It was all for us and all for me

Today, the second Sunday in Advent, was a day of thought and inspiration for me as myself and as a preacher.   At the end of the service we took Holy Communion.   I was assisting at communion so I was sitting close to the advent crown with two candles alight.

Looking at the two lighted candles I thought back to last week when I was the one to light the first candle for Advent.   The two small flames were there and I thought to myself, "I lit that candle, the one that has burned down the furthest.   That means I am personally involved in the ceremonial remembrance of what God did all those years ago.   That was the time when God came to earth as his own Son, Jesus.   He came to transform us.   He came to transform me.

The Old Testament reading was Isaiah 11:1-10.   It spoke of a transformation.   This branch from the stock of Jesse and there would come the spirit of the Lord.   This spirit would have wisdom and understanding, counsel and power, knowledge and fear of the Lord who will not judge by outward appearance or decide a case on hearsay.   He will with justice judge the poor and defend the humble.   His verdict will strike the ruthless and his sword will slay the wicked.   The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the kid, the calf and the young lion will feed together, and the cow and the bear will be friends.   The passage continues in the same way and speaks poetically of a mighty transformation.   It means the coming of Jesus will be revolutionary, a thing that will overturn values accepted for many centuries.

John the Baptist was the subject of the New Testament reading.   He too preached about transformation when he told the people how close the Kingdom of Heaven was with the advent of Jesus.   He spoke of the axe, ready to cut down the tree and the wood thrown into the fire.   Now that was really a transformation.   He told them his baptism was to make people change - another transformation.   But he prophesied that Jesus would be one who baptised with the Holy Spirit and with fire.

Recently I have been suffering from depression and have started both medication and a course in which I look at the various aspects of depression and anxiety as applied to me.   Between these two interventions I have changed radically.   All fear has gone and positive thinking is here.   I now feel as I felt years ago.   It has led to me rethinking the gospel and how it relates to me.   I now think positively about what God has done for me and for humanity.   Being able to think so clearly paints a picture so colourful and bright that the hope of Advent shines strongly in my mind.   I am, for once, looking forward to Christmas this year.   Christmas has been, for me, a time I hate when people make their lives worse by over-indulging and over-spending.   It sets them up for the New Year with regrets at what they have eaten and drunk and debts that now have to be paid.   The whole season is one where the shops and stores tempt the population to spend too much money on things that will not enhance their lives at all.

The message of Advent is one that relies entirely on the true values of God, our Father.   Using these values we can all make an amazing difference to the lives of others as well as ourselves.   At the end of our service to others (and therefore to God) we can look back and say, "In the name of God I have helped to make a difference."   We are exhorted to go out and change, not just ourselves, but all around us.

Thanks be to God

From the old to the new

Ephesians 4:17-32

Over my life I have realised that people have this in common – They are reluctant to change.   As a young preacher aged 17 years I was a real advocate of change and took no prisoners when berating a congregation for its reluctance to change.   Such is the impetuousness of youth.   “Please, Keith,” said our church secretary, “We know how bad we are.”   It took many years before I realised that I too had become averse to change.   It seems to be a human condition that establishes itself in middle age.   We begin to ask “What is wrong with the way we are doing things?”   But, some years ago, I heard a speaker in a meeting about the environment saying “If we always do what we always did we shall always get what we always got.”

It is over 10 years ago that I heard a sermon in which a new terminology was used.   It was the expression, “risk averse”.   Since then I have encountered it in many places and within church circles I have seen it applied very often.   Being risk averse is an integral part of our, seemingly natural, resistance to change.   But to continue this is to completely ignore what Paul is saying in his letter to Ephesus.   If we ignore what Paul says quite clearly in the passage we are considering we can be sure we are applying the brakes on gospel progress.   It is one of the vital aspects of the gospel Jesus brought that we are called very clearly to radically change.   We have to positively dump our old ways in complete commitment to Jesus.   No one can argue with this, as we have always known.

I have often encountered advertisements for something that is described as new.   It is often a ploy to get people to try out the supposed latest thing.   Many years ago I worked for an Estate Agent who also sold insurance.   From time to time we had visits from people described as insurance inspectors.   They were, in reality, insurance salesmen of some seniority.   I am thinking now of Mr Cuthbert.   Mr Cuthbert would come to our office and have a chat with us.   The purpose of the visit was to keep us interested in selling policies provided by his company.   Each time he came he would produce some paperwork and say “Now, this is new.”   It was not really new but something he wanted to get us to sell to our clients.   It could be fairly described as something already existing dressed up as something new.

If you consider the world of motor cars you will know that every so often a car manufacture will introduce a new car.   Usually it is simply an updated version of what already exists.   If you take the Ford Focus, it now has a new radiator grille to distinguish it from its predecessor which my wife and I drive.   Sit inside the car and you will see very little that has changed.   You are seeing an upgraded model.   Very rarely does a motor manufacturer bring out something completely new.   It would be too expensive to do this in one move.   Eventually you will see a new body shape but it probably carries the same engine under the bonnet.   The changes have to be

 introduced gradually.   Many years ago we saw a revolutionary train on the West Coast line.   It was the APT, a new train that tilted on bends in order to maintain a high speed.   It appeared to be just what was needed on the winding west coast line.   It was introduced and almost immediately gave problems.   The worst problem presented by this completely new train was that the brakes used to come on and once the train stopped they could not be released.   The APT was taken out of service and nothing remains of it other than a power car in the National Railway Museum.   Ironically, the tilting mechanism was bought as a design and became a useful piece of technology for foreign competitors who sold the UK the Pendolino, a very successful design indeed.

What Paul is saying to his followers, as he languishes in prison, is that there has to be a radical change in order to truly follow Jesus.   It is not possible, if one is to become a Christian, to simply bolt on a few new ideas.   He is talking about radical change.   When we encounter Jesus we are called to start thinking and acting anew.   Whilst there are inevitably things that continue almost unchanged we are talking about a fresh approach to understanding God.   He does not desire to have us continue in the same old way as before.   In Jesus he is teaching us to completely rethink how we live and what we do.   If you look at the Magnificat, for instance, you will see that God’s values are not the traditional values that might be upgraded a little.   Listen to what Mary sings in her song:   “He has brought down mighty kings from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly.   He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away with empty hands.”

Here is the truth that God is about to intervene in history in a momentous way.   He is not looking for humankind to amend their ways so much as to rewrite the traditional values.   For centuries the chosen people thought they had the right approach to their religion and their relationship to God.   Suddenly there was to be a very different mission for them.   They had thought for a long time that anyone who was rich had been rewarded because they had pleased God in some way and were to be honoured accordingly.   Yet what was coming was a new way altogether.   It was now time to start from scratch and establish rules and laws that God had fashioned.  

During the ministry of Jesus there are scenes in which rich and influential people are keen to take on the new life but discover there is a huge change they have to make.   Nicodemus was told he had to be born again – of the Spirit.   This was, perhaps, the best clue to the radical change required.   Here was no moderate change to the old ways but a completely new start through a new birth, this time of the Spirit.   The rich man was told that, in order to have eternal life, he would have to give away his many possessions and money to the poor.   He could not take that radical step.

Again we have the meaning spelled out that it will be a new start in which the old values will be substituted by ones that really make a difference.   Go back to Isaiah 43 and you hear, “Do not cling to events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago.   Watch for the new thing I am going to do.   It is happening already – you can see it now!   I will make a road through the wilderness and give you streams of water there.”   This is how we are to understand the impact of the gospel of Jesus Christ.   It is new and it is so powerful that it will totally change everything we have known.

Just consider the way in which Jesus called his disciples.   I have always thought it amazing.   In Matthew 4 we read: “Jesus was walking by the Sea of Galilee when he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew, casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.   Jesus said to them, “Come with me, and I will make you fishers of men.   At once they left their nets and followed him.   Going on further, he saw another pair of brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John; they were in a boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets.   He called them, and at once they left the boat and their father, and followed him.”

The command was short and crisp and their response was just as sudden.   They dropped everything and followed Jesus.   In a split second their minds were made up and they followed Jesus immediately.   I have often been impressed at the immediacy of what they did.   Most people I have encountered have followed Jesus after a period of thought..   We listen to the story and then make our decision.   Yet those Galilean fishermen heard no story and just dropped everything and went with Jesus.

But in this context we see a little more than at first.   Sitting there in prison, Paul writes to the new Christians and tells them that they are to simply discard everything they have known and take up the new way.   It is much the same approach as we see with the first disciples.   It is a very simple process of discarding the past and venturing into the future under new rules.   That is what Paul is expecting of his followers.   He has introduced them to Jesus and now they must start anew and accept new rules for life without even testing them first.

In our turn, we too are challenged in the same way.   We are called to become new people and live and act very differently.   Looking back over the years I have been involved in church life I am aware of a great reluctance to make this decision to make a fresh start.   We tend to still want a bolted-on upgrade rather than a radical new start.   Yet the call is one where we are required to drop everything from the past and go forward in a new way.   It really is a great challenge.  

Our hearts and minds have to be made completely new.   There can be no reversion to our old ways, no looking back and wishing that things could stay as they are.   It is paradoxical that the Christian Church is looked upon quite often as an old fashioned and out of date organisation that has no link with modern times.   Yet this same Christian Church is the very organ that advocates radical change by calling people to meet Jesus Christ.   I must say that I do have some sympathy for those who see the church as an irrelevancy when I think of the lengths to which some go to preserve buildings that are accepted as architecturally excellent.   But we do not attend church to sing hymns in a lovely building.   We simply come to worship God whose grace ignores everything about us which has been offensive.   We come in the knowledge that our sins are forgiven.   Humankind may not be forgiving but God is.   We come to him and find pardon.

This pardon comes when we cast off the old ways and commit ourselves to this radical new way of thinking and doing.   We are challenged, therefore, to step into uncharted waters.   I am reminded of the young penguins, standing on the edge of a wild sea, plucking up the courage to plunge in and start the long swim into adulthood.   It’s rather like standing at the swimming pool edge, asking how cold is the water.   We have stripped off and wear our swimming costumes ready to take the plunge.   We really want to have a swim but we are fearful of a possible very cold experience.   This is the point when we have to just jump in and start a new life in Jesus.   This is what Paul is calling the churches to do as he languishes in prison awaiting his fate.   He can’t be with them but he can write and say what is required.   Like them we are called upon to simply drop the old and embrace the new in total faith.

Faith and Belief

Luke 7:1-10

Whilst this story is about a very strong faith that surprised even Jesus, it is also a picture of a remarkable individual. 

 Let me paint in some of the background so we understand the context in which the story is set.   The Romans had taken over this tiny country and had a reputation for being hard and unforgiving in their dealings with the population.   Throughout the land at this time were to be found many crosses containing the decaying bodies of those who had been executed for crime.   The Romans left the crosses there to remind the people what they could expect if they stepped out of line.   They wanted people to see them as hard and unforgiving.   They needed to be seen as strong governors.

The centurions were the key officers in the Roman Legions.   They received orders themselves but were men who were obeyed by their soldiers without question and passed on their own orders to their minions.   They were posted throughout the region where the rule of Rome held sway.   Most of them did not understand the Jews or their religion.   This made their tasks difficult.   But in this gospel passage we hear of one who did understand the population he controlled.   You get the impression that he had found a better way than most in governing his particular district.   He obviously achieved excellent results through finding ways of getting the people on his side.   They would be easier to control if they had a level of belief in him as a human being.   I would not mind betting that he would be ribbed by his fellow officers for his style of government.   Equally I bet he could take it, because he achieved success.

I wonder if this centurion was, by any chance, the same one who stood at the foot of the cross and declared that Jesus really was the Son of God.   If not, then we are aware of two centurions finding something unique in Jesus.   In our gospel reading we find a story involving a Roman who had interacted with the people he controlled and learned from them.   Before the story we are told that he had been so involved with the community that he had built their synagogue.   He had obviously seen something in Judaism that appealed to him and seemed very worthwhile.   Sometimes an outsider can become impressed by another religion and see it working out in daily life.   It is even possible that such an onlooker can see a value not perceived by a member of the particular religion.  

We can be sure that this man had a lot of time for the people he controlled in Caesarea.   No doubt he had come to know the value of encouragement over compulsion.   Many have found that it is futile to run around expending energy trying to impress one’s will on others.  

Let me tell you about a recent case involving my daughter.   She recently started in a new job where the work of the organisation was helping young adults with learning difficulties.   After a while, one day, she decided to go outside for a little fresh air.   She went to the small farm they ran at the back of the building.   She noticed a woman running round a compound desperately trying to catch a rabbit.   A veterinary nurse was due to call and clip the nails of the rabbits they kept there.   The rabbit in question was not for being captured and outran her keeper each time she pursued it.   My daughter enquired about the activity.   She then asked for a pair of wellingtons which she put on and went into the compound.   She squatted down on her haunches and called the rabbit.   It came to her and she handed it to the very surprised keeper.   She has kept rabbits for a number of years.   This was not the end of the story.   The keeper did not feel able to cut the nails of the rabbits there and so a veterinary nurse had been called.   They possessed the clippers so she took on the job and clipped the toenails of all the rabbits.   The keeper was amazed and delighted.   Additionally she had saved the organisation the cost of the veterinary services!

Encouragement can often entail getting working at the level of those you want to work with and gaining their confidence.   This is what the centurion did when he began to work with the Jews he was under orders to control.   Back in the early 70s I worked in a small rural town in what was then the Isle of Ely in the fens of East Anglia.   The Clerk of the Council was a fellow northerner and he told me that the way to get the locals to do something new was to suggest it to them so that they would later introduce it as their own idea.   If all that matters is making a difference then you forget getting the credit in favour of getting the job done.   The amusing part of this is that when I wanted to make a change in our office I asked the Clerk what he thought.   The new system came about with the Clerk getting the credit for thinking of it!

Our centurion was a man who could see that there was a number of ways to achieve his ends.   As an officer he knew quite well that what he said went.   But this did not prevent him seeing that if he made a contribution by building a synagogue the locals would be eating out of his hand.   Spike Milligan wrote a number of books about his time as a soldier during the Second World War.   The officer commanding his training unit was a true Colonel Blimp and got very little respect from his men.   Spike Milligan was once up before him on a charge and got a period confined to barracks.   On hearing his punishment he asked if he might speak.   The officer was surprised to hear, “Sir, would you mind going to Beachy Head and throwing yourself off?”   His sentence was increased.   When the officer was replaced his successor was the sort of officer whose men loved him and would follow him anywhere.

I think that our centurion was this sort of leader.   He obviously had an open mind and he had heard about this wandering Galilean who healed the sick and brought back people from death’s door.   He had listened to the stories and decided to put his faith in Jesus in order to make his servant well.   It tells us too that he valued his staff.   They and their lives were important to him.   One of the signs of a good employer is the way that staff are valued.   For a few months I worked for an IT supply company who were highly regarded by their staff.   Whilst I was in my temporary placement with them they moved to new office accommodation.   It was in this period that we experienced a great deal of stress.   Suddenly, one morning, a stranger walked into the office and started performing conjuring tricks at our desks.   He had been brought in by management to bring down the stress levels of the staff.   I had never seen that done before (or since).

In like manner the centurion was in touch with his community and knew how to get the best out of them.   I have no doubt his fellow centurions were working quite differently elsewhere in Palestine.   No doubt too they were getting results, but from a grudging community with no harmony there at all.   The story here in Luke’s gospel has much more to say than telling about Jesus healing the man’s servant.   The point to the story is all about the centurion calling in Jesus and having faith in him to help out.

We are challenged, therefore, to bring Jesus in to make a difference in the lives of ourselves and others.   This brings us to the point where we have to say whether we truly believe that Jesus can make the difference so badly needed.   I remember reading in Reform, he magazine of the United Reformed Church, some years ago about a church who were looking at making a change.   I can’t remember what that change was but I do remember the response of their new minister.   She advised taking up some time for prayer in order to test their idea against what Jesus was leading them to do.

Sometimes, churches are so set on doing something that they don’t stop to think if it is the way they are being called and directed to go.   It is always easy to set off in a certain direction without planning the journey.   Planning that journey means involving our Saviour in our efforts.   It is sometimes faith that calls us forward.   That happens when we involve our Lord in all our doings.   Every single aspect of church life and mission is spiritual in one way or another.   Many years ago I said to my minister, “I am fed up with constant discussions about buildings in Elders’ meetings.   What about our mission?”   The answer came back, “It’s all spiritual, Keith.”

Looking back over my life in church circles I can see how some congregations have experienced great difficulties, not least in terms of numbers trying to keep up with the work.   There have been some churches that have had to close because of the great burden of building problems.   But I can point to small groups who have kept going in the faith and have done a great job.   I was approached one day by the Girls Brigade captain at a small church.   She said she had run out of ideas to keep the group going.   Not long before I had been at a District Meeting when two young people had spoken to us as advocates for Pilots, a non uniform youth organisation in the URC and Congregational churches.   So I suggested this organisation as a new approach.   Within a year there were over 40 children attending Pilots each week.   I went in one day and saw what they were doing and the scene was mayhem as the children played indoor hockey in the little church hall.   This was a small church with around 15 members.   They are still active to this day.

It’s all about seeing in Jesus a way forward to make a difference.   If we can’t see this we are in trouble.   Even small groups of Christians can achieve great things when they are walking with Jesus.   It is not about numbers, as many believe.   It is about properly directed faith.   A few years ago I remember Lawrence Moore of the Windermere Centre referring to a church in America who were successfully making a difference under the banner “God is still speaking.”   This campaign also used a quotation from Gracie Allen who once said, "Never place a period where God has placed a comma. God Is Still Speaking."

Jesus prays for us (John 17)

In this chapter of John’s gospel Jesus, knowing he will soon be leaving his followers, prays for them.   Part of the prayer of Jesus shows that he speaks about you and me.   Jesus has prayed for those he has with him and then proceeds to include all those who, in later times, come to believe in him.   At this time he is completing the final part of his very short ministry on earth.   He has gathered a nucleus of people on whom he is to relay to maintain the momentum he has started.   They are the ones who will take the good news to the wider world.

As times goes on they will find themselves drawing vast numbers of believers into the fold and what will become the new church will grow and spread throughout the world.   It began with twelve men from Galilee.   Eventually millions will believe in Jesus, the Messiah.   There will come difficulties with many different strains of Christianity.   There will be Roman Catholics, Orthodox, Coptics, Protestants and many more.   Within these groupings will be formed many sects and denominations, all followers of Jesus.   Many of these Christians will at least know of, if not, recite the Nicene Creed.   In those words we find this expression: one holy catholic and apostolic church.

Like many others, at first I could not understand the inclusion of the word, catholic.   It is common to speak of members of the Roman Catholic Church simply as catholics.   We have a number in our family since our son married a Roman Catholic wife.   David, some years back, decided to become one himself.   Ever since I can remember, we have accepted this word to refer to members of the Roman Catholic Church.   So when we first hear the expression, “one holy, catholic and apostolic church we find confusion.   But what is meant is simply ONE church, universal.

Today’s gospel passage is the place where we can find understanding.   This is simply because Jesus speaks of his prayer as including every single believer, both present and future.   There is no mention of different groupings because Jesus has a single vision that sees all of us together.   Any future boundaries have been drawn up by others.  

In reading this passage we must realise that there is, in the mind of Jesus and of God, no difference just because we belong to this denomination or that.   In the eyes of God all are equal.   But, at the time Jesus was praying, something great was being created.   It was the church universal.   The various forms this great body would eventually take were not on the agenda.   Indeed, it is true that they never were and that humankind has erred in letting it all happen.    Be that as it may, we are all here and worshipping and this is the important thing.

Whilst it is sometimes difficult to honestly include in our hearts all the different groupings of Christians as part of a single family we do have to accept that Jesus is inclusive.   We need to see the whole of Christianity as a single entity, united in our returned love for Jesus.   When we consider the prayer contained in today’s gospel reading we need to see in it the comment by Jesus which desires our unity to be based on the unity between Jesus and his heavenly father.   He says: “May they all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, so also may they be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me.”

So, not only do we have a sense of the importance of unity, but there is also the very real need for this to lead to the whole world realising that it is included in universal salvation.   It is vital that the world comes to know that Jesus, Son of God, is for them and all who are yet to be born.   This universality of the purpose of the coming of Jesus is extremely important.   In context, we need to remember that the prayer under consideration is offered up very close to the time when Jesus was arrested in Gethsemane.   In context, therefore, we see that it is part of many matters that have to be established before Jesus is taken from his ministry by his enemies.   In one sense, three years is quite a long period in which to begin the work of delivering God’s love for the world to the world.   Yet it is also a very short period in which every important truth is established in the hearts and minds of those who followed Jesus at that time.   As a planning exercise it was vital to get the key parts in place so that the gospel would go forward in the hands of people like us.

When the gospel is preached in today’s world, as in any other time, it is vital that the result is that the penny drops.   Unless this happens the work of spreading the gospel is incomplete.   Another thing is that we need to see for ourselves that, when Jesus speaks of himself in the Father and the Father in him, we are not think of ourselves on the outside looking in in some privileged way.   The amazing truth is that we also have our place in that expression of unity.   We are included in the single unity:   Father, Son and us.   Jesus never intended to leave us on the outside of this relationship.   This is how he is inclusive.

The work of gospel spreading has been going on now for over 2,000 years – Quite a thought really.   Generation after generation has taken the baton and run its own section of the race.   Here we are today, worshipping God with that baton in our hand.   But there is a sobering thought to consider too.   The Church of Jesus Christ is never more than one generation away from extinction.  If we were to fail to pass on that baton we hold then the church, and its work, would be no more.   When I was worshipping in my teens I was in a congregation counted in three figures.   I really felt to be secure in a great group of the faithful.   Almost sixty years on the picture is very different.   The original secure feeling when part of large congregations is no longer the experience.   The first church where I preached was a few miles outside Burnley in the countryside above Todmorden.   Getting here and back entailed three bus journeys.   I can clearly remember seeing the crowds waiting outside the Roman Catholic Church in Burnley as the bus took me past.   They were waiting for the next service which would follow the Mass that was going on as they patientlywaited outside.   That is no longer the case.   We live in a different era.  

I say all this in order to emphasise that the proximity of extinction for the church is a reality.   Passing the baton is absolutely vital.   This generation must pass the baton to the next and we are much smaller than we used to be.   It looks frightening, doesn’t it?   But we have to keep steady and remain firm in our belief that the work of Jesus will continue.   He prays, not just for those with him then, but for us today.   We may be less, numerically, but we still have the strength to hold that baton and then offer it to our next runners.   So we need to be awake and ready to pass on the baton, which is the word, to others.   In Mark’s gospel, in relation to end occurrences, Jesus is quoted as saying “It is like a man away from home: he has left his house and put the servants in charge, each with his own work to do, and he has ordered the door-keeper to stay awake.   Keep awake, then, for you do not know when the master of the house will come.”   It’s all about being prepared at all times in the mission we have been given.

The baton we carry is the mission itself.   Being active as a church is vital so that we pass this activity on as the relay baton.   We look back at past times and see quite a different world in terms of church.   From that historic view we can learn what was best of all the work we were involved in.   As for the present we need to have a vision before us.   In Proverbs we read “Where there is no vision the people perish.”   Here is a reminder in a different form to keep watch.   If we don’t watch it is certain we shall have no vision.   But that vision is not necessarily our view of the future of the church.   If what we do know is of value then we shall pass the baton to others who will have a foundation on which to build other work which is their responsibility to continue.   We have no control over what happens when our successors are in charge, so we need not concern ourselves.

Returning to the prayer of Jesus we need to remember that it really was us that he was praying for.   It means that we are important as part of the mission and that what we do must carry the same high level of importance.   Remember that Jesus was not just passing through when he came to Palestine.   He was establishing a church which had to continue right on into the future.   Too many Christians sit back in expectation.   They expect things to get better in this great cause without their own input.   Sometimes they don’t realise how crucial they are to the success of God’s mission.   We are told “The first shall be last and the last shall be first.”   But this does not mean that the last are to be an inactive group waiting for advancement.   I have heard people say, “God will not allow his church to die.”   If they mean something external will revive it they are wrong.   The Church is commissioned to do this job and no one else.

As vital parts of the whole we have to think what we can do to advance what was once described to me as “the greatest cause of all.”   We may feel very weak because our numbers make it seem so, but God can place in each of us the required energy to make that difference we pray for.   If five loaves and two fishes can feed a multitude we should know that small numbers are not a barrier.   Amazing things can happen.

Like Jesus, we must pray fervently for a vision and the strength to bring it to reality.   If we don’t believe this can happen why are we here today?   There was a boy who behaved very badly in Sunday School and he tried the teacher's patience sorely. The teacher knew he had potential, saying "one day that boy will know" and it turned out to be true.   Long after that time my work as a preacher has continued.   God has stuck with me and, even when I thought my work was losing and inspiration fading, new strength and vision came and kick started the work once more.  

Grasp that baton and remember that Jesus was praying just for you.

The Real Thing

Anyone who has taken young children on a car journey will see the similarity between that and what I remember from a TV comedy called Bloomers, starring the late Richard Beckinsale.   In one episode the odd job van loaded with workers was travelling to a garden site.   As the journey continued an Irish worker on board called out, “Are we here now?”   It was of course the sort of question that you can only ever answer, “Yes.”   But the question asked by young children is “Are we there yet?”   Our 3 year old granddaughter is apt to ask at some point on the journey from Greater Manchester to Anglesey, “Are we nearly at Grandma’s?”

Journeys can be fascinating.   As a child, I used to love train journeys from Nelson, Lancashire to Fleetwood to board the Isle of Man ferry for our week’s holiday.   The first time was special because I had no knowledge of either the way or the destination.   Future journeys would possess landmarks to recognise as we rode or sailed.   The landmarks acted like signposts, telling me how far we had already gone and providing an estimate of the remaining journey time.   On these subsequent journeys I would look forward to suddenly seeing the distinctive grey sand of the beach at Port St Mary where I would play endless games of cricket during our stay.

For me this was the real thing, the highlight of the year.   I fully believed this was the most wonderful place in the world.   Even today It has a special place in my memory.   I was always happy when I was in Port St Mary.   Waking each morning and hearing the whistle of the narrow gauge steam train making its way to Port Erin was pure heaven!

With children of our own, we used to make countless journeys to Anglesey for holidays and then days out, once the A55 was constructed .   Our children always knew that there would be the highlight of dangling their crab lines from the pier at Cemaes Bay.   We used to talk often of the Kamikaze Crabs of Cemaes Bay.   Catching them was so easy.  

In retirement, Pauline and I love to take our car to Portsmouth and embark on the 24 hour cruise ferry to Spain when we continue our drive south to an old farmhouse in the mountains near Malaga.   Now that we have driven four times we are ready for the landmarks along the two day journey to Andalucía.   Each time we have gone by car we have been able to have the benefit of a SatNav to guide us.   Every so often we hear the voice prompting us to turn this way and that.   It gives confidence as we journey.   There are, occasionally, hiccups such as last year when we first used a built-in SatNav and were told to take a slightly different route to our regular hotel outside Santander.   Once the road I had set up in the SatNav was reached we turned left as instructed and drove for 3 miles to the edge of the built up area without seeing the hotel.   I worried at the time the something had gone terribly wrong.   I turned round and drove past the junction where we had joined the road and eventually we saw the familiar landmarks close to the hotel.   All was well!   We had simply needed to turn right and not left

On our first journey by car, nothing could have prepared us for the experience of the old city of Toledo.   We turned off the motorway and headed through the modern part of Toledo.   SatNav told us which exit we needed at the roundabout and when I calculated which exit I ended up having to reverse back to the roundabout from the city football stadium!   I had missed the exit I needed.   We laughed and eventually found our hotel.   Last year we changed our hotel, opting for the Spanish Parador overlooking Toledo.   I had input the postcode for the Parador but, despite this, we arrived outside the cathedral via some very narrow streets.   Thankfully I knew approximately where we should be and found the right road.   On taking up residence in our room we opened the balcony doors to see the most amazing view of mediaeval Toledo.   Later we would be dining on the terrace below with views of the city at night.   A view such as this was unbelievable!    The drive south had been enjoyable but the arrival that year was spectacular.

As we read the difficult text of the Book of Revelation we are on a journey through uncharted territory.   What we see is quite bizarre but revealing.   Parts of the narrative are understandable whilst others are so rich in symbolism that we struggle to understand.   We know that this was a dangerous book to write down and that a great deal was in code to avoid the consequences of upsetting the Romans and attracting severe punishment.   Although the code is plentiful it was understood by those for whom the book was written.   We might struggle to understand but the code was not for us to decipher.   It was written for the early Christians and contained encouragement and warning as they journeyed through life.

At the end of the book we read this wonderful description of the heavenly Jerusalem and marvel at its beauty.   It is a city built in the shape of a cube which meant it was a place for everyone with no exclusivity.   In this wonderful place dwelt God and his Son.   Theirs was the light by which all could see, so the sun and moon became redundant.   There was no temple in the city because the Jerusalem temple of old had been a symbolic place in which God was to be found in its holy of holies.   The gates of this new city were there but permanently open showing an amazing welcome.   This was reality in all its glory, for God was actually  constantly present with his people.   For me the description of the River of the Water of Life and the trees of life with their leaves for the healing of the people are the most attractive features.

The river is described as sparkling like crystal.   When I was a child growing up in  Nelson in Lancashire we had a beautiful park close by.   Through it ran a stream that looked orange because it had deposited pollution on the rocks over which it flowed.   It was not an attractive stream.   But today the water has been cleaned and it now looks totally different, although reduced spending has made the park itself look less lovely.   On an childhood occasion when I took a coach trip to the Lake District I marvelled at the clarity of the streams that flowed there.   The comparison of a town life with a rural one was very marked.   This still is the case, but now I live in rural Anglesey so the lovely sights are all round.

It is a matter of wonderment that touches me to think about God’s great provision for those he has made in his own image.   Despite the regular occurrences of famines in some places there is abundant food.   It is grown in the fertile soil, warmed by the sun and watered by the falling rain.   The people who lived in the Stone Age and Bronze and Iron Ages knew very well about the key function of the sun and the rain.   They fashioned their axes and some that were found by archaeologists as unused were fashioned as votive offerings and were thrown into waterways to thank the spirits that provided water.   They built places like Stonehenge with the lode stone aligned with the sun on Midsummer Day.   Without knowing the name of God or Jesus they just knew they were being provided for by some greater force than them.

Not only do we see the provision of food and water.   We also experience a life in which we enjoy the greatest love of all channelled through Jesus, Lord and Saviour.   Remember Tommy Trinder’s catchphrase, “You lucky people!”   We are indeed very lucky to have found such a love to sustain us through life.   The love and the grace of God are not matters of little concern.   They are everything to us.   Nothing that we have ever done has increased our entitlement to love and grace.   It all comes to us unconditionally.

I know how difficult the Book of Revelation is to read and understand.   It has always been the great challenge of the books in the Bible.   But it truly lives up to its title.   The early chapters are about a journey of learning and then we have the final section which is the revelation to end all revelations.  What is revealed to us is the full scope of God’s love.   After all we have been through in life, this is where we end our journey and it is truly amazing.   The open gates speak of a great welcome by God that says, “Come in for your arduous journey is done.   Come in and bathe in my glory.   Come in and drink water from the purest river.   Come in and use the leaves of my trees as a salve for your wounds.”

This is a wonderful picture of the God we serve and speaks of a love that is the greatest of all.

The Barren Fig Tree

Fig trees have featured in the Bible all through its history.   We hear of Adam and Eve covering themselves with fig leaves in the Garden of Eden.   One of the ways in which peace is described is to say that people may now sit under their fig trees.   With such large leaves they offered excellent shade from the hot sun.   It was the place to which a person would invite friends or neighbours to come and sit and share food and wine.   The fig tree seems to have been central to life in those days in that place.

For a number of years we used to spend our annual holidays on the tiny Greek island of Anghistri.   We would walk around and find fig trees growing there.   As we used to travel there in September it was always after the figs had been picked.   The only figs we knew, therefore, were shrivelled up and on the ground where they had fallen, probably at harvest time.    One year we went earlier and it was the fig season.   Late one evening, as I sat in a favourite taverna, Katerina, the owner’s wife came and gave me a bowl of figs.   She had picked them and peeled them and put them in her fridge.   There, before me was a fruit I had never tried before.   It was someone at another table who explained to me what this fruit was.   When I tasted the first one it was pure ecstasy!

All over the island the fig trees had yielded their fruit and it was wonderful.   My wife had left me at the table as she was tired and wanted to retire to bed.   I collected the last few figs and popped them in my pocket and walked round the corner to our apartment.   Then came a second good food experience as Pauline sampled figs for the first time.   Looking round the island we saw many trees that looked to be doing nothing.   The fact was that these were the olive trees that would be shaken hard at harvest time and their fruits taken away for pressing.   They all seemed to be trees that were old and ignored but at harvest time you would find out whose land they were on as the people came to collect what had been produced.   To us travellers they looked just part of an attractive landscape but they were not there for show.   Fruit was expected of them.

This last thought is what lies behind the story of the fig tree in Luke’s gospel.   The owner of the vineyard came to make his annual inspection and discovered that, after three years, there was no fruit.   What was the point of having the tree here?   He desired much more than shade.   Of course, the story is told to picture God in his relationship with humankind.   He called his people, and in this case, they were very special all through history.   He had brought them out of Egypt and slavery and been with them all through their history.   With Israel he had a special relationship and this is reflected throughout the Old Testament.

So Jesus tells his hearers the short tale of the barren fig tree.   Almost every vineyard had at least one fig tree growing in it.   But they were there for two purposes.   They provided shade for the workers when the sun was at its highest and they took their meals beneath them.   But a vineyard had to be productive.   It was unthinkable that any sort of tree planted there would not grow fruit.   It was the other reason for the tree’s existence in that place.   It was not just there to look at.   It had its purpose which was to produce fruit.

When Jesus came to Palestine his advent was heralded by John the Baptist.   John told the people what to expect.   After this inordinate period of time over centuries when the people had drifted away from God they were to get a visit from God’s Son who was going to make a difference to how things were.   John was saying, “Prove your repentance by the fruit you bear.   Already the axe is laid to the roots of the trees; and every tree that fails to produce good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire.”   In other words, John says: “You have been warned.”   So here the first three years of the fig tree are mirrored by centuries of patience when God has longed for his people to return to him.   But now the time has come when the fig tree (or, in this case, Israel) gets its final chance to repent.

Looking at the three years of the ministry of Jesus we have another representation of the three years at the end of which comes the last chance to change how things are.   Over the early years of my life I listened to a depiction of Jesus as “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild.”   It became the way I saw Jesus and it was completely wrong.   The real Jesus is a powerful force that confronts the individual and challenges him or her to make a decision for or against.   If the answer is affirmative then there is no going back for the die has been cast.   To say yes is to accept the power of Jesus, alive in the world, and there is no possibility of unravelling what has been learnt.

The acceptance is our commitment to start the gardener’s work on the fig tree.   There can be no backing off this commitment without completely negating what we have discovered and know to be absolute truth.   The fig tree in our life now just has to bear fruit.   There are no excuses because it is growing simply to bear that fruit.   It is not for show.   This fig tree may have impressive umbrella-like leaves but its purpose is to bear fruit.

I think that the most wonderful aspect of this story is that there really is that last chance.   God, in Jesus, does not give up on us and still places his faith in us and what we are capable of achieving.   Speaking in gardening terms and experience, I can say that if a tree did not bear fruit I would be one for digging it up and using the logs to heat my house.   Yet God always allows that final chance.  

During my career in local government I had a boss who loved to bring plants into the office that were not growing at all well at home.   He always gave them a last chance to thrive with different and regular attention in our office.   He had this undying belief that all was not lost and the plant might suddenly come to full life.   Very often he was right.   Then one day he came to work and discovered a very sorry sight.   He had brought in a spider plant that he thought might find more life in our office.   When he arrived in the office he discovered that someone had given it a haircut.   Even to our untutored eyes it was obvious that this would kill the little plant.   On enquiry he discovered that our office cleaner had thought it a good idea to partially cut back the long leaves.   She killed the plant.   Bill was very disappointed about what had happened.

I can see that God would be disappointed to find that, after giving us another chance, we had squandered it.    Isn’t it one of the wonderful things about God that he has endless patience with us?   Reading the stories in the Old Testament, we realise that, even when Israel had wandered as far away from their God as was possible, he always waited for them to return.   In Malachi we read: “If you will return to me, I shall turn back to you, says the Lord of hosts”.   For a long time we have been reminded that God is incredibly patient.   Against this there are scripture passages where there seems has considerable impatience with Israel.   Yet God still stays with his chosen people.   In the same way he stays with us, even when we try his patience sorely.

Let’s look at the Book of Exodus when Moses went back down the mountain after meeting God at its summit.  He found the people had got Aaron to provide a graven image for them to worship.   God’s reaction was “I have considered this people, and I see their stubbornness.   Now, let me alone to pour out my anger on them, so that I may put an end to them and make a great nation spring from you.”   Moses is the one to caution God.   “Why pour out your anger on your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a strong hand?   Why let the Egyptians say ‘He meant evil when he took them out, to kill them in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth.’   Then Moses reminded God of his great promise to make the descendants of Abraham and Isaac as countless as the stars and to give them their own land.   We read that God let his anger abate and cancelled out his threats.

Also countless are the times when Israel has driven God to distraction with her selfish activities.   They tried his patience sorely.   Often I have marvelled at how God has stuck with those he has saved.   It seems that no one can be considered worthless or finished with because of their actions.   If we get it wrong we always find that last chance in our dealings with God.

How many of us, from time to time, despair of our garden?   In the eleven years I have lived here I have many times wondered how I can improve things in my garden.   There is a sense in which Jesus is the gardener in the fig tree story.   He may be thought of as such in that he tries, as the owner’s patience wears thin,  to dig around the tree and manure it to give it a last chance to fruit.   I never used to have a picture of Jesus as a gardener until I saw a unique window of Flemish stained glass in a church near where I live.   It must be the only artistic depiction of Jesus wearing a gardener’s hat.   The context is that where Mary Magdalene, seeking the body of Jesus by the tomb, sees Jesus and takes him for the gardener.   It reminds us that Jesus and his work can be clearly seen in gardening terms in that throughout each year with its seasons there is always work to do for a gardener who wishes to redeem his garden.   And this is certainly the case with Jesus, Lord and Saviour.

The Prodigal Son

The story of the Prodigal Son is completely impossible and can only be considered a work of fiction mixed with a little fantasy.   We know this story so well and yet we rarely consider its credibility.   When you read the New Testament you must first consider the place and time in which the stories are set.   It is totally wrong to simply make a quick comparison with life today and then proceed to expound on the stories that Jesus told.   I have to say, of course, that what all agree on is that it is a story about God’s grace.   This is the first thing we have to bear in mind.   But the setting is 2,000 years ago in a country with very different traditions than we have when and where we live.

The idea of a son going to his father and asking for his inheritance in advance is completely unthinkable.   There was a missionary working in the rural Middle East for many years.   Wherever he went he asked the same question: “Do you know of any case where a son sought his inheritance before his father died?”   The answer was always, “No.”   The question put related to recent times, and still there was no case to consider.   Nothing had changed in 2,000 years.   It just would not happen, and that was that.   We can, therefore, consider it only as a work of fiction.   Yet it is a story with an amazing message – nothing less than the grace of God.

It is a story full of the most unlikely scenarios.   That a son would approach his father and make such a request is to suggest he was saying that he wished his father was dead.   No son would ever do that.   The next unlikely thing is that his father complied with this request.   It would have been totally unthinkable.   If it had been true the father would have been distraught to say the least.   To have his son speak like this would have cut him to the quick.   He would have looked back at the years he had spent showing love to the boy, showing him how to do everything his own father had taught him.   He would have been incredibly sorrowful to have it all come to this.

For the son to have spent the money in a short time would also have been unthinkable.   He had been brought up on a farm in an environment where, regardless of the wealth of his father, every penny would have had to count in the way the father and his two sons ran the farm.   That was the way everyone worked.   He would have been carefully brought up to appreciate the value of everything.   He was not the son of someone like an oligarch where he could have led a completely safe and sheltered life with costly gifts on a regular basis.   Life on a farm was labour intensive and the hours were long – sunrise to sunset, day in day out.

Many years ago I bought a book called Hedingham harvest.   It was an account of the Victorian period of a particular family in Lincolnshire.   Grandfather was the farming head of the family, and he ruled with a rod of iron.   When it came to harvest time he hired in a steam engine and threshing machine.   Everyone in the family was out in the fields getting in the crop to be threshed.   Time was money and grandfather, although a successful farmer, would carefully time the breaks the workers took during the day.   As soon as he thought everyone had time to eat and drink he would whip them into line.   “Come on now, back to work, we’re breaking, we’re breaking!” he would cry.   He was paying for every minute that threshing machine was on his land and he insisted that no time was lost unnecessarily.

This is a parallel with the scene in the parable.   Every minute was made to count.   The very idea of a son carefully raised to appreciate the value of money going out and spending it recklessly was unthinkable.   Yet Jesus put it in his parable.   He knew what he was doing and why this story had to be told.   It had to be a story with an amazing message – nothing less than the grace of God.

The next part is equally difficult for a Middle East rural community 2,000 years ago to believe.   The young man, having spent everything, went to get work as a swineherd.   Just imagine – a Jew herding swine!   Jesus really adds plenty of graphic illustration to this story.   It really yells at his listeners, steeped in Judaism and all its tradition.   You can almost hear the scoffing of the people – a Jew herding swine?   Do me a favour!

Yet, the outcast by his own actions comes to his senses.   He can’t return the inheritance but he can go home and become a servant in his father’s household.   At least he would get food and drink and shelter.   So he pulls himself together and sets off for home to see if his father will employ him.   Despite his despicable actions he still believes his father will take him in as a servant.   Here is a measure of faith I find interesting.

To illustrate why I say this, I too must tell a story.   This story is true.   In the days of the Labrador fishing community there was a doctor who committed his life to working among them whilst they were out at sea.   Should any man suffer an injury or fall ill he would be called in to help.   One day a fishing boat crew called him in to help a young woman who was sailing with them as ship’s cook.   Although the crew did not realise it, she was pregnant and had developed a complication.   The doctor, Wilfred Grenfell, took her to the mainland and took care of her at a Moravian mission station.   He was able to deal with her condition but she had her own ideas.   “I can never go home, doctor.” She said.   “I just want to die.”   The shame of her pregnancy overcame everything and she did, indeed, die.   Grenfell buried her on the headland with this inscription, “and Jesus said, ‘Neither do I condemn thee.”

I feel sure that the shame attached to what he had done during that time he was away would have weighed heavily with that young man.   How could he go home after what he had done?   So desperate was he that he decided to throw himself at his father’s feet and beg for a job as a servant.   Anything was better than the life he had just then.   He would carry the shame for the rest of his days.   Nothing could change that.   But he was prepared to swallow his pride and beg for a job.    Despite all that had happened he believed his father would take him in.   So here is a measure of faith on his part.

Once more we have an incredible activity.   His father saw him coming and ran to greet him.   Older people never ran anywhere at any time.   It was completely undignified and it was a hot country too.   But run to meet him he did and flung his arms around him and kissed him.   Now that is a true welcome!   The son grovelled but the father ordered a celebration to be organised in honour of the son’s return.   The son would never have expected that!  

The older brother then returns from work and grumbles at the big welcome and the celebration.   After all, he has never once stepped out of line and never even had a kid to share with his friends in celebration.   His brother comes home after wasting all his money and the fatted calf,no less, is shared round!   It was an amazing story about nothing less than the grace of God.

Although it would be unbelievable to the people present, they were Jews whose history included the rescuing of the Children of Israel from Egypt.   There was a real echo of this going on here.   Later on in the history of Israel there was the return from exile of many Israelites.   Back home there were people none too pleased to see these people brought home again.   They had cared for the Promised Land whilst the others were in exile and now they had to share it with them again.   Not happy bunnies at all!   In the story of the prodigal they compare with the elder son who stayed home.   These people were who remained were the nucleus of the people we later hear called the Samaritans.   Those to whom Jesus spoke would most likely see this tale in a historical context too.

The whole point of this unbelievable story was that Jesus was demonstrating the true extent of God’s great love for them.    This amazing story was unbelievable and was so to give them an idea of what limitless love meant.   Jesus was speaking of God the Father whose joy and happiness were boundless at the coming home of just one sinner.   This is the great inheritance that is ours.   Remember what Paul wrote in Romans 8: “I am convinced that there is nothing in death or life, in the realms of spirits or superhuman powers, in the world as it is or the world as it shall be, in the forces of the universe, in heights or depths – nothing in all creation that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

To his servants the father said, “For this son of mine was dead and has come back to life; he was lost and is found.”   Here we hear something we can probably understand as Christians.   There is no doubt that this story is about nothing less than the grace of God.   So we recognise God as the father in the parable.   Later he was to lose his son in death and receive him back again.   In the short space of time between death and resurrection Jesus was lost but then found in the amazing account of the Resurrection.

Looking at this parable today tells us much more than it meant when it was first told.   We have the reminder of how far the amazing grace of God was prepared to go.   If the fictional story of the Prodigal Son was unbelievable, how much more is the real story of God’s grace unbelievable?   Because it is unbelievable in the worldly sense it adds so much to our personal experience as we commit ourselves to God who gave everything that we might have life everlasting.   This gospel passage is about nothing less than the boundless grace of God.