Commit and Live

“A disciple is not above the teacher nor a slave above the master; it is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher and the slave like the master. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household! “So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered and nothing secret that will not become known.
What I say to you in the dark, tell in the light, and what you hear whispered, proclaim from the housetops. Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows. “Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven, but whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my Father in heaven.

Not Peace, but a Sword “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household.

“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.
Matthew 10:24-39

The very first event recognizing fathers occurred on July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, West Virginia. Grace Golden Clayton organized a church service to honour 362 men who had died in the Monongah mining disaster a few months prior. Subsequently, after much lobbying, Father’s Day was created by Sonora Smart Dodd of Spokane, Washington, in 1910 to recognise her single Civil War veteran father who raised and cared for her and her five siblings after their mother died in childbirth.

On Father’s Day, we pause to honour the physical and spiritual fathers we have in our lives, which includes those who have to be both mother and father, and all that they have done. From Psalm 103 verse 13, “As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him”.

There are many aspects to the perceived role of fatherhood and there are different people who may fulfil this role for us. For some it is their Dad, for some their Mum, for some a Grandparent, for some a carer or a foster parent and for some a trusted mentor or friend. All these people are loved by those they love and care for and we thank God, our Almighty Father, for these people, for all they do and for the way they touch our lives.

Fear causes failure. Fear causes failure in discipleship.

Sometimes one of the harder jobs of a parental type role is having to tell us things that are tough to prepare us for what lies ahead.
Jesus is preparing His disciples for their mission and does not hide from them the threats they will come up against but He also explains why they must not let this fear control or hinder them.

The disciples are to undertake their mission in complete vulnerability and dependence on God; even though they will face arrests, beatings, opposition (including from family and friends), hatred and persecution.

Why tell the disciples the trials they will suffer? Wouldn’t this put them off the task assigned to them?

By warning them in advance, not only do the disciples have the opportunity to be prepared, but also saying aloud the suffering and trials to be faced is the first step to being freed from the grip of fear.

Jesus doesn’t just tell the disciples the worst case scenarios, He also gives reassurance and instructions to resist fear. The most important part of this reassurance is the relationship between the disciples and Jesus, and through Him God.

Jesus warns His disciples that the fate of the Master or Teacher also awaits their disciples and so the disciples should be ready to receive a similar response from the leaders of Israel that Jesus Himself receives and to have no fear of them.

Proclaiming and living the Gospel is the most powerful tool the disciples have against world powers.

Death threats can be a powerful way of controlling people through fear. Whilst humans try to use this power, Jesus reassures the disciples that humans only have power to destroy the body, not the whole person. Only God can destroy both soul and body. However, God is not like human rulers. God has ultimate power over our whole being and exercises this power with mercy and love.

The call to discipleship has priority and is above all other claims on identity, allegiance, family and friends.

To take up our cross aligns the discipleship mission and fate with that of Jesus which can include humiliation, suffering, shame, opposition and death. It implies identification with marginal people who do not “find their lives in this world”. But it comes with the promise from Jesus that anyone who loses their life for Him will “find it” whereas those “finding their life in the world” will lose it.

Jesus shows us that the answer to fear includes recognising and naming it. Fear of the unknown or unacknowledged is a far greater fear than the fear of the known and spoken.

We need to be honest and transparent in recognising the elements of human power including those rooted in the threat of death and suffering. We need to be aware of the conflict and division that proclaiming and living the Gospel inevitably produces. We need deep awareness and conviction of God’s presence in the world in love, mercy and compassion.

Today’s society is guilty of having a lack of commitment and has left its cross on the side of the road.

Every organisation that relies on regular and committed volunteers – churches, Girl Guiding, Scouts to name just a couple – all are having trouble finding people to take on running these groups, to take on responsibility for the different elements that need doing, to run and to support events. People don’t mind making use of these various groups when it suits them but they will not commit to regular attendance, regular giving or taking on responsibility.

There are all kinds of reasons used and excuses given to explain this such as working hours or childcare but, whilst that does affect some, it most certainly does not affect everyone. What about the childless? The unemployed? The retired? Those with compatible working hours or who work part time? Those who do have the talents and time to take an active part but who won’t? And so forth.

People today would rather keep their interpretation of freedom, stay at home watching the television or surf the internet. People think less about being or don’t want to be part of something whether that be a cause, a group or community of believers (in anything) and think more about individual pleasure and activities. And we are all guilty.

Today, people are told to just do what they can and this encourages people to not put the effort in.

Jesus does not say that to us. He did not say it to the disciples. Instead He told a group of scared men that it required commitment and was going to be very tough. He told them this in no uncertain terms.

Did they decline – No
Did they give up – No
Did they say actually Jesus I don’t really feel like doing that today – No

What they did do was to rise to the challenge in total commitment to Jesus.

People, regardless of age, will be what society expects them to be. If a child is told they can’t do something then they start to believe they can’t do it and won’t even try. If you tell a child they can’t behave they won’t even try and the more they don’t – whether that is leaving rubbish on the floor, not putting things away, being rude causing damage, shooting catapults or any action that the adult considers misbehaviour. If they are constantly told they can’t behave they don’t.

Likewise, the more people are told not to overdo it or to be careful because they are frail or that they don’t need to then the less they do and the more fearful and frail they become.

We must train ourselves to take a risk and be willing to commit and do.

Jesus told His disciples not to be afraid, that they would be guided and protected, that they were precious to God and that even if their bodies or feelings got hurt no harm would come to their souls.

God’s love and protection surrounds and insulates us from the worst human powers and earthly life can throw at us. We might suffer as all typical humans suffer but we are precious to God, He holds us in His hand and keeps our souls safe. We can and will endure.

In a society that encourages lazy, self indulgent life on the sidelines it can be difficult to be as committed and courageous as those first Christians.

We must not be complacent. As the world is, it is easy to become. We must be on our guard always to ensure that the world does not drain us of our commitment to others and to God. We must resist the temptation to be lazy and uninvolved.

Like those first disciples, as Jesus’s followers we are all involved with each other, with God’s will for the world, with His command to spread the word, and to bring in the kingdom; and we must not let the siren call of selfishness and lack of commitment prevent that purpose.

Calling and Love

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot and all the possessions that they had gathered and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran, and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east, and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.
Genesis 12: 1-9

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax-collection station, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with Jesus and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from a flow of blood for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she was saying to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that moment. When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And the report of this spread through all of that district.
Gospel of Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

Have you noticed how it is always busy people that Jesus calls?

When He calls us to do something, He calls us away from something else. He calls ordinary people out of the ordinariness of their lives. They are not being called because they have nothing to do and are just sitting there twiddling their thumbs. Jesus doesn’t call people who do nothing.

Every one of the disciples Jesus called were busy people and were in the middle of their normal work at the time they were called. Peter and Andrew were fishing. James and John were mending their nets. Levi (who becomes Matthew), as we read in the first part of the Gospel passage, was in the middle of his work collecting taxes.

It is not that they don’t have anything else to do. It is that the most important thing to do is to hear and obey the Saviour’s call. Jesus, our Saviour, says “Drop what you are doing and follow me”. And the correct and best response is, of course, to get up and follow Him.

Matthew did not choose Jesus. Matthew was rather busy collecting taxes and was not contemplating following anyone.

Jesus chose Matthew. Not only did He choose Matthew but He did not grant the option of thinking it over. Jesus chose Matthew and told him to follow then and there. And Matthew got up and followed Him. Jesus calls us to do the same. No thinking time. No preparation time. No advance training – the only available training is on the job as we go! Just drop everything and follow Him.

When Jesus called Matthew, Matthew got up and left his desk. He left behind the symbol of his profession and the root of his sinfulness. We are never called to something without being called away from something else. We cannot come into full discipleship if we are unable to let go of what Jesus is calling us to leave behind.

In the passage from Genesis 12 Abram is called by God to leave his country, his kin, his father’s house and travel to an unknown land that God would show him. He was called to leave his past behind and to put his trust fully in God for the future. You cannot get to what God has for you without letting go of where you are and what is holding you back and following Him. It is not what Jesus sees in us that makes us worthy of following Him, but what He puts in us when we obey His command.

Jesus also said “I desire mercy not sacrifice. Go and find out what this means”.

Hosea 6:6 says “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice.”

The Hebrew word used is “hesed”. I desire hesed not sacrifice. Hesed is translated as steadfast love, mercy, goodness, kindness, compassion and loyalty. Jesus, God, desires all these things from us; not just sacrifice. And here, the meaning of sacrifice is tithing. Gifts given to God and used to support the priests leading worship. Tithing is important to God. I remember reading about a church in Africa where, as the choir sang, the people brought their offerings to God; mostly grain and produce. The people did this with great joy and enthusiasm, giving to God a portion of whatever they had. Tithes and offerings are important to our worship and important to God. But, they are not more important than our steadfast love and mercy.

What do we tithe? What do we give to God? Is it our time? Our talents? A portion of our income or possessions? Volunteering to help our community? All of these are a form of tithe and sacrifice, but, whilst they are important to God, they are not as important as our steadfast love and mercy.

Let us imagine that you help out at the food bank on a Monday morning, preparing and handing out food parcels to the hungry. This is a tithe and a sacrifice. But, whilst you are doing this work, are you gossiping with the other volunteers? Are you speculating about our new Priest in Charge to be? Making assumptions about what he is like without having met him and without waiting to find out? Are you googling him, claiming to know all about him, his experience and his qualifications, even though you haven’t actually read his C.V? Are you judging and claiming you know precisely what he will do before he has even got here? Are you gossiping about other people you know? About those you are serving?

If so, where is the love, the mercy and the kindness? It is noticeably absent from this scenario and, sadly, it is exactly what occurred on Monday and so we pray for them.

God wants us to sacrifice our time, our talents, a portion of our treasures or income, but not at the sacrifice of our steadfast love and mercy.

Our time, talents and money are no substitute for our steadfast love towards God and our neighbours or for our kindness and mercy.

God shows us, and it is detailed over and over again in scripture, the kind of steadfast love and mercy that is important to Him. He is not asking anything of us that He has not already given us.

There is a story about Gandhi. A mother asked him to talk to her son about giving up sweets. He agreed but weeks went by. The mother asked him why he had not yet spoken to her son. Gandhi replied that he still intended to speak with her son but that he was finding it harder to give up sweets than he had expected. The mother realised that Gandhi could not and would not ask someone else to do something he was not already doing and so the conversation with her son could not take place until Gandhi himself had managed to give up sweets.

Like this story about Gandhi, God only asks of us what He has already given us. God gives us and shows us that His steadfast love and mercy for us endures forever and will be with us all the days of our lives.

God demonstrated this by giving us His Son. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believeth in Him shall not perish but will have everlasting life.

And Jesus demonstrated God’s steadfast love and mercy over and over again.

We not only have the example of the calling of Matthew in our readings but also the healing of the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years and the resurrection of the synagogue leader’s daughter.

Jesus showed the same mercy to everyone whether they believed in Him or not. His love and mercy really are unconditional and for everybody.

He called sinners, He healed the sick, He raised the dead, He spoke against injustice, He showed us how to love with a steadfast, merciful, kind, pure, good, everlasting love that knows no bounds. God loves us completely, unconditionally with an endless love that is for everyone.

Drop everything!

Let it go!

Follow Him!

John the Baptist

Matthew 11:2-11 is a reading which often gets overlooked.

John the Baptist is in prison. He has been in prison for some time and knows he will not leave it alive because Herod’s wife wants him dead. She has not yet, however, found a way of securing his death and Herod is intrigued by John and so listens to what he has to say. Consequently, John is treated with respect and his disciples were allowed to visit him freely. His disciples keep him up to date with what is going on in the world outside and report to him what they have witnessed of Jesus.

John sends his disciples to Jesus with the question “Art thou he that should come?”

This is where opinion amongst well-known commentators differ.

Some state that John sent the disciples only to remove their doubts.

Others state that this question came directly from John with the answer being directed to John; who may have been feeling impatient at hearing about the signs and wonders but not seeing the appearance of God’s kingdom in a way he expected and so was falling into despair in prison.

Many Christians struggle with this passage and John’s question. This is not surprising considering what else we know about John.

John the forerunner. The one sent to “Prepare the way of the Lord”.

John, who, before he had even been born, recognised his cousin as Lord and Saviour and jumped for joy in his mother’s womb.

Seeds of doubt planted by the devil reach their peak at times of great despair and can cause people to question even the most important fundamental truths.

We hope that, nay we know that, John’s faith did not fail him.

However, at a time of despair, languishing in jail, confirmation of what he knew to be true would consolidate and strengthen his faith and hope.

Yet, if John had sent his disciples to Christ with the question for their satisfaction then we know that Christ pointed them to what they had heard and seen; directing them to the way in which salvation was to be found.

John, who at Jesus’s baptism witnessed the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus and heard the voice from heaven confirming Jesus as God’s beloved Son with whom He is well-pleased, had shown Christ to his disciples.

John saw that some of these disciples were envying for his sake and some were making the same misinterpretations as many of the Jews did about the Messiah. John wanted to ensure, before his own inevitable death took place, that his disciples were satisfied from their own experience of and sight of the works of Christ; and so he sent them on this errand.

“Poor men have the good news proclaimed to them,” Jesus added when He spoke to John’s disciples. He invited them to His kingdom and told them of peace and pardon.

It was predicted in Isaiah that the Messiah would indeed preach good tidings to the meek (the gospel to the poor).

Jesus knew that John the Baptist, whose heart was with the poor, knew that He was the one who united power and tenderness and could be none other than the expected king.

From verse 6: Blessed is he who shall not take offence at my poverty and lowliness of life and who will not reject me and my doctrine.

John wanted, not to force Christ’s hand into revealing Himself before His time came but, to ensure that he had completed his mission and passed the baton over to the one for whom he had been preparing the way.

Jesus then gave testimony to John, and to all he had achieved.

What Jesus said about John was not only to praise John but also for all the people.

Those who listen to the word will be called to give account of their improvements. Do we think that once the sermon is over the work is done? No! It most certainly is not. In fact, that is when the great work really begins.

Fervency and zeal are required by all. Self must be denied; the bent, frame and temper of the mind must be altered.

Those who have an interest in salvation will not mind what the terms are nor how hard they seem.

Things of God are of both great and common concern.

God requires no more from us than the right use of what he has given us.

People are ignorant because they will not learn.

John was sent to prepare the people to receive the Messiah and he fulfilled this commission. He preached repentance and faith in Christ.

As John prepared the way for Jesus then so we must prepare now.

We must prepare our hearts and minds, making them right and open ready to receive Him again this Christmas and for when He comes again in glory.

Not only that but we must spread that good news so that others also have the chance to repent and prepare.

Handing over the baton (Photo by BOOM ud83dudca5 Photography on Pexels.com)

Calling Levi

In chapter 9 of Matthew’s Gospel, Matthew recounts his own call from Jesus to become a disciple. Matthew was the name Jesus gave him. Until he became one of Jesus’s disciples, he was called Levi. And he was at his place of work in the tax office. The Jewish people did not like those among their number who became tax collectors. They viewed these people as sinners and collaborators with the Romans against their own people. Tax collectors had the force of the Roman soldiers behind them to force the people to pay the taxes, but not only that, they were considered to be extortioners because they were allowed to keep any money they over-collected. Consequently, most if not all tax collectors over-charged on purpose to line their own pockets.

The call from Jesus gave Levi Matthew the opportunity to literally turn his life around. When he was a tax collector he was busy taking but Jesus was calling him to a work that was essentially giving.

Jesus said to him “Follow Me” and he did. He left his desk, taking nothing but his pen. Jesus called him and the only thing he took from his trade was the pen this trade had taught him to use; a skill he then used to compose his Gospel of Jesus’s teachings.

There is archaeological evidence that fish taken from the Sea of Galilee were taxed. So Jesus took as His disciple the taxman that may have taken money from Peter, James, and John and the other fishermen among the disciples. Certainly, initially, it would have been difficult for them to accept each other. Yet, in one way, Levi made more of a sacrifice than some of the other disciples. Peter, James, and John could easily go back to their fishing business, but it would be practically impossible for Levi to go back to tax collecting.

Jesus sat at the table in the house, and many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him. This context suggests that this was a gathering of Matthew’s friends and former business associates. Possibly, Jesus took advantage of Matthew’s decision to also reach those whom he knew.

And so the disciples were asked, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” The answer to this question was simple, because Jesus is the friend of sinners. As Paul wrote in Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.

We are fortunate that God calls sinners and not just saintly people. Jesus came to benefit those who understood their inherent need for Him. Yet the proud who see no need for Jesus do not benefit.

Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice”. In Hosea’s day, God’s people were still good at bringing sacrifice, but they had abandoned mercy because they gave up the knowledge of God and truth. God would rather have right hearts, full of truth and mercy than sacrifice.

These words are more striking when we remember that they were addressed to the teachers of men. This rebuke showed that they did not know God, and Jesus bade them go and learn the meaning of their own Scriptures. These “teachers of men” thought they knew everything already, and the rebuke made them angry.

This event illustrates Jesus’s mission to seek and save the lost, calling them to repentance and a new life.

Minster Abbey Talk on John 17:1-11

“The time has come,” the Walrus said, “to talk of many things:…”
Lewis Carroll

And if we were having a conversation over some coffee and cake (hint hint) that is precisely what would happen. We would have a conversation; maybe about the weather, the coronation, a television drama, … all sorts.

Some of us find it easy to converse, some of us find it more difficult and communicate in other ways. Some of us are good at listening and for some of us it “goes in one ear and out the other”.

But, how do we pray?

There are many different ways we can pray, but ultimately, if we think about it, prayer is just the same as that conversation over coffee … isn’t it?

If not why not?

We have the opportunity to talk to God about anything and everything; and not just when we’re worried or in need or when things aren’t going as we’d like but also when we’re thankful, joyful and when things are going well.

We can do a lot of talking to God but we need to remember to listen as well. If we are honest none of us listen as much as we should.

Prayer is vitally important in our lives. An oft repeated quote “seven days without prayer makes one week (weak!)”.

Today’s Gospel reading is part of one of Jesus’s longest prayers.

In short it summarises Jesus’s relationship with the Father and the relationship He wanted His disciples to have with Himself and the Father.

Like the Holy Trinity (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) this prayer is in three sections.

Jesus prays for Himself
Jesus prays for His disciples
Jesus prays for all believers past, present and future

Despite us having celebrated Jesus’s Ascension on Thursday, this prayer passage takes place before His arrest. But it is significant because it becomes Jesus’s evaluation of the purpose of His life, death, resurrection and ascension.

God’s glory and Jesus’s glory are one and the same. Through the death of Jesus God is glorified and all believers receive eternal life.

Eternal life is knowing the one true God; being in a living fellowship with God. And this life we receive when we accept Jesus into our hearts and lives. Jesus’s purpose, His mission, is salvation.

Jesus prays with great concern for His disciples. He was not concerned about Himself – He knew God’s plan, He knew He had to suffer and die to be victorious. Jesus’s victory was unquestionable. The disciples were just like us. They were not infallible. Jesus had predicted the disciples would desert Him. And so He prayed for them, that they would be kept safe and protected by the Father’s power and that they would fulfil their future ministry. The disciples were about to be tested and Jesus prayed that this would not separate them from Himself or from each other.

Again, like the Three-in-one, Jesus mentions three things about His disciples:

They had accepted His teaching
They had accepted the knowledge that Jesus is the Son of God
They believed

Jesus prayed that the world would stop being opposed to God.

“All I have is Yours and all You have is Mine.” Jesus has equality with the Father.

He prays that, as He and God are one, the disciples and believers will remain as one.

In unity.

Not divided.

Division is the result of the failures of Christians.

God is awe-inspiring and loving. Jesus’s prayer is an outpouring of love and concern.

Jesus was shortly returning to the Father and to the glory He has before the world began. He had completed His mission. The Holy Spirit had been promised. With the help of the Holy Spirit it is now our turn.

Our mission, if we choose to accept it, is to bring glory to God through all we do in His name.

Are we ready?

Do we accept this mission?