God's Own Country

Sermon June 17th 2012: Ezekiel 17: 22-24; Mark 4: 26-34

“Blessed are you Lord, God of all creation:

Through your goodness we have this bread to offer,

which earth has given and human hands have made.

It will become for us the bread of life.

Through your goodness we have this wine to offer,

fruit of the vine and work of human hands.

It will become our spiritual drink.”

As a girl those words were imprinted upon my subconscious; they are the introduction to the Liturgy of the Eucharist, as used in the Roman Catholic tradition. They imprinted upon my heart and mind that everything we have, comes from God. Everything we eat, or drink, or read or use is as a result of God and humanity working together: through God’s goodness we have.... (dot dot dot)

And it was second nature to me; I worked with my Dad on the allotment; I have very fond memories of that time – raking, planting, watering, weeding (not so fond!) Now I fully admit my memory is likely rose-tinted. I suspect I moaned, and whined about having to go and help. I suspect I was not so thrilled at the prospect of working on the allotment as I remember it – I must remember to ask Dad if he remembers!!

But, what that time taught me; just as those words of liturgy taught me, is that it is all about cooperation.

Me and Dad
Us and God

We work to prepare the ground
We dig
And we turn it over
And we pull up the weeds and lift out the stones
And we feed it, stamp it, rake it, and prepare it
And we plant the seeds and put in the supports and then we wait.
We do our part and then we wait for nature, for God to do the rest.

The image that Ezekiel shares of the Sovereign Lord growing and planting still works now – millennia later.

He says, “All the trees in the land will know that I am the Lord” not just humanity – but the very trees themselves respond to God
We know, we absolutely know that God is at work in our gardens, and fields, and hills and woodland

How can all that beauty, symmetry, creativity and rich harvest just be an accident?

A collision of molecules that made it all happen by accident?!
Creation by design is far more likely than creation by accident

And Jesus knew that this simple view, this simple understanding was clear and familiar enough that anyone would be able to follow

What better way then, to describe the Kingdom of God, than by comparing it to the growth of a seed? 
I am sure most of you know the parable of the mustard seed. It is one of the stories used in Sunday School bible time in every generation. The tiny mustard seed, the image of the shrub, bush, tree sheltering the birds of the air

But I wonder how many of you will remember the one that precedes it? The man who scattered his seed, and then does nothing – the land, the soil works its magic while he carries on with his tasks of life.

He does not know how it happens
Neither still do we!
Yet we know it happens
As sure as night turns to day
Seed planted will yield its harvest

God’s Kingdom is like the seed

We hear God’s words – in scripture and in prayers, and in songs and hymns.
We hear God’s word preached and shared – and magically, mysteriously, the seed germinates and grows

The seeds of faith grow in us without us realising

Almost without us noticing
And suddenly there is a harvest – God’s word come to life for us
It may be a fast grower
Or a slow steady grower
It may yield fruit in a short while, or a whoel lifetime
But once planted, the seed is there
Once planted into God’s Own Country there will always be a harvest
The harvest of our hearts and souls
There may be seasons of drought
And seasons when crops fail, and the outlook seems bleak
But! And here’s the wondrous and amazing truth of God’s grace: the seed will wait for the right moment:
There is a story of an archaeological dig in an old monastery; as the lifted the rubble, and removed the turf something amazing happened – plants began to appear
There had been a herb garden there; long buried and forgotten for over 400 years.
Yet, once disturbed, once light was given the seeds, dormant all those centuries remembered
And in remembering they came back to life!!

God’s word his seed is in our hearts

If you feel barren, or empty, let in a little light
And let the seeds grow!
Our hearts our God’s own country
His word the seed
Our lives his season
And we are blessed
Amen

Perspective is Everything

2 Corinthians 4:13 - 5:1; Mark 3: 20-35
Around 15 years ago, when I was a youth worker, there was no social networking; no twitter; hardly any mobiles and much of our networking happened via instant messenger... a medium that now rarely gets used.

However, at that time (in the dial up days too!) when ‘online’ we would all be logged in to messenger and often some very interesting and deep discussions would happen as a result.

One of the most frequent bible questions I was asked centred on the gospel reading today: Mark 3:29, “whoever says evil things against the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven”.  The underlying fear was always, “have I committed the unforgiveable sin without realising it”?

The very first thing I would tell them was – context! Context! Context!  – don’t take verses out of context, because if you do, you lose their relevance and meaning. This is one sentence in a longer discussion with the Pharisees who have just accused Jesus of colluding with the Devil. Of using evil to do good... as if that were possible in the first place!  

Those who follow Jesus’ teaching; walk in his ways and honour him as Lord; acknowledge him as God cannot commit the unforgiveable. You could not do this by accident; you cannot as a Christian commit an eternal sin – so relax!!

So, that put to rest let’s look at the rest of this passage and the way it is constructed. The passage has three particular groups identified, although there are actually four groups here: the crowd, the family, the Pharisees, or teachers of the law and the twelve disciples just appointed to be his special apostles.

The central part with the discourse between Jesus and the Pharisees is bracketed by the other two groups: first the gathering crowds and secondly his family.

The crowds are gathering, growing and as a result, restricting movement. 

Jesus has returned home, so his family are around.

They maybe thought he’d finished his travelling nonsense and was coming back to take up his responsibility again as the oldest son and head of the family. Into that scene they come; the crowds are huge, clamouring to hear more from him, waiting to see the next marvel, hear the next wise word – but to the family, this is just Jesus and they cannot understand, so they assume he’s going mad!!

During the conversation about evil, and the misuse of power, and infighting and spiritual blindness, the family continue to fight their way through the crowds to try to get to Jesus.

Their Jesus: son, brother, cousin, carpenter, and head of the family.

I wonder, as Jesus used his illustration of a family turning against itself, did he realise the irony, the poignancy of what he was saying? I wonder, if he suddenly realised this was the end of something and the start of something else all together? Did he know that his close family were approaching?

In every conversation that is recorded within the gospels it is important to remember that there are layers... at this time there was rarely a truly private conversation – especially when the subject of scripture or understanding how to live within God’s law was concerned.

Each conversation was first addressed to the questioner or main subject; it was addressed to the apostles who would later be given deeper understanding and further teaching, it was also directed to those onlookers who witnessed each encounter and watched, reflected, absorbed and learned from it.

And it was addressed the those on the periphery who only heard snatches, or heard the words passed on, interpreted, adjusted perhaps, misheard maybe, even distorted – not intentionally you understand, but simply through the action of sound, and voice and nature and humanity.

Jesus knew that his main accusations were addressed to these teachers of the law who had travelled especially from the city to hear for themselves this new teacher – to establish if he was safe or dangerous; to see if he conformed to their way of looking or if he was introducing some sort of subversion. He knew that they would never understand what seemed to be a threat to the establishment; a threat to their power and autonomy.

He called them over and spoke to them directly, in order that they would see, would understand what his mission was... that this is only the start of things;

 He spoke and used illustrations so that everyone would have a chance to see, to know, to understand

Everyone will have the chance to hear and to understand and to accept Jesus and his teaching

Everyone will have the chance – but not everyone will take it
Not everyone will respond
Paul understood this more than most; he had stood where the Pharisees were; he had been one of them.

He had initially rejected Jesus, turned away

But, when faced with the truth of Jesus – there was one fundamental difference – he turned back.
As he wrote to his fledgling churches; churches who struggled to move and change and respond, he was able to write with authority – faith allows us to believe; believe what God has done through Jesus;
believe and do not be discouraged.
Grace is everything.
Life is temporary.
Keep your perspective – whatever you go through now is only passing – believe and know God has a place for you.
Believe and know
God is eternal and will provide all our needs
Remember how Jesus taught?
He spoke and used illustrations so that everyone would have a chance to see, to know, to understand
Everyone will have the chance to hear and to understand and to accept Jesus and his teaching
Everyone will have a choice – not everyone will choose to believe

Just rejecting Jesus is not the eternal sin:

Paul did that; so did Jesus’ brothers, his mother, his family
Yet, ultimately they came round

Ultimately they saw Jesus for who he really was and accepted him

But not immediately – not right now at the start of his mission

Instead they sought to bring him home; to bring him to his senses; and so, at that moment Jesus turns them away

It must have taken many people by surprise when Jesus gave up the family business and became a man with a mission determined to preach the Good News of God’s Kingdom. It seems that even his mother had forgotten the words spoken by the angel - that her child would be great and called the Son of the Most High.

This change in attitude - the single-mindedness with which Jesus had accepted the challenge - and the fact that it seemed to be overwhelming his life were for the family a legitimate cause for concern.

Sometimes we forget that Jesus was not universally welcomed or accepted in his own day - that he puzzled people - made them uncomfortable - caused those closest to him grave concern: was he ill? Where would all this lead?

Jesus continues to confound our expectations.

We are perhaps so familiar with his words and actions that we risk losing the challenge they might be holding for us. It took courage and strength – total single-mindedness to turn his back on his family

Suppose the same single-mindedness was to be asked of us?

Suppose we were called to proclaim the Kingdom with real earnestness and commitment?
Suppose we were driven to live our lives wholly for God?
Or suppose this was asked of someone close to us, someone we love?
We may find ourselves uncomfortable at the prospect - what would happen to our jobs or families? What would people think?

Such single-minded commitment does not necessarily mean leaving all that behind. It may, though, indicate a way to live our lives - seeing all we say and do as having the potential to build the Kingdom - even when that attitude to life causes consternation among those around us.

Different group listened to Jesus’ teaching, listened to his challenge:

The crowd
The teachers
The apostles
The family

Some responded immediately

Some responded eventually
Some never responded, and instead chose to reject him; to despise him and ultimately to destroy him – or so they thought!

Jesus looks straight into our hearts, our minds, our souls

Jesus looks, and asks: who is my brother? Who is my sister?
Is it you?
Can you rise to the challenge – do what God wants – live the life?

Don’t assume it’s all bad – keep your perspective – we are after all, Kingdom People!

Jubilee Sermon

Faithful Servant
Joshua 1: 1-9
Luke 22: 24-30

In life there are some constants; we live in Britain and therefore we have weather. We have lots of weather and it will always give us something to talk about – wet, or cold, or hot, or dry, or thundery, or frosty, or misty or plain dreich: whatever, the weather is our conversation saver

We have other constants too: our unending hope that we will one day win a major international football game; the hope that this is the year that Andy Murray will win Wimbledon; and I’m sure many other sporting hopes too – some even realised!
There is something else that has been a constant in my life: our monarch.
Now, I know that some of you will remember George VI being on the throne, and his brother, and his father before him.
But for me, and my generation, and everyone born since 1952 there has only been one Monarch – we are Elizabethans – for us the crown of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Commonwealth has always been worn by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
Today is the day we celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the Queen’s reign. Sixty years doing anything is always something to be applauded and honoured.
Sixty years of constancy: we celebrate Diamond Anniversaries because they are a remarkable achievement
In a society where it can seem that life itself has become disposable we are amazed and awed that any relationship can last for so long. And being a faithful monarch is all about the Queen’s relationship with her people.
Our bible readings today reflect what is needed to sustain such constancy: for Joshua as he took over the leadership from Moses; for the disciples as Jesus tried to make them understand that none of them was any better than the other; in each case certain attributes were emphasised as being the most important; these attributes are possibly seen as old fashioned today: loyalty, respect, humility, obedience, and faith.
Above all else: faith.
You may remember the Queen’s Christmas address last December? In it she wore her faith on her sleeve: she is under no illusion: it is her faith that has kept her strong over the decades. Her faith that has enabled her to get through national and personal crises; her faith that has enabled her to carry on in spite of great personal tragedy and loss and disappointment  
She understands, she remembers and she believes in that promise given to Joshua as he took over the mantle of leadership from Moses: “Do not be afraid or discouraged for I, the Lord your God am with you wherever you go” and she too understands what Jesus meant when he told his disciples to stop arguing about who is greater or better than the other: for it doesn’t matter: “This is not the way it is with you; rather, the greatest among you must be like the youngest, and the leader like a servant.”
The young Princess Elizabeth promised to serve her country faithfully; she promised it again when she became Queen; and she reaffirmed that promise again this year.
She, who at 87 could be justified in taking a back seat; in easing back a little, continues to serve her people, to remain faithful to God and to fulfil her duties with enthusiasm and professionalism
There are some people who think the Monarch is a waste of money; but for me, our Queen is our greatest ambassador; she is a shining example of a woman of faith.

And I am proud to be an Elizabethan