Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Ephesians 4 Family Values
The faith of Paul really amazes me, SLIDE
Everything he does is for the Lord and his church
You only have to read a little bit of what he has to say and you get that real sense that nothing can separate him from God’s Love
- Chains, prison, ship wrecks, torture
It’s a costly commitment he has to tell people about God
- It’s put him on the offside of his people - the Jews, with the authorities he used to work for and even with some of his brother in Christ
And because of the Ephesians this commitment has put him in chains - remember Trophimus... from Acts 21:29).
He was with Paul in Jerusalem,
and the Jews, thinking that the Paul had brought him with him into the temple, placed charges against Paul resulted in him being in prison.
Paul’s attitude - no big deal - I’m in Christ we’ll work with it
It’s this 100% commitment to the gospel that fuels Paul’s words to Live a life worth of the calling you have received...
New Family, SLIDE
It’s easy to see Paul’s commitment but what about our commitment – what does that look like for us?
I guess we can put Verse 1 that another way that might make more sense
the calling Paul is talking about refers to the name in which we as Christians are called - if you are in Jesus you are no longer John Smith or Jane Doe - you have a new name - a new family Christ
Calling - that the name you have been called to take up
You’ve been adopted in to God’s Family...
At Paige’s baptism this morning we welcome her into Christ’s family and as part of that welcoming she is Christened or named in God’s family the Church
When we are talking about the Church family we are not just talking about Nativity we are talking about the wider church, SLIDE
The creeds we say use the words Catholic Church – or the universal Church.
God has a big family and because he has a big family there is a real need to watch out for each other – and watch our own actions
I think we are all aware that we are judged by how people perceive others in our family and unfortunately we all can too easily get tarred with the same brush
When I was 20 I wanted to join the local police
- I passed all the tests but was rejected on basis that my family had a bit of a bad name in the region
- two of my brothers had done time
- and because of their record my card was marked the police wouldn’t accept me I was judge because of my brothers
When it comes to the Church Family we have a huge responsibility to live up to family standards.
We fail and the family name takes a dive on the commodities market.
Paul was in prison for the commitment he has made to Jesus – taking hits left right and centre for his beliefs
When we fail to live up to the name we are called by others take the hits…
Family Values
I am the youngest of 8 and I left home when I was 21 to come to NZ – I think it took my family 5 years to realize I was gone - the bigger the family the harder it is to stay together
What holds us together is not only having the same family name, but also adopting the Family Values SLIDE
Being part of the family means that we also have family values that we share in common - Quirks, characteristics that are unique
In verse 2 Paul names a few of these family quirks Humility, gentleness and patience
Some times we call these values fruits of the Spirit – why because they are not things that grow naturally in human beings
They are alien values to the average person
Humility- in the ancient world humility was not a value to be honored...
Donkeys were humble - slaves were humble - the average person was not - humility was associated with weakness
Gentleness - again is an alien value - dog eat dog, survival of the fittest is often how we see the world - I have to get what is mine - and just to make sure I get what is mine I’ll make sure I get more than I need. Gentleness is not an every day value
And as for Patience well just look in the car mirror next time you are stuck in traffic and you will realize how alien this value is...
They don’t come naturally… there fruits of God’s work in us not natural human attributes
But these are the values that help hold us together...
We are different and joining into God’s family is not about loosing your uniqueness, your identity and dressing the same way as everyone else.
But if we are going to stay together we need to develop family values so we can maintain our family connection - in spite of our differences.
Now as I said they are sometimes referred to as Fruits of the Spirit that doesn’t mean we lie back and God waves his magic hand and it all happens
We take our part in allowing God to develop them in us –
Family Beliefs SLIDE
In verse 4 Paul introduces us to another aspect of family values – belief
- what we believe - a creed - it’s not some family motto or a deep philosophical reflection on the nature of the universe; rather more often than not it’s stating the obvious.
Saying Jesus is Lord may not mean a great deal in our world but in the world of the
Its unpacking things in a way that makes sense.
As the Christian Church we have creeds that say what we believe -
Once upon a time in order to be welcomed into the family you had to be able to memorize a creed - why?
The thought was if you couldn’t say it and you didn’t believe it then you weren’t a Christian - you can’t be part of the family.
- take the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons
- they look like us, they talk like us they, they carry bibles like us
- but they are not part of our Family
- why because they don’t believe what we believe they have a different creed...
That’s why it’s so important for us to say the creeds to each other
- when we come to the Lords table were sitting down for a family meal
- we establish who we are as a family through the creeds.
It’s telling our story - the things we have in common...
But in saying it to each other we are also teaching each other.
now I know some people don’t like saying it every week - it become rote
- Why should I have to say what I believe in order to take communion I have been coming here for years -?
but maybe in saying it to each other we can teach others??
When I think back to being a kid I was told I had to learn the creed into to take communion - I struggled to sit down and learn it - in the end I learnt it through sitting in church surrounded by people who had been saying it week in week out for years
- so to those who know the creed by rote I wan to say thank you for teaching me it too.
And who knows maybe your teaching others too....
Family Business
So we have a name, values and beliefs that make up this big family. But I think we are all aware that there is something more than that
It wasn’t that God just put us all together so we could sing some happy songs on a Sunday morning say some prayers and then go and have a coffee together.
Great as that is - wonderful as it is to spend time with you
- there must be something more?
- and yes there is SLIDE
- The family Business, being part of God’s Family requires a commitment to his core business...
In the Lords Prayer we pray our Father your will be done on earth as it is in heaven- that’s a great honor to be able to call the God of the Universe Dad - but with it comes a concern for the family business - seeing this place become God’s Place - seeing his will done HERE his Kingdom come HERE
He didn’t give up the life of his son and go to great sacrifice just so we could drink tea together
He did it so that we would become part of the family business of reconciliation.
On the cross the debt was paid for our sin - Jesus took every wrong thing upon his shoulders and died the death we deserve
In that we have been reconciled to God
But there’s more…
In his death he set us free - the captives that Paul talks about in verse 8 are people who have died in the faith... SLIDE
And when he ascended into Heaven he took them with him
The image is of a victory parade where a victorious King would return from battle with a triumphant procession of his people behind him
and in the process of this victory parade the King would hand out gifts to all his loyal people.
.
And it’s these gifts that help us to be reconciled to each other.
Practical gifts that will help us become family.... Family Values
But also practical gifts that will help us carry out the family business - of reconciliation.
We become God’s hands and feet – his agents of reconciliation
Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
No hands but yours,
No feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which is to look out Christ’s compassion to the world;
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good;
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.
Christ Has No Body by St. Teresa of
God’s Business becomes our business.
As verse 10 puts it so the whole universe will be filled with his presence...
God’s kingdom has a universal scale.
God’s business our business reconciliation of all people of all things under his rule.
The trail of captives that ascended is a foretaste - the work is now ours to do.
In Verse 11 Paul lists five gifts, that were to be used to build up all God‘s People for the Family Business. SLIDE
Not going to go in with any great details but:
- Apostle - sent
- Prophet - mouth
- Evangelist - good news
- Pastor - shepherd
- Teacher - nurture
Now without even explaining them I am sure you can think of some of the ways in which these gifts exercise themselves.
And I am sure you can see potential conflicts between them, but without each other the family business doesn’t work.
I mean I think we are all too aware that growing grapes is one thing but unless you have someone to harvest, someone to juice, someone to ferment and someone to bottle you don’t get Wine
it’s no different for the Church
- A church without Evangelists turns teaching into lectures
- A church full of evangelists but no teaching is just a door way...
- A church without apostolic direction becomes a fortress that’s only concern is self-preservation.
SLIDE
But when the apostolic function exist it births new environments for ministry to take place in
When the prophetic ministry exists God’s people are continually called back to him - to his covenant relationship.
And as people are brought into relationship with God through the evangelist a place is created for pastoral ministry of nurture into Christ likeness and then through teaching people are led to a greater understanding of God’s will.
When these gifts work together - the family grows, not only numerically but in maturity too.
Historically the Church in the west has not valued these five gifts we have specialized as churches in shepherding and teaching people
And when they often rose up the people were ostracized for demonstrating these gifts
But we live in a different time - as I said a few weeks back the world we live in is probably closer Spiritually to the world of Ancient Rome SLIDE
-it’s hostile to the gospel – it’s pre Christian
Therefore we need these gifts and people gifted with them if we are to continue the family business
On Tuesday I was sitting in the staff meeting and I could see these gifts present in the staff team… it makes you wonder if God is assembling a ministry team this way - it makes you wonder what he has in store...
But it’s not just about the ministry team.
These gifts have been spread about the whole church.
- For some of you they are sleeping - if so then wake up
- For some of you they have been trod upon - if so then ask God to raise them up in you
- For some of you your angry with the Church – and so your hiding these gifts if so we hope you can find the opportunity to unveil them again
For the sake of God’s family we need these gifts
– after all God didn’t give you them so you could feel good about yourself but so the whole church could be built up…
In a moment we will gather around the table again for a family meal - I invite you as you receive to recommit yourselves to this family again... SLIDE
For others you have never been part of this family
-your sitting on the fringe
-well maybe in gathering you could commit yourself a step further
We are a family; we need to work together - to be one
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Lifeshapes - the Hexagon - prayer
PRAYER STRUGGELS
If I am going to be honest prayer is the thing that I have struggled most with in the following Jesus thing.
It seems so unnatural to me.
I grew up in a Catholic church that prayed very formal prayers
But I am also a person who is easily distracted.
I want to pray but knowing how to pray in a way that honors God and a way that I don’t fall asleep is often difficult for me.
You couple that with the fact I like to be around people – I like to talk and it has felt some days like prayer is impossibility
But if we are to fulfill our life purpose if we are to have relationship with God then it’s a discipline we all need.
Life shapes 6 is a not only a reminder to pray but also a shape to help us pray, as we run our minds over each side we say a way of praying…
LORD TEACH US TO PRAY
Now Jesus spent a lot of time in prayer,
As I said a few weeks back Rabbi’s like Jesus modeled behavior for their disciples to follow
Rabbinical teaching – the goal is to be come like the rabbi – imitation – you are just like your rabbi – a Mini Me
They ate - you ate
They sleep – you sleep
They walk with a limp – you walk with a limp
Failure resulted in a clip round the ear
You become a photocopy of the person you are following
How you learn is by doing things like they did
Basically if you were a follower of a Rabbi you learnt through imitation
So when the disciples ask Lord teach us to pray
They’ve seen Jesus doing it and now there ready to give this thing a shot too
FAMILIAR
The words of the Lord’s Prayer are familiar to most of us – possibly too familiar,
One of the problems is with written prayers is that unless you stop occasionally to think about what your saying you end up just repeating something back by wrote – like learning the times table. But prayer is not supposed to be mechanical it’s a cry to God, it’s the human spirit speaking to God via the Holy Spirit
So if you have never stopped to think about what you are saying then here is a good opportunity to do that.
But it’s also an opportunity to see what this prayer they can teach us about prayer in general
HEXAGON
The Hexagon helps us to remember the six simple phrases of the Lord’s Prayer and how we can apply them to every minute of every day.
And in doing that not only do we learn how to pray but also to align our lives with God’s will for us.• The Father’s Character – “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name”
This is the ultimate oxymoron.
On one hand we have Jesus telling us that we can call God Father
For some this is a problem – If he is anything like my Father he must be a real Bastard
Well that is not what Jesus means – in the Aramaic the word he uses is literally Daddy – Tender, caring, Jesus is saying “This God, you can actually call him DAD.”
But at the same time this God who we can call Father is in Heaven “up there somewhere’
On one hand he is close and on the other far away, removed.
What do we do with this?
I think it works like this;
Jesus starts this prayer off be welcoming us into the court of the King
– not just any King but the king of the universe
– and in prayer you can sit on his knee and whisper what you want to pray about in his ear.
• The Father’s Kingdom – “Your kingdom come, your will be done”
We don’t use the language of Kingdom much in the 21st Century; it’s kind of been lost in the political shift from Kings and Queens to prime ministers and Presidents.
Basically a King would rule over a region and be responsible for the care of that region – in saying this we are saying – we want God’s rule to be established on earth as it is in Heaven – Why?
– because God is a good ruler, he looks after his people,
– because God is just he is fair to us
– because God is merciful, he doesn’t treat us like we deserve to be treated
But we are also recognizing we want to be part of the family business too.
In calling God Dad, it’s like we’ve been adopted into his family.
Not just any family but the family of a King – his concerns then become our concerns
– the things that effect him effect us
– His cry for justice becomes ours too
– His desire for peace becomes ours
So where God rules in our lives, his kingdom exists on earth as in heaven
We are aligning our selves with the God who is our Father
So we pray for this kingdom to be established but because we are part of the family firm we work for it too
• The Father’s Provision – “Give us today our daily bread”
I think we all recognize the fact we have needs – health, shelter, food, warmth, emotional etc... this is our daily bread
In prayer we are pulling ourselves up to the father’s table and saying ‘feed me’.
He wants us to be there so he created us to have needs but also to see him as the ultimate provider of those needs – Every good thing comes from our heavenly Father.
Our needs ensure that we keep coming back to him – that we don’t forget him – that we realize our dependence on him.
God will provide us with what we need -
• The Father’s Forgiveness – “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”
– the problem is that so often our needs turn into greed’s, the human condition is such that we always want more.
If God our heavenly Daddy is our provider than surely we should have enough shouldn’t we? Not too much so that we become greedy, and not too little that we starve.
If we become greedy we overstep our boundaries – trespass as the old words of this prayer used to say.
We take what isn’t ours
We go places we shouldn’t go
And at the same time if we do it we can guarantee others will do it to us too.
So, just as we ask God to forgive us, we also need to forgive others.
Look at it like this when we sin we not only sin against other people, but we sin against God by saying what you gave me is not enough – I want more.
We hurt others, we hurt our heavenly Daddy.
While the Fathers forgiveness is never ending, it’s conditional on being willing to forgive others...
• The Father’s Guidance – “Lead us not into temptation”
Up until now the prayer has been focused on God and our relationships with others around us.
To use the language of the Triangle
– we’ve done the UP stuff
– and we’ve prayed about the IN stuff.
– Now the prayer also focuses’ us on the OUT Stuff.
Within the Hexagon is a triangle
So the Prayer naturally leads us into dealing with our going out into the world with God’s Message.
What we are saying here in these last two sections - that we are asking for God’s protection as we go out and do his work, as we advance his kingdom.
Give us the strength to be in the world but not of the world
Help out light to shine…
• The Father’s Protection –“But deliver us from the evil one”
But were also recognizing that we have an enemy it’s not just us being led astray that we need to worry about, but when we try to establish God’s Kingdom we are undermining the Kingdom of Satan – our enemy
The Enemy that comes to steal and destroy.
So we need to be guided around temptation but we also need to be kept safe from attacks as we do what God would have us do…
PRAYING THE HEXAGON
Pray with Pauses –
Praise,
Intercessions
Protection
Pray a Clause daily – on the seventh day rest – Anglican Prayer Book uses this form
Cyclical prayer – where each line is developed by the next
If Our Father is in heaven
Then his Kingdom shall come
And he will give us what we need – because in his Kingdom there is no want
And our debts will be washed away – because in his kingdom there is forgiveness
And if we walk in God’s grace and forgiveness which comes from his Kingdom being established then we need to freely forgive others
And we know that God’s Kingdom is dependant on his rule in our lives so we need protection from taking short cuts and temporary fixes and from evil that would seek to discredit and put the kingdom’s rule in our lives down
You can also just pray it as it is – sometimes we don’t have the words to say – the weight of the world seems too much to bare – but here are words of life, freedom, new beginnings, and protection
If I am going to be honest prayer is the thing that I have struggled most with in the following Jesus thing.
It seems so unnatural to me.
I grew up in a Catholic church that prayed very formal prayers
But I am also a person who is easily distracted.
I want to pray but knowing how to pray in a way that honors God and a way that I don’t fall asleep is often difficult for me.
You couple that with the fact I like to be around people – I like to talk and it has felt some days like prayer is impossibility
But if we are to fulfill our life purpose if we are to have relationship with God then it’s a discipline we all need.
Life shapes 6 is a not only a reminder to pray but also a shape to help us pray, as we run our minds over each side we say a way of praying…
LORD TEACH US TO PRAY
Now Jesus spent a lot of time in prayer,
As I said a few weeks back Rabbi’s like Jesus modeled behavior for their disciples to follow
Rabbinical teaching – the goal is to be come like the rabbi – imitation – you are just like your rabbi – a Mini Me
They ate - you ate
They sleep – you sleep
They walk with a limp – you walk with a limp
Failure resulted in a clip round the ear
You become a photocopy of the person you are following
How you learn is by doing things like they did
Basically if you were a follower of a Rabbi you learnt through imitation
So when the disciples ask Lord teach us to pray
They’ve seen Jesus doing it and now there ready to give this thing a shot too
FAMILIAR
The words of the Lord’s Prayer are familiar to most of us – possibly too familiar,
One of the problems is with written prayers is that unless you stop occasionally to think about what your saying you end up just repeating something back by wrote – like learning the times table. But prayer is not supposed to be mechanical it’s a cry to God, it’s the human spirit speaking to God via the Holy Spirit
So if you have never stopped to think about what you are saying then here is a good opportunity to do that.
But it’s also an opportunity to see what this prayer they can teach us about prayer in general
HEXAGON
The Hexagon helps us to remember the six simple phrases of the Lord’s Prayer and how we can apply them to every minute of every day.
And in doing that not only do we learn how to pray but also to align our lives with God’s will for us.• The Father’s Character – “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name”
This is the ultimate oxymoron.
On one hand we have Jesus telling us that we can call God Father
For some this is a problem – If he is anything like my Father he must be a real Bastard
Well that is not what Jesus means – in the Aramaic the word he uses is literally Daddy – Tender, caring, Jesus is saying “This God, you can actually call him DAD.”
But at the same time this God who we can call Father is in Heaven “up there somewhere’
On one hand he is close and on the other far away, removed.
What do we do with this?
I think it works like this;
Jesus starts this prayer off be welcoming us into the court of the King
– not just any King but the king of the universe
– and in prayer you can sit on his knee and whisper what you want to pray about in his ear.
• The Father’s Kingdom – “Your kingdom come, your will be done”
We don’t use the language of Kingdom much in the 21st Century; it’s kind of been lost in the political shift from Kings and Queens to prime ministers and Presidents.
Basically a King would rule over a region and be responsible for the care of that region – in saying this we are saying – we want God’s rule to be established on earth as it is in Heaven – Why?
– because God is a good ruler, he looks after his people,
– because God is just he is fair to us
– because God is merciful, he doesn’t treat us like we deserve to be treated
But we are also recognizing we want to be part of the family business too.
In calling God Dad, it’s like we’ve been adopted into his family.
Not just any family but the family of a King – his concerns then become our concerns
– the things that effect him effect us
– His cry for justice becomes ours too
– His desire for peace becomes ours
So where God rules in our lives, his kingdom exists on earth as in heaven
We are aligning our selves with the God who is our Father
So we pray for this kingdom to be established but because we are part of the family firm we work for it too
• The Father’s Provision – “Give us today our daily bread”
I think we all recognize the fact we have needs – health, shelter, food, warmth, emotional etc... this is our daily bread
In prayer we are pulling ourselves up to the father’s table and saying ‘feed me’.
He wants us to be there so he created us to have needs but also to see him as the ultimate provider of those needs – Every good thing comes from our heavenly Father.
Our needs ensure that we keep coming back to him – that we don’t forget him – that we realize our dependence on him.
God will provide us with what we need -
• The Father’s Forgiveness – “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors”
– the problem is that so often our needs turn into greed’s, the human condition is such that we always want more.
If God our heavenly Daddy is our provider than surely we should have enough shouldn’t we? Not too much so that we become greedy, and not too little that we starve.
If we become greedy we overstep our boundaries – trespass as the old words of this prayer used to say.
We take what isn’t ours
We go places we shouldn’t go
And at the same time if we do it we can guarantee others will do it to us too.
So, just as we ask God to forgive us, we also need to forgive others.
Look at it like this when we sin we not only sin against other people, but we sin against God by saying what you gave me is not enough – I want more.
We hurt others, we hurt our heavenly Daddy.
While the Fathers forgiveness is never ending, it’s conditional on being willing to forgive others...
• The Father’s Guidance – “Lead us not into temptation”
Up until now the prayer has been focused on God and our relationships with others around us.
To use the language of the Triangle
– we’ve done the UP stuff
– and we’ve prayed about the IN stuff.
– Now the prayer also focuses’ us on the OUT Stuff.
Within the Hexagon is a triangle
So the Prayer naturally leads us into dealing with our going out into the world with God’s Message.
What we are saying here in these last two sections - that we are asking for God’s protection as we go out and do his work, as we advance his kingdom.
Give us the strength to be in the world but not of the world
Help out light to shine…
• The Father’s Protection –“But deliver us from the evil one”
But were also recognizing that we have an enemy it’s not just us being led astray that we need to worry about, but when we try to establish God’s Kingdom we are undermining the Kingdom of Satan – our enemy
The Enemy that comes to steal and destroy.
So we need to be guided around temptation but we also need to be kept safe from attacks as we do what God would have us do…
PRAYING THE HEXAGON
Pray with Pauses –
Praise,
Intercessions
Protection
Pray a Clause daily – on the seventh day rest – Anglican Prayer Book uses this form
Cyclical prayer – where each line is developed by the next
If Our Father is in heaven
Then his Kingdom shall come
And he will give us what we need – because in his Kingdom there is no want
And our debts will be washed away – because in his kingdom there is forgiveness
And if we walk in God’s grace and forgiveness which comes from his Kingdom being established then we need to freely forgive others
And we know that God’s Kingdom is dependant on his rule in our lives so we need protection from taking short cuts and temporary fixes and from evil that would seek to discredit and put the kingdom’s rule in our lives down
You can also just pray it as it is – sometimes we don’t have the words to say – the weight of the world seems too much to bare – but here are words of life, freedom, new beginnings, and protection
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Pentecost - What is happening here
BIG UP's to Rob Bell for the Erev Rav thoughts
A Story…
As a kid we were asked to draw a picture of this scripture in RE – I miss heard what was being said so instead of tongues of fire I just drew a picture of the disciples being licked by giant tongues… did not warm myself to the RE teacher who thought I was tacking the Mick – oh if she could see me know… TONGUE SLIDE
It seems to me though that confusion is one of the underlying themes of this biblical story.
The events that happen are beyond comprehension so much so that event those who experienced it were hard pressed to describe what was happening. In 2:12 we see that the crowd gathered were Amazed and confused – do much so that they had to keep asking each other what had happened here…. This is weird stuff
So much so that the only possible explanation from an on looker is Ah Yes – They must be drunk.
So as we explore this scripture this morning the question, “What does this all mean?” is probably an appropriate place to start…
So in getting to the heart of what this means we need to realize that Pentecost is not a word that was invented by a denomination to describe a type of worship that involves speaking odd languages or waving your hands around in worship.
Pentecost has a back story and like so much of the Jesus story its roots lie in the Exodus of Egypt
For the people of Israel this back story of the Exodus shapes their very identity and existence in the world.
While we are not Jews their back story is our heritage – its shapes whom we are without it the Stories of Jesus are monochrome and often difficult to understand. When we come to terms with this back story it’s like someone has taken a palette of color and repainted the Jesus story – it brings it life, depth and significance.
When it comes to Pentecost though there is not just one back story but many
Acts 2 is like a convergence of many ways in which God has acted,
Many promises God has made
It’s the fulfillment of Prophecy
And in the establishment of the Church we have God’s instrument for building his Kingdom made alive, breathed with Holy fire
So what does this all mean?
Well firstly the word “Pentecost” designates the 50th day after Passover.
It’s one of three Pilgrim Festivals in the Jewish calendar
Feast being significant ways of remembering the God story in the life of the people of Israel –
There are three pilgrim festivals Passover, Pentecost and Feats of Tabernacles in particular helped them remember
- who they were
- how they were created
- and how they were redeemed
And in light of all this then the festivals helped reestablish their identity showing them how they were to live at God’s People
At Passover they remember who they were gathered out of Egypt in the middle of the night and rescued
At Tabernacles which is like an end of year celebration they remember the 40 years in the wilderness and the establishment of the temple.
Pentecost – literally means fifty days, fifty days after Passover
In Hebrew they call this – Shavuot SHAVOUT SLIDE
-it’s a Festival with a double barrel meaning
Firstly it’s tied to the giving of the law – The ten words on two stone tablets at Mount Sinai
– Exodus 19 if you like was the first Pentecost.
In the giving of the law God establishes a covenant with his people
– If they follow his law he will be there God, they will be his people.
God has rescued them out of Egypt but it’s only in the giving of the law the establishing of the covenant if you like that they truly become God’s people.
If you remember the story of Moses – the Pharaoh ordered the killing of the boys of Jewish women but the girls were allowed to live.
I guess there are two ways to quash a nation of people:
- You can put them all to death by the sword
- Or you can dilute and pollute their blood lines.
In killing the boys that is precisely what Pharaoh intended
When the sons of Jacob, the sons of God’s promise came to Egypt they were God’s people
Over time that got diluted so much so that as they exit Egypt the writer describes them in Exodus 12:37+38 as 600,000 men not including women and children and others…
The 600,000 we might call people who had stuck to a pure blood line
The others, were people of mixed blood – not true Jews but not Egyptians either – somewhere in between in Hebrew
an EREV RAV EREV RAV SLIDE
a mixed multitude
People who aren’t really Jewish but wouldn’t fit with the Egyptians either, God fearers, immigrants, half castes we might call them a Motley Crew
Prior to the Giving of the Law they were a collection of odds and sods - loosely related to each other descendents of Abraham but also a mixed race
At Mount Sinai in the giving of the Law – the Covenant was established - they became one people, one race
God united them under the Law –
Law being rules to live by –
Rules that say you are God’s people regardless of whether you mother or Father was Egyptian – the Motley Crew, the EREV RAV are know God’s People.
As they waited around the foot of Mount Sinai
A cloud appears, trumpets blasts, everyone in the camp trembled.
The whole of Mount Sinai was covered in Smoke because God had come down on it as Fire…
Sound Familiar…. Is this our back story????
But Wait there’s more because SHAVUOT – Pentecost is also about Harvest –
The Fifty days prior being the time of the Grain harvest – SHAVUOT SLIDE
Which is related to the word Sabbath is what follows – time when the land rests…
What would happen is that on this day an offering by each farmer of two loaves of bread would be made in the temple….
While there as he offered the bread he would remember the story of his people
Deuteronomy 26:5 –
Then you shall declare before the LORD your God: My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians ill-treated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labour. Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey;
Harvest is an important occasion in establishing themselves as a people – the reason they ended up in Egypt in the first place was because the harvest failed they had nothing to live on and so were forced to submit to an enemy people in order to survive.
At Sinai they become once again God’s People they are to be brought into their own land the harvest is not because they grow crops wells
- it’s a sign of God covenant with them,
- his care for them
- God is the source of their prosperity
Without God’s covenant they are not a people but an EREV RAV a Motley Crew,
Without God’s Covenant they have no land – the harvest will never be their own.
For the Israelites despite the fact they would wander around in the wilderness way longer than they had to through SHAVUOT they are moving to Sabbath – rest from wandering – for them it’s a cause of celebration – a feast, a party…
So In the City of Jerusalem there were Jews from Jerusalem and religious men from all over the world gathered…
JERUSALEM MAP SLIDE
Ready to give thanks to God for making them One People – his People.
Ready to re establish their identity as God’s people once more
As they Gathered around the temple expecting to hold up a couple of pieces of bread and give thanks to God for making them a people God breaks in
– like he did at Mount Sinai
As they remembered there story – a historical story of how God had once upon a time revealed himself to the People of Israel, of how in smoke and fire and noises from heaven, the rescued reestablished people of God had become God’s People.
God Moves again
He enlivens their story
But He does something new as well…
Where around the Mountain the work of God was contained – the people were warned DO NOT Cross the boundary of many will die, now God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit is blowing wild…
The building cannot contain it PENTECOST SLIDE
The people who are touched by the Spirit cannot contain it either,
The Spirit draws them out into the town square where they tell of the amazing things God has done.
Where at Babel the people were scattered because God confused their language – here on Pentecost morning – the motley Crew from the ends of the earth here these things in their own languages
The curse of Babel is reversed.
Sinai is back in business,
God is moving again drawing in the immigrants,
Reaching out to the half castes,
And as this motley Crew grow in number, this EREV RAV enter into a new relationship with God
On that morning the Church is born, HOT COALS SLIDE
A New Covenant is established -
With the rule of the Holy Spirit written on the hearts and lives as opposed to pieces of Stone
Under the High Priesthood of Jesus – who has become our once and for all Sacrifice
A New Tribe is established –
Not born of Flesh, but born of Spirit
Not Born form direct family lineage to a wandering Aramean who went down into Egypt way back in history. But gathered out of all the nations of the earth an EREV RAV a motley crew of half castes and has beans from the unpronounceable places of the earth.
A New Homeland is established –
Where once the people of God had a specific, geographical, piece of dirt, they called their promised land. Now everywhere is a potential land of promise.
As we pray and act in the name of God in this world, then his new Kingdom Comes.
It’s not bound by geography or location but by the gathering of people in God’s name,
Through the work of the people in God’s Name.
A New Place of worship is built
The Journey of God’s people led them from a mountain, to a temple, to an upper room to the Street.
Where the Temple was central to all that God’s People did in worship, through Christ the curtain has been torn the street, the market place is as much a potential place of worship as the grandest cathedral.
As the Stories Converge…
The Holy Spirit, “the shy member of the Trinity" reveals himself, breathes life into the dead bones of the religious observance of God’s people.
There are new beginnings
New Possibilities for God’s Mission
And New Life
In Acts Chapter one a group of Individuals went up to the room and waited upon God –
In Acts Chapter two the same group of people became the body of Christ, one body, joined by one Spirit
Individuals went up and the Church came down
In a Moment as we gather round our Communion table and lift up Bread and Wine, just as they would at SHAVUOT
Then we are going to remember our story – not about being wandering Arameans,
But about, how on the night before Jesus died he gathered in an upper room with his friends
And in doing that we will be reminded that once we were far off but in Jesus we have been brought close to God. Where once we were EREV RAV now we are the people of God
And in doing this we reestablish who we are and that just as God has called u out of many places he has called us to be his Body in many different places too.
And as we do this we will ask God to breathe life into our remembrance to make us one people, one body filled with one Spirit
As you come forward to receive we would invite those who would like pray to linger at the front, if you want a fresh touch of the Spirit than indicate to the prayer team.
A Story…
As a kid we were asked to draw a picture of this scripture in RE – I miss heard what was being said so instead of tongues of fire I just drew a picture of the disciples being licked by giant tongues… did not warm myself to the RE teacher who thought I was tacking the Mick – oh if she could see me know… TONGUE SLIDE
It seems to me though that confusion is one of the underlying themes of this biblical story.
The events that happen are beyond comprehension so much so that event those who experienced it were hard pressed to describe what was happening. In 2:12 we see that the crowd gathered were Amazed and confused – do much so that they had to keep asking each other what had happened here…. This is weird stuff
So much so that the only possible explanation from an on looker is Ah Yes – They must be drunk.
So as we explore this scripture this morning the question, “What does this all mean?” is probably an appropriate place to start…
So in getting to the heart of what this means we need to realize that Pentecost is not a word that was invented by a denomination to describe a type of worship that involves speaking odd languages or waving your hands around in worship.
Pentecost has a back story and like so much of the Jesus story its roots lie in the Exodus of Egypt
For the people of Israel this back story of the Exodus shapes their very identity and existence in the world.
While we are not Jews their back story is our heritage – its shapes whom we are without it the Stories of Jesus are monochrome and often difficult to understand. When we come to terms with this back story it’s like someone has taken a palette of color and repainted the Jesus story – it brings it life, depth and significance.
When it comes to Pentecost though there is not just one back story but many
Acts 2 is like a convergence of many ways in which God has acted,
Many promises God has made
It’s the fulfillment of Prophecy
And in the establishment of the Church we have God’s instrument for building his Kingdom made alive, breathed with Holy fire
So what does this all mean?
Well firstly the word “Pentecost” designates the 50th day after Passover.
It’s one of three Pilgrim Festivals in the Jewish calendar
Feast being significant ways of remembering the God story in the life of the people of Israel –
There are three pilgrim festivals Passover, Pentecost and Feats of Tabernacles in particular helped them remember
- who they were
- how they were created
- and how they were redeemed
And in light of all this then the festivals helped reestablish their identity showing them how they were to live at God’s People
At Passover they remember who they were gathered out of Egypt in the middle of the night and rescued
At Tabernacles which is like an end of year celebration they remember the 40 years in the wilderness and the establishment of the temple.
Pentecost – literally means fifty days, fifty days after Passover
In Hebrew they call this – Shavuot SHAVOUT SLIDE
-it’s a Festival with a double barrel meaning
Firstly it’s tied to the giving of the law – The ten words on two stone tablets at Mount Sinai
– Exodus 19 if you like was the first Pentecost.
In the giving of the law God establishes a covenant with his people
– If they follow his law he will be there God, they will be his people.
God has rescued them out of Egypt but it’s only in the giving of the law the establishing of the covenant if you like that they truly become God’s people.
If you remember the story of Moses – the Pharaoh ordered the killing of the boys of Jewish women but the girls were allowed to live.
I guess there are two ways to quash a nation of people:
- You can put them all to death by the sword
- Or you can dilute and pollute their blood lines.
In killing the boys that is precisely what Pharaoh intended
When the sons of Jacob, the sons of God’s promise came to Egypt they were God’s people
Over time that got diluted so much so that as they exit Egypt the writer describes them in Exodus 12:37+38 as 600,000 men not including women and children and others…
The 600,000 we might call people who had stuck to a pure blood line
The others, were people of mixed blood – not true Jews but not Egyptians either – somewhere in between in Hebrew
an EREV RAV EREV RAV SLIDE
a mixed multitude
People who aren’t really Jewish but wouldn’t fit with the Egyptians either, God fearers, immigrants, half castes we might call them a Motley Crew
Prior to the Giving of the Law they were a collection of odds and sods - loosely related to each other descendents of Abraham but also a mixed race
At Mount Sinai in the giving of the Law – the Covenant was established - they became one people, one race
God united them under the Law –
Law being rules to live by –
Rules that say you are God’s people regardless of whether you mother or Father was Egyptian – the Motley Crew, the EREV RAV are know God’s People.
As they waited around the foot of Mount Sinai
A cloud appears, trumpets blasts, everyone in the camp trembled.
The whole of Mount Sinai was covered in Smoke because God had come down on it as Fire…
Sound Familiar…. Is this our back story????
But Wait there’s more because SHAVUOT – Pentecost is also about Harvest –
The Fifty days prior being the time of the Grain harvest – SHAVUOT SLIDE
Which is related to the word Sabbath is what follows – time when the land rests…
What would happen is that on this day an offering by each farmer of two loaves of bread would be made in the temple….
While there as he offered the bread he would remember the story of his people
Deuteronomy 26:5 –
Then you shall declare before the LORD your God: My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous. But the Egyptians ill-treated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labour. Then we cried out to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our misery, toil and oppression. So the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great terror and with miraculous signs and wonders. He brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey;
Harvest is an important occasion in establishing themselves as a people – the reason they ended up in Egypt in the first place was because the harvest failed they had nothing to live on and so were forced to submit to an enemy people in order to survive.
At Sinai they become once again God’s People they are to be brought into their own land the harvest is not because they grow crops wells
- it’s a sign of God covenant with them,
- his care for them
- God is the source of their prosperity
Without God’s covenant they are not a people but an EREV RAV a Motley Crew,
Without God’s Covenant they have no land – the harvest will never be their own.
For the Israelites despite the fact they would wander around in the wilderness way longer than they had to through SHAVUOT they are moving to Sabbath – rest from wandering – for them it’s a cause of celebration – a feast, a party…
So In the City of Jerusalem there were Jews from Jerusalem and religious men from all over the world gathered…
JERUSALEM MAP SLIDE
Ready to give thanks to God for making them One People – his People.
Ready to re establish their identity as God’s people once more
As they Gathered around the temple expecting to hold up a couple of pieces of bread and give thanks to God for making them a people God breaks in
– like he did at Mount Sinai
As they remembered there story – a historical story of how God had once upon a time revealed himself to the People of Israel, of how in smoke and fire and noises from heaven, the rescued reestablished people of God had become God’s People.
God Moves again
He enlivens their story
But He does something new as well…
Where around the Mountain the work of God was contained – the people were warned DO NOT Cross the boundary of many will die, now God’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit is blowing wild…
The building cannot contain it PENTECOST SLIDE
The people who are touched by the Spirit cannot contain it either,
The Spirit draws them out into the town square where they tell of the amazing things God has done.
Where at Babel the people were scattered because God confused their language – here on Pentecost morning – the motley Crew from the ends of the earth here these things in their own languages
The curse of Babel is reversed.
Sinai is back in business,
God is moving again drawing in the immigrants,
Reaching out to the half castes,
And as this motley Crew grow in number, this EREV RAV enter into a new relationship with God
On that morning the Church is born, HOT COALS SLIDE
A New Covenant is established -
With the rule of the Holy Spirit written on the hearts and lives as opposed to pieces of Stone
Under the High Priesthood of Jesus – who has become our once and for all Sacrifice
A New Tribe is established –
Not born of Flesh, but born of Spirit
Not Born form direct family lineage to a wandering Aramean who went down into Egypt way back in history. But gathered out of all the nations of the earth an EREV RAV a motley crew of half castes and has beans from the unpronounceable places of the earth.
A New Homeland is established –
Where once the people of God had a specific, geographical, piece of dirt, they called their promised land. Now everywhere is a potential land of promise.
As we pray and act in the name of God in this world, then his new Kingdom Comes.
It’s not bound by geography or location but by the gathering of people in God’s name,
Through the work of the people in God’s Name.
A New Place of worship is built
The Journey of God’s people led them from a mountain, to a temple, to an upper room to the Street.
Where the Temple was central to all that God’s People did in worship, through Christ the curtain has been torn the street, the market place is as much a potential place of worship as the grandest cathedral.
As the Stories Converge…
The Holy Spirit, “the shy member of the Trinity" reveals himself, breathes life into the dead bones of the religious observance of God’s people.
There are new beginnings
New Possibilities for God’s Mission
And New Life
In Acts Chapter one a group of Individuals went up to the room and waited upon God –
In Acts Chapter two the same group of people became the body of Christ, one body, joined by one Spirit
Individuals went up and the Church came down
In a Moment as we gather round our Communion table and lift up Bread and Wine, just as they would at SHAVUOT
Then we are going to remember our story – not about being wandering Arameans,
But about, how on the night before Jesus died he gathered in an upper room with his friends
And in doing that we will be reminded that once we were far off but in Jesus we have been brought close to God. Where once we were EREV RAV now we are the people of God
And in doing this we reestablish who we are and that just as God has called u out of many places he has called us to be his Body in many different places too.
And as we do this we will ask God to breathe life into our remembrance to make us one people, one body filled with one Spirit
As you come forward to receive we would invite those who would like pray to linger at the front, if you want a fresh touch of the Spirit than indicate to the prayer team.
Lifeshapes- the square
Let’s just pause for a moment for a very quick recap of the journey we have been on
CIRCLE
Way back we talked about how a Kairos moment is a moment in time, an opportunity to enter a circle of repentance and faith – and that these circles continually spiral in our lives and that as we enter and exit we change becoming more Christ like…
SEMI CIRCLE
From there we saw that God created us to be fruitful, and that fruit in our lives only ever grows when we are in balance – rest and work. In the Semi Circle we saw a prescription for a balanced life.
TRIANGLE
After that we saw that we need relational balance in out lives too.
That there is balance there in our relationship with God (Up dimension),
relationship with followers of Jesus (In Dimension)
and relationship with those outside the faith (Out Dimesnion).
And from there that as people we grow in faith by working at these three dimension Up – worship and prayer, In – Accountability and close Christian friendships, but also in stepping Out in mission and service
WHOLE LIFE DISIPLESHIP
Each of these shapes reflects an aspect of discipleship that Jesus not only taught but lived out in his every day life – I hope what you can see is that through this discipleship is not just about Church Stuff.. or Spiritual Stuff but that discipleship is about everyday stuff – it shapes every are of our lives.
If I am a disciple of Jesus then it needs to inform me in everything
How I am a father
How I spend my money
What car I drive
How I do leisure
Even what music I listen, what books I read, what movies I watch are a reflection of discipleship of my growing relationship with God – I don’t switch off – I either am a disciple 24/7 or not…
This evenings life shapes explores an area of life which for some people is going to seem irrelevant – but trust me it is extremely relevant….
Were looking at the square
And the square is about leadership, before you switch of and say leadership is nothing to do with me hang on a minute
If were going to be honest most of us don’t see ourselves as leaders
I for one have an aversion to anyone who walks into the room and wants to be a leader
Normally ‘leaders’ are seen as being loud, branch sometimes obnoxtious people who will jump up and down and say we do it my way…
While that can certainly be called a type of leadership it’s not the leadership I am interested in following or modeling.
INFLUENCE
So how about if I use a different word to describe leadership – Influence –
Because at the end of the day Leadership is influence, if a leader is barking the order and no one is following they are just going for a walk
But if leadership is about influence then I can do that
Believe me you can do it too…
Think for a moment of the many ways you can influence a person
Actions, Words, attitude, gestures,
But there is another side about leadership and that is learning how to be a good follower, submitting yourself to what God is doing in your life.
We need to learn how to follow before we can learn how to lead
JESUS LEADERSHIP
How does Jesus lead?
Rabinical teaching – the goal is to be come like the rabbi – imitation – you are just like your rabbi – a Mini Me
They ate - you ate
They sleep – you sleep
They walk with a limp – you walk with a limp
You become a photocopy of the person you are following
How you learn is by doing things like they did
Basically if you were a follower of a Rabbi you learnt through imitation
Four movements or stages – Jesus leads in a different way in each – the genius of this is that you can save a lot of pain and heartache if you can recognize where you are at – not just as a leader but as a follower.
D1 Discipleship is Directive _YOU DO AS YOU ARE TOLD
STAGE 1 Mark 1:15-20
"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"
[16] As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. [17] "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." [18] At once they left their nets and followed him.
[19] When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. [20] Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
D1 is about a very authoritarian way of leading
–300 and the Phalanx – Stand fast – you don’t question the leader you just follow.
What you end out with through this directive approach is often people who are enthusiastic but extremely incompetent – I think when the Bible talks about people as sheep – it with this leadership in mind
Great place to start but if this is the future of the Church; oh oh we are in trouble!
High Enthusiasm
Low Ability
D2 Discipleship is coaching – Let’s Talk
STAGE 2 Luke 9:1-17
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, [2] and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. [3] He told them: "Take nothing for the journey--no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, and no extra tunic. [4] Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. [5] If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them." [6] So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.
In D1 disciples were enthusiastic they have been pick to join the rabbi school of Jesus – there excited – it probably feels like nothing could get in their way
There working for the God man and God is with them….
But what happens NEXT
[10] When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, [11] but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.
[12] Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, "Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here."
[13] He replied, "You give them something to eat."
They answered, "We have only five loaves of bread and two fish--unless we go and buy food for all this crowd."
Doesn’t it seem weird they could go and heal in the name of Jesus, but when it came to supplying the sandwiches they were suddenly stumped.
They were suddenly out of their depth…
Enthusiasm is a great place to start, but without skills you soon get overwhelmed, D’s went off to put the world to rites, come back, having succeeded – but verse 13 pulls them back down to earth.
You see this time and time again we start with a hiss and a raw but soon fall over
I see this with Kids all the time – score a couple of goals and they think there Man Utd.
When the opposition picks up there game and starts scoring again
The team who though they were Man Utd suddenly look like Accrington Stanley
There heads go down, they start arguing, this sucks becomes the phrase of the day…
It’s like when you learn to ride a bike – it’s great until you fall of and they say unless you get up straight away and begin ridding again you’ll never get up
So the question is how does Jesus lead in this situation. Well maybe he could try and build up the enthusiasm again – tell them YOU CAN DO IT,
Hype them up – maybe even give them another altar call
` – or he can sit down with them and review the game plan.
If I heave learnt anything D2 is make a break for most people
You feel like giving up but if you can build on the experience if you can learn from the failure you will grow – if you can find Jesus when it feels like you life is in the pit your well on the way to becoming disciple
I Guess Experience proceeds explanation
Having failed means they are open to learn
We’ve tried something - its failed
Were confused, fed up what do we do now
We tried to follow Jesus and it doesn’t work out
We can’t do it… its too hard
Trust me if you can hang in at D2 half the battle is won
What Happens next.
[14] But he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each." [15] The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. [16] Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. [17] They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
D3 Discipleship is Pastoral - Friends
STAGE 3 - John 15:12-17
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. [13] Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. [14] You are my friends if you do what I command. [15] I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. [16] You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. [17] This is my command: Love each other.
A shift has happened
After going through the this sucks stage and being coached on the Disciples are growing in confidence again – but they also have learnt some skills from the coach
The Relationship has changed – their friends
They are still followers of Jesus but he is happy to walk in the pack and direct from within.
He’s much more hands off, in D1 Jesus directed them told them what to do – servants, now they are friends
The beginning of the “feet on the desk stage”
This stage is critical – they are becoming responsible, chances are though they won’t want the responsibility though, because all though everyone wants the badge we tend not to want the responsibility that goes with it….
D4 Discipleship is Delegation – I know you can do it
STAGE 4 Matthew 28:1-20
[16] Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. [17] When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. [18] Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Disiciples have grown in confidence and what’s more they are competent
L’s Low Direction, low examples
This is the Feet on the desk stage Time to delegate responsibility - if you don’t then you will loose them
GIVE YOUR JOB AWAY
One of the hardest things I have had to do is this…
CONCLUSION
The process of discipleship:
Directive -> Coaching -> Pastoral -> Delegating
I do it, you watch.
I do it, you help.
You do it, I help.
You do it, I watch.
CIRCLE
Way back we talked about how a Kairos moment is a moment in time, an opportunity to enter a circle of repentance and faith – and that these circles continually spiral in our lives and that as we enter and exit we change becoming more Christ like…
SEMI CIRCLE
From there we saw that God created us to be fruitful, and that fruit in our lives only ever grows when we are in balance – rest and work. In the Semi Circle we saw a prescription for a balanced life.
TRIANGLE
After that we saw that we need relational balance in out lives too.
That there is balance there in our relationship with God (Up dimension),
relationship with followers of Jesus (In Dimension)
and relationship with those outside the faith (Out Dimesnion).
And from there that as people we grow in faith by working at these three dimension Up – worship and prayer, In – Accountability and close Christian friendships, but also in stepping Out in mission and service
WHOLE LIFE DISIPLESHIP
Each of these shapes reflects an aspect of discipleship that Jesus not only taught but lived out in his every day life – I hope what you can see is that through this discipleship is not just about Church Stuff.. or Spiritual Stuff but that discipleship is about everyday stuff – it shapes every are of our lives.
If I am a disciple of Jesus then it needs to inform me in everything
How I am a father
How I spend my money
What car I drive
How I do leisure
Even what music I listen, what books I read, what movies I watch are a reflection of discipleship of my growing relationship with God – I don’t switch off – I either am a disciple 24/7 or not…
This evenings life shapes explores an area of life which for some people is going to seem irrelevant – but trust me it is extremely relevant….
Were looking at the square
And the square is about leadership, before you switch of and say leadership is nothing to do with me hang on a minute
If were going to be honest most of us don’t see ourselves as leaders
I for one have an aversion to anyone who walks into the room and wants to be a leader
Normally ‘leaders’ are seen as being loud, branch sometimes obnoxtious people who will jump up and down and say we do it my way…
While that can certainly be called a type of leadership it’s not the leadership I am interested in following or modeling.
INFLUENCE
So how about if I use a different word to describe leadership – Influence –
Because at the end of the day Leadership is influence, if a leader is barking the order and no one is following they are just going for a walk
But if leadership is about influence then I can do that
Believe me you can do it too…
Think for a moment of the many ways you can influence a person
Actions, Words, attitude, gestures,
But there is another side about leadership and that is learning how to be a good follower, submitting yourself to what God is doing in your life.
We need to learn how to follow before we can learn how to lead
JESUS LEADERSHIP
How does Jesus lead?
Rabinical teaching – the goal is to be come like the rabbi – imitation – you are just like your rabbi – a Mini Me
They ate - you ate
They sleep – you sleep
They walk with a limp – you walk with a limp
You become a photocopy of the person you are following
How you learn is by doing things like they did
Basically if you were a follower of a Rabbi you learnt through imitation
Four movements or stages – Jesus leads in a different way in each – the genius of this is that you can save a lot of pain and heartache if you can recognize where you are at – not just as a leader but as a follower.
D1 Discipleship is Directive _YOU DO AS YOU ARE TOLD
STAGE 1 Mark 1:15-20
"The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"
[16] As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. [17] "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." [18] At once they left their nets and followed him.
[19] When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. [20] Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
D1 is about a very authoritarian way of leading
–300 and the Phalanx – Stand fast – you don’t question the leader you just follow.
What you end out with through this directive approach is often people who are enthusiastic but extremely incompetent – I think when the Bible talks about people as sheep – it with this leadership in mind
Great place to start but if this is the future of the Church; oh oh we are in trouble!
High Enthusiasm
Low Ability
D2 Discipleship is coaching – Let’s Talk
STAGE 2 Luke 9:1-17
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, [2] and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. [3] He told them: "Take nothing for the journey--no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, and no extra tunic. [4] Whatever house you enter, stay there until you leave that town. [5] If people do not welcome you, shake the dust off your feet when you leave their town, as a testimony against them." [6] So they set out and went from village to village, preaching the gospel and healing people everywhere.
In D1 disciples were enthusiastic they have been pick to join the rabbi school of Jesus – there excited – it probably feels like nothing could get in their way
There working for the God man and God is with them….
But what happens NEXT
[10] When the apostles returned, they reported to Jesus what they had done. Then he took them with him and they withdrew by themselves to a town called Bethsaida, [11] but the crowds learned about it and followed him. He welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who needed healing.
[12] Late in the afternoon the Twelve came to him and said, "Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here."
[13] He replied, "You give them something to eat."
They answered, "We have only five loaves of bread and two fish--unless we go and buy food for all this crowd."
Doesn’t it seem weird they could go and heal in the name of Jesus, but when it came to supplying the sandwiches they were suddenly stumped.
They were suddenly out of their depth…
Enthusiasm is a great place to start, but without skills you soon get overwhelmed, D’s went off to put the world to rites, come back, having succeeded – but verse 13 pulls them back down to earth.
You see this time and time again we start with a hiss and a raw but soon fall over
I see this with Kids all the time – score a couple of goals and they think there Man Utd.
When the opposition picks up there game and starts scoring again
The team who though they were Man Utd suddenly look like Accrington Stanley
There heads go down, they start arguing, this sucks becomes the phrase of the day…
It’s like when you learn to ride a bike – it’s great until you fall of and they say unless you get up straight away and begin ridding again you’ll never get up
So the question is how does Jesus lead in this situation. Well maybe he could try and build up the enthusiasm again – tell them YOU CAN DO IT,
Hype them up – maybe even give them another altar call
` – or he can sit down with them and review the game plan.
If I heave learnt anything D2 is make a break for most people
You feel like giving up but if you can build on the experience if you can learn from the failure you will grow – if you can find Jesus when it feels like you life is in the pit your well on the way to becoming disciple
I Guess Experience proceeds explanation
Having failed means they are open to learn
We’ve tried something - its failed
Were confused, fed up what do we do now
We tried to follow Jesus and it doesn’t work out
We can’t do it… its too hard
Trust me if you can hang in at D2 half the battle is won
What Happens next.
[14] But he said to his disciples, "Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each." [15] The disciples did so, and everybody sat down. [16] Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to set before the people. [17] They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
D3 Discipleship is Pastoral - Friends
STAGE 3 - John 15:12-17
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. [13] Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. [14] You are my friends if you do what I command. [15] I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. [16] You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit--fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. [17] This is my command: Love each other.
A shift has happened
After going through the this sucks stage and being coached on the Disciples are growing in confidence again – but they also have learnt some skills from the coach
The Relationship has changed – their friends
They are still followers of Jesus but he is happy to walk in the pack and direct from within.
He’s much more hands off, in D1 Jesus directed them told them what to do – servants, now they are friends
The beginning of the “feet on the desk stage”
This stage is critical – they are becoming responsible, chances are though they won’t want the responsibility though, because all though everyone wants the badge we tend not to want the responsibility that goes with it….
D4 Discipleship is Delegation – I know you can do it
STAGE 4 Matthew 28:1-20
[16] Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. [17] When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. [18] Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. [19] Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, [20] and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
Disiciples have grown in confidence and what’s more they are competent
L’s Low Direction, low examples
This is the Feet on the desk stage Time to delegate responsibility - if you don’t then you will loose them
GIVE YOUR JOB AWAY
One of the hardest things I have had to do is this…
CONCLUSION
The process of discipleship:
Directive -> Coaching -> Pastoral -> Delegating
I do it, you watch.
I do it, you help.
You do it, I help.
You do it, I watch.
Choosen for LURVE
As many of you are probably by now aware in spite of the mixed of accent I am in fact a Yorkshire man – my mother says “there are two types of people in the world them from Yorkshire and the rest of em…”
Roughly translated if you’re not from Yorkshire you are an other a nobody…
Yorkshire humor, blunt, often said with a tongue in cheek and often insulting – there are many times I have walked away from a conversation with a Yorkshire person shaking my head – “did they just insult me… I thought they were a friend?”
When I ask my daughter who spent some time with my mum a few years back about what she remembers about her – she says this
“Dad your mum scares me, the first time I met her she shook her fist at me – aren’t grandma’s supposed to love their kids…” In a Yorkshire household that is love.
I guess you can imagine then that being a Yorkshire man I am not really into sloppy sentimentality – say it like it is and say it straight. If you’re going to have a go at me do it and don’t butter it up
Yorkshire men tend to hate flowers and sentimentality for no reason…
And Hallmark moments don’t exist in Yorkshire homes…
I think most of you would probably have received a gushy Hallmark card at some time well a Hallmark moment is a sappy emotional appeal, especially one that manipulates peoples emotions.
Its not that I am cold and emotionless, I just don’t like emotional manipulation and I struggle with gushiness.
Why am I telling you this?
Well I guess in the scripture there are some passages which have often been turned into Hallmark moments – 1 Corinthians 13 is a prime example – you hear it and you often think wedding bells – and because of that you can often miss what Paul is actually saying.
Today’s reading is another one that is in danger of being hallmarked too death.
It’s filled with very emotional language and it’s Jesus talking at a very emotionally charged time in his ministry
– he is about to walk out of the room to his death.
So emotion, feeling is high, but please don’t let that emotion overcome you – please don’t take these words and turn them into Hallmark moments
· To do that is to miss something really important.
· To do that is to glance over how Jesus redefines existence for the followers of God
· To do that is to turn the gospel of Christ, a message for the world into a greeting card where people turn around and say, “Awe that’s nice”, put it on their shelf and get on with their lives.
Don’t be fooled just because Jesus is talking about Joy, Love and Friendship he is not talking about that little puppy you had as a child that followed you everywhere and wagged its tail whenever you came home from school.
Don’t Hallmark moment the Gospel…
LOVE
9"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.” Isn’t that nice…
Doesn’t that fill you with warm fuzzies…?
God is love, Jesus loves me, Love one another – Period
Jesus has just washed their feet, is in the middle of sharing a Passover supper, and now Jesus is saying how he loves these guys…
I am sure they were touched by this – unless Jesus was in a drunken stupor saying “I lurve you guys - let’s have another beer” type of love then they would have been touched,
How could you not be touched?
Jesus Loves them – and I guess as we gather round the out skirts of the room I think we can say he’s talking to us too.
Jesus loves you – that’s awesome
But before you run away in the warm fuzzies,
know this – this love is defined by the way the Father has loved him.
It’s Love but not as we know it…
It’s intimacy but maybe not as we would imagine it
It’s Jesus inviting these twelve guys into another level of relationship, but maybe not as we imagined it
So how did the Father love Jesus? – What’s the model for how Jesus loves us?
He had pushed him out of the comfortable confines of heaven down onto earth where, as a baby, Herod tried to kill him,
The Father sends him into the wilderness for 40 days under assault by the devil trying to get his claws into him,
The Father loved him by pressing him into conflict with the super pious and with violent bureaucrats, who plotted to put an end to him,
And the Father loved him by encircling him with friends who were total lemons.
How did the Father love Jesus?
Peril at every turn, demons to be cast out, the sick pulling on him, crowds pressing, a woman yanking the hem of his garment, no roof over his head, and then the worst conceivable end possible – in betrayal, torture and death… but to top it all off the father demonstrates his Love in Abandonment....
It’s not what we would imagine when we think about love
Maybe we would prefer it if Jesus had turned around and said _ “as the Father loves me… well I am going to spare you from that love, I’ll love you differently, I’ll protect you in every situation, no one will ever say anything bad against you, you will love a peaceful and comfortable life.”
When Jesus says “13Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends.” He means it – he is about to do this for the guys in the room and for us who hang around the outside
Love is about Sacrifice, that’s the love that Jesus has poured out for us abundantly. That’s the love Jesus wants us to offer.
Not all hearts and flowers but giving of yourself for others and if we abide in his love, like he asks us to then His Joy may be complete is us.
We may lose the roof over our heads or be confronted with a change of lifestyle that ruins our comfort levels,
We will have people give us the odd look and by puzzled by our weirdness,
We probably won't get ahead in the world is were prepared to abide in god’s love,
It's hard, unfathomable, something you have no ability to pull off--but you go, and you know the one loving you has been there, and it's so hard, which is why it's meaningful.
And in this not only will we love as the Father loved Jesus, but His joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
Too often we associate Joy with Happiness don’t we!!!
JOY
But Joy doesn’t come from satisfaction at being full of stuff,
Joy doesn’t come from winning the race of who has the most toys,
Nor does Joy doesn’t come form a fat bank balance
It comes from the Holy Spirit
– It’s that feeling of I get it
– It’s the feeling of fulfillment
– It’s runs deeper than pleasure;
– It’s the response of something deep in the soul to realizing the depth of God’s Love for us,
– It’s that feeling of freedom, of eternal destiny – that though the whole world is falling apart God has a place for you – Jesus the master builder is marking out a ¼ acre site with your name on it
– In Matthew 13:44, Jesus explains it in the form of a parable
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Why a parable? because it’s so hard to find words to describe it
This runs so contrary to the Pursuit of happiness that so much of the world seeks after.
Its sounds like the same thing but when you dig down deep its worlds apart.
If we abide in Jesus’ love – it might look like we loose – but trust me we win BIG TIME,
Because not only do we get to know that we are loved,
not only does Joy well up in us like an overflowing river but we also get to be called Friends of Jesus, Friends of God.
FRIEND
That is an amazing responsibility and something you should never take for granted.
In the Old Testament two people were called friends of God, Abraham and Moses.
Two amazing individuals who if I was to meet I would just stand there, mouth open. Gorping … What would you say?
Now I don’t know about you but I am defiantly not in their league
– they earned the right to be called friends of God, I am only here by grace.
So friendship with Jesus is not something I take for granted
– Jesus is not some buddy Jesus who I can use and abuse when ever I feel.
Because he calls me friend I call him Lord
Psalm 84: 10, says I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my Godthan dwell in the tents of the wicked.
To be a doorkeeper for Jesus would be the most amazing honor, but when we abide in his love he doesn’t call us servants we become friends.
–
CHOSEN/COMMANDED
But that is not the end of the story
- not only does Jesus Love you,
- Not only does Jesus want you to abide in him and receive that Joy
- And Not only does he call you friend
- Jesus also chooses you.
To identify ourselves as chosen…. In our world sounds like absolute arrogance –
Maybe looking into the Greek would be helpful:
In the Greek the word Choose – Eklego has a deeper meaning than whose in and who’s out. It’s chosen to do a task – maybe a better word is selection.
It’s like when you were at school and the two captains picked the sports team. Normally the team Captain would Eklego team members, based on merit – the strongest the sportiest, the best looking, the guy who has the ball…
They would be the Chosen one’s Jesus turns this on its head
When team captain Jesus picks he doesn’t do it on merit, or skill or ability – he picks the weak one’s not the jocks, not the first 15, the first eleven or even the first seven. He chooses the rejects, that’s an amazing feeling… to be chosen when you fully don’t deserve it
I remember being at school when the head boy elections were on – all the staff were told to vote for who they believed should be head boy – I got three votes – three teachers out of 25 thought I deserved to be head boy – I was blown away, the head boy only got 6 votes…
Why he choose me or you I don’t know but I am grateful – I am so grateful, and that is one of the reasons I am more than happy to tell others – my gratitude at God’s lobe for me, has turned into Joy and it overflows…
And maybe that’s why we get picked – because when we respond to God we do so from a grateful heart – when we say yes to God’s YES to us, we are eternally grateful.
But there is more to it
Because alongside Eklego is another word Entello or in English Command.
Entello is not a boss telling you to do this or do that.
It’s not Jesus reverting us back to being servants again, Entello / Command infers a task or a commission.
So we’ve been chosen – which is pure grace – nothing of our own merit, and commissioned – charged with a task… to bare fruit, fruit that will last.
So yes you have been chosen but not so you can sit around and soak in the grace and wait for Jesus’ return - you have been chosen to bear much fruit,
You’ve been chosen to be light in the world – Jesus has a mission for us all that’s why he choose us
- to connect others into the vine
- to connect others to Jesus,
- and through connecting them to Jesus you connect them back into the Father – the source, the root, the sustainer of us all.
If Jesus wanted to win in the religious game - he would have chosen the Pharisees. They were the first 15 of the religious playground, the one’s with the skill,
They were the ones who prayed at least three times a day.
They knew their Bibles.
They worked hard at obeying every one of God's laws.
They fasted once or twice a week to show their religious devotion to God.
Instead he choose fishermen -- known to be crude and foul-mouthed, impatient and hot-headed.
He chose a tax collector -- known to be a swindler.
He chose a zealot -- a fanatical revolutionary.
And he chooses us -- known sinners,
known to be somewhat less than perfect,
known to have all kinds of problems in our lives.
And not only does he choose us but he calls us friends
So go out into this week and share the love – not the soppy sentimental Hallmark understanding of Love – but the love that comes from Joy, the love that pours out of you because of the grace that God has poured over you.
Roughly translated if you’re not from Yorkshire you are an other a nobody…
Yorkshire humor, blunt, often said with a tongue in cheek and often insulting – there are many times I have walked away from a conversation with a Yorkshire person shaking my head – “did they just insult me… I thought they were a friend?”
When I ask my daughter who spent some time with my mum a few years back about what she remembers about her – she says this
“Dad your mum scares me, the first time I met her she shook her fist at me – aren’t grandma’s supposed to love their kids…” In a Yorkshire household that is love.
I guess you can imagine then that being a Yorkshire man I am not really into sloppy sentimentality – say it like it is and say it straight. If you’re going to have a go at me do it and don’t butter it up
Yorkshire men tend to hate flowers and sentimentality for no reason…
And Hallmark moments don’t exist in Yorkshire homes…
I think most of you would probably have received a gushy Hallmark card at some time well a Hallmark moment is a sappy emotional appeal, especially one that manipulates peoples emotions.
Its not that I am cold and emotionless, I just don’t like emotional manipulation and I struggle with gushiness.
Why am I telling you this?
Well I guess in the scripture there are some passages which have often been turned into Hallmark moments – 1 Corinthians 13 is a prime example – you hear it and you often think wedding bells – and because of that you can often miss what Paul is actually saying.
Today’s reading is another one that is in danger of being hallmarked too death.
It’s filled with very emotional language and it’s Jesus talking at a very emotionally charged time in his ministry
– he is about to walk out of the room to his death.
So emotion, feeling is high, but please don’t let that emotion overcome you – please don’t take these words and turn them into Hallmark moments
· To do that is to miss something really important.
· To do that is to glance over how Jesus redefines existence for the followers of God
· To do that is to turn the gospel of Christ, a message for the world into a greeting card where people turn around and say, “Awe that’s nice”, put it on their shelf and get on with their lives.
Don’t be fooled just because Jesus is talking about Joy, Love and Friendship he is not talking about that little puppy you had as a child that followed you everywhere and wagged its tail whenever you came home from school.
Don’t Hallmark moment the Gospel…
LOVE
9"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love.” Isn’t that nice…
Doesn’t that fill you with warm fuzzies…?
God is love, Jesus loves me, Love one another – Period
Jesus has just washed their feet, is in the middle of sharing a Passover supper, and now Jesus is saying how he loves these guys…
I am sure they were touched by this – unless Jesus was in a drunken stupor saying “I lurve you guys - let’s have another beer” type of love then they would have been touched,
How could you not be touched?
Jesus Loves them – and I guess as we gather round the out skirts of the room I think we can say he’s talking to us too.
Jesus loves you – that’s awesome
But before you run away in the warm fuzzies,
know this – this love is defined by the way the Father has loved him.
It’s Love but not as we know it…
It’s intimacy but maybe not as we would imagine it
It’s Jesus inviting these twelve guys into another level of relationship, but maybe not as we imagined it
So how did the Father love Jesus? – What’s the model for how Jesus loves us?
He had pushed him out of the comfortable confines of heaven down onto earth where, as a baby, Herod tried to kill him,
The Father sends him into the wilderness for 40 days under assault by the devil trying to get his claws into him,
The Father loved him by pressing him into conflict with the super pious and with violent bureaucrats, who plotted to put an end to him,
And the Father loved him by encircling him with friends who were total lemons.
How did the Father love Jesus?
Peril at every turn, demons to be cast out, the sick pulling on him, crowds pressing, a woman yanking the hem of his garment, no roof over his head, and then the worst conceivable end possible – in betrayal, torture and death… but to top it all off the father demonstrates his Love in Abandonment....
It’s not what we would imagine when we think about love
Maybe we would prefer it if Jesus had turned around and said _ “as the Father loves me… well I am going to spare you from that love, I’ll love you differently, I’ll protect you in every situation, no one will ever say anything bad against you, you will love a peaceful and comfortable life.”
When Jesus says “13Greater love has no one than this that he lay down his life for his friends.” He means it – he is about to do this for the guys in the room and for us who hang around the outside
Love is about Sacrifice, that’s the love that Jesus has poured out for us abundantly. That’s the love Jesus wants us to offer.
Not all hearts and flowers but giving of yourself for others and if we abide in his love, like he asks us to then His Joy may be complete is us.
We may lose the roof over our heads or be confronted with a change of lifestyle that ruins our comfort levels,
We will have people give us the odd look and by puzzled by our weirdness,
We probably won't get ahead in the world is were prepared to abide in god’s love,
It's hard, unfathomable, something you have no ability to pull off--but you go, and you know the one loving you has been there, and it's so hard, which is why it's meaningful.
And in this not only will we love as the Father loved Jesus, but His joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
Too often we associate Joy with Happiness don’t we!!!
JOY
But Joy doesn’t come from satisfaction at being full of stuff,
Joy doesn’t come from winning the race of who has the most toys,
Nor does Joy doesn’t come form a fat bank balance
It comes from the Holy Spirit
– It’s that feeling of I get it
– It’s the feeling of fulfillment
– It’s runs deeper than pleasure;
– It’s the response of something deep in the soul to realizing the depth of God’s Love for us,
– It’s that feeling of freedom, of eternal destiny – that though the whole world is falling apart God has a place for you – Jesus the master builder is marking out a ¼ acre site with your name on it
– In Matthew 13:44, Jesus explains it in the form of a parable
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Why a parable? because it’s so hard to find words to describe it
This runs so contrary to the Pursuit of happiness that so much of the world seeks after.
Its sounds like the same thing but when you dig down deep its worlds apart.
If we abide in Jesus’ love – it might look like we loose – but trust me we win BIG TIME,
Because not only do we get to know that we are loved,
not only does Joy well up in us like an overflowing river but we also get to be called Friends of Jesus, Friends of God.
FRIEND
That is an amazing responsibility and something you should never take for granted.
In the Old Testament two people were called friends of God, Abraham and Moses.
Two amazing individuals who if I was to meet I would just stand there, mouth open. Gorping … What would you say?
Now I don’t know about you but I am defiantly not in their league
– they earned the right to be called friends of God, I am only here by grace.
So friendship with Jesus is not something I take for granted
– Jesus is not some buddy Jesus who I can use and abuse when ever I feel.
Because he calls me friend I call him Lord
Psalm 84: 10, says I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my Godthan dwell in the tents of the wicked.
To be a doorkeeper for Jesus would be the most amazing honor, but when we abide in his love he doesn’t call us servants we become friends.
–
CHOSEN/COMMANDED
But that is not the end of the story
- not only does Jesus Love you,
- Not only does Jesus want you to abide in him and receive that Joy
- And Not only does he call you friend
- Jesus also chooses you.
To identify ourselves as chosen…. In our world sounds like absolute arrogance –
Maybe looking into the Greek would be helpful:
In the Greek the word Choose – Eklego has a deeper meaning than whose in and who’s out. It’s chosen to do a task – maybe a better word is selection.
It’s like when you were at school and the two captains picked the sports team. Normally the team Captain would Eklego team members, based on merit – the strongest the sportiest, the best looking, the guy who has the ball…
They would be the Chosen one’s Jesus turns this on its head
When team captain Jesus picks he doesn’t do it on merit, or skill or ability – he picks the weak one’s not the jocks, not the first 15, the first eleven or even the first seven. He chooses the rejects, that’s an amazing feeling… to be chosen when you fully don’t deserve it
I remember being at school when the head boy elections were on – all the staff were told to vote for who they believed should be head boy – I got three votes – three teachers out of 25 thought I deserved to be head boy – I was blown away, the head boy only got 6 votes…
Why he choose me or you I don’t know but I am grateful – I am so grateful, and that is one of the reasons I am more than happy to tell others – my gratitude at God’s lobe for me, has turned into Joy and it overflows…
And maybe that’s why we get picked – because when we respond to God we do so from a grateful heart – when we say yes to God’s YES to us, we are eternally grateful.
But there is more to it
Because alongside Eklego is another word Entello or in English Command.
Entello is not a boss telling you to do this or do that.
It’s not Jesus reverting us back to being servants again, Entello / Command infers a task or a commission.
So we’ve been chosen – which is pure grace – nothing of our own merit, and commissioned – charged with a task… to bare fruit, fruit that will last.
So yes you have been chosen but not so you can sit around and soak in the grace and wait for Jesus’ return - you have been chosen to bear much fruit,
You’ve been chosen to be light in the world – Jesus has a mission for us all that’s why he choose us
- to connect others into the vine
- to connect others to Jesus,
- and through connecting them to Jesus you connect them back into the Father – the source, the root, the sustainer of us all.
If Jesus wanted to win in the religious game - he would have chosen the Pharisees. They were the first 15 of the religious playground, the one’s with the skill,
They were the ones who prayed at least three times a day.
They knew their Bibles.
They worked hard at obeying every one of God's laws.
They fasted once or twice a week to show their religious devotion to God.
Instead he choose fishermen -- known to be crude and foul-mouthed, impatient and hot-headed.
He chose a tax collector -- known to be a swindler.
He chose a zealot -- a fanatical revolutionary.
And he chooses us -- known sinners,
known to be somewhat less than perfect,
known to have all kinds of problems in our lives.
And not only does he choose us but he calls us friends
So go out into this week and share the love – not the soppy sentimental Hallmark understanding of Love – but the love that comes from Joy, the love that pours out of you because of the grace that God has poured over you.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Jesus' prayer John 17
It seems rather ironic that so soon after Easter we should head back into a prayer in the gospels that immediately proceeds the betrayal, denial of and crucifixion of Jesus
But then this is how the gospels operate – we see new truth in the light of the cross
Prior to the cross so much of what Jesus said sounded like he talked in riddles
Some of his closest followers probably though he was a bit weird at times
Through the cross Jesus’ words and became aha moments
Through the cross – riddles become truth
This morning we are looking at the final prayer of Jesus before he went out to the Garden of Gethsemane.
It’s a prayer not only filled with tension at what is about to happen but also about the tensions of following Jesus.
Discipleship
Jesus’ prayer for us, his desire for us is pretty much that we continue his mission. In Matthew 28 he commissions his disciples – US to go and make disciples,
here in John 17 as they gather round to share the last supper he prays for them as he sends them out into the night
A night when they’ll be separated from him –
This prayer is like the last will and testament of what Jesus wants to see his followers become.
On the night he spoke this intimate prayer to his Father but with his followers listening in I suspect it didn’t make much sense – after the events of that Easter weekend, after the ascension, as they moved on in the mission I suspect it would have made more and more sense.
It’s a prayer but it’s also instruction
Not about how to do the mission
But about whom we need to be – how we need to relate to each other and to the world o live with tensions.
Tension One
You don’t have to be a scholar to realize that there are three uneasy tensions in this prayer –
In verse 9 Jesus says
“I pray for them but I do not pray for the world”
That’s kind of a weird prayer isn’t it?
John 3:16 Jesus says For God so Loved the …….. (world) that he gave his only son that
His prayer seems to be contradictory – on one hand we are talking about God loving the world on the other but I am not going to pray for it…
How do we make sense of that?
God loves the world – he created it, he brooded over it, but at the same time he sees what it has become,
The world as we know it is not what God intended
Look at it like this
John 3:16 – Jesus is talking about the created world the world he made – that is what he wants to redeem
John 17 – it’s the world we have created,
- the political systems that are corrupt,
- the way we have exploited our neighbor in the name of greed
- the way we pollute the planet
Our world is a world that on one hand is blessed with the finger prints of God, but on the other decaying, dying,
In Revelation 21 one of the final images of John’s vision is of a new earth because the old has passed away – God’s kingdom has come so not only the world God created that god created that reflects his Glory – everything does.
So while Jesus does not pray for the world, he does leave us to be part of that world and that’s our second tension,
Tension Two – We are in the world
In verse 11Jesus goes on to say, I am no longer in the world but they are in the world –
How do we live in a world that is corrupt and dying – clearly with the presence of Evil and remain safe?
How do we handle being in the world but not of the world?
I guess most of us are aware of the two extreme of Christianity
Liberalism – where anything seems to go
And fundamentalism – where nothing goes –
One extreme embraces everything of the world – one shuts itself off from the world.
Living in tension is not easy – so when you think about it moving to the extremes is the natural thing to do –
I mean if the world is an evil place there are two responses move into the Christian ghetto – which I guess is fundamentalism at a pinch or
Ignore the fact the world is an evil place and baptize everything and say it’s from God – which is liberalism at a pinch.
On one hand we can have lots of fellowship with one another and await the Lords return on the other we can look at the world through rose colored glasses – and when someone does something evil we’ll say it’s not evil they are just expressing themselves
But does mission exist in either of these two worlds?
How do we be Salt and Light?
Well from what I have seen the people who are called to be salt in the ghetto look as though they have been sucking lemons.
For liberalism – well we all no what too much salt does in a diet
As for light, well fundamentalism recognizes that the world is a dark place but when you are called to be light you probably blame the dark for being dark.
Or should we blame the light for not shining on the dark.
Liberalism tends to respond to the call to be light by turning off the light and groping around in the dark
I don’t think Fundamentalism holds the answers for how we are to live for Jesus
Shutting yourself off avoiding everything that isn’t Christian is not being Christ Like
Nor do I think Liberalism is the answer either…
Liberalism tends to be absorbed by everything
Jesus calls us to a middle way in but not of the world
Don’t run away from the world – engage with it but don’t compromise
That’s the middle way – that’s what Jesus prayers for us to be.
If we are going to do carry on the mission of Jesus we can’t do it from the ghetto, nor can we do it if we have no good news to offer.
We need to follow the middle way
Tension three - Unity
Now were talking about Mission about being called to carry on the task of Jesus – telling people the Good News but here’s the rub
If you walk into this world by yourself you’re going to end up a casualty – You may not realize it but the world hates our message – we call our message Good News – the gospel – but the reality is that to a world that is set in its ways it’s not Good News.
So when Jesus says in John 17:14 that the world he means it.
John’s Church knew this too well –
They were persecuted for their beliefs – driven out of the synagogues
John himself was imprisoned on Patmos for his beliefs.
“Hated” – yes you can expect that
But God has a plan to help us survive – even to help the message spread- it’s called Unity – it’s called community, because there is strength in numbers
When two or three come together Jesus is with us and the Church becomes an irresistible force for good
When the world sees us working together it starts to think these Jesus fella’s or not so bad – it actually becomes soft to our message
Community/Unity is part of God’s plan for surviving in this world – if we are to go out and not hide, if we are to go out and not be absorbed then we need to do that together
But that doesn’t mean we have to be uniform – we don’t have to all look the same.
In the God head we have perfect unity – so much so that the Son, Father and Spirit can describe themselves as one – yet three persons. The Father is not the Son the Son is not the Spirit- unity yes uniform NO
Jesus did not take a cookie cutter and make us all the same
We will argue,
we will disagree
but our unity comes in our love of Jesus – if you love Jesus and I love Jesus well we have something on common we can be united in Christ.
The first disciples were unified because of Jesus not because of themselves – there were fishermen, tax collectors, revolutionaries, brothers who though with each other but there focus was on Jesus – that unified them.
When Jesus ascended the point of unity became the one Spirit that was sent from God – the Holy Spirit unites us.
Its God desire for us to be one – but the practicalities of it is not that easy.
Though the Spirit is at work so is our humanity – community doesn’t just happen
We can’t just all turn up on Sunday morning and expect to be community – it doesn’t work like that
It has to be worked at
Prayer
In Leviticus 16 there are instructions for the priestly duties on the Day of Atonement –
If you know the Exodus story Moses at the commands of God brings the people of Israel out of captivity in Egypt.
In order to be the people of God the people of Israel under the leadership of Moses establish a covenant relationship with God at Mount Sinai
On the one hand the covenant promised life to all who obeyed it, and, on the other hand, it pronounced a curse upon all its transgressors.
The Day of Atonement was then like a get out of jail free day – an opportunity to find forgiveness for the inevitable that you will mess up.
On that Day according to Leviticus 16:17 the high priest was to perform the ritual of purification –
For himself
For his family
For the whole community
In the same way in this prayer Jesus follows the same shape
For Himself
For his Disciples – his earthly family
For the Whole Community for the Whole Church
When we say Jesus is the great High Priest we mean it – not only in the sacrifice he offers in his own life, body and blood but in the way he prays for us
Roman’s 8:34 tells us that the Jesus who dies and was raised is seated at the right hand of God pleading with God for us.
So in John 17 he starts a process that he continues into eternity – pleading. Praying intercessing for us.
In the cross he has fulfilled the requirements of the Covenant
– becoming the scape goat for our actions,
– the perfect sacrifice for our sin.
But his high priest role still continues – in prayer
If you are ever tempted to say no one ever prays for me – know this
– I may forget,
– the prayer chain may forget,
– Peter may get too busy
– and even Derek the most organized man in the world may forget
– but Jesus doesn’t – he prays, he pleads, he intercedes – he is our great high priest.
In his death and resurrection Jesus is the perfect realization of the Day of Atonement
In prayer he is our great high priest
So while the life of a disciple is filled with tensions we can hold fast to the fact that Jesus is praying for us
Don’t take them out
Deliver them form the evil
That they would be one
While Pre Easter we might read this prayer and focus upon the sacrifice through the lens of Post Easter – that side of Jesus ministry is finished, but prayer continues, his mission continues in us and because it continues in us – we need him praying for us.
But then this is how the gospels operate – we see new truth in the light of the cross
Prior to the cross so much of what Jesus said sounded like he talked in riddles
Some of his closest followers probably though he was a bit weird at times
Through the cross Jesus’ words and became aha moments
Through the cross – riddles become truth
This morning we are looking at the final prayer of Jesus before he went out to the Garden of Gethsemane.
It’s a prayer not only filled with tension at what is about to happen but also about the tensions of following Jesus.
Discipleship
Jesus’ prayer for us, his desire for us is pretty much that we continue his mission. In Matthew 28 he commissions his disciples – US to go and make disciples,
here in John 17 as they gather round to share the last supper he prays for them as he sends them out into the night
A night when they’ll be separated from him –
This prayer is like the last will and testament of what Jesus wants to see his followers become.
On the night he spoke this intimate prayer to his Father but with his followers listening in I suspect it didn’t make much sense – after the events of that Easter weekend, after the ascension, as they moved on in the mission I suspect it would have made more and more sense.
It’s a prayer but it’s also instruction
Not about how to do the mission
But about whom we need to be – how we need to relate to each other and to the world o live with tensions.
Tension One
You don’t have to be a scholar to realize that there are three uneasy tensions in this prayer –
In verse 9 Jesus says
“I pray for them but I do not pray for the world”
That’s kind of a weird prayer isn’t it?
John 3:16 Jesus says For God so Loved the …….. (world) that he gave his only son that
His prayer seems to be contradictory – on one hand we are talking about God loving the world on the other but I am not going to pray for it…
How do we make sense of that?
God loves the world – he created it, he brooded over it, but at the same time he sees what it has become,
The world as we know it is not what God intended
Look at it like this
John 3:16 – Jesus is talking about the created world the world he made – that is what he wants to redeem
John 17 – it’s the world we have created,
- the political systems that are corrupt,
- the way we have exploited our neighbor in the name of greed
- the way we pollute the planet
Our world is a world that on one hand is blessed with the finger prints of God, but on the other decaying, dying,
In Revelation 21 one of the final images of John’s vision is of a new earth because the old has passed away – God’s kingdom has come so not only the world God created that god created that reflects his Glory – everything does.
So while Jesus does not pray for the world, he does leave us to be part of that world and that’s our second tension,
Tension Two – We are in the world
In verse 11Jesus goes on to say, I am no longer in the world but they are in the world –
How do we live in a world that is corrupt and dying – clearly with the presence of Evil and remain safe?
How do we handle being in the world but not of the world?
I guess most of us are aware of the two extreme of Christianity
Liberalism – where anything seems to go
And fundamentalism – where nothing goes –
One extreme embraces everything of the world – one shuts itself off from the world.
Living in tension is not easy – so when you think about it moving to the extremes is the natural thing to do –
I mean if the world is an evil place there are two responses move into the Christian ghetto – which I guess is fundamentalism at a pinch or
Ignore the fact the world is an evil place and baptize everything and say it’s from God – which is liberalism at a pinch.
On one hand we can have lots of fellowship with one another and await the Lords return on the other we can look at the world through rose colored glasses – and when someone does something evil we’ll say it’s not evil they are just expressing themselves
But does mission exist in either of these two worlds?
How do we be Salt and Light?
Well from what I have seen the people who are called to be salt in the ghetto look as though they have been sucking lemons.
For liberalism – well we all no what too much salt does in a diet
As for light, well fundamentalism recognizes that the world is a dark place but when you are called to be light you probably blame the dark for being dark.
Or should we blame the light for not shining on the dark.
Liberalism tends to respond to the call to be light by turning off the light and groping around in the dark
I don’t think Fundamentalism holds the answers for how we are to live for Jesus
Shutting yourself off avoiding everything that isn’t Christian is not being Christ Like
Nor do I think Liberalism is the answer either…
Liberalism tends to be absorbed by everything
Jesus calls us to a middle way in but not of the world
Don’t run away from the world – engage with it but don’t compromise
That’s the middle way – that’s what Jesus prayers for us to be.
If we are going to do carry on the mission of Jesus we can’t do it from the ghetto, nor can we do it if we have no good news to offer.
We need to follow the middle way
Tension three - Unity
Now were talking about Mission about being called to carry on the task of Jesus – telling people the Good News but here’s the rub
If you walk into this world by yourself you’re going to end up a casualty – You may not realize it but the world hates our message – we call our message Good News – the gospel – but the reality is that to a world that is set in its ways it’s not Good News.
So when Jesus says in John 17:14 that the world he means it.
John’s Church knew this too well –
They were persecuted for their beliefs – driven out of the synagogues
John himself was imprisoned on Patmos for his beliefs.
“Hated” – yes you can expect that
But God has a plan to help us survive – even to help the message spread- it’s called Unity – it’s called community, because there is strength in numbers
When two or three come together Jesus is with us and the Church becomes an irresistible force for good
When the world sees us working together it starts to think these Jesus fella’s or not so bad – it actually becomes soft to our message
Community/Unity is part of God’s plan for surviving in this world – if we are to go out and not hide, if we are to go out and not be absorbed then we need to do that together
But that doesn’t mean we have to be uniform – we don’t have to all look the same.
In the God head we have perfect unity – so much so that the Son, Father and Spirit can describe themselves as one – yet three persons. The Father is not the Son the Son is not the Spirit- unity yes uniform NO
Jesus did not take a cookie cutter and make us all the same
We will argue,
we will disagree
but our unity comes in our love of Jesus – if you love Jesus and I love Jesus well we have something on common we can be united in Christ.
The first disciples were unified because of Jesus not because of themselves – there were fishermen, tax collectors, revolutionaries, brothers who though with each other but there focus was on Jesus – that unified them.
When Jesus ascended the point of unity became the one Spirit that was sent from God – the Holy Spirit unites us.
Its God desire for us to be one – but the practicalities of it is not that easy.
Though the Spirit is at work so is our humanity – community doesn’t just happen
We can’t just all turn up on Sunday morning and expect to be community – it doesn’t work like that
It has to be worked at
Prayer
In Leviticus 16 there are instructions for the priestly duties on the Day of Atonement –
If you know the Exodus story Moses at the commands of God brings the people of Israel out of captivity in Egypt.
In order to be the people of God the people of Israel under the leadership of Moses establish a covenant relationship with God at Mount Sinai
On the one hand the covenant promised life to all who obeyed it, and, on the other hand, it pronounced a curse upon all its transgressors.
The Day of Atonement was then like a get out of jail free day – an opportunity to find forgiveness for the inevitable that you will mess up.
On that Day according to Leviticus 16:17 the high priest was to perform the ritual of purification –
For himself
For his family
For the whole community
In the same way in this prayer Jesus follows the same shape
For Himself
For his Disciples – his earthly family
For the Whole Community for the Whole Church
When we say Jesus is the great High Priest we mean it – not only in the sacrifice he offers in his own life, body and blood but in the way he prays for us
Roman’s 8:34 tells us that the Jesus who dies and was raised is seated at the right hand of God pleading with God for us.
So in John 17 he starts a process that he continues into eternity – pleading. Praying intercessing for us.
In the cross he has fulfilled the requirements of the Covenant
– becoming the scape goat for our actions,
– the perfect sacrifice for our sin.
But his high priest role still continues – in prayer
If you are ever tempted to say no one ever prays for me – know this
– I may forget,
– the prayer chain may forget,
– Peter may get too busy
– and even Derek the most organized man in the world may forget
– but Jesus doesn’t – he prays, he pleads, he intercedes – he is our great high priest.
In his death and resurrection Jesus is the perfect realization of the Day of Atonement
In prayer he is our great high priest
So while the life of a disciple is filled with tensions we can hold fast to the fact that Jesus is praying for us
Don’t take them out
Deliver them form the evil
That they would be one
While Pre Easter we might read this prayer and focus upon the sacrifice through the lens of Post Easter – that side of Jesus ministry is finished, but prayer continues, his mission continues in us and because it continues in us – we need him praying for us.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Lifeshapes - the Circle
THE CIRCLE - learning
Power of symbols - what does this symbol mean (SLIDE NIKE TICK)
Three circles what does that mean (SLIDE THREE CIRCLES)
More Symbols (SLIDE MCDONALDS M)
In our culture we tend to learn and remember things using symbols
The Nike tick is rich with meaning over the years Nike have told us heaps about their product through a simple tick
We Learn more by what we see rather than what we hear – life shapes –
Life shapes is about using the power of symbol – giving the symbol meaning and learning some pretty simple Discipleship skills.
First symbol is a circle. (SLIDE LEARN)
In looking at it we will find answers to some of these questions...
How do we learn?
How do we know when God is at work in our lives?
How does God guide us?
How can I grow closer to God?
Will I ever change?
We are bombarded day and night by experiences – some good some bad, it’s as if our life is a series of events that pile up on each other - the question is God saying anything to us through these events or are they just a random collection of coincidences?
Is God trying to communicate with us through these ordinary things of life?
When you think about it – He must be.
One of what I believe the basic understanding of being a Disciple of Jesus is that not only do we learn from scripture but scripture forms and shapes us so we learn form life too
So that if we are disciples then Jesus will be or want to disciples us through these events and experiences
We need to be people who are able to hear and see what God wants us to learn then, and to be willing to act and learn form experiences
What that means is that we need to bale to hear Jesus voice in the midst of our life and to be able to engage with what he is saying in these ordinary things.
There is an old saying that we learn form experiences – that is not strictly true we learn because we have decided to learn form them – that requires us to take the experiences look at them and make some decisions based upon what has happened.
Prime example driving in a car in the wet – you skid on a corner and loose control
- that’s an experience
- you learn from it by – adjusting your speed next time
o Putting more grippy tires on your car
o Not driving in the wet
o Doing defensive driving so that when your back end goes you know how to respond
Just carrying on driving is not learning from an experience.
How you learn from it is be in its simplest form observing what happened – the car skidded
And changing something so it doesn’t happen again
Or if it does happen you have more control...
The process of learning from life is always pretty similar – observe, react.
Being a disciple is no different – if life gives you experiences then we should pretty much guarantee that in there God wants you to learn how to react accordingly
That’s discipleship – learning how to live in response to the one we are following.
Events when filtered through our understanding of God then can teach us.
Scripture shapes us – because it from the scriptures that we meet and understand Jesus
But Life also shapes us as we respond in ways in which Jesus would or how Jesus shows us to respond.
The more we reflect, the more we grow, the more confident we can be in life’s experiences
Viv Grigg – I want you humility, it comes through being broken again and again and allowing God to rebuild you again and again – his life experiences made him humble – he could have juts turned around and said Nuts to you God when the first painful experience came around – he didn’t because the God revealed to him in scripture – Jesus doesn’t walk away – that gave him peace – that grew his confidence.
So how does the circle work?
Some people view life as a passage of time (SLIDE LIFE)
Greeks differentiate this view of time (SLIDE CHRONOS AND KAIROS)
But remember we said that life is also a series of events
In the following passage what sort of Time is Jesus talking about? (SLIDE BIBLE BIT)
After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come”, he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:14, 15)
Time – kairos – not just the passage of time but an event in time (SLIDE EVENT)
So it’s an opportunity to learn (SLIDE KAIROS)
Positive or negative
You’ll recognize it by the impact it has on you
E.g., loosing a job, gaining a promotion
Signal opportunities to grow
What Kairos moments have you had in your lives?
The Kairos moment is the space and place in which you enter the ‘circle’ – hopefully they are opportunities for growth
Kairos Time is like - entering God’s gym
THE IMPORTANT thing about them is that you do not stay as you are, YOU NEED TO GROW…
Going back to the scripture we saw earlier (SLIDE BIBLE BIT)
After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come”, he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”
We saw it was Kairos Time.
There are some other words to make a note of (SLIDE KINGDOM)
The kingdom (God’s presence, God’s rule) is within reach for all of us!
What do we do about it?
How do we reach it?
How do I find God?
We need to according to Jesus
Repent (metanoia) =Change your mind, a process of transformation
Believe (Pistis) =Step out in faith, something you are sure about
Put that in terms of the circle (SLIDE KAIROS TIME)
REPENT SIDE OF THE CIRCLE (SLIDE REPENT SIDE)
OBSERVE – look at your life, hoe have you reacted to the situation, emotion, what are your thoughts about it - BE HONEST
REFLECT – think about the observations you have made – process them, why did you react like you did. –NOTE easier for introverts to do this
DISCUSS – invite other in, chat about it with others, obviously in many cases this will need to be someone you can trust. When working with young people the best way to build trust is to be open with them – watch your barriers though
In Matthew 6 Jesus does just this – Sermon on the Mount – cost of being a disciple – its decision time for the listeners.
He make an observation - Look at the birds of the air, look at the flowers of the field,
He asks them to reflect on this observation do they worry?
The question would prompt discussion…
We cannot stop here; we must learn to believe (SLIDE BELIEVE)
Repentance is an internal thing,
Belief is external it is action in light of a new way of behaving
PLAN – strategy for recognising the problem and embracing a proper way to act – this is not about thinking – we have done that- it’s about action. Without a plan we will intend to put thing right but fail miserably – the road to hell is paved with the best intentions
ACCOUNT – someone to hold us accountable – internal repentance has an outworking in faith – as the scriptures say confess your sins with one
ACT – Action, do something about it
(SLIDE FULL CIRCLE) Often people go half way round the circle. We are good at reflecting but often don’t change because we are not accountable and don’t act
Parable of the wise and foolish builder (SLIDE MATTHEW)
Matthew 7:20-27
Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
[21] "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. [22] Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' [23] Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
[24] "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. [25] The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. [26] But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. [27] The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
What I think it is saying is that repentance - Lord, Lord, without action or belief is not real repentance
Wise - put what they hear into practice – built on a solid foundation
Foolish – don’t put them into practice – no action – disaster……
Practical example
Me and soccer – event was a kairos moment
Observe – what did I do – lost my rag, blew my stack
Reflect – why did I do it – bad mood, took the game too seriously, forgot about the fun
Discuss – talked about it with those who were there, accepted their criticism
Plan – put something in place to stop it happening – a cool down period, asked people to tell me if I was being too serious, apologised privately and publicly
Account – team held me accountable.
Act – changed behaviour
AN UPDATE….
LIFE IS LIKE A SLINKY – full of Kairos moments (SLIDE SLINKY)
Power of symbols - what does this symbol mean (SLIDE NIKE TICK)
Three circles what does that mean (SLIDE THREE CIRCLES)
More Symbols (SLIDE MCDONALDS M)
In our culture we tend to learn and remember things using symbols
The Nike tick is rich with meaning over the years Nike have told us heaps about their product through a simple tick
We Learn more by what we see rather than what we hear – life shapes –
Life shapes is about using the power of symbol – giving the symbol meaning and learning some pretty simple Discipleship skills.
First symbol is a circle. (SLIDE LEARN)
In looking at it we will find answers to some of these questions...
How do we learn?
How do we know when God is at work in our lives?
How does God guide us?
How can I grow closer to God?
Will I ever change?
We are bombarded day and night by experiences – some good some bad, it’s as if our life is a series of events that pile up on each other - the question is God saying anything to us through these events or are they just a random collection of coincidences?
Is God trying to communicate with us through these ordinary things of life?
When you think about it – He must be.
One of what I believe the basic understanding of being a Disciple of Jesus is that not only do we learn from scripture but scripture forms and shapes us so we learn form life too
So that if we are disciples then Jesus will be or want to disciples us through these events and experiences
We need to be people who are able to hear and see what God wants us to learn then, and to be willing to act and learn form experiences
What that means is that we need to bale to hear Jesus voice in the midst of our life and to be able to engage with what he is saying in these ordinary things.
There is an old saying that we learn form experiences – that is not strictly true we learn because we have decided to learn form them – that requires us to take the experiences look at them and make some decisions based upon what has happened.
Prime example driving in a car in the wet – you skid on a corner and loose control
- that’s an experience
- you learn from it by – adjusting your speed next time
o Putting more grippy tires on your car
o Not driving in the wet
o Doing defensive driving so that when your back end goes you know how to respond
Just carrying on driving is not learning from an experience.
How you learn from it is be in its simplest form observing what happened – the car skidded
And changing something so it doesn’t happen again
Or if it does happen you have more control...
The process of learning from life is always pretty similar – observe, react.
Being a disciple is no different – if life gives you experiences then we should pretty much guarantee that in there God wants you to learn how to react accordingly
That’s discipleship – learning how to live in response to the one we are following.
Events when filtered through our understanding of God then can teach us.
Scripture shapes us – because it from the scriptures that we meet and understand Jesus
But Life also shapes us as we respond in ways in which Jesus would or how Jesus shows us to respond.
The more we reflect, the more we grow, the more confident we can be in life’s experiences
Viv Grigg – I want you humility, it comes through being broken again and again and allowing God to rebuild you again and again – his life experiences made him humble – he could have juts turned around and said Nuts to you God when the first painful experience came around – he didn’t because the God revealed to him in scripture – Jesus doesn’t walk away – that gave him peace – that grew his confidence.
So how does the circle work?
Some people view life as a passage of time (SLIDE LIFE)
Greeks differentiate this view of time (SLIDE CHRONOS AND KAIROS)
But remember we said that life is also a series of events
In the following passage what sort of Time is Jesus talking about? (SLIDE BIBLE BIT)
After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come”, he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:14, 15)
Time – kairos – not just the passage of time but an event in time (SLIDE EVENT)
So it’s an opportunity to learn (SLIDE KAIROS)
Positive or negative
You’ll recognize it by the impact it has on you
E.g., loosing a job, gaining a promotion
Signal opportunities to grow
What Kairos moments have you had in your lives?
The Kairos moment is the space and place in which you enter the ‘circle’ – hopefully they are opportunities for growth
Kairos Time is like - entering God’s gym
THE IMPORTANT thing about them is that you do not stay as you are, YOU NEED TO GROW…
Going back to the scripture we saw earlier (SLIDE BIBLE BIT)
After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come”, he said. “The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!”
We saw it was Kairos Time.
There are some other words to make a note of (SLIDE KINGDOM)
The kingdom (God’s presence, God’s rule) is within reach for all of us!
What do we do about it?
How do we reach it?
How do I find God?
We need to according to Jesus
Repent (metanoia) =Change your mind, a process of transformation
Believe (Pistis) =Step out in faith, something you are sure about
Put that in terms of the circle (SLIDE KAIROS TIME)
REPENT SIDE OF THE CIRCLE (SLIDE REPENT SIDE)
OBSERVE – look at your life, hoe have you reacted to the situation, emotion, what are your thoughts about it - BE HONEST
REFLECT – think about the observations you have made – process them, why did you react like you did. –NOTE easier for introverts to do this
DISCUSS – invite other in, chat about it with others, obviously in many cases this will need to be someone you can trust. When working with young people the best way to build trust is to be open with them – watch your barriers though
In Matthew 6 Jesus does just this – Sermon on the Mount – cost of being a disciple – its decision time for the listeners.
He make an observation - Look at the birds of the air, look at the flowers of the field,
He asks them to reflect on this observation do they worry?
The question would prompt discussion…
We cannot stop here; we must learn to believe (SLIDE BELIEVE)
Repentance is an internal thing,
Belief is external it is action in light of a new way of behaving
PLAN – strategy for recognising the problem and embracing a proper way to act – this is not about thinking – we have done that- it’s about action. Without a plan we will intend to put thing right but fail miserably – the road to hell is paved with the best intentions
ACCOUNT – someone to hold us accountable – internal repentance has an outworking in faith – as the scriptures say confess your sins with one
ACT – Action, do something about it
(SLIDE FULL CIRCLE) Often people go half way round the circle. We are good at reflecting but often don’t change because we are not accountable and don’t act
Parable of the wise and foolish builder (SLIDE MATTHEW)
Matthew 7:20-27
Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
[21] "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. [22] Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' [23] Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
[24] "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. [25] The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. [26] But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. [27] The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
What I think it is saying is that repentance - Lord, Lord, without action or belief is not real repentance
Wise - put what they hear into practice – built on a solid foundation
Foolish – don’t put them into practice – no action – disaster……
Practical example
Me and soccer – event was a kairos moment
Observe – what did I do – lost my rag, blew my stack
Reflect – why did I do it – bad mood, took the game too seriously, forgot about the fun
Discuss – talked about it with those who were there, accepted their criticism
Plan – put something in place to stop it happening – a cool down period, asked people to tell me if I was being too serious, apologised privately and publicly
Account – team held me accountable.
Act – changed behaviour
AN UPDATE….
LIFE IS LIKE A SLINKY – full of Kairos moments (SLIDE SLINKY)
Lifeshapes - the Triangle
Last week we began to look at the balanced life that is needed for authentic discipleship.
We saw how work and rest were as equally as important
God has given us work to do but he also called us to rest –
I guess part of being human is that we are involved in the act of creation through our work but also in recreation of ourselves body soul and spirit as we rest, reflect on God’s work and wait on him.
At the end of Matthews gospel he tells the disciples to go and make disciples of all nations – that is work
But the next action we see the disciples doing is going up to an upper room where they wait for the Holy Spirit SLIDE
Work and rest.
Create and recreate
Were continuing to look at the balanced life today – in particular the balance in relationships
In Genesis 1:26 SLIDE
Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness…
I guess that fact that we are made to create and recreate are a way in that image is fleshed out in us
Just as on the seventh day God rested from the work of creation so God has made us with that same rhythm in how we operate…
But there is more to that image than just how we work rest and play
The God we are created in is trinity – Father Son and Spirit – three persons but of one substance
For those who were here last week you’d probably remember this icon that I used during communion
Remember I said that icons were not paintings of reality but windows to the mystery of God – and how they use everyday figures in a manner that portrays the reality of God.
Nothing is by chance every brush stroke has meaning
The colour blue which is the base rob colour for the three figures reflects the common nature – but the outer colours of the robs help us understand the different out workings of God
Namely as
God the Father
God the Son and
God the Holy Spirit
Within the God head there is relationship
One of the ways in which people are beginning to recognise that the image of God work it’s way out in us is that we are built for relationship – we are built to be in community
From the earliest days of human existence humans have formed themselves into relational groups that mutually support each other – the village, the tribe.
But that relationship is not just about people it’s also how we relate to God too.
In Jesus we see this relationship lived out to the Max –
He demonstrates 3 relational dimension of his life–
Luke 6:12-19 SLIDE
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.
In Luke 6 Jesus modelled the following relationships SLIDE
• UP to his Father
• IN with his close friends
• OUT to people not in the community
This brings us to our next shape, the triangle
Each point reflects something of the relationship
Firstly he related to god the Father in an upward dimension UP
Again and again we have Jesus drawing away to be with the father in rest, prayer, worship and solitude
But Jesus relationship also had an inward dimension IN
He related intimately with the people around him the disciples was a model of the first cell group – they were family he would talk through concerns with them share with them
And finally Jesus also modelled an outward dimension OUT
He ministered to the crowd – he had compassion on the crowd he wasn’t just concerned with the inner circle – but when ever there was a need he gave of himself to meet that need
Jesus modelled not only the balanced life of work and rest but of healthy 3 dimensional relationships
It was God calls us to do also SLIDE
Micah 6:8
Ask the question, “What does the Lord require of you?”
Answer, “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”
Three dimensions in text
Do justly (what is right for others) – OUT – witness and service - MISSION
Love Mercy – IN –loving others - COMMUNITY
Walk Humbly – UP – submission to God – WORSHIP/PRAYER
Here is the thing I have seen time and again people, churches, youth ministries, Children’s ministries, and cell groups tend to do two dimensions well. And often fail with the third – which leaves many thinking is their more – is that it, is this is all my Christian faith is about? Well the simple answer is yes there is more – for you there is another dimension to your existence – but you’re probably going to need to work at it.
As I said the Natural human tendency to do two well – which means we fail to reflect God and we get frustrated.
Look at it like a ring road with three sets of traffic lights SLIDE
Traffic moves smoothly if they are all on green – but as soon as one is red or the lights are out of sink with each other you have traffic jams – you get flustered – you cease to grow in your faith and in fact you probably stagnate.
Community fuels Mission
Mission fuels worship.
Worship fuels Community
Important for individuals – Zoe - UP, Jon - IN
But it’s equally as important for Churches
THE BARREL growth principle SLIDE
Water sinks to the level of the lowest hole
We will only grow as much as our weakest aspect
Jesus had three dimensions to his life.
An upwards relationship with God his Father,
An inward relationship with his disciples
And an outward relationship with the world around him.
We need to have a focus of all three to fulfil our purpose and identity and make life whole.
I hope you can see that in terms of your faith you are probably struggling in one are
So how do you overcome – change?
Maybe you need put the Triangle in light of the circle
Throw it into the learning circle – maybe this is a Kairos moment for you
Observe – Worship Sucked
Reflect – No Fuel to do the other stuff – yet we have great musicians
Discuss – Where is the blockage coming from? Well probably from me – worship wasn’t my thing so as so often happens in leadership it isn’t the group’s thing either – whether they like it or not
Plan – We need to introduce new leaders into the worship, I need to be come a worshipper
Account – met regularly with people to talk worship
Act – We worshipped - TOGEHER
It took off we went form being a two dimensional group to a group whose worship fuelled mission whose mission fuelled community whose community fuelled worship and people grew in their faith.
Here at nativity we are hopefully addressing some of these short comings seeing where the traffic lights are and over the coming months – and I think we have already begun we’ll challenge those blockage – hopefully for us as a Church but hopefully also for us as individuals
If we are going to call ourselves disciples we need to
Love as Jesus loved – Up dimension
Live as Jesus lived – In dimension
Do as Jesus did – Out Dimension
We saw how work and rest were as equally as important
God has given us work to do but he also called us to rest –
I guess part of being human is that we are involved in the act of creation through our work but also in recreation of ourselves body soul and spirit as we rest, reflect on God’s work and wait on him.
At the end of Matthews gospel he tells the disciples to go and make disciples of all nations – that is work
But the next action we see the disciples doing is going up to an upper room where they wait for the Holy Spirit SLIDE
Work and rest.
Create and recreate
Were continuing to look at the balanced life today – in particular the balance in relationships
In Genesis 1:26 SLIDE
Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness…
I guess that fact that we are made to create and recreate are a way in that image is fleshed out in us
Just as on the seventh day God rested from the work of creation so God has made us with that same rhythm in how we operate…
But there is more to that image than just how we work rest and play
The God we are created in is trinity – Father Son and Spirit – three persons but of one substance
For those who were here last week you’d probably remember this icon that I used during communion
Remember I said that icons were not paintings of reality but windows to the mystery of God – and how they use everyday figures in a manner that portrays the reality of God.
Nothing is by chance every brush stroke has meaning
The colour blue which is the base rob colour for the three figures reflects the common nature – but the outer colours of the robs help us understand the different out workings of God
Namely as
God the Father
God the Son and
God the Holy Spirit
Within the God head there is relationship
One of the ways in which people are beginning to recognise that the image of God work it’s way out in us is that we are built for relationship – we are built to be in community
From the earliest days of human existence humans have formed themselves into relational groups that mutually support each other – the village, the tribe.
But that relationship is not just about people it’s also how we relate to God too.
In Jesus we see this relationship lived out to the Max –
He demonstrates 3 relational dimension of his life–
Luke 6:12-19 SLIDE
One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles: Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured, and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.
In Luke 6 Jesus modelled the following relationships SLIDE
• UP to his Father
• IN with his close friends
• OUT to people not in the community
This brings us to our next shape, the triangle
Each point reflects something of the relationship
Firstly he related to god the Father in an upward dimension UP
Again and again we have Jesus drawing away to be with the father in rest, prayer, worship and solitude
But Jesus relationship also had an inward dimension IN
He related intimately with the people around him the disciples was a model of the first cell group – they were family he would talk through concerns with them share with them
And finally Jesus also modelled an outward dimension OUT
He ministered to the crowd – he had compassion on the crowd he wasn’t just concerned with the inner circle – but when ever there was a need he gave of himself to meet that need
Jesus modelled not only the balanced life of work and rest but of healthy 3 dimensional relationships
It was God calls us to do also SLIDE
Micah 6:8
Ask the question, “What does the Lord require of you?”
Answer, “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God”
Three dimensions in text
Do justly (what is right for others) – OUT – witness and service - MISSION
Love Mercy – IN –loving others - COMMUNITY
Walk Humbly – UP – submission to God – WORSHIP/PRAYER
Here is the thing I have seen time and again people, churches, youth ministries, Children’s ministries, and cell groups tend to do two dimensions well. And often fail with the third – which leaves many thinking is their more – is that it, is this is all my Christian faith is about? Well the simple answer is yes there is more – for you there is another dimension to your existence – but you’re probably going to need to work at it.
As I said the Natural human tendency to do two well – which means we fail to reflect God and we get frustrated.
Look at it like a ring road with three sets of traffic lights SLIDE
Traffic moves smoothly if they are all on green – but as soon as one is red or the lights are out of sink with each other you have traffic jams – you get flustered – you cease to grow in your faith and in fact you probably stagnate.
Community fuels Mission
Mission fuels worship.
Worship fuels Community
Important for individuals – Zoe - UP, Jon - IN
But it’s equally as important for Churches
THE BARREL growth principle SLIDE
Water sinks to the level of the lowest hole
We will only grow as much as our weakest aspect
Jesus had three dimensions to his life.
An upwards relationship with God his Father,
An inward relationship with his disciples
And an outward relationship with the world around him.
We need to have a focus of all three to fulfil our purpose and identity and make life whole.
I hope you can see that in terms of your faith you are probably struggling in one are
So how do you overcome – change?
Maybe you need put the Triangle in light of the circle
Throw it into the learning circle – maybe this is a Kairos moment for you
Observe – Worship Sucked
Reflect – No Fuel to do the other stuff – yet we have great musicians
Discuss – Where is the blockage coming from? Well probably from me – worship wasn’t my thing so as so often happens in leadership it isn’t the group’s thing either – whether they like it or not
Plan – We need to introduce new leaders into the worship, I need to be come a worshipper
Account – met regularly with people to talk worship
Act – We worshipped - TOGEHER
It took off we went form being a two dimensional group to a group whose worship fuelled mission whose mission fuelled community whose community fuelled worship and people grew in their faith.
Here at nativity we are hopefully addressing some of these short comings seeing where the traffic lights are and over the coming months – and I think we have already begun we’ll challenge those blockage – hopefully for us as a Church but hopefully also for us as individuals
If we are going to call ourselves disciples we need to
Love as Jesus loved – Up dimension
Live as Jesus lived – In dimension
Do as Jesus did – Out Dimension
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Sermon for Good Shepherd Sunday
This Sunday is Good Shepherd Sunday –
It seems odd in our ever changing region to celebrate good Shepherd Sunday – after all in the five years I have lived in the top of the south I’ve scene the landscape change from sheep to grapes – we should really be celebrating Vineyard Sunday… Actually next week Sunday is about Vines but getting back to this week….
I struggle with rural images – having grown up in a small town of 55,000 I ain’t scene many sheep, and I don’t think I’ve ever scene a shepherd in the flesh
So for those of you like me who are rather disconnected from the rural images of sheep and shepherds I Should point out what Good Shepherd Sunday is about
It is not a study of sheep farming methods throughout the age – though I am sure that would be interesting
Nor is it an appreciation Sunday for those who work hard on the land supplying the country and the world with sheeppy products – though again that might be a good idea
It is a Sunday where we actually explore Leadership –
I am not sure whether you have noticed this or not but Leadership seems to have been the obsession of the Church in the 21st century
A Major reason behind this obsession is I think the belief that; “Everything Stands or Falls On Leadership”
When business fails it’s the CEO being hung drawn and quartered – admittedly with a fat redundancy cherub.
When a sports team fails – it used to be because of the players - now they loose because the manager failed…
The Church is probably no different more often than not when the leadership fails the Church fails in her mission
And I think we are only too aware that these are tough times – as Peter pointed out at the AGM we have gone through 13 significant personnel leadership changes in the last 13 months.
We have had a crisis in stable leadership
Thankfully as a church you have been able to whether some of the storms.
The story of – Judges 17:6 seems:
“In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes”
Thankfully in our context what is right in people’s eyes is largely what God would have us do.
As a church you have over the last few years largely done the right thing
-and for that you need to be applauded.
But there is another crisis that faces the Church
Figures out in the UK say that if the Church of England continues in its rate of decline than by 2050 there will be no one left to blow the candles out.
In our context while our decline is not as potentially traumatic as the C of E we do still have a crisis – we are not growing – and for a church like our with the resources we have that’s an issue
And if the saying is true that Everything Stands or Falls on Leadership
Than we have a Leadership crisis still.
But I believe we also have the resources to overcome this crisis – to grow again
– not just in numbers or bums on seats
– that’s easy growth
All we need to do is either put on the best show in town
Or change our counting strategy move from bottoms on seats to knees on kneelers and we can grow 100% overnight
The fact is we still face a crisis – we are failing to make disciples.
Strangely enough crisis in leadership is nothing new for the people of God…
The OT is chock full of leadership crisis’s,
And when it’s not about the leaders it about how the people have fallen away from God – why? Because the leadership failed…
Today in our reading we have Jesus offering a model of leadership to the people of God – because of a crisis.
He offers two contrasting approaches – that of the Good Shepherd and that of the Hired Hand.
To really understand the Good Shepherd you need to understand the hired hand and I guess the reason for the hired hand running.
In scripture he runs because of the threat of wolves – there is a story with that story.
John was writing the gospel for a church in crisis
While we can’t possibly know the whole situation John was working in we know that he was selective about what he includes – as he says in 21:25
“There are also many other things that Jesus did: if every one of them was written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”
I guess when your time is short you want to make the main thing the main thing and For John what he includes in his gospel are the main things for his community of faith so he records Jesus words for the issues that speak to his community.
One issue we know about from history is persecution- in the early days of the Christian faith – followers of Jesus were scene as part of the synagogue – the early followers were largely Jews – and so Christianity was scene in terms of being a Jewish sect.
As you might expect when you realize who Jesus was and is
– namely God made flesh you are going to start rubbing people up the wrong way in the synagogue
– To the average Jew that’s just not possible.
– God is one
– Messiahs don’t die
– And how could Jesus be God if he hung around with sinners
The Christians then were basically excluded from the club.
And because of that exclusion they were not trusted by wider society
– They were seen as a cult
Rumors spread,
Christians were cannibals because they ate the body and drank the blood of their leader
They also would not recognize Caesar as Lord – because Jesus is Lord
That can just sound like a trait statement but in the world of the Bible that was rebellion.
Subsequently the church came under attack and persecution – So while Jesus is talking about the wolves of the Pharisees attacking the sheep,
John uses the story to warn the Church of the Wolves of Rome attacking the sheep too.
When persecution comes the hired shepherds run for the hills rather than stay and defend the sheep.
When crisis come the leaders of the Church then they are to make a choice about how they should lead either as a good shepherd or to run away, like a hired hand.
While we don’t know whether John had experienced Persecution when he was writing the Gospel we do know its something that John would experience first hand –
Revelation was written while he was on the island of Patmos
– because of persecution,
– because he had spoken out the word of God,
– Because he had stood by the sheep.
So who is the hired hand?
On one hand it’s the Pharisees
But its also a back handed swipe at Church leadership that run away in the face of persecution – when crisis emerges
On the other side of the image Jesus offers the model of the Good Shepherd
When you think about it Shepherd and leadership are not really two words that go together.
Though a Shepherd leads the sheep is a worth while observation –
I mean let face it we can all be as dumb as sheep at times.
And After 13 years of youth work I can tell you that most teenagers have heard instincts – if one does it they’ll all do it – regardless of how stupid it appears
In the ancient world Shepherds were at the very bottom of the status in the ancient world.
They were uneducated, illiterate, dirty, smelly, rough and irreligious men.
In our context I suspect the image of the shepherd we are most familiar with is the great southern
– The grumpy,
– beer in hand,
– One word answers don’t really inspire many people to follow – even if we are dumb as sheep.
It’s hardly the model of leadership that you would want your Church leaders to aspire to.
There are of course some aspects of the image of a Shepherd that fit well
Jesus knows us as the Shepherd knows his sheep,
Jesus protects the sheep
Jesus searches for the lost the way the shepherd searches for his lost sheep,
So while there is much we can learn from some of our rural images of Shepherds and even by giving the image the adjective Good it’s still an odd image of leadership…
Yet this is the image that Jesus draws on when he talking about those who lead and protect the Church – God’s people
But the kind of shepherd that Jesus is describing is not a normal shepherd.
It’s the Shepherd that Ezekiel talks about In Ezekiel 34 – not some smelly, illiterate, misfit of society who is banished to the outskirts of the city.
This is the Good Shepherd –
As God Says in Ezekiel 34:15
“I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed and I will bind up the injured and I will strengthen the weak.”
This is the God Shepherd that promises to seek and save.
This is the model of leadership Jesus is describing.
So what does that look like?
For the Church that has emerged out of one crisis of lack of stable leadership into another crisis of how we do mission we need to take on the mantle of being shepherds
– Good Shepherds who model ourselves after Jesus.
But since leadership is not only a function of those who get paid but a function of all God’s people as we lead in families, workplaces, schools or where ever we offer our witness to the world the model of the good Shepherd is for all of us.
In times of crisis with God‘s people he again and again brings them back to this model of leadership -
Good shepherd-leaders build relationships with people and people follow because they know and trust them.
They are not distant and isolated, not strangers.
Good shepherd-leader exercises influence with people by setting an example for people to follow.
Good shepherd-leaders are not selfishly focused on building themselves up.
Instead they focus on building other people up, helping them to grow and live a full life.
Good shepherd-leader serves people sacrificially.
This is sometimes the hardest thing to do – it’s hard to give and give, but just because we are called to give sacrificially doesn’t mean we are meant to be abused either Don Dickson or a dozen eggs.
Good shepherd leaders don't run away when the going gets tough.
Good Shepherds are Mission Shaped, they recognize that the people in the sheep are not the only people that matter – but that God is at work in the world beyond the sheep pen of the Church.
I Hope you can see Leadership in the Church of God is a huge responsibility
For John’s church when the going got tough the tough scarpered meanwhile he was left to rot on the island of Patmos
Having been involved in leadership in the Church for over ten years I can understand why sometimes they run
I may not have had my life threatened for the gospel but sometimes the needs of God’s people can threaten your sanity
And though it’s a pleasure to serve you at the same time it’s not always easy giving out when all you hear back is a lot baaaah’s
So, on this good shepherd Sunday Pray for us who are in leadership if we are to lead you through this crisis in God’s mission to draw in other sheep than we are going to need:
Your support,
Your love,
Your patience,
And your help…
It seems odd in our ever changing region to celebrate good Shepherd Sunday – after all in the five years I have lived in the top of the south I’ve scene the landscape change from sheep to grapes – we should really be celebrating Vineyard Sunday… Actually next week Sunday is about Vines but getting back to this week….
I struggle with rural images – having grown up in a small town of 55,000 I ain’t scene many sheep, and I don’t think I’ve ever scene a shepherd in the flesh
So for those of you like me who are rather disconnected from the rural images of sheep and shepherds I Should point out what Good Shepherd Sunday is about
It is not a study of sheep farming methods throughout the age – though I am sure that would be interesting
Nor is it an appreciation Sunday for those who work hard on the land supplying the country and the world with sheeppy products – though again that might be a good idea
It is a Sunday where we actually explore Leadership –
I am not sure whether you have noticed this or not but Leadership seems to have been the obsession of the Church in the 21st century
A Major reason behind this obsession is I think the belief that; “Everything Stands or Falls On Leadership”
When business fails it’s the CEO being hung drawn and quartered – admittedly with a fat redundancy cherub.
When a sports team fails – it used to be because of the players - now they loose because the manager failed…
The Church is probably no different more often than not when the leadership fails the Church fails in her mission
And I think we are only too aware that these are tough times – as Peter pointed out at the AGM we have gone through 13 significant personnel leadership changes in the last 13 months.
We have had a crisis in stable leadership
Thankfully as a church you have been able to whether some of the storms.
The story of – Judges 17:6 seems:
“In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes”
Thankfully in our context what is right in people’s eyes is largely what God would have us do.
As a church you have over the last few years largely done the right thing
-and for that you need to be applauded.
But there is another crisis that faces the Church
Figures out in the UK say that if the Church of England continues in its rate of decline than by 2050 there will be no one left to blow the candles out.
In our context while our decline is not as potentially traumatic as the C of E we do still have a crisis – we are not growing – and for a church like our with the resources we have that’s an issue
And if the saying is true that Everything Stands or Falls on Leadership
Than we have a Leadership crisis still.
But I believe we also have the resources to overcome this crisis – to grow again
– not just in numbers or bums on seats
– that’s easy growth
All we need to do is either put on the best show in town
Or change our counting strategy move from bottoms on seats to knees on kneelers and we can grow 100% overnight
The fact is we still face a crisis – we are failing to make disciples.
Strangely enough crisis in leadership is nothing new for the people of God…
The OT is chock full of leadership crisis’s,
And when it’s not about the leaders it about how the people have fallen away from God – why? Because the leadership failed…
Today in our reading we have Jesus offering a model of leadership to the people of God – because of a crisis.
He offers two contrasting approaches – that of the Good Shepherd and that of the Hired Hand.
To really understand the Good Shepherd you need to understand the hired hand and I guess the reason for the hired hand running.
In scripture he runs because of the threat of wolves – there is a story with that story.
John was writing the gospel for a church in crisis
While we can’t possibly know the whole situation John was working in we know that he was selective about what he includes – as he says in 21:25
“There are also many other things that Jesus did: if every one of them was written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”
I guess when your time is short you want to make the main thing the main thing and For John what he includes in his gospel are the main things for his community of faith so he records Jesus words for the issues that speak to his community.
One issue we know about from history is persecution- in the early days of the Christian faith – followers of Jesus were scene as part of the synagogue – the early followers were largely Jews – and so Christianity was scene in terms of being a Jewish sect.
As you might expect when you realize who Jesus was and is
– namely God made flesh you are going to start rubbing people up the wrong way in the synagogue
– To the average Jew that’s just not possible.
– God is one
– Messiahs don’t die
– And how could Jesus be God if he hung around with sinners
The Christians then were basically excluded from the club.
And because of that exclusion they were not trusted by wider society
– They were seen as a cult
Rumors spread,
Christians were cannibals because they ate the body and drank the blood of their leader
They also would not recognize Caesar as Lord – because Jesus is Lord
That can just sound like a trait statement but in the world of the Bible that was rebellion.
Subsequently the church came under attack and persecution – So while Jesus is talking about the wolves of the Pharisees attacking the sheep,
John uses the story to warn the Church of the Wolves of Rome attacking the sheep too.
When persecution comes the hired shepherds run for the hills rather than stay and defend the sheep.
When crisis come the leaders of the Church then they are to make a choice about how they should lead either as a good shepherd or to run away, like a hired hand.
While we don’t know whether John had experienced Persecution when he was writing the Gospel we do know its something that John would experience first hand –
Revelation was written while he was on the island of Patmos
– because of persecution,
– because he had spoken out the word of God,
– Because he had stood by the sheep.
So who is the hired hand?
On one hand it’s the Pharisees
But its also a back handed swipe at Church leadership that run away in the face of persecution – when crisis emerges
On the other side of the image Jesus offers the model of the Good Shepherd
When you think about it Shepherd and leadership are not really two words that go together.
Though a Shepherd leads the sheep is a worth while observation –
I mean let face it we can all be as dumb as sheep at times.
And After 13 years of youth work I can tell you that most teenagers have heard instincts – if one does it they’ll all do it – regardless of how stupid it appears
In the ancient world Shepherds were at the very bottom of the status in the ancient world.
They were uneducated, illiterate, dirty, smelly, rough and irreligious men.
In our context I suspect the image of the shepherd we are most familiar with is the great southern
– The grumpy,
– beer in hand,
– One word answers don’t really inspire many people to follow – even if we are dumb as sheep.
It’s hardly the model of leadership that you would want your Church leaders to aspire to.
There are of course some aspects of the image of a Shepherd that fit well
Jesus knows us as the Shepherd knows his sheep,
Jesus protects the sheep
Jesus searches for the lost the way the shepherd searches for his lost sheep,
So while there is much we can learn from some of our rural images of Shepherds and even by giving the image the adjective Good it’s still an odd image of leadership…
Yet this is the image that Jesus draws on when he talking about those who lead and protect the Church – God’s people
But the kind of shepherd that Jesus is describing is not a normal shepherd.
It’s the Shepherd that Ezekiel talks about In Ezekiel 34 – not some smelly, illiterate, misfit of society who is banished to the outskirts of the city.
This is the Good Shepherd –
As God Says in Ezekiel 34:15
“I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord God. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed and I will bind up the injured and I will strengthen the weak.”
This is the God Shepherd that promises to seek and save.
This is the model of leadership Jesus is describing.
So what does that look like?
For the Church that has emerged out of one crisis of lack of stable leadership into another crisis of how we do mission we need to take on the mantle of being shepherds
– Good Shepherds who model ourselves after Jesus.
But since leadership is not only a function of those who get paid but a function of all God’s people as we lead in families, workplaces, schools or where ever we offer our witness to the world the model of the good Shepherd is for all of us.
In times of crisis with God‘s people he again and again brings them back to this model of leadership -
Good shepherd-leaders build relationships with people and people follow because they know and trust them.
They are not distant and isolated, not strangers.
Good shepherd-leader exercises influence with people by setting an example for people to follow.
Good shepherd-leaders are not selfishly focused on building themselves up.
Instead they focus on building other people up, helping them to grow and live a full life.
Good shepherd-leader serves people sacrificially.
This is sometimes the hardest thing to do – it’s hard to give and give, but just because we are called to give sacrificially doesn’t mean we are meant to be abused either Don Dickson or a dozen eggs.
Good shepherd leaders don't run away when the going gets tough.
Good Shepherds are Mission Shaped, they recognize that the people in the sheep are not the only people that matter – but that God is at work in the world beyond the sheep pen of the Church.
I Hope you can see Leadership in the Church of God is a huge responsibility
For John’s church when the going got tough the tough scarpered meanwhile he was left to rot on the island of Patmos
Having been involved in leadership in the Church for over ten years I can understand why sometimes they run
I may not have had my life threatened for the gospel but sometimes the needs of God’s people can threaten your sanity
And though it’s a pleasure to serve you at the same time it’s not always easy giving out when all you hear back is a lot baaaah’s
So, on this good shepherd Sunday Pray for us who are in leadership if we are to lead you through this crisis in God’s mission to draw in other sheep than we are going to need:
Your support,
Your love,
Your patience,
And your help…
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