Open your hearts wide!

Enthusiastic.

Passionate.

Those two words really do sum Paul up.

There’s one moment in the course of his correspondence with a troubled church in the very cosmopolitan Corinth when you can catch a glimpse of just how enthusiastic and passionate Paul was.

2 Corinthians 6:1-12

In our work together with God, then, we beg you who have received God's grace not to let it be wasted. 2 Hear what God says:

“When the time came for me to show you favour

I heard you;

when the day arrived for me to save you,

I helped you.”

Listen! This is the hour to receive God's favour; today is the day to be saved!

3 We do not want anyone to find fault with our work, so we try not to put obstacles in anyone's way. 4 Instead, in everything we do we show that we are God's servants by patiently enduring troubles, hardships, and difficulties. 5 We have been beaten, imprisoned, and mobbed; we have been overworked and have gone without sleep or food.

6 By our purity, knowledge, patience, and kindness we have shown ourselves to be God's servants — by the Holy Spirit, by our true love, 7 by our message of truth, and by the power of God. We have righteousness as our weapon, both to attack and to defend ourselves. 8 We are honoured and disgraced; we are insulted and praised. We are treated as liars, yet we speak the truth; 9 as unknown, yet we are known by all; as though we were dead, but, as you see, we live on. Although punished, we are not killed; 10 although saddened, we are always glad; we seem poor, but we make many people rich; we seem to have nothing, yet we really possess everything.

11 Dear friends in Corinth! We have spoken frankly to you; we have opened our hearts wide. 12 It is not we who have closed our hearts to you; it is you who have closed your hearts to us. 13 I speak now as though you were my children: show us the same feelings that we have for you. Open your hearts wide!

Such enthusiasm, such passion is not for everyone. Some there are who are the enthusiasts, they are the ones who are enthusiastic. Some there are who are passionate about things. But it’s not for everyone.

Paul wasn’t so sure.

I love that expression he uses of himself in verse 11.

Dear friends in Corinth! We have spoken frankly to you; we have opened our hearts wide!

That’s the phrase he uses – his heart is wide open as he has a massive heart for all he does. That’s the passion. That’s the enthusiasm.

And Paul is not willing to accept that he should be the only one with the enthusiasm and the passion.

Paul is critical of the lack of enthusiasm, the lack of passion of the Corinthians. “It is not we who have closed our hearts to you; it is you who have closed your hearts to us.”

Then he goes on to speak in a kind and fatherly way …

I speak now as though you were my children:

Show us the same feelings that we have for you.

Then comes a wonderful invitation.

Open your hearts wide!

I love that invitation.

Open your hearts wide!

Let’s not leave it to the few to be enthusiastic, passionate. Open your hearts wide!

Let the enthusiasm rise up: don’t stifle it. Open your hearts wide!

My guess is that most of us, all of us have some things we feel strongly about. We may keep it to ourselves. One of the key things to releasing the energy that is latent in a church is to identify the things people are passionate about and then to harness that feeling of passion.

It’s good to identify what it is we feel passionate about … and then to release that into the life of the church. Open your hearts wide!

Most things we feel passionate about we can harness into the life of the church.

1. We need a standard – a measure by which to measure what we do feel enthusiastic and passionate about.

2. We need a focus - something in church that is an over-arching thing to arouse our enthusiasm and passion.

3. And we need a strength - to enable to sustain our enthusiasm and our passion.

It is fascinating to see how at each stage Paul has something to say to help us.

1. We need a standard - a measure by which to measure what we do feel enthusiastic and passionate about.

Paul gives us precisely the measure we need in 2 Corinthians 5:14.

We are ruled by the love of Christ.

Most of the things we are passionate about can be brought under the rule of Christ. Maybe we are passionate about our work – it is important to remember that the sphere of work, work practices, the things that you do, the values you adhere to are ‘ruled by the love of Christ’.

Maybe we are passionate about an interest – sport - how we play the game, how we express our support from the terraces … all are ruled by the love of Christ.

Maybe we are passionate about a cause – use this as a rule of thumb. Is the cause you are passionate about one that can be said to be ruled by the love of Christ. Are you passionate about moral issues … in your passion for those moral issues be ruled by the love of Christ. Are you passionate about political issues, be ruled by the love of Christ.

If you sense that a political cause is not ruled by the love of Christ, that the way in which a moral cause is being pursued is not ruled by the love of Christ … check what it is that you are passionate and enthusiastic about and think again.

As we are ruled by Christ the task in church is to harness those things we feel passionate about to shape the life of the church. Over the years we have had a passion for mission – support of the mission boxes, the CWM birthday scheme, but also doing mission, Alpha locally, serving in the community, use of premises, international justice and care – Christian Aid. A passion for being inclusive of people – in our access, a passion for the environment?

I have a passion for training – I want to share with others.

As we open our hearts wide, let what we are passionate about be ruled by the love of Christ.

2. We need a focus - something in church that is an over-arching thing to arouse our enthusiasm and passion.

In the lead up to this passage in chapter 6 of 2 Corinthians Paul speaks of the one over-arching thing that is at the heart of all that makes him so passionate, all that fills him with such enthusiasm. He comes back to the same thing in various ways time and time again.

It is in verses 19 and 20.

We are to be ambassadors for Chrsit

Our message is that God was making the whole human race his friends through Christ. God did not keep an account of their sins, and he has given us the message which tells how he makes them his friends.

The NRSV puts it in a way that arouses my passion and fills me with enthusiasm.

In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself

This is the nub of the matter.

The world is out of joint. But in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself. In Christ God is putting the world back together again. That’s something to be passionate about. That’s something to be enthusiastic about. Open your hearts wide!

That entails a wonderful sense of forgiveness – in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them.

That’s the liberating thing. Whatever has gone wrong, whoever has gone wrong, whatever is falling apart, whoever is fallen apart in Christ God is there to put it back together again, not counting all those wrongs, but wiping them away.

This is something of a thrill in a world where we are conscious of so much that goes wrong. I want to be part of that. And that’s exactly what Paul wants of us.

Open your heart wide! He says to each one of us – you need to be part of this.

In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ!

That’s the thing.

Open your hearts wide.

Catch the enthusiasm.

Be ambassadors for Christ

Exactly what was said by Marcus Borg at Mansfield yesterday at a service to mark 123 years of ministerial training … coming to an end. It was a bitter-sweet day.

In the afternoon Marcus Borg, a NT scholar who had studied at Mansfield under George Caird revieed 50 years of Jesus scholarship. Fascinating. He came to an end suggesting that the most recent scholarship feels that the Jesus of history is someone we can uncover and meet with.

He asked the question what would his message be?

What was Jesus’ passion – what was he pawssionate about?

And the answer he gave – God and the Kingdom of God.

His message to us?

• Be passionate about God: centre in God
• Participate in God’s passion for the world. Change the world.

It was wonderful – great stuff.

But one thing more is needed.

Something is lacking.

We not only need a standard and focus …

3. we need a strength

It is only possible to be enthusiastic to be passionate by drawing on a strength beyond ourselves. The words carry that meaning with them. My dictionary tells me that enthusiasm comes from the Greek word enthousiasmos – a god-inspired zeal, from enthousiazein to be inspired by a god, from en meaning in and theos meaning a god.

Passion comes from the Lation passio passionis from pati passus – meaning to suffer. When you are passionate about something you are keen enough on it to be prepared to suffer for it.

Enthusiastic.

Passionate.

Those two words really do sum Paul up … they give the clue to what we need in order to sustain an enthusiasm and a passion that is ruled by the love of Christ and makes us Ambassadors for Christ.

Paul speaks of all the sufferings, troubles, hardships, difficulties he has endured – 6:5 being beaten, imprisoned, mobbed, overworked, deprived of sleep.

Then in verse 8 he says something very telling. It is something we need to draw on. We don’t just have something to be enthusiastic and passionate about, we have something to infuse our enthusiasm and passion with, something to give it the enduring strength it needs.

He speaks of showing himself to be God’s servants by the characteristics of his life – they are ones we would do well to nurture within ourselves – purity, knowledge, patience, kindness. These are the things that our enthusiasms and passions need to be infused with.

Then come four sources of strength – by the Holy Spirit, by our true love, by our message of truth, and by the power of God.

BUT EVEN THEN … we must be realistic. We must be down to earth. We must get real! It is not all plain sailing. There will be the storms. There will be the peaks and the troughs.

8 We are honoured and disgraced; we are insulted and praised. We are treated as liars, yet we speak the truth; 9 as unknown, yet we are known by all; as though we were dead, but, as you see, we live on.

The thing is that though there will be down times, the victory is God’s – he will be with us. The power we draw on is the strength of the Holy Spirit, the power of God – it is the power of the truth, it is the power of love.

Although punished, we are not killed; 10 although saddened, we are always glad; we seem poor, but we make many people rich; we seem to have nothing, yet we really possess everything.

Then it is that Paul appeals to each one of us

Catch the enthusiasm

Catch the passion.

Open your hearts wide!

Gifts to share ... with unexpected consequences!

It needed to be done!

God had just the right person to do it!

But he did not think so!

And so he ran in the opposite direction.

As fast and as far as he could go.

But then things happened..

For Jonah there was the storm at sea, the cry of man overboard and the proverbial whale.

His life fell apart and everything went wrong.

The wonderful thing about God in the story of Jonah is that Jonah has a second chance

I love chapter 3 verse 1

The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time …

Second chance.

Same job.

Same person.

Same gifts.

And was Jonah the right person for the job.

He preached just as God had said.

And there is amazement in the story. The people of Nineveh listened.

Why tell that story now?

It goes back to our Deacons day.

We were thinking of gifts that we can share … and we felt as a diaconate it was timely to reflect on the gifts we share.

It is five years since we did a course that asked the Question Who are we?

We asked people to think about three things.

What are you passionate about?

What gifts do you have?

What kind of a person are you?

The course came to an end at Christmas and so we asked people to put a description of the person they are into a Treasure chest that was on the wall on the left.

We then sorted out those descriptions of people’s passion, people’s gifts and the kind of people we are.

And then we tried to shape the life of the church in the light of what people said.

It was encouraging in readiness for the Deacons day to re-visit some of the things we planned way back then and see how they have borne fruit.

But not we are five years on.

There are lots of people around now who weren’t around then.

Those of us who were around then have moved on.

Things have happened in our lives that make us different people.

I for one have gone up a generation!

Let’s revisit that thinking. Let’s think what are we passionate about, what gifts do we have, what kind of a person are we.

The wonderful thing is that God has given all of us gifts. Natural talents we are born with. Skills we acquire. And those gifts of God’s spirit that equip us to do the jobs God wants.

There are blurry lines between all three.

Look through the books of the NT and it is fascinating to see the range of gifts that are mentioned in quite a number of letters. Bring all of them together and there is the kind of mix that put it all together and you make a really good team.

Network summary of gifts.

Many of the gifts that God gives to his people are

listed in a number of key passages in the Bible.

The list is far-ranging and all-encompassing as it

enables us to find out what it is that God wants us

to do. The key passages are I Corinthians 12:8-

10, 28; Romans 12:6-8; Ephesians 4:1; I Peter

4:9-10; Exodus 31:3; I Timothy 2:1-2; Psalm 150.

Answer Yes, Somewhat, No or ? To each of the

following statements and it may help you to find

out your own gifts ... or if you did the exercise for

someone else, you might be able to help them

identify their strengths:

I have, or my friend has, strengths in ...

... Developing strategies, organising people, tasks,

and events; creating order out of organisational

chaos - Administration.

... Pioneering new undertakings (such as a new

church or ministry); serving in another country or

community; - Apostleship

... working creatively with wood, cloth, metal,

paints, glass etc; making or building things, working

with your hands – Craftsmanship

... Communicating creatively with art, drama,

music, photography, design and communicating in

new ways to others - Creative Communication

... Distinguishing between truth and error, good

and evil, good judge of character – Discernment

... Strengthening and reassuring troubled people;

encouraging, challenging or motivating people,

supporting others to take action Encouragement

... Sharing faith with others, talking about your

faith with people who don’t believe – Evangelism

... Trusting God to answer prayer and encouraging

others to do so; having confidence in God eve in

difficult times and helping others – Faith

... Giving generously and joyfully to people or

projects in financial need – Giving

... Working behind the scenes to support the work

of others; finding small things that need to be done

and doing them without being asked – Helps

... Meeting new people and helping to make them

feel welcome; entertaining guests – Hospitality

... Continually offering to pray for others, trusting

in God’s provision, - Intercession

... Carefully studying and researching subjects you

want to understand better, sharing knowledge and

insights with others – Knowledge

... Taking responsibility for directing groups;

others to reach important goals - Leadership

... Empathizing with hurting people; patiently and

lovingly supporting people through painful experiences

- Mercy

... Speaking with conviction in order to bring change in

the lives of others; exposing cultural trends, teachings,

or events that are morally wrong; speaking out for

justice in society - Prophecy

... Faithfully providing long-term support and nurture

for individuals and groups of people; providing guidance

for the whole person - Pastoral Care

... Studying, understanding, and communicating God’s

word, making connections with the world around us,

and communicating that effectively - Teaching

... Seeing simple, practical solutions in the midst of

conflict or confusion; giving helpful advice to others

facing complicated life situations - Wisdom

Reflecting on this range of gifts may help you identify

what it is that you are best able to do as you serve

God in the fellowship of the church. The wonderful

thing is that God gives each of us gifts that are different

and wants us to be the people we are as we use

the gifts he has given us in serving one another.

That’s the way that the love of God will flow through

us into the lives of other people too.

Jonah had his second chance: he excelled in the gifts God knew he had.

The people listened.

And there were unexpected consequences.

The people of Nineveh changed their ways.

Jonah had declared destruction would come upon them.

It didn’t.

God’s love was so much greater than Jonah had ever imagined.

And Jonah could not understand it!!

The climax to the story of Jonah contains within it a lesson for us all …

Jonah 4

1 Jonah was very unhappy about this and became angry. 2 So he prayed, “Lord, didn't I say before I left home that this is just what you would do? That's why I did my best to run away to Spain! I knew that you are a loving and merciful God, always patient, always kind, and always ready to change your mind and not punish.

3 Now, Lord, let me die. I am better off dead than alive.”

4 The Lord answered, “What right have you to be angry?”

5 Jonah went out east of the city and sat down. He made a shelter for himself and sat in its shade, waiting to see what would happen to Nineveh. 6 Then the Lord God made a plant grow up over Jonah to give him some shade, so that he would be more comfortable. Jonah was extremely pleased with the plant. 7 But at dawn the next day, at God's command, a worm attacked the plant, and it died. 8 After the sun had risen, God sent a hot east wind, and Jonah was about to faint from the heat of the sun beating down on his head. So he wished he were dead.

“I am better off dead than alive,” he said.

9 But God said to him, “What right have you to be angry about the plant?”

Jonah replied, “I have every right to be angry — angry enough to die!”

10 The Lord said to him, “This plant grew up in one night and disappeared the next; you didn't do anything for it, and you didn't make it grow — yet you feel sorry for it! 11 How much more, then, should I have pity on Nineveh, that great city. After all, it has more than 120,000 innocent children in it, as well as many animals!” The Good News Bible

At the end of the day it is the wonder of God’s love that counts. Put the gifts God has given to good use and be surprised by God’s love and all that it can do!

Good News for All!

To bring good news to the poor,
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.

That was God given task, the Spirit anointed task, Jesus explained in Nazareth to the people he had grown up with, that lay at the heart of the ministry he was just starting on.

And they all loved him for it.

“All spoke well of him and were amazed at the words of grace that came from his mouth.”

And then he went on to say something more.

“When they heard this all in the synagogue were filled with rage. They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.”

What did he say that so changed the mood that Sabbath day in Nazareth?

Jesus told two stories.

One was the story of Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath. In the days of Elijah there was a severe famine and throughout Israel there were many widows who were in great need. But Elijah didn’t help any of them. The widow he helped was from beyond the borders of Israel, she was not Jewish, she was a foreigner.

The other story Jesus told was the story of the healing of Naaman the Syrian commander who suffered from leprosy. In the days of Elisha leprosy was a scourge in Israel. Many throughout Israel suffered from what was at that time a frightening disease. But Elisha didn’t help any of them. The leprosy sufferer he did help was from beyond the borders of Israel, he was not Jewish, he was a foreigner. Naaman was a commander of the Syrian Army to the North East of Israel.

The poor, the captives, the blind and the oppressed Jesus had come to make a difference for were not just the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed, of our people. Jesus had come to bring wholeness and release, salvation and redemption to all people, regardless of race, regardless of religion.

That was what those people in Nazareth could not take. When Jesus ‘passed through the midst of them and went on his way’ he went on his way to bring good news to Jew and Gentile alike, to all wherever they may be.

It is the inclusiveness of Jesus’ message, the world dimension of the good news he came to share, that drove the rest of his ministry, and drives the work of the church today.

Beware the Nazareth mindset that says it’s our poor, our captives, our blind, our oppressed that must be our priority.

Remember the Jesus mandate: for the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed not just of our people, our race, our religion, but of all people, every race and every religion.

I for one am with Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, when he warns of the dangers of the British National Party. What that party stands for is contrary to the teachings of Jesus, and it is important that we in the church are clear about that in our teaching, not least because as a party they are making a claim to Christianity for support.

God so loved the world. That is the heart of the Gospel we share.

The two stories Jesus used that day in Nazareth have something to say to us here at Highbury.

Five years ago we did a course and asked the question ‘Who are we?’ Who are we, the people who make up Highbury? Then let’s recognise that God has brought us together into this church family and he knows just who we are and what we are capable of. So each one of us was prompted to think of three things …

What am I passionate about as a Christian?

What gifts do I have that I can share?

What kind of a person am I? Up front, or in the background.

As that process came to an end Christmas was approaching and we decided to think of the Wise Men offering their treasures to Christ and so we put a ‘Treasure Chest’ on the wall. And we asked people to write the answers to those questions.

We then set about a process allowing the people we are, with our passions, our gifts and our own personalities, to shape the life of the church.

A fortnight ago at our Deacons Day Becky encouraged us to re-visit the plans we made as a result. And it was encouraging to see how much has come to fruition, not least in our work with children and young people, the appointment of Becky and the different ways we have followed in the administration of our church life.

But that was five years ago.

Those of us who put things into the treasure chest are now five years older … and in each of our lives much has happened. Circumstances have changed. We may have other things we are passionate about now. We may feel we have other gifts to share now. Circumstances may have changed us.

And in those five years it’s been great to welcome others to our church family too.

We need to think of what we, the people who make up our church, are passionate about, what gifts we have, what kind of people we are and harness those to the work of Christ’s kingdom in this place.

That’s where the story of Elijah and the Widow of Zarephath comes in, that’s where the story of Elisha and Naaman, the Syrian Commander, comes in.

1 Kings 17:8-16

Then the Lord said to Elijah, “Now go to the town of Zarephath, near Sidon, and stay there. I have commanded a widow who lives there to feed you.” So Elijah went to Zarephath, and as he came to the gate of the town, he saw a widow gathering firewood. “Please bring me a drink of water,” he said to her. And as she was going to get it, he called out, “And please bring me some bread, too.”

She answered, “By the living Lord your God I swear that I haven't got any bread. All I have is a handful of flour in a bowl and a drop of olive oil in a jar. I came here to gather some firewood to take back home and prepare what little I have for my son and me. That will be our last meal, and then we will starve to death.”

“Don't worry,” Elijah said to her. “Go ahead and prepare your meal. But first make a small loaf from what you have and bring it to me, and then prepare the rest for you and your son. For this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘The bowl will not run out of flour or the jar run out of oil before the day that I, the Lord, send rain.’ ”

The widow went and did as Elijah had told her, and all of them had enough food for many days. As the Lord had promised through Elijah, the bowl did not run out of flour nor did the jar run out of oil.


50 years ago this year that story spoke to Margaret Torrie. A Quaker and a Peace Activist, she had a passion for the plight of widows for whom the state made very little provision, who had few property rights, and were often the victim of unscrupulous landlords. And so thinking of the Widow of Zarephath she set up an organisation to support initially widows in their bereavement. Over the last fifty years, the organisation she founded has become one of the biggest providers of support for all who are bereaved.

Elijah offered the widow in the story a promise from God – that God would sustain her and that his support would not stop – in the words of the Authorised Version so loved of Margaret Torrie, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, ‘The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail …

So it was that the bereavement support group, Cruse, came into being. This year it celebrates its fiftieth anniversary and still it gives real support to people in bereavement.

Often it is the very adverse circumstances that perhaps initially make it impossible for us to share with others, that in the fullness of time, become the very thing that make it possible for us to share support in ways that before those circumstances had arisen were impossible.

It is that kind of mutual support that we are able to give one another in a church family such as ours that can make all the difference.

How good too to support Cruse with the expertise that they bring to bereavement care and counselling.

2 Kings 5

Naaman, the commander of the Syrian army, was highly respected and esteemed by the king of Syria, because through Naaman the Lord had given victory to the Syrian forces. He was a great soldier, but he suffered from a dreaded skin disease

In one of their raids against Israel, the Syrians had carried off a little Israelite girl, who became a servant of Naaman's wife. One day she said to her mistress, “I wish that my master could go to the prophet who lives in Samaria! He would cure him of his disease.” When Naaman heard of this, he went to the king and told him what the girl had said. The king said, “Go to the king of Israel and take this letter to him.”

So Naaman set out, taking 30,000 pieces of silver, 6,000 pieces of gold, and ten changes of fine clothes. The letter that he took read: “This letter will introduce my officer Naaman. I want you to cure him of his disease.”

When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes in dismay and exclaimed, “How can the king of Syria expect me to cure this man? Does he think that I am God, with the power of life and death? It's plain that he is trying to start a quarrel with me!”

When the prophet Elisha heard what had happened, he sent word to the king: “Why are you so upset? Send the man to me, and I'll show him that there is a prophet in Israel!”

So Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and stopped at the entrance to Elisha's house. Elisha sent a servant out to tell him to go and wash himself seven times in the River Jordan, and he would be completely cured of his disease. But Naaman left in a rage, saying, “I thought that he would at least come out to me, pray to the Lord his God, wave his hand over the diseased spot, and cure me! Besides, aren't the rivers Abana and Pharpar, back in Damascus, better than any river in Israel? I could have washed in them and been cured!”

His servants went up to him and said, “Sir, if the prophet had told you to do something difficult, you would have done it. Now why can't you just wash yourself, as he said, and be cured?” So Naaman went down to the Jordan, dipped himself in it seven times, as Elisha had instructed, and he was completely cured. His flesh became firm and healthy, like that of a child.

The whole point of the Naaman story is that he is a very important person. Commander of the army of the King of Aram, he was a great man and in high favour with his master.

But, great though he is, he is not exempt from the world’s woes. He suffers from leprosy.

There is one person who can help him. If only he will listen.

It is the last person you would expect him to listen to.

It is someone who has been captured by his army, so it’s an enemy. As if that’s not bad enough, it’s a woman. As if that’s not bad enough, it’s a young woman, one who is no more than a girl.

He does listen to her. And with more ups and downs in the story, he eventually meets Elisha, and very reluctantly does what he is asked, and after washing seven times in the river Jordan he is healed of his leprosy.

It is one of those lovely Old Testament stories.

And it hinges on someone very important listening to a young girl, a child.

Becky has joined us to focus on work with families and children.

It is very easy to think of that as a one way thing. We are the grown-ups. We are the ones who count in this church family. We will look after our children and do as much as we can for them. And it’s great Becky has joined us … isn’t she doing such a good job.

But Becky wants us to do something else. She wants us to put ourselves in the position of Naaman and listen to our children. What are they saying to us?

2009 is the Year of the Child. The bible verse that goes with it is from psalm 78 verse 4. We will tell the next generation… That’s all very well. But will we listen to the next generation as well?

The Next Generation – hear the voices of children

Small things make a big difference

Small things

make a big difference

 

The disciples could not believe it.  Jesus knew differently.

 

There is a boy here who has five loaves of barley bread and two fish.  But they will certainly not be enough for all these people.

 

I love the ‘certainty’ in the minds of the disciples.

 

5000 hungry people.  That’s a big problem.

 

5 loaves of barley bread and two fish.  That’s a small amount of food.

 

Jesus took the bread, gave thanks to God, and distributed it to the  people who were sitting there.

 

He did the same with the fish, and they all had as much as they wanted.

 

Small things make a big difference.

 

As I had my fourth refusal in a row, I did begin to wonder.  Is it worth it?  And then as I watched the copper and silver coins sliding into another envelope, I thought to myself, what’s the point?

 

But that envelope is added to another envelope, that street to another street, this church’s collection, to another’s this town’s to another … and the total that is raised makes a world of difference to the One Respe project in the Dominican Republic.  No, not to the One Respe project but to the people served by it.

 

Small things make a big difference.

 

But people want

big things to happen

 

The amazement on the part of those disciples as Jesus gave thanks and distributed first the bread and then the fish to so many people, quickly faded.

 

It wasn’t big enough to satisfy their longings.

 

They were insistent … “What miracle will you perform so that we may see it and believe you?  What will you do?  Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, just as the scripture says, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.

 

They longed for something really big to happen.

 

Isn’t that our impatience as well.  We look to God to make a big difference – something dramatic in a world of need.   And the drama doesn’t happen.  It’s just the small things we see.  And a little bit of us wants something more.

 

It was the morning after I had done my collecting.  Roy Jenkins, one-time minister of the Baptist church I attended in Bangor did thought for the day.  It’s more than thirty years since he founded the smallest of organisations based in Wales called Christians against Torture.  He and Liz and the other members of that group have corresponded with the victims of torture and with governments the world over.  A tiny drop in the ocean.  And yet, letters from people who have been helped, policies that have changed, not least in Guantanmo.  Small things count.  And he quoted a lovely saying of the Dalai Lama.  ‘People who say little things don’t make a difference have never slept in bed with a mosquito!’

 

The disciples asked a question of Jesus.

 

What can we do in order to do what God wants us to do?

 

Maybe that’s the key.  What is important is for us to do what God wants us to do, regardless of the outcomes we can actually see.

 

So what is it that God wants us to do.

 

Jesus is clear.

 

What God wants you to do is to believe in the one he sent.

 

Our faith focuses on Jesus Christ.  It is his smallness, his vulnerableness, that draws us to him.

 

The Greatness of God's love

embodied in the small, vulnerable Jesus

 

And that involves taking him at his word.  Jesus is the one who embodies the very nature of God … and the very nature of God, John tells us, is love.  You see it in the teaching of Jesus, in the healing of Jesus, in the cross of Jesus, in the resurrection of Jesus.

 

 

If Jesus is the embodiment of God’s love, then we make up the body of Christ, we are the embodiment of Christ in all his love.

 

We are to make real in our lives and in what we do the reality of God that we find in Jesus.

 

Believe in Jesus

be the embodiment of God's love

 

We can be sure.

 

Small things

make a big difference

 

And the small things that make a difference are the small things of God.  As John puts it in 1 John 4.

---

God is love

---

This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God,

---

but that he loved us and sent his Son

to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.

---

Dear friends, if this is how God loved us, then we should love one another.

---

No one has ever seen God, but if we love one another, God lives in union with us,

and his love is made perfect in us.

We've arrived!

All the party were up at the crack of dawn and the Castelways coach left the Royal Well at exactly 3-45.

Fog resulted in an hour's delay at Heathrow. But by 10-00 we were in the air and on our way to the Holy Land.

We arrived at Tel Aviv an hour late and Joanne and our bus were waiting for us. Within an hour and a half we were through the checkpoint and into Bethlehem. The Star hotel is in a stunning location. It seems to be on one of the highest points in the city of Bethlehem. After unpacking we were introduced to the restaurant and a delicious meal of tasy salad. But most impressive of all was the stunning view from the restaurant over Bethlehem and the surrounding mountains.

The panoramic windows make it feel as if you are on top of the world. We look across at the church of the nativity.

And in the morning we shall be visiting the church and getting our pilgrimage under way.

But at the end of a long day it is time to close.

Walls and what to do with them!

Walls have a beauty all their own in the countryside, and dry stone walls have a special beauty, not least here in the Cotswolds.

 

We couldn’t do without walls.  They keep the rain out and the warmth in and what makes the Englishman’s castle.

 

Walls make this place what it is – a place of tranquillity in the middle of a busy world.

 

Walls have a beauty of their own.

 

Walls can be sinister.  Do remember us in your prayers as we travel to a place of walls.  On Tuesday, all being well, our coach will drive us through the wall to the Star Hotel in Bethlehem.  For Israel it is a security fence, for Palestinians an apartheid wall.

 

Bethlehem is not the only place where walls are sinister.  Only this week the Belfast peace wall has again been in the news.  Another stretch of wall has been built.  Disturbing to hear a speaker from a church in Belfast speak of the continuing need for walls in that city in spite of the peace process.

 

Walls can make for security, for consiness and warmth.

 

And walls can divide.

 

Paul had no time for the walls that divide.  The joy of the good news he came to proclaim was the Jesus had torn down the dividing wall of hostility that separated Jew and Gentile, Male and Female, Slave and Free

 

For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both groups into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us. He has abolished the law with its commandments and ordinances, so that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both groups to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it. So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near; for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father.

 

He was convinced … in Christ we are a new creation, there is no longer Jew and Gentile, man and woman, slave and free … we are all one in Christ Jesus.

 

That’s the good news.  That’s the vision.  That’s the dream.

 

And the tragedy of the Christian church is that so often we have built the walls again.  And the walls have been dividing walls of hostility.

 

And those walls go up not just in Belfast, not just in Bethlehem, but much nearer to home.

 

Between churches, between families, within churches, within families, in the work place, in the community it is so easy for dividing walls of hostility to be built up.

 

Not only is it a tragedy, but it is also a travesty of all that we stand for as followers of Jesus.

 

How can we tear down the dividing walls of hostility?

 

How can we live out the oneness of humanity Jesus himself embodied and called us to embody too?

 

Not only did we visit the National Stone centre while we were at our annual Ministers conference in Derbyshire.  We also had a week that seemed daunting to go to, not least as we were on tenterhooks anticipating Lake’s arrival.

 

I was looking forward to sharing a session feeding back my experiences of a year ago in visiting Tantur, taking part in a Journey of Reconciliation and in anticipation of our visit this week.

 

I pulled out an old talk, an old PowerPoint presentation.  I took as my theme Conflict and Reconciliation.  I explored the way in which we were encouraged to look through the eyes of the other.  Only as we cultivate the art of what one writer, Miroslav Volf called, Double vision – seeing through the other’s eyes, can we hope to seek understanding and work for reconciliation.

 

It was deeply moving to hear Jan Berry speak the next day.  Her father was killed in the Brighton Bombing.  Her life had been tunred upside down and inside out.  Quietly and in a riveting way she spoke of her decision to seek out the person convicted for the bombing.

 

She eventually met him.

 

They talked.

 

At first he simply justified himself.

 

But as they talked she began to see through his eyes.  She could begin to understand, so she told us.

 

And he began to see through her eyes, eyes filled with tears.

 

They have come together, sometimes more easily than at others, and together they are working on a Forgiveness project which seeks to bring people together and talk with each other.

 

Not simply seeing through the other’s eyes, but feeling with them … and working for forgiveness and for reconciliation.  They hope to take their project to the Holy Land and work towards getting victims on both sides of a conclict talking with each other.

 

But how do we prevent the walls going up?  How do we tear the walls down?

 

John Campbell, the Principal of Northern College, took us to three chapters in 1 Corithians I have to confess I had not taken on board much at all.

 

Corinth was a church that had walls, not the kind that make for security and warmth, but the kind that lead to bitter hostility.

 

Different groups went their own way, each convinced they were right.

 

One issue that divided them was an issue it is difficult for us to understand today, and so good reason not to dwell much on these chapters.

 

Should you as a Christian, or should you not eat food that had been presented as an offering in a pagan temple.

 

Some were adamant – what kind of food you eat makes no difference whatsoever as a Christian.

 

Others were equally adamant – food that had been used in the setting of a pagan temple should not be touched on any account.

 

It was an issue that was tearing the church apart.

 

And the fact it had become an issue to tear the church apart angered Paul.

 

Something was profoundly amiss.

 

Although that issue is not a live one for us today, what Paul said into that issue is profound in its implications for us today as we seek to follow Christ and tear down those dividing walls of hostility.

 

Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that ‘all of us possess knowledge.’

 

 

In so many disputes this is the starting point.  Each side knows!

 

The snag is that kind of knowledge that really knows the rights and wrongs of an issue is too often the kind of knowledge that leaves no room for the thing that is of the very essence of the God who is at the heart of our Christian faith, love.

 

Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.²Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; ³but anyone who loves God is known by him.

 

Whenever an argument rages in a church context about doctrine that is in danger of building up dividing walls of hostility, take care.

 

Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

 

That’s a slogan to come back to!

 

What Paul next does is to take sides.  He sees through the eyes of those who say, ‘it doesn’t matter what you eat’.  And he develops their argument.  And it is watertight.  It is absoulutely clear.

 

Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that ‘no idol in the world really exists’, and that ‘there is no God but one.’ ⁵Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords— ⁶yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

 

 

There you have it.  That’s it in a nutshell.  The argument is resolved.  Paul’s knowledge has won the day for one side.

 

But wait a moment.  Paul does not leave it there.

 

He recognises that not everyone has this knowledge.  They are convinced that to eat food offered in a pagan temple will damage them.  They may be misguided in so thinking, but Paul considers that something takes precedence over the validity of the argument.

 

They may be misguided. But don’t damage their conscience!

 

12 But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. ¹³Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall. 

 

In chapter 9 Paul speaks of his own way of being an Apostle – we’ll finish with what he says there.

 

But in chapter 10 he comes back to the point of contention.  And this time he argues cogently for the opposite case.  Instead of starting with first principles, he goes to the Bible and chapter 10 is a closely argued case for not eating certain kinds of food especially when it has been offered in a pagan temple.

 

Paul is putting the opposite case.  And it is a convincing argument.  The argument seems to be clinched with reference to the supreme importance of communion..  But even there in communion a higher order prevails.

 

Eating and drinking bread and wine is at the heart of Christian practice.

 

The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? ¹⁷Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. ¹

 

 

 

It is apparent that a good case can be made out for both sides of the argument and that is precisely what Paul does.

 

But something is more important.

 

All things are lawful.

 

A good case can be made out on both sides of this argument.  Both are in line with the teachings of the Law, both are in line with the ways of God.

 

‘All things are lawful’, but not all things are beneficial.

 

Then comes a key verse in the context of any church disputes.

 

²⁴Do not seek your own advantage, but that of others.

 

This suggested John Campbell is the nub of the matter.

 

The big issue, he suggested, is not how you win the argument, but how you treat each other.

 

Conscience is all important … but not so much your conscience

 

²⁹I mean the other’s conscience, not your own. 

 

Not how you win the argument, but how you treat each other.

 

31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. ³²Give no offence to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, ³³just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, so that they may be saved.

 

This is none other than the way of Christ.

 

Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. 11.1

 

In chapter 10 Paul sets out the authority on which his knowledge is based.  And it is a pretty awesome authority.  He extols the freedom he has as an Apostle of Christ.

 

But one principle prevails when it comes to this kind of argument.

 

²⁴Do not seek your own advantage, but that of others.

 

 

That is something Paul takes very seriously indeed.

 

The importance of ‘other regard’ is the key to the kind of forgiveness project Jo Berry and                        are involved in.

 

That kind of ‘double vision’ that enables you to see through the eyes of the other.  This is the key to breaking down the dividing wall of hostility.

 

The big issue, he suggested, is not how you win the argument, but how you treat each other.

 

Get that right and so much else will follow – in a church context, in a family context, in a national context, in a Belfast context, in a Bethlehem context … wherever those dividing walls of hostility raise their ugly heads.

 

For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. ²⁰To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. ²¹To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law) so that I might win those outside the law. ²²To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, so that I might by any means save some. ²³I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.