Feeding the Five Thousand

Having to speak to and then feed over five thousand people was, at this moment, the very last thing that Jesus wanted.    He had just been told that his cousin and forerunner, John the Baptist was dead.   John had died for who he was and what he was doing.   This was a man who had taken up an ascetic life to live rough and preach to people in the desert.   He was a man who had taken no prisoners in his style of preaching and told them exactly how it was and what was required of them.   He did not offer a soft option to the crowds who came to hear him.   He was a prophet chosen by God.   Now he had paid for his faithful service for God.   The most important thing about him was that he had been selected to announce the coming of Jesus to God’s chosen people.   Like many pivotal characters in history he had become a martyr.

Of Jesus, walking by one day, John had proclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God!”   John and Jesus almost certainly knew each other very because they were cousins.   When Mary had become pregnant she had paid a visit to Elizabeth to celebrate their common good news.   When the two boys were in their formative years you can bet they met up and played together.   They were family.   Now there was a very significant death in their family.   On hearing this bad news, Jesus went off to be private.

By now Jesus had become the name on the lips of everyone and a huge following had built up.   Right now the key word was “following.”   The people discovered where he had gone and had followed him to the place.   So there was nowhere to hide away and grieve for Jesus.   He was to be allowed no private time to think about his beloved kinsman.   He was the sort of public figure who could not escape his fame.

Jesus travelled across the lake in a boat and when he arrived on the other side he discovered a great crowd had anticipated his arrival there and were waiting  for more of his teaching.   Others had brought sick relatives and friends seeking a cure.  

People have, for a long time, discussed the two sides to Jesus.   There was the holy side where Jesus was considered to be God’s Son and was therefore divine.   On the other hand he was very much part of humanity.   On this occasion I see both sides of him together.   He was grieving for his cousin, John, and needed time out to deal with grief.   This was the humanity in him.   However, he had come as the divine Son of God to break into history and show a new way of living as God’s children.   The narrative says that “his heart went out to them.”   Clearly he was required to continue his ministry to humankind despite the loss of John.

So Jesus continued to minister.   He took his sorrow at the loss of John and it became sorrow for so many people who were in need.   They had, indeed, come for spiritual food.   This had been the purpose of their following this great man.   So they received much spiritual food and healing from Jesus.   But then came the realisation that time was marching on and they had not planned mass catering for the multitude who were now with them.   The disciples could clearly see they had nothing like enough food to feed so many.   Their solution was to send the people to the villages in hope of buying food.   But Jesus turned the problem round and said they would have to feed the people.   They must have been asking around for food and only one boy had volunteered to give up his own rations.

Suddenly, they discovered that the little they had was sufficient to work with and they were able to fed all the people.   Now, when we read our Bible we note that there is no explanation as to how five loaves of bread and two fish were enough to feed so many people.   All we know is that the small amount of food was blessed and then they all had enough to eat.   The narrative does not even say “suddenly there was a lot of food.”   On this matter there is no evidence at all.   We have nothing to go on.   The story appears in all four gospels and only in John do we learn that a boy had offered his bread and fish.   For many years I have thought that the obvious answer to how they were all fed was that the people were prompted by this small donation to give to the disciples some or all of the food they had with them.   It seems likely to me that they would have food with them that they had organised before setting out to find Jesus.

One of our church members told me the story of a very cold winter’s day in Liverpool where she lived and worked.   The weather had taken a turn for the worst and snow was falling heavily.   The buses were held up and many people found themselves waiting a long time for their bus home from work.   As is often the case when a crowd of people are facing a common difficulty people began chatting to each other.   One said, “I’m not half hungry.”   Another replied, “I have a small packet of biscuits here.   You are welcome to share them with me”   Another declared she had a bar of chocolate and did anyone care for a piece.   It went on like that until, finally, the bus arrived.   Everyone then went happily on their way home.   What a difference the person with the biscuits had made.

It is true, of course, that in the presence of Jesus some surprising things happen.   He has the gift of bringing out the best in us if we remain committed to him.   The response of people close to Jesus is something special.   They sometimes give what they consider a little and suddenly it is the catalyst for much bigger response.   A young friend of mine who has Down’s syndrome has sometimes said, “Keith, you’re preaching next Sunday.   Can I dance for you?”   I always say “Yes” because to see Lucy dancing in church is remarkable.   When she dances the congregation suddenly have smiles galore and go home later feeling much happier.   Lucy is challenged in many ways.   She has limited thinking and can’t work out choices beyond two things.   She stammers.   But just watch her dance and pay attention to her hands and you will find joy.    She has problems starting new stitches in knitting but once she masters them she can knit for hours – even days.   One year she knitted over a hundred scarves with some wonderful patterned wool.   They were all sold off for charity.

Some years ago I took the funeral service for a young woman who had died in her thirties.   Her brother told me that her pain was so great that she asked him to show her how to make jewellery spiders to sell on his market stall.   He showed her and she started to make some.   Eventually she said she had some for him to sell.   “How many?” he asked.   “A thousand!” was the reply.

From small beginnings we can achieve great things.   Our church hall was about to be built and we were short of the total money to pay the builder.   An elder stood up and put the problem to the church and added that he was donating a further £5,000.   Within a few minutes we had the balance promised.

A preacher once shared an experience he had after leading a Sunday service.   At the church door he was shaking hands with people and asking “What do you do for the Lord?”   An old lady replied, “I wash up!”   Whatever we can do or give is always enough in the hands of our Lord.   He takes our small gift and uses it in many ways.

It just takes faith for us to give our small gift and it grows in the hands of Jesus.

A Sower went forth to sow

A well known and respected Bible scholar was on a trip to Israel.   His group was taken to the Sea of Galilee.   At a certain point their guide went to a pre-arranged boat by the lake side.   He was rowed out a little way.   Now this was a small inlet of the lake and the hillside wrapped itself around the inlet.   The group were standing round in a half circle and the boat taken by their guide was positioned in the centre of the bay.  Their guide stood in the boat and read them a story.   It was our gospel reading.   Each person in the group could hear every word the guide spoke.   It was a perfect natural amphitheatre.   They heard every single word.

Jesus picked such a place to tell the parable of the sower.   His hearers would hear every single word he said as he sat in the boat.   Teachers sat down whilst students remained standing.    Telling parables was something used often to explain the kingdom of God.   He woukld know all the best places to do it too.   So, sitting in a boat a few yards offshore with the people on the sides of the cove would be natural and would also be an ideal place.

Cast your mind back to the last few words in verse 9: “If you have ears, then hear”.   Jesus knew there needed to be understanding if the story were to get into the hearts and minds of those he addressed.   He was really saying: “Think about it.”   If the penny didn’t drop quickly then they would have to keep turning over in their minds what he had said.   This parable was in many ways food for thought.  

Note that this parable sits just about in the middle of Matthew’s gospel.   Scholars have long considered Matthew’s gospel as the one specifically direct at Jews.   If the chronology is also about half way through the ministry of Jesus then we can assume that by this point many Jews, thinking about their history and the words of their prophets that looked forward to a promise of great change and salvation, would have wondered if Jesus was starting this process of change.   I am sure they didn’t follow Jesus to this place to hear the old story of how, one day, God would judge the world, dividing the righteous from the wicked.   They already knew it and so would not be likely to follow a man to this point just to hear him repeat it.

They followed him there for a different reason.   They were starting to guess that this judgement was already starting through Jesus.   They probably hoped that Jesus would explain to them how God was beginning his task of rescuing them from their enemies.   They had heard, year after year in their synagogues how God would one day enter the fray and start a revolution.   Now they were wondering if that day was upon them.   Was Jesus the one who would lead a military campaign; was there going to be a call to arms?

Having a keen audience before him Jesus sat down in the boat and told them the story of sowing the seed.   There quite a few different places where the seed fell.   The result would always be in line wioth the sort of ground were the seed fell.   When the sower went broadcasting his seed he, as a seasoned farm worker, knew quite well that this method meant some seed would fall in places where it would not thrive.   In order to make sure as much as possible fell into good soil he sowed it absolutely everywhere.   When it fell into good soil that was where the harvest would be best.   To have walked round the field, searching for the best soil and making sure the seed went only there would have been a jolly different task.   Today we would say it was not cost effective.

These days we complain a lot about nuisance phone calls.   Telemarketing has grown in recent years.   The trick is to get as many telephone numbers as possible and ring each one till you find someone out there who is interested in what you are selling.   Twenty years ago, when this was still in its infancy, I had a job telephoning companies to offer free services underwritten with European money.   We could fix their computers, give them advice on marketing and also help them with inventions they wanted to develop.   From time to time other temporary staff would be brought in to help me in this task.   When I gave them training, I explained that they were sitting in a clearing in a jungle and that out there among the trees were people that needed what we were offering.   The task, therefore, was to ring the whole list of numbers they had before them to find the people they sought.   It might be boring, but it worked.   The first day I worked in that office I spent all day calling companies and getting no interest.   Imagine how I felt when, 15 minutes before the office closed, I got a hit.   I drove home with a big smile on my face!

Our gospel story sees Jesus explaining how blanket coverage meant there was bound to be a mixture of results.   It would be an experience of success and failure.   One had to sow the seed everywhere to make sure the fertile ground was found.   When he said “If you have ears, then hear” this was what he meant.

If you take an honest look at the task of mission for the Christian church, it is obvious that what you offer on behalf of Jesus Christ is not going to be accepted by all you meet.   There will be those who will never believe in the existence of God, and no matter how hard you try there is no chance of winning them over.   There will be those who have had a hard time and might just cling to this new concept as a means of getting through.   Yet, they will not have the tenacity to hang on no matter what and will give up eventually.   There are some who will accept the message and run with it but will later be influenced by other pressures and give it up.   Then we come to those who hear the message and relate to it and commit to it.

Today we all receive nuisance calls on the telephone.   Technological advances have created telephone systems that automatically ring the numbers on a list gleaned from companies who have sold lists of purchasers.   The telephone is the classic interrupter and so we find ourselves being disrupted from whatever we are doing to answer a call from someone with sales in mind.   You may even get an offer to recover missold payment protection insurance or an offer to recover compensation for an accident you have not had.   Would you like solar panels?   Are you on benefits and would like a free boiler renewal?   Somewhere among all the recipients of what we call nuisance calls are people actually wanting the service provided.   That is the reason for telemarketing.

The sower in Jesus’ story is fully aware that some seed will not flourish for all the reasons stated by Jesus.   But the sower knows that by spreading seed in this time honoured way much of it will find ground in which it can flourish and that is the whole reason for sowing the seed in this way.

For a number of years I have heard this comment from church members, and I am talking about the United Reformed Church and the Methodist Church:   “THEY WON’T COME.”   Offered the sort of experience committed Christians benefit from will not appeal to people who have almost no knowledge of any religion.   So we have to offer them something in which they have an interest.   What things have we in common with most people, and how can we provide it so we make contact and wait for the buying signal when they enquire about Christianity?   Should we consider providing something they would like to join?

When asked about the lively tunes the Salvation Army were using, William Booth replied, “Why should the Devil have all the best tunes?”   It is a well known fact in Salvation Army circles that many have accepted Jesus after joining the bands because of their interest in brass band music.

As long as we remember this adage we shall always have a chance of succeeding:

“If we always do what we always did, we shall always get what we always got.”

Our challenge in the parable of the sower is to plant good news everywhere so that in the fertile soil it will grow.

The Separation of the Sheep from the Goats.

When you read the complete chapter 25 of Matthew’s gospel you realise that the three stories are about judgement.   The story of the ten foolish girls is a reminder that doing nothing is the wrong approach to life.   The story of the talents is also a reminder that doing nothing is the wrong way to behave.   The third story warns about the sin of omission.   So we are looking at a particular kind of judgement which deals with those who do nothing when there are many things they ought to be doing.   The child, finding himself in trouble with his parents, complains, “But I haven’t done anything done anything wrong!”   The parents reply, “You haven’t tidied your room!”

You will, no doubt, remember the song “Busy doing nothing”:

We’re busy doing nothing,

Working the whole day through,

Trying to find lots of things not to do.

We’re busy going nowhere,

Isn’t it just a crime?

We like to be unhappy, but,

We never do have the time.

In 2 Samuel 12, when Nathan came to David and told him the story that spoke of David’s own sin it had great impact.   He was judged for something he had done.   When Stephen was stoned to death it was the judgement of the establishment for activities they considered beyond acceptability.   Neither did they like being told where they were going wrong.   But in this particular gospel story the judgement was about sins of omission.   In other words, we are listening to an admonishment for neglect.

Looking back, I remember my first days at Manchester Road Congregational Church, Nelson in Lancashire.   Each Sunday the church seemed to be filled with many people and there was a sense of worshipping with a great throng.   By the time I reached seventeen I began preaching in many different churches and there were more pews than people.   Some of them made me wonder why they had not closed because you had a job to find your congregation.   Sometimes there would be choir pews with one person sitting there, the remnant of a choir.   Well, these establishments did close – eventually.   Nothing was happening.   There was neither mission nor even a sense of mission – just nothing going on.

Looking back over 56 years of preaching I cannot remember the churches doing much at all.   One year, the Congregational churches were challenged to reconsider their lives.   Each church was encouraged to take part in something called the Every Person Canvass.   It was a call to consider how we could use three things: Time, Talent and Treasure.   It was all about doing things by giving more time, using our gifts and giving our money.   In our church it flopped.   The fellowship rejected the idea and carried on doing nothing.   A smaller congregation near Ashton Under Lyne adopted it and it worked brilliantly.   In later years I began to preach in that church and it soon became my favourite church because it had such a positive outlook.

From time to time I used to get despondent about the future of the church.   Occasionally, I would hear people being very honest about the future of the church to which they belonged.   One man at my previous church near Oldham said, “In ten years time this church will no longer exist.”   That was fifteen years ago, and he still worships there.   So, sometimes it s not all doom and gloom.   That church is planning an extension to its building, so they do expect to have a future.   But are they the exception?

Interestingly, it was only when we retired to Anglesey that I found myself involved in what I called practical Christianity.   Some of our circuit people were buying Welsh lamb at a pound per pound a few years ago.   Our Agricultural Chaplain made us aware of a sheep farmer who was facing almost imminent bankruptcy and devised a plan of direct sales to save the farm from extinction.   People’s orders were taken and numerous trips to the farm saw many people delivering lamb around North Wales.   I discovered places I had never heard of before.   After three years the farmer was solvent and able to continue without our help.   It was wonderful to make a difference in the name of Jesus.

Later, I volunteered to work with our local food bank and I found out how many people were suffering on little income.   I heard stories about how they had reached this point in their lives.   It was humbling.   It was a reminder that here was a practical way to follow Jesus’ command, “Feed my sheep.”    Recently there was an appeal from the food bank to our local churches to try to replenish stocks of vital foods as there had been a number of large families fed recently.   I drove over to the Lidl supermarket and bought milk, sugar, juice and fish to stock up the shelves.   On the day I delivered the food to the food bank they did not have a single service user!   But the food is there, ready for the next desperate plea for help.

During the last year I heard an expression that I found challenging.   Is your church a mission church or a maintenance church?   Here, in a few words we have a repeat of the story of the ten foolish girls, the talents and the sheep and the goats all rolled into one.   It really puts you on the spot when you are asked this question.   Looking back I have seen much evidence of a maintenance church not even achieving this.   I often feel that I should have done something in terms of mission in the past and found myself guilty of not having the remotest idea what to do.

But, returning to the sheep and the goats, we need to think very seriously what we should do when presented with all the challenges of life.   The only way to ensure the kingdom is served is to do what we can and not assume that someone else will sort it out.   One of the hard lessons we in the churches have learned is that doing nothing or sweeping problems under the carpet has led to serious abuse in a place which has been considered a place of sanctuary.   The old saying that “the devil makes work for idle hands” has never been as true.  

Beyond the church, many bad things are happening to people and there has never been such a time for people to help others.   There is no excuse for doing nothing.

 Let me tell you about a young work colleague of mine.   She was a Pakistani young woman who went to Pakistan and met a young goatherd who, it was suggested, she should marry.   She took a shine to him and agreed and they were married.   She returned to the UK and it was hoped her husband would be allowed to follow her eventually.   Normally, such a bride would go to live with her husband in his parents’ home but this was not possible if he was to be brought to the UK.   So his father’s mother (grandmother of both bridegroom and bride), who lived here got the father to agree that she should come to live with her and her husband.   They had a two bedroom house and slept on sofas downstairs so that she could have her own room because the other bedroom was occupied by her uncle, his wife and baby.   My young work colleague had to pay rent for this.

Things became very difficult for her when her grandmother placed a ban on her holding the baby.   She was told her hands were dirty.   They were not but she went to wash them, only to be told they were still dirty.   Later her grandmother began to talk about her to others in the room as if she were not present.   She was referred to as black which was very insulting.   She told me she would have accepted me referring to her as black but it was an insult within her community.

One Friday she rang me from her office as I was then in our other office on the other side of Manchester.   She was alone in the office so she felt able to speak openly.   It turned out that another uncle had told her to pay him a weekly rent for a non-existent house as part of a plan to get her husband to the UK.   My response was to tell her to make enquiries in the Rochdale community to discover who was able to give immigration advice because it was wrong to have her pay this rent.   If by Monday she had not made contact with an immigration adviser in her community I would contact a friend who used to do this in Oldham.

When Monday came a phone call advised us that she was ill and would not be in work.   On Tuesday I received a call from her sister to say she was now in hospital and asking to see me.   I guessed why she was in hospital.   She had tried to commit suicide over the weekend.   I drove over to the hospital in Rochdale and found a large group of Asian women round her bed.   She had overdosed on Paracetamol and was about to be transferred to the kidney unit in Leeds.   Another white friend and I told her that we wanted to help her and find a refuge where she would be safe.   Her response was, “OK, if I live.”

Two days later she died.   It was heart-breaking for our small workforce.   She was a lovely person to work with and a good Muslim too.   Sometime later I attended her inquest as a witness and tried to tell her story.   But the verdict given by the coroner was misadventure, interpreting what had happened as a “cry for help”.   But I knew differently.   Earlier, a day or so after she died, I just broke down and cried.   My dear friend, Hamid, another Pakistani and my best friend, came round to talk things out.   This death could have been avoided.   She had been treated badly and suffered neglect at the hands of her family.

This is the first time I have told this story publicly but I suddenly realised, when working on this blog,that it was a clear case of doing nothing that ended in disaster.   Back in the old days I used to think Christianity was about what we didn’t do.   We didn’t drink; we didn’t smoke, we didn’t swear and we didn’t blaspheme.   I remember an old lady rounding on me as I came out of a sweet shop after I had been to Sunday School.   “God won’t love you if you buy sweets on a Sunday.”   I am so glad we have moved on from those days, but we have much more to accept if we are to serve God, following Jesus.   In Lancashire there is an expression “If in doubt, do nowt” but it is so wrong.

Dying to sin and living in Christ

When God calls us and we answer, “Yes!” we move from one state to a completely new one.   So often when we get stuck in a rut we say “If only I could start again.”   This is actually what we get when we respond to God’s call.   It is an extremely fortunate state of affairs.   Whatever we have done, whatever we have said that has been wrong, it is all wiped out completely.   It need never concern us again.   Our past activities once tied us down as tight as the bonds that tied Isaac down as his father prepared to sacrifice him.

               

Not only do we experience the opportunity to start again but we actually gain freedom.   Some years ago there was a world church council slogan: “Jesus Christ frees and unites.”   This is the very truth.   In the story of Abraham and Isaac, both become free.   Isaac is released from his bonds and Abraham is freed from his promise to do God’s will, regardless of what he is asked to do at that point.   God frees Abraham from the act of killing and from the prospect of losing his beloved son.   This points us forward to Jesus on the Cross.   In this case God gives his Son to be killed.   He goes further than Abraham and makes the ultimate sacrifice.

So often we can look back through the telescope of time and make links between Old and New Testaments.   We encounter many echoes of the Old Testament in what we read in the gospels.   So much of the history of Israel connects with what Jesus said and did as he led his small band of friends and followers around the Holy Land.   Indeed, this was how the people were able to understand the relevance of Jesus – what he stood for and how God is willing to free those who are bound in sin..  It all found relevance in their amazing history.

The first section of Romans 6 in the Good News Bible is headed “Dead to Sin but Alive in Union with Christ.”   In committed alignment with Christ we are freed from sin completely.   In fact, Paul goes further and declared that we are dead to sin.   In other words this is a new life and the old one has died, gone forever.   There is a significant finality about this amazing death of the persons we once were.   All through the 2,000 years since Jesus walked the Palestine roads there has been an assurance that, in this new life, we can achieve goals previously not considered possible.   In the moments of doubt we have whispered to ourselves, “Yes we can.”   The price has often been high but the prize has been won.

We read John’s gospel and we hear Jesus say, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”   Paul spells it out clearly in today’s chapter from Romans:   “Sin must no longer rule in your mortal bodies, so that you obey the desires of your natural self. ¹³ Nor must you surrender any part of yourselves to sin to be used for wicked purposes. Instead, give yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life, and surrender your whole being to him to be used for righteous purposes. ¹⁴ Sin must not be your master; for you do not live under law but under God's grace.”

The key words here are “give yourselves to God.”   To give ourselves to God is to gain immense freedom.   In his famous hymn, Charles Wesley wrote “Tis mercy all, immense and free.”   In his mercy, God sets us free and the immensity of his love is clear for us to see.   That freedom leads us to declare our love for God in Jesus Christ and to say “Therefore we can make a difference.”   After she moved in to the manse I went to welcome our new Superintendent Minister.  We sat together that morning and I said I thought she would make a difference in our circuit.   Her reply was, “Of yes, I’ll make a difference!”

The proof of the pudding is, as ever, in the eating.   We have all seen her make a difference.   Even though we shall only have her with us until next year that difference has liberated us and enables us to move forward in a way we might not otherwise have discovered.   We have become renewed and invigorated so we are equipped to keep the work rolling.   We can use the freedom God has given to drive our mission forward.   It is, I suppose, accurate to describe our circuit as comprising mainly retired people.   Yet, today, I see a light in the eyes of the elderly Christians who make up our little flock that tells me that the future is bright.   It all depends on that light not being put out.   So we need to be sure not to let our spirits dim, but champion the greatest cause of all – that of Jesus Christ.

Turning to our three verses from Matthew’s gospel we learn all about the word, welcome.   Jesus says “Whoever welcomes you, welcomes me: and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me.”   If we turn a few pages over we arrive at Matthew 25 where we hear: “Whenever you did this for one of the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me!”   And the fact is that acts of kindness are not restricted to Christians.   The joy that kind acts can generate is possible anywhere and at any time.

Recently, during the month of Ramadan, a Muslim drove for an hour after sunset to share a meal in a restaurant with his wife in Manchester.   The restaurant management refused him access because his footwear was deemed inappropriate.   He was wearing slip on sandals.   He left the building and soon found himself in conversation with John, a homeless man.   Because he was homeless John had qualified for a new pair of boots.   He agreed to let the man borrow the boots so he could have his meal in his chosen restaurant.   John couldn’t wear the sandals because he took size 14 and the sandals were 9.   After the meal they met up again and John got his new boots back.   The man insisted on giving John £10 and a passerby, hearing their conversation, added £50!

Many years ago I was speaking to a woman about something I had done.   I cannot remember what it was, but I remember her saying, “You were doing it for the Lord.”   That didn’t make sense to me.   Whatever it was I was just doing it.   It never entered my head that I was doing it for God.   In these last verses in Matthew 10 it is spelled out very clearly that there is a four link chain going on.   Firstly, there is God, out of whose love the whole process of salvation began.   Secondly, there is Jesus who brought that message to humankind.   Thirdly there is the human messenger, the prophet who speaks, the good man who is an example, the disciple who learns, who in turn all pass on to others the good news they have received.   Fourth in the chain there is the believer who welcomes God’s people and God’s message and who finds life in his soul.

Each one of us is able to find our own place in this four link chain.   We cannot all be the same thing.   Imagine what it would be like if we were all preachers or all teachers, all playing out the same role.   It would be chaos.   But when we work out where we fit in with our many different strengths and gifts we find that we make up a complete entity and are able to organise the mission we need to follow.

Playing out all the many parts becomes enjoyment in all senses of the word.   We are set on fire and want nothing else but to go out and spread the good news. October will see two churches in our circuit involved in an event we are calling “Mixed Blessings.”   We have called it that because we all have our own abilities and talents which we can bring to God.   These are our blessings and they are a real mixture.

There is a church in America who, a few years ago, launched a new start with the title, “God is still speaking.”   He most certainly is speaking.   He speaks through Jesus who speaks through and we speak in our own turn as we talk to people who are looking for some purpose, something worthwhile in life.

This is the message in those three verses that complete Matthew 10.   We are all equipped with many gifts and if we put them together we can take the gospel to the world.

The Holy Spirit Promised

How Christianity ever reached this point is something we marvel at.   If we set Jesus and the gospel in the appropriate historic position we can see that he was promised by God many, many years before he actually came.   It was hundreds of years that the Jews of Israel yearned for the Messiah foretold by the prophets.   At the time of Jesus’ ministry there was a very long history for the people to look back on.   This was the time when God chose to intervene in history and it made an immense difference.   Just a handful of close friends and supporters went around with Jesus as he talked to the population.   Towards the end of his ministry, as our gospel reading confirms, he began to prepare them for the work they would begin when he was no longer with them.

Jesus said, “If you love me you will obey my commands; and I will ask the Father, and he will give you another to be your advocate, who will be with you forever.”   These very ordinary men, workers in the pastoral scene were to be the ones to spread the gospel once Jesus was no longer around.   So it makes sense that Jesus began preparing them for their new work.   It would not be very long before they would meet behind locked doors for safety.   Yet they had been chosen, not just to follow Jesus, but take over from him the greatest task anyone had ever undertaken.   They were to become the continuing representatives of the Messiah as the work began to build.   What a responsibility they would have!

These men had little power of their own.   They did not consort with kings, governors and the like.   They were not well known among the population for all eyes would have been on Jesus during the three years he preached the good news.   Suddenly there was going to be a huge burden laid upon them.   Their first thoughts, I would imagine, would be fearful indeed.

But Jesus lost no time in assuring them that they would have a new force to carry them along.   The Holy Spirit would come upon them and truly empower them.   Now, depending on which translation of the Bible you happen to read, the Spirit is described as one of three things.   You will hear the Spirit referred to as a helper, a comforter or an advocate.   I find it interesting to consider all three descriptions separately.

We know, from our current viewpoint that the Holy Spirit was and is an amazingly powerful force.   In all three descriptions we can see the power made available to all who follow Jesus.   To me, it makes complete sense that what Jesus promised as a permanent force would be an all powerful entity.   After what Jesus had accomplished in those three years of ministry there would have been a feeling among the apostles of “How do we follow that?”   Alongside Jesus, they had experienced a power on which they could solidly rely all through.   He had all the answers to all their questions.   He had sent them out on occasion to do his work and they felt less than equipped to do the job.   Sometimes they returned having not achieved their aims.   But Jesus was there to explain that this was only to be expected.   Perhaps it was a part of their training for what was to come after Jesus.   With the benefit of hindsight we can see the enormity of the task they would be carrying out in Jesus’ name.

The first word to consider is “helper”.   Evangelising the whole known world at that time was a challenge of epic proportions.    When the helper came it was initially an experience of wind and fire, two powerful forces indeed.   These two powerful forces were anything but personal or private.   Many people were present and marvelled at what they saw and heard.   This was a helper quite different in meaning from any helper we have ever known.   Its everyday meaning of assistance was certainly part of the picture.   But beyond this was a helper that gave the disciples energy and power well beyond that with which they had been born.   They would be energised to live for God in a beautifully refined holy way.   How they lived would be something emulated by millions of followers yet to be brought to God.   They would also have to be able to inspire great things in those to whom they brought the gospel story.   It would spread like wildfire as the power passed through them into many new followers of the way.

Look at the effect on Paul.   He was to take the gospel to the gentile world and bring many, many men and women to God.   He would be instrumental in changing their lives completely.   They would be new people experiencing a complete new start in life.   For them it would really be re-birth in all its meanings.   Paul found himself unable to support the various groups beginning to be known as churches.   It was always best to be with people to encourage them in their new lives.   But this was something with human limitations.   So he wrote letters to churches when he could not be with them and they felt renewed bu what they read.   Eventually his letters were the only means of communication when he was in prison.   So powerful were the words he wrote that we read them today and become inspired.

Paul was just one man and there were many others out on the mission who also inspired the people they met and brought them into the emerging church.   These men were out there in the world talking to anyone who was prepared to listen.   They were challenged in many ways, some of which we know like the case of Philip encountering the Ethiopian eunuch who wanted to know more about what he was reading.   Often it was a case of latching on to an enquiry and explaining the gospel to the enquirer.   But the Spirit was truly active and caused the early missionaries to go to many places to tell the good news.   This was a clear case of a helper making all the difference.

The second word to describe the Holy Spirit was “comforter”.   It is plain that the inspired work carried out by the early followers of Jesus was dangerous.   We know from historical records how many new followers did not live long as they encountered persecution.   One of the worst forms of persecution was the sending of committed Christians to fight wild animals in the arenas of Rome.   There was one case when a prisoner, brought before a judge of a Roman court, was supported by a member of the public in the court itself.   For supporting the prisoner they were challenged and confessed to commitment to Jesus.   Immediately they were seized and sent to an arena to be torn apart in a public spectacle.

There were many church leaders who were even pleased to die for Jesus, such was the strength of their faith.   They almost queued up to die for him, because he had died for them in the first place.   This could only have been a time when they knew the Holy Spirit as a comforter.   The Spirit came to them to give comfort as they faced trials that many today could hardly envisage.   In more recent times Rosa Parks would have felt both help and comfort when she took issue with the discrimination of the day which required her to stand and give up her bus seat to a white person.   This led to a year long bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama with the black community winning as the bus company was almost financially ruined.

The black people of the southern states were inspired by preachers like Martin Luther King, himself inspired by the Holy Spirit.   The inspiration enabled them to become empowered with a strength eventually sufficient to win the arguments and gain civil rights for all.   The hardship they endured would be softened by the “comforter”.   People who have risked everything for Jesus have need comfort in their times of struggle.

Some of the people who resisted the Nazi regime in Germany found that, in prison, they experienced a strange sort of comfort that told their families that they were still alive.   They spoke of being able to pass an encouraging message home by a prolonged smile.   Even in the depths of a horrible prison, with countless doors locked between them and the outside world, they experienced comfort brought by the Holy Spirit.

Thirdly we now consider the word, “advocate”.   For us in the 21^st century, “advocate” is a description of someone who speaks up for another.   It is true to say that, in a life where we are tested in many ways as we carry the gospel to others, we could make good use of an advocate.   In my experience as a former trade union branch secretary I found many occasions when it was better that I speak up for members who were attending disciplinary hearings.   Simple matters were usually dealt with by departmental stewards and the more difficult cases fell into my lap.   There were occasions when the member would be advised to let me answers certain questions in case he or she were so nervous that they admitted guilt when they were not really guilty.

Jesus also refers to the coming Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of Truth”.   In last week’s gospel reading we heard Jesus say “I am the way, the truth and the life.”   Here again in today’s passage we hear Jesus referring to the Spirit of Truth.   It is quite obvious that Jesus set great store by truth, that it was the most important thing to realise that when it was the truth you wanted you could guarantee to hear it from him.   In Oscar Wide’s play, “The Importance of Being Earnest”,   Mr John Worthing, speaking of being found in a handbag on a railway station, declared, “That is the truth, Lady Bracknell, pure and simple.”   Lady Bracknell comes back as sharp as a razor, “The truth is rarely pure and never simple!”   But, in this case we attach huge importance to truth because it is one of the titles of the Holy Spirit.

Because the Holy Spirit carries absolute truth there can never be a better advocate.   In fact it was demonstrated that, with the Holy Spirit embedded in all that they did and said, the disciples had all the power they needed to successfully preach the gospel learned from Jesus.  

The most amazing thing about all this is that we have the Holy Spirit in support to this very day.   Two thousand years on and we can still call upon the Spirit to be our advocate.   This is why the greatest cause of all has lasted to now.   The Spirit has preserved it and has driven it over many centuries.  

On 24^th May 1738 this is what happened to John Wesley:

“In the evening I went very unwillingly to a Society in Aldersgate Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans.   About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed.   I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation: and an assurance was given me, that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the Law of Sin and death.”

What happened to one man that evening caused him to preach salvation with a renewed power and thousands have come to a personal relationship with God as a result, and it is still happening.

So we can say how amazing it is that we meet here today drawn by and influenced by the Holy Spirit promised by Jesus to his closest friends.   We are blessed indeed!

Safe & Secure

A young and new lay preacher was asked to lead an evening service at a church he had not visited before. A few days before the service he met a farmer who he knew to be a member of the church he was to visit. The hugely over-weight farmer was apologetic, saying that he would not be at church that evening and what was his sermon text? The preacher told him, and even went through how he was to expound the particular scripture. The farmer was delighted that he had shared it with him and went on his way.

 The preacher decided that he would attend morning service that Sunday at the church to get a feel for the place and its ambience. As he took his pew he noticed a ladder left against the side of the pulpit. When the service began he was surprised to see that the farmer was the preacher. As he could not get into the pulpit by the narrow door the farmer had to climb the ladder and swing himself over the pulpit side. He then proceeded to preach the same sermon as that prepared by the young preacher.

 The young man was extremely annoyed after he had put hours of work into his sermon for that evening.   When he eventually entered the pulpit that evening, he announced to the congregation, “My text this evening is St John, Chapter 10, verse 1, ‘Jesus said, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that entereth not the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber! ’

Whenever I come across this passage in John’s gospel I always think of this story told to me by an old friend of mine who worshiped in the Anglican Church in Yorkshire.   It is certainly a good ice breaker!  

The 11th verse of John 10 says: “I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.”   Jesus always spoke in terms his listeners would understand.   Theirs was a rural life and shepherds and sheep were common sights there.   It made sense to use these as characters in his stories and explanations.   After all, if today an audience were all engineers, a speaker would almost certainly use engineering terms when addressing them.   You could also say that we, in the church, have words and expressions that outsiders would not readily understand.

In Palestine in those days there were shepherds who were the owners of the flock and others who were paid to take care of them.   The good shepherd would be the owner whose livelihood depended on the safety of his sheep.   Without his sheep he would be lost.   A hired shepherd could always find another employer but an owner would be completely brought down if he lost his flock.

We know from gospel stories that sheep would often wander into danger.   If a sheep were missing it could be that it had fallen over a cliff or been drowned in a river.   This was disaster to the shepherd.   I remember, on holiday in Crete, watching a Greek shepherd watching over his flock whilst talking to a friend.   The sheep were fairly close to a river and if one were to become too close to the river bank the shepherd would whistle and very accurately throw a stone to scare the sheep away from the water.   All the time he was in conversation with his friend he was watching the sheep very closely.   In his hands those sheep were safe.   He was a good shepherd.

I read somewhere that if two flocks of sheep were to shelter in a large cave each flock would come out only when called by their own shepherd.    What is also worth remembering is that sheep in other countries follow their shepherd.   Here our sheep are driven from the rear.   The picture of a shepherd leading both sheep and goats up in the mountains of Crete is one that will always stay with me.   It is a picture that reminds me of the separation of the sheep from the goats in Matthew 25.   The level of trust in the shepherd is the key thing in the stories told be Jesus.

Not only do the sheep rely on their shepherd but the shepherd needs his flock.   They are his life and without them he is bereft.   George Psychoundakis was a young shepherd in Crete at the time of the German occupation of his island.   He ran countless errands with messages for the allies up and down the mountains of Crete.   He wrote an inspiring book, “The Cretan Runner” about his experiences.   At the end of hostilities he returned home to find that someone had stolen all his sheep.   He was penniless and could not replace them.   Suddenly he was reduced to abject poverty.   His sheep were everything to him and he had lost them.

I firmly believe that this is the situation that Jesus is in with us Christians.   We, his sheep, are vital to his work and without us that work stops.   He is counting on us to do our job.   In employment terms you will have heard it said t hat no-one is indispensible.   In terms of our volunteer employment I think the reverse is the case.   Each is needed to perform his/her part with the gifts God has given.   When this happens we see an incredible difference to our life in terms of joy at being part of mission.   Get yourself involved in worthwhile work under God and you will feel incredibly privileged because you see how the partnership achieves remarkable goals.

Just like the sheep, we discover what having a good shepherd means.   It empowers us for one thing.   God gives us ownership of the job he has for us and empowers us to do it for him.   Taking ownership of our jobs at work is something that we find inspirational and the same inspiration comes with our mission work at church and whatever the church is called to be doing.   If we attach great importance to what has to be done we shall know we are working for God.   An old lady was greeted after a church service by that morning’s preacher.   “What do you do for the Lord?” he asked.    She replied proudly, “I wash up!”   It is surprising, sometimes, how people realise the value of what they are doing as part of the mission handed on by Jesus.

I spoke earlier about a Cretan shepherd watching his sheep.   During the same holiday we hired a car and our first trip was up into the mountains that rose up behind our location.   As we went higher and higher, we crossed a number of plateaux.   At one of these crossings we stopped as a shepherd led his flock across our path.   Following him were sheep and goats.   I could not help thinking of the story.   It was very Biblical because he was at the front not, as in this land, where the sheep are driven.

Thinking about this makes me think that if I were a sheep or goat I would follow the shepherd because I trusted him.   Following Jesus is to trust him.   Yet, in addition, our task is to share the leading of the sheep.   We are not just hangers on.   We are totally involved through our commitment to him.   So we have work tasks to perform.   Turn to Matthew’s gospel and you find a list of all that the followers of Jesus would do:   Feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick, visit the imprisoned.  

None of this is without risk.   As Jesus talked about being a Good Shepherd he was addressing a group who were ready to stone him at any moment.   I don’t suppose this was either the first or last time this danger faced Jesus.   But throughout the story we sense a calm and steady approach in preaching to his enemies.   He drew strength from knowing he was preaching God’s message.   Doing this he was ultimately safe and yet able to get the message across.   He felt safe and secure because of his relationship with God the Father.

Reflecting on this we may be sure that doing God’s work in the right thing to do and we are working under his support and protection.   From time to time it can get hairy as we ally ourselves to the greatest cause of all.   It often appears to be a dangerous job.   But God is behind it and that is what matters.   We are cared for by the Good Shepherd who protects his sheep by lying across the door to the sheepfold.   He is the first one to be in danger as we shelter within.   This is how far he is prepared to go for us and this is what makes us feel safe and secure.   As Christians we face a life of many facets, some of them scaring us.   But we have the protection of Jesus as her walks by our side.

Recognition at Emmaus

One evening at a school reunion, someone spoke to me, saying, “I recognised you by your body language.”   Body language is something that the individual is not really aware of and it is another who sees it and uses it in recognition.   It is a means of recognition that has many facets.   It can be how you turn your head, how you smile or frown, how you react in given circumstances, how you walk or run.   There are so many ways of using body language that we could probably fill a book and still not have run out of things.   The last reunion I attended was actually at the school just before the building was demolished to make way for a totally different edifice.   Many people were turning into the gateway and I suddenly saw a woman in her sixties walking through the entrance.   I immediately knew who she was because her walk was so distinctive.   The last time I had seen her was at the age of sixteen, but her identity was quite obvious.

Having listened to many sermons I have heard many theories about the various gospel stories.   In my teens I heard a student minister suggesting that the people walking towards Emmaus didn’t recognise Jesus because they were walking towards the sun which was in their eyes.   But that only dealt with the journey.   He did not suggest why they didn’t at first recognise him as they were at table with him without the sun interfering with their vision.   My personal take on this is that I have no idea why they didn’t realise who was walking with them.   But I think they knew him eventually by the way he broke bread.   Everyone has their own way of tearing bread apart and I think this was how the penny dropped.   The narrative doesn’t say whether they were trying to remember where they had seen their guest before but this is quite possible.   Suddenly they had Jesus in their presence and all was joy.   In breaking read they knew his identity.   Had any of them been present at the Last Supper?   Did they have a friend among the two disciples we know were there?

In the gospel story we are seeing this recognition by people who were there on the day.   Having followed this remarkable rabbi for up to three years the supporters came astonishingly to an experience that was a bolt from the blue.   The one they had followed with hopes of a great conclusion was there with them at table.   There was absolutely no doubt that he had risen from the dead.   This was a new start for them and a great many others as the greatest cause of all moved forward.   It would take them and millions of others to strange places and to great heights.

Today we wonder about the church’s chance of survival.   So much negativity surrounds us that we often think we are witnessing the end.   The effect of Easter is to reinvigorate us and remind us that we really are equipped to set off again on our own mission.   Speaking personally, I have found over the 55 years of preaching that the church, generally, has been in a depressing decline.   It has been a period during which there appeared to a freshness lacking in the way we have tried to continue.   This lack of freshness has also been part of my experience of our circuit since first worshipping at Amlwch in January 2005.   Just about everyone seemed to be accepting that we were just seeing ourselves out.

But in the last twelve months we have seen new work everywhere.   There is a sense of renewal among us.   At St Paul’s the work has been seen most clearly and it has spread throughout our five churches.   It reminds us that renewal can happen at any time and anywhere.   It feels as if quite a number of us have, like those on the Emmaus road, seen Jesus with fresh eyes.   It is so encouraging.   We have now been officially dubbed a mission circuit.   That is an accolade worth celebrating.

As a youthful Christian of the sixties, I remember singing choruses on coach trips to places like Maine Road stadium, Manchester and Cliff College in Derbyshire.   One chorus verse was “I’ve got that Nicodemus new born feeling down in my heart.”   I’ve been thinking a lot recently about Nicodemus.   He was a pious Jew and member of the Sanhedrin.   Having heard about Jesus he came to him by night because he did not want publicity surrounding his meeting.   We mostly think of him as someone, who found that re-birth was not for him.   Yet, we know of his part in the story of the burial of Jesus.   He, together with Joseph of Arimathaea, took the body and wrapped it in cloth with layers of myrrh and aloes he had supplied.   So, we see that the Nicodemus new born feeling was about the man himself rather than a reference to the meeting with Jesus.

Nicodemus obviously thought that he should keep his new born feeling to himself as he continued as a member of the Sanhedrin.   There he was, rather like a sleeping spy, until the time came when he could emerge as a supporter and give Jesus a truly respectful burial.   For me he has become a hero.   It makes me wonder whether he was able to warn Jesus of any plans that were formed in the sessions of the council.   It would be a good strategy to have someone on the other side of the battle lines.

Going back to the journey towards Emmaus it is worth considering how these travellers felt.   They said to Jesus that they had hoped the man from Nazareth was going to be the one to redeem Israel.   So they were not just thinking of themselves but the whole of the country.   It is easy to see the disappointment they had.   All their hopes had ended with that death on a cross.   So they had to be taken through the whole purpose of Jesus’ ministry to see what its purpose was and how things were going to continue and not, as they thought, stop.  

Sitting at table they would be thinking about everything the apparent stranger had explained.   Then suddenly they realised they had been taught by Jesus himself.   They had been singled out to be among the earliest witnesses of the Resurrection.

Now, there is another aspect to this story which I think very important.   They invited Jesus to come into their house and stay with them, and he did.   Their tradition of hospitality prompted them to ask him in.   Like William Holman Hunt’s picture of Jesus knocking at a door with no outside handle it was they who would invite him in.   He would not have entered if he had not been asked.   We, toady, need to take this a a template and ensure that Jesus is asked inside.   This is when the real work begins.   It might appear old-fashioned but it really is how it all starts.   Once we recognise the in-dwelling God we are equipped to accomplish some good work for him.   We can only be successful for him if we go in his strength.   Our strength is not sufficient.

Shortly after his wife, Frances, died, Rev Keith Forecast shared with the North East Manchester District of the URC his thoughts and feelings.   Of what was said to him by others, he attributed the highest value to those who looked him in the eye and said “I am praying for you” or touched him on the arm and said “I shall be thinking of you”.   For me this is clear evidence of God standing so closely that we recognise his presence with us.   Christians often talk of God coming to us at key times.   It is on these occasions that God comes in the person of another human being and assures us of his support and strength.

In these moments we recognise the presence of God in much the same way as those travelling to Emmaus.   One of the most dramatic instances in the last few years was when I was attending a church service in Oswestry as a representative of Mission Aviation Fellowship.   The service leader suddenly said, “Oh, we’ve forgotten to pray for Keith!   Is it alright if we pray for you, Keith?”   I agreed and then she came forward together with the organist and they placed their hands on me and prayed.   It was a feeling of great intimacy with God.

This is how we have our Emmaus Road experience.   God comes so close that we are aware of his presence as his power takes us over.   Remember what those people said: “Were not our hearts on fire as he talked with us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?”   When the penny drops it is a wonderful experience.   From that point we are empowered to do the job.