Words for Worship

Ministry Today

Text; Joshua  3.14 - 4.9

 

There is a very famous story about the farmer’s birthday. All the animals had a meeting to decide what they could give him. After much discussion, they chose a special meal – a breakfast in fact. The cows readily agreed to provide milk and butter and the hens would donate some eggs. Finally someone rather tactlessly suggested that bacon be available too. Where upon, the pig remarked  - all rest of you are being asked for  a contribution, I am being asked for a sacrifice!

 

Well, we all try to grow our faith by reading our bibles eagerly. Yet until what we are reading about becomes personal it really doesn’t work. Indeed, it is only when we remember not so much the contribution but the sacrifice of Jesus does our Christianity come alive and us with it.

 

And the reason for this is actually quite obvious. Because the purpose that Jesus had in mind when he allowed himself to go to the cross was so that he could have a very personal relationship with each and every one of us. A relationship that is spelt out well in two further names scripture gives to our saviour – and these are friend and mystery.

 

Now, all of this was discovered by a woman who had questions about the Christian faith. For she accepted it had a strong moral code and did powerful works of good in the world. Yet the sensation of relationship with Jesus left her – frankly – quite cold. In truth when she read the gospels she found the Son of Man portrayed as stilled, matter of fact and not at all appealing.

 

That was, until on a lonely journey is Scotland, she came across a little book that changed all of that for her. For this work made Jesus come alive and showed him as one who was compassionate and so interested in her that she wanted him to have more access to her being. So she experimented with talking to and listening for Jesus’ voice, she tried to relate herself to the gospel stories and above all she just opened herself up. And as a result, she found something amazing; she found a love, she found a friend and she found a key to the mystery of God and the mystery of herself.

 

Well, there was no way the early Hebrews at all imagined that God had a personal relationship with each of them. They were God’s chosen people but that meant a relationship with their race as a whole. Yet in the story we heard this morning, God does show his personality. Since, he was not some indifferent force like the river current. He also made decisions in favour of those he favoured. Indeed, he shows a marked concern for the welfare of his bedraggled band of vagabonds who he was smiling upon. In other words, no matter how mysteriously, they had discovered God’s love.

 

This too is a discovery we must make if we wish our faith to grow. For if we keep Christ on the academic level of logical thought he remains distant. Moreover, he does not appear at all companionable. Yet if we bow to his mystery - the mystery that he could care for poor little bedraggled you and me - we enter his love,  he comes alive to us and we can indeed call each other – friend.

 

And all of that is summed up in an anecdote by Robert L Allen. For he recounts that when we was a student in New Jersey, I became friends with a
Roman Catholic priest named Sean O'Kelly.  Now, on one occasion, Sean heard that a family in his very deprived parish was hungry. Because of a bureaucratic foul-up, a mother with five small children had no food and no hope of getting any until the end of the month.

Although the family was not Catholic, he bought a supply of groceries and went to the apartment building where the family lived. After carrying his bags of food up four flights of stairs and walking down a long hall, he came to
the apartment. He rang the doorbell, and a little boy about seven years old
answered the door. He looked at Father O'Kelly's clerical collar and the
sacks of groceries, and then screamed at his mother: "Mama, Mama, come
quick. Jesus brought us some food!"

In telling about that incident, Sean later said, "I will never forget that child's
comment. At that moment, I realized that I was the personal and loving Christ for a hungry child."

 

 

Yet Jesus friendship and mystery doesn’t end there. For over the past few weeks we have dealt often with developing faith in times of challenged. Certainly, that day the Israelites came to the Jordan – they were honestly challenged to cross into their new homeland. But then in honest love for them, God did the impossible. How he did it was a mystery – but he did it and they were literally home and dry.

 

And so when our life faces a barrier, our ambitions - a brick wall and our plans - a distinct show stopper, let us remember Joshua and his pals. Let us remember that Christ is our friend who is only too willing to help us succeed. More to the point, let us remember he is mystery and so has the power to allow us to win through. All that is asked of us in return for this unmerited love is to leave a memorial – a reminder in our concern for others not least for the bedraggled outcast – a monument in a life that lives by only faith rather than for any possession and a in willing testimonial to the truth outlined by Frank Laubach. Because this missionary to the Philippines,  once wrote:

 

All I have said is mere words, until one sets out helping God right wrongs, help God help the helpless, loving and talking it over with God. Then there comes a great sense of the close-up, warm, intimate heart of reality. God simply creeps in and you know he is here in your heart. He has become your friend by working alongside you.

 

Now there supremely in those words is a portrayal of Christ’s friendship and mystery. For, he is neither a tombstone to those desperate for a faithful love or stumbling block to those desperate for the mystery of belief. Instead, he is the dry-shod crossing of danger, he is the mysterious gateway to divine fellowship and he is ever the living monument which is nothing less than the cornerstone of redemption.

 

Amen

 

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Mysterious Friend