Words for Worship

Ministry Today

 

It’s a fair enough question.

 

And it is what do you use the bible for?

 

Of course, the answer

to that one

is probably as varied

as the billions of Jews,

Muslims and Christians

who do use the sacred texts that we call the Bible.

 

However, we have got some general idea

as to the way people

apply scripture

during our study of Acts

that comes to an end today.

For this book

in particular

has spoken to those

with political aspirations,

to communities under pressure as well as

to inspirational missionaries, genuine martyrs

and strong hearted activists

the world over.

 

Because, more than

I had realised before

, is that the Book of Acts

is not just about

the early evangelical work

of the apostles.

 

Rather, it continues to offer huge amounts

of relevant guidance

to human to human relationships

in the light of Christ.

However, we most often turn to the Bible at the time

of personal need.

 

This is never more so

when we face some crisis

in our own lives.

 

Times when the bon mot – worse things happen at sea –

is trite.

 

Nevertheless often

worse things do happen

in unfamiliar environments

as Paul was to find out

on probably his last journey; the one in chains aboard

a sinking ship intended

for Rome.

 

Let us hear about that now.

 

First lesson is read by………….. (Acts 27.27-32; 39-44)

 

Now clearly Paul could not have referred to the New Testament for comfort in his distress.

 

For after all

he was in the process of writing a good part of it

and the earliest part to boot.

 

But his knowledge of the underlying Hebrew Scripture must have given him hope when made a certainty

in the Spirit of the risen Christ.

 

And these are sorts of texts

that we also turn to

when our lives

or those whom we love

are falling apart.

 

The sort of deep almost inexplicable succour

we receive from, say,

the Psalms.

 

And here to read one

of the most hope invoking passages, a

t least to me,

is………………(Psalm 139.1-12)

 

 

 

Of course, we really don’t have to go to sea to experience a shipwreck.

Because most of our personal disasters happen far from the briny.

 

For example,

the noted author,

John Killinger,

tells a powerful story

about a man

who is all-alone

in a hotel room in Canada.

 

The man is in a state of deep
depression.

 

He is so depressed

that he can't even bring himself to go
downstairs

to the restaurant to eat.

He is a powerful man

usually the chairman

of a large shipping company but at this moment;

he is absolutely overwhelmed by the pressures and demands of life.

 

And he lies there

on a lonely hotel bed

far from home

wallowing in
self-pity.

All of his life,

he has been fastidious, worrying about everything, anxious and fretful,

always fussing and stewing over every detail.

 

And now, at
mid-life, his anxiety

has gotten the best of him, even to the extent

that it is difficult

for him to sleep.

 

 

Then, on this day in this hotel he hits bottom.

 

Completely immobilized

and paralyzed by his emotional despair,

he moans out loud:

"I wish I was dead!"

 

Here then is a ship wreck

as real as Paul’s off Malta.

But then, his eyes alight

on a Bible

on the bedside table

and he wonders,

what God would think

if he heard him talking

this way.

Speaking aloud again he says, "God, it's a joke, isn't it?

Life is nothing
but a joke."

 

Suddenly, it occurs to the man that this is the first time

he's talked to God

since he was a little boy.

 

He is silent for a moment and then he begins to pray.

 

He describes it like this:

"I just talked out loud

About what a mess

my life was in

and how tired I was

and how much I wanted things
to be different in my life.

 

And you know what happened next?

 

He heard a voice say,

'It doesn't have to be that way it can be different"

 

Here then is how we should use the Bible

and in fact

it is meant to be used.

 

For it has always been a way

to remember God,

to make contact with God

and to assist in having

a conversation with God.

 

Now whether you want to call all of those scriptural uses

as prayer,

I’ll leave to you.

 

Suffice to say,

the Bible has been declared

the word of God.

 

And maybe that is best understood

less by having to accept

every one of its syllables

as law

rather that we hear

God’s voice

through its complete sweep.

 

For in times of ship wreck

we crave to hear God’s voice not as in past history,

hear it as not having meaning to a whole people en masse

but hear it

as the saving solution

to each of our own

prevailing crises,

ongoing dilemmas

and impending disasters.

 

In truth we want to hear

the Bible

like the siren call

of the approaching life boat.

 

 

Or to put it far more eloquently than I could,

Thomas Cranmer once wrote:

 

Let us pray to God

the only author

of these heavenly studies,

that we may speak, think, believe, live and depart hence and shall have God’s defence, favour and grace,

with the unspeakable solace

of peace and quietness

of conscience.

 

The Vatican this week

spent sometime

on more earthly matters

than usual

when it issued guidelines

for drivers upon its territory.

 

Indeed, it saw the car

as often

a place which brings out

the primitive side of humanity.

 

Moreover, they suggest that driving is a good time

for praying.

 

Although I would counsel

not to say your

‘behind the wheel prayers’

as one Naval Chaplain did – with his eyes closed.

 

But notwithstanding,

the lack of driverly love

in the eternal city

is a fair reminder

that the whole world

is far from God’s will for it.

 

And this never feels truer

when we are in the midst

of some shipwreck trauma.

 

This is probably why Acts

points us to the key teaching

of Jesus

which was that

of the Kingdom of God.  

 

For the three synoptic gospels too make clear that Christ

was always speaking about

the kingdom.  

 

Now the concept

of the coming kingdom of perfection

was one of the long lasting motifs of the Old Testament.

And so when John the Baptist preached it is imminence

there was much rejoicing;

the boom time

was just round the corner.

 

Not surprisingly,

Jesus also frequently expressed the fast approach  of the kingdom

but additionally

did something more startling; for he suggested it

was already here

but some how hidden.

 

And it is the Bible’s great value in times of life’s shipwreck

to be  a reminder of this somewhat enigmatic interpretation of the kingdom.

 

For it is during these days

of ashes

that the promise

of the future being OK

is usually not much help.

 

We want the present to be also.

 

And therefore the idea

of God’s kingdom

and its perfection available

here and now

brings the comfort of hope

and above all

an understanding of where

that hopes lies.

 

Because it offers

the prospect

that the current tragedy

does have meaning,

it does have some immediate beneficence

and that it is already

bearing sweeter

if unseen fruit.

 

For ultimately,

the Bible’s cue as to the Kingdom realised

succours us with the faith

that even suffering

although not willed by God offers the furtherance

of his will

and the furtherance

of our lives

towards being

back in one peace.

 

And that is in anyone money is act of salvation.

 

The wayside pulpit outside

a Baptist church

recently showed the sign – ASDA is not the only saving place.

 

Well each and every church

is a saving place

and hopefully

a tiny glimpse

of the Kingdom near at hand.

 

Yet still the love of any place even if it is God’s Kingdom

can never equal the love

of one person for another.  

 

The love, say,

of our holiday resort

on the costa packeta

can surely never equal

the depthless love

of a couple

on their golden wedding anniversary.

 

And it is here

that acts does us

the greatest service

in times of trouble.

 

Just the sort of trouble

Paul found himself in

when his dhow started

to sink in a storm off

the Mediterranean equivalent of the Goodwin sands

and his guards

have homicidal tendencies.   

 

 

For the invaluable use

of the bible in tribulation

is to let it remind

not so much of

the place of salvation

but the person of salvation.

 

Because it was Paul –

that man in danger

on the high seas

- who started the theology

of our understanding

of whom Jesus really was.

 

The Christ who is not just

the prophet

of the kingdom of heaven

but far, far more importantly who is the Son of the King of that Heaven.

 

Therefore, he also has

the supernatural power

to be our guide

on our journey towards it.  

 

Put another way,

there is an old British mariner’s saying which went –

when at sea

have faith in God

and the admiralty chart.

 

However any seamen

will tell you

it is one thing

having a chart of the entrance to safe harbour

on a black and treacherous night

and another

r to have a pilot

with an intimate local knowledge of the homing.  

 

Let then us

have faith in the way

that the Bible charts

for the passage to heaven.

 

Yet let us have

absolute certainty

in our helmsman

that the Bible puts

each of us

in touch with.

 

For he alone sees

the fairway

through the wind and waves

to that secret haven

which is here today

even though

the scud and spray

hides it awhile.

 

And that is a saviour in anyone’s money!

 

Years ago a minister

was travelling by ship

with his young daughter across the ocean.

 

Earlier that particular Sunday he had preached a sermon about God's love.

 

It had been a very difficult service to preach,

because he was newly
widowed.

 

He was standing against the rail of the ship,

looking out at the vast

and magnificent ocean,

when his daughter a

sked him if God loved them

as much as they had loved

her late mother.

 

"Of course He does,"

answered her father.

 

Look across the sea

as far as you can.

 

Look up and down and all around.

 

God's love stretches

around to cover all of that; above the blue sky

and deeper than the deepest part of the ocean

underneath us.

 

" The little girl pondered for a minute and replied,

 

"And to think Daddy,

we're right in the middle of it!

 

If then you have a storm

in your life

or even the gusts of difficulty, find your Bible

and use it for all it is worth.

 

For it will put you in touch

with God

more certainly

than the latest Nokia phone.

 

It will show you God’s Kingdom of peace that lies

just at hand

when we must

take our flight into the dawn

of faith

or dwell upon

the furthest shore of hope.

 

But crowning even this map

of a saving place

it will show us

the kingdom’s prophet;

the divine man

who in our midnight

enlightens the vista

of his fathers love

and the saviour

who in the most ravaging

of storms

brings all to the perfect land safely.  

 

That infinite height

and breadth and depth

which in Christ

we are always

right in the middle of!

 

Offering

 

HYMN………………

 

 

Ship Wreck