Death or the Promised Land - Sermon

23 Oct 2011

Deut 34:1-12

Do you have a friend that is brave enough to say it how it is. I’m weird, but I love having friends like that, they make me mad, they stir up defensiveness in me & then I see they are right & the door is open to change.

After I’d been stuck in bed for about 8 months with a back injury I at last realised I had to give up being a control freak. 

It felt like I was dying.

Jan 1^st 2003. I cried the whole day. I spent the day dying. A friend called and said she had been thinking & praying for me all day and felt I was in a bad state. I said I feel like I’m dying. Her response…

“Thank God, it’s about time!”

That’s a good friend!

I began learning that God loves me, accepts me and approves of me whether or not I work hard, get it all right or do absolutely nothing

(Slide: If you never do another thing in your life God will still love you!)

This was a hard thing for me to begin to grasp. As a workaholic & one who desperately wanted approval it was painful to see that all the striving, the building, all the struggling, all the taking on all the responsibilities was no more than building houses of cards.

(Slide of house of cards)

Letting go is not easy. It really felt like I was dying. Now I see I was entering the gestation period of being born into the 2^nd half of life.

Richard Rohr talks of the 2 halves of life, this is not a new concept, psychologists have considered the idea for a long time. The difference is RR puts it in context of our spiritual life. He talks about how in our first half we strive, we build, we chase after many things, we fight the external and we fight our own inner demons, the thoughts and things that would keep us bound. He observes that in our western society there are few that actually get to the second half of life, most people stay stuck in 1^st half mentality. I find that sad, but on reflection I have to agree with him.

This story we’ve been following about Moses and the people of God seems to me to have a correlation. Their building had been for someone else, they leave Egypt, fighting off the internal & external things that would bind them. They go round & round in the wilderness trying to get hold of a new identity. Definitely first half of life stuff.  Then today we read of the moment before coming out of the wilderness and entering the promised land. The place where the wandering finishes and a setting up home in the new place is about to happen.

Dare I draw a similarity between us and this moment in the story?

Here we are with one more Sunday before we move to a new location. One more week of wandering, setting up and tearing down every week. One more week of dreaming what it will be like to have class rooms and nursery for our children to call home. One more week before we worship on a flat surface so people don’t have to come down stairs to the Lord’s table.

At this time we don’t know if KRC will be permanent or just a foretaste of our Promised Land and a time of rest before moving on again. Like the people in the story we have to take it one day at a time. What we do know is like Moses we sent out our spies and have good reports and we are about to go where we believe God is leading.

This story of the exodus, the wilderness and promised land are well known for being pictures of the redemption story. 

But for I also see two interacting sides, one is being a person who lives in God’s presence and the other is being community, a group living together and following God on a journey to somewhere we’ve never been before. What makes us begin such a journey where we leave the familiar, the stable even if uncomfortable normal for the unknown, the hope of something we are unsure if it even exists?

I think the Lectio that Lesie did from Thessalonians gives a clue.

 “It is clear God loves you and has something special for you.”

We get a glimpse of the something more; we risk believing God loves us and has something for us.

So when I found the passage for today was Moses death I had a wow moment.

I’ve always loved the story of Moses, here’s this kid born to great things and yet he screws up so many times, he’s so human, he looses it with people; he shouts at God and wants to dump the people God has given him to live with. But God just keeps on loving him, keeps on leading him; keeps on being his friend.

That’s another thing I love about the story of Moses and the people, in it we see a picture of God loving people and having something special for them, providing for them in the most amazing and downright miraculous ways. Here we see God being with people in tangible ways.

Yet I can’t escape this odd ending to Moses life. 

Here at the end we see Moses, the man who worshiped & served God wholeheartedly, the man we are told was the greatest prophet, the man God chose for maybe the hardest job in the world was now hearing God say “you can look but you will not enter”

Can you imagine what it must have been like? 

Moses has worked hard, he’s put up with the renegade, rebellious, complaining, downright stupid at times people of God and now on the eve of entering the promised land, God says

“Look here it is, I’m showing you what it looks like – oh but I’m not letting you go there!”

I don’t know, but wouldn’t that make you mad? 

I was talking to a friend about this the other day and she said, if she was Moses she would wonder what was it all for.  I think I understand that question, it’s like asking was God just using & abusing? Shouldn’t Moses get some reward or benefit for all the hard work?

I mean can you imagine if you worked for a company and you had personally taken them from being a 2 bit raggle-taggle small town corner business to becoming a large organised company which is leader of its field and you are about to move into the purpose built, fantastic new premises where all employees are going to get a beautiful office, a company car, a deluxe house and have the best benefit package around and the boss takes you and shows it all to you and then says by the way you are fired.

It can seem to make no sense to us. 

                           But we live in a culture that is about success, it’s about having it all. 

                                      We hang on tightly to things. 

                         Not just the physical material things like houses

                         but things like position and status, money and reputation, control.

What I see is that Moses wasn’t like that. 

Well at least not by the time God finished with him.

Just as well, because here is Moses, having taken on the job, fulfilled it, got the people to the border of the promised land and God’s saying you aren’t going in.

Does he rage? No.

Does he stomp his feet screaming that’s not fair? No.

Does he go away sulking? No.

Does he breathe a sigh of relief & say thank goodness I’m done with this crazy bunch? No.

We don’t actually know what his reaction was. 

I find that odd because though out the story we have had snippets of his reactions & he was a pretty expressive guy. He told God and the people what he thought, smashed the tablets, dug his heels in & said to God if you aren’t going then nor am I.

But here, in a moment that would cause most of us great turmoil we don’t hear him say a word. 

All we know is he died and God buried him. I actually find that interesting, no one knows where. My questioning mind asks I wonder if he was like Enoch and never actually died, but just continued with God. I know that’s just a speculation question. But the reason I mention it is that because Moses had been living in God’s tangible presence, maybe in a way he was already in a different promised land?

Moses had entered a time of life where he held everything lightly. 

He wasn’t striving or trying to control. 

His focus was God’s presence. 

He saw tasks only as part of the bigger whole not something that built his self esteem. 

He saw position as merely a passing state, possessions had long ago been replaced with God’s presence.

His reputation depended on God not his efforts. 

He’d spent 40 years wandering, no home and with nothing that looks like security. 

Even though he was leading the people there is a sense that he was not doing but being. 

That is he was being who God created him to be, 

not doing a job to make a living, buy a bigger house, earn God’s approval or the peoples accolade.

I have a feeling that is what God wants for each of us. 

He desires that we will get to that place where activity comes from a deep inner well of being and not from striving. 

A place where self worth comes from knowing who you are in God’s sight not from power, status, position, money, possessions or reputation.

It is learning as Ronald Rollheiser says, to live beyond our fears.

It seems Moses had found out how to live in what Ignatius called indifference,

that place where no matter what is going on around you, what changes and challenges you face, how you spend your time, and no matter where you live, where you go, where you worship, it’s all ok because you are at peace, filled with confidence in God, knowing all will be well.

This is not apathy or disconnectedness but living both in and beyond. 

It is both following God’s lead and leading the way to change.

Jesus has called us to that place, that Kingdom way of life. He has opened the door for us through his death and resurrection and beckons us to join him. 

As we come to the table this morning let us lay down our strivings, our fears, and come together in celebrating God’s presence with us, his leading us, his providing for us and be open to the new beginnings he has planned for us. 

Communication or Misunderstanding

Yesterday toward the end of the church service I was overwhelmed by God and began jumping around a little. I got up to give the blessing but let myself begin by expounding on how excited I get by God. Terry, the lead pastor gave me a circular hand signal while I was speaking.


Confusion
That's what hit me. I was not sure what he was communicating.
                    
 Cultural interpretations
I've lived in the UK for 40 years so I interpreted  the hand signal as "wind it up". I thought he must be concerned about time.
So I said oh, Terry's giving me the signal to wind up & went on to the blessing.
Cultural differences
When I went back to my seat he told me what he had been conveying was

Keep going! Take us further.

He said he would never try to stop me from such expressions!


Later over lunch I was with friends, we are a mixed bunch from Canada, America and New Zealand.
My friend from New Zealand said he too would have interpreted the hand signal as 
                    time to stop


This served as a very visual and timely reminder that  we often feel we are communicating, but so often there is a difference between what one person says and the other person hears.

Self Care

I am always saddened by how hard it is to take care of myself.

Yet when I listen to my friends I find the same is true for them. I have many ideas why this is so, but understanding them, deliberating on the reasons does not actually change my behaviour.

What is needed is action.

My friend and co pastor Leslie became a vegan a while back. I am so impressed by her journey. (see her blog)

I was a vegan for many years, then drifted off. I returned to being a vegan 2 or 3 years ago for a few months, I lost weight & felt amazing. Then I drifted off again.

Then I had a heart attack

I returned to my vegan lifestyle, I lost 24 lbs, had the cardiologist confirm my returned health.

Then I finished my sessions with Cardiac Wellness

and drifted off.....

Action is needed.

So as scary as it is to put this out there for anyone to see, maybe I need some accountability.

So today

Monday 24 Oct. 2011

I am beginning my journey

    Back to being a vegan

             Back to exercise most days

                  Back to intentional self care

Be gentle with me but please support me in this, encourage me.

I seem to need all the help I can get.

A consideration or communication

The First Idea
A friend said something to me the other day about blogging. He said breaking up the text with headers adds interest. Aha! - duly noted - see above and below.
The Next Idea 
He said something about not writing too much.

   Problem.....

I don't think I heard him right. It seemed to hit into an old bit of baggage : 

 "You talk too much" 

                       which translates into 

"No-one cares what you think"

Now I know this is not what this friend meant.

Isn't it strange how we misinterpret stuff, even when we know that is not what the other person intended

Random thoughts on generations....

I think a lot! Some times I start with the same thought & it takes me one direction and another time I go in a different direction, sometimes I go round in circles.
When I'm thinking my ideas flow quicker than my grammar and good sentence construction; so what you get is what's on my mind not something that would pass an English exam. It's also a flow so sometimes it goes in crooked paths or leaves out  other things which have informed me but as you don't know what they are I may seem pretty scattered, inconsistent or random.  Just warning you....
So I woke this morning thinking about how many people  in the west, especially of my generation and before have struggled with ambiguity. We have wanted facts, cut and dried; black and white; true or false; right or wrong; good or bad. We have loved dualisms, we have made dichotomy our measuring stick.  The post-modern generation deal with ambiguity a bit better, they see there is more than two sides, but sometimes it leads to non acceptance of anything they don't like. I find myself firmly planted with a foot in each camp. My age means I grew up in the flux between modernity and post-modernity. I love this. I feel like I got the best of both. I got to be a child and a teenager in the sixties. The previous binding restrictions were shattered. Of course the problem was some of us drifted around like little sail-less, anchor-less boats out on a rough sea. We loved the freedom but could sometimes put into any port in a storm.
I am sad that science had a period of falling into the dichotomy I just spoke of. Science is amazing, it is curious. It asks How? Why? When? Which? etc. When it was least beneficial it thought everything could be measured, explained, treated empirically. This of course meant anything outside of that was invalid, not real or hocus-pocus. It had no way to hold ambiguity, randomness, immeasurable unless it could label it i.e. 'variable'. I am glad that so many scientists are expanding their horizons, returning to curiosity. The problem is too often they are not the ones who get funding, are not the ones who get their work published or who influence the places that hold the money.
I see a similar pattern in religion; well Christianity in particular, but I suspect it is true in many religions. I don't know enough about other religions to say for sure. My foray into other religions and forms of expressing my innate spirituality were Buddhism and new age. They both have a lot to offer when it comes to being able to hold ambiguity. Christianity on the other hand started with a Jewish guy called Jesus. He was born in the flux too. He was the best model of a human holding up ambiguity as a positive thing. He could see the not only but also; the now and not yet. He was the most radical person that ever lived! The problem was a lot of his followers over the centuries have wandered off his way, forsaken or forgotten how radical he was and fallen for the false security of thinking they knew all the answers, could explain everything and put their idea God into some box they constructed. Don't think I'm a pot calling the kettle black here - I count myself in there. But I'm on the road to recovery. I am starting to be OK with my unknowing, I am growing in appreciation of how others see things even when at first it appears opposite to how I see. I am learning I don't have to fix everything, everyone. I am beginning to see that what I thought was chaos is sometimes just a different order. What I thought was a negative, painful hard experience is actually what I needed to grow to be healed to find some softness. I am learning that I don't have to understand everything, explain everything; of course I still try to because that is part of me. I am in some senses a scientist; I am curious. But in other ways I am more a social scientist loving the diversity of people, loving the variations in cultures, the abundance in expressions of community, spirituality, love, art, and any human quality; which to me are all expressions of who God made us.
I love that our society is multi-generational; each bringing wisdom, each bringing questions, each having experiences. I love that if these wisdoms and experiences are heard they can help the hearer. For me my biggest problem is with those who see people in therms of "them and us", creating separation, hostility and inequality, for they do not appreciate the wisdom or experience of the other. Again I have been there. It was killing me and damaging to others; it was a dark, cold place with little hope other that getting people to "join us".  When we begin to see that the real us is every human being, the place we live is open, light and spacious.
My prayer is that we will begin to see that every human being is made in God's image - unique, beautiful, diverse, creative, being innately a spiritual being with untapped wisdom, vision and potential; which if we love and accept one another can be released to the benefit of all creation. Can you imagine what an amazing life  we would create if we truly cared for each other, for our environment, our planet, our universe. That is part of what we were created to be. Love, care, create, steward the earth and all creation and all that is in it and in doing so be blessed, be loved, be cared for.

Why do you doubt? - Sermon

Why do you doubt? 

10 April 2011

This story of Peter walking on water reminds me of the first time I went skiing.  I was very excited. I was also a bit apprehensive.  The thought of hurtling at great speed down the side of a mountain – aghh; scary! Yet something in me wanted to try.

So there I was in my early 50’s on the nursery slopes for the first time.  I was pumped, maybe I was a natural! I glided slowly and smoothly down the gentle slope and came to an almost graceful stop.  Fantastic! My daughter, the ski-fiend was so happy & encouraging; so I slogged my way back up to the top and set off again.  This time I began to pick up just a little speed. Terror struck! How would I stop? What if I hit one of the little kids on the slope with me! What if I hit the red net fence? What if I broke something? What if I broke me! I tried to slow down but didn’t; so I fell over just to stop.

That was it every time I tried to ski that day I ended up falling over. My confidence had gone. My daughter lost patience and went to do some real skiing & I was left with a sense of complete failure and very sore ankles. I admit I have never had the nerve to try again.  But there is this spark inside me that wants to ski; I’ll never be a downhill racer, but I’d like to get out on the slopes and feel the wind in my face from a bit of speed and come to an elegant stop at the end!

Like Peter I took my focus off the goal. For me the goal had been to just have fun learning how to ski but I started to focus on the possible crash & fall. For him it was to get to Jesus; but he started to focus on the wind and waves and began to sink. 

I doubted I could stop, even though I had just successfully stopped. Peter probably doubted the water could hold him up as it churned beneath his feet, even though he had not sunk thus far.

When I first read this story some years ago I was surprised that Jesus asked “Why do you doubt?” For me the answer would be “Why wouldn’t you doubt?” Doubt & fear seem the most rational response given the circumstances.

Walking on water is not what we think of as normal; so to step outside the boat seems irrational; crazy or even downright stupid.

Let’s face it if you are on a small fishing boat with no engine & there’s a whopping great storm going on around you why would you even consider getting out & walking to the ghostly figure bobbing up and down, in & then out of sight. Why risk this whole impossible idea of walking on water. 

Yet Jesus asks “Why do you doubt?”

I wonder how do we hear that question? Do we hear it as judgement?  “Shame on you for doubting.”

Or do we hear concern and encouragement in Jesus words; “Just keep on trusting so you won’t sink”

How do you hear the question “Why do you doubt?”

(Pause)

What is doubt?

The Oxford English dictionary says it is ‘feeling uncertainty or feeling uncertain about something’; it can also mean ‘to disbelieve or mistrust someone’.

I see nothing in this story that says Peter did not believe Jesus or that he mistrusted him – in fact when he began to sink he called to Jesus to save him.  So it seems to me that his doubt was found in feeling uncertain that he could continue walking on water once he considered how precarious the waves and wind were.

What about us?

Maybe the real question for us is do we have doubts like Peter?

Have you ever set out believing Jesus is just in front of you and find once you’ve left the safety of the boat you wonder why you ever started?

I know I have:

Some people may think those who are pastor types are giants of faith and don’t struggle with doubt. 

I have to tell you that is not true of me. Before I started seminary I was sure of what I believed; sure of how the Christian walk should be lived. I had everything in neat little boxes, labelled & stacked.

The trouble was, the more I learn, the more I find I don’t know. How did I think I could be called as a pastor if I couldn’t give sure answers; tell people how to live; be sure that God wanted us to live the way I had previously been told. I doubted my call, I doubted everything I was told; I doubted that God was happy with me or anyone. Dark night of the soul stuff! Talk about a sinking feeling!

(pause)

He has given me no quick-fix answers. Rather I have been on a journey since that has been filled with doubts, questions, reassessing. I have begun to think that rather than doubt being the antithesis to faith; perhaps it is the launching pad.

Maybe this is partly what the story is about.

Perhaps those of us who follow or even have a feint desire to follow God have to face doubts about God and about ourselves. Even though it is those doubts that can stop us in our tracks and make us feel like we are sinking, perhaps it is these very doubts that stir us to refocus on Jesus.

I wonder, are there people who just know they have doubts but just live with them or ignore them and get on with life? Sometimes I think I’d like to be like that!

But I’m not. I often doubt that I am capable or able to keep going; after all shouldn’t I as a Christian be able to bear up under the heavy burdens of life? Shouldn’t I just trust God will make everything alright? Shouldn’t I smile and get on with life, undiscouraged by illness, family and work commitments or dissentions? Shouldn’t I be able to cope with those who drain the life out of me and be the one who encourages and supports them unceasingly and ungrudgingly?

Sometimes when we think about all the should’s and shouldn’t’s following Jesus feels like we are being asked to walk on water. The Christian life if it is filled with lists of acceptable & not acceptable thoughts & behaviours can look so unnatural; so impossible.

One thing a heart attack does is make you re-evaluate. I am asking, are our internal lists of shoulds & shouldn’ts really nothing more than unrealistic expectations? Are they not what cause me to doubt who I am and who God is. Do my lists reflect what I think God’s expectations are of me?

(pause)

I am encouraged by this passage, for what I see here is not Jesus saying; if you want to follow me get out of the boat & walk on water. No what he tells them is “don’t be afraid, it’s me; I am here.”  

Jesus does not tell the disciples who stayed in the boat “oh you of little faith. Why did you doubt?”   He didn’t say hey guys; come join me out here, walking on water is your next test! That gives me hope.  Jesus doesn’t force us to do anything we are not ready & willing to try; nor does he give us a hard time when we have honest doubts; honest fears.

 However, Peter got out of the boat. Why would he do that?

Peter, gets excited, throws caution and rational thinking to the wind when he hears it is Jesus. Then he says; “if it’s you tell me to come”  and Jesus says “Come”

Peter in his usual impetuous way says I want to do that too. I want to be out there with Jesus. Peter is not thinking with his head; he is responding with his heart. He knows as a fisherman who has been around water all his life that walking on water is not natural. But, his faith was pumped. He knows that if Jesus says do it then he will be able to.

Aren’t we like that?  If we really know that God has said do something; we know he will make it possible.

The problem is we don’t always know if it is God that has told us.  This is especially true if those we trust and care for those who tell us we can’t, or we shouldn’t, or that God would not tell us to do such a stupid thing.

I felt called to ministry when I was 16, but the church told me God didn’t call women to ministry.  So I doubted that I heard God. Over the years he kept telling me; but I kept doubting that it was even possible.  Finally I started believing and I started to see if this really was God he would make it possible.  Never once did he give me a hard time for doubting; rather he just kept showing me “I am here with you” Eventually in 2005 I made the decision to move to Calgary & come to bible college. I was stepping out of my boat. At that time, while in prayer he told me get ready to walk on water.

I did not know what that meant, except that he was going to ask me to do things I otherwise knew to be impossible.

I think that’s the point of the story it’s to encourage us to take risks; to risk failing and looking stupid; to risk doing that which others cower from; to risk believing Jesus says come. Maybe it shows us if we will get out of the boat, even if it looks like we are about to drown, Jesus is there to pull us up to safety.

And maybe that’s the real purpose of our doubts and the storms of life; to remind us to call out to Jesus; to get us to change our focus, to move us to a place where we start believing. Maybe faith cannot be built without honestly feeling and expressing our doubts to God and one another. 

In this story, when Peter began to sink; Jesus’ words were not condemning, he merely recognises that Peter had become faint-hearted and His question is to let Peter recognise that doubt & circumstance became the focus. The Message encompasses this perfectly:

(2 Slides)    Jumping out of the boat, Peter walked on the water to Jesus. But when he looked down at the waves churning beneath his feet, he lost his nerve and started to sink. He cried, "Master, save me!"

 Jesus didn't hesitate. He reached down and grabbed his hand. Then he said, "Faint-heart, what got into you?"

The two of them climbed into the boat, and the wind died down.

Whether you are in the place of honestly doubting and having honest fears or whether you have stepped out of the boat and are now feeling like you are going under, there is no condemnation, only Jesus assurance:

Don’t be afraid, I am here.

The bread and the cup that we are about to share are tangible reminders of this.

He is here with us now,

He is with us in our doubts,

He is with us in our fears and struggles

and he is with us as we step out of the boat risking a walk on water.

What's Love Got to do with It? - Sermon

What’s Love got to do with it?

4 Sept 2011

Romans 13:8-14

I love the things people say; they make me think, make me ask questions.

A friend was telling me that they used to belong to a church that did regular alter calls, and they always felt they wanted to respond because what was promised sounded so good; and then they think “hang on I already did that….”

The implication of course was that having responded, the reality of life after the response, after the honeymoon period was not as good as it sounded at the time of the alter call.

This is very sad because it seems to me that the reality should be better than what is imagined or even expected

Expectations are funny things, sometimes our expectations of ourselves or others, including God, are not very realistic and then life is certainly disappointing.

At other times our expectations are based on what we think others want or need from us or false hopes given by someone else, and sometimes they are based on our inner voice which ultimately comes from our own hopes, dreams or values.

Sometimes our expectations are considered normal for our culture and society and yet we find for us they are not fulfilled. For example what if you expected to be married, but you are not, be healthy but you are not, be financially well off but are not. Such unfulfilled expectations can be very painful.

Yet despite having unfulfilled expectations we need expectations; they fuel our motivations, they give us hope, they provide life experiences without which we would be very shallow shadows of who we are now.

In our Romans reading, God seems to have expectations of us; that we will love others, that we will not act in the ways of the prevailing culture. Don't sleep with another person's spouse, don't take someone's life, don't take what isn't yours, don't always be wanting what you don't have, don’t squander life in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. 

The problem is if we turn these expectations into rigid rule following is it makes people miserable and is enough to put most people off us, God and Christians in general.

Surely loving God and others, living God’s way should bring joy and peace and good relationships.

So when I looked at this reading, I kept coming back to the idea of love, loving God and loving others as we love ourselves; I could see that if you really love God then you wouldn’t want to do something that upset him. This seems a good enough reason in itself yet I knew there was something a little dysfunctional in this.  I knew that children who were always good so they didn’t upset their parents were very unhappy and fearful. Their good behaviour was not really because of love, but because of fear and I knew God doesn’t want us to live in fear.

God is quite amazing He has a way of sneaking up behind us and putting something under our noses and then as we go round saying I can smell something but don’t see it he stops us and points it out, not always in the most comfortable way. He did this with me. 

I remembered that some years back I kept meeting people who did not love themselves; that is they did not honour or respect themselves. Like me they had been told to love yourself was somehow selfish, self centred and of course very unchristian as we should think of others rather than ourselves.

What I began to see in others and in myself was that because we do not love ourselves we are not very good at really loving anyone else including God and it makes it hard to recognise that we are loved fully by others or by God.

What I began to discover was that because we don’t love ourselves we get into situations where we feel disrespected or unappreciated or used.

A couple of weeks ago I used one Julian of Norwich revelations where God showed her that

 “God judges us by our true inner nature, which is always kept whole in him; safe and sound. And this judgement comes from his rightfulness, whereas we judge by the outward changeable nature… In His judgement I saw Him assign no whit of blame to us.”

We judge ourselves by this changeable nature; which means we do not love ourselves. This false changeable nature either clamours for attention and stuff, anything to make us feel better or makes us feel guilty at taking care of ourselves.

I have begun to wonder if we truly love ourselves, would we be able to hold our expectation for our lives more lightly so that when they are not fulfilled it would not cause us such angst, pain and bitterness.  In loving ourselves would we be able to see that having these expectations met or unmet does not change the true quality of our lives, because our lives are not dependant on them. I don’t have an answer, …. Yet. 

But I do think I am on to something, because as I read about those who hold all things lightly, they seem able to be truly present in the moment and truly loving to themselves and others.

When at last it dawned on me that God loves me and every human being no matter what and that my not loving myself was disrespectful to Him as He had created me I finally saw that holiness, that is living God’s way and life itself is indeed about love. It is about loving myself so I can love God & others; so I can naturally do the right thing, not from fear or obligation or rule following, but from true love.

Paul puts it so well in Romans as Peterson translates it

“The law code——finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself.”

Do you see that Love others as you love yourself.

Hmm, so if I don’t love myself very well, it must surely follow that I don’t love others very well

Hmm

We have become very confused about what loving ourselves looks like; our media and tv shows give us, lust, self centeredness, self obsession and putting our wants above others as examples.

But this is not what loving our-self should look like.

Because we are made in God’s image we are naturally drawn to loving others and to love one another unconditionally. We do this to the best of our ability; so some do it better than others.

Because we are made in God’s image we are also drawn to love ourselves. This might seem strange but Jesus said if a kingdom or a house is divided against itself it cannot stand; the same principle applies to us. If we do not love ourselves we can’t remain whole.

The problem we face is we have forgotten we are made in God’s image, we are often confused by what that means; as our media shows we have become confused as to how to love others, how to love ourselves fully in healthy ways.

We end up going to unhealthy extremes; perverting what should be good into selfish obsession and narcissism. We expect another frail human to meet all our needs rather than seeing the only true healing is in God’s restorative love. It is in Christ’s death and through His resurrection that we can be restored to our true full loving humanity.

Godly love of our self is about taking care of ourselves, physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally. It’s about respecting and honouring our needs, desires and rational preferences, not so we become self obsessed but so we are able to be truly ourselves.

Godly love for ourselves is recognising God created us in His image, and in loving ourselves we also love Him and His amazing work of creation.

From this place of loving ourselves we can more fully love others. We can also accept and cherish the love shown and given to us by God and others.  

If we don’t love ourselves we can end up chasing after love, where we fall in love and then out of love, because we can rarely see that someone else loves us and we struggle with loving them.  If we don’t love ourselves we can end up chasing status, money, possessions – anything that will make us feel better for a minute.

The bare truth is that we cannot truly love others well if we do not know how to love ourself.  Let’s face it, if you love yourself you are not going to sleep around, get drunk, kill someone, steal, quarrel or be jealous. It is when we don’t honour and respect ourselves that we do these things and in doing those things we show we are unable to love others because we do not honour or respect them either.

If we love ourselves we won’t get so caught up in daily business that we wear our selves out and become oblivious to God. If we love ourselves we won’t get so caught up in making a living we don’t have time to live, so busy we don’t have time to spend with those we love.

Loving ourselves opens our hearts to allowing God’s love to flow in our lives, opens us to knowing how to love others, to being able to be loved by others. Such love gives us lives that are filled with joy and peace rather than regret for our actions and unfulfilled expectations.

Please take a moment and honestly ask your self

Do I love myself?

Do I know how to love myself?

PAUSE

Today as we come to the table and partake of the bread and juice, the body and blood of Jesus our Messiah, remembering that God showed his immense love for us through the gift of His Son and that Jesus showed His uncompromising love for us in His death and resurrection let us allow Holy Spirit to show us how to love ourselves and how we may in turn love others fully.

Living Stones - Transformed by Mercy - Sermon

Living Stones - Transformed by Mercy

22 May 2011

I’ve been thinking about the last few weeks we have had here at Trinity.

The conversation with parents about our children’s ministry and the hopes and dreams expressed there.  The river clean-up. Receiving new members last week. Our AGM; which is nothing like any other AGM’s I’ve been to.

In fact there’s a lot about Trinity which is nothing like anything I’ve known before.  We are quite an amazing church really - with the majority of people who come here involved in some way with serving in the community. Or should I say communities, not only Trinity’s community but local and international communities.

I think what makes us both unique yet conformed to what I see in Scripture is that we are God centred, with Jesus as the focus of that centre and also inclusive, welcoming and intentionally hospitable. We don’t hold on to a “them and us” rigidity.

What I see in 1 Peter 2 I is a picture God’s vision for his people and a blueprint of who we are becoming.

It seems to me that Peter almost uses mixed metaphors – living stones making up a spiritual house and being a chosen race, a people. More specifically; unidentified people becoming God’s people.

I’ve never been to Israel so I am not sure of how they built houses there in Peter’s day but when I think of stone walls I think of the dry stone walls in the north of England.

If you’ve never travelled to that part of the world and seen the patchwork of fields joined together by these beautiful walls or the amazing structure of Hadrian’s Wall it may seem very foreign; I know it did to me on my first trip “up north”.

They are an amazing feat. It takes a very skilled person to build one that won’t topple over.

There is no mortar. The stones are laid closely snuggled together, small ones filling in the gaps between bigger ones. Some are smooth, some are rough, even jagged yet when the wall is complete it is a beautiful work of art. What holds each stone in place is the stone next to it. Each stone rests on others, support others and is laid in such a way that the line of the wall is kept straight and true.  The individual stones keep their uniqueness yet become unified in the whole. The overall picture is one of a flowing rustic and textured yet somehow elegant wholeness. These dry stone walls last for centuries when built well, wind and rain, storms and floods have no devastating effect on them. In fact these things are what clean the wall. The wind and rain also smoothes out the surfaces of the stones over time. What you also notice when you see these walls is that even though the stones are snuggled together there are spaces around each stone, so each remains unique and to a small degree separate, yet always touching another. In the spaces lichen and mosses grow and small creatures and insects make homes, find food find shelter and new life – the wall becomes a living part of the surrounding countryside, an important part of the wider ecosystem. 

From time to time the wall will need an area to be reformed and the builder will come and take down a small section and rebuild it moving stones to a different place adding a new stone here or there making the wall stronger and more durable.

I love this picture because I see how much it looks like the church. Peter speaks of us coming to Jesus having been rejected by people we are seen as a precious living stone by God. Here we are living stones, built on and around Christ the corner stone; he is our foundation. We are set together, close yet with space and individuality. Up close we see our differences, yet it these differences that add texture, beauty and colour. Further back we see our unity, harmony and a different beauty rustic and elegant.  The Church has survived centuries because the trial and tribulations have served not to destroy it but to clean it, to give the master builder opportunity to reform it. In the nooks and crannies of the church new life occurs, nourishing of others happens and the landscape of the world is transformed by our presence, the spiritual ecosystem is kept in a healthier balance and the church’s practical involvement in the world brings mercy to those who had not received mercy.

Here I see why Peter uses these two seemingly different concepts, living stones and being a people. Just as the master builder reforms the stone wall to make it stronger, more beautiful; so God reforms us.  We were not a people, not a community, not anything but individuals trying to make our own way; but then God comes along and changes that. Now we are a people, God’s people, we are a community; a community of followers of Jesus; we are now becoming individuals living in a way that affects the wider community.

What has made the difference?

It cannot be our own human efforts alone; for there are many good and positive organisations out there. There are many good, generous people out there.  Indeed perhaps that is because that is how we are made – in God’s image with a blue-print to be community. Yet for all the community spirit in our world; all the positive agendas and good work in many organisations, we see there is often something still missing; something that keeps the people separate, something that no matter how much they give of themselves still leaves them feeling a bit unsatisfied. The longing for unity somehow unfulfilled.

John Main says

 “The beauty of the Christian vision of life is its vision of unity. It sees that all mankind has been unified in the One who is in union with the Father.”

 “This is not an abstract vision. It is filled with a deep personal joy because within it the value of each person is affirmed.

No unique beauty will be lost in this great unification but each will be brought to fulfillment in all.”  “In union we become who we are called to be.  Only in union do we know fully who we are.”

This is what makes the Church different – or at least should; could, can make the Church different.

Jesus, his gift of salvation, death and resurrection drawing us into the oneness of God.  Holy Spirit transforming us, into living stones and making us the people of God.

Peter reminds us that this is possible because:

 “You had not received mercy but now you have received mercy”

Mercy.  God’s mercy extended to us; God’s mercy flowing through us.

I am amazed by how God in his mercy chose each of us, seeing us as precious.

God having set us side by side as beautiful living stones to build and create his spiritual house; transforms us into his people and his amazing Church and gives us an opportunity to find our place and purpose in touching each others lives, being supported and supporting each other and discovering our true selves. We have become a people, a community. Here we influence and change the spiritual and physical ecosystem and bring the Kingdom of God into the here and now. What a privilege and honour!

The Light at the End of the Tunnel - Sermon

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

22 Aug 2010

Last Sunday I was jumping around up here. When I am exited I get animated. I was excited not least because I was nearly finished a difficult paper that I have been researching since May; but also because as I drew the research to a close I read N.T. Wright’s ‘Surprised by Hope.’ It is about what the resurrection means to us today.  In many senses it was the light at the end of the tunnel and I was pumped by it!

While up here I was being teased and encouraged to let some of this animation flow into my preaching. I assured the people involved it would happen; I mean how can someone excitable like me and with a Pentecostal background keep still for long?

Unfortunately though, it may just have to wait until I can let go of clutching onto this music stand!

I have always been a mover, hands, feet and body I just have to fully express myself.  But 8 years ago this week I had an accident at work which nearly put paid to that.  I ended up in bed for 8 months with Dr.’s telling me I may end up in a wheelchair.  The slightest movement was painful.

So when I read Luke’s account of the woman in the synagogue I actually knew something of what she had gone through.

Can you imagine, she’s been hobbling around bent over double for 18 years!

Then all of a sudden and out of the blue Jesus sees her, has compassion and with one touch and one sentence she’s standing up straight!

It says she began glorifying God.

Do you think she was quiet in this, raised her hand a little and said “Thank you Lord. You are wonderful” and then went on and carried on life as usual?

No way!

She’s been shuffling round staring at the ground for 18 years!

She’s going to be running all over the place, jumping up and down shouting and waving her hands in the air;

“Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Praise God! Praise God! Look what He’s done! Rabbi Yeshua laid hands on me and freed me from my sickness! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!”

Of course the synagogue officials weren’t too happy about this. I mean here is this woman disrupting their religious service, running around shouting and acting with no dignity in YHWH’s house.

But what is worse is that upstart Rabbi Yeshua has broken Sabbath rules. He has flagrantly gone against their interpretation of Torah.

Please note – it is not that they don’t believe that God heals. It’s not that they don’t think a Rabbi should be involved in God healing His people. No; The problem is they see it as work! And Sabbath is not for work!

They’d got to the point where they thought their religious fannigans were more important than people; more important than recognising Emmanuel; God in our midst.

It’s not as if they didn’t know.  They knew the Torah and the writings of the Prophets off by heart. They knew the verses we looked at in Isaiah, but they got mixed up, thinking when God said honour the Sabbath by refusing business as usual it included all the stuff He’d just told them to do – not gossiping, not pointing the finger of blame, but being generous to the hungry, satisfying the desires of the afflicted. It was like they could only do good the rest of the week!

But, here was Jesus, doing just that, and on the Sabbath. He satisfied the desire of this afflicted woman; now she is able to go hug her family, she is able to be a full part of the community. Suddenly she is able to live fully.

Let’s not be too hard on these religious guys; they were waiting for this too. They just thought they knew what it was going to look like.  Jesus didn’t fit the picture, and the things He did didn’t fit their picture either. 

But look Jesus doesn’t say you evil people, you have no faith.  He just shows them where their mistake is.

He says hey you satisfy the needs of your animals on the Sabbath; so why are you making Sabbath more important than this daughter of Abraham’s needs?

That must have stung! Here they are treating their animals better that one of God’s people who is heir to God’s promises.

Jesus told people many times that the Kingdom of God was at hand or near.  He told His disciples He had come to bring abundant life.  Here is a living example of what the abundant life that Jesus heralding in the Kingdom of God brings.

The trouble that these synagogue officials had was they thought they knew how God would fulfill His promises.  They thought He’d send a Messiah who would fight and win a battle with the pagan oppressors and then life would be good because Israel would be restored; then they could live a bit and then they’d die and sometime later they’d all get resurrected on the final day and God would bring in His new creation. Simple!

But God didn’t do it that way.  He sent a Messiah who heralded in the Kingdom of God and the new creation by healing the sick, delivering those who were oppressed, raising people from the dead. What Jesus did was a foretaste of what is to come.  It was to whet our appetites for God’s Kingdom.  Then He himself overcame death by being resurrected; that is raised bodily, physically back to life.  His body was fully functioning, after all he cooked and ate fish; but it was a body transformed into the fullness of new creation.

This was not what was expected.

Just as Jesus  was the light at the end of the tunnel for her, just as Isaiah’s words were the light at the end of the tunnel for the those who read them and understood them; so is Jesus resurrection for His disciples, then and now.

Just look at the difference it made to the disciples.  They had seen Him heal the sick like this woman, they’d seen Him raise Lazarus from the dead, free others from oppression, but they did not expect Him to be raised from the dead.  It changed everything!

It meant resurrection life is possible in the here and now.  It meant He really was the Messiah, really was God; so when He said that those who are in Him will do greater things they believed Him; when He said they would be filled with His Spirit they waited in the place He told them and when it happened they went out to tell the world.

We have been duped by dualism that says this earth will be fully destroyed and by Gnosticism that thinks when we die we spend eternity in some disembodied state, floating around heaven. We’ve been tricked by ideas that God can’t move in the way He did in the New Testament. These things cause us to be despairing to be overcome by the cares of life, to be like the woman in Luke who was bent over double, staring at the ground for years.

BUT - His resurrection makes a difference to us too.  Because of it He is alive and we can be alive in Him, that is fully live in His resurrection life. Because He has sent His Spirit to indwell us we can become the human beings we are created to be. He told us to pray for God’s Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven and because of His Resurrection life in us we become the implementers of this.

We are able to live way these verses in Isaiah tell us to.

His Life, Death and Resurrection are the light at the end of the tunnel for us; they show us life doesn’t have to be what we expected; it is better.

It is better in the here and now and we are to make it better for others and after a time of death we too will be resurrected in our full functioning physical bodies to live in the restored new creation of earth.  That’s exciting.

So as we come to the table this morning, let’s be willing to meet with the risen Jesus, ready for Him to heal, free and satisfy us.  Let His body and blood heal and free us from the past, cleanse us. Lets welcome Him and let His resurrection life give us new life, make us new creations now; truly image-bearers of God, able and willing to live fully and abundantly in Him.

God's Extravagant Love - Sermon

God’s Extravagant Love

25 July 2010

Good morning, my name is Debbie and I am part of the pastoral team here at Trinity. I have been attending Trinity since November last year.   I am a student at Ambrose Seminary doing my M.Div. and from this coming September I will be on internship here, which I am looking forward to. 

This is my first sermon here; and as I thought on that it reminded me of the first sermon I ever did. It was terrifying! Not because it meant getting up and talking in front of a bunch of people, I was used to that in my job. It wasn’t even because I am used to sermons that are a minimum of 40 minutes long, and they were asking me to only do 20 minutes and I was concerned I would go over time.  A bit like today; getting used to 20 minute sermons instead of 50 minute ones took some time to get used to. But of course communication experts say that our optimum attention spans are 20 -25 minutes.

However, I heard that I think it is the Jesuits who say if it’s more than 7 minutes you missed the point!

What terrified me was the fact that what I said might have eternal consequences for those listening. It was advent, Sunday before Christmas and I knew there were people coming who didn’t usually get to church. I was so scared, as I began to speak, I shook and hung onto the pulpit til my knuckles were white.  Then a strange thing happened I became aware of God’s love and the presence of Holy Spirit. Everything changed in a moment, I relaxed as I realised God was fully in charge, my Papa, our heavenly Father there; as if holding my hand. As I continued I felt Holy Spirit begin to flow through me; I didn’t need to worry, just be myself and say what He had shown me to glorify Jesus.

Today the same is true and it was good that I had remembered that first sermon as I prepared for this one, because it reminded me preaching is not about me; it is about glorifying God and allowing Him to flow through me. 

When I was reading Luke I thought how everyone who’s been to Church knows the Lord’s Prayer. However this is now not necessarily true for some of the younger generations in Church. But, throughout history it is probably the most often repeated thing people have said. Then I remembered something someone said to me “If it’s true and worth saying, then it is worth repeating.”

Certainly what we see in Luke 11:1-13 is worth repeating.  What I love is these are Jesus’ words.  His disciples have asked him to teach them how to pray, which He does.  But Luke doesn’t put the whole prayer in like Matthew does.  I am always fascinated when I see differences in the gospels.  I want to know why.  Why does this writer put it different? So I go on little explorations in my mind – if Luke was a Dr. he’d be the type of man who would focus on the main thing. Cause and effect maybe? So when Jesus teaches on praying Luke gives the essentials:

God is Father, He is holy – acknowledge it, remind yourself of this.

Jesus mission is to bring about the kingdom of God in the here and now – pray asking for this

God is your provider – remember this, it is not you but Him, so ask Him for your daily needs.

God is merciful and we mess up – ask for forgiveness.

Forgiving others is not optional, remind yourself this in front of the holy God.

Finally get God’s help with temptation.

Simple really; God loves us, shows us through his provision and help; but often we don’t get it, well I don’t. Even when I do get it I forget.  Jesus knows this so He goes on to expose the Father’s heart; He wants us to see His extravagant love.  Too often we see God only in His roles, He is creator, He is mighty, a God above all things, totally other from us.  

I think in this passage Jesus wants us to see God more intimately. But He leads us in gently he gives a situation as an example – suppose you get an unexpected guest, and you have no bread and it is midnight so you go to a friend and bang on his door and say lend me 3 loaves.

The disciples listening to Jesus would know that in that culture bread was a staple, it was served with every meal. How is it that this man has none?  He doesn’t ask for one loaf he asks for 3, yet it is only one visitor he speaks of; so it seems he is asking for enough to not only feed the visitor but also him and his wife and maybe other members of his house. So maybe there’s a sense here of reminding them that no matter how much they and we do, there are times when we cannot provide even the basic essentials for ourselves, let alone enough to be generous to others.

Then we have the friend the man has gone to; he is a friend, not just a neighbour or the local baker.  It’s midnight.  He’s in bed, the kids are asleep, the doors locked. In verse 8, one translation says that even if he won’t get up because he’s your friend he will if you stand your ground.  In another it says he’ll get up because of your persistence, but the word can also mean because of your boldness or brashness.

The disciples also know that hospitality is a major issue in their society, both of these men are in the precarious position of not being seen as hospitable; one because he lacks the essential part of a meal, the other because of his refusal to get up for a friend; these are matters of shame.

So when you see this in light of the Lord’s prayer; it’s like Jesus is saying even if God won’t answer because he is God; he will not be shamed.  He has promised to provide, He’ll do it. 

Jesus says in this parable, come boldly to God confident that that He will respond positively. Ask and it will be given, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened. God is the one who answers prayer and he will not be less dependable than our friends.

But Jesus doesn’t stop here, he’s on a journey to lead us to see that God is Father and has a father’s heart filled with love for us.

We often find this hard especially if we did not have good experiences with our own fathers.  My father was an alcoholic; a good, clever and generous man when sober. A brawler and wife beater when drunk.  He was drunk more than sober much of the time.

Jesus doesn’t avoid these realities. He hits it head on.

He asks if a child asks its father for fish will the dad give a snake? Or if the child asks for an egg will the dad give a scorpion?  The fish and eggs are nourishing; the snake and scorpion are poisonous, even deadly. No, not even bad dads will do that! I could relate to that, even if my dad was stinking drunk, if I asked him for something, like a peanut butter sandwich he would go get me one.

Jesus says, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more then will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.

Jesus is talking about food, bread, fish, eggs; our daily provision, what we need to sustain us and nourish us.  How did He get to Holy Spirit?

I have to tell you this side swiped me.  I’d never seen this before.  I was expecting the same as Matthew’s version; “how much more will your Father in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him”

As I re-read the whole passage something began to dawn on me.

In the Lord’s prayer, Jesus begins with heaven, then bringing the reality of the heavenly kingdom to earth; then on our daily needs.  The parable changes the order.

Jesus begins with our earthly daily needs; He shows us that God is our Father; then He finishes with what we really need to bring about the heavenly kingdom on earth in the here and now.

It’s like He is saying, from God’s point of view Holy Spirit is our basic provision.

Holy Spirit is our daily spiritual bread, our sustenance.

Holy Spirit is what we need to be able to live fully in Christ.

Holy Spirit reveals the Father and Jesus to our hearts.

Holy Spirit helps us forgive others.

Holy Spirit leads us out of the temptations we face.

Holy Spirit is what we need if we are to join in Jesus mission of bringing about “Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.”

So I am totally amazed and overwhelmed by God’s extravagant and generous love.  He is our Father who not only provides for our daily practical needs; our bread, fish and eggs, but He gives us what we need emotionally, forgiveness; what we need relationally, the help and ability to forgive others; what we need eternally; the gift of his Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus, so we are adopted as His children, He then give us His very Spirit so we can live fully in the here and now.

Who Do You Think You Are? - Sermon on God's forgiveness

Who do you think you are? - Sermon

Genesis 1:26-28; John 3:1-21

Have you ever been asked a question and as you think about the answer discover the question is not really the real question?

A friend asked me why do I need forgiveness?  

He not was asking about needing forgiveness for something he had done. The forgiveness he was talking about was what the Church speaks of when talking about the sin of humanity, the sin of Adam and Eve and the fall.

I agree, logically there seems no sense in this; why should I or anyone be held accountable for someone else’s badness, poor decisions and selfishness.

In our culture forgiveness always needs blame for it to be necessitated.

So when I looked at this question I seemed to go round in circles. On the face of it, it seems that as humans we have inherited the sin of Adam and Eve and are therefore equally guilty. Here I found a conundrum.  Forgiving someone means they did something wrong.  And as I wasn’t there at the fall I didn’t do it; so why do I need forgiveness?

How can I be blamed for what another has done?  How can I be blamed for a previous generation’s actions?  I may or may not have done the same thing; but the reality remains I did not do this thing; in fact it was done before my existence.

Also if I inherited the sin then it’s not my fault, after all you don’t say someone is wrong for inheriting hair, eye or skin colour, body shape or artistic ability!

I realised that this idea boils down to thinking we need forgiveness because we are human.  This again made no sense to me – God made me human so why would I need forgiveness for that! 

Then a light came on.

God made me and every human being in His image, to be like him in character, in personality, in motivation.

But do we fully see this in ourselves? Do we see it in others? Do we live from this reality. I don’t know about you, but I certainly don’t. Too often we live from our pettiness, from our judging criticalness; from our woundedness.

Just because we are ignorant of who we are does not change the reality of who we really are

But sometimes we see who God made us to be, then we are free to be loving, gracious, kind, good to others, caring and responsible towards creation. Sometimes we see God’s image in others. Then we are drawn to them, we find ourselves loving them, caring about them, being respectful and honouring towards them.

Then another light bulb went on, God knows who he made me to be, he knows who he made you to be.

Julian of Norwich saw in one of the revelations God gave her that;

 “God judges us by our true inner nature, which is always kept whole in him; safe and sound. And this judgement comes from his rightfulness, whereas we judge by the outward changeable nature… In His judgement I saw Him assign no whit of blame to us.”

This is amazing good news, we are made in God’s image and he keeps that true nature safe and sound. He made us completely human, that is a person with the characteristics of God in our very DNA.

As we are created in God’s image our true nature is like God’s nature; good kind, loving, gracious and merciful; this nature is also creative and desirous of unity and community. It is also a nature which honours and cares for all creation.

The problem we have is that we have forgotten this; we no longer know who we are.

We do not recognise ourselves or others as being made in God’s image. This false reality has estranged us from God and causes division with others.

I love the writings of Richard Rohr; he has a way of bringing us back to the essence of God, the truth of who we are and the reality of life and in this journey he reveals the mistakenness of our contemporary beliefs.  He says in the “Naked Now”;

“You can, therefore, be ignorant of your birthright. You can neglect the gift and thus not enjoy its wonderful fruits. That seems to be the case with many people, and is what we mean by “sinners”.”

We have become accustomed to sin meaning some heinous act of violence or immorality. We too often have determined that sinners are those who don’t believe what we believe or act like we think they should! This brings up not only guilt but defensiveness, division and resentment. 

Yet when I look at sin in scripture, it says that sin is falling short or missing the mark; that is more akin to acting in ways contrary to my true nature, believing myself to be different to who I really am, one who is made in the image of God.

Do you see the implication of what is said here? Sin is not our bad behaviour; it is not knowing who you are. We neglect the gift of our life!

Because we don’t know who we are, or who others are, that is wonderful humans created in God’s image; we behave badly, we do awful things to ourselves and to others. We destroy creation.

Because of our sin, that is our not knowing who we truly are, we are blind to the true realities to the point where we think that our darkness and misconceptions are true and so we struggle to keep control, to make our lives comfortable, to push down our deep anguish and desires.

How are we to rediscover who we are, to live in the reality of the life that God created us to have?

God knew we couldn’t do this on our own. He knew that we lost the truth of who we were made to be early on -Adam & Eve forgot who they were, forgot they were made in God’s image & so they thought they needed something outside of God and who he made them to make them better.

Throughout history, throughout the Bible we see God doing things to remind us; but we had become blind. So He sent Jesus. Jesus, the full example of what it means to be fully and completely human made in God’s image. He sent Jesus so we would know how much we are loved by God. He sent Jesus to show us who we are. He sent Jesus to show us what life is meant to look like.

We just read that Jesus came so “anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.”

For me this changes everything!

As I look at the character of God I see no desire from him to blame us.  He knows who and what we are and has a deep desire for loving close relationship with us humans who are made in his image.

I love the story of the prodigal son, the son goes off to do his thing but the father never gives up hope of the son returning. The father never forgets who the son really is. He never gives up hope of the son coming back to the life he was born into.  When at last the son comes home he comes expecting the worst, he’s ready to beg & to accept being a slave! Instead his dad throws a party and dresses him up for it in Armani and gold! That’s my Papa!  That’s your heavenly Dad!

Forgiveness then from God’s perspective is not about blame, it is about healing relationship. 

Jesus’ call to forgiveness is a call to a healed relationship with God, ourself and each other. It’s a call change what we thought we knew about ourselves, for we did not really know who we are;

Perhaps we should find a different word rather than forgiveness if we have an automatic response to the word that indicates blame. 

Certainly in Greek the words used which we translate as forgiveness mean:

to set free, to release, to become fully free.

Jesus’ call is also a call to change your mind/beliefs/emotions about God and his kingdom, for we did not really know who God is and what his kingdom is about.

What is clear is that God loves us and wants relationship with us more than anything else. 

He sent Jesus his Son to tell us, to show us and to live it.

Jesus was very clear; he said he did not come to condemn but to bring abundant life – a life reconciled with God and reconciled to who we really are. Reconciliation implies there was estrangement but now there is a restored and healed relationship.

This is the good news; God loves us and wants us to have deep intimate relationship with him and each other; his desire is for unity.

God is not some harsh judge wanting to meet out punishment for our crime of being failed humans, cruelly wanting to see us begging for forgiveness. No!

God is the one who created us each in his loving caring unified image, who created us not to be clones but rather a fantastic picture of all the different and unique qualities that he possesses, so each of us is unique and different from the other but possessing the fundamental goodness of God, each of us as we are reconciled to God though his love & graciousness begins to show facets of his beautiful character. His desire is deep intimate relationship with each of us individually, corporately and in the wholeness of all creation.

So let us come to the table, willing to see his love for us; willing to meet Jesus who came to draw us back to the Father, willing to let His body and blood and the transforming work of Holy Spirit return us to knowing and being all we are created to be, fully human yet made in the image of God.

A New Adventure

Well, here goes! I have never done a blog before, so bear with me as I learn new skills.
I went to the Global Leadership Summit this week. It was great! I love getting inspired. One of the speakers, Seth Godin got my attention, well he already had my attention, but he said something that made me feel God was tapping me on the shoulder saying "did you get that?"
Seth said something on the lines of you want to write a book, get on with it; use the internet instead of waiting. You want to counsel people ? Well go for it. Don't hold on til it rots.
I have been talking about writing books since I was 12; you don't want to know how long ago that was; but my oldest grand-daughter turned 16 this year, so it was a long while back. I've been a counsellor for years & talking about setting up a practice for about 18 years, so I am now in process at last of doing this. I've been doing spiritual direction for maybe 13 years, now I am at last I'm doing something so I can officially be called a spiritual director.
I've been in pastoral ministry for years; but only this past June did I officially become a pastor in a church.
My philosophy is that it is never too late. But somehow that has meant it's taken a long time to get round to doing the stuff that needs to be done.
So this blog is going to be a selection; some stuff that I'm thinking about & wondering & wanting to know what others think; some stuff that will be one or more of my books; some stuff that will be sermons I've preached or sermons I'd like to preach  and some stuff that I haven't even thought of yet.
Please feel welcome to comment. I really don't mind if you agree or disagree; because I am not saying anything because I know the answers or have it all figured out - I know I don't! All I ask is that you be respectful, even if you think I'm an idiot; use polite language because my grand children may read this & maybe yours will too.
My hope is that this will expand me and maybe you will get something positive from it.
Blessings