Sermons
Sunday 27 November 2011
Readings: Isaiah 64: 1-9 Mark 13:24-37
Sermon
So, it’s Advent.
The weather is warming, the beaches are getting fuller and the Pohutukawa are flowering.
The decorations are up in shops and out on the streets. We have even started having Santa Parades.
It is the beginning of a time of celebration that will last for the next month, with all the craziness that this extended Christmas season brings to Kiwi society.
In that context, I didn’t really want to have readings like we have heard today.
Continuing to sin
Becoming like one who is unclean, our righteous acts like filthy rags
Of God’s face being hidden, of wasting away because of our sins….
The sun darkened, stars falling from the sky
Be on guard, be alert, Watch!
I wanted to start hearing those familiar stories about Elizabeth and Mary and Joseph, about dreams and angels and shepherds and wise men, about a census and a journey on a donkey, about a Messiah and hallelujahs…
But that is one of the quirks of the Lectionary readings that lead us through the rhythms and themes of the church year… we don’t just get to read our favourite passages or read on our favourite themes
And here we are hearing words of pain, words of fear, words of feeling separated from God…. Themes in these readings that are a long way from the pretty animated Christmas display I saw in Smith and Caughey’s shop window on Friday night!
But what we do have in our readings are themes of people longing to communicate with God, and something of God’s communications with people – and those are definitely Advent and Christmas themes!
Chapter 13 in Mark’s Gospel is often called The Little Apocalypse, based on its similarity to the Great Apocalypse of the Revelation of John.
Biblical Apocalyptic literature usually comes out of difficult times, and typically proclaims a message of hope in coded language not understandable except by insiders and therefore unlikely to draw the ire of hostile authorities. It usually reflects a strong dualism –– good against evil. It presents dramatic visions full of symbols –– numbers, colors, and animals –– codes that must be explained or interpreted. It sees time, not as cyclic (as the Greeks thought of time), but as a linear movement toward God's final judgment.
At the time of the writing of this Gospel, perhaps 55AD, Christians were experiencing persecution. Chapter 13 presents Jesus' promise that time is moving toward the coming of the Son of Man, who will gather all the people together and make all things right.
In speaking of his return, Jesus is using the language of contemporary expectation of the Messiah’s coming, with images of destruction and liberation, of revolution, of wonderful, powerful Divine intervention and activity within the context of daily living….
Daily living that consisted, of course, of living under the military occupation of the Romans….
In speaking of his return, Jesus was reinforcing the traditional expectations of Messianic redemption, but clearly placing it in the future, saying that it wasn’t for now – it would remain a future hope, a sustaining dream for the people of God!
And so it is for us – living, like his disciples, in the reality of Jesus presence – Emmanuel, God with us. Yet also living with a future hope, a sustaining dream…
And to understand the strength of that dream, it is good to turn back to the Old Testament, to a passage such as this one from Isaiah 64….
This portion of Isaiah was probably written 530 – 510BC – after the conquest of both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah; after the Exile of the population to Babylon, and just after the Exile’s return to the Promised Land. These later chapters of Isaiah speak of despair; as they berate the people for their sin, for worshipping other gods. But they also speak of the hope that God will soon restore Jerusalem to its former glory and make a new home for all peoples.
Now the people’s collective memory was good – sustained and nurtured by tradition and religious festivals – for them, the days of King David and Solomon, the golden era of Jewish history some 450 years earlier were still alive – memories that were fresher and stronger than any of our recollections of the events of 1560!
And so Isaiah verbalizes what may have been a common plea to God: “God, why don’t you tear the sky open and come down?”
This prayer of Isaiah’s is the anguished cry of a desperate people. The time is long gone for polite prayers, “God make yourself known to us in the stillness of our hearts.” Times are desperate – in their return from exile they find their country is in ruins. They are homeless, persecuted, fatigued, feeling totally inadequate for the rebuilding job before them, and they’re surrounded by people who say, “So where’s this God of yours now?”
And they respond, “God, why don’t you tear the sky open and come down?”
It’s easy for us to forget that the people of the Bible were so often frustrated by God’s apparent lack of activity. We can think of the people of the Bible as people whose faith knew no bounds, whose experience of God was close and uninterrupted. But the Bible is full of prayers like this, from early in the Genesis stories all the way to Jesus on the cross, crying “My God, why have you abandoned me?” The experience of God’s apparent absence is a frequent one, and those who tell you that you’re not allowed to express any doubt or frustration in God obviously haven’t been reading the same Bible.
It is a normal and sometimes frequent experience to find ourselves longing, even pleading for God to break into our world in a dramatic way and do something extraordinary to solve our situation and prove all the doubters wrong, only to be frustrated in our wish and to find God strangely silent and unobtrusive.
Now Isaiah is perhaps one of the biblical characters that most contributed to our idea of the readily accessible God. Early in the book we read of Isaiah’s dramatic experience of God calling him to be a prophet. In a dramatic visionary experience, he finds himself in the throne room of heaven being directly addressed by God and manhandled by angels and cherubim and seraphim.
But that was a long time ago. Isaiah, now a much older man, is returning with the exiles and as desperate as anyone for God to do something extraordinary, something dramatic and earth shattering. “Why don’t you tear the sky open and come down? Shake the mountains and make the nations tremble with fear.”
When ever we are tempted to feel inadequate about the scarcity of miraculous experience of God in or lives, we’d do well to remember Isaiah crying out in frustration at the ambiguous and unconvincing nature of God’s actions, and know we are in good company.
Whether we like it or not, we would also do well to remember that God is not into saturation self-publicity campaigns, as our political parties have been over the past few weeks!
But in this passage there are some incredible lessons for us…
We start by being reminded of what we know and of what we don’t know:
We do know that God isn’t floating around in the heavens, sitting in the sky waiting to come down and act…. Our telescopes and satellites and space exploration have proven that God’s reality differs from that.
But we also know that God is, and that God has continued to be active. We don’t need to scratch too deeply in our collective memories to be able to hear experiences of God’s activity.
We don’t know exactly where God is or how God tears open the sky and comes down, but we do know that this vivid description relates back to the people’s understanding of how God has acted in the past – “you came down….”
This radical action of ‘rending the heavens’ is therefore not apocalyptic and destructive as it is a repeated event.
There is the reminder that this is no pet god that we worship, who can be summoned on demand – ‘For when you did awesome things we did not expect…’ God acts when and how God choses!
Indeed it is God who initiates divine activity, it is God who initiates Mission. There is an understanding in the church that mission is what we do for God… yet there is a growing recognition that mission is what God is already doing in the world, and we need to look out to find that activity and join in with it!
And in this activity of God is testimony to God’s uniqueness – ‘there is no other god who acts on behalf of those who wait for him’
And we know that God is loyal to those who do right and remember God’s ways.
This hints at God’s relational nature which is reinforced by the reality of God being angry at the continuation of sin. If humanity were not significant, then God wouldn’t become angry… God wouldn’t care.
But God does care – even when the context of this activity of God is the sinfulness that makes us unclean, that shrivels us, that sweeps us away, uncontrolled….
How gracious, how loving, how determined the God that reaches from heaven to act on behalf of us - all those who don’t deserve it, and all who do… for we are all God’s people!
Yet why is this caring God so unwilling to disrupt the laws of the universe and more frequently tear the sky open and come down? Why does God whisper in the shadows, and wait to see if anyone’s listening, instead of writing a message in giant letters across the sky? Don’t we long for God to do that sort of thing so that all the people who’ve given us that quizzical look about our expressions of faith will say, “O Wow, you were right all the time”?
I don’t know. Maybe because Christ is not interested in bludgeoning us into a response. Maybe because the sort of response Christ most values is the uncoerced “Yes” of the person who is willing to exercise some trust and seek him out, rather than the reticent “O.K.” of the person who needs a piano dropped on them before they ever think to look up.
Maybe too because God is not willing to be some kind of trained house pet for us, who turns on the miracles on demand to satisfy our desire for everything to be easy and in your face. Maybe Christ wants to retain some mystery, some secrets, to see if people are serious about the relationship before inviting you into the holy of holies.
As we begin this season of hope and expectation, we need to keep that in mind - that the realisation of our hopes will come in God’s way, and not usually in the overstated intervention we long for where any fool could say “Yep, that’s God all right.” And therefore the legitimate expectation we have that God will be active in our lives, needs to lead us to prayer and to preparation, so that when Christ comes we won’t be oblivious to it and just go on our mindless way. God will probably not make the mountains shake and the nations tremble, but the flutter of angel’s wings will be heard by those who listen.
When Christ comes, some people see nothing more than a helpless baby born to a refugee woman sheltering in a cow shed.
Some of you will take the time to see what’s really going on.
Sermon 20/11/2011 Matthew 25: 31-46
I have really struggled with how to preach this sermon.
Struggled because I honestly don’t know how to be heard in what I have to say.
I have questioned my preaching role.
You see, you may tell me I preach a good sermon, -or you may not –I realise it goes both ways, but whatever, the reality I know is that most of us will, after listening to this sermon, go back to our nice houses and more than that, go back to ignoring the prisoner, the poor, and the immigrants; back to our assumptions that status and power is good, that serving is below us and that we deserve what we have, if not more.
And on Christ the King Sunday, if no other time in the church year, I need to tell you that that is all rubbish –I would use a stronger word if I dared.
For Christ to be king, we need to comprehend that his kingship is utterly different from anything we have previously comprehended. He offers a servant king model.
-A model of giving up one’s life for others.
The idea of giving up anything, let alone our lives, is ever so slightly abhorrent to us!
We don’t want to give up our holiday, let alone our life.
So do we actually get that Christians are actually the ones who choose to follow this guy Jesus, who stood accused. Stood in the dock and was sentenced to death.
We can try to give him a make-over –and I think too many of us do that in our heads… but he is still the man who did not conform to the people’s expectations –who challenged people to their core.
We might worship a preferred image of this man, but Jesus continues to stand apart, saying “As much as you did it for the least of these, you did it for me”
They are startling words that continue to challenge us to the core.
Look at who the sheep are.
Look at who the goats are.
The sheep fed the hungry, gave drinks to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger into their home, looked after the sick, and visited the prisoner.
And the goats didn’t.
I am not your judge, but this reading invites us to look at ourselves.
Our lives may be neatly distanced from these “least of these”.
But is that good enough?
Have we looked hard enough for the ones who need us to care for them?
Have we looked the other way when children in our community have been abused?
Have we been blinded to their need by our assumptions?
Do we too easily forget the people we do not have to see?
Perhaps we need to look more carefully, with different eyes to find where Jesus is waiting to be served.
And look at the responses of the people when Jesus separates them –there is a huge sense of surprise.
It is not what any of them expect.
Surprise perhaps at it not being what we believe that Jesus was interested in, but what we do, and how we do it.
Surprise at who are the goats and who are the sheep.
Both those judged righteous and those judged as unrighteous, respond with surprise.
Both groups ask –when did we see you?
And part of me reads this about the righteous and loves them for it –for this celebration of the humility of the truly righteous person. They are not the self-righteous, who are quick to tell you what good deeds they have done –for they are not even aware that the good they have been in the lives of others, has been done to Jesus.
Their actions had not been notches on a belt or ticks in a box in which they then classified themselves as righteous. It was simply acts of love and compassion for those who were in need.
But part of me is also saddened by their surprise –because perhaps its is also speaking of a failure to recognise Jesus in the needy.
I know it can be really difficult to see Jesus in the least of these; but it can also be transformational. Because when we do catch a glimpse of the holy in the ordinary, it changes things. We catch a glimpse on the incarnation –God with us.
How much of our lives are spent as if God is not incarnate?
That God is not present.
Now at this point I get worried –concerned that some of you will give me a pious response about always knowing the presence of God… when I think this reading is actually suggesting otherwise.
-That what we might think of as God’s presence, is only a small part of the picture.
-That there is another whole area of Jesus to be met in serving the least of these.
You see, I know that I have seen thirsty people and not given them a drink.
I know I have seen hungry people and not given them food.
I know that I have seen strangers and not invited them to my home.
I know that I have seen those in need of clothes and not given them.
I know that I have seen the sick and I have not nursed them
I know that I have seen prisoners and I have not visited them.
I only have to turn on the news, or walk down a Glen Innes street and I see these people.
I cannot pretend that I do not.
And I have left them where I saw them.
And my guess is that I am not so very different from you.
And perhaps if you are feeling distant from Jesus this passage is telling us that Christ may be found among the poor and the lonely and the sick and those in prison –those who have done awful things, and those who are thirsty. Jesus is to be found in the midst of those we tend to neglect and scorn and despise.
What if we reached out to them? –perhaps we would find the hand of Jesus.
What a privilege that would be.
Imagine compassion and love being the basis for all we do
–I mean toward others, -no, more specifically, to the least of these.
To those we really think of as the least. The lessers.
Who are they in your mind?
Who do we not want to consider?
Who don’t we think deserves anything?
Whose opinion do we scoff at?
The reality of both the sheep and the goats is that they fail to see the way the sacred penetrates the ordinary (and the less than ordinary) –how they are interwoven.
We touch others lives day by day –or we don’t.
And we don’t know the consequences of our actions or our inactions.
An arsonist burnt a local school.
What might I have done differently that may have made a difference?
A small child is dead in Orakei.
What might I have done differently that may have made a difference?
A group of squatters near the city are cold at night.
What might I have done differently that may have made a difference?
A row of hungry people visited a food bank this week.
What might I have done differently that may have made a difference?
Jesus is most interested in how we live our lives.
His identification with the least of society is so strong that what we do for them, we do for him. That is what counts for Jesus.
Being a Christian –following Jesus- is not primarily about words to agree to, it is about allowing God to open our hearts and our eyes in awareness and respond with compassion.
Partly, this says to me that I must slow down enough to see the needs.
To slow my pace so my eyes and heart have time to register what is there before me.
We are heading into what is often called the silly season,
and perhaps now is the best time of all to say, slow down, give yourself time to see what God is wanting you to see, time to let yourself feel compassion and so respond.
And, you know, we might not really get it; we might not see Jesus in these people. But we go ahead and serve them anyway.
Because that’s how it is in our family, says Jesus.
In our family, we look after the least of these.
Whether or not you really grasp the whole divinity interwoven with the ordinary thing,
you still do it, you serve the least,
because that’s what we do in our family.
And perhaps as we continue to live that way, we might grasp something of that interwoven-ness -we might see Jesus in the people we would otherwise look down at –or not look at, at all.
That would transform our world.
I have watched my mum this week with delight, putting together a fairy costume for a little girl whose mum or dad is in jail –there has been no limit to her time or energy that she has given this gift she has put as much love into this gift as she would a gift for her precious wee grand boys. And I have loved my mum all the more for it –for that is what this text is all about. I love that the angel tree is an invitation to pray for a particular person who is all too often invisible in our society. And as we pray, perhaps we will be challenged in our thinking. Perhaps we will see Jesus in a new way, in the ostracised and hurting and judged.
It is too easy to not see Jesus in the least of our society.
We want to see Jesus high and lifted up.
But for now, Jesus has chosen it to be otherwise. If we want to see Jesus, we need to open our eyes and our hearts to where we least expect it. So be it, Amen.
Sunday 13 November 2011
Matthew 25:14-30
Judges 4: 1-7
Recently Queen Elisabeth visited Australia and a comment by the media at one of the functions was about all the women in leadership – Queen, PM, Governor-General, Queensland state premier (Anna Bligh?)
Women in leadership still unusual to that extent, but normalizing?!
So how many women in leadership can you identify in the Bible?
We see the figure of Sarah in the background of Abraham. Behind Moses we sense the shadow of his charismatic sister Miriam. Deborah emerges because of her sheer importance in most difficult times for the faithful of Israel. Lovely, formidable Ruth appears and enchants us; (although she has been recorded, I suspect, because she was an ancestor of King David.) The formidable Esther forces herself on to the stage by saving the Jewish people from religious persecution.
Faithful Elizabeth is there as the mother of John the Baptist. Mary in her acceptance of God’s strange purposes and she is honoured as the mother of our Lord. Mary Magdalene stands out as a close friend of Jesus. A few women, like Lydia, incidentally appear in the writings of St Paul.
Not a huge list is it….
So what about Deborah – how normal was it for her to be in that role?
Not very… but in spite of the low numbers, God didn’t seem to mind having women in leadership…
This is a period of Hebrew history from about 1210 BC when the people entered Canaan through to about 1030 when Saul was crowned king by the last of the judges, Samuel. Through this period there was no centralised government. The twelve clans were independent yet sometimes banded together for military defence, and at times for reprisals. Many enclaves of non-Jews. Frequent uprisings. Incursions by foreign raiding parties. Times when a Caananite King would gather support and reconquer some Jewish territory. Sometimes most of the Israelites would be subjugated.
Increasingly people wandered from their worship of Yahweh and embraced the old idols of the land. From time to time an important figure with the Spirit of God in them would come to the fore, to call the tribes back to the faith. These figures were called judges; a kind of mix between prophet, warrior, and chief justice. A leader in battle and a ruler in peace. In a most unsettled period Deborah became the fourth judge of Israel.
Last week Nikki preached on taking those first steps into the Jordan River in faith…
That image spoke quite strongly to some of you…
Today comes more encouragement to take steps , even if those steps involve doing something new …
So Deborah – surprisingly for us – appears and takes on role of Judge.
In face of oppression, she calls Barak and commissions him to lead a combined force into battle…and he says “No, not unless you come with me!”
A strange decision – taken out of fear? Or is it an affirmation of Deborah’s leadership? Was her presence to be seen as representative of the presence of God?
Whatever the reason, because of this apparently small decision by Barak, Deborah has risen to prominence in our faith history, taking on a leadership role which would usher in a period of 40 years of peace.
And she did so by being prepared to do something radically different in order to follow God’s call.
I was at a Presytery meeting yesterday – that is the regional gathering for the PC.
Earlier this year several Presbyteries amalgamated, so we changed from being part of the Auckland Presbytery = old Auckland and Waitakere cities – to being part of the Northern Presb – from Te Kauwhata to Kaitaia.
This has therefore been a year of change, of transition, of discovering what works and what needs to be changed.
So there was quite a lot of discussion on change, on doing things differently, and someone described it like this:
There are two sorts of change an organisation or a community or even a nation will face.
One is technical change – which we can address and respond to. These are changes we know how to make, where the answers and the processes are clear.
The second is adaptive change – which is harder to address because we don’t know the answers, because the steps to change are not clear or not fully understood.
As a Presbytery we are facing issues of adaptive change, and we are dealing with them by feeling our way ahead cautiously in some areas; and in other areas by trial and error; by innovation.
For example, a link was drawn with the current economic situation in Europe which is issues of adaptive change… and governments are treating the issues as technical change, but are discovering that the traditional answers and responses are not working to solve the crisis… they are having to look for new solutions… and they don’t always know what they will be.
The situation is the same for us as a congregation – we are facing change. Some changes are forced upon us by society, by the economy…. By outside influences.
And some changes we initiate from within…
And we, also, discover that change is needed: sometimes we don’t quite know what or how and we will have to discover it along the way…
Was anyone here at the event at Kohi School on Friday night?
I wasn’t, but I could hear it well from the manse! It got a mention at Presbytery as well, by a man who went along with his grandchildren. He was impressed with it as an innovative way of continuing to build community and relationship and belonging. It was a movie, outside on a big screen with a big sound system… plus some bbq sausages and glow sticks thrown in.
It drew, he thought, 300+ to the night, and as a business man made him reflect that in commerce, if a new product is launched, then it is normal to drop an older or lower performing product line.
In the church, he said, we have a tendency to keep doing some things because we have always done it – but that doesn’t have to be the case.
Indeed the implication is that we need to regularly review our activities and programmes to see if they are adequately addressing the issues of change that we are faced with.
We exist as a congregation, as a part of Christ’s church, in a context that is different from what it was two generations ago;
Different from one generation ago;
Different from a decade ago
Different even from a few years ago…
Within the congregation, for example, we find that our attendance patterns are different.
If you come to church every Sunday, you are becoming an unusual breed of Christian, as so many of you have other commitments to fit in. Nikki and I have come to think of someone attending church once a month as a regular attender. It will be interesting to see if this is borne out in the results from the Church Life Survey those of you who were here last week filled in!
Within the congregation we find that our giving patterns and our giving methods and our giving priorities have changed… and that is not just our giving of money, but also the giving of our time and our energy and our expertise.
Within our society, people’s perception of faith has changed, partly as we have become a more openly multicultural society, and out of that, a multi-faith society.
But more than that – the way into faith, the Christian faith, has changed.
It used to be that people would make a faith commitment or a faith discovery, and as a result, they would join a congregation and establish relationships and networks, and would begin to feel they belonged there.
In fact, research indicates that the reality is that the order of those two has been reversed…. Many church growth, evangelism and mission specialists would argue that people today are primarily looking for a place to belong to. They are looking for significant relationships and for community… and that is something that the church offers – or should offer if it is following in the footsteps of Christ.
It is only after that, when people are developing meaningful relationships and a sense of Belonging, that they feel able to explore the Christian faith, to question it, to engage with it, and to come at some time, to a point of Belief, and the consequential growing in faith and understanding, Becoming disciples, Christ-followers..
It is out of this understanding of the current reality that those three words have been placed on the cover of Presbyts for some time now
Belonging – Believing – Becoming
They are there as a reminder of this process.
They are there as a challenge for us to meet…
To be a welcoming congregation where people can come to and find a place and a people to Belong to.
That we can then be a community where faith is shared and Belief is found out of learning together and listening to the experiences of others.
And that, together, we are a community of people engaging in that lifelong pilgrimage of Becoming - becoming the people, the Christ-followers and imitators we are called to be.
I do want to pick up also a theme within the reading the parable of the talents.
We are told in 24:3 that “As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. ‘Tell us’, the said, ‘when will this (destruction of the temple buildings) happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and the end of the age?”
25:1 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like….
25:14 “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey…”
I don’t think that it has stood out as strongly for me before, the condemnation of the man who did… nothing – worse than nothing – he didn’t even put the money in the bank to earn a basic level of interest
Why? Fear of failure, and the consequences. Fear of what others might do with his sum of money…..
As a parable, we can read into it greater meaning….
So it is not about money at all, but about the message of the Gospel… and the danger that we might lock it away, to keep it safe, to not lose it…
= not even sharing it with our families!
(Did you know that if the church was able to just retain the children born into it, trends of decline would be reversed!)
This is a timely reminder of the importance of using the treasure that we have received, along with the reminders of stepping out into God’s promises from last week, and the example of venturing into something new and different as Deborah did.
Session and Managers will be meeting together on Tuesday to look at the year ahead and to explore what we should be doing with our treasure, how we can make it work for the extension of God’s kingdom.
But don’t just leave it up to them. If you have ideas of what we can do better or do new as a church, then speak to one of those folk.
And don’t just leave it up to the congregation. Remember that we each have a wonderful opportunity to share this treasure of the kingdom of God with those we are in contact with – our family, our friends and neighbours and workmates…. Continue to pray for God’s guidance to recognize opportunities to share this good news, and share it with the confidence from the words of that song that Christ is with each one of us always and everywhere.
And let us continue to strive, as a congregation, to be a place of Belonging, a place of discovering Belief, and a place of Becoming Christ’s followers. Amen
Sermon 6 November 2011 Joshua 3:7-17 and Matthew 23: 1-12
Our gospel reading this morning shows a very critical Jesus –blasting the Pharisees, calling them hypocrites, deceivers, blind guides, fools, whitewashed tombs full of decaying bodies, murderers, snakes and vipers, creatures fit for hell.
Clearly, Jesus was really frustrated with their closed minds and hard hearts.
Jesus attacks the Pharisees for their hypocrisy –referring to their desire to sit on Moses’ seat –which was the seat of honour in the synagogue, close to the arch where the Torah scrolls were kept. Sitting there meant you were an important teacher of the Law.
Jesus called them hypocrites –a word that originally was used to describe someone acting on the stage; one who was playing a part. It later developed into a description for someone who was insincere. A hypocrite is one who says things but they are just words; they are not from their heart so are not put into living action. It is not describing us when we try and inevitably fail, it is describing us when we do not try. When we do not attempt to live out what we say we believe.
Let me let Rob Bell say it in a brief part of the Nooma series called Sunday -
Nooma DVD… (1:10 until 4:40 “he is relentless; Jesus gets angry”)
You see, Jesus wants people to live out what they say they believe.
He wants us to be real in our faith.
So now let us turn to Joshua… a man who was called to live out what he believed.
Remember he was the one who had to follow in the shoes of the wonderful Moses –one of the greatest leaders in all history. –and following someone great is never an easy thing, whatever sphere you are in, and something that can often niggle away at your insecurities.
Here we read of Joshua’s early leadership. A time when he was probably feeling insecure, and the people of Israel probably lacked confidence in him, wondering if Joshua would really be up to the task.
For Joshua though, the key thing to remember in taking on this challenge was that God had promised him back in ch1 -“As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you or forsake you. Be strong and be of good courage.”
God understood the situation, and so we read of this wonderful beginning into his leadership. Joshua leads the people –thousands of them, up to the edge of the Promised Land and there they face the formidable barrier of the Jordan River.
Here they face the choice of taking a risk and living out the reality of being God’s people who had been promised this land before them.
This was in the days before considerable amounts of water were drawn off for Israel’s pasture irrigation, now making it much less of an obstacle. Not that the Jordan has ever been a mighty river like the Tigris or Euphrates or Nile. But in the Spring, it did become a powerful torrent, taking the melted snow of Mt Hermon down to the Dead Sea. And they arrive in the midst of this flood season. So they needed a miracle to get across. And a miracle is what they got.
It is reminiscent of Moses’ leadership out of exile, through the Red Sea, so Joshua now leads them through the Jordan to enter the Promised Land.
As the priests carried the precious Ark of the Covenant, holding the stones inscribed with the ten commandments, ankle deep into the water, the river actually stopped flowing, and the people crossed through.
As God had been with Moses, so God was with Joshua, who, although did not know the ways of this new land, was willing to trust God’s guidance.
An interesting angle on this miracle comes apparently from World War 1. A British officer leading his troops in that Jordan region, without the support of army engineers, wondered how on earth he was going to get his soldiers across the river. An Arab guide, told him to draw near the banks, stay under cover and be patient. After a few frustrating days, the river stopped flowing for almost an hour and the troops crossed with ease. The Arab guide knew about the phenomenon, but could not predict the time. What happened was this: Early in the spring season, when the waters started to flow with vigour, the current would at times undermine tall cliffs in the region nearer Galilee. A mighty landfall would occur and the water would temporally cease flowing.
This is not to lessen the miracle at all –but rather to wonder at God’s amazing timing in it all, and the power of obedience to God’s leading. When Joshua could only see overflowing banks, he was still willing to trust God and enter the waters.
I wonder what the people were feeling as they stood at the edge of the river –did they realise their journey was nearly over; their time of wandering nearly at an end? That they are standing on the verge of a new life –a land of milk and honey –a place where they could finally settle down; plant crops and harvest them… no longer as slaves, no longer as nomads.
They are not the same people who left Egypt for they have all died; these are their children and their grandchildren. But they carry their dreams and their hopes for a new future. And as they now stand before this raging river, they face a very similar crisis to their forebears –their progress is blocked and there seems to be no way forward. Not so different from those who stood before the Red Sea, blocked from moving forward. Their journey ends as it began. Their way is blocked and God intervenes miraculously. But not only does God act, but the people must also act. The people must step into the river bed. They have to be real at this point.
It is no longer simple words; it is a commitment that involves all they have.
They were probably fearful of wading in and being swept away…
and so the priests are asked to lead the way into the waters, and only as they step out into the murky waters, losing sight of their feet as they do so, do they see God intervene.
Rivers epitomise obstacles in our lives –no way over it, no way under it, no way around it -you have to go through it! They are about risk taking, living what we believe.
Maybe you feel like you have been wandering in a wilderness.
Maybe you can see a better life but it is just out of reach.
Fear holds you where you are, stopping you from taking those tentative steps into the chaotic waters of life.
Perhaps you see elements of hypocrisy in your life as you stay on the wilderness side of the river. Our wildernesses come in many forms: addiction; despair; lack of direction or passion… and we feel trapped because the river seems to be uncross-able. There is this raging river running between ourselves and what God want us to do with our lives. We need the courage to take those steps of faith and discover if God is opening up a path for us through the waters. To a place where enemies are overcome; needs are met with abundance, and fears of the wilderness are replaced. God leads us to the edge of such a place and expects us to do the next bit in faith. To enter the place where we must get on with living out our faith in the daily grind as honestly as we know how. So that people see our faith by the way we live.
All too easily we can choose to stand at the river’s edge.
We can get caught up with how things look, and so we will not dare to step out into the waters… we lose heart. And if our heart is not in it, religion will become a burden and hypocrisy and we will remain on the wilderness side of the river.
We may at times feel like we have no way forward. Timing, everything may seem to be against us, and yet we are called to step out in faith –to be the people we are called to be. To step into the murky, muddy waters in order to receive the fullness of what God has promised us. Stepping into the unknown and possibly dangerous waters, only trusting that God is with us.
God goes before us into the flood waters of life. God stands in the middle of the waters and divides them, and then watches us pass safely to the other side.
We are called into deep waters, we are told to cross rivers where we cannot see what we are stepping into. We are urged to step out - and to do so boldly - trusting in the one who not only parted the sea and made the river Jordan cease it's flowing but who overcame death and brought to light life and immortality.
16 October 2011
Bible Readings: Deuteronomy 14: 22-29, Matthew 22:15-22
Sermon
Two weeks ago Richard began to talk about giving. We are going to be looking at different aspects of giving through October, and today is the day we planned to look at the issue of tithing –lucky me!
I don’t think I have ever preached on tithing before, but our church leadership has suggested t
hat it is time to give it a go and we are in agreement.
It is never going to be an easy topic, and I did like the way one minister apparently dealt with the subject.
He was in a struggling church with no air conditioning, so one Sunday announced "Brethren, I have 3 sermons this morning. I have a $1000 sermon that lasts only five minutes. I have a $500 sermon that lasts one hour. And, I have a $200 sermon that lasts two hours. We're going to take up the offering, and see which sermon you folks want preached!" I've been told that the church got a very short sermon that morning, and they were able to pay their bills that week.
But I’m not sure that is really the answer.
Part of me thinks that it shouldn’t be necessary –that if we each give the way we should, then the bills will be paid and the work of God will continue in this place and beyond. And so a simple offering of the accounts should be enough. Giving is, after all, between God and the giver.
And yet, in reality, it is only fair that we give some teaching on the issue.
For our giving –although not what determines our salvation, does show where our hearts are.
So this morning I will take a brief trip through what the Old Testament says about tithing –for that is where it occurs most –and then turn to what Jesus had to say.
But before I get into this, let me say first of all that this is an issue for those of you who have already given your lives to follow Jesus.
For as important as getting our giving sorted is, the actual giving of money is not the priority for God –it is simply a discipline of Christian living. Giving is a response to a life given to God. It is the living out of faithful obedience, but it is not where discipleship begins. In a way, it is a bit like a marriage relationship or a parent-child relationship –I’m sure we have all seen these relationships in which one party thinks that giving money will suffice. A parent who tries to buy their child’s love; a spouse who thinks that money is all that is required –and the plea remains that what is most wanted is their time and their love. God does not primarily seek our money –He seeks us. Our giving however is a significant response to being found as children of God. So, in saying that, I am now addressing you who have already been found by God; already have chosen to follow, and now are on this journey of discovering what it means to live as God’s child. This is for those who have already given themselves to God. For those who have made a commitment to following Jesus. For those who want to live a life as God would have us live.
And there are a few points to keep in mind as we delve into this subject.
Firstly, let me remind you that giving is not what we do in order that we may prosper. Our giving is not a bribe to get what we want. Just look at the stories of the saints and you will soon discover that giving well does not secure an easy road.
And we do not give because God needs our money. We give because we need to give. We need to give in order to combat the power of materialism in our lives.
We need to show that it is God who rules our lives, not greed.
So what is tithing? And what does the Bible say about it? Let us go back to the Bible and see what it says… and let me say as we begin that it is not straightforward, but there are some key lessons to be learnt.
The first reference to tithing in the Bible you will find is in Genesis 14 where Abraham –still called Abram at this stage- chases after a king named Kedorlaomer in order to rescue his nephew Lot, who had been captured. Abram led an attack, managing to retrieve all his possessions and save Lot. On his way home he meets Melchizedek, king of Salem and priest of the Most High God. He blesses Abram and then in verse 20, it says, "And Abraham gave him a tenth of everything."
The Ten Commandments do not include any such requirement to tithe. There is no recorded requirement as such for Abraham. However, it is simply what followers of God did. Abraham did it as a way of showing his thanks to God –as a response to God, who has helped him in his time of need.
Then in Genesis 28 we read about Jacob’s dream where God promises him land and descendants, and he responds by giving God a tenth of what he has. It is Jacob’s way of saying “All I have belongs to God, it is all at God’s disposal”, and the gift of a tenth was like a pledge for the rest.
By the time of Moses, tithing had become part of the law –in Leviticus 27:30-33 it says "All the tithe of the land, whether of the seed of the land or of the fruit of the trees, is the Lord's. It is holy to the Lord. If a man wishes to redeem any of his tithe, he shall add a fifth to it. And all the tithe of herds and flocks, every tenth animal that passes under the herdsman's staff shall be holy to the Lord." So people were to tithe their produce. Then in Deut 14: 22-29, we are told that the tithe involved a yearly giving of a tenth of their produce in a feast of joy, and to support the Levites who had been set apart for religious tasks and another extra tithe given every three years to support the most helpless groups in society –the refugees, the orphans and the widows. This giving was an expression of joy and gratitude and a way of remembering their dependence on God. They honoured God by giving to those who needed it and God honoured them in their giving. Tithing was a way of giving that was from the first fruits, rather than from what was left over. Too often we look at what is left over and see what we have left to give. But as the people dared to give from their first fruits, they knew the joy and satisfaction that comes with truly trusting God.
Two other important passages on tithing in the Old Testament are Numbers 18:21-24 and 2 Chronicles 31:4-18. The point of both is that the tithes were especially for the Levites. Numbers 18:24 says, "The tithe of the people of Israel which they present as an offering to the Lord, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance." And 2 Chronicles 31:4 says that Hezekiah commanded the people who lived in Jerusalem to give the portion due to the priests and the Levites, so they might give themselves to the law of the Lord. So tithing was God's prescribed way of supporting certain ministries which he had ordained.
In summary, then from the Old Testament tithing goes back to the very beginning of Israel's history before the law was given and seems to have been an expression of gratitude to the Lord who defends his people and gives them all they have. Then as a part of the Mosaic law, tithing was made a part of Israel's formal worship and its various forms and purposes were prescribed. It was used to support religious orders; it was used for religious feasting in celebration of God's goodness; it was set aside from the start and it taught the people to honour God and trust him to meet all their needs. So we can see that tithing was clearly assumed as a part of following God, by the time of Jesus.
Time for a story..
There was once a young man who was desperately in need of a job. He asked God to help him find employment, and when he secured a job that paid $10 a week, the young man was so overjoyed that he promised God that he would always give 10 percent of his income to the church. He began by giving $1 a week, 10% of his $10 income. As time passed, the young man moved on to a higher paying job. Now he was making $100 a week, and he dutifully put $10 in the plate each Sunday. Eventually, he earned $1,000 a week, and while he still put $100 in the plate, it had become a grudging duty. Finally, he hit the big time -- earning $10,000 a week. He could not bear the thought of putting $1,000 into the plate each Sunday, so he sought out the pastor. "When I made that promise, I only earned $10 a week," he said. "My promise made sense back then, but now things are different. Would you please release me from my promise to give 10% of my income to the church?" The pastor thought about it for awhile and then replied, "My son, I cannot release you from a promise you made before God. But I would be happy to pray that your income be reduced back to the original $10 a week!"
The New Testament does not refer to tithing much at all. Jesus only mentions tithing twice, and both times he is referring to its legalistic abuse. In Matthew 23:23 Jesus says, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and dill and cummin and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice, mercy and faith; these you ought to have done without neglecting the others." And in Luke 18:9-14, Jesus told the parable of two men who went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, 'God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.'"
Obviously Jesus did not regard tithing as the key to salvation. It is not that he rejects it, but he is much more intent on bigger things. Jesus was seeking more than their money; he was seeking them -completely. Instead we hear about Zacchaeus who met Jesus and then gave half of his goods to the poor. We hear Jesus honouring the widow who gave everything she had. We hear Jesus telling the one who has two coats to share one with him who has none. We hear Jesus telling the rich man to go and sell all he has and give it to the poor in order to have treasure in heaven. And we hear the early church holding all things in common, selling their possessions and giving to all as they had need.
And we have this remarkable reading we have heard read to us this morning… in which the Pharisees ask Jesus a trick question. Should they pay the unpopular poll taxes to Caesar. If he said yes, the people would not like him, if he said know he risked arrest. But Jesus sees their hypocrisy, and asks for a coin. The very fact that a coin with the image of the emperor on it, is produced emphasises their hypocrisy straight away, for they are in the temple precinct, a sacred place where no such blasphemous item was allowed. Asking, "Whose picture is on this coin?" Jesus draws attention to their double standards. And then Jesus says "Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and give to God what belongs to God." It is such a clever answer. The coin is imprinted with the image of Caesar, so it belongs to Caesar. But give to God what is God’s. Jesus is referring to the understanding that we are created with the imprint of God on us –we are what is due to God. We are to pay our dues in the society we live, but we are to give God our whole lives. All we have is God’s. Not just a percentage –everything
So the New Testament is practically silent with regard to positive, explicit teaching on tithing. And I am convinces that it is because for Jesus, tithing was only a starting point. Jesus instead turns the issue on its head. It is no longer a question of how much should I give; it is instead a question of how much dare I keep. In today’s world where 10,000 people a day starve to death and many more than that are perishing in unbelief the question is not, what percentage must I give?, but how much dare I spend on myself to surround myself with comforts?
So if you are turning to the New Testament as an out from tithing, you are looking in the wrong place. For Jesus takes a far more radical approach. To commend tithing as the ideal simply does not capture the New Testament view of discipleship. Tithing may be a good starting point but the real challenge is whether we can justify the lifestyle that consumes the other 90% of our income.
And behind that is the huge challenge: Do I love to use God's money to spread justice and mercy and spiritual hope in the world, or do I prefer to hold on to God’s money to purchase more and more personal comfort? Where your treasure is there is your heart.
And let me conclude by saying that this is not a plea to up your giving.
I don't care whether or not you give a cent to this church.
What I do care about is whether or not you give yourself to God -whether or not you regard God as the source of your life and your living and live accordingly as a people of gratitude - a people of faith –and that all aspects of your life –money included will come under the will of God.
So be it, Amen.
Sermon Genesis 24: 34-38, 42-49, 58-67; Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30
Come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I will give you rest.
We all know about burdens, don’t we? They come in many shapes and sizes, but they are heavy and they make us feel weary.
In the early days of cars, there was usually café type places built on the top of long hills. There is a classic one on the top of the Rimutakas, but I’m sure you can all think of some more local ones. And now we enjoy them because they offer a lovely view –but that was not why they were built there in the first place. They were built there because people often needed to stop at the top to let their overheated radiators cool down –I suspect some of you will even recall such an experience!
Gathering here on a Sunday can be a bit like those hilltop cafes. -A space to stop and find rest and refreshment, and let our overheated radiators cool down. Worship, prayer, fellowship, each offer such a space in our lives.
Jesus understood that life has its burdens.
What kind of burdens are you carrying?
(Powerpoint picture of overburdened vehicles…)
Perhaps it is burdens of expectations others have placed upon us.
Perhaps it is burdens of a particular type of spirituality that weighs us down.
Perhaps it is burdens of worry about people we love.
Perhaps it is a burden of emptiness with how your life is at the moment.
Perhaps it is a burden of disappointment with how things have been.
Burdens of affluence can include huge debt we cannot manage and houses overfull with gadgets we never use.
-Burdens of doing too much can make our lives overfull with the trivial, offering no down time, away from activities and hassles.
Our lives can get very full very easily these days…
and to talk about rest seems almost like trying to find a lost world.
We tend to think of escaping to a place where the tension is eased, where we are quiet and where we find peace. And perhaps in this context, dare I say, we think about finding this place by getting on a plane.
But in reality, if we are not able to find peace here in Kohimarama, why would we find it any more in Rarotonga or the Italian coast?
And if we are simply unloading our burdens for a moment –for a few days at a beach, only to replace them on our backs as we return to our lives –is that true rest?
Doubts and conflicts need resolution rather than a space away from them.
If we have only learnt to take off the load for a moment to give us the strength to put it back on, we have not grasped the reality of Jesus’ words.
And I think that is really hard.
I find it easier to do the former –simply remove the load for a moment before I replace it on my shoulders, only to become weary again.
Or replace the concept of rest with diversions. There are so many diversions open to us in our society.
They may not be the perfect answer, but they fill a gap.
Diversions might include attaining wealth or playing power games, it may include sexual gratification or drugs or gambling or minor diversions like the television, computer games and cyber games.
We can be diverted in so many ways.
And into all these diversions, comes the words of Jesus –
Come to me all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
Rest.
And yes, rest for those who labour is clearly a short term, momentary thing.
But Jesus then goes on to say
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
And this is not confined to a moment of when the labouring has stopped.
This is a whole new way of labouring.
A new way that offers rest in the long term.
This is new kingdom living being offered.
A way that is not just about labouring and then finding moments of distraction that keep us going. Kingdom living.
Life that is not dominated by fear or duty.
Life that is motivated by love and self-giving.
But it is not a life of complete freedom to do what we want.
There is a yoke we are to put on. A yoke that guides us to the tasks we are suited to.
I wonder what you think of when you see an image of a pair of oxen wearing a yoke?
(powerpoint picture)
Does it speak to you of bondage?
-because there is an element of this in the image.
But the paradox of the kingdom is that it is by taking on this yoke that we find true freedom. We end up always being yoked to something –whether it is to Jesus or it is to pleasure or work or something else.
To accept the yoke of Jesus is to say yes, I am choosing that I will be yoked to him.
And as we wear that yoke we will find who we were created to be.
Maybe today is the day for you to get real about putting on the yoke.
To move from just wandering around the paddock doing a bit here and there
to actually taking Jesus’ yoke upon your shoulders and become a kingdom builder.
You see, yes, Jesus is wanting to give us rest, but he is also saying that burdens are part of life. It is the type of burden that is crucial –the type of yoke we choose that makes a world of difference.
We have a choice as to the burdens we carry and the yoke we wear.
Jesus does not want to unburden us to simple hedonism and egoism.
As you saw with the children, a yoke only works when it fits well.
That is the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Too often we try to make it under our own steam -and we end up tired.
Sometimes it is only in desperation, that we finally try God.
But wouldn't we be better off to try God first?
-to live by God's wisdom rather than the wisdom of the world?
God wants us to understand and find solutions to our problems.
And so God has arranged things so that it is not our knowledge that is important, but rather our heart and our will.
God wants us all to have peace and fulfilment, and so there is nothing complicated here, instead there is only a call, a call to yield yourself to God,
a call to follow Jesus and enter into a relationship with him.
The word yoke in the scripture often refers to the ways of God, and as such it is it is not so much about servitude but rather about the direction of things - the focus of our labours, which is for us the focus of Jesus and not the rules and laws of religion.
And the word easy - my yoke is easy - in the Greek means well fitted.
In the days of Jesus yokes were made of wood.
The ox was brought to the carpenter's shop and carefully measured and then the yoke was roughed out. Then the ox was brought back and it was tried on him - the yoke was then marked - and carefully adjusted by shaving the wood.
Each yoke was tailor made to fit each ox.
When Jesus says that "my yoke is easy and my burden light" what he means is this:
The life I give you is not a burden to annoy or irritate you,
your task is made to measure, to fit you.
What Jesus is saying is:
My burden is light, it is not meant to weigh you down with demands,
it is not rules and regulations about what you can and can not do,
nor is it a task that you will hate doing.
A yoke that fits us well, readies us for a purpose. It is as simple as that.
The burden of Jesus is like the one in the old story about a man who comes upon a little boy carrying a still smaller boy, who was lame, upon his back.
"That's a heavy burden for you to carry", said the man.
"That's no'a burden", came the answer, "that's my wee brother".
What ever Jesus sends us, and whatever he asks of us is made to fit our needs and our abilities exactly, it is made to give not only us, but our whole world rest.
We need to give up our old way of looking at life and assume the way of seeing and living that Christ wants us to have, the one that is suited to us.
It is about choosing to live in a way that assumes God is at work, and we are to work with Him.
So how does the story of Isaac and Rebekah we heard this morning fit into all this?
It is a story so foreign to our way of doing things –arranged marriages and women passed as chattels from one family to another.
And yet it is also a story of faith, a story of trusting God in the ordinary and yet important things of life –like relationships and families.
We may not find life to be so simplistic –just go to the right well and the woman of your dreams will be waiting for you.
It’s hard not to be cynical about the whole story really. Why wouldn’t Rebekah be extra polite to these people who clearly have plenty of wealth? And when her family see them, why wouldn’t they too make every effort of welcome? This is clearly boding well for them.
But as we read it, we see that it was understood by those involved –by Abraham and Isaac and Rebekah -that God was part of all that was going on.
Are we able to look at our lives like that?
How is God part of our human stories with all their mixed motives and desires?
How do we understand the providence of God?
I do not doubt that underneath all our mixed motives and behaviours is our God, who is working out a bigger plan. But I do not assume to understand exactly how this occurs.
We are called to do the best we can. To heed the Spirit’s nudges and prods and working towards the dreams of a future kingdom.
To be willing to take on the yoke of Jesus and let go of doing it our way.
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened,
Come to me you who are tired of doing it all under your own steam
and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you,
take what I have designed especially for you, and learn from me,
learn from me for I am gentle and humble in spirit,
for I am one who is at peace, one who knows the right way.
Do this, come to me, and take what I have designed for you, learn from me, and you will find rest for your souls. You will find rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden light.
Jesus invites us - come to me, learn from, take my yoke upon you -
and I will give you rest... It is a promise, a promise that requires a very simple answer on our part to take effect.
Come to Jesus like a child - listen to him, talk to him, do what he asks of you,
and you will find your rest.
And to conclude, I would like you all to look at this picture as a starting point,
(powerpoint picture of people with packs)
now close your eyes for a moment and reflect on the passage...
Picture yourself carrying a very heavy and ill-fitting pack.
It is rubbing painfully on your shoulders. It seems to be unbalanced.
You strongly wish that you could put it down but no one has offered to carry it for you.
Now you see Jesus. You remember his promise to take heavy burdens and give an easy yoke. Happy now, you go over to Jesus and ask him if he would take your heavy ill-fitting pack and give you a lighter one.
He agrees and takes off your heavy pack.
The lighter one that he gives you really seems to sit just right.
You feel lighter and better able to travel. Notice how you feel as you go on your way. You think about what is life going to be like with this lighter pack. You thank him.
Now open you eyes…. you may wish to revisit this during the week and take longer in prayer to hear what Jesus is wanting to change in your life.
But know this, Jesus’ yoke will fit you better than any other,
and with it, you will do the best living you have ever done.
So be it, Amen.
Sermon – 5 June 2011 Luke 24:44-53 Acts 1:1-14 The Ascension of Christ
Jesus was gone.
It was as simple as that.
In the presence of the eleven remaining disciples, Jesus disappeared.
It almost seemed that the disciples were getting used to having Jesus around after the resurrection – after all, there are ten resurrection appearance recorded in Scripture, spread over a period of a month or more. In these times they have touched Jesus, fed Jesus, and listened to him teach some more.
And then, after some parting words, he is gone, finally and fully, for good – at least in the form they have known him.
This is the event the church calls the Ascension, the going up, of Christ.
It is traditionally celebrated forty days after Easter, which places it in the week just been, and ten days before Pentecost. This seems a realistic time scale for this event to have happened, as the believers then went back to Jerusalem where they were still waiting when the Jewish festival of Pentecost began – that time when Jesus final promise of sending a helper was fulfilled in the coming of the Spirit… but that is what we will focus on next week!
There are only two clear references/descriptions of the Ascension, and they are both by the same writer - Luke – in his Gospel and in his sequel which is the book of Acts. It is these passages we have heard today.
There is a third reference in Mark 16:19 also, but this is part of the debatable ending of Mark 16:9-20 which is generally accepted to be a later addition to that Gospel.
So let us look at the Ascension – particularly what immediately preceded it; the event itself; and the consequences.
Luke 24:44-53 In this passage, Luke tells us that before Jesus took his final
leave of the disciples, he did five things.
1. He confirmed what the Hebrew scriptures had prophesied about him, referring to the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms. These divisions cover most of the Hebrew Scriptures, which make up our Old Testament. It is a reminder that there is much in the Old Testament that points to Jesus Christ.
2. He taught them what those scriptures meant in reference to his messianic mission of revealing God's love for all humanity – it was in effect a really succinct summary of what we call the Gospel message that he had brought and taught and lived out.
3. He commissioned them to undertake this same mission in his name – reminding them that his work was not yet done…
4. He bid them wait in Jerusalem until they had been empowered for their mission.
5. He gave them his blessing – which was a priestly thing to do, but also reminiscent of Moses, for example, blessing the people of Israel before he died.
And then, in the presence of the 11 remaining disciples,
“While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven” (Luke 24:51)
“After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight” (Acts 1:9)
If we believe the rest of the Gospel record of Jesus’ 10 post-resurrection appearances, then there is little reason to discount or ignore this final appearance.
The event itself is not unique in Scripture:
“Altogether Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” (Genesis5:24)
Elijah was taken to heaven in a whirlwind
“As they were walking along and talking together, suddenly a chariot of fire and horses of fire appeared and separated the two of them, and Elijah went up into heaven in a whirlwind” (2 Kings 2:11-12)
Plus there is the Transfiguration appearance/disappearance of Elijah and Moses (Mat 17:1-8, Mark 9:1-8)
But these events introduce the dilemma of up-ness…
Luke uses the phrase, translated in our pew Bibles, taken up.
Other familiar translations use the phrases, carried up, carried into heaven,
What does it mean to say Jesus ascended up to heaven?
What does “up” mean and where is heaven in the cosmos that our telescopes and exploration has revealed?
At first glance, this language may seem fairy tale stuff, at odds with our enlightened understanding of the universe. No longer do we have a three layer, hamburger universe, consisting of heaven, earth, and hell. In that primitive view of the universe, “up” to heaven, and “down” to hell made sense. These days we know about an immense cosmos of incomprehensible size, of billions of suns and planets, all expanding and developing.
And we know the word “up” is a relative word on a spherical planet - “Up” when standing in Galilee is a different cosmic direction from that when standing in Kohimarama. Therefore a word like ascension is not, for many folk, a very helpful one.
Some have substituted the word “beyond”.
That also has problems. Beyond what? Beyond this cosmos? That puts God and heaven, and Jesus “at God’s right hand”, remote and far, far away from us. Which goes against our belief and teaching, which has been summed up in the saying, “God is nearer than our breathing, and closer than hands and feet” .
What then can we make of the ascension story?
To insist on the literal meaning of “up” and “ascended” reduces Jesus to a kind of super Pooh Bear, A.A.Milne’s cuddly character, floating somewhere above us on a celestial cloud singing,
How sweet to be a cloud, floating in the blue,
It makes me very proud, to be a little cloud.
However, let’s pick up on that cloud image, because Luke does include it in the Acts description of this event.
In Biblical metaphors the cloud represents the intimate, holy Presence of God.
The holy cloud is the shekinah. The shekinah leads the children of Israel out of captivity. The shekinah is over the mountain when Moses receives the ten commandments. In the story of Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain, the shekinah of God covers Jesus and the three disciples.
So when in the event we call the ascension, the cloud is mentioned by Luke, it represents Jesus being gathered into the eternal presence of God. His spirit now stands (one could almost say “blends”) with the spirit of God. Like God, Jesus becomes available to all people, at all times, in all places.
So there is a paradox here.
Jesus went away from his followers that he might be always with them.
In fact, He did not go far up above them or far beyond them but nearer to them. Whatever else we celebrate on Ascension Day we must at least celebrate this: Our Saviour is now eternally, universally close to us. It is not about Jesus leaving us, but his becoming an intrinsic part of our lives in a new and radical way – which is why we use that evangelistic metaphor of inviting Jesus into our hearts.
We need to take hold of the vital truth of this metaphor.
Otherwise the whole story will remain either an empty myth, or one that pushes Jesus and heaven to the extremities, far out of human reach. In the Ascension, Jesus moved from the time-bound to the timeless, from spatial limitation to unlimited availability. For all eternity he is around about us, “closer than our breathing, and nearer than hands or feet.”
It’s impossible to find the right words, or even barely adequate words, to speak of the mystery of the heaven which overlaps, underlays, and interleaves, our earthly life. It is beyond words. Yet it is real. Heaven is a mystery which is all around us right now. Jesus went away that he might be fully with us. He has entered a new dimension of existence which makes his presence universal.
I want to explore this a little more, because the Ascension is so significant.
It meant a new way of living and a new understanding of life for the disciples, as it does for us…. Like that famous line from so many episodes of Star Trek: “It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it!”
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee, why do you stand there looking into the sky?”
I don’t blame them for standing there, rooted to the spot, staring dumbly into the sky. What they had so enjoyed was over. They had been almost inseparable for three years, and then he had been taken away and killed, and then everything they had ever known and believed was turned on its head as they got him back again, but now, forty days later, he was gone again. And this time he wasn’t just ducking off for the long weekend. This time it was the full farewell, end of an era, nothing to hold on to, parting. And they were left standing there, blinking dumbly into the sky, wondering what on earth to do now.
Our own experience tells us that when you see someone killed and buried, that is the end of the story, but with Jesus that proves not to be the case. With Jesus, the boundaries of what is possible are always being stretched, or even torn open. With Jesus, things that appear to be impossible become possible, and apparent opposites that appear to be irreconcilable become reconciled. Jesus seems able to stretch his arms to gather in things that seemed so far apart that nothing could ever reach them.
We see this pattern especially in the way he scandalously embraced people from the margins and reconciled them into one body – he taught this in his parables, and lived it out in everyday interactions.
I think something a little like this is at work in the ascension of Jesus. To our minds, absence and presence are opposites. No one can be both absent and yet present at the same time. It’s impossible. But is anything impossible for God? If the comprehensively dead can be raised and be even more alive than ever before, then maybe absence and presence are not as irreconcilable as we imagine.
Rather than taking off for some other place and becoming absent from our place, it is as though Jesus has instead gotten bigger. Just as in his relating to people he has kept stretching and stretching his arms to gather in all sorts of irreconcilable people, now he is stretching and stretching the boundaries of his own presence. While walking the streets as one of us, he could only be in one place at a time, but is that still the case? Well in way perhaps it is, but perhaps he has expanded his presence to such an extraordinary extent that the one place where he is present is now bigger than all the places we could possibly go.
Now instead of occupying one place in the universe, the universe occupies one place in Christ. He has become so much bigger, that we can no longer stand back far enough to see him, but this is no sign of his absence. We might often experience it as his absence, because we are so used to interpreting absence and presence through categories we know and understand from the absence or presence of other people.
Part of the journey of healing and growth into the full likeness of Christ, the full destiny for which we were all created, is to begin to live into this bewildering paradox of knowing the presence of the risen Messiah who seems absent to all our sensory faculties, but who yet is more all-embracingly present than ever. The gracious arms that have stretched out to reach even us, have stretched out to reconcile even absence and presence.
As one of the Celtic prayers from the Abbey of Iona puts it, Christ has ascended into heaven to be everywhere present.
Not to leave us behind as he goes off to enjoy some distant heaven, but to fill the heaven that is all around us, so that as the psalmist put it, whether I fly towards the dawn or plunge down to the depths of the earth, even there I find I am still in your hands.
This is the great mystery we celebrate today. Even when the Christ is killed, yet behold, he lives. And even when he departs, behold he is present with us, stretching his arms still to embrace us all in the glorious love and grace of God. Hallelujah!