple of their god, Dagon.  The next morning, the statue of Dagon was on the floor in front of the Ark.  They put the statue back up and next morning the statue of Dagon was on the floor again, only this time its head and hands were chopped off.  So they handed it back to the town of Kiriath-jearim in Israel  and eventually King David decided to bring it back to Jerusalem (the Hill of the Lord).  They put it on a brand new cart,  and off they went.  But just like in Fife, there were potholes in the road, and as they went over a particularly bad one, one of the guys, called Uzzah, put his hand out to steady the Ark.  God struck him down for that, and David decided not to take the ark any further. The Ark isn't a lucky charm and it isn't the symbol of a god who can't look after himself.  Three months later  he decided to have another try. This time they found out the right way to transport the Ark – not on a cart but with long poles attached to loops on the side of the Ark, carried by men.  That was what God had said way back in the time of Moses when the Ark was first made, and that is what they did this time...  And as they did, they celebrated.  David danced with joy as the ark made its slow progress into Jerusalem. (2 Sam 6)  And that journey is what this Psalm is all about....

Psalm 24 answers two vital “who” questions:  Who can come to God?   Who is God anyway?

So who can come to God?
Who can really approach god and stand tall and unashamed in his presence?   May in the crowd would think the answer might be King David, The priests,  Israel, He who lives in Jerusalem, He who is circumcised, he who brings tithes and offerings; he who keeps the Sabbath and celebrates the passover each year.” 

No. The real answer is anyone who has clean hands and a pure heart. This  answer is an outrage to those who considered themselves already sorted “insiders” to faith and God.  He won't be tied down to one nation.  “The earth is the Lord's!”  If those Philistines who had taken the ark away had done so with clean hands and a pure heart they would have been able to approach God. 

But you need clean hands and a pure heart. You can't presume on having God with you just because you have the Ark as Phineas and had done.  Who shall enter? “He who has clean hands and a pure heart”...    And that means the answer is – as the Arbroath folk call the West window of their Abbey a “round O”.  Nothing.  Nobody. He has purer eyes than to behold sin.

But there is grace, mercy and hope!  Men and women can come to God if they “seek the face of the God of Jacob” who turns the twister into the prince. Jacob was the “Arthur Daley “ of the Old Testament. He had a skill for “creative accounting” and would have fitted in well selling Payment Protection Insurance for one of the big banks. The God of Jacob is the God who sent Jesus to deal with our twistedness and sin.  There is hope for us, in spite of our failings and sins. 

Who is this God?
He is the Lord strong in battle. Yes, there had been defeats.  When the people had forgotten to stay close to the Lord, the Philistines had beaten them and the “Glory had departed” along with the ark.  But especially under King David, there had been mighty victories too.  The Lord had fought for them.  But he is more than that. He is always more than what he does for us, more than the victories he wins for us.

He is the Lord hosts,the Lord of heaven's armies., and indeed the Lord of  all created things, the whole crowd of everything and everyone who has ever lived on this earth.  “The earth is the Lords and everything in it!”    HE is more than the God who wins battles.  He is the Lord of hosts: the lord of the heavenly host, the Lord of everything.    

HE is bigger than simply a localised little god.  He can't be limited to a golden box or contained in a temple.  He's not just the  local god of Jerusalem or Judea or Israel.   Philistia is his.  Egypt is his. The earth is His.  He’s not some little empty symbol that needs to be propped up al the time.  He is LORD of Hosts.

And so, as we come to him, we come opening our doors to him and we come prepared to be transformed in the encounter,

So what?
In a world where Richard Dawkins claims “more and more people are realising there is no god” here we are, not only believing there is, but expecting an encounter with Him... or we should be!  Our world needs to be brought face-to-face with the reality of this God.  The God who is surrounded in splendour and glory.  Glory is the weight of his presence.  A cynical world isn't interested in a game of religious make-believe or in joining in with any attempt to sustain a wizard of Oz type illusion and “prop God up” like Uzzah did.

Christ Duffett, Baptist Union of GB President, is a full-time evangelist. He tells of once asking a young woman “What would you really like to say to God?”.  She answered, “if there is a God, what is it like?”  that question, “What is god like?” is hugely significant.  People are not going to be bothered with a god who is not worth bothering about; who is weak and empty and pointless, who never does anything.  Nor are they going to want to be bothered with at God who is bad.   People do not want a god who is not better than they are!  

We make our approach to the Lord of Hosts. We welcome him into our midst. The earth is the Lord's. But isn't that what you are here for? To encounter God? And if that's not what you are expecting, if that is not what you are here for, if all you are here for is to learn about God, then maybe, turning Richard Dawkins's words on their head, yo need to realise that there is a god. … And that the very idea of there being a god, demands that he be encountered.   If he is hiding in the wings, he is not the god of the Bible.

We have been working through our Mission Statement – “learning to show the Father's love” .  We've looked at Discipleship – the learning process – and at Demonstration – how we show God to our world.  Now we are going Deeper with God, our need to walk with our Heavenly Father.  All the learning and discipleship, all the showing and demonstration, is empty talk and not really possible – without a living encounter with God himself. 

So “How” might we encounter Him.  What are the “means of Grace?”  How can we pick up and use the tools he has given to enable us to meet with him, and go deeper with him.  We start here – recognising who can come to God and who God is – and expectantly seeking his face.

© Gilmour Lilly November 2012

Demonstrating the Father's Love -through Spiritual Gifts

Last Sunday we looked at the mission journey the 72 were called to: travelling together; travelling where Jesus wanted to go; travelling light and travelling to bless.  One of the ways Jesus blessed and calls his followers to bless is through Supernatural power, the active work of the Holy Spirit.  In today's reading   Jesus gave the twelve  authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every affliction. (v. 1) And told them to Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. (v. 7)  For the 72 it was “heal the sick and tell theme 'the Kingdom has come near to you.'”

Many Gifts - one mission
Jesus says “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons” (v. 8) listing a variety of different activities.  In his own ministry, he healed in different ways, and besides healing, used different gifts of the Spirit including on at least two occasions prophetic insight.  Remember Zacchaeus, hiding up a tree; Jesus not only knew he was there, but knew his name (Luke 19).  Remember the woman from Samaria; Jesus knew that she had been through five husbands and was now living a man she wasn't married to. (John 4).  In the early Church, as well as lots of healing and deliverance,  prophetic and other gifts cultivated a sense of God's presence among his people which drew people to Jesus.

• Tongues in acts 2, Pentecost was a missionary work of the Spirit.  The disciples were in an upstairs flat, praying, when the Holy Spirit came upon them.  Seconds later, they are overwhelmed by God, and the gift the spirit gave enabled them to speak in the languages of all the people who were bustling about in the streets.   
• supernatural guidance (Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts 8); 
• visions and dreams (the conversion of Saul in Acts 9; the conversion of Cornelius in Acts 10).
• Paul speaks about using gifts like tongues, interpretation and prophecy in such a way that not-yet-christians become aware of the power of God present among his people. (1 Cor 14. 23-24)  

I believe in the Holy Spirit. I believe his gifts are for today. BTU they are for today's mission.  The supernatural is about mission.  The Holy Spirit is a missionary.  He is “God on the move”.  His gifts are given to Christians; they are given to build one another up.  But they are given for mission.

When the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus., he immediately spent forty days and nights out in the wastelands, alone with his Father and with the Devil.   And the first thing the Devil said to him as “Hungry, eh?  But you're the Son of God, you've got power, right?  See these stones? Turn one into bread.  You've got the power; use it for yourself”.  Next the enemy said “throw yourself down from the high point in the temple”.  You’re the son of God; you've got the power. You can float down. Then everyone will follow you....”   What the enemy attacked was the mission of Jesus.: to get Jesus to use his power for himself, so he could feel good and look good, would have been a triumph for the enemy.  And whenever the enemy can get us to be distracted from mission, he's winning a battle.

We often spend our time arguing about the gifts of the Spirit., or playing with the gifts of the Spirit.  But if you read the book of Acts, you will find that everything the Spirit does is about mission.  When he is not touching the lives of people who don't yet know Jesus, he is prodding those who do know Jesus, to get them to look outwards.

Jesus-shaped misison.
...so says Michael Green, a leading evangelist in the Church of England,  The supernatural in mission is part of Jesus-shaped mission; but there three ways in which gifts for mission need to be shaped by Jesus.

When he saw the crowds... 

Compassion. Jesus sends the twelve to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (v. 5)  That's the heart of Jesus. “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.” (9. 36).  It's about caring for people's felt needs; it's about entering into people’s sorrows.  It's about feeling in your guts, the pain that people feel round about you.”

Character.  Jesus expects his servants to move among people with a transformed attitude to material things.  We thought last week about the importance of travelling light.  He expects us to be trusting God rather than our bank accounts and possessions. He expects us to be generous rather than demanding.  Travelling preachers could expect to be looked after when they came to a village. He expects us to be courageous in our attitude to rejection and even persecution.

 So often, healing ministries are brought into disrepute by people who will pray for you and encourage you to claim your healing – but also to send in a cheque.  People like that are not safe hands to be entrusted with the power of the Spirit; you may say, “that's not me”...  but if  you can't or won't address these two issues of Character and Compassion (I'm not saying you have to be perfect; just addressing the issues) then as far as I am concerned, forget about demonstrating the Father's love through gifts.

Connection Entering a house, the disciples are to greet it: the Greek word means “ to enfold in the arms.”  It's exactly the thing that the 72 wee not to do on the road – remember it took up valuable time!  But in the village, entering a home, they were to give time and effort to getting to know people, putting them at ease, and building relationships.  That is never, never done in a few moments.  The gifts come into their own  in the context of a relationship based approach to mission. where we show the father’s love by being Godly and generous.

Kingdom  Proclaim as you go, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' (v 7)  Jesus gives the same instruction to the 72 (Luke 10:9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you.') and Jesus says over and again to the people he heals, “The Kingdom of God has come near...”  ((9. 35: proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease...)

When Jesus heals a disabled person, when a demon leaves or a dumb person talks, it is a foretaste of the Kingdom of god.  Occasionally, in the supermarket, there is a wee stall with someone  offering you a free sample to try.  Now you are never going to survive on the give-away samples you get in the supermarket.  They are not meant to be a meal: they are a sample that is supposed to make you think, “on Saturday evening, when I'm relaxing and watching a movie, I could have some of these.”  realigns and other supernatural things are a sample of heaven; they are pointers to say that the messed up state of the world is not God's plan.  When God's rule is established, and God's rules are kept, then we have a perfect world.

As we learn to show the father's love, in godly character, generous compassion and supernatural gifts, it's a foretaste of God's  Kingdom; and as we show the father's love, we will have the opportunities, too,to tell the Good news that “Our God reigns; God has become King”  Jesus has conquered death and evil, and is today seated at the Father's right hand.  From there, at the right moment he will return and there will be a new heaven and a new earth! And everyone who puts their trust in him can be part of that, now and for eternity!

It's for us 
The instructions Jesus save to the twelve are an interesting mix.  Some of them were very specific for that time and place.  He sends them "only to Israel" (v. 5).   But others didn't actually apply to that point in time.  Jesus tells them what to do "When they drag you into court" (v. 18) and talks about speaking to kings and governors and to the Gentiles (v. 19). He's obviously thinking about the mission of the whole Church.

Bruce & Joyce: part fo our Church family.
We all have a call to mission

There is a consistent thread of declaration and demonstration, preach and heal, speak and act running through

• the ministry of Jesus himself, (Matt 9. 35: “proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction”; 
• the twelve, (verse 7 “proclaim the Gospel, heal the sick”); 
• the 72 (Luke 10. 9 Heal the sick in it and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’); 
• the Church in Acts,  “In the name of Jesus, walk” (Acts 3. 6) .  
• and the teaching of Paul.  “My speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power.” (1 Cor 2. 4)

This is something we are all called to: to engage in the supernatural; to use the gifts of the spirit in mission. So, whatever gifts you have – or don't have – learn to expect God to use them, to demonstrate his loving presence not only here in the safety of the Christian community but more importantly in the world.  


© Gilmour Lilly October 2012

Luke 10. 1-11: The mission of the seventy-two

What does the word “mission” conjure up in your minds?  Write one word on the paper that sums it up!

Mission is about going. It comes from the Latin word “Send”.  It is a journey!  Jesus sent his twelve closest allies out to tell the good news of of God's Kingdom. Then he sent seventy (or seventy-two) others with a similar mission.  Later he sent people like Cuthbert and Aidan to bring the Gospel to our part of Scotland.  A hundred years ago eh sent people to the new community of Rosyth who were believers and started a children's work and soon after this Church. And he sent Andrew and Maria to Northern Iraq. And today we bless Alan and Kay because he has sent them to be part of KLM Church in Edinburgh.  And he has sent some of you to be part of this church.  And he is sending all of us to our community.

I want us to learn four simple things about this “Mission journey”..

1. Travelling together. Jesus sent the seventy-two out two by two.  Isn't that good?  The whole business of reaching out to other people may be a scarey journey sometimes.  But we travel together. We can support each other. We can pray for each other.  We can challenge and encourage each other. We can take care of each other. And in fact, Jesus sent them in twos as a mission strategy: in Jewish culture the evidence of “two or three witnesses” was reliable. The very fact that we travel together is a prophetic thing: it is a challenge and a rebuke to our individualistic society.  It is vital that we build community.  We are not an organisation. Sure we have an AGM (coming up!) and accounts and so on; but these must never be allowed to define who and what we are. We are a community.

2. Travelling where Jesus plans to go.  That's what Luke records (v. 1) “to every town and place that he intended to go.”  And what is exciting is that whatever they were going to do there, however well they got on, whatever mistakes they made, they knew that Jesus was planning to follow on after them. They were part of his plan for reaching these places, and they were places that were often left out and looked down upon.  But he was going to visit these towns, preach as only he could preach, heal as only he could do, debate as only he could do and triumph as only he could do.

That should be an encouragement to us, too. Our journey may seem scarey, difficult. It may seem like “Mission impossible!”  But Jesus is sending us where he plans to go. The situations that we fumble in; the situations that we find threatening – like lambs among wolves – are the situations that Jesus wants to visit, to touch, too speak to.

3. Travelling light.  Jesus said “Don't carry a wallet, a travelling bag, or sandals, and don't greet anyone on the way.”   No wallet meant not only were they going with very little, but they intended to stay that way: the wee leather bag might be really useful for putting the collection in. In fact the Greek word purse literally means a bag to throw coins in. it could be a begging bag.  No rucksack for food; no shoes, made them the poorest of the poor. Being told not to greet anyone on the way seems harsh and distant.  But remember that greeting other people involved long social rituals, asking questions, having a drink together.  It's actually about having a sense of urgency and being different in a way that will make people sit up and think.   No time for empty small-talk.  Greeting someone on the way in an Eastern context could involve stopping for a drink and something to eat,) It was the same when he sent out the twelve: Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics.  I like the Message translation of the mission of the twelve (Matthew 10. 9-10), which says “Don’t think you have to put on a fund-raising campaign before you start. You don’t need a lot of equipment. You are the equipment, and all you need to keep that going is three meals a day. Travel light."

We carry a lot of baggage with us as we travel together.  As individuals we are all caught up in the economic and material realities of the world we live in.  Some of you are working long hours in difficult circumstances; some of you who thought you had reached retirement, are finding yourselves as busy as ever you were – just with a bit less energy!  It's good, sometimes, to review our lifestyle and be sure that we are not on  a treadmill.

And as a Church, we have committed ourselves to improving our building.  That is good.  It isn't right to let it fall down,  God has given us a special location here to use for mission.  But it must alwasy be a sending base for mission.  We need to be careful that – as we get on with the job of fixing the building – we don't  allow all our energies to be distracted into fund-raising; we don't develop the habit of simply going to our community asking for money; and we don't allow the financial needs of the building to become a pressure to the people who make up the Church.

We can add on a lot of extra stuff to carry in the life of the Church.  If we are going to have the time and energy to do the real stuff God's Kingdom is made up of, we need to ensure that we keep the structures and activities of the Church light.  If we are going to have the time to talk to people who don't know Jesus, we need to keep the demands of Church light. If we are going to get the best out of busy people, and avoid burning them out, we need to keep the demands of the church light.  If we are going to develop relationships – with each other, with our neighbours and with Jesus, we need to keep the structural stuff of he Church light.,


As a Church, we need to remember that “We are the equipment.”  In a very real sense we are the Church.  There's a wee sign outside that says “Church.”  I know why it's there and I know what it means.  But I sincerely hope that one day it will be replaced with something a bit more theologically correct: we are the Church. We are the equipment.

Rainbow at Durness.  August2012. 

4. Travelling to bless.  There is a simple strategy Jesus gives the seventy-two as they go out into the villages.  As soon as you enter a home, say, “God bless this home with peace.” If the people living there are peace-loving, your prayer for peace will bless them. But if they are not peace-loving, your prayer will return to you.”  (vv 5f)  You travel to bless.

This first thing we want to do as we journey among people, in he world around us, is bless them.  And that means...  to speak good about people and to speak good into their lives.  It is as old as creation itself:

Gen 1:28 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

It is something the people of God, from our very earliest roots in the Old Testament:  this is what God said to Abraham in Genesis 12. 2f: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonours you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”  Who does God want to bless through his people Israel? All nations. Who does God want to bless through you and me? All nations.

We need to learn how to speak blessing into our world.  To speak positively and affirmingly about eh people we meet week by week. To speak good things from god into the lives of others, and expect our words to make a difference.

After all, God has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.   (Eph 1:3)  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.

© Gilmour Lilly September 2012

Luke 10. 25-37 Showing the Father's love through compassionate action

 “Who is my neighbour.”  
We all know the "Story of the Good Samaritan" - but in order to get what it's saying , we need also to know the story of the story.    This lawyer – an expert in the Old Testament  and probably sympathetic to the Pharisee party – came to check Jesus out: “What qualifies me for eternal life?  What  do I need to do?" Jesus answers with a reasonable enough question, “What does the book say?”  The lawyer is easily within his specialist area: “Love God, (Deut 6:5)  love neighbour (Lev 19:18)...”  Then Jesus says , "OK,do that and you have eternal life.”  That's simple enough.  The man maybe feels embarrassed he's made such a big issue of asking a fairly obvious question. Maybe he wants to find exactly how far this command actually extends. There is a theological point he needs to clear up.  “Who is my neighbour?” 

What should my attitude be to those who are outside of the Jewish race?  What should my attitude be to Romans, Greeks, Samaritans, Africans?  There's actually quite a lot of personal and cultural baggage hiding behind that question.  “Who is my neighbour?”

Jesus answers this time by telling a story.  “Once there was  man who got beaten up and robbed going from Jerusalem to Jericho.  Along came a priest.”  Everyone who was listening (Pharisee scribe as well as working people) would get a good laugh at that: priests and Levites were seen as toffs and hypocrites who benefited from the law that forced everyone to bring sacrifices and offerings but didn't keep the law themselves. 

The parable of the Good Samaritan by Conti

But nobody would be laughing as the next part of the story unfolded: “a Samaritan came along and helped the injured man with extravagant unstinting generosity at his own expense!" A denarius would buy you twelve days worth of bed and breakfast: this was going to cost the Samaritan a lot of money!.  And there was a considerable risk to himself if the robbers were still around.  Everyone would be spluttering.  Jews don't have anything to do with Samaritans.  There had been ugly incidents – on one occasion a group of Samaritans had thrown bones into the Temple during the Passover... a clear insult.  A few years later it would erupt into  violence.  The Lawyer, with his question, “Who is my neighbour?” would have a real sense of shock and challenge at the idea that a hated and despised Samaritan could perform an act of love and kindness for a Jew.  In fact Jews were not supposed to receive works of love or mercy from non-Jews.  Samaritans were kind of seen as people who should be Jewish but had broken away.   This story pushes into strange and dangerous territory.

"Becoming a neighbour"
Jesus then brings the point home, with at question of his own.   “Who was (literally became) neighbour to the man who was the victim of the crime?”   The idea of a “neighbour” for the lawyer was something to debate and discuss: “Who is my neighbour” precisely defines the limits of who I've got to love!

In the OT a neighbour was “an associate” of any sort and could be a companion, friend, or family member.  It's vague, deliberately so; and its roots are active, not passive. The root of the Hebrew word means “to tend a flock, that is, pasture it.”    It's not so much a matter of defining “Who is my neighbour” as simply being a neighbour.

Rembrandt's "Good Samaritan"

The priest and the Levite, walking by on the other side (more likely because they were going home to dinner than because they were going to work: Jericho was where a  lot of the priests lived) showed a  complete lack of concern or love or compassion for the injured man.  But the Samaritan showed exactly what it is to be a neighbour, with his risky delay on the road, gentle first aid and costly financial help.  This is what it is to be a neighbour.  This is how we are meant to live as disciples. This is how followers of Jesus are meant to live, showing mercy not just to each other but to any lost hungry sheep.  Mercy to the last, the lost and the least is part of our call as Kingdom people. 

To someone who had asked “Who is my neighbour?” Jesus says “Who was this needy, broken guy's neighbour?”  Crestfallen and embarrassed, the lawyer sees he isn’t going to get the better of Jesus.  “I suppose,” he grudgingly admits, “the one who showed mercy (or compassion)”.  He can't bring himself to say "It was the Samaritan."

Put yourself in the situation of the guy who got beaten up.  How does he feel when he realises the man who is standing over him is a Samaritan?  Is he expecting another beating?  How does he feel about Samaritans when he is resting up in the inn (at the Samaritan’s expense?  

Compassion will take you out of your comfort zone,  into a  place where you yourself are needy and vulnerable.  It's really interesting that Jesus broke the conventions and shattered the stereotypes by sitting down beside a well in a Samaritan village, and asked a Samaritan woman to give him a drink! 

To demonstrate the father's love by showing compassion will  bring  you to abandon prejudice, resentment, fear and self-interest.  It will call you to become a neighbour to the last the lost and the least. 

"Go and do the same"
 Jesus doesn't really answer the question “Who is my neighbour?”  He is more interested in the question “how do I show love?”  That’s what the Samaritan teaches us.  And Jesus finishes the whole conversation off at exactly the place where the lawyer started it.  Remember he had begun by asking, “What must I do to have eternal life?”   Once the lawyer  had admitted that the person who became a neighbour, who tended the broken one,who showed love, was the Samaritan, Jesus said, “Go and do the same.” 

That's what you do to inherit eternal life: do what the Samaritan did.  This isn't something to have great long debates about: “is it really gospel work, to feed the hungry?  Is it really Gospel work to sit with someone who is lonely or  to wipe the face of a disabled adult?” Well, yes, it is. 

One practical illustration, from many: there are people who are teaching “birth life saving skills” to expectant mums and dads in the developing world. A lot of is is very simple: just recognising the danger signs when something isn't going right. The result?  Mums get to hospital or get  a midwife called out if there are complications; lives, and souls  are saved regularly as a result.

Or think abut a little Methodist church in an English village.  It was dwindling – almost closed down.  But there was a school in the village, and as often happens in villages as well as towns,there were  children turning up for school without having had any breakfast. The little group of ladies in the church had been thinking, “what can we do to serve our community?”  Then  they realised “We can make toast!”  A breakfast club was launched and as a result that wee church began to thrive and grow as its members served the community.

Demonstrating the Father’s love through character; demonstrating the Father's love through compassion.  It's the boring, ordinary stuff.  But it makes a difference.  It is part of discipleship and it is part of mission.  It's not something just to be talked about.   Go and do it.


© Gilmour Lilly September 2012