Shocked into action.

When I was in school I was never a fan of P.E. or Games. My school report always said that I was polite and I tried hard, meaning sport was not my gift. I think I always found it a little bit too active. I would have much preferred a very gentle walk, with chance for a chat with my friends. I have never liked being surprised into doing something that I wasn’t expecting or being too active. There is a comedian who wakes people up at the early hours of the morning and interviews them. I really couldn’t cope with that. 

I heard of a theological college in the 1950’s where the principal at morning prayer would make some announcements. This doesn’t sound that bad but he would do it during the prayers by praying for people. So, he would pray for the students and then would mention one by name so his prayer would be something like – ‘ we pray today for Harry who is leaving us this morning.’ The problem was this would be the first that Harry had heard of it ! 

Talk about being shocked into action ! 

Our readings today are best described as being shocked into action !  The readings are a bit like a story I read of the composer Beethoven. Beethoven would play a trick on his audiences by playing a nice gentle movement of one of his pieces, and as people were getting comfortable he would then play a loud chord that woke everyone up.  Now that’s a shock !!

This is what the readings this morning are about. How will we choose and who will we choose ?

In our readings this morning we have been shaken up out of any danger of comfort or of thinking that following Jesus is a comfortable way to be. In the gospel reading (Luke 12:49-56) we heard of the divisions that following Jesus could cause. 

The gospel reading talks of divisions, people being against each other, families breaking up, people not seeing what is going on around them. It’s not comfortable reading or hearing. It sounds quite horrible. 

In order to understand it a bit better we need to put ourselves in the shoes of Jesus’ listeners. As Jesus preached he was in an occupied country with people who were being downtrodden. Jesus was pointing out to the people that they were not necessarily taking into account the difficulties of the oppression they were under from Rome, or the harsh regime imposed by Herod or the excessive rules laid down by their religious leaders. They were clueless in a way, they were so busy doing want they had always done they didn’t notice who was right before them. 

It seems like a strange passage, we aren’t used to Jesus being so harsh but what He was doing was trying to make people see what was going on around them and warn them that if they followed Him life was not going to be easy but it would be better and a choice had to be made. 

Certainly if you were reading a description of a new life and it said that you would be persecuted, the world would fall apart as you know it, you would not really be wanting to say yes please to it ! But the biggest point is that we are not alone. In the reading from Jeremiah (23:23-29) we were reminded that God is close to us. In Hebrews (11:29-12:2) we were reminded that we are part of something bigger and that something is the great cloud of witnesses. The people who have gone before us, the people for whom life wasn’t always easy but they knew following God was the best.

The way that we are to live is by looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of  our faith.

When it is hard to follow Jesus we are to keep our eyes fixed on Him, to turn to Him. Yes, it can be hard to be different to the people around us as we seek to be more like Jesus, and yes, our views can make us quite different from everyone around us. 

In the passage Jesus was pointing to the violence that would come to Him. He was disappointed that the people couldn’t see what was going to happen to Him. He was upset that people were not being brave enough to make the decision to follow Him, even though it could initially spell danger for them. This is the division that Jesus is talking of, His followers would suffer.  

For us as followers today the suffering is different. There are Christians who are persecuted for their faith today, people who live in danger because of their faith but they keep going because they have made a decision to follow Jesus. In our country we are able to talk about our faith without fear for our lives. This isn’t to say that we never suffer though.  For us we can still suffer as we are different to those around us because of our beliefs. Our biggest danger though is that we could get much too comfortable.

When we follow Jesus we will be rejecting some of the ways of the world but our gain will be so much more. This is what being a follower of Jesus is about, it is about love, it is about making a change in our lives and it is about a better way, noticing Jesus around us, maybe in the words we hear or say, the people we meet, the comfort we feel. Jesus is all around us, Jesus is with us and we need to remember that we can turn to Him, and keep our eyes fixed on Him. 

As followers of Jesus we are disciples trying to be like Him. In the reading from the letter to the Hebrews  we heard of the people who had taken risks for faith and once again been proven to have made the right decision. Today we have been reminded that we are not alone as we are surrounded by these people who part of the heavenly great cloud of witnesses.

May we be people who aren’t complacent in our faith, but shaken up as we seek to be closer to God as we fix our eyes on Him more and more. AMEN

 

Learning through generations

There is a well known story that I would like to begin with this morning. It’s the story of a man who fell off a cliff. After falling off the cliff the man managed to catch a branch as he fell. From this rather difficult position he shouted out, "Is anyone up there?" 

He heard a voice say, "I am here. I am the Lord. Do you believe me?"
"Yes, Lord, I believe. I really believe, but I can't hang on much longer."
"That's all right, if you really believe then you have nothing to worry about. I will save you. Just let go of the branch."
A moment of pause followed and the man said: "Is anyone else up there?"

To be honest this mornings readings can either seem like a mad attempt at trusting or an attempt to try God out, to check how faithful He is. 

I told you this story about faith because our readings this morning are all about faith. In the reading from Genesis (15:1-6) we heard of Abram almost negotiating with God. To be honest I think Abram should have thought this one through a bit more. There is God the almighty, the creator and Abram, not saying thank you to God for His promise of a great reward, asked, “well what is it then ?’ Talk about lack of patience. 

Abram decided that negotiating and perhaps pouting would be best as He reminded God that He didn’t have an heir and he deserved one. God’s response is for Abram to trust, to have faith. 

In our reading from the letter to the Hebrews  (Hebrews 11:1-3,8-16) we were reminded that faith is the evidence of things unseen. In the reading we heard about the faith of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac and Jacob. The faith is great but they were all people who had a relationship with God. It can feel a little like we are being given the names of some very faithful believers, heroes of our faith. I think the names are given both to encourage us, and also give an example of faith, which always trusts in God.

This could leave us with a question as followers of Jesus today. The question is, are we always prepared to have faith in God because of all that He has done for us. I have to be honest I have questions for  God at times, there are times when I say to God, ‘Lord I really trust you and I have faith, but just in case …. ‘

Faith is what we are about, it is who we are. Our response to God is to thank Him for all that He has done. It’s not about testing God, will He pull through for me ? Will things turn out the way that I want them to ? It’s about knowing a peace that even in the midst of confusion, God is with us. 

The world at the moment is pretty confusing and we could sometimes wonder what is going on and struggle to trust that God is in control. But, God who came amongst us, God who died for us and rose again, God who made sure that Abraham and Sarah a couple over 100 years old could have a child that began a whole nation,  is still there. The problems are that we are humans and we sometimes mess up. 

Our gospel reading this morning (Luke 12:32-40) reminded us that God will turn up unexpectedly like a master whose staff wait for him. I love the fact that in the illustration Jesus used, the master didn’t turn up in the middle of the night expecting to be waited on hand and foot but served his servants with a meal! 

We can take that to remind us that God comes amongst us not to surprise and scare but to love and support.

I am really happy to have faith in God who does this, faith in God who has proven time and time again in the lives of so many people that He is worth trusting in. 

This is what we hear in the Bible as we read about the people who have gone before us.  We are like them, we share their heritage, a heritage that trusts God.  We are part of their family. 

This means that in our family we can claim people who have trusted God, people who have doubted God, people who have done really bad things and people who have done amazing things. It would be a fun thing to do sometime, to think of our favourite or less favourite people from the Bible and think, ‘hmm’, they are in my family – the family of God !!

In the Rees family my sister-in-law worked very hard on building the family tree. This was certainly an interesting exercise and when Ian and I were getting married I decided that I should look at my own family background as well.  I discovered that I am a third cousin of Tom Jones …. Tom Jones who owned a fairground in Weston- Super-Mare, (not the singer!), I had a great, great uncle who had been an international footballer and another great, great uncle whose sporting prowess was discovered on a trophy that we found. A trophy for first prize in donkey racing in Weston !

Ummm… maybe not all of our family backgrounds are things to be proud of. 

We know that God is great, we know that in the family of faith God has provided us with promises that do not fail and they are a lot better than donkey riding in Weston, with God incredible things can and do happen.

This is a lesson from history, from our heritage that asks us how easy we find it to trust God, when to trust Him doesn’t seem just potentially scary but to be honest just seems to be illogical. It’s hard to always trust and it is at times like this, that we can feel really uncomfortable as we realise that we have to trust God and let Him take over, it’s not easy to do, but the results of doing this can be amazing. 

So, remembering who we are as the children of God may we be ready to be more like Him and do something amazing for Him today and always. This is because we can both know and trust that God is our help, always there for us and always with us.