Words for Worship

Ministry Today

I could ask you this morning what is in a place’s name?

 

Take the recent fight

about the Isle of Skye

who some want to rename

with its Gaelic

ealien na skeahin;

 name which means

the winged isle.

 

Of course this is not

a surprising title

when you see

its distinctive shape on a map.

 

Although, I am more surprised that the ancient Gaels

had access to

Google earth Satellite’s photographs

to know their island’s layout.

 

However, located as it is

in a very dry desert

we can better understand

why the early American pioneers

gave one of

their land’s geographical features

the foreboding name

of Death Valley.

 

And in that doom laden area

is a place known as

Dante's View.

 

View again being the

you can look down

to the lowest spot

in the United States,

a depression in the earth

200 feet below sea level

called Bad Water.

 

Yet from that same spot,

you can also look up

to that nation’s highest peak, Mount Whitney,

rising to a height

of 14,500 feet.

 

In other words,

one way out of Dante’s view leads to the lowest

and the other way

to the highest.

 

 

And that was the situation

the earliest followers

of Christ were in

when they chose

to meet together at Jerusalem.

 

For the proto-church

was suffering from

a growing split

over a range of issues.

 

But at the heart

of these debates

was the overarching problem

of whether being a Christian meant being a Jew

in all its ritual and exclusionist aspects.

 

Or whether instead

the faithful could move towards new ways of religious expression and behavior to communicate their moral code.  

 

Needless to say

some judged this latter direction

as distinctly downhill

towards a religious Death Valley while others saw it

as the only way to tackle

the as yet unscaled spiritual heights.  

 

These tensions also

must have been so great

as to demand

no further procrastination –

it was then

for the Jesus sect - crunch time.

 

Indeed, it was their crossroads to discover the truth

later described in the words

of Glenn E. Ludwig;

 

There are many times in life when we stand where the ways part and where choices must be made. It is often easier to trip along downhill than to walk the steady, or maybe rocky, uphill path. But the path uphill leads to a cross -- an empty cross. And the one that walks beside us is the one who hung there and defeated it.

  

Let us now prepare ourselves for our continued study

of the book of acts  

as the Choir sings the anthem.

 

 

 

Anthem

 

Our lesson is read by…………… (Acts 15.12-21)

 

 

 

Well it seems that the Peter, Paul and all the faithful

who met on that crucial day

in Jerusalem

did decide on the upward path shown to them by the spirit.

 

For holding onto the old

would have lead down hill

to them becoming nothing more than another Jewish fridge group.

 

Moreover, they would have probably vanished

in the forced expulsion

of the Jews from Palestine

by the Romans

that would soon occur.

 

But as a result of following

the right path,

they grew together

with more than enough cohesion

to survive that upheaval

and go out and conquer

not just an empire but eventually the world.

 

How then does these world earth-shattering decisions

of so long ago

guide us today

from our Dante’s view.

 

Our place of being tempted downwards

towards bad water

or a rockier scramble upwards to the mounts of heaven.

 

As we think about that

let us sing…

 

HYMN………………..

 

The late Pope John Paul II

in his book

Crossing the Threshold of Hope penned this –

Christ "walks through the centuries alongside each generation, alongside
every generation, alongside every person. He walks alongside each person as
a friend.

 

An important day in a young person's life is the day on which he becomes convinced that this is the only Friend who will not disappoint him,
on whom he can always count."

And these words brings us

to one of the most heated

and relevant theological debates of today.

 

For more and more,

the place of ritual

and customs and practices

in Christianity are being questioned.

 

And the reason is simply

that if apparently sacred actions

are thought of as ends

in themselves to salvation

and spiritual growth

then they are not sacred

but purely make believe, diversionary and

mumbo jumbo.

 

Sadly however

many do follow this route

down hill

and find what they believed

as religious

is easily outmoded and threadbare and hollow.

 

No wonder then

many Christian thinkers

say with justification

that religion

is the enemy of Christianity.

 

But such a black and white outlook

misses the key point

that ritual and religious practices

are nevertheless essential to humans;

essential as to how we express our deepest faith and wants and feelings towards God; essential as ways

in our acknowledging

he omni-presence of Christ; essential in fact

to displaying

the experience of spirit’s support

on the often bolder strewn road which is the spiritual life.

 

The answer then

is to come back

to those words of Karol Wjtewa and seek

to do only what brings us

closer to our best friend;

to do only what expresses

our sense of his love for us

and to do what gives us

the strength to live out

that love together.

 

All the rest is excess,

is distracting

and is

o the point of being self-indulgent if not dangerous.  
 

Yet if the real outcome

of the council of Jerusalem

was a massive deck clearing exercise

that brought razor sharp relevance

to the emerging church,

why we ask did they then waffle on

about food offered to idols.

 

Hardly, a deal breaking issue

we think

as citizens of the 21st Century.

 

Well whilst this issue

would seem

considerably more relevant

two thousand years ago,

its essence remains

instructive today.

And to understand why

we need to enter again

the Roman world.

 

For meat was a rare

and extremely expensive commodity

to most of the inhabitants

of the Empire.

 

There was no nipping down

to Tesco-torium

for a couple of steaks.

 

Also many pagan cults

were dining clubs.

 

So meat would be offered

to the relevant deity

and then cooked

for a ritual feast

for the family and friends

of the sacrificer.

 

Indeed, it may have been

very difficult

not to eat meat

that had been used

in pagan sacrifice

for it was often sold commercially as well.

 

But to many new believers

to consume

a product so immediately connected

with the old religion

was an anathema,

was disloyal

to their new found God

and tempted

a return to the old ways.

 

Put more directly,

to reject such

a luxurious delicacy

if tainted with idolatry

was a sign

of their conversion

to the pathway of Christ.

 

Of course, others

would have been

sufficiently strong

in their new found conviction

to fear nothing

from such largesse.

 

But the council’s wishes

were clear –

think not of your self

but of our weaker fellows; others first - self second .

 

Or as Paul wrote

to the Corinthians

about food offered to idols:

 

We know that an idol is nothing and there is no God but one. Yet be careful that you exercise your freedom so that it does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if what I eat causes by brother to sin then I will never eat meat again.

 

 

So what direction does

the council’s desire

on food offered to idols

point us to here and now?

 

Well, Jim Grant

in a recent Reader's Digest wrote about someone else

who faced a food problem.  

 

And it was an overweight businessman

who had decided it was time

to shed some excess pounds.

 

He took his new diet seriously, even changing his driving route to avoid his favorite patisserie.

 

One morning, however,

he showed up at work

with a gigantic coffee cake.

 

Everyone in the office

scolded him,

but his smile remained nonetheless.

 

"This is a special coffee cake," he explained.

"I accidentally drove by

the bakery this morning

and there in the window

was a host of goodies.

 

I felt it was no accident,

so I prayed,

'Lord, if you want me

to have one

of those delicious coffee cakes, let there be a parking spot

open right in front.'

 

And sure enough,

the eighth time

around the block,

there it was!"

 

 

But joking aside

there are many tempting things in our modern world; Thoughts, things and activities that we feel well able

to conquer

instead of being conquered

by them.

 

Yet, to others they are temptations

that seriously test their faith.

 

And it is these brothers and sisters

that we need think of

when we choose

what we say and do

in the religious context.  

 

There are consumptions

In  wider world too

which we feel are harmless

in moderation.

 

Nevertheless we need

to remember

that others may find these

as truly enticing

into a downward spiral.

 

Here also we must counsel restraint in our church life

So as to benefit

the whole family

with its strengths and weaknesses.

 

Finally, there are indeed

some very poisonous

yet deceptively innocent forces at work

in both the religious

and secular spheres of belief.

 

 

It is these temptations

that we must warn against unequivocally

despite the unpopularity

such witness might cause.

 

For if I may borrow

a concept

from industrial health and safety,

we need to conduct

a constant

temptation risk analysis

and then act

for the health and safety

of the weak rather than the limits of strong.

 

Because to so alert

is to bring the contrary wisdom of Paul alive

when he said –

The man who thinks

he knows something does not. For knowledge puffs up,

but love builds up.

 

 

The film Chocolat is based

on the book

of the same name.

 

As you will probably remember it relates

the story of

a small French town

during Lent.

 

Everyone is trying hard

to avoid rich foods

but what should open

at the same time?

 

A chocolate shop.

 

It is agony to walk past

the shop

with its velvety chocolate smells.

 

Nevertheless, you can’t help but think

that the townsfolk had missed the point –

especially when

the most self-righteous character

breaks into the shop

and gorges on

the chocolates inside.

 

For the point is

that true religious observance

is not about giving things up

for its own sake.

 

Instead it giving up

so other may have.

 

Here then is the greatest

of the council

of Jerusalem’s outcomes.

 

And it is that

the religious expression including self-denial

we allow ourselves

should to be done

for love of our fellow believers; that we should willingly

give over and embrace

from the purest spiritual motives

and that we should always practice our faith

for the weak instead of the strong.

 

So we may see

some of the ways of expression in other church groupings

as quaint or alien.

 

However, if those

fellow believers

find that they truly help them on the path to Christ

then we should

not just accept them

but applaud them.

 

We must not seek

to impose our customs

upon others

but agree

on our individual weakness

and corporate strength in diversity.

 

In fact, we must greet

our fellow Christians

in mutual respect.

 

Because even if we say –

your ways

are not my ways

we must never fail to proclaim your Lord is my lord

and my God is your God

and each’s destiny

is one common destiny.

And what better Sunday

to put the Council’s wisdom into practice.

 

For today we have heard

of the work

of the Carpathian trust

and we stand

on the threshold

of Christian Aid Week.

 

A time then

for all denominations

to work together

in harmony and unity

rather than dogma

and homogeneity;

a time to pull

all the strands of difference together

not in amalgamation

but as a spectrum

for the whole Christian family.  

 

A true time and place

when the strong

in no matter what way

can help the weak

in no matter what way.

 

A time indeed

not to fear

a tottering singular tower

but to strengthen each pillar

of the growing temple.

 

Well as we close

our quick visit

to the Council of Jerusalem,

let us acknowledge

that this great meeting

was a cross-road

on the way to

the heights of love

and tolerance

and depth of expression

that is the church

 

. A church that in all its facets  does honour to its founder.

 

 A church that can still be

a model

for the decisions

that the human race

must still make.

 

Because even

in its lowest and highest points it remains

the light and best place

of the world.  

 

For church is ever the name

for the vista that Choan Seng-song saw when he said-

 

The world has begun to crack.

 

But behold, miracle of miracles, out of the cracks the light shines.

 

The venomous snake has not crushed the light.

 

It comes from behind iron curtains, across human barriers and from behind the walls of our own frightened souls.

 

We have no alternative then but to move on with God – move on towards His vision of a community of compassion and a communion of love.

Amen

 

Offering

 

HYMN………..

 

 

 

 

Council of Jerusalem