Giving up my protection

 In a book that I was reading last week I read a part that surprised me. I was reading about knowing the protection of God and letting go of the protection that I might build up around myself. In the book it said to imagine you were on your own walking through a jungle. You would be scared. However, if you were riding through a jungle on the back of a lion, well, the only thing that you would need to be scared of is the lion.

This is really not the way I expected the writer to go. I thought he was saying that being on the back of the lion might make you feel stronger. However, he was pointing out that there was only one thing to fear and this is the lion that you had decided to sit on.

A good point. In our readings today we heard about what happens when we trust in the power of God. We heard of the things we could lose out on if we built our own protection systems, rather than trusting in God.

In our gospel reading (Luke 8:26-39) this morning we have heard not about the religious leaders, or even the disciples recognising who Jesus was, but a man who was troubled. A man who was set free by Jesus from all that stopped him enjoying life.

The story we heard is an incredible story of a man whom society was afraid of. A man who was on the outside and who suddenly became like everyone else. He had recognised Jesus for who He was.

When Jesus did something amazing, when He set this man free from all that was restraining him the people were afraid, and the rest of the town asked Jesus to leave. They were scared of Him and His power. This makes hardly any sense, you would think that when someone was set free right before your eyes you would want to welcome them. But what were the people actually afraid of?

I heard of a young curate who had visiting cards and if he knocked on the door to see someone and they weren’t there, he would write. ‘Sorry to have found you out.’

I am sure it wasn’t this way, but could you imagine someone wondering if the curate knew something about them that was meant to be a secret, ‘sorry to have found you out’!

It makes me wonder whether people were scared by the power of Jesus because He might know things about them, He might change something that they were quite happy not to have changed. 

I wonder whether these people had built up a lovely life for themselves.  They thought they were perfect and in a good place, after all they had their very own frightening person to keep them safe ! They had built their own protection around themselves. A protection which sadly meant that they were not able to see all that Jesus could offer them. 

It would be so easy in our lives to be quite comfortable and happy as we are and not to allow Jesus to change us, to challenge us. Are we happy to listen to Jesus and see what He might be telling us to do, or showing us something that we should change in our life ?

In our epistle reading (Galatians 3:23-end) Paul, the writer, stressed that everyone was equal. This is great, but it may bring another challenge to us. 

There were people in the Church in Galatia who really thought they were better than everyone else. They saw themselves as true believers because they had been Jews first. Paul pointed out that actually they were no different to anyone else in the community. 

Each member of the Church to whom Paul was writing was equal. They had all become one through their belief and baptism in Jesus.  They had a new identity. This was that they were all brand new through their belief in Jesus. 

Paul in the epistle was pointing out that we are all equal. He wrote that there is neither male, or female, Jew or Greek, slave or free we are all equal, and the reason ? We are all children of God. 

To be a child of God, to have a new life of following Jesus means that we are changed and we need to be different.

We have said yes, and because of this we need to be prepared to make a difference by being more like Jesus. Jesus came amongst us to set us free. Free from all that holds us back, free from our doubts and concerns, free just to enjoy the love of God for us. 

We need to remove all the things or behaviours that can stop us getting closer to God. The man in the gospel when he was stripped of all that had held him back was suddenly free. The people to whom the epistle to the Galatians was written, just like us, had been set free and united, not by birth, race or gender but by the change that their belief in Jesus had given them. 

We all have different aspects of our characters that can be hard to let go of. Maybe they are the things that stop us opening up to God. Maybe they are like a protection. 

However, we can keep turning to God and starting again. I love this!

We are the same in the eyes of God and we need to treat others just as if they were the same as us. We have an identity in Jesus we are able to turn to Him but sometimes we hold things back that we want to deal with ourselves. We like to keep something for ourselves, to build our own way and protection.

The people in the gospel reading and those in the epistle who thought they were better than others had built up a type of protection. This was a protection that needed to be broken in order for them to be the people that they really should be. We are set free when we trust God, when we allow Him to change us. 

May we be ready to continually turn to God asking Him to change us and to set us free - free from all that would stop us from enjoying the love that He has for us. AMEN

Lake Como, Cornwall and the Holy Trinity

 The morning of Trinity Sunday is a dangerous morning for a preacher. It is a morning when you could easily confuse people, and a morning when basically you could end up being a heretic as you try and explain how God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit but is still one God. 

Yes this morning is an important day. It isn’t Christmas, it isn’t Easter, it isn’t even my birthday !! Today is the day when we celebrate that God is not only amazing, but He wants to be in a relationship with us. A day when we give thanks that God has shown Himself to us in so many ways because He is all around us and He loves us.

Today as we celebrate Trinity Sunday, we think of the majesty and glory of God as we think of the fact that God created us, God became one of us and God walks with us now as the Holy Spirit. 

This could be the most complex of all days but actually I think that it may be simpler than we expect. 

I want you to think for a moment of conversations. Have you ever thought about the number of different conversations we may hear or be part of a day. It may be other people talking to us, it may be us talking to other people, it may be the radio, the television, reading the news in a newspaper as conversations are reported on and relayed to us – and I expect that we have all either purposefully or not intentionally eavesdropped. Knowing about people’s conversations, having a conversation can tell us so much. 

I remember an occasion when I totally misunderstood a conversation with my Mum. This was a while ago when my Mum was going on holiday to Italy. She was really looking forward to it, but imagine my surprise when she told me that she was going to Cornwall. I told my husband that she wasn’t going to Italy anymore but Cornwall and she seemed really happy about it. I told my mother in law about my Mum going to Cornwall now instead. I asked my Mum what had changed, she explained that she was going to Lake Como not Cornwall and all I had heard was her say Como and I took that to mean Cornwall !

Life and conversations can be very confusing. People have tried so many ways to explain how God can be three in one and one in three. Theologians have had headaches on this, lots of ways to explain the Trinity have been thought up but actually one of the best ones I think involves talking, and not just because that is something close to my heart.

There is a very famous icon of the trinity, by the iconographer Andrei Rublev. This icon has God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit all sat around a table. Around this table they are talking to one another. There is a unity in their appearance but there is something slightly different about each one of them as well. I was thinking that actually it is a painting of a relationship, of a conversation. I love the idea of God and relationship. Relationship, like a conversation is something that we can understand.

In our readings today we heard more about the relationship of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the reading from Proverbs (8:1-4,22-31) we heard of wisdom. Wisdom was seen as God coming into our world and giving us wise words to help us live our lives. From the beginnings of the Church, wisdom was seen and personified as Jesus. Wisdom had been present before creation, wisdom had something to say to the world. 

In our epistle reading (Romans 5:1-5) we heard of us having a relationship with God ourselves as a result of Jesus’ death on the cross. We heard of God as Holy Spirit pouring the love of God into our hearts. In our gospel reading (John 16:12-15) we heard of God reaching out to us and each part of God using the other part to speak to us. Almost like a relay race one part of God informs the other who in turn informs us.

Now a bit like Chinese whispers, here is where a relationship can get confusing. God existed before all time, each part of God was there and they worked as one, and before we get a headache we can think of the relationship of God and then start to wonder where we fit in. 

Each part of God talks to the other so that we can be invited into the relationship. I want you to imagine that you are in a really dark room, and think of how you will find your way to the door. In this dark room you suddenly jump as you realise that there is someone else by the side of you, and then your fear turns to joy when you realise that they have a torch and can help you find your way out. After this you notice that someone else has come into the room behind you and they are in the dark and so you pass them the torch so they can find their way out and this keeps happening until you suddenly realise that you are all outside in the light. 

God is in a relationship, He has a conversation going on and you are invited into this. When we turn to God and enter into that relationship with Him. He passes us a torch, a light that is Himself so that we can walk in the world as His children. This is a relationship, a relationship of true love. God loves us all and He asks us to love Him too. If that is the only thing that we can ever remember in life – well, we have everything. AMEN

Who are we ?

 What are you known for ? What defines you ? I expect you’re not known for causing a disturbance at a major religious festival. I remember when I was a child going to a special event for the Church in Wales, one of the Bishop’s fell off the stage. He was fine but that is all I remember of that event. I can’t imagine any of us being known for speaking in multiple different languages that we have never spoken before. I heard once of a plumber who had been invited to a posh meal. It was decided that he should say grace. So, he stood up and listed a number of plumbing terms in Latin followed by Amen. Everyone was very impressed. 

The disciples had a reputation for following Jesus. They had been staying undercover for quite a while as they did not want to be seen or caught by any of the people who were against Jesus, after all they might have been caught as well. Suddenly, the promise that Jesus had given them, the promise that they would be helped by the Holy Spirit happened. They were now to be known for being people who spoke about Jesus. They became known as those who helped the gospel of Jesus to spread. They became known as confident preachers and not scared followers. They had the power of the Holy Spirit. They disturbed an important Jewish festival with the good news not only of Jesus but the good news that the Holy Spirit for whom they had been waiting had arrived. The Holy Spirit was, and is, available to us. 

The disciples were changed. I love the fact that when we read the book of Acts in the New Testament we read of a group of disciples who were scared ended up preaching the good news of Jesus to the very centre of the Roman empire, Rome itself. As they did this, with the power of the Holy Spirit they were able to reach an incredible number of people. Lives were changed, communities of people worshipping Jesus were developed and grew. 

It is great to think of the different significant events in the Bible that still effect us today. We are here because God created the world. We are here because God was born as a human child. We are here because this child, who was God Himself, grew and taught us how to live like Him. We are here because although He was crucified, it was for our sins and then He rose again. We are here because He ascended into heaven, where He continues to pray for us and we are here because God came amongst the disciples giving them power to preach at Pentecost. We are here because the Church was born and grew, and grew. I am not going to give a Church history lesson now, but just think what we are known for, and what defines us, is partly the fact that we believe.

This is amazing. If we go back in time, we know that the people in the Old Testament had been waiting for the one promised by God. The One who would change the world. At Christmas we celebrate the gift of Jesus, the one promised by God. God Himself. In the reading that we have heard this morning from the Acts of the Apostles we heard of Peter referring to the book of Joel in the Old Testament. As he did this he was explaining that the Holy Spirit who had been prophesied about by Joel was now amongst them. God had come amongst them again. This time in a slightly different way. God was with them through His Spirit. Every time they asked God for His help He would be with them.

In the words that Peter used from the prophet Joel, he was showing that not only was the awaited Spirit with them, but they could know that this was all ok. This wasn’t men causing a drunken disturbance. This was men, filled with the Spirit as prophesied. It was an amazing way of reasoning and explaining. You can almost imagine, a Homer Simpson moment of Doh ! It’s obvious, we should have known.

The arrival of the Holy Spirit was a great equaliser, because everyone would be able to experience Him. There was no division by age, gender or nationality. The Spirit was available to all who called on the name of God. All those who believed and it is the same for us today. What are you known for ? What identifies you ? Someone who believes, someone who prays, someone who calls on the name of God.

In the gospel reading (John 14:8-17) we heard of Jesus promising that the disciples would receive an advocate. This word is sometimes translated as comforter. It doesn’t matter as much as the meaning that God was going to come amongst the disciples and provide them with a strength and support that they had not experienced before. This was God abiding with them and in them. God amongst us, God within us. God there when we pray. God giving us power for our day to day walk with Him. This is amazing. What identifies you ? What are you known for ? Someone who knows and believes that they can turn to God always and He will be there to help and support them? Someone who believes that God is always with them? 

In the gospel reading we heard of Jesus telling the disciples that if they loved Him, they would keep His commandments. This can almost sound like a very nice sentiment, after all love can be absolutely lovely. I wonder though if Jesus was actually saying something that was a lot more blunt. If you love me, you will be changed to be more like me so that you will obviously keep my commandments because you will not be able to do anything else. Obviously these aren’t the words Jesus used but when you think of it, by truly loving Jesus we will want to be more like Him and so we will automatically try to keep His commandments. What are you known for ? What identifies you ? Someone who loves Jesus so much that they can’t fail but to keep His commandments and to love like He did. This is to love unconditionally.

There is a lot of ways that we can be known. There are lots of things that identify us. The main one is that like the disciples by the Holy Spirit living within us, we are to seek to be ready to be changed. AMEN.