Words for Worship

Ministry Today

I well remember

getting off

one of Glasgow’s electrified blue trains

on a cold winter’s morning

to head towards the university.

 

As I trudged

with the other glum commuters

out of the station

I spied a poster

stating Christ died for you.

 

On my way along Dumbarton Road

I mused

what on earth

would the average punter

make of that statement.

 

Just as cryptic

are sermons which proclamation

that the cross

is the pivot of all history

and the point

of all human salvation.

 

Sounds great

but most listeners

haven’t a foggiest what it means.

 

Deep down they say –

how can something –

no matter how nobly sacrificial –

have any effect on my life

nearly 2000 years later?

 

Yet both these puzzles

are central to our ability

to grow our faith,

our opportunity

to grasp a life affirming belief

and to understand Jesus Christ

as our Saviour.

 

Certainly,

before the resurrection,

Jesus had picked the way of love

as the saving road forward

for his people.

 

The snag was

even those who were his pals

just could not get it.

 

Now comes along

utter disaster.  

 

For the good shepherd

was done in

in a miasma of rejection

and injustice and hatred

and excruciating pain.

 

It seemed like curtains!

 

But then strange things

started to happen –

events that had not been experienced

in history

before or since.

 

Occurrences that appear

almost to stand outside

history’s

ratcheted one way street.

 

And what better example

of this reversal

of the way things normally happen

than this experience

we are now going hear about:

 

It is read to us by………….

Mark 16.1-8

 

 

Anthem

 

Well events such as the empty tomb

and the appearance of a stranger

who proved to be resurrected Jesus

are definitely steps

on the journey of wonderment.  

 

But there is one more

that puts the tin hat

on people’s amazement

at things not being

as they used to be.

 

And that was the coming

of the spirit of God

in flames of fire

and tongues of languages.  

 

We are going to listen

to that event now

As ………… reads to us

 

Acts 2.14-21

 

 

Yet the outcome

of all these inexplicable happenings

was even stranger –

for the result was

the growth of faith.

 

Indeed, the blossoming of trust

in a once disconsolate group

who now believed

unreservedly

that they had been saved –

saved from history’s inevitability –

saved to be history’s jewel

and saved by His story.

 

Or as J B Philips

 

It is a matter of sober historical fact

that never before

has any small body of ordinary people

so moved the world

that their enemies could say,

with tears of rage in their eyes

that these men

have turned the world upside down.

 

 

Solo

 

 

 

 

The Jewish people

have a wonder brand of humour.

 

One of their stories

goes like this.

 

One day a boy is praying

to G-d

when he is passed by a man.

 

This man stops

and asks the boy

why he is praying.

 

The boy tells the man

that he prays

because G-d

has performed many miracles,

such as leading the Hebrews

out of Egypt a

and helping them to cross

the Red Sea.

 

The man says that

the Red Sea was only

about 10 inches deep

when the Hebrews left Egypt,

so there was no miracle at all.

 

The man then begins to leave

when he notices

that the boy is continuing to pray.

 

When the man asks the boy

again why,

the lad replies

that G-d still performed a miracle.  

 

Because wasn’t it miraculous

that God was able to drown

the entire Egyptian army

in only 10 inches of water!"

 

 

Well the Lord’s Supper

we are about to celebrate

has its origin in

the Jewish Passover meal.

 

And during that meal

in a Jewish household

the son of the family

will ask its meaning

and the story of God

saving his chosen people

from Egyptian slavery

is told

and brought alive again.

 

Well, I don’t know

if you noticed

that a person

other than Jesus

features in both our bible readings

this mornings.

 

It was,

of course,

that most persistent companion

of Christ –

Simon Peter.

 

And so,

it his story

that is most likely

to bring alive

the string of events

that surrounded

Christ’s coming into the world;  

His coming to us

as our saviour

from a faithless slavery.

 

Now, Peter’s diary entries

start in those glorious

yet somehow

brittle days of Jesus’ earthly ministry.

 

Needless to say,

on their trips

around the holy land,

there were ups and downs.

 

Yet, to the disciples,

there continued

to be a Europhobic sense

of we can do anything

without pain or cost.

 

Peter most of all

must have experienced

a happy clappy sense

of a constant sweetness and light.

 

And we too can understand

what that must have been like.

 

Because when we encountered

the risen lord

for the first time

did we not feel on a high?

 

Not only that

but in the Christian Church

there are groups

who seem so caught up

in the delight of knowing Christ

that they see their road ahead

as only overflowing

with milk and honey.

 

Well, all of these

are faith experiences of sorts.

 

However there other emotions

within Christ’s saving way.

 

Indeed, next,

Peter’s salvation story

takes him through

the crucifixion chapter.

 

And we cannot doubt

that this experience

not only stopped his faith’s grow,

it even reversed it.

 

Because at the crucial moment

he denied Jesus

and he ran away.

 

We too again

know exactly

what he was feeling.

 

For, even the most fortunate Christian

will suffer a crucifixion experience.

 

Since, in any lifetime,

someone will let us down

or we will loose a dear one

or misfortunes will happen

that test faith to its limit.

 

It is then

we are tempted to deny God

and run and run and run.

 

In short, we

like Peter

are disappointed in our saviour.

 

But such disillusionment

does not need to last for ever.

 

Moreover, it need not be

the death knell of faith.

 

For many people

move beyond this experience

and in the process

they directly encounter God

beaming into their dark situation.

 

 And this is the resurrection experience

just as Peter felt it.

 

At first, it is less happy

than bewildering.

 

Yet if we go with it –

faith will be strengthened,

life made richer

and, above all,

we glimpse that

there is more to come.

 

Because certainly

in my own experience

at a time

when all I had being striving for

had come to crashing halt

and all appeared lost–

I well remember

hearing a small voice inside

saying–

stand by –

I have saved the best for last!

 

In fact, there are some amongst us

today

who can vouch

for what does lie beyond

the experience of crucifixion.

 

Since if we do weather

the days of ashes

like Bunyan’s pilgrim

we reach the place

that Peter

eventually found himself in.

 

And that is the place of salvation

called Pentecost.

 

For it is here

that we enter into

not a shallow merriment

with he

who has been good to me.

 

Instead we walk

in a deeper joy,

we have the compass

of a mature hope

and we are energized

by a more profound faith.

 

And it was this way of travel

that allowed

a small group of survivors

of the Peter story

to change the world;

to change the world for ever

by telling out

the salvation of Jesus Christ.

 

However Peter

also gives us

warning notices

for this road to salvation;

alerts to dangers

that can impact

on our growth of faith.

 

And the first of these

we see

when Peter messed up

after Christ was arrested.

 

Because he desperately

wanted to stay

in the good times of Christ

being there with him in the flesh –

and as we know

that could not to be.

 

We too sometimes

try to stay

with one of the experiences

that we have seen

on Peter’s journey.

 

We want to live

in the happier phases

of the Christian journey.

 

However, such a futile effort

eventually leaves us

tired and despondent

even dismayed.  

 

Worse still that attitude

denies the challenge,

opportunity

and value

of darker moments.  

 

Since there is no doubt

that the cross

was the pivot around

which the whole

of the Jesus Project

turned around.

 

And there is little doubt

that our more painful experiences

are also the fulcrums

of our turning good times

into even better.

 

Another danger

is to see these experiences

as stages on a step ladder –

like irreversible steps

to the nirvana

of some eastern religion.  

 

Instead, if we wish

to approach life

with a mature faith

then we must accept

that light and darkness

occur in an order

that defies explanation;

in a sequence

that can test and strengthen faith;

indeed,

in an amalgam that maps out

the twists and turns

towards salvation

only when looked at

with hindsight.

 

Yet with the same maturity of belief

we can still see

the trend that Peter experienced.

 

Because for those

looking to grow their faith today,

the rotation of pre-crucifixion,

crucifixion,

resurrection

and Pentecost remains

the most helpful pattern

on offer.

 

For, it has been

this inseparable mixture

of joyful and painful events

that have transformed

countless generations.

 

More the point,

it is this perpetually evolving blend

that continues

to change the lives of billions

alive

right now.

 

And the reason for that

is simple.

 

Because it is only

the multitudinous threads

of good and bad experience

that can be

divinely interwoven

into the mighty net

of Christ’s salvation;

that can be made

into the sail of the spirit

that steers us

to new destinations

and can be tailored

into

the beautiful garment of faith –

a robe

gifted in love

from our father in heaven.

 

Amen

 

Christ as Saviour