Tag Archives: Sermon

Don’t Let it Die Out

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Today I had the opportunity to preach at my church. Here is the sermon I gave.

The two texts were Jeremiah 35 and 1 Corinthians 15: 1-8.

There was a craftsman who was getting old, his eyes and hands noticeably deteriorating, and clearly recognized that he only had a few years of plying his beloved trade left. He’d bought a sturdy foot-pedal and hand-crank powered machine that was now over a century old. It had served him well over the years and was still in perfectly good condition, and he wanted to hand it on to his daughter, but she wasn’t interested. This made him sad, that the art he had dedicated his life to was dying out in the modern world. He decided to offer the machine up for sale on an online bazaar at a reasonably low cost, thinking that perhaps someone who used to work in the industry would want to pick it up again as a hobby and delay the disappearance of his craft by a few years. A few days later, he is contacted by an interested party and they arrange to meet.

A middle-aged man and his twenty-year-old son arrive and carry the heavy machine to their car in two parts. Out of politeness, the artisan asks which of them will be using the machine, and to his surprise, it is the twenty-year-old son that is the enthusiast, and sees the machine as the ideal stepping stone as he builds his own artisanal business. With joy in his eyes, the old master explains the capabilities and foibles of the machine, tricks and tips for looking after it and getting the most out of it, where to get materials and spare parts, finding that the young man is already familiar with and excited by a lot of what he has to say, and has already built up an impressive portfolio of work that he’s done by hand. His beloved art will continue and thrive, and the classical machine still has a long and fruitful life ahead of it.

This isn’t just a story, it happened two weeks ago. I was the middle-aged man, my second son the young man, and it was a beautiful thing to witness.

As time goes by, many things can be forgotten and lost to history, such as highly specialised knowledge or skillsets, eyewitness accounts of events, fragile works of art, complex cultural rituals, ways of life, or loving communities.

These two passages are about people actively preserving traditions down through the generations, the first reports on the Recabites faithfully maintaining their family tradition of practising abstinence and self-denial without a fixed roof over their heads, to build up self-control and reliance on God rather than trusting in wealth or seeking short-term thrills or relief from their troubles, staying true and faithful in lesser things as an example to the rest of Israel who had abandoned a much more important authority than their ancestor on much more important matters than what to drink or where to live.

The second passage is also about actively preserving a tradition, but something far more important. This time it is not about maintaining a traditional lifestyle, but about ensuring that a key piece of knowledge is not forgotten, key pieces of evidence of the most significant event in human history, a list of eyewitnesses to the resurrection.

Scholars date 1 Corinthians to have been written at around 54 to 55 AD, only twenty to twenty-five years after the crucifixion, and Paul introduces it as passing on what he had recieved, the formula for presenting an established liturgical tradition, so it has to originate very soon after the events themselves, at most only a few years, most likely practically immediately afterwards, almost certainly from the Jerusalem church. This is something we can rely on, thanks to the efforts of many people to preserve this knowledge down through the generations and ages. Can you imagine the excitement, the joy in their eyes as they passed down this life-changing knowledge to the ones they cared about, to anyone that would listen? We are part of that long chain, sharing that revolutionary life-changing truth and adding our own experiences.

Just because something is written down doesn’t mean it will be remembered, we need to bring that knowledge to life by actively sharing it, demonstrating it, living it. Of course God is able to save people without us, but He loves to involve us in his work, and it is so good for us and so exciting to be part of His Great Commission.

It’s easy to think that because we have so many written records that are easily accessible online, knowledge is not being lost, but unfortunately that’s not true. Not only because far from everything that has ever been known was actually recorded, far from everything that has ever been written is actually available online, but also because not all knowledge is book knowledge, not all knowledge is a matter of information. Some knowledge and skills are never shared, and dies with the individual or group that discovered or developed it. Some skills are lost to time because there has been a lack of interest in preserving them, perhaps they are seen as outdated and irrelevant. What knowledge, what skills are still around in small measures but are in danger of being forgotten?

The ability to slow down and be patient; with everything so fast nowadays, instant answers and reports available 24/7, the prestige of being first to share new information ad developments, there is strong pressure to react immediately to initial reports instead of taking the time to see the issue from multiple angles, absorb more information that is less sensational and evaluate things with a cooler head, to take the time to make a careful choice instead of giving in to the ‘urgent need to Do Something!’.

The ability to truly stop and listen with a desire to understand rather than catch someone out, to simply be there for someone and be a blessing to them without having anything to prove, to discuss a difficult topic with someone with the goal of finding the truth together instead of proving yourself right. In the middle ages, it was standard practise that to earn the right to criticise a person’s position, you had to describe it to them to their satisfaction. Can you imagine that today? Today it’s fashionable to just present a grotesque or ludicrous caricature of someone’s position and castigate them for it.

There’s also a growing trend of intellectual laziness, encouraged by the ever more sensationalist media, to look for the gotcha moment that proves what the other side has been trying to hide all this time, that they are truly evil or stupid and we can safely condemn and ignore everything they have to say.

It’s a principle that Lenin advocated for that has slowly infected almost all public discourse: “The central question of politics is who whom” i.e. Anything done by our side to theirs is courageous justice, anything done by their side to ours is a despicable evil.

Why has this been so successful? Because it’s easy. You can look like a hero without doing anything brave. You can look like you’re fighting evil without ever taking any real risks. You never have to acknowledge your own faults or guilt. This is based on the horrific premise that mutually beneficial relationships don’t exist, all are nothing but relentless pitiless struggles for power, that love is just manipulation, self-sacrifice is foolishness and forgiveness stupid.

This idea of course didn’t originate with Lenin, or even Marx, of course. The Apostle Paul noted something similar in his letter to the Galatians (5:19-23):

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

I’d much rather be guided by a quote from a more enlightened Russian writer, Alexander Solzhenitzin:

“The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either — but right through every human heart — and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained”

The fight against evil begins inside each one of us, and cannot be won without His sacrifice, His life flowing through us. Nobody is a lost cause, for as long as they are alive. Our God has redeemed the worst of us. Let’s continue that joyful tradition of gently witnessing to them, being there for them, demonstrating and offering that beautiful new life.

Let’s take a step back from the rush to react, the rush to condemn, to offer a quick fix. Take the time to truly listen, truly be vulnerable, truly love like Christ.

Who knows, you might be part of the even more joyful tradition of witnessing an old love for God restored, or a new relationship with God begin.

In the hands of a master, even an old forgotten machine can create wonderful new works of art.

Today’s Sermon: The Master Renovator

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2 Corinthians 4: 6-18

Ezra 3: 10-12

The temple had lain in ruins for around 50 years. Destroyed, but not forgotten, just like Jerusalem itself. It still had immense, painful value to the Israelites. The visible sign of God’s presence among them desecrated and useless for anything except a reminder of what once was. Hence the strong emotions of both joy and sorrow, joy that the temple, and through it the nation of Israel, is being rebuilt with God at the centre, and also sorrow that it will never be like it was under the glorious rules of David and Solomon.

It’s hard to imagine the task of rebuilding an entire nation, but I’d like to look at the process of reconstruction, of renewal, from a different angle, using some modern examples from youtube. There are a lot of channels that focus on this sort of project, whether it’s restoring a classic car, a boat, an airplane or a house, but there are some projects that stand out.

A youtuber with a lot of followers often drove past a hill that had a ruin on the top of it. It wasn’t a castle or temple or anything like that, it was an incomplete construction project that had been planned to be a great mansion, but for various reasons construction halted and the partially completed house was abandoned to the elements for nearly twenty years, had been frequently snuck into by teenagers and animals, every window was broken, rain had gotten into the stonework, there was dirt, rubbish and broken glass everywhere, and many of the timbers were rotten. What could have been a very valuable property was now useless. He saw the potential of the place, bought it for a vastly reduced price and began to work on it, documenting his progress in various episodes and updates. He cleared debris and filth, tore down rotten beams, parts of the roof and walls until there was nothing left but the foundation and the interior walls and floors that had remained intact and undamaged by the elements, then over the next two years new frames and walls are added, roofs and windows replaced, plumbing and wiring done, doing a lot of the work himself alongside various professionals, learning new skills from those professionals, and in the process made changes and expansions to make the house even larger and more practical for his family, finally moving into it recently while some areas surrounding the house are still being worked on.

The viewership of his channel increased enormously, he obtained sponsors for the individual episodes that enabled him to pay for professionals to implement his more ambitious plans, His viewers are excited and happy for him, supporting him financially through buying his merchandise, giving him advice as well as professional contacts on all sorts of aspects of the project.

Another youtuber who specializes in restoring planes and motor vehicles was offered a plane for free if he could get it running. It had cost half a million dollars new, but had broken down and been left to rot outside for fifteen years, inhabited by birds, rats, mice and spiders. It was filthy, stank of mould and every kind of droppings, its engines were clogged with all sorts of gunk and seized up with possible corrosion.

Step by step he took the engines apart, scrubbed and cleaned the various components, cleared the lines with pressurized air, put them back together and after many failed attempts got first one engine to start, and with the help of some spare parts sent in for free by a viewer, also the second. Both engines will be sent for a full professional service later, the exterior has been given a deep clean, and recently crawled around the filth and foul stench of the interior to clear the trash, remove the seats and carpets to begin the process of giving the whole of the inside a deep clean.

Again, his channel received a major boost in viewership from this project, he’s raised over $200,000 via crowdfunding for the project, from people who will get nothing in return, only the knowledge that they helped make this project succeed.

Why is that? What is it about these projects that so captivates the audience? Is it following the progress of a pleasant, enthusiastic and skilled individual working hard to achieve their goal? That’s definitely part of it, but these cases also touch on something deeper.

Something that was clearly valuable was overlooked and written off by the crowd as worthless, beyond saving, too much work to consider bothering with. But then a wise and kind individual came along and fell in love with the beauty and potential and true value of the thing, currently spoiled as it may be. That person then lovingly and patiently and skilfully sacrifices their time and effort, working to restore and polish that treasure so it’s true magnificence can be seen by all.

Wouldn’t it be great if someone loved me or you like that? Are we dirty, broken treasures that can be repaired, cleaned, renewed and transformed into something wonderful? I have good news. You are a treasure, loved deeply by God himself, though you are full of dirt, brokenness and corrosive sin. He is ready and excited to work on you to clean, repair, renew and transform you into something glorious. If you have already given Him your life, then he has already begun that work, it is called sanctification. This process takes a long time, can be unpleasant and for long periods it can seem that no progress is being made. Parts of you need to be scrubbed clean of all the corrosive sins and attitudes that threaten to eat them away; that can hurt. Some parts will need to be thrown away and replaced entirely with something new and better, so we can become a new creation; that can be scary. Parts that have been seized up your whole life will begin to function, giving you capabilities you didn’t know you had.

You are a temple of God, a place for the Holy Spirit to dwell, a great treasure in a pot of clay. You might think that you are too broken, too polluted, to be of any use, but a whole new abundant life awaits you, if you only allow the master renovator to do his work.

A Sermon: Love and Terror

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(This is a sermon I gave on the 20th of February this year, before the Russia-Ukraine Conflict began)

Romans 8:14-18

1 John 4: 7-21

Last time I gave a sermon, I introduced a new song, and played a video connected to the sermon that also served as a pre-sunday-school message for children. This time, I have (almost) combined all of those into one (I’m not sure it quite works as a message for children, but they might enjoy some of the images at least)

Many people struggle to love God because they can’t grasp who and what God is, how indescribably wonderful he is and worthy of our praise and attention. This passage provides us with one key to grasping a whole lot more of who we are called to worship and follow.

God is love. Would you say that the song was telling the truth about love? We see examples of love in the world that reflect those aspects, those properties of genuine love. Even if we aren’t experiencing them directly ourselves, we have certainly witnessed something like them in the lives of others around us, or in stories that really resonate with us, because they are showing something true and pure, the love of good parents or grandparents, of good and honest friends, a motivated rescue worker or doctor, the camaraderie and sacrifice of an honourable soldier, a helpful colleague at work, a kind-hearted stranger, a loving husband or wife. All of those loves that we can see concretely are weak reflections of the perfect, abundant, generous and powerful love of god. All of those loves that we see around us or hear about ultimately come from him.

God is love. So everything that the song said about love, we can say about God. He is patient and kind; he won’t leave us to our fate, he looks us in the face; he sees our flaws, but that doesn’t discourage him; he gives us a place where we truly belong, he continues to care even when we turn our backs on him, he forgives us and welcomes us back when we realise how stupid we have been, he gives us room to grow and empowers us to be the person we were truly meant to be.

God is love. A key aspect of God is that He is a powerful, active, invigorating, joyful, and supremely generous relationship between three persons. God is so overjoyed by this relationship that he wants to share it with us! Imagine that. He wants us to be as loving, as joyful, as generous and fulfilled as He is—to have live in abundance. To grow the gifts that he has already given us and become more and more the magnificent creations he made us to be. Now that is an invitation worth accepting. If we have already accepted that offer, it is one worth remembering, being grateful for and living accordingly with all our heart, all our strength and all of our mind.

Perfect love casts out fear. What is the message that the world, our governments and news organizations has been telling us for the last two years?

Be terrified. Suffering and death is around the corner. Hide. Everyone around you is a threat; keep them away. Don’t meet together, don’t celebrate, don’t sing. Wear a mask, or two, or three. Be responsible and show everyone around you how terrified you are. I recently saw a video of a man on an airplane putting on six masks. He was very proud of himself, making a show in front of everyone of adding mask after mask, as if to say, “Look at me! I’m better than all of you, because I’m more afraid.” It’s absurd. Other people scream hysterically whenever anyone comes near them, as if standing next to someone is the same as attempted murder. Some just play at being scared so they can look down on others and bully them, others have become addicted to this foundation of fear and are unable to cope with things going back to normal. They should be pitied.

What else does the news try to terrify us with? War is coming with Russia! (Now that the war between Ukraine and Russia has begun, that it’s the start of World War III and nuclear catastrophe) Democracies are turning into tyrannies all over the world. Civil wars are on the horizon. Economies are collapsing. Everything is unstable, out of control and you’re powerless to do anything about it. Despair, cower, and most of all, be terrified.

How do we respond to that? We could quote Mark Twain:

“If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.”

Because so much of the news is distorted, if not invented, and important events and contexts are often ignored completely. Unfortunately this is not only true of the tabloid press, the never-ending news cycle means that reaction and attention is everything, and the easiest attention-getting reactions to evoke are fear and outrage. (The fact that these reactions also make the viewer/listener easier to manipulate is a bonus). There will be some fragments of truth mixed in occasionally, but without a reliable direct source for comparison, it becomes very difficult to know what is really going on (even moreso during a time of war, as all you will hear on the news is propaganda from one side or the other), so ignoring the sensationalized version of what a given news source wants you to think becomes more appealing, even healthy.

Even if every danger they warn of is real, the words of C.S. Lewis that have been recently circulating online in various venues come to mind:

In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.

— “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948) in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays

If all of our hopes are in this life, then despair and terror are logical responses. It has always been that way. But our hopes are not all in this life. We are promised persecution, struggles, difficult tasks and difficult choices, but also the strength to endure and grow through them. We are not abandoned and helpless, we are treasured children of a loving God. If the worst happens and we die, we go to be in the arms of God, fully plunged into that amazing relationship, seeing His infinite beauty face to face.

Getting back to the song, a blind friend of a friend by the name of Michael Bayus listened to it, liked it and shared the following thought:

“Being deeply loved by someone gives one strength, loving someone deeply gives one courage.”

So know that you are deeply loved by someone stronger than the world, who has defeated the world, and take strength from that to deal with the discomforts and troubles of life, and we are still very well off compared to any era in history.

Let’s have the courage to love those that God loves around us, work to make our little part of the world a little closer to what it should be, create something beautiful and share it, renew a relationship that’s been neglected, support a friend in their efforts to improve themselves, work on developing the gifts we have been given, aim to be more like Christ in the way we treat others. Meditate on what it means that God is love, and that He loves you, and learn to love him back.

Today’s Sermon – They Can’t Hear the Orchestra

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1st text:

1 Corinthians 12:12-31:

12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

27 Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. 28 And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues[d]? Do all interpret? 31 Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.

Main text:

1 Corinthians 3 5-15:

5 What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. 6 I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. 7 So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. 9 For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

10 By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. 11 For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 If anyone builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, 13 their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. 14 If what has been built survives, the builder will receive a reward. 15 If it is burned up, the builder will suffer loss but yet will be saved—even though only as one escaping through the flames.

Message for Children:

I’d like to show you a short little video I made 11 years ago, that has a boring name, but is also called “How to Park a Toy Car”

Did you like that? As you saw, the little ball at the start had all sorts of adventures and did all sorts of interesting things before it set another ball going, which started another little chain reaction, and another, then finally the big ball hit the wall that set off the toy car to park itself.

That first ball didn’t see the end result, it just knew that it did its job well. Life can be like that, in that when we do something good for someone, it can seem like nothing has really changed, when in fact we’ve started a process that will end up causing something truly beautiful. So don’t give up and stop doing good things for people, because the good things you do, especially the things you do for God, are much more important than you realise.

Sermon for adults:

Basically, if you remember the children’s message, you’ll get the main point of today’s sermon, but us adults tend to make things much more complicated than they need to be, and like things to be explained in more detail, so let’s try to do that.

Deep down, all of us would like to make a difference in the world. Some of us have less ambitious goals than others, and many have given up on the idea, but ultimately we would like to think that we can make a little part of the world a better place than it would have been without us.

Many of us look at our own efforts and the results from them, and get discouraged. We don’t see crowds of people getting saved in response to something we said, we don’t get people coming up to us to thank us for something we did for them that changed their life completely. Of course, it’s a very good habit to be sure to thank people that have helped you in small ways, it is a real encouragement to them to persevere with acts of kindness, especially when the person didn’t realise how much what they did helped you.

But small acts of kindness can have much more impact than we realise. Someone who has just been shown a kindness, especially an unexpected one, is in a better mood and more likely to then show kindness to someone else themselves and less likely to be needlessly cruel, so our initial act is multiplied, echoing further and further, making more and more of a positive difference the wider the context we take in.

This is multiplied again by the fact that humans are beings of habit. When we overcome our nerves and do something once, it is easier to do it again, and the more times we do it the easier it gets until it becomes second nature and we do it almost without thinking.

The same can be said for speaking important, even painful truths. Openness breeds openness.

Unfortunately, the same is true in the other direction. Cruelty breeds cruelty, and deceit breeds deceit. So it is a great power that we have, a great responsibility, far more than we realize.

So a kind act, a kind word, a small piece of the truth can help another soul along their journey to find God, but a soul’s journey does not end when it gives its life to Christ, it is only just beginning. As God’s children we have that foundation of Christ, and it’s time to build on that. We can help each other practically, we can study together, share our discoveries, offer warnings about dangerous paths, support each other through difficult times and encourage each other to build good habits and grow in character, becoming more and more citizens of heaven down here on earth. We are not all teachers, we are not all prophets or miracle workers, we don’t all have gifts of healing, we all have different skills, talents and opportunities, but what we do does not have to be spectacular to be worth doing, it can still change the world.

Maybe you didn’t like the analogy from the children’s message. After all, you’re not an inanimate metal ball or block of plastic—you can think, you can choose, you can actively participate in or fight against things, so here is a different one, a musical one, from the ending to the film Robots:

When Herb starts playing by himself, even though he is putting all of his heart and skill into it, it sounds awful, like he’s gone insane and is just making random noises. It’s only when the others realise what he is doing and start playing the other parts that it becomes obvious that he is actually playing beautiful, fun and joyful music.

It can be like that with us. When we try as hard as we can to do what is right, serve God, and stand up for the truth, but to the outside world we can look like a fool doing pointless random things, and sometimes the situation can get so bad that we start to see ourselves that way.

But that’s because they can’t hear the orchestra. They don’t see the ripples of influence flowing out, the slow processes that have started, the grand context that will show the true beauty of what we’ve done.

In summary, I’d like to share a poem I wrote back in January for people who saw all the scary currents in the world and were tempted to despair and shut themselves off completely.

[Perception]

So don’t give up, you just can’t hear the rest of the orchestra yet.

Today’s Sermon: The Music of the Spheres

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I had the privilege of preaching in my church today, and it was well received by all. Here it is in its entirety:

2 Peter 1: 2-11 (NIV):

2 Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.

10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters,[a] make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

This list is a recipe for spiritual growth, and could easily form the basis of a whole series of sermons, but I would like to focus on one small aspect of it, how knowledge of God leads to love for God.

The word translated as faith, pistis means a clinging to things we know to be true from the evidence, even when our emotions tell us to doubt. Goodness is self-explanatory, a long-term determination to seek the truth and do good, whether that is in the form of defending the innocent, standing up to evil, consoling the suffering or declaring the uncomfortable truth as best we can.

We all know the greatest commandment, from Matthew 22:36-40 (NIV):

36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Some people really struggle to love God, they have it in their heads that love is a feeling, a mood you have to be in, but that is an unhealthy approach, a dangerous lie sold to us by advertisers and bad storytellers, that will not only lead us to an unhealthy, superficial and fragile relationship with God, but similarly disastrous and unsatisfying relationships with other people.

The attitude of “As soon as you stop entertaining me or make me uncomfortable, I’ll discard you” leaves you alone, shriveled and childish. Like goodness, love is an attitude, a determination and daily decision to seek the best for the object of your love in the long term, even when it is sometimes the last thing that person wants in the short term. It is the highest calling, and a difficult challenge.

Some would say that the key to loving God is gratitude for what He has done for us, for saving us, and they would be right. Gratitude is a cure for all sorts of evils, it helps us to see ourselves as we really are, a healthy motivation for all sorts of good things and a very important part of a loving relationship. However love is more than just gratitude, and gratitude can wear thin. An important part of true, deep love is really getting to know the one that you love, and delighting in who they are.

This is sometimes difficult with people here on earth, because we can discover unpleasant things about them, and this can spoil our impression of what God is like, but with God, who is perfect, we know that there will always be more and more wonderful things to discover and admire, that the greatest appeal of heaven is that we will be there with God, and see Him in His full glory and beauty with none of our own flaws and sins getting in the way.

Many people struggle to love God because they have a false impression of who God is, they imagine he is a cosmic Santa Claus, a magical grandfather who smiles, pats us on the head, gives us a treat and sends us out to play (and when they see the pain and suffering in the world, they start to doubt that He exists at all); others see him as a mean and strict sheriff, watching our every move so he can bring the full hammer of the law down on us the moment we step out of line.

Both of these images are wrong. God is more loving and generous as well as more powerful and just than both of these images.

Others see him as an engineer, who built his creation as a great machine, then left it to run, following its progress with interest and occasionally tweaking it or reprogramming to make sure everything is running properly and it does what he wants it to do, sometimes even stopping it and acting directly to rescue someone or tell his creations something important.

This one is a little better, but like all images of God falls far short of reality, He is far more involved and interested and foundational in His creation than this. No one image can capture God completely, He is far greater and more amazing than we can possibly imagine, but there is a much better approximation, and one that is far from a new idea. First, a quick look at Revelation 4:11:

“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”

Not just created, but also have their being. Not just crafted, activated and left to themselves, but actively maintained from moment to moment, from nanosecond to nanosecond. The idea from classical theology, the analogy for the relationship between Creator God and His creation is of a musician and the music that he plays. He is the source of all existence, and is actively involved in absolutely everything that exists, if he stopped actively supporting the existence of the universe, it would no longer exist, just like the music would end as soon as the musician stops playing. We don’t need to worry, the patterns, and harmonies that we know as the Laws of Nature are solid and dependable because God is solid and dependable. It is a powerful analogy that works on multiple levels, in that God’s creation is full of beauty, harmony, and repeating patterns, like well-crafted music.

In ancient times they used to call the motion of the stars and planets musica universalis, the music of the spheres. Even in modern physics, String Theory (which I don’t pretend to fully understand) has vibrating strings as the basis of all matter, with different vibrations like musical notes producing different particles, the notes with which God plays the music of the universe.

Well-known authors of fiction have also famously made use of this imagery, such as C.S. Lewis in The Magician’s Nephew, when Aslan sings Narnia into being and into life, or J.R.R. Tolkein in the Silmarillion where Eru Illuvatar (God) and his Ainur (Holy Ones) together sing the world into existence, and Melkor (the greatest of the Holy Ones) out of pride and lust for power and influence corrupts his part in the music, causing disharmony and twisted, evil creatures, but in a musical battle Eru takes Melkor’s harsh and dissonant part of the song and adds his own higher music to transform the whole into something even more beautiful, and this is all reflected in the world and its history that is created, as Eru announces, “Behold your music!”.

In this analogy of the relationship between God and creation, miracles are not God stopping the music to rearrange the orchestra or fix a broken instrument, but flourishes, fanfares and improvisations that fit into and enhance the overall work.

We are part of that music that God plays, we are utterly dependent on Him in every way, there is nothing we are or have or can have that is not directly reliant on Him. Not only that, but He has given us life, a mind a spirit and the ability to choose to take part in and add to that harmony, joy and beauty, or work against Him and create disharmony, ugliness and suffering.

Many people, and many of His angels, have chosen the latter, resulting in the polluted and corrupted world we live in, causing many to see God as cruel and heartless. If we can look more carefully, past the flaws, we can see a dim reflection of His true nature, his beauty and harmony, his astounding generosity and his power.

We see it in the sunset and in the night sky; in the majesty of mountains, forests, seas and deserts; in the songs of birds and the graceful movements of animals; in the inventiveness of ingenious machines and devices; in the purity of a child’s eyes wide with wonder; in the paintings and music of true artists; in the faithfulness and kindness of true friends and loved ones, in the magic of the seasons.

The triune God who is perfect love, who loves us more than we can ever love him, who gives us all these things and more, who will right all wrongs at His appointed time, sacrificed himself to pay for our part in ruining His creation, and invites us to come and know him, for now in part, but when the time comes we will know Him clearly, perfectly and eternally.

One day He will sing a new song, transforming this song that we know into something better; a song that will never end and never go wrong; music that this current song makes possible, and he invites us to be part of it.

That is something to look forward to and be grateful for. That is who we have the honour of knowing. That is someone to love.

Pentecost

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I had the opportunity to preach yesterday on Pentecost, so of course that was the topic of my Sermon. I very nearly turned down the opportunity due to a persistent eye dryness problem that made it very difficult to prepare for it, but that has cleared up today, so I am grateful for all of your prayers for me on that issue.

Pentecost

The book of Acts is one of the greatest adventure stories in history, a small band of the faithful begins to overcome the most powerful empire the world had ever seen, but not through military force. There are spectacular reversals and transformations, of individual lives and of communities. Powerful men are humbled, captives are freed, there are riots and imprisonments, intrigues and conspiracies, shipwrecks, storms, journeys and spiritual battles. And miracles. Lots of miracles. All of this started with Pentecost, or rather it began with the crucifixion and resurrection, where Jesus paid for the sins of the world and proved once and for all that he was who he claimed to be—the Danielic Son of Man, Messiah of Israel and Eternal Son of God— but it was Pentecost that fully equipped and empowered the Early Church to begin the Great Commission.

The Jewish festival of Pentecost (otherwise known as the feast of weeks, since it was a week of weeks or 49 days after Passover) was a celebration of the first harvest of wheat, and over time also became a celebration of the giving of the Law to Moses, so was fairly significant in the Jewish calendar, though far less so than Passover, obviously. This meant you would have to be a particularly pious Jew to travel to Jerusalem for both festivals when they were only seven weeks apart. The crowd that witnessed the speaking in tongues that were from all over the known world, even beyond the Roman Empire, were mostly people who had permanently migrated to Jerusalem from those other countries rather than just visiting for the festival (though some were described as being visitors from Rome), so they most likely already spoke Aramaic or Greek and didn’t absolutely need to hear the message of God in their own language, though this no doubt had a great impact on them to hear God being glorified in their own tongue, indicating that God’s Kingdom was about to spread far beyond the borders of Israel and be just as present and at home in those other nations as in Jerusalem. Since the Christian Pentecost and giving of the Holy Spirit to the Church occurred at the Jewish Pentecost, which celebrated the giving of the Law to Moses, let’s quickly compare the two events.

First, from Exodus 19:5-6,16-25(NIV):

Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites.”

 

On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast. Everyone in the camp trembled. Then Moses led the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently. As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.

 

The Lord descended to the top of Mount Sinai and called Moses to the top of the mountain. So Moses went up and the Lord said to him, “Go down and warn the people so they do not force their way through to see the Lord and many of them perish. Even the priests, who approach the Lord, must consecrate themselves, or the Lord will break out against them.”

 

Moses said to the Lord, “The people cannot come up Mount Sinai, because you yourself warned us, ‘Put limits around the mountain and set it apart as holy.’”

 

The Lord replied, “Go down and bring Aaron up with you. But the priests and the people must not force their way through to come up to the Lord, or he will break out against them.”

 

So Moses went down to the people and told them.

Now Acts 2:1-24, 36-41(NIV):

When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

 

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”

Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”

 

Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

 

“‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
and they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the heavens above
and signs on the earth below,
blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
and the moon to blood
before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
And everyone who calls
on the name of the Lord will be saved.’

 

“Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.

 

“Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

 

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

 

With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.

In both events, we have a public and spectactular show of God’s power, heralded by a great noise, God appearing in the form of fire and also the sound of a voice, and both were connected with the establishment of a new covenant between God and man. There are important differences, however.

In the giving of the Law to Moses, only Moses (and later Aaron) were allowed up the mountain, the ordinary folk were forbidden to approach. The great noise scared the people gathered there. God appearing as fire remained where He was, as one entity, undivided, and spoke with one mighty voice. The law and covenant that was set up established intermediaries between the ordinary folk and God (Moses, Aaron, and the priests).

At Pentecost, the noise drew people towards it. The fire split and rested upon everyone in the upper room, and the voices were many, that of the people present in that upper room giving all of them new languages to speak and glorify God, and everyone was given direct access to God through the Spirit.

This was like a temporary reversal of the Curse of Babel, where instead of people speaking new languages they’d never learned to prevent them from understanding each other and force them to disperse, people were speaking new languages they’d never learned so that everyone could understand the good news of God’s Kingdom and know they were invited to join and become part of God’s chosen people, no matter who they were or where they were from.

Some in the crowd joked that the disciples were drunk. We can’t tell whether this was a mean-spirited jibe meant to discredit them or just a playful jest at the joy in their hearts. What we do know is that Peter doesn’t take it personally, maybe even laughing along and responding with a little joke of his own. If he had been as concerned for his own honour as some of the chief priests and Pharisees of his day, he could have easily reacted with, “How dare you accuse us of drunkenness! We are holy men of God!” And immediately a barrier would be raised between speaker and listener, and genuine conversation would become more difficult. When we can laugh at ourselves, it disarms insults, whether intended or not, it brings us closer to people and we can move on to more important matters. It’s a very important skill (and attitude) to practice.

The passage that Peter quotes from Joel speaks of God’s spirit being given to those who would never be normally allowed to be priests, those who were too young or too old, girls and women, and the note that whoever calls on the name of the Lord being saved now carries extra weight. God’s kingdom is now not just for the Jews—everyone is to have access to God and to share His love and His Kingdom with the wider world. They really are becoming a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, just like God planned for Israel as he was giving the law to Moses.

It could have been easy for Peter to soften his message to avoid offending the crowd, but he didn’t hold back. He started with what the crowd themselves knew, since they lived in Jerusalem and had no doubt heard of Jesus and what happened to him, plus some of the rumours—a number of them had probably even heard Jesus teach. Peter then added what he and his friends had witnessed and learned, and led them to the logical conclusion, the harsh truth. In this the Holy Spirit was working, not giving him new knowledge, but guiding Peter in what to say, and the spirit was also working in the hearts of those listening, convicting them of their condition before God.

And three thousand were added that day. The church that Jesus builds, that the gates of hell will not prevail against, got going in earnest.

What about us? We aren’t personally surrounded by miracles, signs and wonders. What can we do to spread God’s Kingdom? We can tell the truth, even when it seems people will hate us for it. We can admit when we make a mistake or don’t know something or don’t understand something. We can keep learning, listen to people around us and start with what they know, trying to lead them to the full truth. When we hear a lie being spread, we can counter it. Maybe people won’t believe us, maybe they’ll want nothing to do with us afterwards, but it’s still the right thing to do.

The Canadian clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson is a very interesting individual. He’s not a Christian, but many of us think (and hope) that he is not far from becoming one. He often defends the Bible and Christianity and its part in Western civilization from attacks by Marxist activists, he gave a series of lectures on the Bible in which he highlights the healthy wisdom, deep spiritual truths, and good life advice it contains. Many young men have come to Christ through his lectures, despite the fact that he is not a believer himself. On the verse “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” he had this to say (I’m paraphrasing and combining with other comments, but I hope he’d agree that I’m not totally misrepresenting his positions):

What some people call courage is actually just being afraid of the right thing. Each time a person fears what people will think of them, deciding to not cause trouble by standing up to something they know is a lie, they shrivel a little inside. If this pattern continues, they grow old bitter and full of regrets and resentment. When you tell the truth in a given situation, then that will result in the best possible long-term outcome overall, even if the short-term outcome is very unpleasant, or the outcome for you personally is very negative. When lies are allowed to spread unopposed, then that leads to tyranny, to societies where everyone lies about everything all the time, and that is hell. I’m afraid of reaching old age, and looking back at all the times I could have stood up to evil and lies, but didn’t. That’s what I’m afraid of.

How much more should we who believe practice looking at our situation from the perspective of eternity, and consider what opportunities we’ll be ashamed to admit we didn’t take when we stand before the throne of God? It is an unsettling thought that should motivate us to action, a struggle that should accompany us our entire lives.

So let’s learn from our mistakes, learn from each other and learn together. Let’s be glad for the chance to laugh at ourselves. Let’s be filled with the spirit of Truth, overcome our short-sighted fears and tell people the truth, guide them from where they are towards the source of all truth, to the one who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.