Chasing what matters most

 I want to do things a bit differently this morning. I am going to read out some background detail on two people, and I want to get you thinking of which person you would rather be.

One person is very rich, with lovely clothes, as much food as they want and a fantastic house.

One person is very poor, without many clothes, begging for food with no home. 

Ok, I can imagine where you would be automatically thinking… Let me try it another way.

After they died the poor person went to heaven. The rich person did not… Of course, this is all based on this mornings gospel reading (Luke 16:19-31). 

We all have the chance to follow Jesus, but here, the poor man put his spiritual health above his material wealth. The rich man put his material wealth above his spiritual health. The answers seem quite easy to us. We know the way the parable of the rich man and Lazarus ends. 

We may secretly want to have the earthly life of the rich man and the eternity of the poor man!

Moving on to the reading from the 1st letter to Timothy we come across ways to behave and the difficulties of chasing after the wrong thing. I read last week that Nelson Rockefeller, who was one of the richest men of his time, when asked how much more money he would need to live comfortably replied, ‘A little more than I get.’ It sounds absurd to us that one of the richest people of his time felt he needed more money.

It does show a picture of why the love of money is seen as the root of all evil. It is because when we chase after something, when we love it to such an extent that it is the main thing, we are then left with a distortion.

When we hear about celebrities doing something that we see as unthinkable and wrong I often wonder if their world has become so distorted that things that are wrong become as normal, or even acceptable. The love of the wrong things can build up to such an extent that people are almost closeted in a world of their own making. 

I read a really good way of dealing with this type of behaviour by Tom Wright, the former Bishop of Durham. He wrote about the ways that we can make sure that we stay on track with the good things, the spiritual things. 

It was to imagine an animal that really scares you. Something you are uncomfortable with. Maybe a spider, maybe a snake, or even a hippopotamus. We will want to run away from the frightening creature and definitely not pursue it. Now think of something or someone you love. When this item or person turns up unexpectedly you will chase after it or them.

In this reading that could mean running away from riches, a greedy lifestyle and all that entails. In the same way we would chase after someone or something we love, we are to chase after justice, godliness, faith, love, patience and gentleness. Tom Wright then made the point that these virtues do not come about in a person by any other means than a person chasing after them and choosing to live a life where these are most important. 

It is all about our priorities. Who we would like to be happens by what we pursue. If we pursue goodness then we will, through the help of God be good. This is amazing.

These verses alone could almost be seen as a manual for life. When we chase after the right things, when we seek to be more like God, when we make sure that we continually build our relationship with God through prayer and Bible reading and fellowship, we are changed. Things will not be distorted.

Back to our gospel reading. I always used to think that the rich man was really bad and deliberately ignored poor Lazarus. Back to the distortion idea. Perhaps the rich man was so focussed on money and on himself that he couldn’t understand that there was more in the world than his life and money.

Lazarus is the only person who is given a name in any of Jesus’ parables. This is really helpful for us in understanding the parable. This is because the name Lazarus means ‘the one who God helps’. Because of Jesus naming the man perhaps the people hearing the parable wondered how God was going to help Lazarus. They may even have thought what an unfortunate name. 

God did help Lazarus. He was the one who had not lived a life distorted by riches. Or, let’s put it another way, distorted by things that would take him away from God. 

Back to my who do you want to be questions. You can choose between the person who had lost sight of God by chasing after the wrong things or the person who has made sure that they have chased after good things. 

We are ok, because we can constantly be reminded to check what is first in our lives. How are we living ? What is most important for us ?

A large part of following Jesus does involve giving to others. It does mean caring for others, it does mean showing concern. 

I read something by a man called Philip Yancey who wrote in his book, ‘The Jesus I Never knew’, that, ‘For the first few centuries, at least, Christians literally took Christ's command to receive strangers, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, visit the imprisoned, until the triumph of the Emperor Constantine, who legalised the faith and established an official church, an imperial church. From then on, the church tended to spiritualise poverty and leave welfare to the emperor. Over time, the church itself became part of the establishment, more concerned about wealth than faith.’

This is another uncomfortable thought. It may not be completely fair everywhere, but it is a good reminder of what is our main concern? How do and can we help others? Who do we want to be like ? Imagine if our qualities were just like those of Jesus, what a great way to be. 

Now 

“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.”
(Jude 1:24-25.)

Unheard music, unseen Grace

 I have often had the privilege of singing in a choir. I remember being in one church where I was asked to join a group singing some music for Holy Week. We practised this one piece a lot and I thought we sounded quite good. For some reason we never performed it! We enjoyed practising, and I can’t remember why but it never got sung past the practice. Hopefully, it wasn’t a reflection on our singing, but I do have to wonder ….

 

Part of the music included the words that we heard in our Gospel reading this morning, “God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved.” Amazing words, words that remind us straight away of what happened on the cross as Jesus died. 

 

In the gospel reading we heard of Jesus being lifted up on the cross and a link is made with the reading from Numbers (21:4-9). The reading from Numbers might seem a strange reading. The Israelites moaned and God responded by sending poisonous snakes to bite them ? It doesn’t sound right to us.

 

However, when we look into this passage a bit further we can see that God had a remedy to this. He told Moses to make a serpent and put it on a pole. Moses made a bronze serpent and when people looked at it, and had faith they were healed.  

 

The people needed to have faith in God. He had done so much for them but they moaned and grumbled. The fact that the people God saved from a horrible lifestyle of slavery then complained about food always makes me both shocked and comforted. Those two words don’t really go together. 

 

The shock is that they were so ungrateful they missed the point. God had rescued them and it would all work out in the end. The difficulty was that to get there they might suffer. This is where I find comfort. God helped the people and He helps us. As we follow Him, even when things might seem difficult and unfair we know that He won’t let us down. 

 

In the gospel reading John (3:13-17) we are reminded of the bronze serpent. The serpent represented healing and freedom if you had the faith to trust in God. To look at the serpent meant that you were asking for healing. As often happens with objects meant to help us the bronze serpent became an item of idolatry. 

 

In the same way that the serpent was lifted up and people had the choice to ask for healing or not, so when we think of Jesus being lifted up on the cross we can ask the same question. When you think of it like that it seems quite brutal. People were healed from the effects of a poisonous snake bite iff they looked at the serpent, and had the faith in God that He could heal them. 

 

When we look at Jesus on the cross we are not magically transported into a relationship with God where we are healed and forgiven. We need to have faith, to believe and then when we ask God  for forgiveness, It is given.

 

The passage from the gospel according to John contained one of the most famous verses in the Bible. John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

 

The verse is really well known because it explains exactly what God has done for us. We just need to accept it, we can believe, be healed and be changed so we are more like Him.

 

When I looked at the reading from the letter to the Philippians (2:6-11) I was very happy. It is a passage that I know well and to be honest this morning has brought two very well known passages with this as well as the gospel reading. 

 

The reading from Philippians may have been the first creed or statement of belief. The people were working out who Jesus was and this section may even have been known as a popular hymn. We definitely know it as a popular hymn because we may think of the hymn, “At the name of Jesus every knee shall bow.”

 

The passage reminds us that Jesus could have had all the status and power in the world that He wanted, but He humbled Himself. It says He emptied Himself. He became like a servant, and was taken to death. It was all for us.

 

It is a really challenging thought. God became as nothing for us, so that we could know Him, so that we could turn to Him and be healed.

 

It goes against all ideas of power that we might have. All ideas of power that are portrayed in the media.

 

Recently in the news we have seen a lot of political changes. On the radio I have heard of person after person condemning other people.We have heard of people burning down hotels with asylum seekers in. There have been protests. In Ukraine war continues. In Gaza people are starving. 

 

There are countless other situations across the world where people’s search for power has ended up with them condemning others. The exact opposite of why Jesus came into the world, not to condemn but to save. 

 

It is hard to see and hear the news, it feels as if power and influence is taking control with disastrous effects. I can’t help thinking that when we think of God coming into our world we are looking at something quite different. God, who had all the power became as nothing for us. 

 

It is interesting that for us, the most powerful vision we can have is of God suffering on the cross for us. He was so powerful that He could step aside and show even more power and humility by becoming as nothing for us,

 

I will never know why the music I practised wasn’t sung. I pray that I will always remember God who became nothing for us. I pray that we will know and worship Jesus on the cross. That, as we think of this, we will know the best reason to believe - that we will know that the greatest power of all was in Him dying for us and rising again. I also pray that we will remember that the best thing we can do is to believe and have faith.  May this be what we are known for. AMEN

 

Difficult or worth it …?

 A former prime minister Herbert Asquith once spent a weekend at the Waddesdon estate of the 19th-century Rothschild family. One day, as Asquith was being waited on at teatime by the butler, the following conversation ensued:

"Tea, coffee, or a peach from off the wall, sir?" 

"Tea, please," answered Asquith. 

"China, India, or Ceylon, sir?" asked the butler. 

"China, please." 

"Lemon, milk, or cream, sir?" 

"Milk, please," replied Asquith. 

"Jersey, Hereford, or Shorthorn, sir?" asked the butler.

Life is full of choices and in our readings today we have heard about choices, and not just about choices but about the implications of those choices. In the reading from Deuteronomy (30:15-20) we heard the choice of life and prosperity or death and adversity. It isn’t really a difficult choice to make or so it would seem. 

Life and prosperity is a choice to follow God and be more like Him, knowing that given a choice the most obvious way to go is to follow. 

This is a good choice and it all makes perfect sense until you think of the gospel reading (Luke 14:25-33). In this reading Jesus explained what being a true follower would mean. In the reading we heard that Jesus is to come first and also that in difficult situations we are to keep following Him. 

Following Jesus is a risk at times it isn’t always easy to keep trusting when everything around is falling apart but it is a risk worth taking, We have chosen life and prosperity. This doesn’t mean that we will all be rich or that life will always be perfect but it does mean that we are choosing life following our creator and what better way can there be than that. 

Being a disciple reminds me a bit of my sporting career.

My sporting career never really took off – it may have been to do with my lack of desire to make things work, or maybe it was because whenever things got difficult I gave up.

I gave up ice skating – someone hit me with the blade of their skate it hurt. I gave up the trampoline because it hurt when I landed. I gave up swimming because it was cold getting changed in the winter and I gave up gymnastics because I was sacred of heights. 

Now clearly I didn’t have the determination or ability to sacrifice other things so that I could be committed to what I was trying to do. 

I needed to sacrifice my home comforts in order to succeed. I didn’t want to, the choice was not worth it. 

In our life as disciples of Christ sometimes it may feel easier for us if we just gave up. It is not  like that though.

Being a disciple involves sacrifice. It involves all of us. Jesus did not want a large number of “little bit” disciples who had a “little bit” of prayer, a “little bit” of commitment, a “little bit” of dedication, a “little bit” of love. He wants all of us, basically, we need to put Jesus first, we need to seek to be ever more like Him, and by doing that to literally be, Jesus in the World today.

We can talk about the needs of the world, we can pray for a better way in the World, we need to do more than this though. We need to be in the World, showing the way to Jesus.  We need to be prepared and ready to do what Jesus would do.  We need to stand up against what is wrong, and to seek to make a change. In our lives we need to sacrifice all that stops us from getting closer to God and to put Him first.  This is dedication, this is our call.

It isn’t easy but we have each other for support and that is so important. We are a family, the family of God and as that family we are to support each other and help each other. 

You may have heard of a lady called Frances Havergal. She was a Christian all her life, but at age 36 she rededicated her life to Christ. Soon after this she gathered together a small group of friends, some of whom were not Christiansand others were nominally Christian. She spent five days with them and in these five days she prayed for all her friends and told them about the difference God had made in her life. Through her encouragement and prayer by the end of the five days each of the friends had dedicated their lives to Jesus. She wrote the hymn “Take my life and let it be consecrated Lord to thee” after this experience.

This is what we do as disciples, we put Jesus first, we seek to be ever more like Him and we encourage each other and pray for one another. 

This is part of the choice that is worth making - a choice to follow Jesus no matter what happens to us and around us, knowing that He is always there loving us. 

St.Ignatius, was a man who lived in the fifteenth century, whose parents wanted him to be a priest, he was actually more interested in women, fighting, and fashionable clothing.  After an accident he started to dream that Jesus was talking to Him, and he decided that to be a soldier for Christ, a follower, was much more glamorous than his previous wild living, and he decided that whilst it was a harder road to be a disciple it was a road worth travelling. He founded the Jesuit order of monks. As well as this his thoughts on prayer still encourage people today in their prayer life. 

He wrote a prayer about following Jesus, about what it means to make that choice for God by offering our lives to Him a prayer with which I would like to finish.  Let us pray:-

Lord, teach me to be generous.

Teach me to serve as you deserve;

To give and not to count the cost,

To fight and not to heed the wounds,

To toil and not to seek for rest,

To labour and not to ask for any reward

Save that of knowing that I do your holy will. AMEN