4 men and 4 women tell the story of Jesus

Text of the week:  But the Lord said to him, ‘Go, for he is an instrument whom I have chosen to bring my name before Gentiles and kings and before the people of Israel; I myself will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.’ Acts 9:15-16

Welcome to our services today and a special welcome to any worshipping with us for the first time. It’s a day to receive the Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes and to celebrate Street Pastors in our town. It continues to be a special year for us as a church family as we have been reading the Bible together with the help of Fresh from the Word, the International Bible Reading Association. Our Sunday service themes have tied in with the daily Bible reading plan that’s still available in the porch and the more detailed Bible Study notes that many people have been using. Now’s the time to be ordering the 2017 edition of Fresh from the Word. It would be great if we could take forward into the New Year that sense of reading the Bible as a church family together. Have a word with Rachel Jacques or sign up on the list that will be circulating at church. This week we on some of those great Biblical saints: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Paul. Great witnesses to Jesus. “But,” in the words of Vron Smith, this week’s conversation partner in Fresh from the Word, “to know about Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus. Jesus makes an invitation to each person, an invitation to an ongoing, unfolding, unique relationship that will be like no one else’s. Our choice is to encounter the living Christ, or just to read about him.”  we will be thinking of Street Pastors locally and Operation Christmas Child internationally.

Follow this link for a recording of the service

Follow this link for a recording of the service

You can also click on this link to listen to a recording of our evening service.

In our service last week we looked at the way Elijah, one of the first of the great prophets, “passed the mantle” on to Elisha, who passed the mantle on to Isaiah, Amos, Jeremiah, Habakkuk and all the other great prophets. We looked at the way after a period when the voice of the prophets was silent, John the Baptist “ook up the mantle” of the prophets and passed it on to Jesus who passed it on to the twelve, to the seventy-two and through the ages to us. This week we are going to look at some of the first people who first took up the mantle from Jesus. So for the second part of the service I need 8 voices – four men and four women.  As we look at Jesus through their eyes those words on the green sheet from Vron Smith is very much at the heart of our service today. “To know about Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus. Jesus makes an invitation to each person, an invitation to an ongoing, unfolding, unique relationship that will be like no one else’s. Our choice is to encounter the living Christ, not just read about him.”

Welcome and Call to Worship

494 Glorious things of you are spoken

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer

Hebrews 1:1-3

In the past, God spoke to our ancestors

many times and in many ways through the prophets,

but in these last days he has spoken to us through his Son.

He is the one through whom God created the universe,

the one whom God has chosen to possess all things at the end. 

He reflects the brightness of God's glory

and is the exact likeness of God's own being,

sustaining the universe with his powerful word.

After achieving forgiveness for human sins,

he sat down in heaven at the right-hand side of God,

the Supreme Power.

Real lives … real people. The Bible is so much more than words on the page. They are the words of real people who lived real lives and had a real experience of God. And that’s what they wanted to pass on.

There was something very special about Jesus – the way he spoke, what he did, the manner of his death and then that remarkable something that happened on the third day when real people who lived real lives met with him once again and knew that not even death itself could have the last word. His resurrection victory was one they too shared in.

All he ever was, all he ever did, was good news and that was the good news they wanted to pass on.

It’s a strong tradition that goes back to the early days of the church and one that there’s a lot of evidence for.

Down to earth, to the point, John Mark had been a youngster among the followers of Jesus that night Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. The soldiers grabbed him by he wriggle free from what he was wearing and ran naked into the night. His family home in Jerusalem became something of a base for the church in the very early days. He would never forget the night they had been praying together for Peter who had been arrested and was facing his execution when he turned up, hammering at the door. He got to know Peter more and more over the years: it was Peter’s reminiscences of Jesus that formed the backbone of his telling of the Good news of Jesus. They say, Mark’s gospel was the first to be written.

Then there was Matthew – he’ll forever be associated with the Gospel that bears his name. It’s a measure of Jesus’ passion for people that he ever became a follower at all. He had been trapped in the system the Romans had for getting as much money as possible out of local people. The collection of taxes had been contracted out – and the publican who won the contract, contracted it out again. At each turn someone had to take a cut – and Matthew was the guy who had to bear the anger of the local people as he did his best to get money out of them. Though he came from a highly respected family and was known as Levi, no one had any time for him … no one, except Jesus. Jesus it was who called him, him of all people. And more than that Jesus had actually partied with him and the other ‘publicani’.

There was one disciple more than any others that Jesus had a special love for – maybe he later came to speak of himself as ‘the much loved disciple’. His name was John – what had caught his imagination about Jesus was the richness and the thought provoking nature of his teaching. That’s what he wanted to get down in writing.

And then there was one more. A Doctor by profession he wasn’t’ Jewish and didn’t know much about the country around Jerusalem or Galilee. But he had met with those who had meet with Jesus and as he heard about this Jesus he felt he had met him for himself. When he met up with Paul he joined him on his travels. He wanted to find out more about all that Jesus taught and all that he did and the circumstances around his death and resurrection. He interviewed people who had themselves been there, he read what other people like Mark had written down, he came across a set of the sayings of Jesus. What fascinated him was the impact this Jesus had on all he met even after his death and resurrection. So, not content with telling the story of Jesus he also put together an account of all that the first followers of Jesus did and all that they taught.

Four Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Just an interesting story.

Or an insight into one whose presence is real as we meet together in his name? Read the story. Meet the risen Jesus … and be changed!

We’re going to be receiving the Operation Christmas Shoe boxes now. It was interesting listening to the video we played as we launched the appeal this year. It spoke of the way the shoe boxes are used by Christians working in all sorts of different parts of the world as a way of giving a present and telling the story of Jesus too.

A Hy-Spirit Song

Activities for all over 3

Meet with Jesus and there’s a whole new way of seeing things, a whole new way of doing things, a whole new way of living.

Maybe it was because he was so very close to Peter but Mark more than anyone else is quite open about the way Peter didn’t get it … and needed to have a whole new way of seeing thngs. There’s a remarkable moment almost exactly in the middle of Mark’s Gospel when Jesus wants to find out whether people are getting the message – you can imagine Peter recalling the moment and Mark later passing on his recollection …

Mark:  he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say that I am?’ And they answered him, ‘John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.’ 

They had got it – they could see the way He had taken up the mantle passed on from Elijah through the prophets to John the Baptist – but there was more to it than that Peter recalled the question he felt Jesus had put to him

Mark:   ‘But who do you say that I am?’

Peter really did feel that Jesus was asking that question of him. He knew exactly … or at least he thought he did. This was Peter’s answer as Mark recalled him saying …

 ‘You are the Messiah.’

You might have expected that Jesus would be thrilled at such a response. But Mark recalled a different atmosphere in the air.

 And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.

Curious … why Jesus should ask them not to say anything about it? The problem lay in the way Peter and for that matter the others saw things. They saw things in human terms. A Messiah, one anointed by God must come in a blaze of glory and put right everything that’s wrong. Such a one must triumph over all the powers that be.

Peter was looking at things in very human terms.  He realised it later. But at that time he didn’t get it when Jesus went on to talk about his suffering and his death and what lay beyond …

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. 

Peter felt embarrassed at what happened next. But he could see it was a lesson he need to learn. He saw things in human terms. Faced with the prospect of his Messiah being rejected and going to his death Peter stepped in …

And Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him.

That’s when Jesus turned on Peter …

he rebuked Peter and said, ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’

That’s the first challenge reading the Gospels. It’s a very human expectation of God and of religious faith that God will step in and make everything right, that God will overcome all evil.  But that’s a very human way of looking at things. What’s needed is a very different way of looking at things – the way that Jesus mapped out. For God is there in the suffering, when all goes wrong and sticks with us.

As in our mind’s eye we meet with Mark and through Mark with Peter we get a remarkable insight into what it’s like to meet with Jesus.

Meet with Jesus and there’s a whole new way of seeing things, a whole new way of doing things, a whole new way of living.

Matthew was drawn to Mark’s gospel but he could draw on other experiences of Jesus and it’s in his gospel that he brings together the teaching of Jesus that gives us a whole new way of doing things. Nowhere is that more powerfully seen than in the Sermon on the Mount.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for justice, for they wikll be filled.

Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy

Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called the children of God.

Chapter 5 is all about loving your neighour.

Chapter 6 is all about loving God and the importance of prayer

And Chapter 7 verse 12 reduces it all to a single soundbite.

‘In everything do to others as you would have them do to you;

for this is the law and the prophets.

And the challenge not just to hear the words of Jesus but to act on them.

‘Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. 

Luke was also drawn to Mark’s gospel as he investigated everything from the first very carefully and wrote an orderly account of evertything to do with Jesus/ He hadn’t met with Jesus, but he met with people who had and he read accounts of Jesus.

It gave him too a whole new way of seeing things and a whole new way of doing things too – one of the special insights he had was that God was no respecter of persons, that God treated all equally: enter into conversation with Luke and you will discover a way of seeing things, a way of doing things that breaks barriers down and builds bridges up – nowhere is that better seen than in the parable of the Good Samaritan and those final words of Jesus – Go and do likewise.

Three real men living real lives who meet with the real Jesus and see things differently and do things differently.

Luke notices just how much Jesus engaged with women and hear their voices. It’s in his Gospel we meet with Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

It is as she anticipates meeting with Jesus that she sees things in a different way and does things in a different way too.

Luke 1:46-55

‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
   and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
   Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
   and holy is his name.

So often women in those days, too often women in our day, were disempowered. Mary was empowered as a woman by the majesty and power of God.

God welcomes and accepts all.

His mercy is for those who fear him
   from generation to generation. 

 But then Mary has a whole new way of seeing God, a whole new way of doing things. Religion so often had reinforced the powerful and the mighty at the expense of everyone else. But the God Mary encountered as she looked forward to the coming of Christ was the God who turned the accepted order of things upside down, turned it on its head.

He has shown strength with his arm;
   he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
   and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
   and sent the rich away empty.

This is powerful stuff – stuff to make us sit up and take notice, stuff to invite us to do things differently.

He has helped his servant Israel,
   in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
   to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

Our singing invites us to enter into the story – can we make Mary’s words our own and sing the magnificat?

42 Tell out my soul

A whole new way of seeing things, a whole new way of doing things … it’s as we meet with John that we encounter a whole new way of living.

It is the presence of Jesus as he comes alongside real people, struggling with real lives that transforms those lives in the bleakest of moments.

Martha, Mary and Magdalene each face loss that they find overwhelming. They discover in Jesus one who empowers them to move through their loss.

It was when their brother, Lazarus was ill, that Martha and Mary sent a message to Jesus, 

‘Lord, he whom you love is ill.’ 

But Jesus didn’t come immediately. He stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

In the end Jesus arrived to find that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away,and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 

Martha and Mary were both overwhelmed by their loss … but they reacted in quite different ways.

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 

Martha said to Jesus,

‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

There’s a bargaining that sets in at this point. If only … if only … you had come things would have been different.

But with the bargaining goes also a quiet confidence in Jesus.

 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ 

Then comes the most wonderful conversation of dying, death and the resurrection that is beyond.

Jesus said to her,

Your brother will rise again.’ 

Martha said to him,

‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ 

Jesus said to her,

‘I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.

Then one can almost imagine Jesus looking Martha in the eye when he says to her …

 Do you believe this?’ She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’

It is that response of faith that Martha gives that is an inspiration in so many ways.

Martha then goes back to their home and she called her sister Mary, and told her privately,

‘The Teacher is here and is calling for you.’ 

And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him.

The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she reacted in exactly the same way as Martha had done: she knelt at his feet and said to him, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’ 

It is at this point, however, that things go in a different direction. Mary is the quiet, reflective one. And at this point she is not up for discussion. She is not in a place where she can share. Instead she breaks down in tears.

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 

It’s then that we read.

Jesus wept.

Words when words are appropriate.

Jesus is simply alongside when words fail. But he is there. And as the story of Lazarus unfolds resurrection is real.

Resurrection changes things.

The third woman whose story John tells is Mary Magdalene who when she returns to the tomb of Jesus after the Sabbath also breaks down in tears and weeps.

 It is when Jesus, the one she mistakes for a gardener, utters her name that she realises he is risen, he is risen indeed.

Three women and one man.

The man is John.

John tells of those who saw with their own eyes and had faith. He writes for us who have not seen with our own eyes so that we too may find that faith.

John it is who records the words of Jesus to Thomas …

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

A couple of weeks ago as we were going on holiday, Richard Sharpe sent me a hymn he felt would be good to sing. It was written to mark the 50^th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster.

What do you say? What can you do? In response to the utter horror of such meaningless loss of life?

There’s nothing to do. The local Baptist minister, Kenneth Hayes, lost a son in the tragedy he ministered, and campaigned and simply stayed with his community for many years afterwards … and on film is recorded as turning to those final words of Romans 8 for the inspiration that enabled him through Jesus to see things differently, do things differently and live differently.

The end of chapter 8 of Romans is a great summary of faith - What can separate us from the love of God - It’s a passage I always use when there’s a personal tragedy or disaster and that’s a message we always try to emphasise - I am certain that nothing can separate us from the love of God, neither death nor life, neither angels or other heavenly rulers or powers, neither the present nor the future…

As far as we’re concerned now, we’ve still got two boys. We’re only separated for a time. One day we’re going to meet. The parting and the loneliness and being without him is terrible, but it’s not for ever.

It’s really worth getting to know about Jesus but that’s not enough.

Going back to those words of Vron Smith.

“To know about Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus. Jesus makes an invitation to each person, an invitation to an ongoing, unfolding, unique relationship that will be like no one else’s. Our choice is to encounter the living Christ, not just read about him.”

It is in that encounter with the living Christ that we will find a whole new way of looking at the world, a whole new way of doing things and a whole new way of living, a whole new life.

God who knows our darkest moments (website only)

A hymn for Aberfan

On 21 October 1966, a coal waste tip overlooking the village of Aberfan, destabilised by rain water, slid and crashed down into Pantglas Junior School, destroying most of the school as well as a farm and twenty houses. The avalanche killed 144 people including 116 children. It’s the worst disaster involving children in modern British history.

The Revd Gareth Hill’s hymn, “God who knows our darkest moments”, was written for personal reasons. Gareth’s father-in-law, the Revd Irving Penberthy, now a supernumerary minister in Okehampton, Devon, is the only surviving church leader from those who were ministering in Aberfan at the time of the tragedy. See below for more information.

Aberfan Cemetery - two rows of white arches mark the graves of children killed in the 1966 colliery tip disaster © Stephen McKay (Licensed under Creative Commons)

God who knows our darkest moments

meets us in our brokenness:

walks beside us as a whisper,

holds our pain in his caress.

God, who leads through shadowed valleys,

where death’s bleakness dims our sight,

speaks a peace beyond our knowing,

floods our anguish with his light.

Far beyond our grief’s horizon,

as Creation holds its breath:

Love Divine, revealed in Jesus,

tears apart the chains of death.

Servant son and humble healer,

by your cross and life laid down

you have carried all our suff’ring

and you wear the victor’s crown.

Lift us up, now, risen Saviour

to the place where mercy plays,

where our broken hopes and heartache

find their healing in your gaze.

This is love, that God has saved us!

This is love, that Christ has died!

We rejoice that love has conquered

and has drawn us to your side.

Words: © Gareth Hill Publishing/Song Solutions CopyCare, 14 Horsted Square, Uckfield, TN22 1QG www.songsolutions.org

Hymn: God who knows our darkest moments

And us – celebrating Street Pastors

MTS 3 Brother, Sister

Prayers of Concern

Hymn: In Christ alone

Words of Blessing

Passing on the Mantle - from Elijah to Elisha to John the Baptist to Jesus to us

From the Notice Sheet

Text of the Week:   When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.”   Luke 15:5-6

Welcome to our services today and a special welcome to any who are worshipping with us for the first time. There’s not much point coming to church unless it connects with the real world we all of us live in. That’s the whole point of coming to church! Reading the Bible is at the heart of what we do precisely because it connects in a remarkable way with the real world. Take the prophets. They lived for the most part in very turbulent times when those in power got richer and the powerless often had what little they had taken from them. What they had to say amounted to an indictment of those who abused power and it pointed the way towards setting things right. It’s remarkable to see how many connections can be made between the world they knew and the world we know. More than that they had a remarkable sense of hope and promise even when it was hard to be optimistic. Their hope was rooted in the reality of the God who was with them through all of life.  That’s the hope we desperately need in our world today. It’s not just that there are connections to be made. As we go from this place today maybe we can take up the mantle of those prophetic voices and look out for things that need setting right in our homes, in our workplace, in our world at large. And we can draw on these age-old writers and thinkers to set about putting them right. And we too can draw on a very real sense of hope and promise in spite of all we see around us in the world. And if you don’t feel up to the task, take heart, none of those ancient prophets did either!

Click here to listen to our evening service as we explored the way Jesus' stories about shepherds and sheep work at many different levels. Not only do they offer a wonderful image of the strength and gentleness of the God of love, they also challenge the status quo as they speak truth to power.

Welcome and Call to Worship

356 Dear Lord and Father

Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer

Passing on the mantle

Taking it up!

It took some doing to stand his ground. All that was going on was pretty awful – the people suffered while those in power got more and more power only to abuse the very people they claimed to serve – Ahab was bad enough but Jezebel – her very name has become a byword for power, the abuse of power and all that is awful. It took some doing for him to stand his ground. He knew God stood for something so very different. But God sometimes didn’t seem to be there – for his king, for his people and for him.

And so at one point he fled. How he longed for something to clinch it, something to show how real, how powerful this God was. Yet he couldn’t find him not even in the awesome might and power of nature in the raw. Not in the earthquake.  Not in the wind.  Not in the fire. And then it was he sensed how real God was – in the still small voice of calm.

His travels took him far and wide – much further and much wider than many people wanted. His travels took him far beyond the boundaries of the nation he had come to serve. It was God who took him there. Hungry, nowhere to stay he found himself in the far off town of Zarephath. And of all people it was a woman he came to depend on. She had lost her husband … not that she had much to offer. Scarcely enough grain to make the tiniest of loaf for herself and her son.

But he knew God would provide. “Do not be afraid,” he said to her. She baked gave some to him and then took some for herself and for her son. And remarkably the jar of meal and the jug of oil did not run out … the first day, the second day … for many, many days.

But then tragedy struck.  The widow’s son became ill. Desperately ill. When he collapsed and died she turned on the stranger she had welcomed in – it’s your fault she said. “Give me your son,” he said, he carried him gently to an upper room where he laid him on his bed and prayed to God … he laid on him, three times, and then the boy coughed and breathed and lived. He took the child, brough him down from the upper room and said, “See, your son is alive”. And the widow knew this was a man of God and the word of the Lord he spoke was true.

And his name was Elijah.

And he did serve many. And he did stand his ground. And it cost him dear. And he knew he had to train someone up to take on the task he had when the time was ripe. It was a youngster who worked out in the fields, in charge of 12 pairs of oxen ploughing that seemed just right. The same kind of vision, the same kind of sensitivity, the same kind of sense of the presence of God. And so Elijah and Elisha became something of a team. With the death of the king and the death of the queen all looked to be so much more promising. Until the next king came to power. And he was as bad as they come.

The partnership was not to last for long. Elijah was getting older now. He knew his days were numbered.

He set off through the wilderness and said to Elisha. Stay here. Don’t come with me. But Elisha said, I will never leave you. The road took them down to the city of Jericho and Elijah said, don’t come with me. But Elisha said, I will never leave you. And they came down throught he desert to the river Jordan. And Elijah said, stay here, don’t come with me. But Elisha said, “As the Lord lives and as long as I live, I will never leave you.”

The two came down to the river – and Elijah took off his mantle, rolled it up and holding it in front of him he passed through the waters to the far side of the Jordan. And Elisha crossed with him.

“What is it you want of me?” the older man asked the younger. It’s your spirit I would love to have, he said.  Watch as I go forward, keep watch and do not fail to watch.

Elijah went forward and Elisha waited and he watched and what he saw was the most remarkable vision of a chariot of fire taking Elijah up into heaven to the safety, and the peace and the presence of God.

He looked to the ground. And there on the ground he saw the mantle, the cloak Elijah had always worn.

He took up the mantle … passed through the waters once more and he walked into the future. He followed in Elijah’s footsteps.

Passing it on!

He stood his ground. Though it cost him dear. War was the order of the day. Times were difficult – and Elisha found himself helping a widow who needed oil each day and oil was always there. Not too much, not too little, just the right amount. And on his travels he could not go it alone. He knew he needed someone

On his travels it was a Shunammite woman who helped him and gave him somewhere to live. When she gave birth to a son so unexpectedly there was much joy. Joy turned to despair when the son died. And Elisha it was the Shunammite woman turned to … when Elisha came into the house he saw the child lying dead on the bed. As Elijah had done before. He lay upon the child, putting his mouth upon his mouth – and as he lay over him the flesh of the child became warm and the spark of life came back to him. And he lived. And there was great joy.

His travels took him far and wide … far beyond the bounds of his own country … and of all people the one he found himself helping was a high-up commander in the enemy army of the Syrian people. Naaman by name who suffered from leprosy. But Elisha it was who tended to him and brought him healing. A story for another time.

Elijah passed on the mantle to Elisha. Elisha took up the mantle and passed it on too … and the remarkable thing is that for generations people were around to take up the mantle and follow in the footsteps of Elijah and Elisha.

For as long as there were kings in the kingdom there were prophets who stood their ground, had an authority that made its mark as they were mighty in deed and in word.

But the kingdoms fell. First the north. And then the south. And when the people returned, there were prophets a while.

But there seemed to be no one around to take up the mantle.

Years passed. Decades passed. Centuries passed. And things were pretty bad in the big wide world. Empires had come and gone. But this Romoan empire was pretty awesome in its power.

The time was ripe. It was time for someone to take his stand. Word spread. Someone had taken up the mantle. He looked just like Elijah and Elisha. He dressed the same way.

He had a powerful message. What’s needed is a whole new way of thinking. The kingdom’s coming, God’s kingdom it’s upon you, God’s kingdom, God’s rule … that’s what counts.

His name was John, John the Baptist they called him.

But the authorities were out to get him. His days were numbered. And then someone came. Down into the waters of the Jordan. And up out of the waters of the Jordan. And the Spirit of God was upon him. This was the one John had been waiting for and he knew it.

Not long after he was captured.

And then it was Jesus took up the mantle – and took the message on.

What’s needed is a whole new way of thinking. The kingdom’s coming, God’s kingdom it’s upon you, God’s kingdom, God’s rule … that’s what counts.

What would this rule of God be like? It was in his own home town of Nazareth, in that place where people gathered together each week to read from the scriptures that he made it plain.

It was to one of the greatest of all the prophets who took up the mantle from Elijah and from Elisha, Isaiah that he read …

Reading: Luke 4:16-22

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
   because he has anointed me
     to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
   and recovery of sight to the blind,
     to let the oppressed go free,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’
And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, ‘Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’ All spoke well of him and were amazed at the words of grace  that came from his mouth.

But then they began to wonder. Wasn’t this Joseph’s son?

Their wondering turned to rage when Jesus drove his point home with a story from Elijah and a story from Elisha – and they didn’t like what they were reminded of.

Luke 4:24-28

he truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up for three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.’

God’s kingdom is jnot just for our poor, but for everyone, no matter where they are or where they are from. Not just for our captives, not just for our blind. But for everyone, no matter where they are or where they are from.

And at that their amazement turned to rage. And they sought to do to Jesus what the people had done to so many of the prophets before – they sought to put him to death.

Hy-Spirit Song

Activities for all over 3

Taking up the mantle …

Unworthy Inadequate Useful

I love that idea of passing on the mantle.

Elijah knew he couldn’t keep going for ever.

He found a youngster to come alongside him and learn from him.

And when the time came for Elijah’s passing he passed on the mantle.

There’s so much in that story. I love the way Elijah wants to face his passing alone, but Elisha determines to go with him. To journey with him right the way through.

There’s something curious about the world of rugby.

The English sing the story of Elijah and Elisha at every rugby match.

Swing low, sweet chariot coming for to take me home …

While the Welsh sing echoes of the same story … when I tread the verge of Jordan bid my anxious fears subside, death of death and hell’s destruction land me safe on Canaan’s side.

OK, it’s not quite the same story – but it’s using this image of the river as that passing from death to life.

What I like about this story is the way Elisha stays with Elijah. I will go with you “As the Lord lives, and as you yoursaelf live, I will not leave you.”

When someone is approaching their death – we can travel so far with them – and it is so good to make that journey with them. But there comes a point at which they must travel further and we must stay behind.

Sometimes there’s that feeling of ‘taking up the mantle’.

The mantle is passed on through the prophets. It’s taken up by John the Baptist. It’s taken up by Jesus. It’s interesting that Jesus then draws people together so they can take up the mantle from him. Jesus wants his followers not to be passive just journeying … but to be active – making disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey everything he had commanded.

Some may have a special calling to be prophets – but all have a task to take up the mantle in some way and make that voice of Jesus heard in today’s world.

In taking up the mantle from Jesus we have things to learn from the prophets who went before.

What the prophets thought, what they did, what they made of the world of their day in some ways is tied to that time … but in other ways it is timeless and speaks to every generation.

What the prophets thought, what they did, what they made of the world and what they said is recorded in the Bible in the book of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings and then in the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel and in the Book of the Twelve.

Let’s take two of the great Prophets.

First is Isaiah – lives in the 8^th Century BC, based in Jerusalem at a turbulent time when the once proud nation of Israel has divided into two kingdoms - Isaiah knows all that’s happening in the Northern Kingdom but he is based in the southern kingdom. Those in power seem forever to be getting things wrong. What he has to say is recorded in Isaiah 1-39 – and you can read up the story of the Kings who were in power during his lifetime in II Kings.

Next is Jeremiah – lives in the 7^th century BC, again is based in Jerusalem. By his time the Northern Kingdom is no more. All that’s left is the small southern kingdom. And things look pretty bleak as a major world power threatens to do its worst. Jeremiah’s writings are found in the book of Jeremiah and you can read the tragic story of the Kings who were in power during his lifetime in II Kings.

One thing leaps off the page at me when I read up the story of the Prophets against the backdrop of what’s happening at the time. And that is that it’s a world I recognize. It’s a world where those in power too often get it wrong. It’s a world where world-powers are a threat to peace and stability. It’s the world of the kind of headlines we are only too accustomed to.

And into that world these two people are charged with speaking something of God’s word – it’s as if their challenge is to bring the God dimension into the everyday world of their time.

I have a feeling that’s what Jesus is calling us to do who follow in his footsteps. It is to try to figure out what God’s way is for the world – what God is saying in it all.

If our task as followers of Jesus is to put the God dimension into the world – is to say what God has to say about the world. How do you feel about that task.

And the first point I want to make is that it’s scary. And we cannot do it. We’re not up to it.

That’s exactly as Isaiah and Jeremiah felt.

They were not up to it.

So, Isaiah, tell us about that occasion when you had a vision of God and sensed how real God was

Isaiah              In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 

That must have been quite some experience. In your mind’s eye you were in that most holy of holy places in the temple and what did you see in that vision?

Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory.’
The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

It must be hard to put it into words. But in that moment you really felt how real God was. So how did you feel? What did it feel like being in the presence of God. What came into your mind? Did you say anything?

 And I said: ‘Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’

Let’s bring Jeremiah in. Tell us, Jeremiah. Your experience was a little different. You were quite a young man when you felt as if you had a real call from God.

Jeremiah:                   Now the word of the Lord came to me saying,
‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.’ 

What did that feel like? Were you excited? Or did it fill you with fear and trepidation? Were you up for the task? Or were you conscious of your own inadequacies?

Then I said, ‘Ah, Lord God! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy.’

Let’s just pause there a moment – isn’t that fascinating. Here are two of the great figures of the Bible story and they simply sense their own inadequacies. They are not up for the task. Isaiah is not worthy. Jeremiah is just too young and not up for the job.

Do you feel inadequate? Do you feel unworthy? You are in good company!

So, Isaiah, tell us how did you deal with that sense of unworthiness. Let me put that another way, how did God deal with this incredible sense of unworthiness you had?

Isaiah:             Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: ‘Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.’ 

That must have been a remarkable moment – the moment when you realised that God is forgiving, a God of grace, a God who actually reaches out to people who are not worthy.  So what happened next:

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I; send me!’ 

Jeremiah, how did you cope with this sense that you were not ready, you were too young, you were simply inadequate? Put that another way – did you feel God would look for someone better qualified? Or did you sense something else about this  God who was calling …

Jeremiah                    But the Lord said to me,
‘Do not say, “I am only a boy”;
for you shall go to all to whom I send you,
and you shall speak whatever I command you.
Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,

says the Lord.’ 

Isaiah had a very tough message to share with the people of his day. Jeremiah an even tougher message to share with the people of his day. There are tough things to say from God.

So, if you feel unworthy, if you feel inadequate … think of the way God renews and the way God empowers. We can only follow Christ as we accept the forgiveness he gives is for us in our hearts and we can only do as he wants us to as we have a strength from beyond ourselves, the strength of the Holy Spirit.

MTS 10: I the Lord of sea and sky

Setting things right

When you read the prophets you can, with gross over-simplification, see that all the way through their message has to do with two things. First they offer a critique of what’s wrong with the world and how you should put it right. They measure what goes on in the world by what they sense God wants for the world. God’s way for the world is basically summed up in the Ten Commandments. The summary of those commandments is summed up brilliantly in a very Jewish way by Jesus – love God and love your neighbour.

Prophets speak out strongly as an indictment of what’s wrong. Often they speak in terms of judgment. What they do is analyse what’s happening in their world as it is shaped by those in power and they basically say: if you can on doing this … that will happen. And it will be pretty grim. If you take seriously the way God maps out then things will hang together much more effectively.

There are three prophets who are roughly contemporary with Isaiah from the 8^th Century – their analysis of what’s wrong is much the same as Isaiah’s. And their recipe to set things right is much the same too. Amos and Hosea are based in the North and Micah in the South.

Let’s invite Amos to join Isaiah.

Isaiah had his vision in the year that king Uzziah died. You had already been speaking out for God before that hadn’t you? Weren’t you among some of the farming community in the north …

Amos              … the shepherds of Tekoa … in the days of King Uzziah of Judah and in the days of King Jeroboam, son of Joash of Israel, two years before the earthquake.

That was a pretty turbulent time, wasn’t it. If I recall from my reading there was a lot of complacency. When it came to thinking of God people just wanted to have really great times of worship … and they didn’t want to get involved in shaping what society should be like. There was some wonderful times of worship, weren’t there? They were great singers. But what did you feel that God was saying to the people? Did he have anything to say about their worship, about their priorities? What did you think God was saying – put it in God’s words …

I hate, I despise your festivals,
   and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
Even though you offer me your burnt-offerings and grain-offerings,
   I will not accept them;
and the offerings of well-being of your fatted animals
   I will not look upon.
Take away from me the noise of your songs;
   I will not listen to the melody of your harps.

But let justice roll down like waters,
   and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. 

The prophets work out what that would mean in their day … and we need to in ours. We need to say what’s wrong and how we could put it right. These are the principles of justice. When Jesus took up the mantle from John the Baptist he was stepping into the shoes of this great line of prophets.

There is a challenge to our complacency – at every turn it is our task to try to work out what that means in our society. We can take that analysis, see the way Jesus took it forward .. and speak out.

There’s critique and analysis, scathing indictment of what’s wrong – a pattern for what is right – and that is the message of the prophets.

Hymn: The kingdom of God is justice and joy

Hope and Promise

But there is something else – promise and hope too.

There were three contemporaries of Jeremiah in those even more troubled times. Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah.

Favourite among the three for me is Habakkuk.

He was in Jerusalem as the Babylonian world power was approaching, as the siege engines were being put in place. Jeremiah was there too. Jeremiah had a great hope for the future. He bought a field – as if to say – there’s going to be a future in spite of everything.

Habakkuk stood with the watchmen on the towers of the city and saw the advancing armies – and what he saw was pretty terrifying. He, like all the others sensed God with him. And then he expressed some wonderful words.

These are words to hold on to when we feel on the point of being overwhelmed by the awful things happening in our world. Hold on to the hope. Hold on to the promise.

Habakkuk                  Though the fig tree does not blossom,
   and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olive fails
   and the fields yield no food;
though the flock is cut off from the fold
   and there is no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
   I will exult in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
   he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
   and makes me tread upon the heights. 

Three things to remember

However unworthy you feel, however inadequate , God is with you to forgive, to renew, to restore – look to Jesus and know it’s true.

God’s word offers a critique of what’s wrong in our world and the way to set things right – our responsibility is to work through what that takes – and we do that as followers of Jesus, the Jesus who brought to fulfilment that message of the prophets

There’s always hope – a firm hope that hope expressed so powerfully by Habakkuk is a hope we share that is rooted in Jesus and the presence of Jesus with us come what may.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

333 The kingdom of God is justice and joy

OBG 39 For I’m building + Come, let’s follow the way of the Lord

Prayers of Concern

581 Glory be to God

Words of Blessing

It's good to talk

It’s good to talk!

No one knew that better than John Lewis who for so many years served this church in the service of his Master.  John knew how important that was because he was a good listener.  That’s why he was appointed our Senior Deacon.  That’s what drew him to the Samaritans.  It was his gift as a listener that drew the Samaritans locally to appoint him their Director and the Samaritans nationally to make him a Vice President.

They both loved literature and specially loved Shakespeare.  They went regularly to Stratford.  Ten years ago in March they saw their last play together: it was King Lear.  Shortly after, Hilary’s illness worsened and she knew it would not long before her passing.  She it was who decided that she wanted us all to share the very last six lines of King Lear at the thanksgiving service after her death.

It’s good to talk about death.  And good to talk about the death we know we will face at some point.  What a morbid topic for the weekend of the Queen's Birthday celebrations when we are having our very own Street Party with neighbours from the Terrace!  For us as Christians, it is not a morbid topic.  It’s a topic we can talk about because we know ‘death has been swallowed up in victory; death has lost its sting.’  It has always been one of the loveliest parts of my ministry when people have talked with me about their own death and what they would like to happen.  It has been my privilege subsequently to sit with their close ones and very occasionally with the medical professionals sharing their thoughts as I recall them and often as they have written them down.  And all done in the ‘sure and certain hope of resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ’.

It's good to talk in anticipation of our own death.

And it’s good to talk following the death of a loved one.  Maybe that’s what Hilary knew as she anticipated the sadness we would all be feeling at that service of thanksgiving.

The last six lines of King Lear are made of three couplets.  The middle couplet sums up all that meant so much to John Lewis as a good listener and a good ‘Samaritan’.

The weight of this sad time we must obey;

Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.

Our society is facing a major crisis in mental health among young people.  In response to that crisis the decision was taken to appoint a mental health champion for schools.  When I googled ‘mental health champion’ two consecutive headlines caught my eye. 

The first read, “First ever mental health champion for schools unveiled” 30 Aug 2015 - The Department for Education's ( DfE ) first ever mental health champion for schools will help to raise awareness and reduce the stigma around ... young people’s mental health”

The second read, “Mental health champion for UK schools axed after criticising ... 4 May 2016 - The government has dropped its mental health champion for schools after she publicly criticised current education policies, in particular the testing regime which she claims is detrimental to children’s mental health.”

John was a teacher, as was his wife Hilary.  John taught French.  Hilary taught English.  As fellow teachers and pupils at his thanksgiving testified, and as former pupils testified too, they were both the kind of teachers who inspired as they excelled in their teaching.  Natasha Devon has some very disturbing things to say about what’s happening in our schools to our children, and for that matter to our teachers.  The relentless grind of children having to face questions that require either a yes or a no so that their teachers can spend hours inputting the data they collect into their computers for other teachers to spend hours analyzing that data is damaging to the mental health of the children and of the teachers concerned.

In one of the reports that accompanied that news someone asked what mental health is.  In their reflections they suggested that mental health is about what’s going on inside us in the gap between what we know we feel inside and what we let other people see.  The point is that all of us have issues with our mental health at one time or another.  When the gap between what we feel and what we let others see is towards the small end, that’s when our mental health is reasonably well.  As that gap increases so that’s an indication that our mental health is not so good. 

That’s the kind of moment when it’s good to talk.  And it’s good to find someone who will be able to listen.  That’s the tragedy we see unfolding in our schools.  Because of all that data inputting and intensive marking and because of the enormous reduction in mental health services for children and young people there are fewer and fewer people with the time to listen.

At the same time social media exposes young people to those who are not ‘good’ listeners, whose often inappropriate comments exacerbate the disturbed feelings of our children and young people in a way that no previous generation has experienced before.

That’s what makes it so important to heed the wisdom in those two lines at the very end of King Lear.

The weight of this sad time we must obey;

Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say

It’s what prompted the founding of the Samaritans.  I will never forget the day one of the leading Samaritans in Cheltenham spoke at Highbury.  Because of John’s involvement one of the monthly charities we support is the local branch of Samaritans here in Cheltenham.  That Sunday John had arranged for one of their branch to speak in the service.  He spoke before the sermon.  Had he spoken afterwards, he told me later, he would have had much more to say!

I was preaching on a passage that appears in Matthew 9:18-26, Mark 5:21-43 and Luke 8:40-56.  Jairus, a leader of the synagogue asked Jesus to come to his house as his only daughter, “about twelve years old” was dying.  As he went to see her Jesus was stopped by a woman who had suffered from severe bleeding “for twelve years”.

In my sermon I recalled how I have a shelf of commentaries on the New Testament practically all written by men.  None of them made the connection obvious to a woman.  It is only in the last thirty years that commentaries have been published in any numbers by women .  They do make the connection.

I am an only child who went to a boys secondary school who had only read commentaries by men.  And so I had not until just before then made the connection.  The onset of menstruation is around the age of 12.  Is it possible the girl’s illness had something to do with what was happening to her body?

I don’t recall how I developed that theme in my preaching.  What I do remember is the comment made by John’s fellow-Samaritan after the service.  If only he had spoken after my sermon!  That’s why the Samaritan movement started.

Chad Varah was a young curate in London when he was asked to do a tragic funeral for a twelve year old girl who had taken her own life.  When he spoke with the family in readiness for the service he learned that the girl had just started her periods and was terrified at what was happening to her.  The norms of her society and the culture of her family was such that she felt she could not talk.

Those very same norms in society and that very same culture in her family meant that no one was prepared to listen.

The girl came to the conclusion that she had contracted an unbelievably painful and life-threatening illness that could not be cured and so she decided to end her own life.

Chad Varah vowed to do all he could to ensure that such a person would be able to talk and that someone would be there to listen.

So it was that he founded what has become an international organization, The Samaritans, who are always there to listen at any time of the day … so long as people are prepared to talk.

Later in this edition of Highbury News is the tribute I paid to John.   Who knows someone reading this may be prompted to offer themselves to serve as a Samaritan.  Someone else may be prompted to pick up the phone and ring the Samaritans.  Both would be paying John the finest tribute he would want to have.

The weight of this sad time we must obey;

Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say