Tawa Baptist

Owls

Scriptures: Isaiah 34:8-15 & 43:18-21

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

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • God’s vengeance (Isaiah 34)
  • God’s salvation (Isaiah 43)
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

There’s a saying, ‘birds of a feather flock together’. It means, people with things in common tend to be found together.

Birds of the same kind do often flock together, but not always. Owls tend to be a relatively solitary bird for the most part. Only very rarely do you see them together. But, in the unlikely event you were to see a group of owls in one place, what would you call them?  [Wait] That’s right, a parliament of owls.

Other descriptors might include a wisdom of owls or a congress or a hooping or an eyrie or a looming or a stare and so on. All these words indicate the way owls haunt the human imagination. There’s something a little bit spooky about this bird.

Today we conclude our sermon series on Birds of the Bible, with the owl. Many people associate the owl with wisdom, as in ‘the wise old owl’. That idea comes from Greek mythology. In ancient Greece, the little owl was the companion of Athena the Greek goddess of wisdom. 

In Scripture, the owl is not really associated with wisdom. More often the owl is associated with sleepless nights, loneliness and alienation, desolation and judgement. There is a certain sense of foreboding (like a bad omen) that accompanies the owl.

With this in view, it is not surprising that owls appear several times in the Old Testament prophetic books. Our message today focuses on two occurrences of owls in the book of Isaiah. Let’s begin with chapter 34, verses 8-13.  

God’s vengeance

8 For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of vindication for Zion’s cause. 9 And the streams of Edomshall be turned into tar and her soil into sulfur; her land shall become burning tar. 10 Night and day it shall not be quenched; its smoke shall go up forever. From generation to generation it shall lie waste; no one shall pass through it forever and ever. 11 But the desert owland the screech owl shall possess it; the great owl and the raven shall live in it. He shall stretch the line of confusion and the plummet of chaos over it…  13 Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches. 14 Wildcats shall meet with hyenas; goat-demons shall call to each other; there also Lilith shall repose and find a place to rest. 15 There shall the owl nest and lay and hatch and brood in its shadow; there also the buzzards shall gather, each one with its mate.

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

Owls are raptors. They are birds of prey. Owls have very good night vision and excellent hearing. The shape of the owl’s face funnels sound to their ears, magnifying what they hear up to ten times. Owls are keen listeners.

Put that together with super strong talons, natural camouflage and the ability to fly silently and that makes owls stealth hunters.

Like the sparrow, owls are resilient hardy birds found all over the world except Antarctica. They know how to survive. Fossil records show that owls have been around for about 55 million years. Significantly longer than human beings.

Owls will typically feed the oldest and strongest of their young first. This means if food is scarce, the smaller weaker owlets tend to starve while the fittest of the next generation survive. Owls are very unlike God in this way.

Nevertheless, owls are helpful to humankind. Farmers like to keep owls around as pest control. A barn owl can eat up to 1000 mice a year, usually swallowing them whole. Later it will regurgitate the bones and fur in the form of a pellet.

In Shakespeare’s play, Macbeth, the owl is a symbol of death, used to portray evil and darkness. The sound of the owl marks the death of Duncan, haunting Lady Macbeth. But long before Shakespeare, the prophet Isaiah associated the owl with ominous and fearful forces.  

In our reading earlier, from Isaiah 34, the prophet talks about God’s vengeance on the nations that have opposed the people of Israel. In particular, Isaiah foresees a day when God will smash Edom.

Edom (not to be confused with the cheese) is the people group descended from Esau. Esau was Jacob’s twin brother. Esau’s descendants became the nation of Edom and Jacob’s descendants became the nation of Israel.

Human parents, in the ancient world, treated their children in much the same way that owls treat their young. The oldest and strongest male was favoured and given the lion’s share of the estate.  

Esau was the oldest and therefore in line to inherit the land and birth right, while Jacob (the younger twin) would have to make do with the leftovers. This did not make for good family dynamics. Jacob cheated Esau out of his inheritance so there was bad blood between them.

Although Jacob and Esau did eventually make peace, the bad blood lingered with their descendants. The people of Edom treated the Israelites with aggression and cruelty.  

The worst of it though, was the way Edom allied itself with the Babylonians. (Birds of a feather flock together.) When the Babylonian army laid siege to Jerusalem, the people of Edom supported the Babylonians and after the city had been sacked, the Edomites plundered what remained. No love lost.  

Because of their violent opposition to God’s people and to God’s purpose, Isaiah predicted the destruction of Edom, saying the land of Edom would become the possession of the desert owl, the screech owl and the great owl.

Owls do not build their own nests. Rather, they take over the nests of other birds. So, from the perspective of Israel, who had lost their home to the Babylonians, the imagery of owls inhabiting Edom was poetic justice.

The owl’s association with darkness and evil comes out even more clearly in verses 14 & 15, where the prophet Isaiah puts the nesting owl alongside goat demons and Lilith.

Goat demons are a mythical creature, half goat, half man. And Lilith is the name of a demoness of the night who was thought to devour new born babies. These evil creatures were the stuff nightmares are made of and so they serve Isaiah’s poetry well.

Reading about God’s vengeance like this is a bit disturbing. As Christians we are more familiar with Jesus who is full of grace and compassion. Jesus who teaches us to love our enemies and turn the other cheek and so on. How do we reconcile the vengeance of God with the mercy of God?

Well, God’s vengeance is one aspect of his justice. God’s justice and mercy are not separate. They are one, just as God is one. The God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New Testament. God is consistently fair and measured in his response to evil.

We see the oneness of God’s justice and mercy in the way he contains Lilith. Following the logic of Isaiah’s poetry, if Lilith eats babies, then to read that she is at rest in a desolate and isolated place is a comfort, because it means she is not hurting children anymore.          

Likewise, if a nation is loose in the world doing harm, like Edom was, then it is not merciful of God to ignore that nation and look the other way. The just and merciful thing is to give that nation the opportunity to change their ways and if they don’t change, then the next step is to stop that nation from continuing to do harm.

God has every right to protect his creation from those who abuse it. That’s what God’s vengeance is, a just and merciful response to stop evil.

In Isaiah 34, the prophet is dressing an old wound. The Israelites have suffered much at the hands of the Edomites and Isaiah wants to clean up the wound so it can heal without becoming septic.

Think of it this way. If someone does serious violence to you or someone you love, then you will quite rightly feel angry with them and want that person stopped. You will also need to find a way to safely vent your rage, so it doesn’t eat away at you from the inside out and turn you bitter.

Forgiveness is a process which involves letting go of your anger in a way that does no harm. The poetry of Isaiah 34 provided Israel with a way to release their anger and their fear so they could forgive the past and not turn septic.

The words of Isaiah 34 give the people of God faith to leave vengeance in the Lord’s hands and move forward with hope. If you believe that God is going to carry out justice on your behalf, then it protects you (to some degree) from going down the path of violence yourself.

We have heard recently how Christians in the state of Manipur, in India, are being persecuted, with many churches burned to the ground. We feel for the believers in Manipur and pray for God to protect them and help them.

I’m not sure how I would respond if faced with that sort of violence. I pray that we would never have to find out. Lord, save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.

Isaiah 34, with its graphic description of God’s vengeance, may be confronting to many of us, but I imagine it is a comfort to those who are abused for their faith. It helps to know God will right the wrongs committed against his people.

Okay, so we have heard how owls are associated with death and the aftermath of God’s vengeance. But vengeance does not have the last word, for the prophets generally follow a message of judgement with a message of hope.

God’s salvation

God’s vengeance serves his greater plan of salvation. Later, in Isaiah, owls are depicted as honouring God.  From chapter 43, verses 18-21, we read…  

16 This is what the Lord says… 18 “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. 19 See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland. 20 The wild animals honour me, the jackals and the owls, because I provide water in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland, to give drink to my people, my chosen, 21 the people I formed for myself that they may proclaim my praise.

In a nutshell, Isaiah’s message in these verses is: don’t be blinded by the past, be open to the future.

There’s an advertisement on TV at the moment for Ford motorcars. It quotes Henry Ford saying: “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said, faster horses.” Henry Ford was a man of vision, an innovator. He was not blinded by the past. He was open to the future and to new possibilities. 

Isaiah 43 was written for the Jewish exiles in Babylon. The exiles probably felt a bit like the owl; lonely and alienated, living in a spiritually desolate place, surrounded by evil. Remembering the stories of their past (how God had delivered them from slavery in Egypt) had a soothing affect. The old familiar stories were a comfort, like a security blanket.

Isaiah was aware that dwelling on the past was holding people back. The past can become an idealised world into which we retreat when the future becomes too frightening to face. The Jewish exiles were at risk of looking so long at a door that had closed that they would miss the new door of salvation God was opening.

Don’t dwell on the past can also mean, let go of your hurt and anger. There is a time and place for contemplating God’s vengeance and for venting your rage but, once you have got it out of your system, don’t wallow in self-pity and resentment. Move forward. Don’t be blinded by the hurts of the past.

In verse 19 the Lord says: See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?  This is a call to be open to the future.

After some decades the Babylonian empire was conquered by the Medes who took a different approach. In 538 BC (around 50 years after the fall of Jerusalem) King Cyrus released the Jewish exiles, allowing them to return to their homeland to rebuild the Jerusalem temple.

On the one hand this was good news but, at the same time, it was also challenging. The Jewish exiles had become quite settled in Babylon. The prospect of picking up sticks and making a long journey through the wilderness to resettle in Palestine would have been daunting.

They were returning to ruins. They would have to rebuild from scratch. They needed reassurance and encouragement, so the Lord says…

I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.

God was promising to provide what the people needed to return and rebuild a new life in Jerusalem. 

Are you facing a daunting prospect at the moment? Are you facing challenges that feel overwhelming? Let me say to you: The Lord is able to make a way for you when you cannot see a way for yourself. Look to him to lead you.

The idea of God making a way in the wilderness continues in verse 20, where the Lord talks about the jackals and the owls honouring him because of the new thing he is doing.

Previously, in Isaiah 34, we read how the jackals and owls prowled among the ruins. They were associated with God’s vengeance, with chaos and evil spirits. Now, in chapter 43, Isaiah reintroduces the jackals and owls, not as sinister prowlers, but this time as giving honour to God. This is new and different.

The image here is one of salvation. Given that God can transform the owl from an omen of evil and death to a symbol of praise and new life, how much more will the Lord redeem his people.

Isaiah’s words are full of hope. The Lord Almighty is a creative, redemptive God, committed to the healing of his entire creation. Ultimately, even owls and jackals have a place, serving a positive purpose in God’s plan of salvation.

Conclusion:

The very things we dread and fear are often the things God uses to redeem us. We see the way of God’s salvation fulfilled in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. God used the cross, an instrument of cruelty, vengeance and shame, to serve his purpose of forgiveness, reconciliation and salvation.

May the Lord bless you and keep. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading these Scriptures and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • How do you feel when you hear an owl (or Morepork) calling at night? What comes to mind when you think of an owl?
  • Why does God declare vengeance on Edom? What purpose does God’s vengeance serve? How might the idea of God’s vengeance help us to let go of our anger and forgive those who do harm?
  • Why does Isaiah tell the Jewish exiles to forget the former things? Are there things from the past you need to let go of? 
  • What is your life situation at the moment? Are you facing a daunting prospect? Are you facing challenges that feel overwhelming? Whatever your situation, can you sense God’s presence, making a way for you? If so, how?
  • In what way(s) is the characterisation of the owl in Isaiah 34, different from Isaiah 43? What does this change show us about God’s ultimate purpose?
Tawa Baptist

Sparrows

Scripture: Matthew 10:26-31

Video Link: https://youtu.be/hKmTvdrS1-4

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Don’t be afraid of people
  • Don’t be afraid of death
  • Don’t be afraid of your value
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Can anyone tell me the meaning of the word ubiquitous? (Not something that comes up in the daily Wordle.)  [Wait] That’s right, ubiquitous means being found everywhere. 

If something is ubiquitous it is common, widespread and constantly encountered wherever you go. Oxygen is ubiquitous. The orange road cones you see up and down New Zealand are ubiquitous. As are cars and cell phones.   

Sparrows are also ubiquitous. They are found everywhere. In urban areas, in forests, in the hills, by the sea and even in deserts. About the only place you don’t find sparrows is Antarctica. Sparrows are adaptable, resilient and prolific breeders. Most pairs will raise two or three broods a year.

Today we continue our series on Birds of the Bible by focusing on the Sparrow. Jesus talked about the sparrow when he was preparing to send his disciples on a mission trip. Jesus’ messengers need some of the sparrows’ adaptability and resilience. From Matthew 10, verses 26-31, we read…

26 “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known. 27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 28 Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. 29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

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

It is thought there are around 130 different types of sparrows around the world. The kind we are most familiar with is the house sparrow. It’s called the ‘house sparrow’ because it tends to make its home near human habitation.

In Psalm 84 we read: Even the sparrow has found a home… a place near your altar. Sparrows are not afraid of human beings. Sparrows are comfortable in the company of people.

In the context of Matthew 10, Jesus is giving his twelve disciples instructions for mission. The Lord is sending his disciples out as messengers of the gospel, giving them power to heal and cast out demons. Part of Jesus’ encouragement to his messengers is to not be fearful.

Three times in verses 26-31 Jesus says, do not be afraid. Don’t be afraid of people. Don’t be afraid of death and don’t be afraid of your value.

Don’t be afraid of people:

In verse 26 Jesus tells his disciples, “So have no fear of them…” The them, that Jesus is referring to here, are those people who are opposed to Jesus and his messengers.   

Jesus combats fear with reason and logic. The disciples do not need to fear people, or what people may say about them, because nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing is secret that will not become known.

Now, on hearing this we might wonder, does that mean all my deepest darkest secrets are going to be revealed? Is Jesus saying, all those embarrassing things I’ve ever thought or said or done that I don’t want anyone to know about are going to be made public and I’m going to be humiliated? Because that is not comforting at all. That is terrifying.

Well, I don’t believe that is what Jesus means in these verses. In the context of Matthew 10, Jesus is sending his followers into the world with the message of the gospel. So the beans being spilled here are not your personal secrets. The information being uncovered is the good news about God’s kingdom coming to earth. This isn’t about us. This is about Jesus and God’s plan of salvation.  

So the reason Jesus gives for not fearing people is that the gospel is the truth and the truth will win out in the end. In other words, the messengers of the gospel may be misunderstood or maligned at first, but eventually they will be vindicated. They will be proven right.

In verse 27 Jesus continues… What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. 

The followers of Jesus are to share freely with others what Jesus has shared with them. Some people think that to be a good preacher or evangelist you must have the gift of the gab. But the bigger part of sharing the gospel is listening.

Most of you are not preachers but you are believers with good news to share. You might think, I’m not good at talking about my faith. I don’t know what to say or how to say it. Besides, no one cares what I think anyway.

Before we worry about what we might say in relation to our faith, we need to listen. You can’t share something you don’t have. You can’t tell people about Jesus unless Jesus is real for you. You can’t pass on God’s love unless you have experienced God’s love for yourself.

As Christians we listen to God’s Spirit in a variety of ways. Two of those ways include prayerfully reading Scripture and observing the world around us.

We can’t expect to know the gospel of Jesus unless we spend time regularly studying the Scriptures and listening to what other believers say about the Lord.

Likewise, we need to be outward looking and curious about the world. We can’t expect to communicate well, with people who believe differently from us, without first seeking to understand them.

We read the Scriptures and observe the world in conversation with God. We can’t expect to know what we really believe unless we are honest with ourselves before God in prayer.

If our talk about Jesus is to be real and authentic, then it must grow out of the soil of listening. For Christians, listening needs to be as ubiquitous as sparrows. I believe, when we listen well, God gives us something to say. The truth, spoken with grace, wins out in the end.

Don’t be afraid of death

After telling his disciples not to be afraid of people, Jesus goes on to say, don’t be afraid of death. From verse 28 of Matthew 10 we read Jesus’ words…

Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Again, Jesus appeals to reason and logic in combating the disciples’ fear. But the way it comes across (with talk of hell) seems more likely to fill us with terror. The English translation of this verse is like a bomb. It needs careful handling.

Your body, in this context, is your physical body. And your soul is the core of your being, your life force, that part of you that is unique and animates your body.

The trickier word, in verse 28, is the word translated as hell. Most of us, when we hear the word hell, probably imagine a place of torment, with a horned devil waving a pitchfork and torturing human beings by roasting them over burning coals for all eternity. We think unbearable pain, agony and despair. 

This concept of hell (as a place of eternal torture) is highly problematic, not least because it does violence to our understanding of the Almighty.

God is love. The Lord is just and merciful. He is kind, not cruel. The idea that God would torture anyone is totally inconsistent with the character of God, as revealed by Jesus.

When it comes to hell and the afterlife we need to be honest and admit the fact that we simply don’t know very much. We cannot say what hell is like with any certainty because we have not been there.

The Bible isn’t much help either. Scripture uses a variety of different images and metaphors to talk about the afterlife. Sometimes those images are confusing and seem to contradict each other. The afterlife is in the realm of mystery. God, in his wisdom, has not revealed the details to us.

What we can say with certainty is that the word translated, in verse 28, as hell is actually Gehenna.

Gehenna is a reference to the Valley of Hinnom, outside the walls of Jersualem. Gehenna (or the Valley of Hinnom) was the place, in the Old Testament, where people sacrificed and burned their children to one of the pagan gods. It was an evil practice, detested by the Lord Almighty.

Later, Gehenna became a rubbish dump for Jerusalem, where the city’s waste was burned. Fire and the stench of burning rubbish was ubiquitous to Gehenna. Jesus used the image of Jerusalem’s earthly rubbish dump as a metaphor for one aspect of the afterlife.

The interesting thing about the Gehenna image is that it is not a place of torture. It is a place of annihilation. It is a place where the human soul is not in torment but rather is destroyed, so it ceases to be altogether. 

Jesus does not want his disciples to be under any illusion. They will face suffering and persecution in their work of sharing the gospel. Sometimes that persecution might result in them being killed or martyred. However, the persecutors are limited. They can only kill the body; they cannot kill the soul.

The human soul is in God’s hands, not the hands of men. God Almighty is the only one with the power to grant immortality to the human soul. Likewise, God is the only one with the power to destroy the human soul. Not that he wants to destroy anyone. God’s preference is to save people. The Lord is looking for ways to get you into heaven.

It may seem contradictory to us that Jesus says, do not be afraid of those who can kill your body but do fear God who can destroy body and soul.

In the Bible, fear of God covers a range of meanings, from absolute terror, at one end of the spectrum, to something more like reverence and respect, combined with awe and wonder, at the other end of the spectrum.

In the context of Matthew 10, where Jesus is encouraging his disciples, fear of God is not something that is meant to terrorise them. No. Jesus wants his followers to be free from the fear of man. The fear of God is supposed to protect us.

If you touch something hot, it hurts and you learn to fear hot things. That is, you learn to be careful around boiling water and stove tops and fire. The fear of being burned protects you from harm.

In C.S. Lewis’ book, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, Mr Beaver is explaining that Aslan is a lion and Susan asks, ‘Is he quite safe?’ To which Mr Beaver replies, ‘Safe? Who said anything about safe. Of course he’s not safe. But he is good. He is the King I tell you.’

By definition, God is the most powerful being there is and as the most powerful being, he is not safe but he is good. Fearing God means remembering that God will not be domesticated or controlled by us.

Another example to illustrate how the fear of God operates. Imagine you are driving in your car. You see a speed limit sign that says you need to slow down to 40km’s/hour, because you are approaching a school. You slow down, not because you are afraid of getting a ticket, but because you do not want to do any harm. If you hit a child, you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself.

For the Christian believer, the fear of God is not so much about avoiding punishment. (Perfect love drives out the fear of punishment.) The fear of God has more to do with avoiding harm. We fear God in the sense that we value our relationship with God and do not want to do any harm to that relationship, nor to our own soul.

In Matthew 10, verse 28, it’s like Jesus is saying: you need to be more afraid of being disloyal to God than you are of being killed. Because you wouldn’t be able to live with yourself if you betrayed God.         

In practical terms, the fear of God protects us from every other fear, including the fear of hell. No matter what the followers of Jesus may suffer in this life, the Lord will not abandon his faithful ones to Gehenna. We do not need to fear hell. God did not make human beings for hell. God made human beings for relationship with himself.

Don’t be afraid of your value:

Anyone who has studied economics will know about the law of demand and supply. The more there is of something, the cheaper it is. Conversely, the greater the demand for something, the more it costs. Under this scheme, anything that is ubiquitous, like sparrows, won’t be valuable at all.

Jesus told his disciples not to fear people who oppose them in preaching the gospel and he told them not to fear death, but rather to fear God. Now he tells them not to fear their value. From verse 29, Jesus says…

29 Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. 30 And even the hairs of your head are all counted. 31 So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

The basic message here is that we are valuable to God. Given the opposition and suffering the followers of Jesus would face, it was important they knew how valuable they are. Because, when the world treats us badly, we tend to think it is because we are not worth much.  

Human beings may not place a particularly high price on sparrows but God does value the sparrow. God’s way of valuing is different from ours. God does not follow the laws of demand and supply. God values what he has made, not because it is rare, but because he is love and that is what love does. Love values and love cares. 

It’s not that birds don’t matter. They do matter. That’s the point. Given that God values the sparrow, how much more does he value human beings who are made in his image?

One of our greatest human fears, is the fear that we don’t matter. That our lives have little or no meaning and that we are not valuable or loveable. As a consequence, we go to all sorts of lengths to prove our value, trying to make people love us. In the process we end up hurting ourselves and others.

The fear that you are not valuable is a lie. You do matter. Your life does have meaning. You are loved by God eternally. The Lord values you highly.

Even the hairs of your head are all counted. This is a poetic way of saying God knows you better than you know yourself. His attention to you and his care for you is beyond comprehension.

You might wonder why God would bother counting the hairs of your head? Perhaps it is because God knows you will lose many of those hairs in this life and he intends to restore them in the next. But not just your hairs. God plans to restore other more significant losses also. Nothing is beyond God’s reach. Nothing is beyond God’s care. 

Conclusion:

The phrase, God loves you, is ubiquitous, it sounds cheap, clichéd. But that doesn’t make it any less true. Oxygen is ubiquitous. It is so plentiful we take it for granted, but that doesn’t make it any less valuable, for without oxygen we would die in minutes.

We need to know that God loves us in much the same way we need to breathe. Do you believe that God loves you? How much do you really believe it?

In a few moments we are going to share communion together. Communion is a time to let go of our fear and trust ourselves to the love of God in Christ.

The musicians will come now and lead us in song as we open our hearts to God. How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading these Scriptures and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • How does Jesus combat fear? How might we apply Jesus’ principles in overcoming our own fears? 
  • What does Jesus mean, in verse 26, where he says: “Nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing is secret that will not become known”? Why do we not need to fear people or what they might say about us?
  • How do we listen to God’s Spirit? Do you have a regular pattern of Bible study? What does this look like? How might we seek to understand people who believe differently from us?
  • How does the fear of God protect us? Why do we not need to fear death?
  • Some people think of hell as a place of eternal torture and torment. Others think of hell as a place of final annihilation. What difference does each of these paradigms make to our understanding of God?
  • Do you believe God loves you? To what degree do you believe this? How might we cultivate our trust in God’s love and care for us? 
Tawa Baptist

Chickens

Scriptures: Luke 13:31-35, Proverbs 30:29-31 and Luke 22:33-34 & 54-62

Video Link: https://youtu.be/HJdg6OUzr2M

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The protective hen
  • The conceited rooster
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

There are literally hundreds of jokes that start with the question, ‘Why did the chicken cross the road?’ Unfortunately, none of them (that I could find) are that funny. I did come across one chicken joke though that almost made me laugh…

‘I dream of a world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned.’ 

Today we continue our series on Birds of the Bible, by focusing on the Chicken. Unlike the eagle or the dove, chickens don’t get mentioned a lot in the Bible but when they are mentioned it is in relation to significant events.

Our message today features the hen (which is a mother chicken) and the rooster (a male chicken). Let us start with the hen.

The protective hen:

From the gospel of Luke chapter 13, verses 31-35, we read…

31 At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.”
32 Jesus replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’ 33 In any case, I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem! 34 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. 35 Look, your house is left to you desolate. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

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

The main image here is that of a protective mother hen. The instinct of Jesus (and indeed of God) is to protect people from harm, like a mother hen instinctively protects her chicks.

This image of a mother hen protecting her young would have instantly connected with Jesus’ middle eastern audience 2000 years ago. However, when we in the 21st Century western world think of a chicken, we don’t necessarily make the same intuitive connection. For us today, the chicken is a symbol of foolish fear or cowardice.  

This is because we have been influenced by the 19th Century fable Chicken Little (aka Henny Penny). If you remember, Chicken Little thought the sky was falling because an acorn fell on her head. In her panic she stirred up mass hysteria around the farmyard. In some versions of this story the cunning fox invites the anxious birds to his lair and eats them all.  

Contrary to popular belief, chickens are neither stupid nor cowardly. A mother hen will bravely defend her chicks.

Chickens are intelligent birds with keen senses. Like ravens, chickens are able to remember faces. And like human beings, chickens can see red, blue and green light. More impressive than that, they can also see ultra-violet light, which we can’t.

Chickens dream when they sleep, they have a REM cycle. They also have a sleep phase (that humans don’t have) called uni-hemispheric slow-wave sleep, where one half of the brain is asleep and the other half is awake. This means chickens can sleep with one eye open, which helps to protect them against predators.

Chickens make around 30 different sounds for communicating with each other. A mother hen is careful to teach her young how to survive by showing them what they can eat and what to avoid. Contrary to the prejudice created by Chicken Little, hens are actually smart and brave.

You would have noticed the reading from Luke 13 had a fox in it. The fox is the enemy of the chicken.

Unexpectedly, some Pharisees warn Jesus to leave the area because Herod wants to kill him. It appears that not all the Pharisees were against Jesus. Some could see he was doing good work and were looking out for him, even though they didn’t really understand Jesus’ purpose.

Herod was the puppet ruler in that region of Palestine. Herod was the one who had beheaded John the Baptist. Jesus replied: “Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will reach my goal.’…”

When we hear the word fox we might think ‘silver fox’, someone handsome and charming like George Clooney or Richard Gere. For us the term fox is a compliment. 

But in the culture Jesus was living in, to call someone a fox (silver or otherwise) was not a compliment. The fox was used by the Jews of the first century as a metaphor for an insignificant or worthless person, someone who has a destructive effect on society. So calling someone a fox was a bit of an insult. Jesus had no time for Herod.

Jesus is not afraid of Herod. Jesus will carry on his ministry of deliverance and healing until he has reached his goal and accomplished God’s purpose of salvation by going to the cross. Jesus’ courage comes from knowing it is God’s purpose for him to die to save the world.

In verse 34, of Luke 13, Jesus laments over the city of Jerusalem saying: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing…” 

There is quite bit going on in this verse. Firstly, we notice that Jesus views the city of Jerusalem from the perspective of God, as though he has been watching over the city (in sadness) for centuries.  

As the living Word of God, Jesus is revealing God’s heart and (in this context) it is the heart of a mother. The Lord is grieving for the people of Jerusalem. Jesus came offering the way of peace but the people rejected Jesus. As a consequence, Jesus could see disaster in the city’s future as there had been in its past.

In AD 70, nearly thirty years after Jesus’ death and resurrection, the Jews defied Rome and the Roman Army destroyed Jerusalem, killing over a million people in the process. The real tragedy was that this violence and suffering could have been avoided.

It is curious that Jesus compares God to a mother hen, the very essence of protective care. It’s like Jesus is saying, ‘True protection, true security is found in God’. Jesus could have used any number of images to convey the idea of protection and security.

Jesus could have compared God to some powerful creature, like a lion or a bear, which would easily kill a fox. Or he could have a compared God to a fortified tower or some kind of weapon. But Jesus does not go with military images, nor anything as strong as a lion or a bear. Jesus goes with the humble, down to earth, relatively vulnerable, very un-scary chicken. 

There is real tenderness in this image of a mother hen sheltering her chicks. Tenderness in contrast to violence.

You have probably heard about the shooting in Auckland this past week. We don’t know exactly what led the gunman to that point, but his actions do not leave us untouched. Perhaps, like Jesus, we may feel something of the weight of it, the sadness, the tragic loss. There are no words.    

Jesus’ choice of a mother hen to describe God’s heart for Jerusalem comes across as something of a minority report. The majority of the images we have of God (from the Bible) are masculine. God is our Father. He is Lord and King, a mighty warrior and so forth. All very male oriented. But here, in Luke 13, Jesus uses a feminine image in relation to God.

There is nothing wrong with the male images. They are okay as far as they go, as long as we remember they are only an approximation to help our limited human understanding. Really though, we can’t assign a specific gender to God. We can’t fit God into our traditional male / female stereotypes, or any other category for that matter. God is original, set apart, holy.

Jesus’ words about the people of Jerusalem not being willing to find shelter under God’s wings, imply a criticism of God’s people. Baby chicks instinctively hide under their mother’s wings when danger approaches. But the people of Jerusalem don’t seem to be aware of who their mother is, much less what to do when they sense a threat.  

What do we do when we feel anxious or threatened? Are we like Chicken Little, running around spreading our fear? Or do we run to God, who comforts and protects us like a mother hen? I guess most of us have done both (and other things besides) at some point in our lives.

We find shelter under the wings of God primarily through prayer. As Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians: Do not be anxious about anything but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

The conceited rooster:

Okay, so the hen represents God’s motherly protection and care. What about the rooster? What do we associate the rooster with?

Well, in Proverbs 30 we read: 29 “There are three things that are stately in their stride, four that move with stately bearing: 30 a lion, mighty among beasts, who retreats before nothing; 31 a strutting rooster, a he-goat, and a king secure against revolt.

In this context, a strutting rooster suggests fearlessness, bordering on arrogant conceit or at least over confidence. The rooster struts around as if he owns the place. The rooster is the very picture of a creature that thinks it is better than those around it. The rooster has ideas above his station.

Scientists have proven that chickens are the closest living relatives of the dinosaur. So there is a shared ancestry between chickens and Tyrannosaurus rex. Could this be one reason why the hen is brave and the rooster struts around so fearlessly? Who knows? What we do know is that the chicken is a survivor.

Perhaps the most well-known reference to a rooster in the Bible is in relation to Peter’s denial of Jesus. In Luke 22, the night before Jesus’ crucifixion, Peter says to Jesus: “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.”

Clearly, Peter feels fearless in this moment. Perhaps also he thinks of himself as somehow better than the other disciples? At the very least, Peter has an inflated view of himself.  

Jesus recognizes Peter’s conceit and answers: “I tell you Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny knowing me three times.”   

After Jesus had been arrested and taken to the house of the high priest, Peter followed at a distance, not exactly strutting like a rooster but still over confident.

As he warmed himself by the fire, Peter was asked three times if he was with Jesus and three times Peter denied knowing Jesus as his friend. After the third denial the rooster crowed and, at that moment…

61 The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.” 62 And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Conceit is when our confidence exceeds our competence, so that we think we are better than we are.Conceit is very close to denial. Conceit blinds us. It prevents us from seeing ourselves accurately. Conceit turns us into roosters, strutting around like we own the place.

Peter didn’t think he was being conceited when he declared his willingness to die with Jesus. Peter totally believed in his own integrity and courage. He thought he was better than he actually was. 

We can’t help but feel sorry for Peter. His intentions were so good. He just wasn’t that self-aware. He thought he was brave and true. Now, every time he was woken by a rooster crowing, he would be reminded of his failure.

We all have a bit of rooster in us, a bit of arrogant conceit. At some point or other we have all strutted in our mind, thinking we are better than we are. The problem is, conceit often hides in our shadow. Your shadow is your blind spot, that aspect of your personality that you cannot see and therefore are inclined to deny.

The potential to act out of conceit is in each one of us. It’s just waiting for circumstance to pull the trigger.

Imagine, for example, you are playing a game with someone, maybe of scrabble or football or tennis or whatever you are into and believe you are good at. Now imagine your opponent beats you convincingly.

If you are surprised by your defeat and get upset (perhaps by blaming the ref or even accusing the opposition of cheating), then that is probably a sign of conceit. A red flag that says your confidence exceeds your competence. You are not as good as you thought you were.

I remember thinking in seventh form (Year 13), I would leave school with an A Bursary. I didn’t find the class work too difficult that year and felt like I’d done pretty well in my exams. As it turned out I got a B Bursary. I didn’t miss by much but I still missed. It wasn’t the end of the world but I certainly felt disgruntled by that result and wondered if the examiners had made a mistake in overlooking my brilliance.

Turns out I had been hood winked by my own conceit. My confidence exceeded my competence on that occasion. But there was valuable learning in that experience. I grew in my self-awareness, which is probably more important than getting an A Bursary. I learned I was not as smart as I thought I was, so I would need to work harder in life and I would need to ask for God’s help if I wanted to excel.

The truth about ourselves, mixed with a generous portion of grace, is how Jesus remedies our conceit.  Jesus forgave Peter and restored him. So Peter’s denial was not fatal. The hard part for Peter was forgiving himself, or more accurately, accepting himself. Faith includes accepting ourselves, even when we discover things in our character that we believe are unacceptable.

Jesus saw beyond the rooster in Peter. Jesus recognized Peter’s leadership potential and called Peter to feed his lambs, to take care of the fledgling church. Fortunately for us, Peter got over himself and became the leader Jesus always knew him to be.

The strength of Peter’s pastoral leadership was grounded in the reality of God’s grace. Peter could preach a gospel of grace, with humility, precisely because he had received and experienced Jesus’ grace for himself personally.

Of course, our inclination toward conceit is not something we can be cured of once and for all. We remain susceptible to conceit throughout this life. So we need to check ourselves from time to time.   

If you have ever been on a farm, you might have noticed the way chickens ruffle their feathers in the dirt. It might seem strange to us but they are actually cleaning themselves. We bathe in water, chickens bathe in dirt.

This is because chickens have a gland on their back which spreads oil over their feathers. The oil makes them water proof. After a while though, the oil goes stale. The chicken gets rid of the old oil by covering itself in dirt. The stale oil sticks to the dirt and comes off when the chicken shakes its feathers. Pretty clever really.

We get rid of our conceit in much the same way a chicken gets rid of its stale oil. By covering ourselves in dirt. Not by literally rolling in the dirt (although in ancient times people did actually repent in dust and ashes). But I’m speaking metaphorically.

The spiritual equivalent of rolling in the dirt, involves honest confession. Not denying the fact that we stink. But rather, facing the dirty truth about ourselves and shaking it off by asking God’s forgiveness.

Truth with grace is the cure for rooster like conceit.    

In many ways, I’m preaching to the choir. I don’t see anyone here as especially conceited. In fact, there may be some here who struggle with self-doubt, which is the opposite of conceit.

If conceit is when your confidence exceeds your competence (so you are not as good as you think you are), then self-doubt is when your competence exceeds your confidence, so you are actually better than you believe you are.

The remedy for self-doubt is the same as the remedy for conceit. Truth with grace. That means being on your own side and not sabotaging your mind with negative self-talk. It means graciously accepting encouragement and not beating yourself up if you fall short in some way. It means having confidence in God to support the choices you make and remembering you are a work in progress.   

God calls us to walk humbly with him. Humility is when our confidence matches our competence, so we have an accurate measure of ourselves.   

Whether we are more inclined to conceit or self-doubt, we are all partially blind and prone to denying the truth about ourselves. The good news is, God sees what’s in our heart, even if we can’t, and he loves us anyway. His grace is sufficient for us. 

Conclusion:

Neither Jesus, nor God, align themselves with the strutting rooster. Conceit has no place in the Kingdom of God. Instead, the Lord describes himself as being like a mother hen. A symbol of brave, protective care.

May you find shelter and tenderness under the wings of our God of peace. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading these Scriptures and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • Do you know any good chicken jokes?
  • Why did Jesus compare God to a mother hen? What thoughts or feelings does the image of a mother hen evoke for you?
  • What do you do when you feel anxious or threatened? How do you find shelter under the wings of God?
  • How is the image of the rooster different from that of the hen?
  • How might we know when we are being conceited? What is Jesus’ remedy for conceit?
  • What are some strategies for overcoming self-doubt?  
Tawa Baptist

Eagles

Scripture: Exodus 19:3-6 and Isaiah 40:27-31

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

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Freedom with faithfulness
  • Strength with grace
  • Vision with patience
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Today we continue our sermon series on ‘Birds of the Bible’ by focusing on eagles. Eagles are mentioned more than 30 times in the Scriptures, mostly in the Old Testament. There are many things we could say about eagles but three characteristics stand out: Freedom, strength and vision.

Freedom:

Let us begin with the eagle’s freedom. From Exodus 19 we read…

3 Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel: 4 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 youwill be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ 

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

In The Lord of the Rings, Tolkien uses eagles to rescue the Hobbits and their friends. When the Hobbits are outnumbered or in an impossible situation, the eagles come (at Gandolf’s command) and carry them away to safety. Tolkien borrowed this imagery from the Bible. 

Perhaps the most obvious characteristic of eagles is their freedom. Any bird with the ability to fly has freedom of course, but eagles have an even greater freedom than most because they are at the top of the food chain. They are an apex predator. The eagle is fearless.

Eagles are also one of those birds that mate for life, or at least until their mate dies. So as well as being free, the eagle is also a symbol of faithfulness.

In verse 4 of Exodus 19, Yahweh (the Lord God) talks about the freedom he secured for the nation of Israel. The people of Israel were being oppressed as slaves in Egypt and God delivered them, carrying them on eagles’ wings.

Eagles don’t actually carry their young (or anything else) on their wings, which is the point of the metaphor. God is using the eagle (a symbol of freedom and faithfulness) and making it do something that eagles don’t ordinarily do.

When God says to Israel, I carried you on eagles’ wings, he means something like, ‘I rescued you, Israel, from an impossible situation in a truly miraculous way. What I did in delivering you from Egypt has never been done before.’

We might read this passage and be so taken with the poetry of eagles’ wings that we miss what comes next. The Lord goes on to talk about faithfulness, saying: …if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession.

Can you see how God puts freedom and faithfulness together?

To be faithful means obeying God and keeping his covenant. Following his law of love in other words. To be God’s treasured possession means that Israel will belong to the Lord in a special way. God is the creator of all there is and so everything belongs to God, but if Israel remains faithful to the Lord, they will be his Taonga, his prized treasure.  

In the islands you often see outrigger canoes. In Hawaii they are known as Wa‘a (Vah-ah). Outrigger canoes have at least one lateral support which give the canoe stability. 

Freedom is a wonderful gift to be given but it needs to be balanced by faithfulness. If freedom is the canoe, then faithfulness is the outrigger, supporting freedom so the people paddling the canoe don’t capsize.

In Galatians 5 Paul writes: It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened by a yoke of slavery.

The yoke of slavery in this context could be the observance of man-made religious rules, that only make you feel guilty when you break them. But the yoke of slavery could also be some kind of unhelpful or unholy habit.

Jesus came to set us free from sin and guilt. But the freedom Jesus bought for us is not a freedom to do whatever we want. It is a freedom to obey God. A freedom to love God with all our being and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  Faithfulness is the right use of freedom.   

Freedom is a good thing, so long as we don’t make it the main thing. We live in a society which places a high value on personal freedom. We are very attached to our individual autonomy. We don’t like anyone or anything messing with our plans or getting in the way of our happiness. You could say that personal freedom (or individualism) is one of the golden calves of western society.

Sadly, our society is not so enamored by faithfulness. Broadly speaking we like the convenience of personal freedom but are less keen on the responsibility that freedom requires. It’s like we have done away with the outrigger of faithfulness, so the canoe of freedom is prone to capsizing. 

Freedom, without faithfulness tends to leave the door open to fear. Despite our emphasis on freedom we are a relatively anxious society. We are not fearless like the eagle.

As the people of God in this place, we need to hold freedom and faithfulness together, like the eagle. That means we will often have to sacrifice our personal freedom for the sake of God’s purpose. Sometimes following Jesus’ way is not convenient but we do it anyway because that is who we are, we belong to Christ, we are his treasured possession.

It needs to be acknowledged that most of you do hold freedom and faithfulness together much of the time. I can see that. So, in talking about the divorce between freedom and faithfulness, I am not criticizing anyone here personally. I’m simply making an observation about western society generally.

Strength:

Okay, so freedom coupled with faithfulness is the first characteristic of the eagle. The second is the eagle’s strength. Eagles are among the most powerful birds on the planet. They can fly at speeds of up to 160 km’s per hour and they can reach altitudes as high as 15,000 feet.

The claws of an eagle can exert a pressure of over 300 psi. That’s a vice like grip. Eagles often swoop down to catch fish but will also eat rodents and snakes. Some species of eagles are strong enough to pick up a lamb or a small calf. They are powerful creatures.

But raw strength and power by itself is not necessarily a good thing. Just as a hot curry needs some yogurt and cucumber to temper the taste, so too strength needs to be tempered with gentleness and grace. To give balance to their strength, eagles also possess a wise grace.

Seeing an eagle fly is a beautiful thing. Eagles are graceful. Here in New Zealand we are more likely to see hawks in the sky. A hawk is quite similar to an eagle in the way it soars and glides on the wind. Although an eagle has great strength, it has the sense not to waste its energy flapping madly. The eagle makes good use of the air currents.

Gliding gracefully takes some skill. Eagles are so fine-tuned, so adept at flying, that if they lose a feather in one wing, they are able to shed a corresponding feather in their other wing in order to maintain equilibrium.   

We also see the wise grace of the eagle in the way it parents its young. The mother stays with her young eaglets to protect them and keep them warm, while the father goes out to catch food and bring it home to the family.

And, contrary to popular belief, eagle parents don’t push their young out of the nest to see if they will fly. Rather, they use a wise and gentle approach. When the parents think their children are ready to fly, they stop feeding them. Then, when the young eagles get hungry, they venture out of the nest in search of food for themselves. Smart birds.

We notice this careful balance of strength and grace in the eagle imagery used in Isaiah 40, where the Lord God says through the prophet…  

27 Why do you complain, Jacob? Why do you say, Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God”? 28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. 29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. 30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; 31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

The message of Isaiah 40 is one of comfort for the Jewish exiles in Babylon. Following the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC, those who had survived the siege were forcibly marched off to a strange land. Apparently some of the exiles were thinking that God did not care for them anymore.

By definition, God is the most powerful, strongest being there is. But it does not matter how deeply you might believe in God’s strength and power, if you don’t believe in God’s grace for yourself personally, then you will become bitter towards God.

In verse 29 we read that the Lord strengthens those who are weak and tired. God shares his power with people who are spiritually exhausted so they soar on wings like eagles…

As I’ve already mentioned, eagles don’t flap. Eagles are calm and graceful. They spread their wings in freedom and they glide. Eagles can’t see the thermal currents that carry them but they still trust themselves to the wind.

God’s grace uplifts the weak who trust in him, like the thermal currents uplift the eagle with outstretched trusting wings.  

Those who wait in hope for God will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not grow faint. In other words, God’s grace sustains us both in the challenging times of life, when the pressure is on and we find ourselves running just to keep up, as well as in the ordinary routine of life when things simply tick over at a steady walking pace.

Isaiah’s use of the eagles’ wings imagery connects the exile with the exodus. Just as God got Israel out of an impossible situation, carrying them out of slavery in Egypt, so too he carried Israel out of captivity in Babylon.

Are you feeling like a captive in your life’s circumstances at the moment? Are you run off your feet, tired, weak and at the end of your tether? Are you feeling out of place, oceans from where you want to be? Are in an impossible situation, trapped between a rock and hard place? 

What might God be saying to you this morning? Put your hope in the Lord.

God can do the impossible. He can renew your strength so that you soar on wings like eagles; so you run without growing weary and walk without growing faint.     

Vision:

The eagle is a symbol of freedom, strength and vision.

You have probably heard the phrase, ‘eagle eyed’. This is because eagles have very good vision. An eagle’s eyesight is around five times better than that of a human being. In practical terms, that means, an eagle can spot a rabbit from three kilometers away. Pretty impressive, not to mention handy.

Of course, having amazing vision does not make for an expert hunter. Like any good hunter, the eagle also needs patience to support its vision. The eagle may have to patiently glide around the sky for hours, waiting for its prey and the right moment to strike.

Just as freedom needs the outrigger of faithfulness and strength needs to be tempered with grace, so too vision needs the twin virtue of patience. The ability to wait, with the right attitude, until the time is right.    

In the Bible, vision has at least two meanings. Firstly, vision is the ability to see what God is doing in the present. In John chapter 9, Jesus heals a man born blind. Somewhat ironically, the man who was blind had more vision than the religious leaders. He could see that God was at work in and through Jesus, whereas the religious leaders refused to acknowledge the Lord.

At the same time, vision also has to do with hope; vision is the capacity to imagine a good future.  And so we have the well-worn verse, ‘without vision the people perish’; which basically means, without hope for a good future the people give up.

Vision, then, is about seeing what God is doing in the present and believing in God to provide a good future. Jesus is God’s vision for humanity. The risen Christ is our hope for the future.   

Returning to Isaiah 40. In verse 31 we read, but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles.

It seems that Isaiah is making a connection between the long range vision of eagles and the long range vision of those who hope in the Lord.

Hoping and waiting and patience go together in Biblical thought. As Paul says in Romans 8: 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.   

Hope is a powerful source of energy. Hope for a good future gives us joy in the present and that joy can carry us on eagles’ wings through tough times.

Those who are familiar with the story of Jacob might remember how Jacob had to work seven years to pay the bride price and be married to his sweetheart, Rachel. But that seven years seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her. The hope of a good future with Rachel carried Jacob, on eagles’ wings, through his seven years hard labour.

Hope is a powerful source of energy but like any kind of power, hope can be dangerous if it is misplaced. If we put our hope in the wrong things, and our hope is disappointed, then our heart can be broken and our capacity to trust damaged.

That’s why we need to be careful to put our ultimate hope in the Lord. Not in our career or money. Not in education or expertise. Not even in marriage or family. While all those things are good and helpful and we need them to get by in this world, they are not perfect and so they have the potential to let you down, to break your heart.  

Let me say it another way. Putting your hope in the Lord does not mean believing that God will give you what you want. No. If you think that God will always give you what you ask for, then you will be disappointed. God will give you what you need and sometimes what you want, but not always.

Most of the time we don’t realise what we have put our hope in. We can be quite blind to our own vision of the future until that vision is threatened or taken away.

Although I wasn’t aware of it at the time, as a child, my hope was in my parents. When my mum and dad got divorced, my hope (or my vision of what the future held) came apart, it was undone.

At that point I had a choice. I could become angry and bitter or I could transfer my hope to God. In other words, I could trust God to be my vision. I could trust God to redeem the past and create a good future.  

Where have you placed your hope?

Waiting for God to fulfil his vision for our lives is the work of a lifetime, it requires patience.  

If you love God more than the things God gives, then you will be more secure. You will be better equipped to accept your losses in this life, because you know that you have God and God has you. And that is what really matters. 

Conclusion:

Freedom with faithfulness, strength with grace and vision with patience. These are the qualities of the noble eagle.

We see these qualities embodied in Jesus. Jesus sets people free and he faithfully lives out God’s law of love on our behalf.

Jesus has the strength to defeat sin and death, as well as the grace to forgive.

Jesus’ vision is to make all things new, to bring heaven to earth, and he suffers patiently to realise this vision.

May the Lord bless you and keep you. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading these Scriptures and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

  • Why does freedom need faithfulness? What happens if we separate freedom from faithfulness? What does it mean to be faithful to God today?
  • Discuss / reflect on the imagery of God carrying Israel on eagles’ wings. What does this mean in the context of Israel’s exodus from Egypt. What does it mean for you personally?
  • The eagle combines strength with grace. Can you think of an example, either from your own experience or from the gospels, of how Jesus combined strength and grace?
  • Have you experienced God renewing your strength? What happened? What did God do for you?
  • What are the two ways of understanding vision? Why is patience the necessary companion to vision?
  • Where is your hope placed? How do you know this?
Tawa Baptist

Qualities of a good parent (by Murray Lucas)

Scripture: Luke 15:11-32

To-day I want to share with you about what constitutes being a good parent from a Christian faith perspective. I will be drawing upon Jesus’ parable of the Prodigal Son and while the emphasis is on the son’s father it is totally valid to extend the message to include mothers, and other parent figures in our lives such as aunties or uncles.

I have chosen this focus as I am delighted that the leaders of the Tawa Church have made an impressive and wise commitment to the work of children and families.

One of Rembrandts greatest paintings is “the return of the Prodigal Son”. In this painting the focus is on the hands of the father.  The right hand is feminine, and the left hand is masculine. The reason for these differences has been debated extensively over the years, and the main explanation is that the hands represent both the hand of the father and the mother of the prodigal son.   God can assume both the male and female parenting roles for us.

Let me share three vignettes that I have experienced related to parenthood.

Story 1:

I am talking about a boy whose father could not be bothered to turn up to a pre- stand down meeting – a high-end discipline meeting. The father eventually told the boy by phone that he was not coming to meet the Principal. He told the boy he was on his own after initially promising he would come to school. The boy had waited for 1 hour before he was taken home by myself. At least his father gave permission for that.

That same boy had deliberately committed a number of minor offences so that he could do a detention after school supervised by myself or the Deputy Principal. We soon worked out that he appreciated the company, boundary setting and some type of accountability. It would be an understatement to say that he felt the absence of a father keenly.

In the end to support this student along with other neglected pupils in a sustainable way we created a classroom led by a trained teacher and quality mother who made them accountable but lovingly guided them through the challenges of adolescence. As a result, respect and trust in an adult developed.

Story 2:

Student K was a danger to himself and others. His verbal trash talk of others was such that he was constantly getting into fights and generally it was K onto 10 or even more. One day after school he was arrested for an offence that took place outside of College and outside of school hours. The Police rang me up and said no-one in the wider family or whanau was willing to pick him up from the Police Station. Could I do this as his school Principal? I politely refused saying that social services needed to be involved as they are better trained than me. He then went to the Activity Centre (Challenge 2000) and was so bad for them, he was excluded from this alternative school-something that had never happened before.

This story has a happy ending. Some eight years later I was at a local Polytechnic Information day related to the hospitality trade. I was served by this same boy at the function. He said, “Mr Lucas, do you remember me?” I said, “You are not K?” He looked similar but his manners were impeccable and he carried himself superbly well. He told me he was indeed K and told me his story. He had been sent up to Gisborne to the only relative who would have him. That did not last long but the relative did get him a job working for a local builder. This builder saw some potential in him and allowed him to board at his place with his wife and family. His employer became the father that he had never had. After 5 years of having a father figure take an interest in him and encourage him, this boy was transformed in a very positive fashion. The builder’s gentle but fair discipline had dramatically changed this lad. Again K’s trust and respect in an adult developed.

It was a powerful message to me that we should never give up on people no matter how dire their predicament. 

Story 3:

My third story relates to my own father. As I have grown older I realise how fortunate I have been in all areas of my life to have a father who was a great role model but also loved me unconditionally. I have many memories that I treasure when my Dad took time to spend with me to make me feel valued and special. I remember one day vividly when after school finished for the year he took the day off to walk around the Pauhatanui Estuary with me. He told me about all the plants and the ecosystem of the wetlands and said how important they were for our environment. He told me that scripture says that we need to be good and responsible stewards of our environment, long before climate change was even heard about. At that time, he was Director General of Lands and Survey for NZ but I felt privileged that he could take a day out to make his son feel valued and empowered.

As a result of the experience of consistent parental love and caring throughout childhood, such fortunate children will enter adulthood not only with a deep internal sense of their own value but also with a deep internal sense of security.

The first two stories illustrate that all children are terrified of abandonment and with good reason. The fear of abandonment begins around the age of 6 months as soon as the child is able to perceive themselves to be an individual separate from its parents. There is no doubt that in both my first two cases the young men not only feared abandonment but experienced it.

Sadly, when we look at the Bible, some of the fathers mentioned were not good role models. Isaac and son Jacob both demonstrated favouritism to one son over other siblings with initially unpleasant results. Eli was unable to effectively discipline his sons and Samuel and David were outstanding men of God but struggled as fathers.

One of the worst examples of fatherhood was the Old Testament judge Jephthah who had just won a battle over the Ammonites, but had foolishly vowed that he would offer the first person that came to his house, as a burnt offering to Yahweh. That person was his daughter and as a result of his rash and ill-advised oath his daughter was killed.

Things do get better in the New Testament. Joseph the father of Jesus would have had to overcome shame and humiliation over the virgin birth to be an excellent role model to Jesus and his siblings. I think Zebedee and Zechariah seem also to have been quality fathers.

However, the passage I want to use to show the qualities of a good father relates to the father figure in the Prodigal Son – a Parable that Jesus told. We read the Parable in Luke Chapter 15: 11-32…

The Parable of the Lost Son

11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.

13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’

28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’

31 “‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

The plot centres on the younger son who, impatient and greedy, asks his father for his inheritance. The father allows his son to have his inheritance, but the son wastes his money, eventually becoming homeless and destitute. In the end, to his great surprise, he is welcomed back into the family by the father and a celebration is organised by the father. This parable throws the emphasis on love and redemption rather than harsh judgement.

I want to deal with three qualities of a good father as illustrated in the parable of the Prodigal Son. The first is a love that never gives up and enjoys spending quality time with his son. The second is the patience of a father and the third is the emotional vulnerability of a father.

Let us first examine love. Think of the son finding his way back to his father’s home after undergoing a lot of self-imposed hardships and suffering and is finally giving up on life. However, his father has not given up on him and welcomed him back to his home with open arms.

Life is not always smooth sailing. It can be challenging and lead one to feel like giving up. But a good father, no matter how daunting the fathering task seems, never gives up on his son or daughter. It is also comforting to know that our heavenly father is always with you every step of the way. To be an effective father you have love that never gives up for your children.

Ultimately love is everything to a relationship.  I have been given worth and value by my spiritual father as Jesus’s life, death and resurrection was an act of love to each and every individual. This love is not forced upon us and it is up to us to accept it.

When we love something it is of value to us, and when something is of value to us we spend time with it, time enjoying it and time taking care of it. Think of a person with their beloved rose garden and the time spent pruning and mulching and fertilizing and studying it. So it is when we love children, we spend time admiring them and caring for them. We give them our time. The time and the quality of the time that parents devote to them indicate to children the degree to which they are valued by their parents.

The feeling of being valuable is essential to mental health and is a cornerstone of self-discipline. It is a direct product of parental love. It is important that such a conviction is gained in childhood as it is much more difficult to acquire during adulthood. On the other hand, when adults have learned through the love of their parents to feel valuable, it is almost impossible for the challenges of adulthood to destroy their spirit.

To be an effective father we must love our children. We have a love for them that will never give up on them. We have a love for them that is expressed in spending quality time with them. We have a love for our children that empowers them to feel valuable and allows them to move into adulthood with confidence knowing they are loved.  

The second quality of being an effective father is to be patient. In the Prodigal Son parable, the boy had been gone a long time, long enough for a famine to ravish the land, yet the father waited patiently. Patience is a virtue all Christians should possess but it is certainly necessary in our homes. We need to learn to be patient with our children, knowing that they have many life lessons to learn. We must realise that children are not miniature adults. Too many children and young people grow up too fast. Many of these life lessons must be learned the hard way. We cannot learn the lessons for them. The prodigal son had to learn some hard lessons and the father allowed it. We, as fathers, must learn patience.

To be an effective father we must love our children and spend quality time with them never giving up on them. To be an effective father we must be patient with our children.

To be an effective father we must show emotional vulnerability. Dads serve as role models by working to be their best selves and allowing their children to see their imperfections. Dads should also demonstrate loving predictability, consistent discipline and unconditional acceptance as is evidenced in the Prodigal Son. One of the most important things I have learned as a dad is to be emotionally available to my sons. They have seen me emotionally vulnerable and I believe that has been important to my sons. It is important to let your children know that you are human. Think how healing for the Prodigal Son was the joyful show of emotions from his father when he returned.

Finally, the father in the Prodigal Son had his priorities in the right place: The most important thing was not that his son had sinned, nor that he wasted his inheritance. Neither was it crucial that he had caused his father untold grief. The most important thing was that his son was home. Material things can be replaced, sorrows can be forgotten and sins can be forgiven, but a soul lost can never be restored.

In the Prodigal Son parable I have always struggled with the question- Was God a good father to the older brother? I would like to address this now as I do believe the Father is a good model in the way he relates to the older son in the Parable.

A number of biblical commentators believe that the oldest son illustrates the Pharisees and the scribes. Outwardly they lived blameless lives but their attitudes were abominable.

In those times, one of the duties of the eldest son would have included reconciliation between the father and his son. The older son would have been the host at the feast to celebrate his brother’s return. Yet he remains in the field instead of in the house where he should have been. This act alone would have brought public disgrace upon the father. Still, the father, with great patience, goes to his angry and hurting son. He does not rebuke the older son, as his actions and disrespectful address of his father warrant.  The father’s compassion does not cease as he listens to his eldest son’s complaints and criticisms. The older son refers to the prodigal son as “this son of yours”. In doing so he avoids acknowledging that the prodigal son is his own bother.

The older brother’s focus was on himself and as a result there is no joy in his brother’s arrival home. He is so consumed with issues of justice and equity that he fails to see the value of his brother’s repentance and return. The older brother allows anger to take root in his heart to the point that he is unable to show compassion towards his bother, and, for that matter he is unable to forgive the perceived sin of his father against him.

The wise father remains consistent throughout and seeks to bring restoration by pointing out that all he is and has will always be available for the elder obedient son.

The father is a good role model to both his prodigal son, as he is to the older son.

Let us compare the father with the older son. The father does not first rush to the servant’s quarters to physically punish his boy and satisfy his wrath before he forgives his wayward son. No. In the story of the prodigal son, the father bears the loss and forgives his son from his treasury of inexhaustible love. He just forgives. There is no payment, there is no appeasement. Justice as punishment is what the resentful brother called justice. Justice as reconciliation is what the loving father called justice. The only anger we find in the parable belongs to the Pharisee-like brother, not the God-like father.

We must love our children and never give up. We must be patient with them and we must be emotionally vulnerable. How well that is modelled by God who is the father of the Prodigal son in this poignant parable.

This is a challenge to all of us who are fathers, mothers and role models in whatever area of life we choose.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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?

  • Find a picture of Rembrandt’s painting, ‘The return of the Prodigal Son’ and take some time to reflect on it. What do you notice? What meaning to do see in the painting?
  • What are some of the things children need from their parents?
  • Can you think of some good parenting examples from the Bible? Why were these people good parents?
  • Thinking of your own parents, what did they do well? What do you appreciate about your parents now that you are an adult?
  • Discuss / reflect on the parenting style of the father in Luke 15.
  • Who do you identify with most in the parable of the prodigal son? The younger son, the older son or the father? Why? 
Tawa Baptist

Ravens

Scripture: 1 Kings 17:1-6

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

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Anti-heroes
  • Elijah
  • Ravens
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Can anyone tell me what a group of ravens is called? [Wait] That’s right, a group of ravens is often called an unkindness.

But you sometimes also hear terms like a treachery of ravens or a conspiracy of ravens. Unkindness, treachery, conspiracy, these are not very friendly words. Clearly, there is something a bit sinister or spooky about ravens in the human imagination. 

Today we continue our series on birds of the Bible. Last week we considered the ostrich. Today our message focuses on the raven. 

One of the classic Bible stories involving ravens comes from the Old Testament book of First Kings. In this account ravens are not associated with unkindness or treachery. To the contrary, they serve as instruments of God’s faithfulness and provision. From verse 1 of First Kings 17 we read… 

Now Elijah the Tishbite, from Tishbein Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve, there will be neither dew nor rain in the next few years except at my word.” 2 Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah: 3 “Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. 4 You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.” 5 So he did what the Lord had told him. He went to the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan, and stayed there. 6 The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning and bread and meat in the evening, and he drank from the brook.

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

Anti-heroes:

You may have heard of the term ‘anti-hero’. An anti-hero is a central character in a story who lacks conventional heroic attributes. Anti-heroes are like flawed heroes. Anti-heroes blur the line between protagonist and antagonist. They may even seem like the bad guy at first, but in the end they are revealed to be the one who saves the day.

Examples of anti-heroes in the movies include Shrek, Snake Plisskin, Deadpool, Professor Snape and Robin Hood. They are unlikely heroes. In the context of First Kings 17, the raven is also something of an anti-hero. No one would think that God would use a raven to care for Elijah and yet he does.

The Law of Moses declared ravens to be ceremonially unclean and therefore not fit for human consumption. Ravens are birds of prey. Like vultures they feed off dead carcasses, among other things. You don’t eat ravens because ravens eat road kill.

Now in saying that ravens are ceremonially unclean, we don’t mean they are evil or bad. Ravens are one of God’s creatures and God’s creation is good. But as a non-kosher food, ravens came to be looked upon as something that God’s people should avoid.

A couple of weeks ago we heard about Noah sending a dove out of the ark to see if the flood waters had receded. Well, the dove wasn’t the first bird Noah sent. In verse 7 of Genesis 8, we read that God sent out a raven but (unlike the dove) the raven did not come back. It kept flying around.

The inference seems to be that the raven did not return to the ark because it found a smorgasbord of dead flesh to feast on.

The raven stands in stark contrast to the dove. The dove is gentle and winsome, a symbol of new life and peace. While the raven is wild and associated with death, rapaciously feeding off the left overs of judgement.

The ravens’ connection with death and judgement is seen again in Proverbs 30, verse 17, which reads…

The eye that mocks a father, that scorns an aged mother, will be pecked out by the ravens of the valley, will be eaten by the vultures.

The fifth command, to honour your father and mother, comes with a blessing attached; that you will live long in the land the Lord your God is giving you. The flip side to this blessing is that if people cursed (or mistreated) their parents they should be put to death.

Proverbs 30:17 is talking about the outcome for those who do not take care of their mum & dad. To have one’s eyes pecked out by ravens implies being killed and not receiving a proper burial, so one’s body is left out in the open for birds to eat. This is a poetic way of saying, if you don’t respect your parents, then no one will respect you.

Given these sorts of horrific images, it is little wonder that ravens are considered a bad omen, associated with death and judgement.

As scavengers that feed off the misfortune of others, ravens don’t fit the classical profile of a hero. They are more like the anti-hero in the Elijah story.

Elijah:

The prophet Elijah is also something of an anti-hero. Elijah is a complete unknown. He pops up in the history of the kings of Israel out of some place no one has heard of. He doesn’t come from a famous family. There is nothing especially impressive about him. And, from what we can tell, he appears to be prone to bouts of depression.

Despite his lack of pedigree and his loneliness, God’s Spirit was with Elijah making him brave.

Elijah lived at the same time as king Ahab. King Ahab reigned over Israel for 22 years and did more evil in the eyes of the Lord than any of the kings before him. Ahab was not an anti-hero; he was 100% villain.

Together with his infamous wife Jezebel, Ahab built a temple in Samaria for the worship of Baal, something forbidden by God.

Baal was the pagan god of fertility and weather. People in ancient times sacrificed to Baal (and did a whole lot of other terrible things besides) in the vain hope that he would make it rain so their crops would grow and they would not starve. But Baal does not control the weather.  

Yahweh, the Lord, the living God, does not want people to worship Baal or anything else because that is meaningless, empty, a waste of time, a lie. Even worse, it leads people to degrade themselves and hurt others.

These days, people in the western world don’t normally bow down to statues of wood and stone but we do have a tendency to worship things like money, sex, reputation, personal freedom, career and so on.

These things are not bad in themselves. In fact, they may be used for good. But if we make any of them the most important thing in our life, then they have a destructive effect on our own soul and in our relationships.

Given that many Israelites were vainly putting their trust in false gods to make it rain, the Lord (in his love for Israel) was moved to do something about it. In order to demonstrate that Baal was powerless and that Yahweh was Israel’s true provider, the Lord sent Elijah to tell king Ahab that it was not going to rain for a few years, nor would there be any dew.

In other words, Baal does not control the weather, the Lord God almighty is in charge, therefore trust him.

Notice the way Elijah says: “As the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, whom I serve…”  There are two rebukes implicit in this phrase. Firstly, Elijah is telling king Ahab that Yahweh, is the living God; not Baal.

And secondly, Elijah is saying he serves Yahweh, not king Ahab or anyone else. There is no flattery, no charm, no spin.

Elijah was risking his life by confronting Ahab in this way. This was a heroic thing to do. And yet Elijah is an anti-hero because he is doing something we don’t expect of a hero.

We would expect the hero to defeat the villain, and save the nation from disaster. But Elijah does not do this, at least not straight away. Elijah becomes God’s instrument for bringing about a famine across the land. Elijah’s ministry precipitates disaster. This is tough love, a way of bringing the nation to its senses. Elijah is both protagonist and antagonist.

For Elijah’s protection, the Lord instructed his prophet to hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan.

We don’t know exactly where the Kerith Ravine is today but a ravine with a stream running through it is an interesting choice. Ravines in the Middle east are prone to flash flooding. You wouldn’t ordinarily camp out in a ravine because if it rains suddenly, you could be swept away and drown.

Of course, if it doesn’t rain then you are at no risk of drowning. By obeying God and hiding in a ravine, Elijah was putting his money where his mouth was. He was showing through his actions that he trusted God’s word to him that it would not rain.

The Lord goes on to say to Elijah, “You will drink from the brook, and I have directed the ravens to supply you with food there.”

Anyone who is familiar with the Law of Moses would be somewhat surprised by this. As we’ve already noted, ravens are ceremonially unclean birds. They are associated with judgement and death. Why would God use ravens to feed his prophet?

Well, Elijah is not eating the ravens themselves, so he is not breaking the law. Given that Elijah is in hiding, it makes sense to use ravens to courier the food. Elijah can’t leave the ravine without risk of being spotted. Ravens flying around in the wilderness are not going to give away Elijah’s hiding place.  (The ravens were sort of like God’s Uber Eats.)  

Ravens

Yahweh’s use of ravens to feed his prophet is a criticism of Israel. Unlike Israel, the ravens obey God’s command. They are faithful servants of Yahweh. If the so called ‘unclean’ ravens are serving Yahweh, how much more should God’s holy people serve the Lord?

When we consider the way God made the raven, we can see it is a fitting choice to feed Elijah. The raven mirrors Elijah, as a sign, embodying God’s message to Israel. It’s like God is saying, the raven (the anti-hero bird) has something to teach you about how you should relate with me.

Ravens are highly intelligent birds, with relatively large brains for their body size. Ravens are smart enough to craft tools and plan for the future, as well as play games like hide and seek.

Unlike king Ahab, who lacks the understanding to realise he is wrong, ravens are intelligent enough to understand what God wants and do it. If a bird is smart enough to understand what God wants, then we human beings have no excuse.

Ravens are excellent hunters. They often hunt in groups enabling them to trap and kill prey twice their size. Just as ravens are excellent hunters, able to provide Elijah with bread and meat (suitable for human consumption), so too God is an excellent provider and can be trusted to feed his people.

In the gospel of Luke chapter 12, Jesus says this to his disciples…

22 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. 23 For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. 24 Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! 

Jesus’ teaching here is not an excuse for folding your hands and doing nothing. The ravens still have to gather their food, just as we human beings still need to work to earn money to buy food.

The point is, God knows what we need and is well able to provide it, so we don’t need to worry. Worry is the cousin of Baal worship. By the same token, we do well to take a leaf out of the ravens’ book and be resourceful in using whatever is at hand.   

Ravens can remember faces. Whether you are kind to a raven or cheat a raven, it will remember your face and treat you accordingly. The Israelites of Elijah’s day had forgotten their covenant with the Lord. They had forgotten the Lord’s face, as it were. They needed to be more like the raven and remember God’s goodness to them.

At the end of the service most weeks, I pray a blessing over you which includes the phrase, may the Lord make his face shine upon you. In other words, may God smile on you. May he show you favour and grace. May he be pleased with you and may you feel his pleasure.

There is a lot that happens to us in this world to make us forget the Lord. Remember God’s face. Remember your commitment to him and remember the ways the Lord has made his face shine upon you. Thank him for his goodness. 

Ravens are good communicators, with the ability to point to things with their beaks and hold up items of interest as a way of making conversation. Ravens can even mimic human voices better than a parrot.

The Scripture doesn’t say this but I can’t help imagining the ravens communicating with Elijah, pointing at things and perhaps even mimicking what he said. Certainly they communicated something of God’s faithfulness in returning to feed Elijah each morning and evening.

We human beings are made for relationship, especially relationship with God. Communication is how we establish and maintain our relationships. Prayer is the word we use to describe our communication with God.

The people of Elijah’s day were not talking to the living God. They were talking to dead pieces of wood and stone. In essence they were talking to themselves. Keep talking to God. And when you don’t know what to say, mimic the words of Jesus. Pray the Lord’s prayer.

One other thing about ravens, they are faithful. Ravens mate for life. The Lord is faithful too. God wants an exclusive relationship with us. The Lord wants us to trust him. Yahweh desires our obedience of faith. As we read in Psalm 147…

9 The Lord gives animals their food and feeds the young ravens when they call. 10 His pleasure is not in strong horses, nor his delight in brave soldiers; 11 but he takes pleasure in those who honour him, in those who trust in his constant love.

The ravens trust God and honour him. We can too.  

Conclusion:

Okay, so if the ravens and Elijah are like anti-heroes, then what about Jesus? Well, Jesus doesn’t exactly fit the category of anti-hero. Yes, Jesus is the hero of God’s story but he breaks the mold. He redefines what it means to be a hero.

Jesus is not flawed like your classic anti-hero. Jesus is perfect. That being said, Jesus is misunderstood and rejected by many, precisely because he does what we don’t expect the hero to do. Jesus loves his enemies and forgives those who are killing him, even as he bleeds out on a cross.  

Here’s the thing about Jesus. Jesus shows us the face of God. It’s a face of forgiveness. The face of grace. The face of acceptance. A face that smiles on you.

Let us pray…

God of grace, help us to trust you and remember your face, as we go into this week. Through Christ we pray. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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?

  • What is an anti-hero? Can you think of examples of anti-heroes from books or films?
  • In what ways is the raven like an anti-hero? In what ways is Elijah like an anti-hero?
  • Why is the worship of Baal bad? What sorts of things do people today typically worship? What (or who) do you worship? Is there anything in your life that threatens to take God’s place?
  • Why did God choose ravens to feed Elijah? What can ravens teach us about how we are to relate with God?
  • What practical things can you do to remember God’s face?
  • What spiritual qualities do you share with the raven?  What raven like qualities would you like to develop?
Tawa Baptist

The Ostrich

Scripture: Job 39:13-18

Video Link: https://youtu.be/HXhf3YyM0-o

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Job
  • Yahweh
  • The ostrich
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

When we hear the proverbial saying, “Don’t bury your head in the sand”, most of us probably think of what? [Wait] That’s right, we think of the ostrich.

While ostriches are a bit comical to look at, they don’t bury their head in the sand, in order to avoid their problems, as is commonly thought. That is a myth.

It would be more accurate to say ostriches bury their eggs in the sand because it is warm there. They then poke their head into the sand occasionally to rotate the eggs.

Last week we began a new sermon series on Birds of the Bible by looking at the dove. Today we consider the ostrich. The ostrich is the largest living bird. An adult male may stand eight feet tall and weigh 300 pounds. Male ostriches typically have black feathers with a white trim, while the females have brown feathers.

The main Biblical passage in which the ostrich features is Job 39. From Job chapter 39, verse 13 we read…

13 “The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, though they cannot compare with the wings and feathers of the stork. 14 She lays her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand, 15 unmindful that a foot may crush them, that some wild animal may trample them. 16 She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers; she cares not that her labour was in vain. 17 It was I who made her foolish and did not give her wisdom. 18 Yet when she spreads her feathers to run, she laughs at horse and rider.

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

Job:

To be able to understand these verses, we need to know the context. The book of Job deals with the problem of suffering and the verses we just read are part of Yahweh’s first speech to Job, found near the end of the story.

But let us start at the beginning. Job was a blameless and upright man who feared God and shunned evil. Job was also very wealthy. God allowed Satan to test Job. Satan began by destroying Job’s business and robbing him of his great wealth. Then Satan arranged for all of Job’s children to be killed in a storm, before afflicting Job himself with sores all over his body. 

Despite losing his farm, his family and his health, Job refused to charge God with wrong doing. He continued to worship God saying: Naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

To add to Job’s woes, the very people one would expect to provide some comfort and support (his wife and best friends) only made matters worse. Not only did they show a lack of understanding and empathy, they actually blamed Job for his misfortune. Job was alone in his marriage and alone in his community. Job, the righteous & lonely sufferer, reminds us of Jesus.

Despite all of this though, Job did not sin in what he said. Job held onto his integrity. And it was integrity that required Job to ask God for a fair hearing. Eventually, Yahweh spoke to Job out of the storm.

Yahweh:

We might have expected God to comfort Job with a few gentle words of explanation but God does not do this. God offers Job no answers and instead responds forcefully with an avalanche of his own questions for Job.  

The strength of Yahweh’s approach shows Job that God is robust enough to handle his pain and his rage.  

At first glance God’s questions might seem unfair. They were hardly the sort of questions that Job could give a sensible answer to. But really Yahweh is doing Job a kindness. God has listened patiently to Job (at length). Now it is time for some medicine.

When you are in as much pain as Job was in, it distorts your perspective. Your world becomes quite small and you can feel trapped or cornered, like you have no options. In that frame of mind, you become defensive and entrenched in your own narrow point of view. What Job needs is a change of perspective.

One recommendation for promoting good mental health, is spending time in nature. Taking a walk in the bush or the mountains or by the sea, opens your mind to a new perspective, helping you to see your options more clearly.

By asking Job a series of questions about creation and the natural world, God is giving Job a new perspective. The Lord is helping Job to shift the focus off himself and he is dismantling Job’s defences.

God’s questions are a strategy for pulling down the wall that Job has built around himself, a wall that Job felt he had to build because his wife and his friends were so hostile to him. But also a wall that isolates Job and prevents him from experiencing the kind of closeness and understanding that could heal him.

Towards the end of chapter 38 and the beginning of chapter 39, Yahweh questions Job about a variety of animals. For example…

The lions and ravens which God feeds.

Mountain goats which breed and survive without the help of people.

Wild donkeys and wild oxen which roam free and do not need humankind.

As well as the hawk & eagle that make their home where no man can go. 

All of these animals are wild and independent of man. All of them are dangerous and all of them are free, especially free from fear. Is Yahweh trying to show Job that he does not need to be afraid?

Certainly Yahweh is sovereign. He is Lord and King over all things, including the animals, both domesticated and wild. This means, no part of the world lies outside God’s rule. No hostile, dangerous force exists beyond his authority.

Not that God micro-manages everything. Rather he allows and supports freedom within certain limits. All that happens, including Job’s suffering (and ours) takes place within God’s wise governance.

I don’t believe God goes out of his way to cause suffering. Rather he is in control of it. This means God allows suffering to happen but he keeps a leash on it. More than that, God uses suffering to serve his purpose. If God is the surgeon, then suffering is his scalpel. 

That is cold comfort when you are going through tough times. When we are in pain, we just want the pain to stop. And even after the pain has subsided, we may still wonder why we had to go through it in the first place.

Nowhere, in Scripture, does God promise to give us an explanation. We are not entitled. Like Job, we may never understand why in this life.

What God does promise is to never leave us or forsake us. Jesus chose the nails. Christ walks with us and tells us to pick up our cross and follow him. If we share in his suffering, we will share in his glory. That much is promised.       

The Ostrich:

Included in the list of wild animals, in Job 39, is the ostrich. The female ostrich gets six verses. That’s more than the lioness and the hawk. Verse 13 reads…

The wings of the ostrich flap joyfully, though they cannot compare with the wings and feathers of the stork. 

Perhaps we are meant to see some ironic humour in the ostrich here. The ostrich cannot fly, no matter how much it flaps its wings. Surely the irony is not lost on Job who has had his wings clipped. Job cannot understand his suffering (much less God’s ways) no matter how hard he tries.

Like the ostrich, we human beings need to keep our feet on the ground. We need to humbly accept our limits. The lesson of accepting our limits and embracing the way God has made us is a difficult one. But if we can’t accept ourselves as we are, then we set ourselves up for a great deal of anguish.

Notice that it says ‘the wings of the ostrich flap joyfully’. The ostrich is not frustrated that it cannot fly. The ostrich simply enjoys what she has been given. 

Let’s say you wanted to be a professional sports person but you were not born with the coordination or the genes to reach the heights you dreamed of. For years you train and practice and diet and strive but no matter how hard you flap your wings, you just can’t fly.

Eventually you realise, I can’t achieve what I want to achieve because I’m simply not made that way. And so you are faced with an existential crisis. Who am I? What is the point of my life? Why did I waste all that time?

Well, if you had fun and made friends it wasn’t a waste of time. Who cares if you don’t make it as a professional sports person. If you like sports, play at the level you enjoy. Play socially. Become a coach or a ref.

The ostrich does not try to be an eagle. The ostrich joyfully accepts that it is an ostrich. We save ourselves a lot of grief when are able to accept ourselves the way God made us.

From verse 14, we are given a description of how a female ostrich behaves with her young…

14 She lays her eggs on the ground and lets them warm in the sand, 15 unmindful that a foot may crush them, that some wild animal may trample them. 16 She treats her young harshly, as if they were not hers; she cares not that her labour was in vain. 17 It was I who made her foolish and did not give her wisdom.

These verses paint a rather unflattering portrait of the ostrich hen. They blend comedy with tragedy. Apparently, ostriches don’t make great mothers.

It’s interesting that God draws attention to the weakness or deficiency of the ostrich. More than that, God takes responsibility for it. Yahweh says, the ostrich is foolish because I made her that way.

The point seems to be that God has made things good, but not perfect. Imperfection and weakness (foolishness even) is part of the plan; it is built into the very fabric of creation. 

This is important to understand. It means we cannot expect everything in this world to function perfectly all the time. Sometimes things will go wrong. Sometimes your body will turn on itself and create cancer cells or produce too much cholesterol or fail to produce enough insulin or something else. 

The verse about the ostrich leaving her eggs on the ground introduces the idea of chance and randomness. Sometimes the ostrich’s eggs will be trampled on, other times they will be okay.

Now obviously, if God had made the ostrich with the good sense and skill to build her nest in a tree, the chance of the eggs being crushed would be greatly reduced. But that is not how God made the ostrich.

The analogue to this is that sometimes suffering is the direct result of the choices we make and other times it is random, just bad luck. More often though it is a combination of choice and chance.

We can make wise choices that mitigate risk and reduce the likelihood of suffering. But we cannot eliminate the possibility of suffering altogether because we cannot control everything.

If you drink and drive, you greatly increase the chance of causing suffering. But drinking and driving does not guarantee suffering. Sometimes you will get lucky and make it home without incident. By the same token, even when you drive sober, there is always the possibility of someone else running a red light and smashing into you. 

I know that Christians (generally speaking) don’t like the idea of luck. Many believers prefer to think that God is controlling every little detail of their life. That sort of belief is fine so long as nothing bad happens. But the moment things go wrong, your faith is turned inside out. Why has God done this to me?

Well, just because something bad happens to you, it does not automatically follow that God wanted it to happen. Yes, God is in control of the outcome and yes he could (if he so desired) micro-manage everything, but most of the time he chooses not to.

God allows room for his creatures to make mistakes. Even though Satan was wrong, God still allowed Satan to mess with Job’s life. Even though Job’s friends were wrong, God still allowed them to falsely accuse Job. The Lord works with the choices his creatures make.

Did God want Job to suffer? No! Of course not. God is not cruel. But suffering is what you get when you allow mistakes. The Lord allows imperfection (within certain limits) and that’s where chance comes in.     

Job’s friends kept insisting that Job was suffering because of bad choices Job had made in the past. They would not entertain the possibility of chance. But God does not agree with Job’s friends. Nowhere in his speech does the Lord convict Job of wrong doing. Yahweh vindicates Job.

Suffering does not submit to man’s moral calculus. Correlation does not prove causation. Just because you are suffering it does not automatically follow that God is punishing you. There is a certain mystery surrounding suffering.

God’s portrait of the ostrich indicates that the world is not perfect, so there is an element of risk and misfortune for all God’s creatures in this world. 

In many ways, Job is very different from the ostrich. Job was wise and consistently made choices which reduced the risk of suffering. Job cared deeply for his children and did everything in his power to look after them. Nevertheless, despite his diligence and care, Job’s children were still killed in a storm.

The book of Job teaches us that it is foolish to rely on luck. At the same time, Job also teaches us that God allows a certain amount of randomness in the universe. Sometimes there is nothing we can do. But even if we do suffer bad luck in this world, God is still in control of the outcome. This world is not all there is. God makes things right in the end, for the Lord is just and merciful.

(As Lance Corporal Jones likes to say, “Don’t panic Mr Mannering”.)

We human beings cause ourselves quite a bit of unnecessary suffering through worry and anxiety about the future. The ostrich does not suffer from worry though. Verse 15 says the ostrich is unmindful that some wild animal might trample her eggs.

Being a parent is terrifying really and it only gets harder the older your children get. When they grow up and leave home, your kids make their own decisions and you can’t protect them in the same way you could when they were young. To be a parent is to be vulnerable.

The temptation, when you’ve been through a traumatic experience (or three) is to imagine the worse. What if someone knocks them off their bike? What if they don’t make any friends? What if they forget to take their inhaler? What if they meet the wrong guy or the wrong girl? What if someone slips a pill into their drink? What if? What if?

Parenting is not easy. It’s an act of faith. As difficult as it is, we need to try and find the middle ground between the two extremes of helicopter parenting on the one hand and ostrich parenting on the other.

While we don’t want to neglect our children or be careless with them, we also don’t want to overthink things. The ostrich reminds us not to overthink it.

Oh for the wisdom to know when to intervene and when to stand back and let our kids figure it out for themselves. 

That being said, it seems a little unfair to laugh at the ostrich for the way it takes care of its young. It’s not the ostrich’s fault that God did not endow her with good sense. Quite apart from that, ostriches are hardly equipped to build their nest in trees or rocky crags, like other birds.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons ostriches are included in God’s speech to Job. For while Job’s parenting style is the opposite of the ostrich, he does share some things in common with this bird.

Through his misfortune Job was misunderstood. He became a sad joke, an object of ridicule, much like the ostrich is misunderstood and is often the object of ridicule. In this way at least, I imagine Job felt like an ostrich. Ostracised.

I said before that God made the world good but not perfect. Weakness is built into creation. That is true but it is not the whole truth. God also gives strength and special abilities.

The ostrich has a significant advantage. It can maintain a speed of up to 50 miles per hour for some distance and therefore can outrun most horses.

Contrary to popular belief, the male ostrich does not bury his head in the sand when trouble comes. Rather he starts running to try and draw the predator into a chase, away from his family. The ostrich knows the predator is unlikely to keep pace. So, while the ostrich may not be the smartest animal, he is fast and he does have some sense, which he uses to protect his family.   

God gives every creature a way to survive and excel. What is your strength? And how are you using the strengths God has given you?

Conclusion:

To recap then. As unlikely as it seems, the ostrich helps us when we suffer. 

The ostrich reminds us to joyfully accept ourselves as God made us.

The ostrich reminds us that this world is not perfect. God allows mistakes and therefore an element of randomness, so we cannot expect to go through life without some suffering.

The ostrich reminds us not to overthink it. Try and find the middle ground between worrying too much and being careless.

The ostrich also reminds us that we all have God given strengths and we should exercise our strengths for good.

One final thing the ostrich teaches us. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Try and keep your sense of humour.

In the end, the Lord restored Job. That is our hope too. In and through Christ, God is restoring his creation. He is making all things new.

May God give each of us the grace and courage we need to keep our feet on the ground and face life without fear. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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?

  • How do you feel when you think of Job’s story? What does Job’s story put you in touch with?
  • Why does God speak to Job out of a storm? Why does God ask Job a whole raft of questions about creation?
  • Discuss / reflect on the things Yahweh says about the ostrich in his speech to Job (39:13-18). How do these words about the ostrich help us when we suffer? 
  • What are your weaknesses? What are your strengths? How are you using the strengths God has given you? 
  • If you have children, where would you place yourself on the spectrum between helicopter parent and ostrich parent? Why? Does anything need to change?
  • Why is it important to accept that creation is good but not perfect?

Outtakes

The idea that ostriches neglect their young comes up again in Lamentations 4, which reads: Even jackals offer the breast, they nurse their young; But the daughter of my people has become cruel like ostriches in the wilderness.

There is no comedy in this verse, only tragedy. Lamentations recalls the siege of Jerusalem in 587 BC. This siege (like all war) affected the young in particular. During the siege, children received worse treatment than ostrich chicks. Because of a shortage of food, nursing mothers could not feed their babies.

Tawa Baptist

The Advocate

Scripture: John 14:15-17

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

The Advocate:

Good morning everyone.

If you are accused of a crime and have to appear in court, what do you need?

[Wait] That’s right, a good lawyer. Someone who understands the rules of the court, who can advocate for you and defend your cause.

If you are marooned on a deserted island, what do you need? [Wait]

Probably a satellite phone and a survival expert, someone who knows what you can eat and what you can’t. Someone who can start a fire and help you build a shelter until the Navy arrive.

If you are facing bullies at school or at work, what do you need? [Wait]

Someone strong to stand with you against the bullies. 

Today, because it is Pentecost Sunday, our message focuses on the gift of the Holy Spirit. Before his crucifixion, Jesus explained to his disciples that he would be going away but that he would not leave his disciples alone. He would ask God to send his Spirit. From John 14, verses 15-17, we read the words of Jesus to his followers…

15 ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,to be with you for ever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be inyou.

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

There are many images in the Bible associated with the Holy Spirit including breath, wind, fire, water and oil. None of these is sufficient in itself to capture the work of the Spirit. Nevertheless, these images convey something about the life giving power of God’s Spirit.

In John 14, Jesus talks about the Spirit as a living person saying that he will ask God the Father to give those who love him another Advocate.

‘Another Advocate’ implies there is a prior Advocate, one who comes before the Holy Spirit. Jesus is the first Advocate but now that he is about to leave he plans to send someone else who is just like him. Someone who will advocate for and help the disciples in his absence.

The Greek word translated as Advocate is ‘parakletos’ or paraclete. There is no exact equivalent for paraclete in the English language and so this word is translated in a variety of ways in different versions of the Bible.

Quite literally, parakletos means ‘called to the side of’ (in order to help).[1]

It was a legal term indicating the counsel for the defense. So a parakletos was sort of like a defense lawyer. Hence it is translated into English as advocate, because that’s what a parakletos does, they advocate (or stick up) for someone who has been accused of wrong doing.

Jesus is the original advocate, the one called alongside to defend our cause. But since Jesus has ascended to heaven, the Holy Spirit is our new advocate. The implication here is that we are embroiled in a spiritual conflict in which Satan (the accuser) is seeking to condemn us.

Now some of you may be thinking at this point, “Hold on a minute. I don’t have the word ‘Advocate’ in my Bible. My Bible uses the word ‘comforter’ to describe the Holy Spirit in John 14. So what’s with this new word ‘Advocate’?”

The problem with language is that it keeps evolving, it keeps changing its meaning over time. For example, the word ‘nice’ originally meant silly, foolish or simple. So to call someone nice was a bit of an insult. Nowadays though to call someone nice is like saying they are gentle or kind. ‘Nice’ is a compliment.

Comforter is one of those words which has changed its meaning with time. Comforter comes from the Latin word fortis which means brave. So 400 years ago, a comforter was someone who, through their presence, strengthened you; making you brave so you had courage to face the bullies in your life.

These days a comforter might refer to a child’s blanket or to someone who gives sympathy when you have suffered some kind of loss. Not the same thing.

While the Holy Spirit can and does offer us comfort when we are feeling sad, the older definition (of making us brave in the face of a conflict or a crisis) is closer to the mark of what the Holy Spirit does.

Other Bibles use different words to translate parakletos. For example, friend, counselor, helper or intercessor. These are all true of the Holy Spirit but none of them captures the whole truth. 

The point seems to be that the Holy Spirit is a divine person with the strength and know how to help you follow Jesus in any situation you may face.

By way of metaphor, if this life is like trying to survive in the wilderness, then the Holy Spirit is like having Bear Grylls with you to show you what to eat, how to start a fire and how to make a shelter.

Or if this life is like an international test match, then the Holy Spirit is like your coach giving advice on game strategy and lending encouragement.

Or if this life is like a court trial, then the Holy Spirit is your defense lawyer speaking on your behalf and advocating for your release.

In verse 17, Jesus refers to Holy Spirit as the Spirit of truth. A little bit later in, verse 26, Jesus unpacks what he means by ‘Spirit of truth’, when he says…

26 But the Advocate,the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.

To put that another way: If this life is like an apprenticeship, in which we are learning to be like Jesus, then the Holy Spirit is our mentor and a master craftsman. The Holy Spirit shows us what Jesus would do. He teaches us to be like Christ.

Returning to verse 17, Jesus says the world cannot receive the Spirit of truth because it neither sees him nor knows him.

The world, in the gospel of John, can mean different things depending on the context. In chapter 14, the world refers to all people (collectively) who are opposed to Christ. Or said another way, the world represents those who live as though there is no God.

In John 3:16, when Jesus says, For God so loved the world he gave his only Son… he means that God loves those who are opposed to him. God loves his enemies enough to offer the life of his Son to save them.  

Jesus says the world is blind; meaning those who are hostile to Christ cannot receive the Holy Spirit because they cannot see him or know him. Eugene Peterson paraphrases this thought by saying: A loveless world is a sightless world.

Framing that in more positive terms, love gives us the eyes to recognize the Holy Spirit at work in our own lives and in the lives of those who do not yet know Jesus.  

In verse 15 Jesus says: ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments…’

Basically, God gives the Holy Spirit to those who love Jesus and the proof of love is obeying Jesus. It’s a bit of a chicken and egg situation. Which comes first? Obeying Jesus or receiving God’s Spirit? I’m not sure we can obey Jesus without the help of the Holy Spirit. Surely the Spirit comes first.

Perhaps, before we are aware of it, the Holy Spirit is at work cultivating God’s love in the soil of our lives and if that love bears the fruit of faith and obedience to Jesus, then the Spirit reveals some more of God to us. There is a mystery to this process. We can’t really put the Spirit in a box or tie him to a formula.

We can say this about the Holy Spirit though. He always holds love and truth together; he never separates the two. In fact, he uses love & truth to create connections between God and people.  Jesus alludes to the love & truth connections the Holy Spirit makes in verse 17 where he says to his disciples…

You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be inyou. 

The Holy Spirit is so close to those who love Jesus that he is actually inside us. We could understand this thought in two ways. The Holy Spirit is inside our body, mind and soul, as individuals. But, at the same time, the Holy Spirit is among us (or in our relationships) as a body of believers, as the church, prompting us and guiding us.

So how does the Holy Spirit work in our own experience. What practical difference does the Advocate make in our lives? Let me suggest three things the Holy Spirit does. This is not an exhaustive list.

Firstly, the Holy Spirit helps us to understand God’s word in Scripture. We see this principle at work, for example, with the birth of the church at Pentecost.

In Acts 2 the Holy Spirit empowers the apostles to proclaim the death and resurrection of Jesus in a variety of foreign languages. People from all over the world were gathered in Jerusalem and heard God’s word preached in their mother tongue.

As well as empowering the apostles to speak in different languages, the Holy Spirit was active in the hearts and minds of those listening so they were able to believe and receive the gospel message. God’s Word and God’s Spirit go together and have a creative power.

Often, when we read the Bible, we can find it difficult to understand. Reading Scripture without the Holy Spirit is like trying to decipher a foreign language.

The Holy Spirit reveals the love and truth of God contained in the Scriptures. When we read the Bible, the Holy Spirit high lights God’s word for us so that we have that ‘aha’ moment. He shows us God’s heart. He shows us Jesus. The Spirit enables us to understand what God is saying to us personally. He makes Jesus close and real.  

As well as helping us to understand God’s word in Scripture, the Holy Spirit also helps us to pray.

In Romans 8, Paul describes the work of the Spirit saying…

26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Prayer can be hard work at times. Sometimes we don’t have words to do justice to our thoughts and feelings. Sometimes all we have is sighs and tears.  The Holy Spirit gets us. As our Advocate the Spirit understands us intimately and he speaks on our behalf to God. The Spirit intercedes for us in harmony with God’s will. We might not know what to ask for but the Holy Spirit does.

So the Holy Spirit helps us to understand God’s word, he helps us to pray and thirdly, the Holy Spirit gives each of us a gift to share.

In 1st Corinthians 12 we read…

4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. 7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.

Some people are given the gift of administration. Some are gifted with discernment and wisdom. Others are gifted with the desire and skill to help people practically. Others are gifted communicators. Some are good with money and others are good with children. Some have musical talent and others are careful listeners or skilled organisers.

It’s a brilliant strategy if you think about it. By giving each person a different gift, the Spirit is giving each of us a purpose and a place to belong, a way to fit in and make a meaningful contribution. We don’t have to do it all on our own, but it is crucial that we do our bit.

The gifts the Spirit imparts create connections that enable the body of Christ to function so the message of God’s love & truth is shared with the world. 

What gift has the Spirit given you? How are you using your gifts for the common good?

Let me finish now with another reading of Jesus’ words from John 14…     

15 ‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate,to be with you for ever. 17 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be inyou.       

This means that, with the Spirit, you are not alone. May the divine Advocate be real for you, making you brave to face whatever comes your way this week. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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?

  • What are some of the Biblical images associated with the Holy Spirit? What do these images show us about the Spirit? Which image resonates most strongly with you?
  • Why did Jesus ask God the Father to send the Holy Spirit?
  • Discuss / reflect on the various English translation of the word Parakletos (Paraclete). What light do these words shed on the work of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer?
  • How do we know if we (or someone else) loves Jesus?
  • How does the Holy Spirit work in your experience? How might we discern the Spirit’s activity?
  • What gift(s) has the Spirit given you? How are you using your gift(s) for the common good?   

[1] Leon Morris, NICNT John, page 587.

Tawa Baptist

Hope feeds faith

Scripture: 1st Corinthians 15:51-58

Video Link: https://youtu.be/4Iw4j_DrU6Q

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • The hope of resurrection
  • The work of faith
  • Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

Bishop Bill Frey once said: “Hope is hearing the music of the future; faith is dancing to it today.”

I like that. Hope is the capacity to imagine a good future. If you know, by faith, that something good is waiting for you in the future, it gives you positive energy in the present. The name for that positive energy is ‘joy’.

Today we conclude our series in 1st Corinthians 15, where Paul writes about the necessity and certainty of resurrection for the Christian faith. In these verses Paul summarises some of the main points of chapter 15 and he draws a connection between the future hope of resurrection and what that means for Christian faith in the present.  From 1st Corinthians 15, verses 51-58, we read…   

51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”  55 “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”  56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.

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

Today’s message is about two things: The hope of resurrection and the work of faith. Bishop Frey used the imagery of music and dancing to describe the dynamic relationship between hope and faith. ‘Hope is hearing the music of the future; faith is dancing to it today.’

We might also use the metaphor of food. Hope feeds faith. Hope is not a quick sugar rush. True hope doesn’t pick you up and then dump you. Real hope is nutritious food for the soul, giving sustained energy over time.

The future hope of resurrection feeds our faith in the present, so we can go the distance in doing the work God has prepared for us as we hold to Christ.   

The hope of resurrection:

Does anyone here watch Bear Grylls? He has a TV programme where he takes celebrities on an adventure in the wild. It usually involves doing something risky and eating something disgusting.

In pretty much all the shows I’ve watched, Bear makes a fire to get warm and to cook whatever he happened to find on the trail. But each time he demonstrates a different technique for getting the fire going.

In one episode he said he was going to start a fire using his own pee. It was a mystery to me how he would transform urine into fire. I’m pretty sure pee isn’t flammable, although I’ve never put that to the test.

Long story short, Bear did not pour his urine onto the kindling. Rather he peed into a clear plastic bag and then held the bag of urine up to the sun, refracting the light through his pee, just like you would concentrate light through a magnifying glass. This was enough to ignite some dry grass which he then fed with sticks and logs to get the fire going properly.

From pee to fire. Such a clever transformation. So obvious and simple in hindsight.

From verse 51 Paul reveals the mystery of resurrection. Namely that those who belong to Christ, whether they are sleeping in death or still living when Jesus returns in glory, will be transformed in the blink of an eye.

We might read that and think, how? That seems as unlikely as using pee to start a fire. But for God it is easy. In hindsight, post resurrection, I expect it will be obvious to us all.   

As we heard last week, the transformation of resurrection happens to our bodies. The Christian hope of resurrection does not imagine a disembodied soul in the next life. The Christian hope of resurrection includes a transformed body, one that is suited to our new existence in the kingdom of heaven.

Just as a seed is transformed into a plant and a caterpillar is transformed into a butterfly, so too our earthly bodies will be transformed into heavenly bodies, only much quicker. The change is from a body that wears out and dies to a body that doesn’t wear out or die. That is the hope of resurrection for all who belong to Christ.

In 1977 the rock band Queen released a song called We are the champions. It is a victory song, intentionally written for crowd participation. Even now (nearly 50 years later) We are the champions is instantly recognizable and easily sung at sports stadiums around the world.

In verses 54 & 55 Paul offers his own victory song, where he writes: Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting?

Paul is referring to Isaiah 25 here, where the prophet says…

7 On this mountain the Lord will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; 8 he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth.

It’s like Paul is saying: through Jesus’ resurrection, we are the champions. Through Jesus’ resurrection, we are on the winning side. Through Jesus’ resurrection, we have the victory over sin and death.

Of course, while it is true that in and through Christ we are the champions, it also needs to be acknowledged that we live in the now but not yet. Yes, Jesus has won the victory over sin and death on the cross. But we haven’t yet fully realized that victory. We still await the final victory when Jesus returns in glory. We are (in a very real sense) on the way to victory.   

In verse 56 Paul explains his metaphor saying: The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

If you think of a scorpion, it is the sting of the scorpion that causes death. Sin is like a scorpion’s sting. Sin leads to death. But if you cut off the tail of a scorpion it cannot sting you, it is essentially harmless. Likewise, if you get rid of sin, then death loses its power and cannot harm you.

Paul also makes a connection between sin and the Law of Moses. Ironically, it is the law which gives sin its power. Romans 7 sheds some light on what Paul means here…

7 What shall we say, then? Is the law sinful? Certainly not! Nevertheless, I would not have known what sin was had it not been for the law. For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” 8 But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of coveting. For apart from the law, sin was dead. 

Even though the Law is good, it cannot save us. It can only show us our guilt and accuse us. The thought of having our faults revealed and being judged tends to fill us with fear and dread.

Returning to 1st Corinthians 15: To keep it simple, with the return of Jesus, death is destroyed and sin can no longer touch us. Through Jesus, we have victory over death. Knowing that, one day, God will destroy death in all its many forms gives us something good to look forward to; it gives us hope and that hope feeds our faith, it helps us to obey God in the present.

This hope of transformation through resurrection is not a long shot. It is not like the hope of maybe winning Lotto one day. For those who belong to Jesus, the hope of resurrection is a sure thing because it doesn’t depend on luck or our own ability or goodness.

Our hope of resurrection depends on what Jesus has already accomplished through his own death and resurrection.

One thing we notice as we read these closing verses from 1st Corinthians 15 is that Paul doesn’t play the fear card. Paul keeps it positive. Paul doesn’t threaten his readers with hellfire and brimstone. He doesn’t say, turn or burn. Paul uses the carrot and not the stick.

Some of us may have become Christians out of fear, because we wanted to avoid the pain and torment of hell (as our uninformed minds imagine it). God is gracious and he will still accept you on the basis of wanting to avoid hell but really a relationship which is based on fear is not ideal.

It’s not what God wants. God is love and he would prefer that our relationship with him be based on faith, hope and love, not fear.  

Hope feeds faith like a river waters the land or like bread nourishes the body.  And our faith needs to be fed and watered if we are to find the strength to do the work God has prepared for us. And what is that work? Our work is to believe in the one God has sent, to believe in Jesus.

The work of faith:

Recently I came across a short story by JRR Tolkien (of Lord of the Rings fame). The story is called ‘Leaf by Niggle’.

Niggle is an artist who lives in a society that does not value art. This does not stop Niggle from painting though. He loves beauty and painting for its own sake. Niggle is a perfectionist and spends many hours over the details.

He has a vision of a great tree with a forest and mountains in the background. But Niggle is better at painting leaves than he is at painting trees. He is always reaching to capture his grand vision of the tree but never quite getting there. Part of the problem is that Niggle has many mundane chores that prevent him from devoting his time fully to his master piece.

To make matters worse, Niggle has a kind heart and is not able to turn away from his neighbour in need. His neighbour, Parish, is lame and Parish’s wife is sick. When Parish’s roof starts leaking Niggle is imposed upon to help. In the process Niggle catches a chill and dies before he can finish his painting.

After Niggle dies, the precious canvas on which he painted his tree is used to cover the roof of his neighbour’s house and is all but ruined, except for a small corner which has a perfectly painted leaf on it. The ‘Leaf by Niggle’ is put in a museum but after a while the museum burns down and Niggle’s painted leaf is destroyed.  Niggle is soon forgotten by the people of this world.

In the afterlife, Niggle hears two voices. The voice of Justice and the voice of Mercy. Justice and Mercy are debating with each other about what should become of Niggle. The severe voice of Justice talks about how Niggle wasted his life and was always distracted, never accomplishing much. He never finished his painting of the tree.

But Mercy, a strong but gentle voice, points out that Niggle was kind hearted and helped his neighbour in need. What’s more, Niggle did not paint for fame or money. He painted for the love of art and beauty. Mercy and Justice agree to send Niggle to a kinder place for ‘a little gentle treatment’.      

When Niggle arrives in the heavenly country he finds the tree in his vision, the tree he had been trying to paint all his earthly life. Except now the tree is alive, it is not just a painting. And behind it is the forest and the mountains he had imagined on earth.

Parish joins Niggle in the afterlife and together they work to make this good place even better. The place is named “Niggle’s Parish” and becomes a garden of healing for people as they make their transition into eternity.

Most of us can identify with Niggle. We all have a dream or a vision of what we hope to accomplish in this life but none of us seem to be able to fulfill our aspirations. The demands and interruptions of this world get in the way, as do the limits of our skill and capacity. This life becomes marked by frustration, bitterness and gall until we find ourselves asking, what is the point? 

I like Tolkien’s story though, because it is hopeful. It reminds us this life is not all there is. It imagines a future in which our efforts in this life are not wasted but put to good use in the next life.

Said another way, our purest aspirations in work will come to complete fruition in God’s future. In paradise, the work you do will be useful, bringing you (and others) joy and satisfaction. You will not be frustrated by a lack of time or ability, for you will perform with all the skill you can imagine. [1]

Some might hear Tolkien’s story of Niggle and think: ‘Phew, the pressure is off. I can cruise through this life and it doesn’t matter too much because it will all be sorted in the next life.’  Well, that’s not the point of the story. Nor is that what Paul is saying in 1st Corinthians 15.

In verse 58, Paul writes…

Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labour in the Lord is not in vain.  

Some in the church in Corinth were saying there is no resurrection of the dead. Paul counters this by encouraging the Corinthians to stand firm in their belief in the resurrection. Let nothing move you; let nothing shift your hope in the resurrection, because those who hold to their faith in the risen Jesus will realise the deeper meaning and purpose of their life.

The hope of resurrection is not supposed to make us complacent or apathetic. The hope of resurrection is supposed to inspire and energize our work of faith in this world. What we do in this life matters for eternity because it is not just our bodies which are transformed and resurrected. The fruits of our labours in the Lord are also transformed and resurrected.   

Whatever you do in love and faith in this life, bears abundant fruit in eternity. In fact, we could think of the faith and love we share in this life as an investment paying dividends in heaven.

As Jesus says in Matthew 6…

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.  

Where is the treasure of your hope? What vision of the future captivates your heart?

Conclusion:

Given that hope feeds faith, how then do we get a seat at the restaurant of hope?  By holding fast to our belief in the resurrection of Jesus and taking time to feed our mind and soul on what we know of resurrection life from the Bible.

Over the past few weeks we have done just that…

In the resurrection those who abide in Christ will be given new supernatural bodies. Bodies that do not get sick or wear out or fail. Bodies that are well suited to eternity. Let the hope of a resurrected and transformed body feed your faith and your soul.

In the resurrection those who abide in Christ will receive a share in God’s kingdom. We will enjoy a paradise in which God’s will is always done perfectly. A place of joy and peace and abundance. No more poverty. No more grief. No more homelessness or war. Plenty of good things to go around for everyone.

Let the hope of heaven coming to earth motivate you to love your neighbour and care for the environment.


In the resurrection those who abide in Christ will experience the redemption of their life’s work. Your purest aspirations in work will come to complete fruition in God’s future. The work you do will become useful and satisfying. Your true calling will not be frustrated by a lack of time or ability.

Let the hope of having your life’s work fulfilled and made fruitful sustain your labour in the Lord now. 

In the resurrection those who abide in Christ will be reunited with loved ones who are also in Christ. Parents who have lost children too soon will see them again. Orphans deprived of their parents’ time & love will be cared for. You who are widows and widowers will meet your husbands and wives once more.  

Let the hope of restored and properly functioning relationships inspire you to be kinder, more patient, more honest, more gracious and more forgiving with those near to you today.


But the greatest hope, the most nourishing hope, of resurrection is the indescribable joy of intimacy with God. The ravages of loneliness in this world will pass like a bad dream. In the resurrection we will be so close to God, so immersed in his love, that we will know instinctively what the Lord wants and be willing and able to do it.

Let the hope of intimacy with God fill you with wonder so that your soul overflows with whole hearted worship and praise. 

“Hope is hearing the music of the future; faith is dancing to it today.”

May the music of heaven give you the rhythm and joy you need to dance through this life. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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?

  • Discuss / reflect on Bishop Frey’s quote: “Hope is hearing the music of the future; faith is dancing to it today.” What does this mean? What does this say about the relationship between hope and faith? 
  • What does Paul mean when he says, ‘the sting of death is sin and the power of sin is death’? 
  • Why does Paul focus on the hope of resurrection (rather than the fear of hell)? What is your relationship with God based on? Does anything need to change?
  • How do you feel hearing Tolkien’s story about Niggle? In what ways does the story ‘Leaf by Niggle’ relate to 1st Corinthians 15:58?
  • What does it mean to share faith and love in this life? How might we do this?
  • Where is the treasure of your hope? What vision of the future captivates your heart? How does the hope of resurrection influence your faith in the present?  

[1] Timothy Keller, ‘Every Good Endeavour’, page 96.

Tawa Baptist

Continuity & Transformation

Scripture: 1st Corinthians 15:35-50

Video Link: https://youtu.be/VUUAN9TiW8E

Structure:

  • Introduction
  • Symptoms & Cause
  • Continuity & Transformation
  • Before & After
  • Conclusion – application

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

If you are out at sea and the boat you are in is leaking, you need to do two things. You need to bail out the water you’ve taken on board and you need to patch the hole to stop the leak. Patching the hole deals with the cause of the problem and bailing out the excess water deals with the symptoms.

Likewise, if you are running a high temperature you may need to take some Panadol to bring the temperature down but Panadol, by itself, only deals with the symptoms. To deal with the cause of the problem you need to go to a doctor. If the underlying issue is an infection, then you might need antibiotics to treat the cause.  

Today we continue our series in 1st Corinthians 15, where the apostle Paul writes about resurrection. Some in the church at Corinth were saying there is no resurrection of the dead. Having dealt with the symptoms of this problem, Paul also addresses the underlying cause of the problem. From 1st Corinthians 15, verses 35-50, we read…

35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendour of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendour of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendour, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendour. 42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body.  45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. 50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

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

Symptoms and cause:

In the first 34 verses of 1st Corinthians 15, Paul writes about the absolute necessity of the resurrection for Christian faith. As helpful and necessary as these verses are, they mainly deal with the symptoms of the problem.  

Now, in verses 35-50, Paul addresses the underlying cause of the Corinthians’ problem. He patches the hole in the sinking boat of their faith. He administers the theological antibiotics needed to treat their infected thinking.

You see, the people of Corinth were strongly influenced by Greek thought. The Greek philosopher Plato (who lived about 400 years before Paul) came up with a theory that each human being has a divine soul of pure fire that, in this life, is imprisoned in a body. At death the soul (or spirit) escapes from the prison of the body and returns to the divine fire from which it came. [1]

To the ancient Greek mind, there was a false dichotomy (or a divide) between body and soul. The body was considered inferior (even bad) relative to the soul or spirit. Consequently, the ancient Greeks had a hard time accepting the resurrection of the body. The idea that God would raise people’s bodies from the dead was revolting to them.

Paul was Jewish and so his thinking started with the story of creation where God made all things and declared them good. For Christians there is no dichotomy between body & soul. Your body is not a prison, it’s not bad. Your body is good; it is sacred even. The problem is with sin and death.  

But Paul’s Greek readers didn’t think like that. They had been conditioned differently and so Paul had to address the underlying cause. Paul had to undo the Greek idea that the body was bad (like a prison) and he had to correct the false notion of a disembodied spirit after death.

People in our society today might also struggle with the idea of a bodily resurrection but for different reasons, perhaps because materialism is so pervasive in our culture. For many people, if they can’t touch it or see it or explain it, then it doesn’t exist. That’s how we are conditioned to think.

In verse 35, Paul imagines two questions some of his readers might ask:

How are the dead raised? (Or how is resurrection possible, in other words.)

And with what kind of body will they come? (Or said another way: what is the resurrected body like?) Paul answers these questions in the verses that follow.

He begins by saying, ‘How foolish’. Paul is not calling his readers stupid or unintelligent. Rather, he is using the term ‘fool’ in the Old Testament sense of someone who fails to take God into account.

How are the dead raised? By God of course. And with what kind of body will they come? A different kind of body, perfectly suited to eternity.

Continuity and transformation:

In short, Paul is saying there is a continuity between this life and the next but there is also transformation. Continuity with transformation.

There is continuity in the sense that just as you have a personal body in this life, so too you will have your own body in the next life. Contrary to Greek philosophy then, you don’t become a disembodied spirit when you die and you don’t lose your individuality.  

Having said that, your resurrected body will be a different kind of body from the earthly body you inhabit now. Your body will undergo a radical transformation in the resurrection.

This principle of transformation was different from what the Jewish Rabbis taught in the first century. The Rabbis believed in a bodily resurrection but they didn’t think the body changed. They believed you just get your old body back, which for most of us (as we get older) is not a happy thought.

When it comes to the resurrection, the Christian belief is continuity with transformation.

Paul isn’t making this stuff up. This is not some ethereal woolly idea without any basis in reality. Paul has a firm (evidence based) foundation for his claims about the resurrection.

In verses 36-41, Paul lists a series of examples from nature which demonstrate the continuity and transformation of resurrection. Paul talks about the bodies of plants, the bodies of animals, fish and birds, as well as celestial bodies like the moon and stars. It reminds us of the account of creation in Genesis 1 & 2. Indeed, resurrection is a new creation.

Paul is showing how the continuity and transformation of resurrection are built into the very fabric of the natural world. From verse 37 we read…

37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 

Take a tomato seed for example. The seed that is buried in the ground looks nothing like the plant that grows from that seed. Yes, there is a continuity between the seed and the plant, the seed has a body and the plant has a body, but God transforms the seed into something different, something more. 

Although Paul doesn’t mention it, we see the twin principles of continuity and transformation in the life cycle of a butterfly. A butterfly doesn’t start life with wings. A butterfly starts as a caterpillar before going into its cocoon and being transformed.

Paul goes on in verse 39 to talk about the different kinds of flesh God has given to animals, birds, fish and human beings. Paul is saying here that God gives all of his creatures a body type which uniquely suits their existence and their environment.

For example, he gives whales a body that enables them to live in cold water and dive to great depths. But, in the same way a whale doesn’t do so well on land, a human body couldn’t survive in frigid waters like a whale can.

Likewise, God gives birds a body that enables them to fly. But if a goat were to jump off a cliff, it wouldn’t fly, it would fall to the ground because God has given it a different body type, one which is suited for climbing mountains.

All of this is Paul’s way of answering the question posed earlier: with what kind of body will the resurrected come? With a body that is suited for eternal life.

The earthly bodies we inhabit now would not be able to cope with the glory of heaven, any more than a goat could fly or a human being could live in the sea.

Before and after:

In verses 42-44 Paul talks plainly about the transformation of the body through resurrection:  42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.         

In these verses Paul notes four differences between our earthly bodies and our resurrected bodies. 

To begin with, our earthly bodies are perishable, they wear out, get sick and fail us until eventually we die. But the transformed body we receive through resurrection is imperishable. Which means it is physically resilient. It doesn’t get sick or tired or wear out. Think Wolverine or Superman or Captain Marvel.

Our earthly bodies are sown in dishonour and raised in glory. Glory is the opposite of dishonour. Glory, for human beings, has to do with honourable qualities like courage, integrity, faithfulness, wisdom and self-control.

In this life we may want to act with honour all the time but in reality we fall short more often than we would like. In the resurrection we will have the kind of transformed character that supports our best intentions to act with courage, integrity, faithfulness, wisdom, self-control and so on. 

Or as William Barclay puts it: we will no longer be servants of our own passions but rather instruments of pure service to God.

Our bodies now are weak but in the resurrection they will be powerful. We will be able to cope with the rigours of God’s kingdom both physically and morally. In thinking of power, don’t think in terms of brute force. Instead, think of Jesus.

Power (in this context) isn’t just about how much you can bench press or how much you can bend people to your will. We are not talking about military or political power here.

Power, in a Christian understanding, is more about moral fitness. Jesus had the power to stand against injustice, to speak the truth and, at the same time, to be gracious and gentle. Jesus had the personal power to turn the other cheek and to forgive. What’s more, Jesus also had the supernatural power to heal people and deliver them from the tyranny of Satan.

Power is defined by the example of Christ, not by the broken standards of this world. Christ-like power appears weak at first but don’t be fooled; the weakness of God is stronger than the might of empires.    

The fourth transformation of the body (named in verse 44) is the change from a natural body to a spiritual body. To be spiritual means to be responsive to God’s Spirit. It means being so close to God, so in tune with him, that you instinctively move at the impulse of his love. 

Imagine finding a piece of drift wood on the beach. Now imagine taking the wood home and transforming it into a finely crafted wooden flute, which you play beautiful music with.

Your body in this world now, is like the drift wood. In the resurrection, God transforms the driftwood of your body into a beautiful instrument that is in tune with him, through which his Spirit works to ‘render the music of perfect worship, perfect service and perfect love’. [2]

We are trying to describe the indescribable. We are trying to imagine the heavenly using earthly images. Words fall short.

Understand this though, a spiritual body is not an immaterial thing. A spiritual body is not a phantom or a ghost. A spiritual body has real substance. You can touch and feel a spiritual body.

When the risen Jesus appeared to Thomas, the Lord said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put into my side…’

Thomas was able to physically touch Jesus’ resurrected body.

If an earthly body is a what we might call a natural body, then a spiritual body is a supernatural body, one that is fit for the kingdom of heaven.

In verses 45-49, Paul compares and contrasts Adam and Jesus. The first Adam was made from the dust of the earth and received life from God. There is no shame in being made from mud, in being earthy. God declared our bodies (and indeed all he made) to be good.

Being people of the earth is a natural and necessary stage in our development, just as being a caterpillar is a necessary stage of development for a butterfly. Or being a seed is a good and necessary stage of development for a plant.

But this life is not all there is. The next stage of our development is to become like the risen Jesus, the last Adam, the heavenly man.

Like us, Jesus was an earthy person. He was made of dust as well. But, after Jesus had died, God raised Jesus to eternal life and gave him a heavenly body, a supernatural body, suited for eternity. Jesus is our model, our pattern.

Those who belong to Jesus will be resurrected like Jesus and given a new body, one made from the stuff of heaven so that we can be close to God and enjoy him forever. The stuff of heaven is imperishable, it is glorious, honourable, (morally) powerful and perfectly in tune with God.

Conclusion:

You might be wondering, well that’s all well and good but how does this apply to us now, today? Let me suggest three points of application…

Firstly, when it comes to the question of how your earthly body is disposed of when you die, from an eternal perspective, it makes no difference whether you are buried or cremated. Our earthly bodies are made of dust and return to dust. In the resurrection we are given new supernatural bodies, made from the stuff of heaven. God doesn’t need your old bones to make the new you.

So you don’t need to tie yourself in knots worrying about how God will resurrect you. This is not his first rodeo. He created the heavens and the earth. He created you. God knows what he’s doing. Nothing is too hard for the Lord.

Secondly, as you get older you will notice your body doesn’t work as effectively or efficiently as it did when you were younger. You move slower. You seem to have more aches and pains and you find you can’t do as much as you once could. Getting older is difficult.

The good news is that in the resurrection you will be given a new body which is resilient and doesn’t let you down or become frail. So, whatever physical pain or limitations you may be enduring now, these will not last.

Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

A third point of application. Whether you are young or old or in between, you may feel at times like a moral or spiritual failure. You may struggle to understand what God wants you to do in any given situation, let alone have the courage or integrity to obey him.

Remember, you are a work in progress. In this life you are like the seed. You are like the caterpillar. You are like the driftwood. God has not finished with you yet.

Be confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

In the resurrection, we who belong to Christ will be so close to God, so in tune with him, that we instinctively move at the impulse of his love. It might be difficult to imagine right now, but God will get you there in the end if you hold to Christ. His grace is sufficient for you.

There are other points of application, but that is enough for today. May our God of grace strengthen our hope as we look forward to the transformation of our bodies in the resurrection. Amen.

(Prayer will be available after the service by the water cooler.)

Questions for discussion or reflection:

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?

  • When faced with a problem, why is it important deal with both the symptoms and the cause of the problem? What was the likely cause of the Corinthians’ problem concerning the resurrection?  
  • Do you believe in a bodily resurrection? Why or why not? Has your understanding (or belief) about resurrection changed over time? If so, how? 
  • In what sense is there a continuity between this life and the next?
  • Why is it necessary for our bodies to undergo a transformation in the resurrection?
  • Thinking of what Paul says in vv. 42-44, how is our resurrected body different from our earthly body?
  • Discuss / reflect on the three points of application offered at the conclusion of this message. Can you think of any other ways in which the Christian belief in a bodily resurrection applies to us now?  

[1] Kenneth Bailey, ‘Paul Through Mediterranean Eyes’, pages 454-467.

[2] William Barclay’s commentary on Corinthians, page 177.