Words for Worship
Ministry Today
Revelation 21.1-7
Over the last few weeks we have been thinking about our globe in crisis. Yet even if the physical world did solve its problems we would still be far from Revelation’s view of the future. In fact, the extract from it that we have just heard seems to refer to another dimension of living beyond what we can touch, and taste and smell. Because it, of course, refers to the sphere of us as spiritual beings.
However, our sensation of this wider mode of life can go through its own climate change. It might be a slow drift towards a negative view of everything and everyone. It might, on the other hand, be the giving into a raising tide of purposelessness and meaninglessness. Or, it might be the sudden onslaught of a personal crisis that sweeps away the little bit of faith we were hanging onto. Yet whatever the problem, the result is the same – our souls get lost.
Well over this autumn I want to look at how we cope with the quietly dangerous currents within us; at how we keep a good spiritual hygiene and how we work at cultivate a faith that will nourish us during life’s grey spells. Moreover, let us together build a faith that will be stanchion in the deluge of emotions that accompany a personal crisis. In a nutshell, I want us to grow our faith for spiritual rainy days.
And how can that be done? Well, I heard a story recently that makes our first step in faith farming clear. Here it is:
Michael Hargrove tells about a scene at an airport that literally changed his life. He was picking up a friend. He noticed a man coming toward him carrying two light bags. The man stopped right next to Hargrove to greet his family. The man hugged to his youngest son (maybe six years old) as he laid down his bags. Then he turned to their little girl (perhaps one or one-and-a-half) and gave her a big kiss. He then handed his daughter to his oldest son and declared, “I’ve saved the best for last!” and preceded to give his wife a long, passionate embrace.
Hargrove had the temerity to interrupt this idyllic scene by asking - How long have you two been married?”
“Been together fourteen years in total and married twelve of those,”
“Well then, how long have you been away?”
The man turned around and said, “Two whole days!”
Hargrove was stunned.
“I hope my relationships are still that strong after twelve years!”
The man stopped smiling and said, “Don’t hope, friend . . . decide!”
We if want or need more faith in God let us this morning not just hope for it but rather let us - here and now - decide!
And while we are thinking about that, the choir will sing the anthem.
ANTHEM
Well if we have decided to grow our faith in God,
to what or whom should we turn to help?
Well, what about this man
who once had a rather unimpressive CV:
Name: Jesus
Age: 30
Home Town: Nazareth
Occupation: Carpenter
Education: Scriptural study in home and synagogue; on job training in woodwork with his father.
Not very inspiring is it!
Yet this joiner started a second career as a preacher and that changed the world for ever. For, he left the security of his home and steady occupation for the total unknown. And he did that simply to ensure humans could meet God in the flesh. So that people could find God in life’s airport crowded with its pains and pleasure. In truth, he did that so that we could have the faith to hug a God who will help us in what every crises or doldrums we might face.
As an outcome he rewrote a humdrum resume into a testimony we too can give witness to. For if we decide to grow our Faith in God and allow Jesus to be our fellow worker in that toil, then we will truly know the meaning of his final CV called: ‘Here is a man’:
Here is a man
who was born in an obscure village,
the child of a peasant woman.
He worked in a Carpenter's shop
until he was thirty,
and then for three years
he was an itinerant preacher.
He had no credentials
but himself.
And while still a young man,
the tide of popular opinion
turned against him.
His friends –
the 12 men who had learned
so much from him,
and had promised him
their enduring loyalty –
run away,
and left him.
He went through a mockery of a trial;
he was nailed to cross
between two thieves.
When he was dead,
he was taken down
and laid in a borrowed grave
through the pity of a friend.
Yet I am well within the mark
when I say that
all the armies that ever marched,
and all the parliaments that ever sat,
and all the kings that ever reigned,
put it together,
have not affected
the life of humanity
upon this earth as has,
this one solitary life.
In fact, so successful was this itinerate joiner turned preacher, that for 2000 years people have be unable to fully analyse the depth of meaning of his life and work. As a result they have called him names. Now these titles or labels
are like Christmas Cracker’ clues, like dollops of evidence or like shards of a greater truth.
And so today we start by looking a one of the earliest given to him in Scripture.
Here is it is in a slightly out of season lesson and is it is read by:
Matthew 1.18-23
Did you hear that first name of Jesus? It was, of course, Immanuel which means God with us or God born as a human! And what a great name that is! For it in is the foundation stones of having any faith at all – a faith that can indeed grow and move mountains.
HYMN
Well, let me tell you that the very idea that God could be born a baby into this brutal earth was both an appalling & appealing prospect to the early Christians.
Appalling because they had been brought up to believe in a God that was way above and beyond all that clouds the lives of folk. But it was also appealing because the idea of a God who knew what life was like down here was a real boost to morale and to faith. For it showed that he cared enough to walk through the mud, he was concerned enough to wade through the tears we put each other through and he loved enough to suffer the cross which every life must carry.
And that ‘wising up’ process started for ‘God with us’ when he started his ministry by being tempted; tempted indeed with all that humans are distracted by and addicted to. As you know, political dominance, economic or material assurances or demands for spectacular indications of God’s presence were all options on the temptation menu that Christ suffered. But he made clear that human flesh can resist it. He made clear that uncompromising faith in God however small will win through. And he made crystal clear that, resistance to evil blandishments does not dent faith instead it anneals it and grows it the stronger.
So to it was with the people’s reaction to him. For this God-man experienced the whole spectrum of human response to his acts of faith. He enjoyed the crowd’s acclamation and its mocking condemnation. But neither blew him off course from his focus on the purposeful will and love of His Father.
We to, when trying to advance our faith through difficult times can find other’s dissatisfaction or negative comments downright dispiriting. However, with our model for Jesus before, we know the necessity to thrust these aside and seek God’s spiritual encouragement alone as the seed corn of our growing crop of faith.
Finally, Christ demonstrated that for humans faith grows best when it is used. Because comfortable with his family and business in Nazareth, he could have found a thousand reasons not to take to faith’s road. But as a result, the world would not have changed and neither would we. That would not have been much of an outcome of God with us. However, very quickly he selected companions and proceeded to shape his ministry through building a living, working and learning community. The outcome was he changed his profession on his passport – he amplified the title God with us and he consummated the fusion of divine and flesh into fisher of men.
Here then is the best possible outcome of our growing faith. For yes it can be a lifebelt when we are caught in a flood of bewilderment and it can be the refreshing breeze when becalmed in a clinging Sargasso sea. But when these temptations and obstacles are overcome we are left with a finer victory than mere survival. Since, we have changed our own profession into companions of God with us – assistant ministers of God in the flesh and fishers for God in our mounting faith.
An old man named Calvin had lived a good life as a farmer for years. One day an itinerant preacher came to the district and, in the course of his stay, visited Calvin and asked him about his faith. Calvin answered the question like this: "When my grain gets ready for selling, after I've harvested it and packaged it, I can take it to town by any one of three roads; the river road, the dusty road, or the smooth highway “. But when I get my grain to town and go to the buyer to sell him what I have, he never looks at me and asks, ˜Calvin, which road did you take to get your grain to town?' What he does do is ask me if my grain is any good."
Well today you may feel you are travelling a slippery way and risk being swept away, you may sense that life is dry, dusty and unrewarding or you may consider things are OK. But what ever route your day will travel along, it’s the quality of the faith you are growing that real matters. Faith that God really cares; faith that that he knows life’s up and downs; faith that He truly gave flesh to the miracle of God with us; faith indeed that he has fished for us, caught us and never ever will let us go!
Amen
Offering
HYMN…………….
God with Us