If you will you can: Luke 5. 11 or 12-16

Context: Jesus is getting started in his ministry. In each of the synoptic gospels this incident is fairly early on in the story. He is doing Kingdom things - healing the sick, driving out the demons, proclaiming the Kingdom of God, gathering the beginnings of a community around him who are called to engage with the things he is doing. He has not long since healed Peter's Mother in law from a high fever; then he miraculously led the disciples to an amazing the catch of fish and then promised Peter, "from now on you will be catching men and women for the Kingdom of God". (But what kind of men and women?)  Peter and Andrew, James and John have left their nets to follow Jesus.

The Story... 

Then... a man full of leprosy comes asking for help.

Mycobacterium Leprae -
Image US Federal Resource in Public Domain

Mycobacterium LepraeLet me tell you what that means.  Leprosy is caused by a bacterial infection called Mycobacterium Leprae (a distant relative of the TB germ).  It's probably passed on by water droplets - coughs and sneezes. It attacks the nerve endings on the surface of the skin first and the first sign is patches on the skin or numb areas.  Leprosy doesn't make people's arms fall off. But left untreated it attacks deeper nerves, resulting in loss of feeling, so people with leprosy often hurt themselves so badly they lose limbs.  If a person's eyelids are affected they cannot blink so they get eye infections and can go blind.

Leprosy sufferer.
Image in public Domain

Here is a man with leprosy. As he is Noreigian he's probably from the archives of Dr Hansen the Norwegian Doctor who discovered the bacillus and gave leprosy its posh name: Hansen's Disease.

Today is World Leprosy Sunday and we think and pray for those who are affected by this disease, and are supporting the Leprosy Mission. Most people are naturally immune, but today over 90% of those affected by leprosy live in developing countries where resources are scarce. Life expectancy can be reduced by up to 50%, mainly due to economic hardship.

Back in Jesus' day, the Jewish law said that people with leprosy had to wear torn clothes and let their hair hang loose; and they had to stay away from other people. If they did come near people they had to shout "unclean". (See Leviticus 13. 45f) Sometimes they were expected to ring a bell or use a wooden clapper to warn people.  They could only be allowed to mix with people when one of the priests had examined them and way satisfied the leprosy had gone away. A person with leprosy could have lesions on their skin; they could look frightening. They might be lame or have lost a limb; they would definitely be begging...

The Point
So the man says to Jesus, "If you will, you can." The big question is, "What does Jesus want?"

Jesus response is immediate and unquestioning. He touches the guy (a radical step for a rabbi to touch an unclean person) and says, "I will, be clean."   Jesus wants to make things better.

This matter of the will of Jesus is important. Jesus doesn't will evil or illness on people. If he did, why would there be a Leprosy Mission at all? Isn't the whole enterprise of a Leprosy Mission an act of defiance to the will of God?   Well the Story of the Leprosy Mission and of Dr Stanley Browne, who was a BMS medical missionary away back in the 1930's and whose research and campaigning to eradicate leprosy earned him the nickname "Mister Leprosy" is one of defiance all right - though not against the will of God but against the status quo of an enemy who loves to destroy and diminish human lives.   And the story of Jesus is a story of that same defiance - as he reached his hand out to this man filled with leprosy. Cleansing lepers was a sign of the Messianic age (Luke 7. 22)

Jesus wants sick people to be healed.  Jesus wants diseases like leprosy to be eradicated. Jesus wants outcasts to become accepted. Jesus wants the stigma of a disease like leprosy to be done away with.  In saying "I will" Jesus was showing us the direction in which the sovereign will of God is orientated.  God wants to bring healing.  Rabbis said that cleansing leprosy as just as difficult as raising the dead. But Jesus did it.  The man was immediately better.  Jesus wanted to and did make him better. Jesus has the power.

The Problem
But what Jesus didn't want was only to be healing people with leprosy What Jesus didn't want was to have his ministry diverted to become nothing more than just this healing work.  What Jesus didn't want was to be swamped with so many people clamoring for healing that he could not deal with deeper stuff in people's lives... And what he didn't want was to simply be a rebel against the establishment.  So he tells the man to go straight to the priest and let the priest certify him fit.  That was part of the job of a Jewish priest. The healing ministry in the Church today is meant to work alongside the medical profession.

And it is intended to be part of a process that tackles the deeper issues in people's lives - the next person Jesus healed was a guy whose friends got him to Jesus buy the unusual expedient of breaking thought the roof and lowering him down in front of Jesus.  The first thing Jesus said to this man was not, "How did you get here?" or even "What do you want me to do for you?"  His first words to the guy were, "Your Sins are forgiven".  Then he healed him.

A little later, Jesus called someone else - Levi the tax collector. I did my annual tax return this week. So I can sympathise with the Jewish people who hated tax-collectors. But this wasn't just working for the Revenue; this was working for the Romans and looking after "number One".  Tax collectors were seen as traitors and cheats (and usually they had earned that reputation!)  Jesus was criticized for hanging about with people like that. His answer: "Who needs the doctor?"  Obviously it isn't the healthy people but the sick.

The Difference
So - like Simon and Andrew, James and John - who left their nets to become fishers of men - and like Levi - who left his tax-collector's stall in the market to throw a big party for Jesus, we are called to follow the Jesus who said, "I Want to, be clean." We are called to be part of his exciting, outrageous, generous, journey through the land, making things better not just on the outside but on the inside too.

What does Jesus want? He wants to make things better. He wants to bring God's Kingdom. He wants to forgive and heal. He still wants to touch our lives with his healing for the outside and the inside. And he still wants you and me to be involved in that too: through our support for ministries like Leprosy Mission, or BMS or WEC.  And though our words and our touch as we share the Good news with people in our neighborhood, and pray for their healing.

© Gilmour Lilly January 2012

"Family Favourites??" - James 2:1-13

Photo by G Lilly. Public Domain.

A young couple walk into a large and successful Church that attracts many students and professional people. The several hundred worshippers seem already to have their own group of friends and the newcomers feel as though they have mysteriously become invisible. Nobody bothers with them. Nobody talks to them.  Who are they anyway and what difference does it make?

Next Sunday, the same young couple visit another church. This one is smaller; to some extent its ministry is overshadowed by its more successful neighbour.  Here, our young couple are not just welcomed, they are "latched onto" and almost made to promise they will be back next week. Everyone notices they are there, everyone talks to them. Who are they?  Maybe they are the answer to our shortage of Sunday school teachers.  Maybe - given time -  they will be the answer to our shortage of Sunday School kids!

Another Church, another city. The service is about to begin when the congregation shudders as a guy in a dirty overcoat, and a knitted hat, with a couple of plastic bags and what looks lie a rolled up sleeping bag under his arm, comes in and stumbles to the very front. Who is he? What is he doing here?  In fact he is the visiting speaker, a man called Alan Berry, founder of the Bethany trust and he’s going to be challenging the congregation about the trust’s work among homeless people.

It happens over and again.  Whenever a new person is in Church, we're making judgements. Who is he? Will he fit in? What does he do?  Has he something to offer?  When we have a new person visit, we look at their clothes, their age, their general image

Doesn't it happen? When we have got to know someone, do we pigeonhole them according to race, gender, age, the job they do, and maybe who they know? And o we treat people differently? Do we defer to business or professional men of a certain age?  Do we have favourites? Are there folks we don't really like do we treat them differently? Do we let them know it?

James is quite clear: partiality, having favourites, "Snobbery" (NEB), happens and it is wrong. Interestingly, after introducing (in chapter 1) his theme of discipleship, what it means to follow Jesus, the very first thing, the very first thing that he unpacks, is about how we treat one another, in particular how we treat those who are our brothers and sisters in Christ, who are poorer: those who are less resourced materially, less equipped intellectually, less capable physically or mentally, less resilient emotionally, less advantaged socially. If you allow such favouritism in, says James (v4) you are allowing distinctions (same word as in James 1. 6: it means wavering, doubting, deserting at the crucial moment) and becoming judges with evil thoughts. You're becoming two faced with God. Single-minded faith translates to single-minded love for God's people.  If we are going to be a Church of real disciples, and that is what we are committed to becoming, then we have to be a church that cherishes one another, irrespective of our natural instincts or, let's be blunt, prejudices.  And anything, anything that dishonours the poor - anything that pigeonholes people, anything that marginalize some or humiliates some - like the shenanigans at Communion that Paul describes in 1 Cor 11. 22 - is out.

That question, "Who is he? Who is she?" begs another question or two:  Who are we? And who is HE?

Who are we?  The answer to that question tells us why we can allow no favouritism...
We are those who hold the faith in Jesus  (v1).

• As God's sons and daughters we are heirs of the Kingdom of God, rich in Kingdom things because God has chosen us, just like he has chosen these poor people around you in church (v. 4). Sure, you asked Jesus to come into your life and be your saviour. But did you ever ask yourself what made it possible for you to do that?  It's not that you had anything special to offer God, but he chose you because he loves to choose small, broken, weak, damaged people and make something of them. His hobby is collecting broken people. We are called by the glorious Name of Jesus.  (v. 7)  So James says although it's daft to show favour to the rich and powerful because they are the ones who persecute you, it's even dafter because they speak contemptuously of the Name of Jesus... Our new position in Christ means that the blasphemy hurts more than the persecution...

Window image by A Fluegel.
In public Domain

• We are new creatures ...(See 2 Cor 5. 17) In verses 8ff James talks about keeping the Royal Law:  The Royal Law is the law of Jesus, the law of the Kingdom... We have a different citizenship: we no longer see people in a worldly way. We are subject to a different law and we can't pick and choose which bits of it we keep.   The law is like a sheet of glass. Break it, anywhere, and it is broken. Break it in one corner, and it is broken. There's no such thing as slightly broken glass.  It's no use saying, "It's only broken in one corner."  If I use it, it will let the wind through, and it will probably break some more. If you get stopped for speeding, it's no use telling the police officer, "Well officer, I know I as speeding; but I was speeding really carefully. I signalled before I overtook; I've not been drinking, and the car has just got a new MOT."  And you can't say to God "Lord, I love you with all my heart and soul and mind and strength: I just can't stand my neighbour!"

• But this law is also the law of liberty: in other words, precept becomes promise. It's not just rules to keep but an inner transformation.  A few years ago a man who had been a thief became a Christian and began to go to church. As he walked into Church he passed a wall plaque with the Ten Commandments on it. One jumped out at him: "You shall not steal."  But it read, "You shall not steal" He knew that was what God had done in him: he was a new person.

So, we are Kingdom Kids. We are free. We live in a process of transformation, under the new law of King Jesus.  A fundamental dynamic of the kingdom is mercy: generous, compassionate, forgiving, healing love.  We need to walk in that mercy with each other.  And we need to keep on receiving that mercy form our Heavenly Father.  Jesus said if you forgive, God will forgive you, and if you don't God won't forgive you. Not that mercy has purchasing power with God, but its absence has blocking power - because as a Christian mercy is there, and if you block it you block God's Kingdom. So this is who we are.

Who is He? And this, this grace, this habit of welcoming the poor and broken, this is who our God is... and if we want to be like our Father, we need to show love to all... "Be like your father"   Compassion for the needy roots back into the very nature of he Missionary God who chose and found us (says J A Motyer in his helpful little book on James.)

Rainbow At Maraetai Beach,
New_Zealand. Image Public Domain

But, such is the grace of God, that ultimately mercy triumphs over judgement.  In the end, Hallelujah, God will not allow his mercy to be thwarted. If that's what god does, that's what we do too.

© Gilmour Lilly January 2012

James 1. 1-18 Staying alive: Surviving and thriving as disciples.

Background
It is about 60 ad: the Church is about 30 years old.  As people have been dispersed - scattered all over the Roman Empire the good News of Jesus has gone with them, and in particular, one man, Paul, has been at the centre of the spread of the Jesus message. But now Paul is in prison, and the rush of enthusiasm and passion to spread the Gospel is dying down. In some places, false ideas are beginning to emerge as people struggle to understand and interpret their faith and travelling preachers sometime turn up with wrong ideas.  The church is increasingly seen as a rival or a threat by governments and other religions, so attitudes are hardening. The promised return of Jesus is delayed.

There is a very real danger for Christians and the church across the world, of responding in the wrong way to this situation: of a retreat into a "fortress" mentality, where the church digs itself in, pulls up the drawbridge, and waits for the cavalry to arrive, for Jesus to return.  It is the danger of individual Christians thinking that, having put their trust in Jesus, they are saved and sorted: Christian faith becomes a matter of agreeing with a set of doctrines, and is robbed of its dynamic, life-changing heart.

How are we going to ensure that we don't go there? How are we meant to survive in the challenging world we live in?  How do we keep our faith alive, and more than that, how do we grow? It's not staying alive on life support. It's staying meaningfully, actively, dynamically alive.  It's keeping the kind of life that interacts with and changes the world in which we live.  That's where the book of James comes in.  For a church in challenging times, he writes a booklet that brings together the teaching of Jesus and Paul as well as John and Peter. It's a wonderful wee book about putting our faith in Jesus to work, so as to survive and thrive, whatever the world throws at us.

James deals with survival, and the threats to survival... 
These "trials, temptations", (verse 2, 13) are the same word. In Greek it is "peirasmos", which means being tested, to prove what a person or thing is really like. They may be difficult circumstances that expose how feeble our faith is. They may be the allure of things that we are not meant to have.  It's like e taking the driving test to find out whether you are capable of taking a car out on the road. It's like putting silver in the crucible to make it pure, to burn off the other chemicals.

Testing, whether trouble or temptation, works like velcro.  Our faith, our commitment to Jesus, and our standards of behaviour, are tested when two pieces come together: one from outside of us, and the other from inside us. We have inside us, "hooks" like Velcro that connect with things that happen around us. It may be the offer of some chocolate,  that connects with a desire inside us, and we break the post-Christmas diet. It may be that someone insults us: their words connect with pride, insecurity or anger inside us and we lash out and punch the person, or else we lash out and say something back, or maybe we talk about the person to someone else. It may be that some difficult circumstance - redundancy for example - connects with self-pity inside us and we feel that God doesnt' care about us any more.

All in the Mind
And the key to dealing with temptations, tests and trials is in how you think about them.  "Count it all joy when you meet various trials" (verse 2).  "Don't even think about blaming God for your difficulties... he doesn't send temptation" (verse 13) What we need to do is think in the right way.
1.  If we see trials as something all bad, we are wrong. James says, "Count it all joy".  This is upside-down, kingdom thinking.  The world says "be happy when good things happen."  And James says count it joy, when things happen that test you."
2. And if we think God brutally sends these things along, we are wrong.  God doesn't test anyone; and he doesn't tempt anyone (there is only one word in Greek, remember!)  And he cannot be tested. We are not in the position to put him on trial, even thought we may want to.  What makes a trial into a temptation is our own set of inner "lusts" as we have been discovering.  Our God is a good and generous God from whom every good act of giving and every perfect (heaven-connected) gift comes.

• So we shouldn't "blame God" for the things that test us - whether they are internal things or external things. I get quite concerned when I hear Christians saying "God put me through this or that in order to teach me...."  Or "God allowed such and such so that..."  Sure, God uses testing things: he works all things out for good for those who love him. But he doesn't send theses things along.  If God gets a bad press, if His Name is slandered, then the accuser, the enemy is at work. 
• And don't yield to fatalism. If you think God sends everything, who are you to pray or work to prevent difficulties. If God sends illness, who are we to pray for healing. It's good to do what you can do to bring the time of testing to an end. After all Jesus taught us to pray "lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil."

Testing produces steadfastness.
This is the stubborn-ness of the Spirit, the doggedness of the hound of heaven. Last year, in the midst of all the snow, you would have been forgiven for thinking that every living thing in the soil would have died.  And yet... with impudence, sheer audacity, snowdrops and crocuses survive, and even use that chilling cold as part of their life cycle, and up they come, even breaking through the snow... and like that, the Spirit of God uses the temptations and trials in our lives, to bring something good to flourish...  And steadfastness produces the real growth stuff, makes us "perfect, complete, lacking nothing".  Look around you this morning. Do you see a perfect Christian?  People have misunderstood John Wesley's - and the Bible's - teaching about perfection.  It doesn't mean we never sin. James knew that: See James 3. 2 "We stumble in many ways..."  What in fact "Perfect" means is "fully developed".  It is related to the word for the end of time.   What perfection does mean is that we are fully committed, 100% intent upon living as people who are connected with heaven.  We are kingdom people.  But we do have unfinished parts. We do find ourselves lacking...in lots of areas.  James introduces three themes here that he will come back to later in the booklet. But we need to have a quick look at them now...

1. We lack wisdom... James says more on the nature of wisdom in chapter 3). But for now, just note that wisdom is practical. It's not just about knowing what's in the book but about applying what's in the book. How do I respond in a tricky situation that could pull me out of shape and dismantle part of my witness? I need wisdom. James says if we lack it, we are to ask for it. And God gives unstintingly...
2. Then faith... James warns us that when we ask, we must do so in single-minded faith: no room for doubt. If we even allow ourselves to entertain the possibility of God not answering, how can we expect top receive something from God? This reflects to word of Jesus: Unwavering, undoubting faith can move mountains.  The simple faith of a child who trusts a heavenly father. Yes there are always issues about when to believe God and when to do something; on whether we're just using "faith" to get what we want from God. But James deals with these issues later in the booklet.  (More on faith and works in ch 2; on faith and motives in 4v3; and 5v13ff on the prayer of faith)
3. Then a right view of status... whether rich or poor... And again, that theme of eternity cuts in.  We're all tiny specks in the pig picture of eternity.  James will have a lot more to say about prosperity and attitudes to wealth and the wealthy.  see 2v1ff; 4v13, 5v1ff. He recognised that a lot of the troubles affecting ordinary Christians started with the actions of the rich. But for now he sets he scene by saying to the poor, "Be proud of the fact that God has called you." John Wesley preached in Kingswood, Bristol, a mining area (like Fife!) to a crowd of miners who were the lowest of the low. But these men heard the Gospel with tears running down their faces and sang a hymn that said "On all the kings on earth, with pity I look down" And to the rich "Be proud of the fact that your wealth is nothing in God's eyes. It makes you no bigger and no better than anyone else!"

Thinking and ideas are not what the Christian faith is all about. Faith is intended to transform us and shape us.  Methodist scholar Leslie Mitton says, "Faith is not true faith unless it is the motive power that produces Christian living."  But faith must hold on to the right ideas - about our troubles; about our heavenly father; about wisdom, prayer and perspective.  And as we learn to think right, we will find we do survive; and not only will we survive. We will thrive.
© Gilmour Lilly January 2012

Matthew 4. 12-17 with Mark 1. 15. New Year's Day

The time has come (Mark 1. 15).  "Time" here is the Greek word "Kairos" which means the right time; the moment of opportunity.  It is time for Jesus to launch into his ministry. A bit like today, New year's Day, is a moment of opportunity.  Jesus makes a new start, a new beginning in his work a new stage in Jesus' journey... but what does he bring to this new start? What's in his suitcase?

In the suitcase
He has a historical context.
When John (the baptiser - Jesus' cousin) was put in prison, Jesus began his work.  (Matt 4. 12; cf. Mark 1. 14)   We all have historical context.  We have a world we live in. And try as we may, we cannot go into 2012 without the rest of the world, without the rest of society. We cannot journey in to 2012 without some understanding the effect on us of our life in the world. We cannot journey in to 2012 without some understanding of what our history, our culture; our society is doing, what language it is speaking and what are the pathways of receptivity to the Good News of Jesus.  When John was put in prison, Jesus said "Now's the moment. Now's the time of opportunity.  It didn't look very much like a time of opportunity when Jesus began his mission.  It looked like a bad time to be a challenging preacher announcing the Kingdom of God. So today!  Len Sweet, an American Methodist with a significant ministry in discerning the trends in our society, recently wrote a book called "The Dawn mistaken for Dusk." We need to realise that there's a whole new world out there waiting to hear the Good News.

He has a home town, a family background.

Family gathering for a graduation

 When he stood up to speak in the synagogue in Nazareth (Luke 4. 16),  people must have thought, "He's back..."  But he wasn't back. Not really.   Matt 4. 13 (GNB) Says "he didn't stay in Nazareth. NIV, King James, etc have "leaving Nazareth." The word "leave" can mean, "Sail past"....   He wasn't for going back to his family, and settling down again to the way things had always been. Things could never be the same again.  He had started his work. But the things he had learned, the blessings and challenges of the place, the family, the friends where he had grown up, had helped shape him.  We have a home town, a family background.  That is in your suitcase: it has helped to shape you into what you are today.  So keep that picture in your suitcase. But that doesn't mean the whole family are in the suitcase. It doesn't mean we are going to go back to the good old days with Mum and Dad. It doesn't mean nostalgia. It doesn't mean we can't be healed from the pain, grow on from the wrong things we've learned, and become more like Jesus.

He has a spiritual experience.
Where was Jesus when he heard about John being put in prison?    He was out in the desert. Luke makes the point very clear by telling us about what happened to John earlier so he can take Jesus straight from the desert to Galilee.  Now out in the desert a number of things had happened to Jesus: his "Spiritual experience".
* He had been baptised by John in the Jordan.   (Bottle of water)
* He had heard God's voice and known the Holy Spirit touch his life.  (feather)
* He had spent a lot of time just being alone and thinking and praying.  (notebook/headphones)
* He had been tempted by the Devil (stone)
* He had been helped by angels. (Make and angel kit)
That's quite a rich spiritual experience.  That's why we have a story sack. It's not enough to be a Bible-reading, Bible-believing Christian. We need to be bible-experiencing, Bible-doing Christians. The older I get, the more embarrassed I get about being a Bible-believing Christian. Not because I don't believe the Bible: I do. Not because I'm ashamed of the gospel: I'm not. I love the Bible.  But I am embarrassed about the gap between Bible-believing and Bible-doing.

So what spiritual experience have you in your story sack?
You can't make certain things happen. You can't make angels come and help you. You can't make the Holy Spirit touch you. But you can push him away!
You can't stop certain things from happening. You can't prevent temptation from coming along. But you can learn to resist.
But there are carting things you can do?
* Have you obeyed Jesus' call to follow Jesus being baptised as a believer?
* Do you take time to be alone with God every day? And do you try to have a wee bit longer alone with God from time to time.
It's as we do our bit, by obedience and waiting, that we make it more likely that the angels will turn up, and that the enemy will be defeated in our lives.

Destination: Transformation
To the margins

Detail: Portsoy Old Harbour,
NE Scotland

And so Jesus begins his journey.  He is going to the seaside. He is going to the Northernmost city of Galilee, right on the edge of the river Jordan. Next stop, the foreign, pagan lands. This was Galilee of the gentiles.  It is at the seaside that he is going to collect his first followers: Peter and Andrew, James and John.  Men who speak the Doric. Now when I went to London to study in 1977 I became a celebrity overnight. I had a Scottish accent.  But now I'm back in Scotland I marvel at the serious, hardcore Scottish accent of the guys from the far North-east. The fishermen from Banff and Gardenstown. I heard one of them preach when I was up there on holiday, and it was amazing.  These guys sound more Scottish than the rest of us! One sentence the pastor of the Church said. Londoners would say, "What have I done now?" Fifers might say "Whit huv I done noo, eh?" In Banff they say, "Fit hae a daen noo?"  God calls us to make the journey to the edges, because he cares about the people on the edges. And he calls us to the edges, because it is from the edges that he wants to renew and build his church.

Challenge
From day one Jesus preaches a message that has two parts: a challenge and a promise: The challenge is to "repent".  That means a turn around, a change of mind. It's about you and me being transformed.  At the beginning of 2012 I call us to commitment to being disciples. To being personally, radically transformed by the Kingdom of god, as we turn away, quite deliberately, from our old ways of thinking and yield to God.

Promise
And the Promise is that the kingdom of God is at hand.  For us, that is about transformation in Rosyth.  Jesus never planned for the Church to do evangelism so as to keep the church going. He planned for the Church to engage in God's mission, to proclaim and to demonstrate the Good News, so the Kingdom of God can bring people to new birth, new life, new hope; and so that the fabric of our society can be transformed.

So as we enter into 2012 we do so committed to "Learning to show the father's love." And that means committed to personal transformation; and it means believing God to see our town transformed by the Kingdom.

© Gilmour Lilly January 2012