Tawa Baptist

In Our House – by Neville Gardner

Earlier in the service I read out a story called “Where’s God?” written by Victor Kelleher. I refer to it a bit in this talk, so here’s a summary:

A boy called Peter wanted to know where God is. His sister and dad weren’t much help, but mum said God was in everything. Peter looked in a church, where he discovered that God is in lots of places at the same time, but he couldn’t see him. An old man in the park told Peter that God is in his heart, but Peter didn’t know how to look there. By the end of the story, Peter still hadn’t found God, but he would be searching again soon.

The church we are sitting in was opened on the 1st of February 1965; that’s very nearly 60 years ago. There were other buildings before that – what we now use as the church hall was the previous church. Some of you were here for the opening and have been coming ever since. Others of you have been coming for varying lengths of time – many of you weren’t even born 60 years ago! Whatever your age or background, you all share reasons for being here.

I realise there are some people who are unable to be here for various reasons, though they would like to be – they are still part of this congregation.

In the story I read earlier, the boy Peter went into a church looking for God. I guess that’s one reason some people go to church, but there are lots of others, as we’ll see. Later, Peter was told that God is in everyone’s heart.

Let’s use Peter’s style of logic. If God is in everyone’s heart, then everyone who goes to church takes God in with them. Therefore, a good place to meet someone who has found where God is, is in a church full of people.

But if they’ve already found God, why are they in church?

With the start of a new year, and with this building’s milestone, I thought we could remind ourselves of some answers to this question.

When you visit someone else’s house, you can normally work out what each room is used for by the things that are in them. The kitchen contains things connected with cooking; the laundry contains things connected with washing clothes, and so on.

Some rooms contain things that as a visitor you might want to ask questions about. Visitors to our house are often interested in the displays of minerals and historic artefacts in the lounge. Or the books everywhere – Nicky and I have rather different responses to questions about them!

These types of things reveal more about your hosts than an armchair or toaster do. All the extra stuff is evidence of accumulated personal history and memories; it can give you a sense of the unique character of the occupants.

Over its 60 years, this church building, like a house, has acquired a collection of, mostly, useful and meaningful items. These say something about the character of its users. Like a house, you can get an idea of this character by looking at the contents.

Today we’ll look at some of the physical contents of this auditorium and use them to answer that question I arrived at earlier – why do we come to church?

Sometimes when you visit a house, you only get to see one or two rooms. But you know there are other rooms with other functions. In the same way, I’m going to concentrate on this auditorium – there are other spaces where the functions of the church go on, not just in the buildings around us but wherever you are out in the world.

So, let’s examine some of the contents of this room.

You might expect me to start with the cross at the front, but my first item is actually the rows of seats. These represent you, the community of Christians who worship in this church on a Sunday morning. I wouldn’t be able to talk about some of the other items in the auditorium without mentioning the people who call this church home.

Now for the crosses. Even many non-Christians know that a cross is a symbol of the execution of Jesus. Some churches have a representation of Jesus on the cross as a reminder of his suffering and sacrifice. Others, including Baptist churches, use an empty cross, emphasising the fact that Jesus was taken down, buried and then rose from the dead.

It’s less common to see three crosses together in a church.

Jesus was crucified with a criminal on either side. One of them wanted Jesus to save him so he could escape judgement. The other was willing to accept judgement, because he knew he had done wrong, but he allowed Jesus to take up the burden of his sin. The cross on one side therefore represents the rebellion of humankind. The cross on the other side represents the repentance we all need. The central cross represents the redemption that Jesus offers.

  • We don’t worship the cross, but we do worship the risen Christ it represents. That’s one of the reasons we come to church.

I’ve chosen the Bible next; it’s quite obvious here at the front. Some churches have an open Bible on display to acknowledge it as God’s Word, to show it is treasured and to indicate that it is accessible to everybody. There are copies in the pews for people to use during a service.

The Bible is a source of authority. It records how God has revealed himself to humans, and how he expects them to respond. We tend to use it as a sort of guidebook to navigate our lives. It can be quite hard to understand, and that’s where this lectern comes in. This is where someone stands to read parts of the Bible out to people, and where they place their notes if they are preaching.

I said just now that the Bible is accessible to everyone; we can read it for ourselves, so why do we need sermons? Sometimes we need help to discern some of the things God says, and we can benefit from a different way of seeing things, presented by people God has given the task and gifts to. That way, we may learn to see things clearer for ourselves. Sermons can stir up our emotions and excite us about God. Also, by being with others as God’s word is explained, we can be affected and supported by the reactions of those around us.

There are lots of inspirational sermons available online to watch at home or on the move. However, I feel that we benefit by hearing our own ministers bring messages created, under God’s guidance, especially for this congregation.

  • Learning from the Bible is one of the reasons we come to church.

We can see plenty of evidence of music in this church. There’s the organ, the piano, other musical instruments and, at times during a service, singers and musicians. Over the years, music has played a large part in developing the character of this church community.

In his letter to the Ephesians, the words of Paul still urge us to be “speaking to one another with the words of psalms, hymns, and sacred songs; sing hymns and psalms to the Lord with praise in your hearts.” (Ephesians 5:19).”

Psalm 33 tells us to “Give thanks to the Lord with harps, sing to him with stringed instruments. Sing a new song to him, play the harp with skill, and shout for joy!”

This collective singing, and the making of music, is not for entertainment; it’s to speak to God, to worship him and to rejoice in him. As I can attest, you don’t have to have a good voice – God hears your best attempt and takes it as praise.

When you sing collectively, you also sing to each other, joining together in worship. You sing to yourself too, soaking up and refreshing yourself with the words.

Many years ago, I used to live in Cardiff, Wales, just across the river from Cardiff Arms Park rugby ground. When the national team was playing, I’d open my window and listen to thousands of Welsh people singing together, all supporting the same side. That’s what we do in here, sing together because we’re all on the same side.

  • Singing and playing to the Lord is one of the reasons we come to church.

The next thing I’ve chosen to look at is less obvious. It’s the very stylised fish symbol above the windows. I talked about the cross earlier, but it wasn’t a commonly used symbol in the early Christian church. Until Christianity became an accepted religion, Christians were persecuted, even crucified for their beliefs. So the cross was a symbol of fear for many. Instead, the image of a fish was often used, like a sort of password, to mark secret meeting places and to identify Christians to each other.

Why a fish? Many reasons have been suggested. The simplest say it was because Jesus used fish in several of his miracles (think bread and fish, filling empty nets with fish). He also called some of his earliest disciples, actual fishermen, to become ‘fishers of men.’

We don’t need a secret password anymore, but the fish is still a potent symbol. It reminds us of the hardships of early Christians, but mostly it reminds us that we too are to be ‘fishers of men’. And in church we can learn some of the attitudes, the biblical knowledge and tools necessary.

  • Being encouraged to be ‘fishers of men’ is one of the reasons we come to church.

I’m going to stop my little tour of this room in our house here. There are other reasons for coming to church that don’t have an obvious object associated with them, such as prayer. Items connected with other reasons are only present sometimes – communion and baptism for instance. I encourage you to think about how these fit into your own church-based life, or how you would explain them if you were taking a visitor on a tour of the auditorium.

I’ve mentioned some reasons for coming to church that can be summed up as ‘spiritual growth’ – we can develop our spiritual life and grow closer to God through worship, Bible-based teaching, singing, prayer. Mind you, you can do these things on your own too.

Scripture doesn’t tell us that we must attend church, but it does speak about the blessing of being part of a church community. For example, in the Letter to the Hebrews we read:

Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good. Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another all the more, since you see that the Day of the Lord is coming nearer.

Hebrews 10: 24-25

As well as worship and spiritual growth, there are reasons for gathering together which can’t always be met elsewhere.

We can meet and build friendships with people who share our beliefs and values. This helps give us a sense of belonging.

It helps us receive comfort and support when life becomes difficult.

If you have children, you are supported in giving them a Christian upbringing.

I’m sure you will think of other reasons.

So, we have lots of reasons for coming together for worship and fellowship on a Sunday, and we have accumulated a number of physical items to help us. It’s hard to imagine gathering on a Sunday without a cross, a Bible, sources of music and somewhere to sit. Some would argue that you can have all these things without having a dedicated building that is only used one morning a week. After all, such a building is expensive to build and maintain, and resources could be better used helping our wider community, our neighbours.

Different churches have found different ways to address this balance. All have advantages and disadvantages.

Here at Tawa Baptist we are blessed, because earlier congregations (including some current members) have given us facilities that include both a dedicated worship auditorium and rooms and buildings for other uses. It’s much like a house of many rooms.

And I think Peter would have found God in all of them, don’t you?

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. How would you answer the question “Where’s God”?
  2. When people visit your home, how do you respond when they ask questions about what they see in a room?
  3. When you visit someone else’s home, do you just notice the contents (without appearing to be nosy of course) or do you ask questions? What sorts of things do you like to know about?
  4. How important do you think it is for a faith community (a church) to have a permanent, dedicated building to meet in? Think of some advantages and disadvantages.


Tawa Baptist

The Fruit of Hope

Scripture: Isaiah 35

Video Link: https://youtu.be/e3kB49mMC_Y

Structure:

  • Introduction – Joy is the fruit of hope
  • Hope for renewal – from curse to blessing
  • Hope for release – from fear to joy
  • Hope for restoration – from exclusion to worship
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Joy is the fruit of hope. If hope is a beehive, then joy is the honey.

If hope is a herd of cows, then joy is the milk they produce.

If hope is a tree, then joy is the oxygen breathed out by the tree.

If hope is a sunny day, then joy is the Vitamin D you absorb from the sun.

If hope is a good night’s rest, then joy is the energy you get from sleeping well. If hope is a cash deposit with the bank, then joy is the interest earned.

If hope is a gentle spring rain, then joy is the new growth on the land.

Joy is the fruit of hope.

Today is the third Sunday of Christmas Advent. Traditionally, the theme of the third Sunday in Advent is joy. With joy in mind our sermon is based on Isaiah 35. In Isaiah 35 the prophet offers a vision of hope for the future and this vision inspires joy. From Isaiah 35, verse 1 we read…

The desert and the parched land will be glad; the wilderness will rejoice and blossom. Like the crocus, 2 it will burst into bloom; it will rejoice greatly and shout for joy. The glory of Lebanon will be given to it, the splendour of Carmel and Sharon; they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendour of our God. 3 Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; 4 say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” 5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. 7 The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. 8 And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. 9 No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there.   But only the redeemed will walk there, 10 and those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Isaiah 35 is the prophet’s vision for the future. After judgement, there is hope for renewal, hope for release and hope for restoration. Let us begin with hope for renewal.

Hope for renewal:

You renew silver by polishing it.

You renew a battery by charging it.

You renew a plant by watering it.

You renew your body by resting it.

You renew trust by being truthful.

You renew your perspective by getting back to nature.

You renew commitment by remembering your promises.

You renew a friendship by spending quality time together.

You renew behaviour by changing the way you think.

You renew your mind with the help of the Holy Spirit.

But how do you renew joy? By giving people a vision of hope for a better future. Joy is the fruit of hope.

In Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve sinned, God cursed the ground, so it produced thorns and weeds, making it difficult for humankind to work the soil and grow food. Here, in Isaiah 35, the prophet imagines a world in which God reverses the curse of sin so the land is renewed.

In verses 1 and 2 of Isaiah 35 the prophet speaks about the desert rejoicing greatly, like when a crocus bursts into bloom. The crocus plant is beautiful and vibrant. From the crocus flower we get saffron which is a rare and valuable spice used in cooking. This is a wonderful image of renewal. With Genesis 3 in mind, we notice the movement from curse to blessing.

Verse 2 goes on to offer more images of renewal. The glory of Lebanon and the splendour of Carmel and Sharon will be given to the desolate wilderness.

In ancient times Lebanon was known for its cedar forests and Carmel and Sharon were regions renowned for their fruitfulness and beauty. The prophet imagines a future transformed for the better. From a scorched earth to a well-watered earth. From a harsh environment to a fruitful environment. From a cursed land to a blessed land. This is a vision of Eden renewed.  

Verse 2 concludes with the phrase, they will see the glory of the Lord, the splendour of our God. Who is the prophet talking about here? Who are they?

Well, on one level they are probably the Jewish exiles in Babylon who would one day return to their homeland. But on another level, they might also refer to those who live in a spiritual wilderness at any time in history. They whose faith is dry and burned out. They who are oppressed by sin and injustice.

They could be us. The spiritual environment we live in is not friendly or hospitable. It is not easy to live a Godly life in this world. Sometimes it feels like a spiritual desert. We may long for renewal.

The prophet imagines a future in which the spiritual environment will be renewed by the glory of the Lord. The glory of the Lord is a way of talking about God’s power and presence, his divine light. As Christians, we believe Jesus came to make all things new. Jesus embodies the renewing power and presence of God. Jesus’ coming is cause for joy.

Jumping ahead to verse 7, Isaiah returns to the image of a renewed wilderness saying, the burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs.

In the Bible water is often a poetic way of referring to the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord is how God brings renewal to his creation. We don’t manufacture renewal out of thin air. We depend on God’s Spirit for our renewal.

Hope for release:

Joy is the fruit of hope. We have heard about the hope for renewal. Now let’s consider the hope for release.

In the news this past week we have seen images of joy as Syrian political prisoners were released following the fall of the Assad regime. Many of these prisoners were locked up and tortured because they opposed the regime.

The people of Syria are overjoyed at finally ejecting a ruler who governed with fear and ruined his country. 

Prisons come in many forms. There are physical prisons with concrete walls and barbed wire, which are not pleasant places to be. But there are also mental prisons, created by fear. The prison of fear can be difficult to escape.

In the movie, The Truman Show, the producer and director of the show prevents Truman from escaping by lying to him and instilling fear. He fakes the death of Truman’s father in a boating accident to create a fear of water, and the cast reinforce Truman’s anxieties with warnings about the dangers of travelling abroad. Nevertheless, Truman fosters a quiet hope of one day venturing to Fiji.

In many ways, anxious fear is the opposite of joy. Joy is the fruit of hope. Joy is a positive energy that enables us to function and move forward in faith.

By contrast, anxious fear drains us of energy. Anxious fear disables us, preventing us from making the changes that lead to life. Anxious fear is the product of deceit. When we believe in lies, we become a prisoner to fear.

In verses 3 and 4, the prophet offers a message of sure hope for those who are imprisoned by fear. 3 Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; 4 say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.”

The phrase fearful hearts literally translates, hasty hearts.[1] Hearts that beat quickly with anxiety. Minds that undermine hope and joy by racing ahead and imagining the worst.

Isaiah means to calm hasty hearts and replace fear with joy. The people have apparently believed the lie that God has given up on them, and that God does not care about justice. Isaiah replaces this lie with the truth that God does care and he will come to right the wrongs against them.  

The theme of release, especially release from fear, is echoed again in verses 8-9 which read, 8 And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness; it will be for those who walk on that Way. The unclean will not journey on it; wicked fools will not go about on it. 9 No lion will be there, nor any ravenous beast; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there,  

In ancient times travelling was not easy or safe, particularly travelling through the wilderness. If you were Jewish, making a pilgrimage to the temple in Jerusalem often meant going through enemy territory on foot, where you could be ambushed by robbers. Then there was the added threat of being attacked by wild animals.

For God’s people in exile in Babylon, the thought of making a long and difficult journey home through the bad lands would have been overwhelming.

The fear of being harmed loomed large. Isaiah wants to dispel that fear and give the people confidence. They will be able to travel the way unimpeded and without fear of being attacked.

Isaiah’s words still apply today. This world is like one long exile until God’s kingdom is realized in its fullness on earth. We too are on a journey. We too need to find our way home to God. 

We note here the way is for the redeemed, those ransomed or set free at great cost. We note also, the way back is a Way of Holiness.

Holiness is about living a life of faithful obedience to the Lord. To be holy is to be set apart for God’s purpose. To be holy is to be pure in heart, not double-minded or two faced. To be holy is to be devoted to God, not divided in our loyalty or motivation.  

As Barry Webb puts it: ‘The pursuit of holiness is the pursuit of God himself. The face that is set towards God will open to joy and gladness like a flower opening to the sun.’ [2]   

The road to God is the way of holiness, which is unfortunate because none of us are holy, not really. How then are we to find our way home to God?

In John 14, Jesus says of himself, I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.  

Jesus is the way of holiness that Isaiah was talking about. Jesus is our holiness. To walk the way of holiness is to follow Jesus, to be in Christ, to trust him for our redemption.

Hope for restoration:    

Joy is the fruit of hope. For the people of God, joy comes from hope for renewal, hope for release and hope for restoration.

The hope for renewal involves a movement from curse to blessing.

And the hope for release involves a movement from fear to joy.

But what about the hope for restoration? What movement is involved here?

It’s a movement from exclusion to worship.

In 1973 John Denver wrote Annie’s Song. The first verse reads…

You fill up my senses, like a night in the forest. Like the mountains in springtime. Like a walk in the rain. Like a sleepy blue ocean. Like a storm the desert.

You fill up my senses, come fill me again.

Apparently, John wrote these lyrics on a chair lift after a difficult ski run in the Colorado mountains. He was inspired by the beauty of nature and thought of his wife Annie. It’s a love song. Although John Denver wrote this song for his wife, it has the feel of a psalm. It’s like a worship song.

There are times in worship when God fills up our senses with an awareness of his presence and we are lost in awe and wonder and praise. In those rare moments, we catch a glimpse of the vision which inspired Isaiah 35.

When God fills our senses it’s like we are drowning in his laughter, overwhelmed with the joy of always being with him, giving our life to him in love, and when this life ends dying in his arms knowing eternal life is to come.

Not sure about you, but I don’t usually experience God’s presence like that in gathered worship. However, I have (occasionally) experienced the joy of what I believe is Jesus’ presence, in my own personal devotional times. I hope you do too. It’s a gift to treasure.

In verses 5 and 6 of Isaiah 35, the prophet offers a picture of restoration saying:

5 Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy…

In this word picture, sight is restored, hearing is restored, movement is restored and speech is restored. It’s like Isaiah is saying, ‘God will fill up your senses with an awareness of his presence’. 

In this world, people with disabilities are usually at a disadvantage. People with disabilities are often excluded, they tend to miss out. Verses 5 and 6 offer a picture of inclusion. They show the movement from exclusion to worship.

Isaiah’s vision of hope is not just for the strong and able. It is for everyone.

God will even the playing field. He will remove any impediment or barrier that might prevent people from knowing him and worshipping him.

During his earthly ministry, Jesus literally brought physical restoration to people in all these ways. Jesus healed the blind, the deaf, the lame and the mute.

Jesus performed these miracles of restoration as a sign of what people could expect with the coming kingdom of God. The last shall be first. Those who had previously been excluded from worship will be included.

As you’ve probably worked out by now, the words of the prophet and the signs of Jesus operate on more than one level at once. A person may have 20/20 vision and perfect hearing, but sadly be spiritually blind and deaf. A person may be able to run a sub four-minute mile but be quite lame in their obedience to God. A person might speak eloquently in public but be mute in private prayer.

These are the words Isaiah heard when the Lord called him to be a prophet… 

“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ 10 Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

These are words of exclusion. The people had disobeyed God for a long time and would have to face the consequences for this. Much of the first 34 chapters of Isaiah are a message of doom and judgement. But judgement would not have the last word.   

Isaiah 35 pictures the hope of restoration after the dread of judgement.

Isaiah 35 is like a glass of cold water after a hot day working in the sun.

It’s like seeing the face of a friend after months apart. It is the calm after the storm. It is the holiday after your work is done. It is the healing after suffering.

It is the homecoming after exile. Isaiah 35 is a vision of worshipping in God’s presence after being excluded for so long.

In verse 10 of Isaiah 35 we read how God’s people are restored to their home.  

10 and those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

This is a picture of the movement from exclusion to worship. But it’s not a tedious, duty-bound worship. It’s a joyful worship. It’s the kind of worship in which God fills up your senses with an awareness of his presence and love.

It’s an eyes wide open worship. It’s an ears hearing and understanding worship. It’s a body responding in obedience worship. It’s a tongue praising God in spirit and in truth worship.   

Conclusion:

Joy is the fruit of hope. Isaiah 35 is a vision of hope for renewal, hope for release and hope for restoration. This trinity of hope involves three movements: from curse to blessing, from fear to joy and from exclusion to worship. 

Isaiah 35 looks forward to the consummation of history after the day of judgement. It is glorious and true. It will happen, we just don’t know when.

In the meantime, we live in the now but not yet. We still have to deal with trials and difficulties. We feel the frustration of our own limitations and the weariness of waiting.

But God in his grace nourishes our hope with glimpses of his kingdom, small windows of eternity opening into time.

May God fill up your senses with an awareness of his presence. May he refresh your hope with a vision of the joy that is coming in Christ. Amen.       

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. What is joy? Where does joy come from? Where does hope come from?
  3. What images of renewal does Isaiah use? What difference does God’s renewal make? Discuss / reflect on the movement from curse to blessing.
  4. How does fear affect the human soul? How might someone escape the prison of fear?
  5. What (or who) is the way of holiness? What does it mean to walk the way of holiness?
  6. In what ways does Jesus fulfil the vision of Isaiah 35, for the world and for you personally?
  7. Has God ever filled up your senses with an awareness of his presence? What was the context for this? How did you feel? What lasting affect did it have on you? Spend time in adoration of God this week.  

[1] Refer John Goldingay’s commentary on Isaiah, page 197.

[2] Refer Barry Webb’s commentary on Isaiah, page 146. 

Tawa Baptist

Sweet & Sour

Scripture: Isaiah 64

Video Link: https://youtu.be/U8ejSDq3bgg

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • God’s intervention and absence
  • God’s goodness and anger
  • God’s gentleness and severity
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

If you try sucking a lemon, it tastes pretty sour. Sets your teeth on edge. But if you mix the lemon with a bit of honey and water, it’s delicious and good for you.

Likewise, if you bite into a raw onion on its own, the taste will make your eyes water. It’s not pleasant. But if you cook the onion with a bit of balsamic vinegar and brown sugar, it tastes delicious.

Lemon and honey, sugar and vinegar, these are classic sweet and sour flavours in cooking. You wouldn’t know unless you tried it, but somehow, sweet and sour is a winning combination.

We are currently in the season of advent. Advent is a time to remember Jesus’ coming. With this in view, our sermon today is based on Isaiah 64, which is essentially a prayer for God to come down to earth.

Isaiah 64 is a sweet and sour prayer. In the context of Isaiah, the relationship between God and his people is not good, it’s like sucking a lemon. The people are affected by exile and feeling the distance between themselves and the Lord. The prophet balances this sourness with a little honey. From verse 1 we read…

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! 2 As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! 3 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. 4 Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. 5 You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.
But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? 6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. 7 No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and have given us over toour sins. 8 Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. 9 Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look on us, we pray, for we are all your people. 10 Your sacred cities have become a desert; even Zion is a desert, Jerusalem a desolation. 11 Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins.

12 After all this, O Lord, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

We find a number of sweet and sour combinations in the prayer of Isaiah 64. Our message today focuses on three in particular: God’s intervention and absence. God’s goodness and anger. As well as God’s gentleness and severity. Let’s begin with God’s intervention and absence. 

God’s intervention and absence:

How many of you yell at the ref when you are watching a sports game?

And how many of you live with someone who yells at the ref? Be honest now.

It can be frustrating when the ref makes a bad call and unfair play is allowed. Personally, I don’t care. It’s just a game. But for some of you the compulsion to step onto the field and intervene is very strong.

Modern technology has advanced to the point where the TMO does intervene at times. In fact, in cricket, the players can challenge the on-field decision and ask the third umpire for a second opinion.

In verse 1 of Isaiah 64, the prophet makes an impassioned plea for God’s intervention saying, O that you would rend the heavens and come down that the mountains would tremble before you…

Before we unpack this verse, you should know this sweet and sour prayer actually begins at verse 7 of Isaiah 63. So, this plea for God’s intervention comes somewhere near the centre of the prayer. Isaiah 64, verse 1 is the heart of the prayer, which means it is probably the most important part. 

That word rend means to rip or to tear open. In Old Testament times, rending or tearing your clothes was a sign of grief or remorse. It was a dramatic way of showing everyone that you did not agree with what was happening. Sometimes it signalled repentance. Other times the rending of garments was a sign of protest, like yelling at the ref.     

Asking God to rend the heavens was like asking God to tear his clothes in protest at the status quo. But God appears to be unresponsive, aloof and disengaged. The prophet wants God to visibly show his outrage at the state of affairs. He’s asking God (the third umpire) to come onto the field and right some wrongs.

The mountains of verse 1 are a metaphor for imposing and oppressive obstacles. [1] Whether Isaiah’s audience are in exile or returning from exile, they are up against it. The prophet wants God to come down from heaven in power to deal with the challenges his people on earth face.

He wants God to put heat on Israel’s enemies, as when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil.

Fire is a catalyst for change. Fire makes things happen. If God came down to intervene that would be the catalyst they needed, just like the days of old when God intervened to deliver Israel from slavery in Egypt.

Some commentators reckon the prophet is confronting God and the people with an intolerable tension between the past and the present. [2]

God intervened before, why won’t the Lord intervene again?

For God’s people in exile the contrast between then and now is as stark as a lush green forest and a barren brown desert. The people have gone from a land of milk and honey to a land of tripe and onions. They have exchanged freedom in Palestine for captivity in Babylon. And when they finally did return to the Promised Land, after their exile, they found ruin and disappointment.   

One thing is clear, God’s perceived absence has the effect of causing people to miss the Lord and to long for him. “Don’t it always seem to go you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone”.

There may be times when we feel like exiles in a strange land. Times when we wish God would intervene to change our situation and yet, despite our earnest prayers, nothing changes. The water doesn’t boil and the mountains still stand in our way.

The Lord disciplines those he loves. Sometimes God’s perceived absence and inaction refines us. It moves us to sort out our priorities and realign our values. It sharpens our yearning for intimacy with God.

God’s goodness and anger:

So why doesn’t God intervene? Well, the prophet thinks it has to do with the sweet and sour combination of God’s goodness and anger.

Most people wouldn’t naturally put goodness and anger together. We tend to associate anger with violence or a lack of self-control. Christians often think of anger like a wild animal, something bad to be avoided. Even secular society frowns on anger (in NZ at least).

And while it’s true that not all expressions of anger are good, there is a right kind of anger. At its heart, anger is the natural and unavoidable response to injustice.         

In the same way that your body reacts to an infection by producing antibodies to fight the infection, so too your soul reacts to injustice by producing anger to oppose the injustice. Anger is our soul’s natural immune response to something immoral or wrong and therefore it is good.

But, just as our physical immune system can sometimes overreact and attack healthy cells, so too our soul (or our psyche) can misdirect anger. We might take our anger out on someone who doesn’t deserve it, or we might turn our anger inward where it festers into self-hatred and depression.   

God’s anger is never misdirected or out of proportion. God doesn’t fly off the handle in a fit of rage. God’s anger is tempered with self-control. God’s anger is a carefully measured and fair response against evil and injustice. Without God’s anger, there is no justice and without justice there is no peace.

In verses 4 and 5, the prophet directs our attention to the goodness of God saying: Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.

God is unique. He is one of a kind. There is no one else like Yahweh. Not only is the Lord powerful he is also just and merciful, acting to help those who do what is right. This speaks to the goodness of God’s character.

It also suggests the problem for Israel. If Yahweh were a pagan god the people might think they could bribe him or manipulate him with sacrifices. But the Lord Almighty is not like the gods of other nations. He is free. He won’t be bribed or manipulated.

God does good because he is good. Likewise, God gets angry with evil because he cannot abide injustice.

You may have seen an ad on TV where the mum is wiping the kitchen bench with a piece of raw chicken – not very hygienic. The point of the ad is that using a dirty old dish cloth to wipe down the bench just spreads the germs around.

It makes things worse. What you need is a clean new cloth.

The prophet puts his finger on the problem in verses 5 and 6, where he says…

…But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? 6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags…

It’s like the prophet is saying, spiritually speaking we’ve become like someone trying to keep the kitchen clean with a dirty cloth. We may as well be wiping the bench with a piece of raw chicken. Our righteous acts, our best intentions, are just spreading the salmonella of sin around and making things worse.  

The prophet also uses the image of a leaf blown away by the wind. In verse 6 he says, we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

As long as the leaf stays connected to the tree it lives and breathes. But once the leaf is separated from the tree it dies. With this metaphor, God’s people are like leaves which have become disconnected from the tree.

The wind, in this word picture, is sin. Sin separates people from God, the source of life. The prophet is probably alluding to the exile. The nation sinned against God badly and for a long time. As a consequence, they were swept away to Babylon. This explains Israel’s disconnect with God. 

The prophet is basically saying, we have excluded ourselves from the worshiping community and there’s nothing we can do to get back in.

We admit, the problem is less with our enemies and more with us.  

The alienation between God and his people finds expression in verse 7 where the prophet says: No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins.

‘To call on the name of the Lord’ means to pray. The prophet is praying on behalf of the people because the people have given up trying to pray themselves. They don’t believe God will listen to them because of their sins.

It’s a Catch 22 situation. The only way we’re going to get through this is with God’s help (with him coming down to save us). But God isn’t going to help us because we’ve broken faith with him and he is angry. So what’s the point in praying? We’d just be wasting our breath.  

The people feel hopeless because God has hidden his face. What does it mean for God to hide his face? At the end of the service each week, when I give the benediction, I say… May the Lord make his face shine upon you… This is based on Aaron’s priestly blessing for the people of Israel in the wilderness.

To have the Lord’s face shine upon you is like saying, may God smile on you.     May God’s presence light your way through life, so you are not afraid and do not stumble. May God bless you with warmth and wisdom and vitality.

If that is what it means for God to shine his face upon you, then hiding his face is the opposite. When God hides his face, we stumble in darkness. Without the light of God’s presence, we are afraid because we cannot see a way forward. The signs of God’s grace and blessing are hidden from us.

When God is angry, he doesn’t usually storm in and smash things. More often God hides his face; he steps back, he withdraws his light, so we stumble in the dark and suffer the consequences of our actions.   

There’s a certain irony in God’s goodness. On the one hand God’s goodness enables life to function on earth. More than that, God’s goodness supports trust. It is because God is good that we can trust him.

But at the same time, God’s goodness prevents us from getting close to him. We are not always righteous or just and therefore we risk provoking God’s anger. We need a third person (someone good) to intercede for us, to pray on our behalf. Jesus is that third person. He is the righteous one who bridges the gap, restoring the communication with God.      

Have there been times in your life when you felt like God was hiding his face from you; times when you gave up on prayer? Who interceded for you during that time? Give thanks to God for them.

Now ask yourself, is there someone who needs me to carry them in prayer at the moment? Jesus lends us his righteousness that we might intercede for others before God in prayer.

God’s gentleness and severity:

Isaiah 64 is a sweet and sour prayer. The prophet longs for God’s intervention, during a time when God’s absence is felt keenly. The prophet acknowledges God’s goodness together with God’s anger, his opposition to injustice. Now let’s consider the combination of God’s gentleness and severity.

As a kid, I remember watching a potter form a bowl out of clay. I was transfixed, watching the vessel take shape on the wheel.

Every now and then the potter would look up at me and smile. He was completely silent, didn’t say a word, just let his hands do the talking.

There was a gentleness in those hands, a sensitivity. The potter wasn’t forcing the clay, he was respecting it, feeling for it’s true form. He was an artist.

In verse 8 we read…

Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Here the prophet puts two images of God together. The Lord (Yahweh) is both a father to us and a potter. In other words, God is our creator and we are his handiwork, his children. We owe our very existence to God.

A good father, like a good potter, has a gentle touch. Just as a potter skilfully shapes and forms the clay into a functional form, so too a father tenderly shapes and forms his children into maturity.  

The Jewish exiles were like a lump of clay. They were in a state of chaos.

They had little form or shape or function in Babylon. And, like a lump of clay, they were completely helpless. There was nothing they could do to shape themselves. They were entirely dependent on God to reform them as a nation.  

Why does a potter work with clay to create something? Because he is a potter and that’s what potters do. Why should God reform and remake the exiles into a new nation? Because he is the creator and that’s what the creator does.

The prophet is not asking God to act on the basis of the people’s righteousness. He has just admitted they have no righteousness. The prophet is asking God to act on the basis of who God is. Creator and Father.

Making pottery is not all gentleness and grace. After the vessel is formed it goes into a fiery furnace where it bakes at a severe temperature to make it strong and durable. Yes, God is gentle. We could say gentleness is God’s default setting. Gentleness is how God deals with us most of the time. But there are occasions, from our perspective, when God can be quite severe.  

In verses 10 and 11 the prophet describes the state of Israel. The cities have become a desert and Jerusalem a desolation. The temple has been burned with fire and all that was treasured lies in ruins. This is a picture of God’s severity.

We have heard enough about God’s severity over the past three weeks, as we unpacked Mark 13. I don’t need to labour the point today. Suffice to say, God is not like Santa Claus. He is not a benign old man who indulges our every whim. As C.S. Lewis reminds us, God is good but he is not safe. Respect him. He holds your eternity in his hands.    

Having reminded God of his severity, the prophet then concludes his prayer with a question: 12 After all this, O Lord, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?

That’s how the prayer ends, left hanging with the question unanswered.

We know, from our vantage point in history, that the Lord did not hold himself back. We know God does not punish beyond measure. The prayer of Isaiah 64 is answered in the person of Jesus.

Conclusion:

The prophet had asked for God to rend the heavens and come down to help them. Roughly five centuries later, at Jesus’ baptism, we read…

And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. [with gentleness]

Jesus is the divine intervention the prophet had asked for. Jesus is God’s presence among us, in human form. Jesus is the potter and the clay. Jesus is the catalyst for change, making things happen in heaven and on earth.

Jesus moved the mountains of sin and death, to restore our relationship with God. Jesus is the embodiment of God’s goodness, the ultimate expression of God’s gentleness and justice. Jesus is the face of God, shining upon us.

Let us pray. Father God, you are the potter, we are the clay. Thank you for rending the heavens and coming down. Thank you for answering Isaiah’s prayer in and through Jesus. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. Do you yell at the ref during a sports game? Do you know someone who does? Why do people do that? Why does the prophet call for God to rend the heavens and come down?
  3. Have there been times in your life when you longed for God to intervene? What happened?
  4. Have there been times in your life when you felt like God was absent? How did this affect you? 
  5. Why do we need anger? When is anger good? When is anger not good? What strategies do you have for managing your anger well?
  6. Discuss / reflect on Isaiah 64:7. Why did the people give up praying to God? Have there been times when you felt like prayer was useless? Why did you feel that way? Did anyone intercede for you (pray on your behalf) during that time? Is there someone who needs you to carry them in prayer at the moment?
  7. What purpose does God’s gentleness serve? What purpose does God’s severity serve? What is your perception of God? In your mind, is God all gentleness or all severity or a bit of both? Do you have the balance right?    

[1] Refer John Watts, Word Commentary on Isaiah, page 335.

[2] Refer Paul Hanson’s commentary on Isaiah, page 237.

Tawa Baptist

Watch

Scripture: Mark 13:28-37

Video Link: https://youtu.be/UTzUTNOVvT4

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • These things (vv. 28-31)
  • That day (vv. 32-37)
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

When working with anything electrical it’s important not to get your wires crossed. If your car battery runs flat and you need jumper leads to get it started, always remember positive to positive, negative to negative. If you cross your wires, sparks will fly and you might get a nasty shock.  

To make it easier for you, the jumper leads are colour coded. The red lead attaches to the positive terminal on each battery and the black lead attaches to the negative terminal. Just don’t let the wires touch each other.

Today we conclude our series in the gospel of Mark by looking at the closing verses of chapter 13. Mark 13 is complicated. For most of the chapter Jesus is talking about the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, which happened in AD70. But right at the end of Mark 13, Jesus switches to talking about his second coming and the end of the age, which is yet to happen.

From this distance in history (2000 years after Mark wrote his gospel) it’s easy to get our wires crossed. To make it clearer for you, verses 28-31 relate to the destruction of Jerusalem and the verses 32-37 relate to Jesus’ second coming and the end of the age. From Mark 13, verse 28 we read… 

28 “Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. 29 Even so, when you see these things happening, you know that it is near, right at the door. 30 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

32 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. 34 It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. 35 “Therefore, keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. 36 If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. 37 What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Today’s sermon is a message of two halves. The first half focuses on verses 28-31, where Jesus talks about ‘these things’. These things being the destruction of the Jerusalem temple, which happened in the first Century, and has been the subject of most of the preceding 27 verses. 

The second half of the message focuses on verses 32-37, where Jesus talks about ‘that day’. That day being the day of the Lord; aka: Jesus’ second coming, which is yet to happen. Let’s start with these things.

These things (vv. 28-31)

The seasons of the year, spring, summer, autumn and winter, are normally heralded by certain signs. We know spring is starting when daffodils and cherry blossoms come out. We know summer is almost here when the lawns need mowing more frequently. And we know autumn has arrived by the changing colour of the leaves on trees.

These signs of the seasons don’t lie. People may lie and deceive but the leaves on the trees reveal the truth of the season.  

In Mark 13, Jesus is sitting on the Mount of Olives, looking across the valley to Jerusalem. It’s springtime and the Mount of Olives is covered in fig trees.

Fig trees grow a lot of foliage during spring and so Jesus uses this as a parable for what he has just been talking about.

In verse 2 of Mark 13, Jesus had predicted the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. Then in verse 4, the disciples asked, ‘when will these things happen and what will be the sign?’ Jesus goes on to talk about what to look out for and what to avoid. We covered these things over the past two Sundays.

The signs Jesus mentions are like fig trees growing an abundance of leaves in spring. They indicate the destruction of the Jerusalem temple is close at hand.

In the same way the leaves of a tree don’t lie, so too Jesus doesn’t lie.

False prophets will deceive many, saying God will save Jerusalem. But Jesus’ words reveal the truth of the season.     

Jesus says as much, in verses 30-31, which read…

30 Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. 31 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

We know these things refers to the destruction of Jerusalem because Jesus says it will happen within this generation, that is, within the lifetime of the disciples. And, as we have heard, the destruction of Jerusalem did actually happen within 40 years of Jesus predicting it. 

The cogent point here is that Jesus’ words are trustworthy and reliable, far more trustworthy and reliable than the temple building. The phrase heaven and earth, in verse 31, is probably a metaphor for the temple. (The temple being a symbol of heaven and earth in miniature.)

Jesus is saying his words will outlive the Jerusalem temple. Indeed, Jesus’ words are eternal. Therefore, Jesus’ teaching is worthy of our obedience.

When we obey Jesus’ words in faith, we offer worship of eternal significance; something that gives our lives lasting meaning.

That day (vv. 32-37)

Okay, having spoken at length (for 31 verses) about these things (aka: the destruction of Jerusalem), Jesus then looks further ahead to that day, at the end of the age when he will return in glory.

Unlike the destruction of Jerusalem, which Jesus knew would happen within a generation, that day of his second coming is known only to God the Father.

Not even the angels in heaven nor Jesus himself know the timing of that day.

And because no one knows the timing of Christ’s return, we must keep watch.

What does it mean to keep watch? Here’s an acronym for you. W.A.T.C.H. stands for Work, Abide, Trust, Commit and Hope. Watching begins with working.

In verse 34, Jesus gives another parable. The second coming of the Lord is like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task…

Jesus is the owner of the house who goes away and Jesus’ followers are the servants who are left in charge. The servants don’t sit around idly doing nothing in their master’s absence. No. The servants keep working. They get on with the tasks assigned to them.

Perhaps one servant is in charge of the grounds. If she doesn’t mow the lawns and keep the weeds under control, and the master comes back to an overgrown garden, it will be obvious she wasn’t keeping watch.

Or another servant may be in charge of the kitchen. If he doesn’t feed the household, and the master comes back to a sickly, malnourished staff, it will be obvious he wasn’t keeping watch.

Watching begins with working, doing the mahi. Work provides a positive use for our time, so we are less likely to get into trouble. It also gives us purpose and enables us to contribute to God’s household in meaningful ways. 

The question is: what is our assigned task? What good work does Jesus want us to do? How does the master want you to contribute to his household?

We are talking about what it means to watch for Jesus’ return. As well as doing the work assigned to us, we must also abide in Christ. ‘Abide’ is one of those words which has more than one meaning.

Abide can mean hanging out with someone, spending time with them or living with them. Jesus’ parable in verse 34 imagines a situation where the servants abide in their master’s household, sort of like Downton Abbey.

Abiding, then, is about being together and taking care of our relationships.

We don’t want to become so task-focused that we neglect our relationships with each other.

When we started training for ministry, our New Testament lecturer (George) talked to us about SAS training. The SAS are elite commandos in the British army. We were not elite Christians. We were pretty ordinary really. But we were preparing to enter a spiritual war zone. 

George told us, the final test for getting into the SAS is a survival exercise.

A small squad of men are dropped in the wilderness and have to get back to base without being captured. To pass the test though, every member of the squad needs to make it home. No one left behind.

George’s point was that we needed to look out for each other and not become so focused on the task that we neglected our mates. Our own individual achievement should not become more important than the wellbeing of our fellow believers.

Abiding doesn’t mean we need to live together all the time, commune style. But we do need to fellowship together on a regular basis. We do need to take care of our relationships. One of the reasons we gather for worship on a Sunday and hold shared lunches and run small groups is to abide with each other. When believers abide with each other, they are abiding in Christ.      

Abide also has another meaning though. To abide means to obey or adhere to, as in ‘abide by the law’. To abide in Christ, therefore, is to continue obeying Jesus’ teaching, following in his footsteps. And what did Jesus command us to do? Love one another. By this all people will know you are my disciples.

Abiding in Christ is what makes our work fruitful for God’s glory. As Jesus says in John 15, 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you abide in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Abiding in Christ could be summed up as obeying Jesus in fellowship with other believers. To what extent are we abiding in Christ? Do we have the balance right between working and abiding?

Life is busy, especially at this time of year. I know, I get it. I don’t want to add yet another thing to your ‘to do list’. Nor do I want to send you on a guilt trip. But the spiritual reality is, we cannot keep watch on our own. We need to help each other if we are going to make it.    

To watch for Jesus’ return means to work at the task the Lord assigns to us, as we abide in Christ, that is, as we support one another. Keeping watch also involves trust. This trust works both ways. Jesus trusts us and we trust him. 

In verse 34, Jesus says the owner of the house puts the servants in charge. Putting the servants in charge shows that the owner trusts his servants to take care of business when he is gone.

By the same token, the servants need to trust the master, even though they cannot see him and don’t know when he will return. There are times in this life when we feel overwhelmed, when the darkness closes in, and we can’t see a way forward. In those times we need to trust that God will find a way, that he will lead us to the light of a new day.

Humanity has been waiting 2000 years for Jesus to return. That’s a long time from our perspective. We know we can trust Jesus’ words though, because his prediction about the destruction of Jerusalem came true, as did many other things he said. Jesus’ return is as sure as the sunrise, it just takes longer.

Work, abide, trust. These are essential to keeping watch for Jesus’ second coming, as is commitment. Keeping watch for Christ requires us to commit.

To commit means to stick with something (or someone) for as long as it takes. Commitment requires grit. Like the grit on sandpaper, we stick no matter what.

In verse 35 Jesus says: keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn.    

Following this metaphor, it could be a long night without Jesus in the world. And so, the followers of Jesus need to be prepared to commit for the long haul.

The kind of commitment required is the commitment of a marathon runner who does the training and prepares well in advance. Come race day, he is ready and goes the distance. Or it’s the commitment of a woman in labour, who breaths through the contractions and endures the pain till her baby is born.

What I’m saying here is, we need to find our rhythm because a healthy rhythm supports commitment. Just like a marathon runner needs to find their rhythm to make it through the race. And, just like a woman in labour needs to find her rhythm with delivering her baby. Commitment requires a certain rhythm and balance, so we don’t burn ourselves out. 

Verse 36 reads: If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping.

It’s best not to interpret this verse literally. Sleeping here is a metaphor for failing to do one’s duty and not taking seriously the warning of the master’s return.

Getting a good night’s sleep and taking holidays when we need to, is part and parcel of finding our rhythm and maintaining our commitment so we can go the distance in God’s will for us.

What rhythms support your commitment to Christ? Do you observe a sabbath? Do you maintain a regular routine of Bible reading and prayer? Do you take care of your body with healthy eating, exercise and rest? Do you make time for friends and family and church?  

To watch for Christ is to do the work Jesus assigns us, to abide in him, to recognize the trust he shows in us and return that trust to him, to commit for the long haul and to maintain our hope.    

Hope is like a kite; it rises against the wind. Just as you can’t fly a kite without wind, so too you can’t raise hope without facing opposition.

When life is easy and we don’t face any opposition we have little need for hope, because we are happy enough in the present. But when life is difficult and the present is not a comfortable place to be, we long for a better future. That is hope.

As we have noted already, Jesus uses the expression ‘that day’ in relation to his second coming. In the Old Testament, that day, (aka: the day of the Lord), was a day of judgement.

In Isaiah chapter 2 we read, ‘The eyes of the arrogant will be humbled and the pride of men brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day’.

For Jesus’ disciples, ‘that day’ was a day of judgement, when God would come to sweep away evil and all that is false. But that day was also a day of hope, because if you are oppressed by injustice, then the removal of those who are oppressing you is good news, something to look forward to.

Judgement and hope go together in the Bible. They are two sides of the same coin.

In Matthew 24, the parallel passage to Mark 13, Jesus says…

37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 

Jesus’ second coming will be a surprise. It will mean the terror of judgement for some and the hope of salvation realised for others. This is why Jesus stresses the importance of keeping watch. So his second advent is a source of hope and not despair.

How does the day of Christ’s return make you feel? How strong is your hope?

Is Jesus’ second coming something you look forward to, or is it something you don’t think about all that much?

Conclusion:

Hope feeds joy and joy gives us the strength we need to watch. To do the work assigned to us, to abide in Christ, to trust Jesus, and to commit for the long haul.

Let us pray…   

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of Man, give us strength, wisdom and fellowship as we wait and watch for your advent. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. How do we know we can trust Jesus’ words? Why should we take Jesus at his word?
  3. What does it mean to keep watch for Jesus’ return? How do we do this?
  4. What is your assigned task? What good work does Jesus want you to do? How does the master want you to contribute to his household?
  5. What does it mean to abide in (or with) Christ? To what extent are you abiding in Christ? Do you have the balance right between working and abiding?
  6. What rhythms do you have in your life that support your commitment to Jesus? What could you do differently to better sustain your commitment to Christ?
  7. How does the day of Christ’s return make you feel? Is Jesus’ second coming something you look forward to in hope? Why or why not?
Tawa Baptist

Keep Calm

Scripture: Mark 13:1-13

Video Link: https://youtu.be/kURCOQhAKTc

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Calm your enthusiasm
  • Calm your speculation
  • Calm your fear
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Keep calm and carry on has become a well-known phrase around the world. Some might say it is overused. Keep calm and carry on was originally coined by the British Ministry of Information in 1939, just before the Second World War.

The Ministry of Information put this phrase on posters to help the public. They printed nearly two and half million copies. However, very few posters were ever displayed. Hence the slogan didn’t really catch on during World War Two.

It wasn’t until the beginning of the 21st Century that keep calm and carry on became popular. A bookshop owner was sorting through a box of second-hand books when he found one of the original posters. When he displayed the poster in his shop, it created so much interest he reproduced it and started selling copies. Now it’s everywhere. 

Keep calm and carry on reflects the spirit of British stoicism. It speaks to the self-discipline and fortitude of the war generation. It’s about not being carried away by anxiety but staying calm under pressure for the sake of those around you.

Today we continue our series in Mark’s gospel, focusing on chapter 13, verses 1-13. In this reading Jesus talks about the future. The disciples can expect the years ahead to be difficult. When the mud hits the fan, Jesus’ advice is to keep calm and carry on. From Mark 13, verse 1, we read… 

As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!” 2 “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.” 3 As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, 4 “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?” 5 Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 6 Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. 7 When you hear of wars and rumours of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains. 9 “You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them. 10 And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. 11 Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. 12 “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. 13 Everyone will hate you because of me, but the one who stands firm to the end will be saved.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

Keeping calm is the key to carrying on. If you don’t keep calm, you won’t be able to carry on for long.

In the verses we just read, Jesus counsels his disciples to keep calm. More specifically, they need to calm their enthusiasm for the temple. They need to calm their speculation about end times, and they need to calm their fear of rejection. Let’s begin with the disciples’ misplaced enthusiasm.  

Calm your enthusiasm:

Have you ever seen a shiny red apple which looked fresh and crisp in the fruit bowl, only to bite into it and get a mouth full of floury mush?

Have you ever read glowing reviews about a restaurant, only to find the meal servings were tiny and the prices enormous?

Have you ever bought an electrical appliance that seemed like good value in the shop, only to have it break down a few days outside of its warranty?    

Sometimes it pays to curb your enthusiasm.

In verse 1 of Mark 13, as Jesus is leaving Jerusalem for the Mount of Olives, one of his disciples expresses his enthusiasm for the temple. He remarks how the stones are enormous and the building looks magnificent. His enthusiasm is understandable. Some of the stones were the size of a bus and the architecture was ornate.  

The temple of Jesus’ day had been rebuilt by Herod the Great. The same Herod who had murdered innocent babies around the time Jesus was born.

Herod’s purpose in building the temple was to make a name for himself and wrangle political power. Herod was not interested in honouring God.

The temple was meant to be a place of prayer and purity. Instead, it had become a place of politics and corruption. It was supposed to be a place of healing and reconciliation, but it had become a place of greed and conniving. The temple should have been a place to worship God in spirit and in truth, but it was really a man-made idol.       

Jesus pours cold water on the disciples’ enthusiasm for the temple, predicting a time when the temple will be destroyed, not one stone left on top of another. Why does Jesus do this? Because the temple is under God’s judgement.

Enthusiasm for the temple building is misplaced, it is a waste of energy.

Getting all excited about the temple is like being eager to buy a ticket for the Titanic’s maiden voyage. 

The Jerusalem temple was, in fact, destroyed by the Romans just a few decades later, in AD 70. We will hear more about that next week.

When speaking to the Pharisees in Matthew 12, Jesus says: “I tell you, one greater than the temple is here”. Jesus was talking about himself.

Given the choice between looking at a picture of an ice cream or actually eating the ice cream, most people would choose to eat the ice cream.

Following this metaphor, the temple building was just a pretty picture, an image, it wasn’t the real thing. Jesus is the ice cream. Jesus is the real thing. Through Jesus we taste and experience the goodness of God. 

Jesus is greater than the Jerusalem temple, for Jesus embodies the living presence of God on earth. Jesus is the atoning sacrifice who makes us right with God. In Jesus we find healing for body, mind and soul. Through Jesus our prayers and our worship are made acceptable to God.

Sadly, the disciples couldn’t tell the difference between the picture and the ice cream itself. The disciples couldn’t yet see that being in Christ was better, by far, than being in the temple courts. For when we are in Christ, we are as close to God as we can possibly be.

So, given Jesus’ criticism of the Jerusalem temple, does that mean we should not have church buildings? Well, no. Our situation is different from the Jewish temple of the first century.

The church buildings are useful in so far as they support relationship and connection. The buildings provide a place for the community to come together for worship and fellowship, and they are a symbol of the Christian presence in this place. We want our buildings to be functional and safe. That’s why we did the earthquake strengthening and the north wing renovations.

At the same time, we hold our buildings lightly. We recognize that while the buildings are useful, they are not the most important thing. The church depends on Jesus, not on this auditorium. The church would continue to exist if the buildings were taken away.

Jesus is our temple. Wherever two or three are gathered in Jesus’ name, the Lord is present. Therefore, the church is the people, all those who are in Christ.      

I don’t think anyone could accuse Tawa Baptist of making too much of their buildings. Someone told me once (before we did our renovations) how they liked that our buildings looked a bit tired and weather worn. They could identify with this. They had been knocked around by life and felt at home here.

That’s the gospel. Weakness and vulnerability speak to people in a way that strength and beauty can’t.    

Jesus is more concerned with the quality of our relationships with God and each other, than he is with our architecture. Are we a people of faith and prayer? Are we a community of grace and truth? Do others experience something of God’s presence among us? Does this church feel like coming home?

Calm your speculation:

After calming the disciples’ enthusiasm for the temple, Jesus goes on to calm their speculation about end times.

For thousands of years people have speculated about how the world will end. Some thought it would all be over 12 years ago because the Mayan calendar ran out on the 21 December 2012. And yet here we are. There was also quite a bit of anxiety 25 years ago with the Y2K bug. Remember that?

Not to mention all the conspiracy theories that float around whenever there is a war. The leaders of those countries we consider to be our enemies at the minute, tend to be labelled the anti-Christ. Give it another 30 or 40 years and our enemies will be our allies again.

People are slow to learn. Consequently, history keeps repeating itself.

Humanity remains fascinated with the so-called apocalypse. A case in point: The Left Behind book series sold over 65 million copies and was made into a number of movies as well. Sadly, some people base their belief about end times on those books. The Left Behind series might be entertaining in the way that Tom Clancy or Stephen King is entertaining, but it’s not the gospel. It’s fiction.

To be clear, the experts are not agreed that Mark 13 is about the end of the world. But that is how many people today read it. In the context Jesus is talking about the destruction of Jerusalem which, to the Jews of the first century, would have seemed like the end of the world.

When four of Jesus’ disciples ask him when the temple will be destroyed and what sign they should look out for that the end is nigh, Jesus seeks to calm their speculation.

Jesus tells his disciples to watch out for false Messiah’s and not to be alarmed when they hear of wars and rumours of wars. Such things must happen,but they do not signal the end.  

Jesus goes on to say: 8 Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.

Wars, earthquakes and famines happen in every age of human history and do not necessarily carry any weight as signs that the end is imminent.

Jesus wants his disciples to guard against apocalyptic fanatics who think the end of the world is at hand. These fanatics point to false prophets, false Messiah’s and various earthly upheavals to prove their point. [1] Don’t be sucked in by their conspiracy theories.  

Jesus’ metaphor of birth pains sounds a note of hope. Wars, earthquakes and famines are normally associated with death and destruction. But Jesus sees beyond the death and destruction of these events to the new creation God is bringing about. Jesus’ story does not end with the cross. Jesus’ story (and ours) continues with the resurrection.

Rather than speculating about how the world might end, the disciples are to give their time and energy to preaching the gospel to all nations. You can’t control the future, but you can tell people about Jesus in the present. 

Calm your fear:

Perhaps the hardest part of keeping calm and carrying on is managing our fear. Fear is often more difficult to control than enthusiasm and speculation.

But it’s not just fear in general that Jesus wants to calm. More specifically we need help to calm our fear of rejection.  

We can experience rejection in a variety of ways. For example…

Being made redundant from a job you really enjoyed and were good at.

Not getting a job you interviewed for. Being dumped by someone you really liked. Or perhaps having your husband or wife cheat on you. Being picked last for a sports team in PE. Being overlooked or abandoned by a parent. Not getting invited to a party.

These are just some of the ways we might feel rejected.  

Sometimes rejection is relatively minor. Other times it is more significant. Whether it is major or minor though, rejection erodes your spirit and your self-confidence. Suffer enough rejection and you will end up with a hole in your heart, where faith and hope used to be. That’s a difficult hole to fill.

Often when someone rejects us, they have made a judgement about us that is not fair. Prejudice goes hand in hand with rejection. No one wants to be prejudged or condemned. We are naturally afraid of rejection and try to avoid it.

To those who have been judged and rejected unfairly, let me say this. God sees you, even when you are invisible to others. The Lord is our judge and he is just. God will make things right in the end. He can heal your wounds and fill the hole in your heart. That’s not speculation. That is God’s character.

In verses 9-13, Jesus warns his disciples of the prejudice and rejection they will face because of their relationship with him. Their rejection will be quite a bit worse than being picked last in PE. Their rejection will be akin to the suffering Jesus faced. Jesus’ experience sets the pattern for his followers.

The disciples will be flogged and rejected by their fellow Jews in the local synagogues. They will stand trial and be rejected before the Roman authorities as well. And, worst of all, they will be betrayed and rejected by members of their own family.  Everyone will hate the disciples because of Jesus.   

In verse 11 Jesus says, “Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.”

This is not an excuse for preachers to avoid doing the hard yards with their sermon prep. The idea here is that, when you are blindsided and the pressure comes on you from the authorities, keep calm and carry on. Don’t panic. The Holy Spirit has got you.

We read how the Holy Spirit empowered the apostles under trial in the book of Acts. For example, in Acts 4 we read how Peter responded when standing before the Jewish Sanhedrin…

8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! 9 If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, 10 then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. 11 Jesus is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’ 12 Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to humankind by which we must be saved.” 13 When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus… 

The Sanhedrin tried to silence the apostles 19 But Peter and John replied, “Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to him? You be the judges! 

20 As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.”

Peter and John were rejected by the Jewish authorities, but the Holy Spirit gave them the courage and the words they needed to keep calm and carry on.

On that occasion the apostles were set free with a warning, but it didn’t always end so well. Eventually Peter was killed for his witness for Jesus and John was sent into exile.

Humanly speaking, not many (if any) could stand the rejection that believers suffered in the first century, except by the strengthening of the Holy Spirit.

When we are rejected because of Jesus, the Holy Spirit is like a hug from God. The Spirit reassures us of Jesus’ presence and God’s acceptance. When we know that God is for us, what does it matter who is against us.  

Conclusion:

One commentator notes that Jesus’ followers live at a place where the purposes of God and the pain of the world cross paths.

“Many Christians today face persecution every bit as severe as that which the early church suffered; and those Christians who don’t face persecution [Christians like us in NZ] often face the opposite temptation, to stagnate, to become cynical, to suppose nothing much is happening, that the Kingdom of God is just a pious dream”. [2]

We are unlikely to suffer in the same way the early church did, but the temptation to not carry on is no less real. We need to find our balance.

We don’t want to be so uptight that we burn out or put others off. 

Nor do we want to be so relaxed that we become bored or fall asleep.

As Jesus said, those who stand firm to the end will be saved.    

Let us pray…

All knowing God, save us from wasting our energies on misplaced enthusiasm and speculation about the future. Fill us with your Spirit that we would know your acceptance and not be afraid. Help us to keep calm and carry on, in your will, to the end. Through Jesus we pray. Amen.  

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. What is the purpose of a temple? Why does Jesus curb the disciples’ enthusiasm for the temple? What is the church?
  3. Why does Jesus discourage speculation about end times? What does Jesus encourage his followers to do instead?
  4. In what ways did the disciples of Jesus experience rejection? In what ways have you experienced rejection? How did you feel when you were rejected?
  5. How does Jesus say the Holy Spirit will help the disciples? Can you think of a time when the Holy Spirit gave you the right words in a tight spot? What happened? 
  6. What does it mean to stand firm to the end? How do we do this? How might we find a healthy balance with keeping calm and carrying on? 

[1] See Ben Witherington’s commentary on Mark, page 337. 

[2] Refer Tom Wright’s commentary on Mark, page 180.

Tawa Baptist

Jesus’ Insight

Scripture: Mark 12:38-44

Video Link: https://youtu.be/Jl2L_Egupx4

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Jesus’ insight
  • The widow’s worship
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Bob Dylan once said, ‘What looks large from a distance, up close ain’t never that big’.

Great line. Who knows what Dylan had in mind when he wrote that, but to me it has several layers of meaning. On one level, it says, “Don’t believe the hype. Things are not always as they appear at first”.

Or, if we look at it from another angle, “Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill. Most problems seem bigger from a distance. But when you get close enough to break it down, the problem is more manageable than you first thought”. In other words, don’t worry too much about the future.

Today we continue our series in Mark’s gospel, following the lectionary readings. In this week’s passage, Jesus shows his disciples that, ‘what looks large from a distance, up close ain’t never that big’.  From Mark chapter 12, verses 38-44 we read… 

38 As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, 39 and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honour at banquets. 40 They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will be punished most severely.” 41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. 42 But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents. 43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

This morning’s message has two points of focus. Jesus’ insight and the widow’s worship. Let’s begin with Jesus’ insight.

Jesus’ insight:

Some of you will be familiar with the Yohari window. The Yohari window is a graph of four quadrants, depicting self-awareness.

Some things about you are in the public arena, they are known to you and to everyone else. Other things are known to you but not to others, those private thoughts and motivations you keep hidden behind a façade.

Then there are the things other people know about you, but you yourself are unaware of. Those things in your blind spot or your shadow. The things you deny or don’t want to face.

There are things too which are unknown to you and unknown to others. These things are known only to God. 

With some people what you see is what you get. They are the same on the inside as they are on the outside. They are not pretending.

But then there are those who hide their true self. How they appear in the public arena is quite different from how they actually are in private. Insight sees behind the façade. Insight recognizes reality. What looks large from a distance, up close ain’t never that big.

In verse 38, Jesus warned people against the teachers of the law. These were the religious experts or Bible scholars of Jesus’ day. It might be difficult to imagine, but being a Bible expert was very cool in first century Israel.

Studying the Law of Moses (the Torah) was Israel’s national sport. The Jews of 2000 years ago put the teachers of the law on a pedestal. The teachers of the law were like the All Blacks of Israel, they were honoured.

In contrast, being a Bible scholar is not really valued these days. Bible teachers in wider NZ society are largely ignored or misunderstood. If you want to be popular, then join a sports team or become a rock star. Don’t become a preacher.

In the public arena the religious leaders seemed like paragons of virtue.

Jesus had the insight to see that, when it came to the teachers of the law of his day, what looks large from a distance up close ain’t never that big. Don’t believe the hype. Don’t be too impressed by them.

Many of these teachers of the law (probably not all, but many) did not put God first. Their worship was false, a show to make themselves look good. God hates it when people use religion to hide evil. To do this is to take the Lord’s name in vain. It is hypocrisy.  

If it wasn’t bad enough that these religious leaders sought honour for themselves, some also devoured widows’ houses. They inveigled their way into the lives of vulnerable women and took advantage of them financially.

Jesus sees a day of reckoning coming for these men. They won’t get away with it.

In Mark 12, verses 28-34, last week’s lectionary reading, Jesus had a good conversation with a teacher of the law. This shows us that not all the religious leaders of Jesus’ day were the same. 

This religious expert had correctly discerned that love for God and love for your neighbour is more important than ritual sacrifice. In response, Jesus says to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God”, meaning you are close but not yet in God’s kingdom.

This may have been a bit unsettling for the teacher of the law, who probably thought he was already in, given he was Jewish and one of the religious elite.

The religious leaders were trusting in their heritage and their traditions.

Perhaps Jesus was hinting at the fact that being Jewish and knowing about God’s law in your head is not enough. For even when we know God’s law, we are not always able to keep it, not perfectly.

We must put our faith in the one who fulfils God’s law of love on our behalf, that is: Jesus. Putting our faith in Jesus’ righteousness requires us to abandon all pretence of our own righteousness.

Many of the religious leaders of Jesus’ time were pretending to be righteous when they were not. Some may have done this cynically and others may have been quite unaware of how bad they really were.

Jesus had to shine the light of his insight on the unknown so people wouldn’t be deceived. What looks large from a distance, up close ain’t never that big.

The widow’s worship: 

In contrast to the religious leaders who steal from the vulnerable and say long prayers to cover their tracks, Jesus holds up the example of a poor widow who says nothing and gives everything she has in devotion to God.

The widow in this reading from Mark’s gospel shows us what true worship looks like. Faith expressing itself in love. She worships God with a pure heart.   

William White retells an old Jewish folktale… [1]

Once there was a rich man who never gave donations to the poor. People in his small village never called him by name, they simply referred to him as the Miser.

One day a beggar came to the door of the Miser. ‘Where do you come from?’ he asked. ‘I live in the village’, answered the beggar. ‘Nonsense’, cried the Miser. ‘Everyone in this village knows I do not support beggars’.

In the same village there lived a poor shoemaker. He was a generous man who responded to every person in need that was brought to his attention. No one was ever turned away empty handed from his door.

One day the Miser died. The village leaders decided to bury him at the edge of the cemetery. No one mourned his passing; no one followed the funeral procession to the place of burial.

As the days passed the village rabbi heard disturbing news regarding the shoemaker. ‘He no longer gives alms to the poor’, complained one man.

‘He has refused every charity that has approached him’, declared another.

‘Has anyone asked about his change?’ inquired the rabbi. ‘Yes’, replied the first man. ‘He says he no longer has money to give away’.

Soon the rabbi called on the shoemaker. ‘Why have you suddenly stopped giving money to worthy causes?’ Slowly the shoemaker began to speak.

‘Many years ago, the man you called the Miser came to me with a huge sum of money and asked me to distribute it to those in need. He made me promise that I would not reveal the source of the money until after he died.

Once every month he would visit me secretly and give me additional money to distribute. I became known as a great benefactor even though I never spent a penny of my own money.

I am surprised that no one questioned me earlier. How could anyone who earned the wages of a shoemaker give away as much money as I have all these years?’

The rabbi called all the villagers together and told them the story.

‘The miser has lived the Scriptures, worshipping God with a pure heart by keeping his giving a secret.’

Things are not always as they appear at first. What looked like meanness from a distance, was actually generosity up close. The widow in Mark 12 shows us what it means to worship God with a pure heart.

There are three things, about widowhood, we should be aware of…

Firstly, to be a widow is to experience loss and the pain of grief which goes with that loss. Grief is the price we pay for love. The more you love someone, the deeper the grief you feel when you lose them.

Secondly, widowhood often involves the experience of loneliness. Yes, you can have friends but it’s not the same as your husband or wife. You can get involved in the church and community. But even when the community is warm and kind, a single person might still feel out of place around married couples.

Thirdly, for the woman in Mark 12, being a widow involved financial hardship. There weren’t many employment opportunities for women in those days.

And no government welfare system to pay out a widow’s benefit. Without a man on the scene to provide for her, options for this widow were limited.

Life was extremely difficult for the widow in Mark 12. If anyone had reason to be angry with God, it was this woman. She had suffered much and it probably felt (at times) like no one was on her side. And yet she is not angry with God. She loves God with a pure heart, without there being anything in it for her.

Although the widow gives her offering publicly, no one could accuse her of doing this to make herself look good. If anything, she probably looked relatively bad in the eyes of others, like a miser.

Many rich people dropped in a lot of money, but she dropped in just two thin copper coins. Compared to their great gifts her offering must have seemed very stingy indeed, but not to Jesus. Jesus looks with insight. Jesus sees beyond appearances to what is hidden in the heart.  

After witnessing the widow’s act of worship, Jesus calls his disciples together and says to them, 43 “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

Jesus’ measure is different to ours. Jesus doesn’t just look at the amount given. He measures the proportion given and the cost to the giver. The widow’s offering, which looks small from a distance, up close is really quite big.

The widow gave 100%, whereas the rich gave maybe 5% or 10%? Their 5% or 10% may have equated to hundreds of dollars while her 100% amounted to only a few cents. But the personal cost to her was much greater. The rich did not miss what they gave but the widow faced hunger.      

Now, in saying this we must note that Jesus is not criticising the wealthy here. This is a freewill offering, over and above the minimum required by the law. And the wealthy in this passage give generously. They are not like the religious leaders who are ripping people off. Their giving still counts with God. 

The point is Jesus’ measure is different to ours. We measure the amount. Jesus measures the cost to us personally. We measure quantifiable outcomes, results and bottom lines. Jesus measures the immeasurable, our motivations and heart attitude.

Some witty soul once quipped, ‘the last part of a person to be converted is their wallet’. If that is true, then by giving all the money she possessed, this widow demonstrated her faith was whole and her conversion was complete. She trusted God totally with her life. She genuinely did love God with all her heart and with all her strength. This is challenging stuff.

When I was a boy, we went on holiday somewhere and attended a theme park where they had a wishing well. The idea was to throw your coins into the water and the money would then be given to charity.

I was about to throw my 10 cents in when an older lady said to me, ‘Keep your money son. Don’t throw it away like that.’ She went on to explain that the money wouldn’t go to a good cause. It would be pocketed by the owners of the establishment. She was trying to protect me.

We might think Jesus would do the same for the poor widow. ‘Don’t throw your money away luv, it will just be pocketed by the religious leaders’.

Jesus knows the religious establishment are mostly corrupt. And he knows the widow can’t afford it. Surely it would be a kindness to save her throwing good money after bad. But Jesus doesn’t stop her. To the contrary, Jesus celebrates the widow’s giving.

We are not as radical as Jesus or the widow. We prefer a more common-sense approach.

If anyone here was to give all their money to the church, so they had nothing to live on, most of us would be horrified. No one wants you to be under financial hardship. Be generous to the extent you can afford it but please, take care of yourself as well.    

So why does Jesus not prevent this widow from giving away her last penny?

Well, Jesus sees this woman with spiritual insight.

Firstly, the widow’s giving was an act of worship for God. Her primary motivation wasn’t practical. She wasn’t giving to support the priests or to maintain the running of the temple. Nor was she giving out of a misplaced hope that God would make her rich if she gave up everything.  

Her primary motivation was spiritual. The widow was giving to express her love and devotion to God. And Jesus honours the widow for this. He honours her by respecting the choice she makes and he honours her by ensuring her story is passed on by his disciples.

Worship is like breathing. It is something we must do all the time in order to live. Just as it is not good to hold your breath for too long, so too it is not good for the human soul to hold on to excess cash for too long. Accumulating material wealth for its own sake will weaken your faith. Giving will strengthen your faith and refresh your soul.    

This is not to imply some sort of cargo cult or prosperity doctrine. I’m not suggesting that generous financial giving will make you wealthy. It probably won’t. But it will free you to love God and live lighter.

Another thing we notice here is that Jesus is not anxious for this widow, because he knows the character of God.  In Matthew 6, Jesus says to his disciples…

“Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?”  

Again, parts of Jesus’ teaching seem to go against the grain of our survival instinct. To be clear we still need to work and plan for the future, but not at the expense of our perspective. Often those worries which look large from a distance, up close ain’t never that big.

Of course, by pointing out this woman had given away her last coin, Jesus is making the widow’s need known to the wider network of his disciples so they can do something practical to help her. If the men didn’t take the hint to help this widow, then the women travelling with Jesus surely would have. 

Isn’t it interesting, despite his power to turn stones into bread, Jesus does nothing miraculous here. Rather Jesus points to the miracle of the widow’s love and devotion, and he invites others to share the responsibility for her care.  

Jesus is not anxious for this woman because her faith is strong and her soul is in good shape. She embodies a number of the beatitudes in Matthew 5…

Blessed are the poor for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.

Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. 

Conclusion:

We must not miss the bigger picture. Soon Jesus would go to the cross and pour out his life, totally, for us. The widow who gave everything points to Jesus who gave everything. Like Jesus, her sacrifice of love held nothing back.  

If you are not ready to love God as totally as this poor widow did (and as Jesus does) then don’t be discouraged and don’t give up. Simply love God as much as you can. God in his grace is able to meet us where we are at.

But understand that God will probably call you to greater love and faith, providing all you need in the process.

May the Lord bless you richly and make you a blessing to others, for his glory. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. Discuss / reflect on the Bob Dylan quote: ‘What looks large from a distance, up close ain’t never that big’. What does this mean to you?
  3. Thinking of the Yohari window, how might we grow in our self-awareness? Can you think of a time when you learned something new about yourself? What happened? How did you feel? 
  4. Why did Jesus point out the religious leaders’ hypocrisy?
  5. Put yourself in the shoes of the widow in Mark 12. What do you imagine life was like for her? How do you feel thinking about this widow and what she did? Why do you feel this way?
  6. Why does Jesus highlight the widow’s offering? What can we learn from the widow’s example. In what way(s) does the widow point to Jesus?
  7. Make some time this week (either on your own or with your partner in marriage) to calculate what you give financially to God. E.g. donations to the church and mission or to the poor. Consider both the dollar amount and the proportion of income this represents. What does your level of giving say about your love for God and for others? Does anything need to change?   

[1] William White, ‘Stories for Telling’, page 101-102.

Tawa Baptist

Bart’s Story

Scripture: Mark 10:46-52

Reimagining Jesus’ healing of Bartimaeus:

Many years ago, in a city far, far away, there lived a man who could not see. The man’s name was Bart. Not the Bart of Simpson’s fame. Another Bart from another time.

Bart lived in the city of Jericho. Yes, the same Jericho you learned about in Sunday school. The Jericho whose walls collapsed after a seven-day siege. The Jericho whose only survivors were a prostitute named Rahab and her household.

Jericho wasn’t supposed to exist anymore, but Herod the Great rebuilt the city as a monument to his own ego. The new and improved Jericho was beautiful to look at. But that was no use to Bart, he couldn’t see any of it.

Jericho was not like Wellington. The weather was warmer and dryer for one thing. More than that, there was no safety net for people who were blind. There was no Ministry for Social Development, no disability allowance, and almost no Human Rights.  

This meant Bart was forced to beg for a living, alongside all the other people with disabilities. Bart was part of that 5% of the population at the bottom of the heap. Invisible. Expendable. Excluded.

Not being able to see and not being able to work, Bart had time to listen and think. He learned who to approach for bread by the tone in their voice. Bart took in the smells of the marketplace, like a seeing person took in light. He sensed when rain was coming.

He heard the laughter of children, the constant haggling of shop keepers, the laboured breathing of camels after a long journey,

the footsteps of women, heavy with jars of water from the well.

The chatter of a thousand mundane lives.  

Bart also heard the silence of those who ignored his presence. He couldn’t see them, but he understood their choice not to face him.

It was just too hard for many people. They had enough of their own worries without being confronted with his.

Refusal to acknowledge human need breeds its own kind of blindness. Look away often enough and you will stop seeing your neighbour.

Worse than that, you will forget who you are and why you are.

As a professional beggar, Bart was well aware of people’s reasons for not giving. Afterall, Bart had not always been blind. He could see it from both sides now, like that Joni Mitchell song.

Many people simply could not afford to give. Some wouldn’t give because they felt it encouraged laziness, as if being blind was a lifestyle choice. And others simply didn’t care.

For some, the blind and the lame were being punished by God. These fearful souls believed in karma, a lazy belief system. Their idea of God left no room for grace. No room for mystery.     

Bart also understood people’s reasons for choosing to give. Some were quietly appeasing their conscience for sins both real and imagined. While others gave loudly to make themselves look good.

But people are not all bad. There were a few in each day who gave with genuine compassion. And it was their compassion which helped keep Bart’s faith alive. A winsome touch often came when he least expected it. Compassion helped Bart to imagine what God looked like.

Some of his colleagues on the begging circuit were cynical when it came to God. Years of disappointment had corroded their capacity for trust. 

But that wasn’t Bart. His father had always warned him against self-pity. “You can’t change the past, but you can sometimes learn from it”, his dad used to say. “Don’t focus on what’s wrong with the world. Imagine God putting things right”.  

So that’s what Bart did. When one of his friends who couldn’t walk was trampled to death in a street riot, he imagined his friend walking tall in heaven.

Or when tax collectors stole from hard working families on the bread line, Bart imagined authorities who only collected what was fair. In this way, he saved himself the burden of resentment.   

From a young age Bart had heard the ancient predictions of a king who would come to the rescue of his people. This Messiah would be like king David of old, who had conquered his enemies and established peace. This king would be God’s answer, God’s way of putting things right.

Living on the fringes of Jericho as he did, where many travelers passed through, Bart was in a good position to hear news from all over the region.

For about three years now he had been over-hearing reports of a miracle worker. A man who caused the mute to speak, the lame to walk and the deaf to hear. This man had even been known to raise people from the dead.

He spoke with authority and without fear of the religious establishment. And although he had never taken up arms against the Romans, the power of his words and deeds was conquering all manner of evil.

He had become a hero to the people and, much like king David, he travelled with a band of unlikely misfits. His name was Jesus.

Bart thought about that name. Jesus. In Hebrew, Jeshua. Which translates into English as Joshua. It means, ‘the Lord is salvation’ or more simply, ‘God saves’. Hmm. God saves.   

The Joshua of Old Testament times had been instrumental in the destruction of the first Jericho. What would Jesus, the second Joshua, do?

One day, Bart heard a noise in the distance. Bart was a bit like Radar from MASH in that way, hearing the choppers carrying wounded before anyone else. But this wasn’t the sound of choppers. This was more like a wedding procession.

Bart could hear the excitement in people’s voices and sensed the crowd growing as it went along. He asked those standing near what was happening and they told him, ‘Jesus of Nazareth is passing by’.

Nazareth, a small town in the region of Galilee. Nazareth was not unlike Tawa in some ways. To those who live outside of Wellington, Tawa is the butt of a joke, made famous by a comedian who never lived in Tawa. But to those who do live here, Tawa is a real community.

Nazareth was similar, misunderstood. To those who lived in Jerusalem (just 15 miles from Jericho) Nazareth was a despised place, the butt of a joke. ‘Does anything good come from Nazareth?’ is what people used to say.

Jesus came from the wrong side of the tracks which, in a strange way, made him more trustworthy in Bart’s mind.

Bart knew the Kairos moment had come. Like witnessing a comet that only came round once in a lifetime, Bart had to act before the window of opportunity closed.

But how to get Jesus’ attention? He would have to use a click baity headline. Bart called out loudly, ‘Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me’.

To call Jesus ‘son of David’ raised the stakes. No one had given Jesus the title ‘Son of David’ publicly before. Bart was essentially naming Jesus as the Messiah. God’s special king, chosen to lead and deliver his people.

It was revolutionary talk, bordering on treason.

The Roman empire was a dictatorship. Caesar didn’t take kindly to political rivals. Not that Jesus had any political aspirations. Far from it. But perception is reality and the empire needs to manage perception.   

Bart’s cry risked a riot.   

Many in the crowd tried to silence Bart. Perhaps they were afraid of the possibility of tear gas and water cannons. Or maybe they found Bart’s presence embarrassing. Beggars are a bad look. They bring property prices down and they make respectable people feel uncomfortable.

But the more they told Bart to keep quiet, the more Bart shouted,

‘Son of David, have mercy on me’. Bart would not be ignored.

If you had heard Bart that day, you would have been reminded of that Chumbawamba song, ‘I get knocked down, but I get up again. You’re never gonna keep me down’.

Years of insult, years of rejection, years of grieving and hoping beyond hope. Years of sheer frustration at his own powerlessness were finding expression in his heart’s cry: ‘Son of David, have mercy on me’.

And through the heat and the sweat and the dust and the cacophony of voices, Jesus did hear him.

Jesus didn’t especially like being called ‘Son of David’. It was true alright. He was the Son of David. He was the Messiah. But it was a truth prone to misunderstanding. The title ‘Son of David’, was a fuse waiting to be lit.

Jesus did not come as a warrior king, like David. Nor was he interested in compromising his loyalty to God in order to keep the peace like Solomon. Jesus was not like any king the world had ever known.

Jesus was unique, one of a kind, the real deal. 

In that moment, Jesus remembered something he had said in a sermon once. ‘Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God’. To be pure in heart is to will one thing. This man, blind as he was, possessed an insight that those with 20/20 vision just didn’t have.

The man was asking for mercy. Not for power or prestige. Not for justice or revenge. Jesus knew that God, his father, did not ignore passionate, persistent prayer like this and so neither could he.

Jesus also knew that in responding to the man he was publicly accepting the title of Messiah. And he knew that pretty much everyone would misunderstand what that meant. But in a week or so it wouldn’t matter anyway.

Stopping traffic on the motorway, Jesus said to those standing near,

‘Call him’. The crowd grew still. What would Jesus do?

Like a radio finding the right frequency, the same voices that had just been trying to silence Bart, were now encouraging him. ‘Cheer up. On your feet. He’s calling you’.

Bart didn’t need to be told twice. Throwing his cloak aside he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus. Bart’s cloak was his most valuable possession. It kept him warm at night and he spread it on the ground during the day for people to drop their coins on. Bart’s coat kept him alive.

Bart was prepared to leave everything to meet Jesus. It’s like Bob Dylan said, ‘When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose’. Bart had nothing to lose. Blessed are the poor for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.   

Jesus looked at Bart and saw in his face that the years had not been kind to him. Jesus saw him and understood his pain, his loneliness, the weariness of absorbing other people’s prejudice. And Jesus loved him. 

Jesus spoke to Bart saying, ‘What do you want me to do for you?’

How many times had Jesus uttered those words?

Just a day earlier Jesus had asked the same question of two of his disciples, James and John. They had wanted positions of power and prestige in his kingdom. They had come from privilege and didn’t know to ask for mercy.

Nevertheless, Jesus liked asking people that question. ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ The answer reveals so much.

Bart felt the weight of Jesus’ words, even though they were spoken softly. Bart was used to people tossing him a few coins or a piece of bread when he called for mercy. It often felt like they were paying him to be quiet.

But Jesus was different. Jesus made no assumptions about what Bart wanted. Nor did Jesus try to silence him. Instead, Jesus kept the conversation going, moving from the general to the specific.

Jesus was cutting straight to the heart of the matter. Challenging Bart to reveal his most intimate and sacred desire in front of hundreds of people. It takes real faith to be vulnerable like that.

Bart knew what he wanted. He would take the risk and ask for something big. Something for himself. Something that would last. Something that would set him free. Something that scared him. Something that would completely transform his life…

‘Rabbi, (Master, Teacher), I want to see’.

In asking for his sight, Bart knew he could never go back to his old life of begging. Bart knew he would need to start afresh, learn new skills, get a job, take responsibility and contribute.

He also knew that not everything he saw would be pleasant. Yes, there is beauty in the world, but there is also violence. Nevertheless, he was prepared to accept the challenge of living a more abundant life.

And Jesus, understanding the courage in Bart’s request, agreed to give him what he asked for. ‘Go, your faith has healed you’.

Faith is the conduit for life. We live by faith. If life is blood, then faith is the artery carrying the blood. If life is an electrical current, then faith is the cable carrying the power. If life is an underground stream, then faith is the well finding the water. If life is a piece of bread, then faith is eating the bread.  

Jesus is the source of life. The source of healing, forgiveness and intimacy with God. Find Jesus and you find life. Put your faith in Jesus, trust him in the core of your being, and you will tap into the source of eternal life.

As soon as Jesus spoke, Bart received his sight. He could see again.

And the first image to fill his mind was love, in the face of God’s Son.

As Bart looked into Jesus’ eyes, he saw what God intended for humanity.  

Although Jesus had released him from any obligation by saying, ‘Go’, Bart could not help but follow Jesus along the road to Jerusalem.

There was something attractive about Jesus. Something that drew people to him. ‘Something that has to be believed to be seen’. [1]

From the gospel of Mark, chapter 10, verses 46-52, we read…

46 Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (which means “son of Timaeus”), was sitting by the roadside begging. 

47 When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!”

48 Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”

49 Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called to the blind man, “Cheer up! On your feet! He’s calling you.” 50 Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.

51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him.

The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”

52 “Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” 

Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

Let us pray…

Father God, we thank you for Jesus, through whom we have life and friendship with you. Open our eyes to see Jesus at work in our lives and our neighbourhood. Help us to walk with the Spirit of Jesus, in humility and faith. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. What would Bartimaeus’ life have been like as a blind man living in the first century? How would your life be different if you were blind?
  3. What does the name ‘Jesus’ mean? In what ways does Jesus fulfil the meaning of his name for Bartimaeus? In what ways does Jesus fulfil the meaning of his name for you?  
  4. In what ways does blind Bartimaeus show greater spiritual insight / vision than most of the seeing people around him? Who is Jesus to you? What is your perception / expectation of Jesus?
  5. Why does Bartimaeus call Jesus, ‘Son of David’? What does this title mean? How would the Jews of the first century have (mis)understood this title?
  6. Compare and contrast Bartimaeus’ request with the request of James and John (in Mark 10:37). Why does Jesus give Bartimaeus what he asked for?
  7. What do you want Jesus to do for you? What do you think Jesus might say or do in response to your request? How would your life be different?

[1] This sentence was inspired by a line in a song by U2. 

Tawa Baptist

God’s Law – by Ewan Stewart

Scriptures: Luke 10:25-37, Genesis 12:1-3, Micah 6:6-8, Jer 31:31-34, Mark 12:28-33

Sermon Outline:

The coming of law

Abraham’s call – whole world to be blessed

The laws of Moses – focused on the Nation of Israel, yet often broken

Jesus and the greatest commandment

Jesus’ call on other commandments

Who is my neighbour?

The significance of the Samaritan

Who is YOUR neighbour?

Introduction:

At the time of Jesus, Jewish religious authorities were pre-occupied with enforcing “the law” as written in their scriptures.  As far as they were concerned, these laws were God’s law and any who failed to obey their interpretation of those laws were sinners.  They were not particularly concerned about those who were not Jews as long as they did not interfere with Jewish religious customs.  The nation was inward focused. 

Jesus had quite a bit to say about their ideas and attitudes to the law.  Are their interpretations and the underlying laws important to us?  Should we seek to obey those laws, as Christians?  What is important about the law anyway?

The coming of the law:

We are all familiar today with the idea of a legal code, the law.  However, prior to about 2000BC we don’t know of any written legal code in the world.  The law then was anything the powerful said and could change at any time. 

How then should we regard the law today? 

What is God’s law for us?

The oldest detailed legal code we know of was that of Hammurabi who ruled Babylon from about 1792 to 1750 BC, which is believed to have been shortly after the time of Abraham. Hammurabi’s law was inscribed on a stela in Babylon’s temple of Marduk and can be read today. Hammurabi’s Code was once considered the oldest written law in human history, though older, shorter law collections have since been found.

Those man-made laws were important steps for humankind and allowed people to know what the authorities expected of them.  However, God wants us to apply His law to our everyday lives.  We need to recognise the difference between God’s law and human law.

Mankind has always found it difficult to be obedient to any law, and the idea of God’s law makes it no easier.  Our bible tells the story of how God gave his law to humankind and made it possible for Him to forgive us when his law is broken.  This story begins with Abraham.

Abraham’s call – whole world to be blessed:

When God chose Abraham, when he was still named Abram, he told him (Genesis 12:1-3):

12 The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.

2     “I will make you into a great nation

and I will bless you;

I will make your name great,

and you will be a blessing.

3     I will bless those who bless you,

and whoever curses you I will curse;

and all peoples on earth

will be blessed through you.”

This promise was made on the condition that Abram left his native country and followed God’s advice.  Through it, God intended Abram would be renamed Abraham and be the source of blessing to all peoples on earth.  When the descendants of Abraham, the nation of Israel, later came into being, it was not to be an exclusive privileged nation.  It was to bring blessings to all peoples on earth. 

The laws of Moses – focused on the Nation of Israel, yet often broken:

In Egypt, those descendants of Abraham became the nation of Israel, and were led out of Egypt by Moses.  God gave the nation a detailed legal code through Moses, and this became the base for Jewish law at the time of Jesus.  A part of that legal code is directly attributed to God, through what we know as the ten commandments. 

The laws established by Moses were to:

1.        Establish God as the leader, guide and ruler of the nation of Israel

2.        Make them a separate nation from the rest of the world

3.        Make them an example the world could look up to as promised when God called Abraham

4.        Organise Israel as a nation

5.        Define codes of behaviour that would help Israel live in harmony

Israel gave only patchy obedience to their law over the centuries, and God punished the nation many times for its lapses.  They rarely ever considered that they were God’s example for the world or that through them, God would bless all peoples of the earth. 

By Jesus’ day, Israel had been reduced to Judah, and we know them as Jews.

God used the prophets to try and get Israel to obey the law.  Long before Jesus, the prophet Micah (around 700BC) gave one of the clearest expressions of God’s feelings about Israel’s failings.  This is what he said:

Micah 6:6-8

6     With what shall I come before the Lord

and bow down before the exalted God?

Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,

with calves a year old?

7     Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,

with ten thousand rivers of oil?

Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,

the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

8     He has showed you, O man, what is good.

And what does the Lord require of you?

To act justly and to love mercy

and to walk humbly with your God.

Then, about 100 years after Micah, Jeremiah gave God’s solution to Israel’s weaknesses, which we have seen fulfilled in the coming of Jesus.

Jeremiah 31:31-34

31         “The time is coming,” declares the Lord,

“when I will make a new covenant

with the house of Israel

and with the house of Judah.

32   It will not be like the covenant

I made with their forefathers

when I took them by the hand

to lead them out of Egypt,

because they broke my covenant,

though I was a husband to them,”

declares the Lord.

33   “This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel

after that time,” declares the Lord.

“I will put my law in their minds

and write it on their hearts.

I will be their God,

and they will be my people.

34   No longer will a man teach his neighbor,

or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’

because they will all know me,

from the least of them to the greatest,”

declares the Lord.

“For I will forgive their wickedness

and will remember their sins no more.”

Jesus and the greatest commandment (Jesus’ call on other commandments)

We understand that Jesus was the source of this new covenant, and that this covenant was for all who believe, not just Israel.  With the coming of Jesus, the need for an inflexible written form of God’s law as expressed by Jewish legal experts was over.  Laws intended to distinguish Israel from the rest of mankind would cease to be relevant when God sought to bring all humankind to himself. 

God’s law would be written on the hearts of His followers, and the promise made to Abraham could be fulfilled.  All peoples on earth would then be blessed through Abraham.  God’s law written on the hearts of His followers would keep their spirit in harmony with Him.  The time of a physical nation of God was past, and his law had a new focus:

1.        Establish God as the leader, guide and ruler of God’s people

2.        Define codes of behaviour that would help God’s people live in harmony

Clearly this meant the old written Jewish law was superseded through this new covenant. 

In his teaching, Jesus made a number of comments that gave examples of where the old written code was no longer relevant.  Mark 7 records Jesus saying that all food is spiritually clean, and in Mark 2, he commented that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  This implied that laws that were over interpreted could defeat their own purpose.

More specifically, Jesus took an opportunity to summarise God’s law.  In Mark 12, we find the following incident:

28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

29 “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

32 “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33 To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

The response to these two commandments was interesting because although the command to “love God” was clearly the foundation of Israel’s relationship with God, “love your neighbour” is only found once in the law given through Moses (Leviticus 19:18).  Yet another Jewish teacher has agreed with Jesus about its significance.  God’s law can be seen as the law of love.

Who is my neighbour? (The significance of the Samaritan)

A very similar incident was described by Luke (in Luke 10), that took this a step further, where its significance is made more obvious.  This is the familiar story of the “good Samaritan”.

25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

27 He answered: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

In this version of the story, we have one of the most important questions in the New Testament – “who is my neighbour?”.  We under-estimate the impact of this story today, yet it is pivotal to our relationship to God. 

In Jesus’ day, the Samaritans were the most extreme of all groups possible for Jesus to use for his illustration.  They claimed descent from Abraham and practiced a form of religion that in some regards was closer to the Jewish ideal than the Jews practiced themselves.  The Jews hated the Samaritans more than any other group.  Yet the story had a Samaritan hero.  This must have been hard to swallow.  In Jesus’ day, Jews would only have looked to other Jews as neighbours.

If we wish to consider “who is my neighbour” in modern terms, we tend to under-estimate the significance of Jesus’ illustration.  Today, here in New Zealand, we do not have any group that society could look on as the equivalent of the Samaritans.  Perhaps we might consider bikie gangs, or Islamists, but fortunately we do not have any group that is so universally hated as the Jews hated the Samaritans in Jesus’ day.  Elsewhere in the world we see groups who do not consider themselves neighbours.  The classic illustration, particularly today, is Israel and the Palestinians.

Even the church has demonstrated an inability to recognise neighbours over the centuries, ranging from the crusades to modern day sects that refuse to associate with other groups.

Jesus however was being consistent, and other Jewish teachers of his day agreed with him, at least in theory.  Their only problem was the question of “who is my neighbour”. 

In the sermon on the mount recorded by Matthew, Jesus took the idea even further, when he taught that we should “love our enemies” (Matt 5:43).  Even your enemy could be a neighbour.

Then, if we were to look at the laws of Moses in our bible again, we can see that “love God” and “love your neighbour as yourself” covers all of them.  When we accept Jesus into our heart, God writes his law of love in our heart.  With those commandments to love written on our hearts, we do not need the detailed list of things we should not do.

In our modern world, even our traffic laws can be recognised as helping us show love to our neighbour.  After all, driving on the wrong side of the road hardly shows love for our neighbour!

Who is YOUR neighbour?

With Jesus’ teaching in mind, I ask myself: Who is my neighbour?  Jesus tells me that anyone who is in need is my neighbour, even someone I hate, even my enemy.  Can I love my neighbour that much?  Do I follow the law written on my heart?  Even with God’s law written on our hearts, we still find it hard to obey it.

It is comforting to read Paul’s comment on the law.  He looked at how we should deal with the results of failing to keep the law.  He expressed the difficulty of obeying the law very clearly, in his letter to the Romans (Rom 3:23) when he said, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. 

This highlights the impossibility of full compliance with God’s law.  However, our failings do not exempt us from a requirement to try, even if we sometimes fail to keep God’s law.  Paul went on to say that we are justified by the grace of God through the redemption that came by Jesus, so we do have a path to God beyond failure to keep his law. 

Jesus is God’s answer to the limitation of human nature.  Through Jesus, God’s spirit can be in our heart and teach us the law of love.  If we fail to obey that law, God is gracious and loving, and is able to forgive our failures because Jesus, his son, died that we might be forgiven.

Loving your neighbour is not easy, but through Jesus, with God’s spirit in our hearts, we have God’s help and God’s forgiveness for when we are weak. 

Who is YOUR neighbour?  Is there someone you could help but find it hard to be a neighbour to?

Let us pray:

Our Father, you have written your law of love on our hearts.  We know you require us to love you and love our neighbour.  We find it hard to obey your law, and we want to limit our understanding of neighbour to people we are comfortable with.  Please help us to recognise that our neighbour is anyone we encounter who is in need.  Thank you for the love that sent your Son to us so that you are able to forgive us when we cannot keep your law. Amen.

Tawa Baptist

Self Care – by Murray Lucas

Scripture: Mark 12:30-31

Sermon by Murray Lucas on Self Care

When asked, what is the greatest life commandment, Jesus said in the Gospel of Mark…

‘So love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy’. And ‘Love others as well as you love yourself’. There is no other commandment that ranks with these.

There are three requests Jesus made that are contained in this commandment.  The first is Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. The second is love others and the third is love yourself.  These three injunctions cannot be separated but each must be viewed in the light of the other two requests. For example, you cannot love God and others effectively if you do not love yourself.

In this message I will be focusing on the third request to love yourself. It is about self-care and this means to value myself as my heavenly Father values me. Self-care honours God through nurturing the body, mind and spirit with their limits and desires. As Will mentioned a fortnight ago it means being honest with yourself.

For some of us, myself included, loving ourselves seemed unbiblical. There is an acronym , JOY that went like this: Jesus first, others second and yourself last. There is some truth in this saying but it can easily be changed into a twisted theology about human worthlessness. 

Human beings are never worthless. To quote Adele Calhoun, God gave his dearest and only Son to love human beings, beings he treasures and adores. One of the greatest treasures we have next to Jesus is our own selves. We are gifts of God. His Spirit lives in us.  We are invited to receive the divine love that takes residence in our bodies. We are to take it in and let it form us into a place of prayer.

The Psalmist wrote “Thank-you High God – you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration – What a creation!” The apostle Paul wrote to the people of Corinth “You realize don’t you, that you are the temple of God, and God himself is present in you”.

God’s love within us gives birth to more love: love of God, love of others and love of ourselves. Love is a quality of God that grows within us, enlarging our hearts and increasing our capacity. Self-love is not about self-centeredness. It is about caring for the body the Holy Spirit inhabits.

Paul reminds us in Romans 12 to present our bodies as an act of spiritual worship.

A Quaker writer Parker Palmer writes “Self-care is never a selfish act – it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others.

The products of self-care are that we value ourselves as Jesus values us. We have a proper view of ourselves and are comfortable in our own skin. We live within limits without burnout and we practice self-awareness rather than self-absorption. We should have a deepening awareness of God’s love for us and ultimately have freedom from addictions that can destroy our health and relationships.

Having defined self-care and outlined some of the fruit of self-care I want to examine how we practice self-care.

There are some obvious practical practices such as exercising and eating sensibly. This responsible attention to health in living will be examined more fully in an inspiring example I will share later.

Another practice is encouraging rather than neglecting yourself. If we are to encourage ourselves it is important we understand the value of realistic, positive self-talk. Sadly, I have met a number of good people who unfairly judge themselves more harshly than others, talk negatively to themselves and set up a spiral of gloom that is difficult to escape from. As humans we all make mistakes but it is very helpful for yourself to recall at such times some of the ways you have brought joy to yourself, your family, God, and to others. This should be spoken or written in a spirit of gratitude. This could be scaffolded as a playlist that you can recall when you go through a season of self-doubt and disappointment. Also, when you come down hard on yourself, remember that you can begin again.

Listening is another important practice. Again as Will shared a fortnight ago from this pulpit we should listen to the Spirit, Listen to the other person and listen to ourselves . Prayer is listening God and if we keep working at it prayer can be positively transformational.

A prayer by Joyce Rupp sums it up well…

Prayer is not only about entering into a relationship with God.

It is also about being changed. Healthy prayer strengthens our bond

With the creator and also transforms us.

Each encounter with God provides the opportunity to grow spiritually.

Prayer makes a difference in our life because it nudges and persuades us

To develop Christlike qualities in our attitude and actions.

Through prayer we become more loving, compassionate and justice oriented human beings.

When this happens, we are altered in a positive way and the world we touch is also changed for the better.

To practice self-care we need to observe appropriate boundaries. This can be particularly challenging if you are a perfectionist. For me, a propensity to try and improve everything can keep me working far past safe and healthy limits. In my job I came to realise that I cannot do everything to my very best. I have to pick and choose what gets done best and what just gets done so I can rest. At times I have to say “Good enough is good enough”. There is nothing wrong with aspiring for excellence and doing my best.  But when the quest for excellence drives my body beyond its limits, I have left the realm of appropriate self-care and I am trying to prove something to someone even if it is me.

Another key practice for appropriate self-care is to be able to give and receive love. It is perhaps easier for people to give love but many of us often struggle to receive love.

I love the allegory of the two seas in Palestine. One is the Dead Sea and the other is the Sea of Galilee. The Sea of Galilee gives, receives, lives and flourishes. The Dead Sea however has no outlet. It keeps everything, shares nothing, it neither gives nor receives and it is dead. A question to reflect on: what sea best represents you and your life?

Discernment is another practice that allows us to respect and care for ourselves. Discernment opens us up to listen and recognize the voice and protection in our lives. The Message translation of Philippians 1:9-10 captures the relationship between love and discernment. “So this is my prayer that your love will flourish and that you will not only love much but well. Learn to love appropriately. You need to use your head and test your feelings so that your love is sincere and intelligent, not sentimental gush. It is important to engage both your mind and heart to use reason and attend to your hearts when arriving at a decision.

To conclude I would like to share with you a story of a young man who showed self-care in an incredibly challenging situation. Since lock-down in 2020, I was made aware of a church minister who demonstrated self-care, love of others and love of God.

His name was the Reverend William Mompesson. In 1664 he was appointed Minister of the Anglican Church of Eyam a town in the Peak District of England close to Sheffield and Manchester.

One year later the Great Plague arrived at his village. Late in 1665 a flea-infested bundle of cloth arrived from London for the local tailor, Alexander Hadfield. Within a week the assistant, George Viccars, noticed the bundle was damp and opened it up and heated it by the fire. This activated the fleas and not long after he was dead and more began dying in his household soon after.

As the disease spread the villagers turned for their leadership to their rector, the Reverend Mompesson. In response Mompesson showed that, “Self-care is never a selfish act – it is simply good stewardship of the only gift he had, the gift he was put on earth to offer others”.

He did three things. He realized he could not lead alone so he turned to an ejected Puritan minister, Thomas Stanley, who still had solid support in the town and in a show of unity these two men persuaded the entire town to adopt a number of self-care health precautions to slow the spread of the illness from May 1666.

In this aspect Mompesson showed real discernment as he realized that Stanley’s gifts and talents were complementary to his. They also took the brave step of isolating themselves from neighbouring towns and cities to stop the spread of the Plague.

These measures included the arrangement that families were to bury their own dead and relocating Church services outside to a natural amphitheatre allowing villagers to separate themselves, social distancing 17th century style, and so reducing the risk of infection.

Perhaps the best known decision was to quarantine the entire village to prevent further spread of the disease (love of others). Merchants from surrounding villages sent supplies that they would leave on marked rocks; the villagers then made holes there which they would fill with vinegar to disinfect the money left as payment. There were many, many further practical examples of self-care.

The plague ran its course over 14 months and one account states that it killed at least 260 villagers with about 480 surviving out of a population of 800.

What was remarkable was that the villager’s actions prevented the disease from moving into surrounding areas. Major neighbouring towns such as Sheffield were spared as a result of the self-care but selfless actions of the township of Eyam superbly led by Reverends Mompesson and Stanley. This is a great example of loving others as you love yourselves. If the villagers had neglected these self-care measures the disease would surely have spread to Sheffield and other neighbouring towns.

Let us all love God with our heart, strength, mind and soul. Let us all love others but also let us have a healthy respect for our self and love ourselves by having appropriate self-care. When you do come down hard on yourself remember that you can begin again. Confess your harsh self-treatment and ask God for grace to receive who you are. The Christian message is about new beginnings.

Tawa Baptist

Salt & Pepper

Scripture: Mark 9:38-50

Video Link: https://youtu.be/UozKwTQBBWY

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The exorcist
  • Crime and punishment
  • Salty sayings
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Most dining tables have salt and pepper shakers on them. Salt and pepper add flavour and spice to the meal. The purpose of salt and pepper is to make the food taste better, but if you try eating salt and pepper on their own, you are in for a nasty surprise. 

Today we continue our series in the gospel of Mark, based on the lectionary readings. Last week we heard how Jesus defines greatness. The way up is down.

This week’s lectionary reading is a salt and pepper passage. By itself it tastes bitter and unpleasant. But mix a little salt and pepper in with Jesus’ goodness and grace, and it improves the quality of your relationships. From Mark 9, verse 38 we read…

38 “Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” 39 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40 for whoever is not against us is for us. 41 Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward. 42 “If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. 43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. 45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48 where “‘the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ 49 Everyone will be salted with fire. 50 “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt among yourselves and be at peace with each other.”

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

There’s an advert on TV which shows two toasters making toast. Each of the toasters is powered by electricity from different power companies. One of the power companies charges more for their electricity than the other company but, despite the difference in price, the toast comes out exactly the same.

There are any number of power companies, but electricity is electricity. It cooks toast the same, regardless of what power company you use. No power company has a monopoly on electricity.

In verse 38 of Mark 9, the disciple John reports how they saw someone driving out demons in the name of Jesus and told him to stop.

This is interesting. Earlier, in Mark chapter 9, the disciples had been unable to cast out a demon. Now we find someone who is not one of the twelve, but who believes in Jesus and is successful at performing exorcisms.

Why do the disciples think they have the right to instruct someone more competent than them? That’s like any one of us trying to tell Lydia Ko how to play golf.

Well, John told the unknown exorcist to stop because he was not one of them, he wasn’t in their club. The disciples think they are better than this unknown exorcist, even though the exorcist is more effective than they are.

Jesus had just been teaching his disciples about humility and service.

The unknown exorcist is serving the least and he is serving Jesus, but the disciples can’t see it. Jesus’ words haven’t sunk in yet. They don’t understand.  

You get the feeling John thinks he has done something good. Maybe he hopes to be commended by Jesus? Maybe he is wanting to climb the honour ladder and advance himself? But Jesus is not impressed.

In verse 39 Jesus corrects his disciples saying, ‘Do not stop him. For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40 for whoever is not against us is for us.’  

To do something in Jesus’ name means to be a bona-fide representative of Jesus. And to be a bona-fide representative, you need to stand in right relationship with Jesus, you need to trust him. It’s more than simply adding Jesus’ name to the end of your prayer, as important as that is.

The unknown exorcist wasn’t using Jesus’ name like a magic spell.

The unknown exorcist stood in right relationship with Jesus. He trusted in Jesus and was able to cast out demons by the power of the Holy Spirit.  

There are any number of power companies, but electricity is electricity.

It cooks toast the same, regardless of what power company you use.

No power company has a monopoly on electricity.

There are any number of Christians, but the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit is free to work through any believer who stands in right relationship with Jesus. No disciple, no church, no denomination has a monopoly on overcoming evil by the power of the Spirit.  

If another Christian is doing good at school or at work, or if another church is doing good in the hood, then don’t knock them. Encourage them. We are on the same side.

In verse 41 Jesus goes on to say: Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.

Don’t you love how Jesus keeps it real. Not many of us are going to perform miracles in this life. But any Christian believer can give a cup of water in Jesus’ name.

Any representative of Christ can show kindness. It’s like Mother Teresa said, “Not all of us can do great things. But we can do small things with great love.”     

The greatest power is love.

Crime and punishment:

I started this sermon talking about salt and pepper. Verses 42-50 contain the salt and pepper of the gospel in concentrated form. Taken by themselves these verses taste bitter and unpleasant. They were never meant to be read in isolation from the rest of the Bible. So, as you hear them, remember God’s love for you. Remember too, the grace of Jesus. From verse 42 we read…

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea…”

Jesus is talking about crime and punishment here.

Who are these little ones, that Jesus mentions?

In verse 37 Jesus took a small child in his arms and said, ‘whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name, welcomes me…’ So, these little ones might be young children generally. Don’t do anything to harm children or lead them into sin because God is just. He will hold you to account.  

However, these little ones might also be adults, like the unknown exorcist in verse 38, who believe in Jesus. Don’t do anything to cause a fellow believer to fall or lose faith because God is just. He will hold you to account.

The point here is that we have a responsibility to set a good example for others in the faith, especially those who are looking up to us. To trip up one who enjoys a close relationship with Jesus is a terrible crime and merits a terrible punishment.

I don’t often tell jokes in my sermons, partly because I’m not a funny person but also because many of you don’t share my sense of humour. That said, I’m going to take a risk and tell you a joke now…

A little girl was talking to a man on the train about whales. The man said it was physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human being because even though whales are very large, their throats are very small.

The little girl said that Jonah was swallowed by a whale. The man became visibly irritated saying again, in a stern voice, ‘It is physically impossible for a whale to swallow a human person’.

The little girl said, ‘When I get to heaven, I will ask Jonah’. 

The man retorted, ‘What if Jonah goes to hell?’ 

To which the girl replied, ‘Then you ask him’.

In verses 43-48, Jesus talks about hell and how to avoid going there.

43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.

Ditto that for your feet and your eyes.

In the first century, people were punished by having limbs lopped off.

The punishment for stealing was having your left hand cut off.

The punishment for a runaway slave was having one foot chopped off.

And sometimes people had an eye put out for various other crimes.

These sorts of punishments marked the offender for life, so everyone knew what they had done. And it made practical tasks a lot more difficult for the culprit themselves. 

That said, Jesus is not talking literally here. Jesus is not advocating self-harm. Jesus is speaking metaphorically. He is taking an image his listeners would be familiar with and using it to warn people not to go down the wrong path.

The hand is a metaphor for the sorts of things one might do that could lead them into sin. The foot is a metaphor for the sorts of places one might go that could lead them into sin. And the eye is a metaphor for the sorts of things one might look at that could lead them into sin.   

For example. If alcohol is a problem for you, then you need to be ruthless in cutting yourself off from alcohol. That doesn’t mean cutting off your hand so you can’t pick up a bottle.

That means not having any alcohol in the house. It means not going to the pub and not hanging out with friends who like to drink. And if there are lots of bottle stores between where you work and where you live, then it might mean taking an alternative route home to avoid temptation.

Now, I’m not picking on alcoholics here. You could substitute alcohol abuse for any other harmful behaviour, like gossip or sexual immorality or greed or pride or power or gambling or self-centredness or whatever. The point is to cut ourselves off from sin. Nip it in the bud.

That means we need to be thinking a few steps ahead. Where is this decision taking me? Where is this night out or this drink or this text message or this website or this friendship or this swipe right going to lead?  

Of course, we don’t always know where our first steps might take us. The thing about your hands and your feet and your eyes is that they are not inherently bad, they are useful and good in fact. Sometimes what seems innocent enough at first can be misleading. We need to be totally honest with ourselves.

Three times in three verses we come across the word hell. No one in the Bible talks about hell more than Jesus. The actual word translated as ‘hell’ is Gehenna, also known (in the Old Testament) as the Valley of Hinnom, that is, the Valley of Wailing. Gehenna is located on the south side of old Jerusalem.

Centuries before Mark wrote his gospel, the Israelites had sacrificed their children to pagan gods in the Valley of Hinnom. God hated this evil practice. After that, Gehenna became a rubbish dump, where maggots fed off animal carcasses and rubbish was always smouldering.

Given the stench and the filth and the continual burning, Gehenna became a metaphor for hell. Jesus was using an image his listeners were familiar with to describe what happens to the enemies of God in the afterlife. Jesus uses the term hell to describe the way God’s justice will deal with evil.

Those who are committed to doing evil are destroyed and thrown out like rubbish, 48 where “‘the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ Hell, therefore, is God’s righteous judgement on evil.

Verse 48 is a reference to the last verse in the book of Isaiah. It contains a message of judgment and hope. In Isaiah 66 we read…

23 From one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all humankind will come and bow down before me,” says the Lord. 

24 “And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me; the worms that eat them will not die, the fire that burns them will not be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all humankind.”  

All this talk about hell is scary. It’s horrifying. Questions rise in our minds about what hell is like. What’s the temperature? Who will be there? Is it a place of conscious suffering? Or is it a place of annihilation? We simply don’t know the answers to those sorts of questions and we shouldn’t speculate.

What we can say is that God is good. He is just and merciful, gracious and true. God is love. The Lord of love is our judge and he will do what is right by each one.

The present reality is that this world is a war zone, spiritually speaking.

For the kingdom of God to be realised on earth, the kingdom of evil must be destroyed. Hell is the destruction of the kingdom of evil and that, ultimately, is good news for humanity.

In the same breath that Jesus talks about hell, he also talks about entering life and the kingdom of God. The point seems to be, participation in the kingdom of God is worth any sacrifice. It is better to be limited in what you do in this world, if that means enjoying eternal life.

Salty sayings:

Some of you may have played the word association game. With this game, you start with a word and then someone else says another word that is related in some way and you keep going like that until a word gets repeated or you can’t make an association.

For example, you might start with the word cow, then milk, cereal, breakfast, dinner, steak, salt, fire and so on. Now some of you may be thinking, I can see the connection between most of those words, but what’s the connection between salt and fire? Well, the thing that salt and fire have in common is they both purify things.  

In verses 49-50 of Mark 9, Jesus gives us three salty sayings. We don’t know whether Jesus said these sayings all on the same occasion or whether the gospel writer, Mark, simply collected the salty sayings of Jesus in one place to make them easier to recall.

What we do see here is a certain word association. Verse 48 talks about the fire that is not quenched and in verse 49 we get the saying, ‘everyone will be salted with fire’.

In the ancient world, salt was associated with purity because it came from the two most pure things known at the time. The sea and the sun. Likewise, fire was associated with purification because precious metals (like silver) were refined by fire.

Therefore, the phrase, everyone will be salted with fire, probably means everyone will be purified. This is not saying everyone will go through hell or purgatory. Being salted with fire is a metaphor for the process of purification we go through in this life.

Jesus’ second salty saying reads: Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again?

Salt is a preservative. Salt fights corruption. Unless the Christian resists corruption and evil, bad things will flourish unchecked in the world.

Followers of Jesus are to live a pure life, a life of moral integrity.  

But wait, there’s more. In the Law of Moses, grain offerings needed to be seasoned with salt before being burned. In Leviticus chapter 2, we read…

13 Season all your grain offerings with salt. Do not leave the salt of the covenant of your God out of your grain offerings; add salt to all your offerings.

As well as being a preservative and a purifying agent, salt is also a symbol of a covenant commitment with God. To lose one’s saltiness is to lose one’s commitment to God. Mark 9, verse 50, is a warning against apostacy. Jesus is saying, don’t turn back on your commitment to God. Keep the faith.

Jesus’ third salty saying goes like this: Have salt among yourselves and be at peace with each other.

Salt brings out the best in food. Salt makes things taste more like themselves.

For example, if you put salt on an egg, it makes the egg taste more like an egg. Without salt, the egg tastes a bit like rubber.

To have salt among yourselves, therefore, is to bring out the best in each other. To help those around us to be the best version of themselves. Having salt among yourselves is the opposite of tripping others up or causing them to fall.

William Barclay explains Jesus’ meaning well. Have within yourselves the purifying influence of the Spirit of Christ. Be purified from selfishness and self-seeking, from bitterness and anger and grudge-bearing. Then you will be able to live in peace with those around you.[1]

Last week, we heard how the disciples had been arguing about who was the greatest. This kind of thinking does not bring out the best in people. It brings out the worst. Jesus wants his disciples to preserve their relationships together and to bring out the best in each other. This requires a covenant of salt, a commitment to serving one another’s wellbeing. 

Conclusion:

Each of us (if we are honest with ourselves) is a mixture of good and evil.

We are not pure and we cannot purify ourselves. So where does that leave us?

Well, God does not want to send you to hell. The Lord does not want anyone to perish, he wants everyone to come to repentance and be saved. Your soul is precious to God. So precious in fact, that God sent his own dear Son, Jesus, to redeem your life.

We are made right with God through faith in Jesus. Learning to trust and obey Jesus is our purification process. Sometimes it hurts. We are made salty again as we submit to the work of God’s Spirit in our lives.

May the Lord guide us in the way of purity and peace. Amen.    

Questions for discussion or reflection:

  1. What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?
  2. How do Jesus’ words in Mark 9:38-50 make you feel? Why do you feel this way?
  3. Why does John tell the unknown exorcist to stop driving out demons? Why does Jesus correct John?
  4. What does it mean to do something in the name of Jesus?
  5. Discuss / reflect on Mark 9:42-48. How are we to interpret these verses? Who are “these little ones”? What is hell? What notes of hope do you see?
  6. Is there anything in your life that you need to cut off? (E.g. a habit, a pattern of thought, a relationship, etc.) How might you do this? 
  7. Discuss / reflect on the three salty sayings of Jesus in Mark 9:49-50. What is the connection between salt and fire? What does it mean to lose one’s saltiness? How might we bring out the best in one another and be at peace?      

[1] William Barclay, Commentary on Mark’s gospel, page 244. (My paraphrase of WB’s words.)