Casper, Monsters and Ascension

 I used to be a Sunday School Teacher.   I worked with the 4-6 year olds, and at the time of Caspar the friendly ghost there was one little boy, who saw Caspar as being a necessary part of any picture that he drew.  So Moses was walking up Mount Sinai to get the 10 commandments holding hands with Caspar. The little boy decided to expand his theology a bit, when he decided that monsters were more likely to be in the Bible than a friendly ghost and so he drew monsters on every picture just in case.

I dread to think what he would have drawn for Ascension day, I imagine Jesus would have been pictured ascending, holding hands with Caspar and with a monster !

On Thursday we celebrated Ascension Day and you will be pleased to know that I will not be talking about monsters or Caspar the friendly ghost.  

Instead I will start with a quote from William Temple, a former Archbishop of Canterbury who wrote,  ‘In the days of his earthly ministry, only those could speak to Jesus who came where he was. If he was in Galilee, people could not find him in Jerusalem; if he was in Jerusalem, they could not find him in Galilee. But his ascension means that he is perfectly united with God, and we are with him wherever we are present to God, and this is everywhere and always.’

Ascension Day marks a turning point in our Church calendar and it’s a hugely important day for the Church today just as it was when Jesus left his followers 2000 years ago. This turning point meant that no longer would the followers of Jesus focus inwardly, meeting together, praying, sharing times of fellowship and learning directly from Jesus himself, now they were to have an outward focus as they looked outwards to the needs of the world. 

This Sunday falling between Ascension Day and Pentecost is a Sunday that I would like to call preparation, or waiting Sunday. 

Next week the Church throughout the world will remember the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost.  When we  think about Pentecost we remember that the disciples found themselves moving out from Jerusalem, from the relative coziness of their fellowship, to share the gospel throughout Judea in Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

Back to Ascension, the disciples were suddenly without Jesus, but He had made it clear he would never leave them and that is the point William Temple was making in the quote I mentioned earlier. Jesus had not gone away but had ascended into a place where nothing could separate us from him.  Not only this but the followers of Jesus  were now commissioned to go out and be like Him to others. This meant to live and to love as he lived and loved.

And that was a turning point for the whole Church  from an inward looking fellowship committed to caring for one another, they were now to go about caring for all. 

God gave a challenge but He didn't leave the disciples then, or us, without the power to do this. When we heard our reading from the book of Acts (16:16-34) we heard of Paul being attacked for speaking the words of Jesus. In our gospel reading (John 17:20-26) we heard of Jesus praying that we would have power, He prayed that we, the Church, may be one, united as God Himself is united.

That is amazing, Jesus prayed this prayer  the night before He died.   He was concerned about how all believers would cope as they spoke of Him and His words, and His power to save. In Acts, Paul spoke of the need to believe in the Lord Jesus in order to be saved.

This is absolutely amazing, not only did Jesus come amongst us, die for us, rise again, ascend to heaven but He left us more. Jesus prayed for us, He prayed for you, He prayed for me. Jesus wanted us to know what it is like to know Him.

There is a mystery play from the Middle Ages about the Ascension. It is said that after Jesus was lifted up from the earth and was ascending to heaven, the two men dressed in white followed after, straining to catch up with Him. These angels cried out: “Jesus! Jesus! Wait for us!”

Jesus turned to greet them, and as they continued to ascend together, He said: “Yes, my friends! Well done!” One of the angels replied: “That is what we should say to you, dear Lord, for you have done all that has been asked of you! But what will happen next? Isn’t there more to be done?” 

Jesus answered: “Well, of course! There is always more to be done! But weren’t you paying attention down there? Didn’t you hear me give them what they will come to call ‘the Great Commission’? Now they will go out and baptise all people into my continuing life and work, reconciling the whole world to myself!” 

The two angels looked at one another somewhat hesitantly, and then looked back at Jesus. One of them cautiously said: “Well, certainly we heard all that. But haven’t you been paying attention to them? Do you really think you can count on that lot?” 

“He’s right, you know,” the other angel said. “Honestly, what’s your back-up plan? What will you do if those you have left behind don’t continue your work?” 

Jesus paused for a moment and then said, simply, “There is no back-up plan.”

There is no back-up plan because the grace set free by the Resurrection, the Ascension, and ultimately the gift of the Holy Spirit is sufficient to affect God’s plan of salvation.  

We now have to think of  whether and how we will choose to join in that work. Will we participate fully in the mending of creation, or will we choose to stand back and watch from a comfortable distance? 

The Eucharist service always ends with the response, ‘Go in peace to love and serve the Lord’ – this is a definite and challenging call to take the strength we have received from our relationship with God and with other Christians, and go out and proclaim his name, and his love. May we do this always. AMEN 

Anything for love - what about for God ?

 Is there anything that you would never do ? I am not adventurous so I would never go anywhere without a plan of what I was going to do and certainly without any idea of how I would complete it. I won’t carry on thinking too much of what I would never do, we don’t have enough time !! However, I remember in 1993 that there was a big question over a song by the pop star Meatloaf. The song said, ‘I will do anything for love, but I won’t do that.’ There were so many possibilities. Was it, I wouldn’t kill someone else ? Was it I wouldn’t move to another country ? Or, and most importantly, I wouldn’t give up my last rolo.

Love can make us all do strange things and happy things. Sometimes, things that don’t make sense and I was reading last week that the last thing Jesus did before He died on the cross was the same thing that He did when He rose again. It was that Jesus offered forgiveness. To the people who had crucified Him, or supported His crucifixion He prayed for forgiveness. He told the thief on the cross that he was forgiven. When He rose again, He forgave Peter for denying Him at His arrest and made him head of His Church.

Love can make us do all sorts of things. In our gospel reading this morning  (John 14:23-29) we heard of Jesus talking to the disciples. I always find these conversations both comforting and challenging. They always make me ask questions either about my trust in God or my love for Him. 

In the reading Jesus was preparing the disciples for what would happen after His arrest, crucifixion, resurrection and ultimately His ascension. These words were given on the same night as the Last Supper. Jesus showed His love as He both prepared the disciples for what was going to happen and gave them the promise that they would never be alone. 

This happened as He told them about the Holy Spirit.  Jesus was offering the disciples peace and the promise of the Holy Spirit who would always be with them. They were offered a constant companion and comforter.  This is a wonderful example of love. Jesus in His love for the disciples both offered and gave them peace. This was peace in knowing that He would always be with them.

So far, so good. Jesus died for the disciples and He died for us. Here comes the challenge. In the reading Jesus told the disciples off very gently. He explained that if they really loved Him, they would be pleased that He was going back to His Father. This would mean that He had completed this part of His mission. 

Of course, the biggest difficulty for the disciples would have been that they were human, just like we are. This would mean that they needed the extra assurance of an advocate to come. Jesus also left them His peace. I am not sure how this must have felt, but the love they had for Jesus made them want to tell others about Him.

The comfort is clear for us as well. We are not alone. God gives us strength to follow Him. We are also to love God so much that we can’t help but want to tell others about Him and to share His love with them. 

This is much less comforting. I would do anything for love, but I won’t do that. How about if we all asked ourselves if we would do anything for God, but we wouldn’t do that. 

In the reading from the book of Acts (16:9-15) we heard of the first believers showing their love for God in exactly this way. They  stepped out from all they knew to share the good news with others. An angel appeared to Paul in a dream sending him to somewhere completely different to what he knew. 

Through Paul going to Macedonia and other places on the way he was thrust into a different culture, a different language, different ways of believing. He went, and all he knew was that he was going to spread the good news of Jesus and as he did this he would have the power of the Holy Spirit with him.

Lydia, whom he met in Philippi, and her household were baptised. It wasn’t through the words of Paul though. It says in the reading that God opened Lydia’s heart to hear the words of Paul. She listened eagerly. This is both comforting and challenging as well. God prepared the way for Paul to speak and He will do the same for us. The challenge is that we need to listen to God calling us to talk to others. We can ask God to show us when there are opportunities to tell people not only why we worship Him, but also to tell people about the fact that God’s love is so great that He is always with us.

As we pray for opportunities it is also important that we pray for our community and all who do not know God, for all who are struggling.

Today is Rogation Sunday when we are called to pray for our community. We ask for God’s blessing on all the people in the community, and all those who work here. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday this week are also rogation days when we keep praying for the community, and for agriculture in particular. I am going to suggest that we use the Psalm we had this morning (67) as our prayer for the week as we pray for our community. It is known as a harvest Psalm. 

Then starting on Thursday we are following Thy Kingdom Come which lasts until Pentecost. This is kept as days of prayer for five people we would like to come to know Jesus. We have books to accompany these prayers, with a Bible reading and reflection. Please take one home and use it in the time between Ascension Day and Pentecost. We will be asking you to invite the people for whom you have been praying to a special service on 29th June where there will be a real feeling of celebration. It will be a great service and one that it is important that you attend if you can. There will be no other services in the Ministry Area that morning. 

There’s a lot that we can be doing to think about, to be thankful for, and to share God’s love. 

Back to Meatloaf and his words, ‘I will do anything for love, but I won’t do that’.  We will never know what he wouldn’t do, but how much will we do for God and His love.  AMEN

Lambs, sheep and a shepherd.

 I am aware that children often want some unusual things. There is the child who will only eat food that is a certain colour, there is the child who wants and prays for a dog and in my case the child who wants a lamb. Now that sounds very nice and you might picture a lovely setting for growing up with fields and lots of green, just like here. In my case I lived on a council housing estate in Cardiff without much green. I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t have a lamb, after all we did have a garden !

I was thinking about this as I looked at our readings for today, readings which talk of sheep and shepherds. In our readings we heard what is perhaps the most well known Psalm, Psalm 23 The Lord is my Shepherd. Then in our gospel reading (John 22-30) we heard of Jesus both knowing and being known by His sheep. 

We are God’s sheep and we are all people in need of the shepherd who offers us protection and a better life. A shepherd who is good. 

Jesus is the good shepherd and He looks after us and in His loving arms we are safe. This never means that all will be well but it does mean that with God life is just somehow that bit easier. Easier in terms of having someone we can turn to who will never let us down even when life is not so good. It doesn’t stop difficult times but we know where we can turn. 

There is a lovely story about Psalm 23. It is that once an actor was the guest of honour at a social gathering where he received many requests to recite favourite excerpts from different books. An old preacher who happened to be there and he asked the actor to recite the twenty-third Psalm. The actor agreed on the condition that the preacher would also recite it. The actor's recitation was beautifully intoned with great dramatic emphasis for which he received lengthy applause. The preacher's voice was rough and broken from many years of preaching, and his diction was anything but polished. But when he finished there was not a dry eye in the room. When someone asked the actor what made the difference, he replied, "I know the psalm, but he knows the Shepherd."

We know the Psalm so well, and we also know the Shepherd who loves us more than we can begin to imagine. In the gospel reading we heard of Jesus’ sheep knowing Him. 

In the reading we also heard of Jesus being questioned at the festival of Dedication. This festival marked the time when the temple was dedicated after being rescued from destruction by a man called Judas Maccabaeus 

In perhaps the most typical way ever, at this festival Jesus was questioned. He was asked once again if He was the Messiah. He was asked as to how long He would keep people in suspense. I am not sure whether this was a sarcastic and bullying question. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. The answer Jesus gave was a very clever one that answered them whilst making a very good and obvious point. This is that if they had trusted Jesus and followed Him they would have seen who He was. Jesus cleverly makes the point that if they knew Him, they would be one of His sheep and He would know them. Not only this, but they were promised eternal life. It is the same for us as followers today.

In the reading from Revelation (7:9-17) we heard of a lamb. Not just any Lamb, but the lamb who was sacrificed for us. Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice who died and then rose again so that we could have our sins wiped away and be offered eternal life. As we follow we are sheep, and yes, we follow a Good shepherd but we also follow the lamb who was sacrificed for us.

If all this talk is getting confusing, remember it is all a way that was used to help us understand what God has done for us. There are many images and terms for God in the Bible and we can always find the one that makes the most sense to us. This can change over time. The main thing is that we know God became like us so that we could understand Him more. He described Himself as a shepherd. He was sacrificed for us. I do like the point in the reading from Revelation that He wipes away our tears. 

Isn’t it good that God came amongst us and helped us understand by saying things such as He is a Good shepherd.

We follow Him and to be honest I would much rather Him do the leading than for me to try to attempt to lead myself. If you knew anything about my sense of direction, you would never want to follow me ! Unless you wanted to get lost. 

A young woman who wanted to go to college, was disappointed when she read the question on the application form that asked, "Are you a leader?" Being both honest and conscientious she wrote, "No," and returned the application, expecting the worst. To her surprise, she received this letter from the college: "Dear Applicant: A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 1,452 new leaders. We are accepting you because we feel it is imperative that they have at least one follower."

There is no shame being a follower of someone or something – and when we follow Jesus we are following someone who it is impossible to lead, and someone who always knows our thoughts and needs even before we do. 

Well, I never had a lamb in my back garden. I am pleased to say that I am a follower, and so part of the sheep. Jesus said that He knows His sheep and they know Him. I pray that we will always know and see our Good Shepherd at work and that we will always seek to know Him more as we pray, read our Bibles and learn more about Him, giving thanks for His sacrifice for us. AMEN 

Excited for Jesus.

 

I am not sure about you but I have a Favourite Bible passage. It is the Gospel reading for this morning (John 21:1-19) In this reading the disciples see the risen Jesus. I have wondered if they had lots of questions that they wanted to ask Jesus. I love the way Jesus said to the disciples,  ‘let’s have breakfast’.

Some of you may know that I am a formula 1 fan, and my favourite team is Ferrari. I saw a clip this week of the manager of the team, Fred Vasseur, being asked what he was most scared of and his answer was missing dinner. I liked that answer, it is honest and practical! Jesus met the disciples needs by helping them to catch fish and then suggesting that they should have breakfast.

In the gospel reading Peter met Jesus for the first time after Peter had denied knowing Him. He had denied Jesus three times and Jesus asked him three times if he loved him and Peter said yes three times. He was forgiven and Jesus then asked Peter to follow Him.

I can't think of a more perfect way to start again. It is like this for us every time we do something wrong as we can go to Jesus, ask for forgiveness and start all over again. Everything is new and wiped clean. 

In our reading from the book of Acts (9:1-6;7-20) we heard of Saul whose life was started anew. A man who had previously persecuted the believers of Jesus became a believer himself. Not just this but Ananias had to trust God that Saul had changed, that he had been wiped clean and was starting again. 

Please know that I am not saying that any of us physically need to be wiped clean, I am not advertising soap. I am trying to get us thinking of how well we would accept someone who came up to us, and said that they had been changed by God. That they had been wiped clean. If we felt God talking to us and telling us that we needed to help someone who had previously been trying to kill believers and believe that they had changed, would we have reacted in the same way as Ananias? 

It is hard to think of ourselves in this type of situation. I would hope that I would believe straight away. Saul had been particularly bad. He could be a real baddie for us, and certainly he wouldn't necessarily be someone we would have wanted to bump into. 

However, in his mind Jesus had been a pretender. Saul was an up and coming believer in the Jewish faith. He didn't want anything to take people away from God. I always think of him as a very zealous man. In the reading we heard that he was going to Damascus to collect letters so that he could use this authority from the synagogue to arrest the believers of Jesus. Then something shocking happened, as light appeared and Saul heard the voice of Jesus and he was changed. Saul had a calling from God which meant that he could start again. 

Ananias on being told about Saul, was understandably a bit questioning but he did accept him. Not just this but by laying hands on Saul he was offering friendship. This action showed the strength of the Holy Spirit working through him as Saul was healed and could now see. 

It reminds me of the wonderful hymn Amazing Grace with the lines, ‘I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.’ Saul did make it to the synagogue in Damascus but whilst there he talked about Jesus, and said that He was the Son of God.

An incredible change, a new way to go and a new message to proclaim. 

Back to the gospel reading. Peter had been forgiven, and in that forgiveness Jesus gave him the task of being a shepherd to His followers. Talk of job changes. For Saul from someone trying to kill, to someone who preached. For Peter from fisherman to shepherd. Not literally of course but how often does God call us to make a change ?

The change can be in the way we live, the people we spend time with, the television we watch, the books we read, the things we do that do not help us. God calls us all to make sure that we are following Him.

Following means changing, it is all about becoming more and more like Jesus, God the Son. 

Jesus is alive! Death has been conquered but do we live as if we are happy and excited about this news? I remember years ago there was a saying that a Dog was for life, not just for Christmas. This was due to the number of dogs being bought for Christmas and then forgotten about.

Easter should have a saying too, ‘Live everyday thankful that Jesus is Alive, not just at Easter.’ Its not as catchy but it is something we should think about.

Saul was passionate about his faith in Jesus, so much so that he preached a phenomenal amount, and started Churches, and wrote letters of encourgament and he was persecuted for his faith. He was excited about Jesus and the message He brought.

Peter had walked with Jesus, he had experienced the forgiveness of Jesus. He was excited as well, and he preached about Jesus. Even in the middle of a big Jewish festival, the feast of Pentecost. He was also persecuted.But he did all this because he was excited by Jesus and the message of salvation.

We have heard about Jesus, we follow Him. Are we excited by the good news of Jesus? Would we tell others about Him? I am not going to suggest that we can be persecuted in quite the same way but when people mock our beliefs, that can feel like a type of persecution. Peter and Saul both saw it as worth it, after all in Jesus they had found all they needed. This was a relationship with God knowing they are forgiven, and also that in every situation they could keep believing because they knew God was always with them, and would always love them.

Jesus, God the Son, is alive! Lets be excited by the wonderful truth that God loves us and will never leave us. AMEN