Hello everyone, my name is Karen and I'm the youth worker here at St Hugh's. We've just started our series right at the beginning of the bible, in the book of Genesis. This morning I will be talking about what it means for us as God's people to be part of a community and how we are called to be a part of God's plan. Before I delve into this, would you join me in praying?
PRAY
When I began to look at this passage, I thought, “why have we got two accounts of creation?” We have the 6 days spelled out before it and a day of rest, and then the picture begins to be filled in a bit more with some more details. It's almost as if the writer of Genesis realises that we need a little bit extra to really get to grips on how God created the earth.
Today we are going to focus on one verse, verse 18 Then the Lord God said “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him”. I believe this verse speaks of a God who recognises the importance of humans being in some sort of community. If we look back at Chapter 1 v27 we find that God has made male and female in his image. Here we see more detail and a hint of the reasons behind God creating male and female, not just one, but two, designed to work as one in partnership.
Lets have a quick look at the rest of creation, and what we have created this morning.
So here we have a magnificent tree. And now comes you doing some work again. Can you think of some of the things trees offer us or other animals?
Fruit/food
Shelter
Shade
pretty colours in autumn
conversion of co2 to o2
resin
place for animals to nest
wood for fire/carpentry
entertainment, something to hang your swing from
Self-sustaining community in itself
Fantastic! It in itself is a community too, the different parts of a tree benefit the entire tree. Can you feel your science lessons flooding back in?! The roots go down into the ground to stabilise the tree and get water, which is sucked up the trunk, to the leaves who spread out to catch the sunlight, to bring the nutrients from the sun, to the branches and roots so they can grow bigger, to find more water.
Earlier on we had the animals who came to be named by Adam. We could have a pride of Lions, or a herd of elephants or a colony of ants or a host of sparrow, or a flock of sheep and a pack of wolves. Each of the animals that God created works in a community to get food, find water, to protect themselves and the young of their own kind.
I think as humans we are also designed to be in a community. Focussing on the phrase God uses “It is not good for the man to be alone” God recognises the importance of giving man a helper. He created us to be His friends, as well as friends with each other. A man who is alone cannot achieve much, but a man who is in community and has the support of that community can do much more. I've noticed over the last three years as I've studied and continued to grow in a community that I certainly cannot live alone, outside of a community. I have come to realise the value of the church community and how individuals often do better when they are part of a community and doing what God wants them to do.
I believe that we are taking up this calling less and less, it's sadly getting more common that we do not know our neighbours. I've lived in my house for three years and I know my neighbours well enough that we can talk for hours over the fence and if I see them in town I'll offer them a lift home. I only know the ones either side of me well, and the people further down the road will wave hi to me. But it's better than being isolated totally. The neighbours cut my grass and will offer to fix broken things me and my house mate can't fix, we'll ask their advice and they'll ask us to look out for their houses when they go away. I am still getting to know them, but they are really good, and it's good to be known too.
One person who was called from a life of possible loneliness back into community was Zacchaeus. His story can be found in the New Testament in Luke 19. Zach was a tax collector, and in Jesus' time they weren't very popular, thought of as swindlers and liars, they were typically quite rich and not many people befriended them. In this story, every one grumbles about him being a “sinner”. Zach is called down from a tree, which he has climbed in order to see Jesus better, and Jesus invites himself for dinner! How cheeky of Jesus?! But by his invite, he brings Zach back in to the community and Zach promises to give away half his possessions and return all the money he's taken four times over. Jesus invites us into community too. Wherever we are there is a church community we can be part of, so I wanted us to think for a bit what is God calling us to do in that community, whether it is church or not.
So what are the consequences of living in community and responding to God's calling for that community? I think we develop better as people, individuals, but as we do that we also have a stronger sense of community identity. Your response might be like Zach's, to give away what you own, or it might be more like Adam's, to work at the earth and look after creation, or it could really be anywhere in between. Maybe you need to hear from God what you are called to be doing, or you need some one else to identify your strengths and abilities. The community performs better when every one is playing to their strengths and not focussing on their weaknesses.
We leave this story in a good place, there is a lot to be done in the Garden of Eden, lots to be worked on, and plenty of getting to know each other from God, Adam and Eve. For a while Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden doing God's work. The man was not alone and he was pretty happy, creation was happy. Everyone was doing exactly as God had asked them to do.
In conclusion I believe that creation can teach us that God wants us to be in community and we can do better! This might mean living and working in a community and rather than seeing it as a burden, we should be seeing it as a way of helping others to grow and develop, to identify strengths and work towards being a stronger community. So get thinking and doing, how can we become more like the community God calls us to be?
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
Discipline of Watching - 14th June 2009
Discipline of Watching
1 Corinthians 10 v 11-13
Sunday 14th June
When we learn together on a Monday night, there is always room for discussion and questions. And whilst I do not pretend to be an expert I think it is really important for us to be able to discuss what we are learning. That's why I also think it is important to have a memory verse. Even if just one part of it sticks, it can become the beginning of something much bigger. The young people have been learning about the gifts of the spirit. We are learning of Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control. And our memory verse today picks up on the last one. With the help of the Holy Spirit, discipline becomes more achieveable. Matthew 26 v 41 Jesus says,“Watch and pray so that you do not fall into temptation. For the spirit is willing but the body is weak.”
So lets start as we mean to go on: PRAY
We are coming very close to the end of our series on the Discipline of Grace and as always Jesus has the ultimate say on how we should be living our lives. I think as a church we have become more aware that when Jesus talks, not only should we be listening, but we should also take action. It seems that Jesus rarely speaks words of passivity and more of activity. We have the Living Word Of God and an active faith. Bridges picks up on this activeness when it comes to the discipline of watching.
Imagine with me for a moment sitting in a coffee shop, or a canteen, what are you watching? Are you watching the staff, the customers, the passers by out of the window? On Friday I was doing this exact thing. I was watching, taking in lots of different things happening around me. I learnt that if you work in town you get 10% off at Costa! Watching teaches us so much about the world around us. If you've made eye contact with a small child recently you might remember the intensity of their stare, they are taking everything in through their eyes. But Jesus' call is not just to watch the world, but to also 'watch yourself'.
Bridges shares a personal story of late night TV watching to show a way of how we can know our weaknesses and know how the devil might tempt us. So what I would like you to do, is take a few moments, write temptations in the middle of your bit of paper and get down some ideas. We'll have some music playing in the background whilst you do it. Sharing
Gather Sharing on flip chart
These verses in 1 Corinthians remind us that God is with us through all the temptations, and the best thing to do to counteract it is to know where you are strong. The Discipline of watching is about knowing yourself well enough to be wary of temptation and not become comfortable with sin, whilst being free enough to live as God created you to be. 1 Corinthians 10 v 23 sums this up perfectly “Everything is permissible – but not everything is beneficial”. It's up to us to know what is beneficial to us.
We are told not to worry, we could spend our whole lives worrying about falling to temptation that we miss out on some great opportunities. This is where the grace bit comes in, that though God will not test us beyond what we can bear, He will welcome us with open arms when we do fall and say sorry. Because after all we are only human. His grace is sufficient.
1 Corinthians 10 v 11-13
Sunday 14th June
When we learn together on a Monday night, there is always room for discussion and questions. And whilst I do not pretend to be an expert I think it is really important for us to be able to discuss what we are learning. That's why I also think it is important to have a memory verse. Even if just one part of it sticks, it can become the beginning of something much bigger. The young people have been learning about the gifts of the spirit. We are learning of Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control. And our memory verse today picks up on the last one. With the help of the Holy Spirit, discipline becomes more achieveable. Matthew 26 v 41 Jesus says,“Watch and pray so that you do not fall into temptation. For the spirit is willing but the body is weak.”
So lets start as we mean to go on: PRAY
We are coming very close to the end of our series on the Discipline of Grace and as always Jesus has the ultimate say on how we should be living our lives. I think as a church we have become more aware that when Jesus talks, not only should we be listening, but we should also take action. It seems that Jesus rarely speaks words of passivity and more of activity. We have the Living Word Of God and an active faith. Bridges picks up on this activeness when it comes to the discipline of watching.
Imagine with me for a moment sitting in a coffee shop, or a canteen, what are you watching? Are you watching the staff, the customers, the passers by out of the window? On Friday I was doing this exact thing. I was watching, taking in lots of different things happening around me. I learnt that if you work in town you get 10% off at Costa! Watching teaches us so much about the world around us. If you've made eye contact with a small child recently you might remember the intensity of their stare, they are taking everything in through their eyes. But Jesus' call is not just to watch the world, but to also 'watch yourself'.
Bridges shares a personal story of late night TV watching to show a way of how we can know our weaknesses and know how the devil might tempt us. So what I would like you to do, is take a few moments, write temptations in the middle of your bit of paper and get down some ideas. We'll have some music playing in the background whilst you do it. Sharing
Gather Sharing on flip chart
These verses in 1 Corinthians remind us that God is with us through all the temptations, and the best thing to do to counteract it is to know where you are strong. The Discipline of watching is about knowing yourself well enough to be wary of temptation and not become comfortable with sin, whilst being free enough to live as God created you to be. 1 Corinthians 10 v 23 sums this up perfectly “Everything is permissible – but not everything is beneficial”. It's up to us to know what is beneficial to us.
We are told not to worry, we could spend our whole lives worrying about falling to temptation that we miss out on some great opportunities. This is where the grace bit comes in, that though God will not test us beyond what we can bear, He will welcome us with open arms when we do fall and say sorry. Because after all we are only human. His grace is sufficient.
Monday, March 09, 2009
We Died to Sin
Our latest sermon series at St Hugh's is based on "The Discipline of Grace" by Jerry Bridges - Here's my input, delivered on 8th March 2009
Well, we spent last week preaching the good news to ourselves, so I hope you've been living in the good news and not the bad news for the past week. I also hope we've been sharing the good news with other people, it's a bit rude to keep good news to yourself!
As Bridges says in his book, the good news doesn't stop there. We know Jesus died on the cross, took on all the sin ever, and we are declared perfect and righteous in God's eyes. Jesus restored our relationship with God and not only we should be eternally grateful for that, but this news should also have a massive effect on the way in which we behave.
The extra great news is that we are free from sin AND free from the dominion of sin. This simply means that we are free from the power that sin has had over us since the day we were born. I don't think I can move on from that point... I'd be a liar if I said I lived with a permanent feeling of freedom from sin. Sometimes I feel like sin is still very much in control of the way I act and behave. It might be much the same for you. To hear and know that you are forgiven and free might be a real struggle, but it's a truth we need to tell ourselves each day, each time we start to doubt who we really are and who we really belong to, we need to be reminded of this amazing gift of grace.
This morning I want to pick up on two really significant things from this: We died to sin and we are alive to God. Pretty simple on the face of it all, but if you will wander with me for a few moments I hope you might find something that will inspire/challenge/remind you of who God is and what He has done for us.
“We died to sin”
The first part of our sentence is a concept I don't have a deep understanding of. There are plenty of phrases out there that wash over me and I don't really grasp what they mean, until you have to sit down with them and tackle them full on. So here goes...
Let's start at the beginning, what is sin? Sin is when we go against God's will for us and the laws he has set.
We need to expand our passage a little bit to understand where Paul is coming from when explaining dying to sin. Verse 5-10 of Romans 6 goes on to talk about how we are united with Christ in life, death and resurrection (coming back to life). This union isn't to be taken lightly. It's like super gluing your fingers to together or attempting to distinguish my right hand from my mobile phone, or as Jesus puts it, like the Vine and the Branches. You cannot see where one begins and the other ends and if you pull them apart it'll hurt (even to the point of death). We are joined with Jesus in everything he has done. When he died on the cross, death and sin were defeated. Jesus died to break the reign of sin. Let's ponder on that a moment. Though we are still sinners, we have a Saviour who was not only able to free us from sin's penalty (death) but also from its dominion. And that's what's so amazing about Grace. The Message version puts it this way: “When it's sin vs grace, grace wins hands down”.
My cousin moved to Milton Keynes from his mum's home in Hadleigh, Essex about 2 years ago. We were chatting about where he thought home was in the early part of his move, he started off with Hadleigh. We talked about how he'd brought his house in MK, worked hard on it, and worked just down the road, yet he still saw home as his Mum's house. I think we can use this as a great illustration to show that in actual fact we often live in a place, but it is not 'home' to us, the same is true with sin. If we live in a place of grace and but still call sin 'home', then we are not truly accepting that we have died to sin. In my own context, I have effectively died to Essex, and now live in Luton. There is no practical way I can live at my parents house, I have to make a home here. We cannot make a home in Sin if we truly believe in all that Jesus has done for us, and the grace we have received because of his actions.
So, in acknowledging our dying to sin, what does this mean for us?
“Alive to God”
We are alive to God. We have been brought out of the darkness, into God's glorious light. We are rescued from death, and like the person who has been 'given a second chance' we should be living as though sin is a threat to our lives, not a death sentence.
Bridges highlights the Vine and Branches example when talking about how our relationship with Jesus can be. You can't tell where one ends and the other begins, closer than friends. Being in Christ and having Christ in you are intertwined, spiritual and alive. The Holy Spirit dwells within us, takes every step with us and knows all that we do. To be alive to God is to live in assurance and hope. To be free to be in relationship with God, and know that HE wants to be in relationship and communication with you.
We can only die once, and in this passage that death is in the past we died to sin, we have been raised into new life with Christ. God sees us in the light of what Jesus has done, alive and well.
“So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep forgiving?”
I recently had a conversation with a young person who was describing how her friends responded when she mentioned that we are forgiven of all the wrong things we do. Her friends said “well, I'll just keep on sinning then, and keep saying sorry”. The friend had the no idea of all the love and grace it takes to forgive someone and not remember their sin. It's almost as though we respond in a selfish way... we don't fully comprehend grace, or unconditional love, and so are irresponsible and reckless with these gifts. Or we treat our forgiveness so lightly that it is diluted beyond being able to grasp the reality of it?
We all still sin, in action at least, though we are not under the reign of sin. We don't come from a place of sin. We have to live in a place which grace allows. And with this overwhelming grace, I don't know about you, but I am compelled to respond. God's unconditional love for each of us doesn't demand a response, but even if we hold on to a little glimpse the Holy Spirit can change us, we will not go on sinning if we understand a small part of God's grace for us.
I grew up in Essex, I have an affinity with people from Essex, but I no longer live there. Essex is not my home, Luton is my home. I'm the same Karen. I have died to what was before and embrace what is new, in doing so I have not lost any part of who I am. And it's the same with Sin and grace. Do we find ourselves answering to something which has no authority over us? Or are we responding to the gift of grace, living in Christ, with Christ in us, freely?
Bridges ends his chapter on this subject with these words: page 77
Well, we spent last week preaching the good news to ourselves, so I hope you've been living in the good news and not the bad news for the past week. I also hope we've been sharing the good news with other people, it's a bit rude to keep good news to yourself!
As Bridges says in his book, the good news doesn't stop there. We know Jesus died on the cross, took on all the sin ever, and we are declared perfect and righteous in God's eyes. Jesus restored our relationship with God and not only we should be eternally grateful for that, but this news should also have a massive effect on the way in which we behave.
The extra great news is that we are free from sin AND free from the dominion of sin. This simply means that we are free from the power that sin has had over us since the day we were born. I don't think I can move on from that point... I'd be a liar if I said I lived with a permanent feeling of freedom from sin. Sometimes I feel like sin is still very much in control of the way I act and behave. It might be much the same for you. To hear and know that you are forgiven and free might be a real struggle, but it's a truth we need to tell ourselves each day, each time we start to doubt who we really are and who we really belong to, we need to be reminded of this amazing gift of grace.
This morning I want to pick up on two really significant things from this: We died to sin and we are alive to God. Pretty simple on the face of it all, but if you will wander with me for a few moments I hope you might find something that will inspire/challenge/remind you of who God is and what He has done for us.
“We died to sin”
The first part of our sentence is a concept I don't have a deep understanding of. There are plenty of phrases out there that wash over me and I don't really grasp what they mean, until you have to sit down with them and tackle them full on. So here goes...
Let's start at the beginning, what is sin? Sin is when we go against God's will for us and the laws he has set.
We need to expand our passage a little bit to understand where Paul is coming from when explaining dying to sin. Verse 5-10 of Romans 6 goes on to talk about how we are united with Christ in life, death and resurrection (coming back to life). This union isn't to be taken lightly. It's like super gluing your fingers to together or attempting to distinguish my right hand from my mobile phone, or as Jesus puts it, like the Vine and the Branches. You cannot see where one begins and the other ends and if you pull them apart it'll hurt (even to the point of death). We are joined with Jesus in everything he has done. When he died on the cross, death and sin were defeated. Jesus died to break the reign of sin. Let's ponder on that a moment. Though we are still sinners, we have a Saviour who was not only able to free us from sin's penalty (death) but also from its dominion. And that's what's so amazing about Grace. The Message version puts it this way: “When it's sin vs grace, grace wins hands down”.
My cousin moved to Milton Keynes from his mum's home in Hadleigh, Essex about 2 years ago. We were chatting about where he thought home was in the early part of his move, he started off with Hadleigh. We talked about how he'd brought his house in MK, worked hard on it, and worked just down the road, yet he still saw home as his Mum's house. I think we can use this as a great illustration to show that in actual fact we often live in a place, but it is not 'home' to us, the same is true with sin. If we live in a place of grace and but still call sin 'home', then we are not truly accepting that we have died to sin. In my own context, I have effectively died to Essex, and now live in Luton. There is no practical way I can live at my parents house, I have to make a home here. We cannot make a home in Sin if we truly believe in all that Jesus has done for us, and the grace we have received because of his actions.
So, in acknowledging our dying to sin, what does this mean for us?
“Alive to God”
We are alive to God. We have been brought out of the darkness, into God's glorious light. We are rescued from death, and like the person who has been 'given a second chance' we should be living as though sin is a threat to our lives, not a death sentence.
Bridges highlights the Vine and Branches example when talking about how our relationship with Jesus can be. You can't tell where one ends and the other begins, closer than friends. Being in Christ and having Christ in you are intertwined, spiritual and alive. The Holy Spirit dwells within us, takes every step with us and knows all that we do. To be alive to God is to live in assurance and hope. To be free to be in relationship with God, and know that HE wants to be in relationship and communication with you.
We can only die once, and in this passage that death is in the past we died to sin, we have been raised into new life with Christ. God sees us in the light of what Jesus has done, alive and well.
“So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep forgiving?”
I recently had a conversation with a young person who was describing how her friends responded when she mentioned that we are forgiven of all the wrong things we do. Her friends said “well, I'll just keep on sinning then, and keep saying sorry”. The friend had the no idea of all the love and grace it takes to forgive someone and not remember their sin. It's almost as though we respond in a selfish way... we don't fully comprehend grace, or unconditional love, and so are irresponsible and reckless with these gifts. Or we treat our forgiveness so lightly that it is diluted beyond being able to grasp the reality of it?
We all still sin, in action at least, though we are not under the reign of sin. We don't come from a place of sin. We have to live in a place which grace allows. And with this overwhelming grace, I don't know about you, but I am compelled to respond. God's unconditional love for each of us doesn't demand a response, but even if we hold on to a little glimpse the Holy Spirit can change us, we will not go on sinning if we understand a small part of God's grace for us.
I grew up in Essex, I have an affinity with people from Essex, but I no longer live there. Essex is not my home, Luton is my home. I'm the same Karen. I have died to what was before and embrace what is new, in doing so I have not lost any part of who I am. And it's the same with Sin and grace. Do we find ourselves answering to something which has no authority over us? Or are we responding to the gift of grace, living in Christ, with Christ in us, freely?
Bridges ends his chapter on this subject with these words: page 77
Sunday, January 04, 2009
Epiphany 4/1/09
Revealing Jesus as King
Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a really good Christmas and New Year celebrations. As you may or may not know today is the day where we traditionally celebrate Epiphany. We are already two Sunday's away from Christmas, and I'm not wishing the year away just yet. Epiphany helps us to remember the arrival of the Wise Men, or the Magi, to the house where Joseph, Mary and Jesus now live.
Matthew doesn't tell us where the family were staying, but we know that they were well settled in a little house and that the star had followed them there. Mary and Joseph probably had a few friendly neighbours who had helped them out and Jesus was growing up like any normal child. Theologians and historians believe that Jesus could have been about two by the time the wise men arrived at Joseph's house. I wonder what kind of two year old Jesus might have been? Just a thought...
More and more we are throwing out the idea of the nativity scene where all the figures arrive on or just after Christmas night, in favour of a more accurate representation of the story. However we need to remember the significance of the different characters in the story.
If you were here on Christmas Eve for the Crib service you would have heard the story from the shepherds point of view. Those poor lowly shepherds, who spent their lives in the fields, with only each other, sheep, goats and wolves for company. Joseph was eventually noble, but his first thought was one of splitting up with Mary so there would be no disgrace for either of them. And Mary herself, just a girl. Nothing special about her, but God look at the heart and He saw Mary to be beautiful. Each character plays a significant part in the story, and each character reveals a different aspect of who Jesus is to the people of the world.
So what was the significance of the Wise Men in this story? If you have a quick flick through the first four books of the New Testament you'll notice that the Wise Men only appear in Matthew's version. Mark and John are full on action, and Luke is writing to an audience which could well have been made up of people who thought Jesus would never go anywhere near them, hence the Shepherds in his account.
Matthew was writing to the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. And he certainly has a grasp on Jewish history. Do you know anyone who can recite Jesus' family tree from beginning to end? Matthew can, all 42 generations, that's 1680 years give or take a few. And in Jesus family tree there are plenty of kings and other people of note which the Jewish people would have been able to reminisce about. Some pretty impressive stories too! Matthew is almost certainly trying to convince the Jewish people that Jesus isn't just some guy to listen too, he is, in fact, the King they have been looking for, the one which has be prophesied about for years. If you had read the openers for the other gospels you'd have plenty of ideas of who Jesus is, but the King aspect comes across most clearly in this one I think.
The Wise Men were no doubt important people. They probably had a large entourage following them across the countries and entering the cities. It's unclear why they started their journey, and where “the East” really is. But they are wise, they knew what they were doing. They had read the prophecies and seen the star, everything was falling into place, so they went.
On the way they met Herod and though he was a king, there is no record of the wise men bowing to him. Herod tried to trick them, but they are wise... they didn't fall for Herod's thin veiled attempts to wipe his competition off the face of the earth. When they eventually made their way back home they completely avoided Herod's palace, and once Herod had caught on to this fact Joseph and Mary were well on their way to Egypt and the toddler Jesus was safe from harm.
As I said before Jesus is clearly revealed as king through this passage. The wise men had travelled miles and miles to see a baby whom they treated as a king first and foremost, bringing him the finest gifts they could muster. I wonder how we treat Jesus. Do we bow to him and show him the respect He deserves? We have been talking about God's glory all Christmas and will continue to talk about over the next few weeks. But will we recognise God's glory in the things which we do. Even the wise men recognised God's glory and they only met him in his infant years.
So as we start 2009, have you made any resolutions? Or maybe you don't believe in resolutions... so what about receiving a revelation, as the wise men did.
Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a really good Christmas and New Year celebrations. As you may or may not know today is the day where we traditionally celebrate Epiphany. We are already two Sunday's away from Christmas, and I'm not wishing the year away just yet. Epiphany helps us to remember the arrival of the Wise Men, or the Magi, to the house where Joseph, Mary and Jesus now live.
Matthew doesn't tell us where the family were staying, but we know that they were well settled in a little house and that the star had followed them there. Mary and Joseph probably had a few friendly neighbours who had helped them out and Jesus was growing up like any normal child. Theologians and historians believe that Jesus could have been about two by the time the wise men arrived at Joseph's house. I wonder what kind of two year old Jesus might have been? Just a thought...
More and more we are throwing out the idea of the nativity scene where all the figures arrive on or just after Christmas night, in favour of a more accurate representation of the story. However we need to remember the significance of the different characters in the story.
If you were here on Christmas Eve for the Crib service you would have heard the story from the shepherds point of view. Those poor lowly shepherds, who spent their lives in the fields, with only each other, sheep, goats and wolves for company. Joseph was eventually noble, but his first thought was one of splitting up with Mary so there would be no disgrace for either of them. And Mary herself, just a girl. Nothing special about her, but God look at the heart and He saw Mary to be beautiful. Each character plays a significant part in the story, and each character reveals a different aspect of who Jesus is to the people of the world.
So what was the significance of the Wise Men in this story? If you have a quick flick through the first four books of the New Testament you'll notice that the Wise Men only appear in Matthew's version. Mark and John are full on action, and Luke is writing to an audience which could well have been made up of people who thought Jesus would never go anywhere near them, hence the Shepherds in his account.
Matthew was writing to the Jewish people from a Jewish perspective. And he certainly has a grasp on Jewish history. Do you know anyone who can recite Jesus' family tree from beginning to end? Matthew can, all 42 generations, that's 1680 years give or take a few. And in Jesus family tree there are plenty of kings and other people of note which the Jewish people would have been able to reminisce about. Some pretty impressive stories too! Matthew is almost certainly trying to convince the Jewish people that Jesus isn't just some guy to listen too, he is, in fact, the King they have been looking for, the one which has be prophesied about for years. If you had read the openers for the other gospels you'd have plenty of ideas of who Jesus is, but the King aspect comes across most clearly in this one I think.
The Wise Men were no doubt important people. They probably had a large entourage following them across the countries and entering the cities. It's unclear why they started their journey, and where “the East” really is. But they are wise, they knew what they were doing. They had read the prophecies and seen the star, everything was falling into place, so they went.
On the way they met Herod and though he was a king, there is no record of the wise men bowing to him. Herod tried to trick them, but they are wise... they didn't fall for Herod's thin veiled attempts to wipe his competition off the face of the earth. When they eventually made their way back home they completely avoided Herod's palace, and once Herod had caught on to this fact Joseph and Mary were well on their way to Egypt and the toddler Jesus was safe from harm.
As I said before Jesus is clearly revealed as king through this passage. The wise men had travelled miles and miles to see a baby whom they treated as a king first and foremost, bringing him the finest gifts they could muster. I wonder how we treat Jesus. Do we bow to him and show him the respect He deserves? We have been talking about God's glory all Christmas and will continue to talk about over the next few weeks. But will we recognise God's glory in the things which we do. Even the wise men recognised God's glory and they only met him in his infant years.
So as we start 2009, have you made any resolutions? Or maybe you don't believe in resolutions... so what about receiving a revelation, as the wise men did.
Monday, December 15, 2008
Disney's Enchanted/Love/1 John 4:7-12 - 14th December 2008, St Mary's Luton
Disney's Enchanted is billed as a modern day fairy tale. We meet Giselle in her homeland of Andalasia, she's your typical Disney princess-to-be waiting for her Prince to come. The only problem is her prince has an evil step-mother called Queen Narissa, who has been distracting him with Troll capturing duties for the last few years. Finally they meet, Giselle falls, having been inches from the trolls grasp, into Prince Edwards lap. And he declares “We shall be married in the morning!”. Of course Queen Narissa has something up her sleeve to stop that, and pushes Giselle, in full wedding attire, down a well. When Giselle lands she finds herself in Times Square, New York. There she falls on Robert and his daughter Morgan. In this clip we see Robert and Giselle talking about their opposite realities.
CLIP 41:25-50:10
Now I know I'm exactly two months early for St Valentines day, but tonight I wanted to talk about Love. Disney knows a lot about love, the corporation seems to have a monopoly on the romanticised version of Love. Pretty much every Disney character you come across is in love, whether its with someone who loves them back, or something unrequited, or just in love with themselves. They all manage to find themselves in Love. Fortunately for us tonight, Enchanted, as modern day as it seems to be, still has a hint of the classic love story, from the days of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. Boy meets girl, boy helps girl, boy and girl fall in love and live happily ever after.
Love in this sense is lovely, it's nice, its possibly a little bit sacrificial, one of the themes in this movie tells us, True Love's Kiss will conquer all. Nothing can take away from the power of True Love's Kiss, not even a last minute ploy by evil. According to legend “True Love's Kiss” only needs to happen once and then we've found our true love, the one.
Before we go too far into all this lovey-dovey stuff, I feel I have to mention the fact that Enchanted has it's own cynical character. Robert doesn't believe in romantic love, he's not at all spontaneous and is quite seriously dismisses Giselle at the beginning of our clip when he thinks her approach has lost him a massive amount of money. Love, of course, isn't just for girlie girls and it's not for the faint at heart either. If you are cynical about Love, I pray that God will start to show you something of what He knows of Love.
How do we know that He loves Us? We're going to hear our Bible reading now.
Bible Passage: 1 John 4:7-12
To echo a brilliant song, how do I know He loves me? This passage says that “God sent his only Son into the world that we might live through him”. That's the good news, that's the gospel. How do I know that God loves me? He sent his son, to die on a cross to save my life, but not just my life, my family's and my friends. Lillie talked last week about how we personalise our gospel, but we have to remember that God sent his only son so that “whoever believes in him will not die, but have eternal life”. Maybe the cross is your True Love's Kiss when it comes to God, maybe you have found your one.
That's great and all, but I think there's more. Look around at creation, God created a fairytale to begin with, and he asked who is going to appreciate my creation? So he created man, someone in his own image. Don't you think it's funny that we create something and then invite some one similar to us to enjoy our creation too! He had created perfection in the Garden of Eden, a fairytale land. We have to have got this idea of perfection from some where, what about the ultimate perfectionist God? Everything in the garden of Eden worked in balance, just like a fairytale. I was travelling home from the Youthwork Conference with Gill and we were talking about the sunset, something that still happens every single day. It was beautiful. I think we can see God's love through creation. The gospel is a show of God's love for us, it's one symbol. But we are constantly reminded of everything he's done for us in creating earth. We should be looking for God's love in the places which we least expect it. Is that your True Love's Kiss, this are just two examples, there are many more. How does your God show that he loves you? As the song says “He'll find his own way to tell you with the little things he'll do”. That's how you'll know, he's your love.
If you are cynical about Love, I pray that God will show you His love in the little ways. You have to allow God to show you his love.
Another line in the song is “don't treat her like a mind reader”. I think we can do this to God some times, though for our own benefit I think we need to tell God how much we love him and to show our love as well. We often come before God knowing that he knows our inmost being, but by speaking those feelings out we can start to have a conversation with God about how we are doing and how we are being.
So how do we show God that we love him? An author called Gary Chapman writes about the way in which humans show love to one another. These are known as our Love Languages. And there are five. There is Words of Affirmation, Gifts, Acts of Service, Quality Time and Physical Touch. The idea of Chapman's book is that you identify your own love language and the ones of those around you. We can experience love in each of the ways, but we all have a primary love language. At the Youthwork Conference retreat day we used the image of a tree to help us reflect. We, of course, began with the roots. As we were sitting at dinner one person said 'I don't really understand the roots thing, it wasn't explained very well' We had been asked what nourishes us. I rephrased it as, 'what are the things in your week which you cannot go with out?' This helped him a little bit, and then he got out his knitting. How do you answer this question? If you are having a bad week, what have you missed out on? This should give you a hint as to what your love language is.
These love languages translate when talking about our relationship with God. Jesus says in Matthew 25 “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” The doing in this passage is all acts of service. Feeding the hungry and looking after the sick. I think this would apply to all of the love languages, we show our love for God in the way we treat others. We speak our own love language a lot, but we don't speak other's naturally. To help others feel loved we need to show them love in the way they need to be loved. This is how we show our love for God.
So there are now only 11 days till Christmas. So how do we show our love to others because God love us. Do we take time writing our Christmas cards and letter with full of encouraging words to the recipient, rather than just telling them about our year. Do we send a little gift to every one on our street, or do we buy an ethical gift. Do we open up our home, or work over Christmas without grumbling. Do we just demand people time, time for them to get away, have a cup of tea. What can we do to best show our love over Christmas?
If you are cynical about love, maybe you haven't discovered how you give and receive love.
How do we know that God loves us? Creation, the Cross, the bible. God shows us his love in many ways. He'll show you in the little ways. And he loves us each in a unique way, tailored just for us.
My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
How do we share our love at Christmas? We do the things which God has asked us to do, we don't hide away, we share the story of the greatest love of all. And we let our light shine.
CLIP 41:25-50:10
Now I know I'm exactly two months early for St Valentines day, but tonight I wanted to talk about Love. Disney knows a lot about love, the corporation seems to have a monopoly on the romanticised version of Love. Pretty much every Disney character you come across is in love, whether its with someone who loves them back, or something unrequited, or just in love with themselves. They all manage to find themselves in Love. Fortunately for us tonight, Enchanted, as modern day as it seems to be, still has a hint of the classic love story, from the days of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. Boy meets girl, boy helps girl, boy and girl fall in love and live happily ever after.
Love in this sense is lovely, it's nice, its possibly a little bit sacrificial, one of the themes in this movie tells us, True Love's Kiss will conquer all. Nothing can take away from the power of True Love's Kiss, not even a last minute ploy by evil. According to legend “True Love's Kiss” only needs to happen once and then we've found our true love, the one.
Before we go too far into all this lovey-dovey stuff, I feel I have to mention the fact that Enchanted has it's own cynical character. Robert doesn't believe in romantic love, he's not at all spontaneous and is quite seriously dismisses Giselle at the beginning of our clip when he thinks her approach has lost him a massive amount of money. Love, of course, isn't just for girlie girls and it's not for the faint at heart either. If you are cynical about Love, I pray that God will start to show you something of what He knows of Love.
How do we know that He loves Us? We're going to hear our Bible reading now.
Bible Passage: 1 John 4:7-12
To echo a brilliant song, how do I know He loves me? This passage says that “God sent his only Son into the world that we might live through him”. That's the good news, that's the gospel. How do I know that God loves me? He sent his son, to die on a cross to save my life, but not just my life, my family's and my friends. Lillie talked last week about how we personalise our gospel, but we have to remember that God sent his only son so that “whoever believes in him will not die, but have eternal life”. Maybe the cross is your True Love's Kiss when it comes to God, maybe you have found your one.
That's great and all, but I think there's more. Look around at creation, God created a fairytale to begin with, and he asked who is going to appreciate my creation? So he created man, someone in his own image. Don't you think it's funny that we create something and then invite some one similar to us to enjoy our creation too! He had created perfection in the Garden of Eden, a fairytale land. We have to have got this idea of perfection from some where, what about the ultimate perfectionist God? Everything in the garden of Eden worked in balance, just like a fairytale. I was travelling home from the Youthwork Conference with Gill and we were talking about the sunset, something that still happens every single day. It was beautiful. I think we can see God's love through creation. The gospel is a show of God's love for us, it's one symbol. But we are constantly reminded of everything he's done for us in creating earth. We should be looking for God's love in the places which we least expect it. Is that your True Love's Kiss, this are just two examples, there are many more. How does your God show that he loves you? As the song says “He'll find his own way to tell you with the little things he'll do”. That's how you'll know, he's your love.
If you are cynical about Love, I pray that God will show you His love in the little ways. You have to allow God to show you his love.
Another line in the song is “don't treat her like a mind reader”. I think we can do this to God some times, though for our own benefit I think we need to tell God how much we love him and to show our love as well. We often come before God knowing that he knows our inmost being, but by speaking those feelings out we can start to have a conversation with God about how we are doing and how we are being.
So how do we show God that we love him? An author called Gary Chapman writes about the way in which humans show love to one another. These are known as our Love Languages. And there are five. There is Words of Affirmation, Gifts, Acts of Service, Quality Time and Physical Touch. The idea of Chapman's book is that you identify your own love language and the ones of those around you. We can experience love in each of the ways, but we all have a primary love language. At the Youthwork Conference retreat day we used the image of a tree to help us reflect. We, of course, began with the roots. As we were sitting at dinner one person said 'I don't really understand the roots thing, it wasn't explained very well' We had been asked what nourishes us. I rephrased it as, 'what are the things in your week which you cannot go with out?' This helped him a little bit, and then he got out his knitting. How do you answer this question? If you are having a bad week, what have you missed out on? This should give you a hint as to what your love language is.
These love languages translate when talking about our relationship with God. Jesus says in Matthew 25 “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” The doing in this passage is all acts of service. Feeding the hungry and looking after the sick. I think this would apply to all of the love languages, we show our love for God in the way we treat others. We speak our own love language a lot, but we don't speak other's naturally. To help others feel loved we need to show them love in the way they need to be loved. This is how we show our love for God.
So there are now only 11 days till Christmas. So how do we show our love to others because God love us. Do we take time writing our Christmas cards and letter with full of encouraging words to the recipient, rather than just telling them about our year. Do we send a little gift to every one on our street, or do we buy an ethical gift. Do we open up our home, or work over Christmas without grumbling. Do we just demand people time, time for them to get away, have a cup of tea. What can we do to best show our love over Christmas?
If you are cynical about love, maybe you haven't discovered how you give and receive love.
How do we know that God loves us? Creation, the Cross, the bible. God shows us his love in many ways. He'll show you in the little ways. And he loves us each in a unique way, tailored just for us.
My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!
How do we share our love at Christmas? We do the things which God has asked us to do, we don't hide away, we share the story of the greatest love of all. And we let our light shine.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Love Beyond Reason - John Ortberg
"Love Beyond Reason" is well written and with some very clear thought processes Ortberg puts across the point that though we are 'rag dolls' he has many reasons to love us for all we are and will be.
Ortberg paints a picture very well, he is a story teller. He weaves in Bible passages and illustrations from day-to-day things to help us to explore a God who loves us in the midst of our humanness. He is an encourager, allowing you to discover a loving God for yourself and to enjoy the dicovery with him.
Ultimately we see the love of God in the cross, and to be content and feeling safe in that love, not hiding away or moaning.
I think the last chapter ended quite abruptly, but on a great note about God's glory. God definitely had his hand in me reading this book, our theme this christmas is glory, i'm talking about Love soon and Zaccheaus' story popped up twice in one day. Lots to reflect and contemplate on.
Ortberg paints a picture very well, he is a story teller. He weaves in Bible passages and illustrations from day-to-day things to help us to explore a God who loves us in the midst of our humanness. He is an encourager, allowing you to discover a loving God for yourself and to enjoy the dicovery with him.
Ultimately we see the love of God in the cross, and to be content and feeling safe in that love, not hiding away or moaning.
I think the last chapter ended quite abruptly, but on a great note about God's glory. God definitely had his hand in me reading this book, our theme this christmas is glory, i'm talking about Love soon and Zaccheaus' story popped up twice in one day. Lots to reflect and contemplate on.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
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