There are so many questions for us as we seek to understand God.  As people of faith, a  central question is how does our faith affect who we are?  How does our faith work itself out in practical ways, and daily living that others could notice and describe?  (In high school there was an awkward question, if being Christian was a crime would there be enough evidence to convict you?)  We know and understand at some level that our faith can not be separated from how we live and what we do.   It matters how we treat others, at work, at home, and in our daily lives between Sundays.  What we say we believe needs to be shown in ways that we live, as we take our faith more and more seriously.  It is part of the journey as we become new creations.

As we look at our passage today, we hear about forgiveness, and what Jesus is saying is that forgiveness is one of the most important things for a disciple to reflect in their lives.  He is saying that forgiveness is essential for disciples.  I bet that each of us can think of someone who has hurt us or betrayed us, or perhaps many people come to mind.  In some cases it may be past history,  it is over and done with, it has been forgiven.  In other cases it may not be, it may still be an open wound, an ongoing problem.  It may be a recent conflict with a person, or it may have been something from childhood that still hurts.  

Thinking about these people in our lives that we have unresolved conflict with, thinking about the unforgiven people in our lives, those with whom we have a grievance, those to whom we may have said, “I will never forgive you, I can never forgive you”.   Some sins may seem too big to be forgiven.  But what Jesus says is that those who can not forgive, or be changed by being forgiven will pay for it for the rest of their lives.  The truth is that when we fail to forgive, that wound that we have festers, and can become infected, and can fail to ever heal.  Over time, sometimes, it becomes worse than it was already.

The point of Jesus’ parable is simple.  If you have been forgiven, you should be forgiving.  This is a case where it is often easier to receive than it is to give.  Hopefully, we all know what it is to be forgiven.  How many times have made a mess of things, fractured a cherished relationship and found ourselves in a place feeling empty handed being only able the words “forgive me”, and meant it, and then heard  “you’re forgiven, it’s O.K”..  At that moment a relationship changes, it can go forward because both people are changed by the act of forgiveness.  The one who is hurt lets go of their right to be offended, the one who has done the hurting must be changed by the fact that they have been forgiven.  As Christians we are called to share and reflect the grace we receive and be changed by it.  For if we do not, we are like the servant in the story. 

The servant in this parable owes 10,00 talents. (Which is a huge preposterous number, it is like a million billion dollars- more than PowerBall will ever be) , and this servant, or slave,  he is not a slave in the way we think about slaves.  He is a servant of the government, quite probably a tax collector.  He may have been embezzling for many years and the time for reckoning has come, and he is in big trouble.  He pleads for time to pay the king back, and there is no way he is ever going to be able to pay him back.  But he pleads and the king, in a moment of mercy,  cancels his debt.  

He has to feel great as he leaves the king’s chambers, he’s off the hook.  And yet he goes out and immediately  confronts a fellow servant who owes him the equivalent of 17 dollars , he has just been forgiven  millions of dollars, and he is chasing down 17.  The servant grabs him by the throat and says pay me what you owe me, and throws him in jail.  When the king hears about this he is angered, he throws the first servant in jail for the rest of his life.  It is not that the king could not forgive him, it is that the king judged the servant for not being changed by his own experience of forgiveness.  He just was let off the hook of a lifetime of swindling, given a new chance to life freely.  Yet the man was unwilling to be transformed by that gift, so he is forgiven – yet sentenced to live in a prison.  One might say the prison is of his own making. One author has suggested that every time we refuse to forgive it is like another stone being dropped into our hearts.  If we can not forgive, we imprison ourselves.

In the States, the most common form of the Lord’s Prayer that is used asks “forgive us our debts- as we forgive our debtors”.   It is perhaps the most literal translation of the Lord ’s Prayer.  It conveys the sense of obligation, debts,  we owe to one another as we sin against another.  If I have done something to damage a relationship, or sinned, I am in debt to make it right.  I need to be forgiven for the offense.  And vice versa, I need to be willing to forgive when the time is right for that as well.  I want to emphasize the point that forgiveness is not maintaining abusive relationships where something wrong happens over and over again and people keep saying I’m sorry forgive me, and then just keep doing it over and over again.   That’s not it.  Accepting forgiveness leads to changed lives.   

No one would suggest that forgiveness is easy.  God understands, how much, how difficult and how costly forgiveness is.  The communion table reminds us of that truth! And yet it remains, those who have received grace are to respond with grace to others.  We have all been in the position of the king, we have all had those who have offended us, betrayed us, those who have lied to us, cheated on us, and taken for us for granted.  We all have legitimate complaints,  we have all been right in saying we have been wronged.   But the question is -when the time is right- can we give grace as freely as we would receive grace. 

There’s a story that’s been circulating for some time.  It’s about a father who had a dreadful falling-out with his son.  The story begins in a little village in Spain.  Father and son argue, and say things they should never have said.  The son, whose name is PAC, runs away to the big city of Madrid.  Weeks go by, then months, and the father comes to regret his anger.  He rehearses, over and over again in his mind, the apology he will offer to his son when he returns.  Yet Paco, the prodigal son, does not return.  The father begins to fear he has lost his son forever.

Finally, the father resolves upon a desperate plan.  He travels to the city, armed with posters that he puts up on every wall and tree.  He takes out a classified ad in the newspaper, and everywhere the message is the same: “Dear Paco, Meet me in front of the newspaper office tomorrow at noon.  All is forgiven.  I love you.– Your father.”

To understand what happens next, you have to realize that “Paco” is a very common name in Spain: almost like “John” or “Jim” in our country.  And you have to remember that the father did not sign his posters, or his classified ad, with anything except “Your father.”  By twelve o’clock the next day, the story goes, Paco the son is waiting outside the newspaper building; he and his father have a joyful reunion. Yet along with the son, there are 800 other men named Paco, gathered outside the newspaper building, every last one of them hoping it is his

father who took out the classified ad and nailed up the posters.

The words I love you and I forgive you, are not said often enough.  They carry a real power to make things new, to set relationships right.  May we find the strength to write letters, or make calls if they need to be, and give forgiveness in the right moment as we receive it.  May we be willing to be changed as others forgive us and welcome us back to continue relationships in new and grace filled ways.  AMEN

Matthew 18 : 15 – 20       10 September 2023

There’s something perhaps unsettling in the thought that your spiritual life, and mine, is other people’s business.  But spiritual growth is always a community project.  While we are converted individually, our spiritual growth is connected to a community of believers that can make or break our flourishing.  A believer is part of a body, of a group of people, a church, whose spiritual vitality is interconnected.  We’re a people marked by commitment to Christ and to one another.  So, when you become a Christian you take on a new status, a new nature, a new family, and a new job description.  We are Christ’s people, his representatives on earth and we’re in this together.

But what happens when things go wrong.  What happens when you find you don’t get on with your Christian family?  What happens when a Christian in the church family, fails to represent Jesus and has no desire to.  Do we let it go?  Shrug our shoulders and say that’s life?  No, definitely not.  That’s when Christian discipline comes into play and that’s where the passage we read from Matthew 18, along with other bible passages give us guidance and, as your book of order, your church rules says, these we are obligated to follow as far as possible without recourse to judicial proceedings.

Now Matthew 18, is a chapter that’s all about relationships with other Christians.  In verses one to six, Jesus tells us that greatness in the Kingdom is not shown by the one who asserts themselves over others, but by the one who serves and is humble.  “Whoever becomes humble like a child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”. 

Then in verses seven to 11, Jesus tells us that we need to look at our own behaviour, because our personal choices and decisions don’t just impact us as individuals, instead they impact other Christians and may cause others to stumble in their walk of faith, so this is important and raises the question, do we ever take time and reflect, asking ourselves what impact our behaviour is having on other Christians, on the church, on the reputation of Jesus?

Then in verses 12 to 14, we see God’s attitude to those who are wander off.  We’re reminded that Jesus is the best shepherd ever.  He loves the ninety-nine, of course, but he’s passionate in his looking out for the one who’s wandered off.  “If a shepherd has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go in search of the one that went astray?”  And he goes after them, not to exterminate or eradicate the one who strays.  Rather it’s all about restoration, for Jesus is willing to do anything to bring them back. 

And that’s the context, the backdrop to the passage we look at this morning which starts in verse 15.  We need to be able to relate realistically to Christians who sin.  Sometimes that sin will be sin against us, “If another member of the church sins against you”. 

There’s a parallel passage to this in Luke 17, verses three and four, “if another believer sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive.  And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive.”  Peter seems to have heard that for back in Matthew 18, verse 21 he asks Jesus “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive?”

But at other times it won’t be personal.  Some manuscripts of verse 15 start “If another member of the church sins”.  This is where the sinful conduct of a Christian has an immediate, wider impact on the church, which could be public and demanding action.  But any sin in the assembly of God’s people is a sin against any of God’s people, for it stains us all.  But the essential principles Jesus gives us are the same. 

The reality is, as I’m sure we all know, tragically we must expect to be hurt by other Christians even in the fellowship of the Church.  It’s a terribly sad reality and Jesus is utterly realistic about that.  And that’s somehow reassuring, because these issues can hurt like mad, and we often struggle to deal with the situation in a proper way.

I recognise that this is a complex and sensitive area but in the time remaining I can only tackle this with broad brush strokes and here’s a first.  I’ve called it the place for discipline.  And the place of discipline is the church, the assembly of God’s people.  Now ten Christians sitting together in the local park don’t constitute a church.  But Jesus has given special Kingdom authority to believers gathered as a local church, which is not given to individual Christians.  We see that in verse 18, which I’ll come back to shortly.  Churches, of course, don’t make people Christians.  But they have some responsibility in deciding who are card carrying, passport holding, bona fide representatives of Jesus in the world.  It’s called membership.  Basically, the church says to a member, we recognise your profession of faith, baptism and discipleship and affirm you as Christ’s.  And the member says to the church, I submit my presence and discipleship to your love and oversight.  It’s a two-way thing, for accountability is an implication of the gospel.  And that has to be practised in church life.  So, joining a church isn’t really like joining any other club or society.  It’s a sort of ‘I do’ relationship, a little bit like a marriage.  It’s a covenant of mutual commitment and expectation with nothing less than an expectation of personal transformation.  And that’s the only context in which Jesus’ words in Matthew 18 make any sense at all.  People who don’t understand church membership often struggle with discipline.  But discipline is necessary whenever a gap opens up between a Christian’s profession and their life.  And when we, the representatives of Jesus no longer seem to be doing that job at all, there’s a mismatch and there’s a problem, and it needs to be addressed.  And the church is faced with a question of an individual’s Christian credibility, and that’s very painful, and can be very difficult. 

The place of discipline is the church, the second brushstroke asks what’s the purpose of discipline?  And the answer is always the same.  It’s at the end of verse 15, restoration.  Winning them over.  Gaining them back.  It’s a word from the commercial world.  Accumulating wealth, gaining treasure you’ve lost, recovering something that’s very valuable.  There’s been a loss, and we need to try to get that back.  We’re not content just to let it go. And that’s the very heart of God, isn’t it?  That’s what we saw back in verse 12, the one wandering sheep that’s so precious that God the shepherd goes to great effort to bring it back.  That’s our model in this.  Galatians 6:1 makes exactly the same point.  “Brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path” It’s always about restoration.  I don’t go to somebody principally to get something off my chest.  Or for closure in my anger, or to dump on someone for my satisfaction, or even to resolve the conflict.  No, I go out of concern for the spiritual well-being of the one who has hurt me.  I go to win them back.  I go to work for their restoration because they are in danger by their sin, because  that saddens me, and it troubles God.  And this person may be a pain, they probably are.  But principally they’ve been a precious fellow Christian, and to God they are treasure.  So the aim of discipline is not to put people out, it’s to keep people in.  And it matters because they’re lost to the fellowship, they’re lost to ministry, and they’re missing out on the intimacy of the life of God, and that is tragic for both them and for us.  Church discipline in the Bible is always a rescue operation. 

The place.  The purpose. Third, who is the person supposed to be doing the discipline?  The minister?.  The Moderator?  The Elders?  A sort of ad hoc discipline committee?   It’s actually none of those in the first instance.  One of the problems of modern English is we can’t always tell if the word ‘you’ is singular of plural, but I can assure you that Matthew uses the singular throughout verses 15 – 17.  Who’s the star of verse 15?  Who’s always taking the first disciplinary initiative?  You, the individual Christian.  I am.  Now you might say that’s not me.  I’m not a confrontational person.  I couldn’t face that.  But Jesus requires it.  Verse 15 “Go and point out their fault when the two of you are alone”.  It’s between the two of you.  And go may well mean keep going while there’s hope of progress or change.  There’s no other way of doing it.  There’s no discipline committee.  There’s no spiritual police in the church to sort these things out.  It starts with you and me.  And that, painfully, is how it is, your job is to go and to keep on going. 

Of course, there are judgments to be made here.  There are times in church life when, as one Peter 4 verse 8 reminds us, there needs to be a place for love to cover a multitude of sins.  Judgement is needed.  There needs to be an evaluation.  We need spirit led wisdom to choose our battles here.  If we try to call out every sin we see, we’d soon create a culture of anxiety and misery.  But every now and then we do need to stop and ask ourselves, is there someone I need to go to, to try to put something right.  Perhaps you’ve been putting it off and the time has come for action.   Hear Jesus words – you go, for going may sort it out.  The further stages of discipline Jesus talks about here are likely to arise only where sin is outward and serious and despite confrontation, unrepented off, and you tend to know those when you see them. 

The place is the Church, the purpose is restoration.  The person is you and me.  Fourthly, the process.  Step one.  You go to them one to one.  You don’t fire off an e-mail or a text.  You don’t do it on Facebook or make this topic number one on a prayer chain.  You don’t make it a public issue at all because the last thing you should want to do is drag someone’s private sins into public. 

Before you go, remember that you have your own issues, that there’s no room for self-righteousness here, let alone spite or vengeance.  Take the log out of your own eye before you take the speck out of somebody else’s.  Remember that you’re not going to pontificate or to scold.  So do the appropriate self-assessment, look into your own heart, and humble yourself before God and ask for his grace, for skill and for wisdom.  Then go and explain the problem.  And as verse 25 tells us the aim is always the same, that they will listen.   Three times the word listen is used in these three verses.  You want a hearing, you want the person to think, and if necessary repent or at least begin to.  And frequently, the issue wonderfully ends there.  That’s all it takes. 

But step two, verse 16.  If they won’t listen, take one or two others you trust.  Preferably those who love you both, to establish the facts, to clarify the issues, to hear both sides of the story.  Why? because maybe it’s you who are in the wrong here.  Maybe you’re overreacting to a situation, making a mountain out of a molehill.  Or maybe you’ve got a point, and this is serious, and it has wider implications in the church.  This has got to be a careful and fair process, and that’s the reason Jesus quotes the Deuteronomy 19 witness requirements.  So, keep it small and   private with no more people involved than necessary to evaluate or authenticate genuine repentance.  As James 1:19 puts it, it’s always a case of quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.  There must always be a heart of love behind process.  Look say the witnesses we love you; we care for you; we want a way through this for both of you.  For this is damaging everyone, and this is dishonouring Christ, that’s why it matters. 

Step three, verse 17.  If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the Church, and your book of order has a process for this that sits alongside Jesus’ words.  But this has to be done with great care for some members may be surprised at this news.  They may be hurt to hear of the problem.  Some will be close to the individual, concerned friends who may have the opportunity to be listened to, to hear the voice, but who had no idea of the problem.  But here’s a further opportunity.  Here’s a wider pool for influence and persuasion.  But the signal from the church is always the same.  We want you restored.  We want you back in.  And that’s what we’re praying and longing and aching for in all this.  And that’ll go on for however long it takes the Church to conclude that an individual really is clinging onto their sin and is characteristically unrepentant.  As Jesus illustrates so dramatically in verses eight and nine of the chapter, genuinely repenting people tend to be pretty zealous about casting off their sin.  You know it when you see it.  You know they mean business because there’s a bit of metaphorical hand chopping and eye gouging going on.  It’s pretty serious stuff if people really mean business and repentance, but it may take a minute, or it may take a year.  And restoration happens when the church is convinced that repentance is real, because they see the real fruit of change in a person’s life. 

And then sadly there is Step 4.  It’s rare but it’s something the church is authorised to do.  Verse 17 “If the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.  Heartbreakingly, we have to say to them.  You can’t be part of this.  You have to be outside the fellowship.  A barrier stands, relationships change, it’s not what we want, but it’s brought about by refusal to listen and repent.  But remember how Jesus treated pagans and tax collectors?  He loved them into repentance and new hope, Matthew had been one of them, he knew what he was talking about.  Jesus loved them and lay down his life for them, but he only welcomed them into relationship if they took up their cross and followed him.  Of course, we talk to excluded brothers and sisters though we no longer call them that.  We invite them to meals in our homes, but not to church parties.  We may sometimes ask them to services, but never to service.  It’s a painful distancing, a cooling we can explain if they listen, and we continue to reach out to them in love, as we would any unbeliever.  Here is a lost sheep choosing, intending, to stay away and that’s hard.  Here is a person who apparently needs the gospel all over again, that’s hard too.  It’s messy and painful at times, especially if we’ve been close or they’re in our family. 

The place, the purpose, the person, the process.  Finally, the power.  What’s our authority for doing any of this?  In Matthew 16, a couple of chapters back, Jesus spoke of the keys of the Kingdom in the hands of the church.  And here in verse 18 he speaks of binding and loosing.  It’s a law court sort of metaphor.  We don’t stand alone as we pursue this painful process of discipline.  Heaven somehow stands with us in this, in the church.  And no, the local church doesn’t make somebody a citizen of the Kingdom, but it does have responsibility, the authority to declare who does and does not belong, who is to be in, or out of the church, who are or who are not Christ’s ambassadors in the world.  It’s the embassy, if you like, that renews the Kingdom passports.  The Church can’t see hearts, but it can see actions and lifestyles.  And it has to make painful, and difficult, and sometimes agonising judgments on those in the light of God’s Word.  Will the church make mistakes?  Yes.  Does there need to be immense care and sensitivity in the process?  Yes.  Are we struggling on our own in all this?  No.  So, here’s a warning to us sinners.  The Church has authority to call us to accountability.  And here’s an encouragement to those of us who are anxious about whether any of this can ever really work.  The spiritual authority we yield has, according to Jesus himself, God’s sanction behind it. 

The passage ends with that so familiar and so often out of context prayer reference in verses 19 and 20.   “I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you.

For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.”How often have you heard the verse used of a poorly attended prayer meeting?  But this is its true context.  The two of you in verse 19, and the two or three of you in verse 20, are they not the same two or three witnesses in the Jesus’ mind in verse 16.  And what was the responsibility of a witness of fact in the Old Testament to a capital crime, Deuteronomy 17 verse 7 says they were to be the first to execute the penalty.  And here it seems they are to be, not those casting the first stone, but rather those with Jesus in their midst agreeing on the first prayers.  Prayers for good outcome in any disciplining, for restoration of the one whose gone astray.  That’s the context of these promises.  We’re not on our own in this process.  Father, Son and Holy Spirit are superintending our fallible efforts. 

Facing conflicts squarely in the Church is one of the hardest, most painful things some of us will ever have to do.  For the Church of Jesus Christ is a unique institution.  And to be a member of Christ’s body is a unique privilege, but it makes demands on us.  And some of us know very well we need to put things right at once.  There are other people we need to talk to, sort things out with, and some of us need to repent where we know we’ve been in the wrong in various ways because the Lord sees all our hearts.  There are no secrets hidden from him.  So, may God give us the grace to work out all it means to be accountable to Christ and to one another.  But also, to be fearless and confident in confronting sin, and by His spirit pursuing that holiness in our own and in other people’s lives without which Jesus cannot be glorified in his church.     

“What are We Full of?” (Romans 12:9-21)

There is a well worn adage that says “going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than opening a car’s bonnet makes you an auto mechanic”. (I know the hard truth about that mechanic part.  I used to open my bonnet a lot.)  When it comes to Christianity, it is good to ask “what distinguishes a Christian in crowd?” What does our calling to follow Christ lead us to be – and do – that is different than if we never believed in Christ?  What are the consequences, good and bad, in our lives if we really strive to live everyday as people in a community of faith?

Romans has been called Paul’s manifesto, or his last will and testament as it attempts to summarize his teachings and his life’s efforts in ministry.  Paul is one who likes lists, lots of lists, and our reading is no exception.  Today he is speaking to the question of what does a Christian look like?  Paul intends to provide a picture through our scripture.  It sound kind of like he is writing a “field guide” for spotting Christians.  Notice that he doesn’t describe physical or “outer” characteristics as though you could ID a Christian by looking through binoculars.  (There’s one! ) Paul’s words describe “inner” characteristics to draw distinctions.  He offers a series of specific characteristics to look for, defining a Christian life in motion and in relationship.  The list making up Paul’s “marks of the true Christian” is almost exhausting in the effort to be complete

In this short passage he names 24 things a Christian should do or not do. We are to be filled with love, serve others, rejoice, and persevere. We should not lag in zeal, be haughty, or repay anyone evil for evil. Christians are to contribute to the saints, offer hospitality, weep with others, and bless others. That is not the whole list. Perhaps some of these didn’t sound so hard, but did some perhaps make us cringe?

All in all, these characteristics are not the things that come naturally for us.  They are not innate behaviors ingrained in our genes.  They reflect changes in our lives and departures from our usual way of living as we seek act in faith.  The things he names as marks of a Christian are that are not necessarily easy for us.  Remember how he says don’t be conformed to the world.   Faith in God is not a set of ideas tucked away in the attics of our minds.  It is by our actions that we will be known to others as somehow being different. But it is not our actions that will somehow “save us” or make us loved any more by God. It is by our actions that we are known. 

The Christian faith is a way to live life.  It is by our actions that we will be known to others as somehow being different.  What is within us will influence how we act and how we are in the world.  This religion, our Christian faith is different from others.   There has been a lot of effort to try to bring all religions together under one roof and say, gee it really doesn’t matter it’s all the same anyway.  It’s the same God.  We all just need to live a good life and be a good person.  That’s all that really matters.  There is great merit in respect and tolerance of the wide variety of religious expression.  But to same its all the same is to miss the richness and the truth of the significant differences of believers around the world.  There is not just one phylum “Religious”  It is not up to us to judge, or be haughty.  I believe God is worshipped in many different and wonderful ways.  We need to claim our beliefs and live them, because it is who we are.  (Presbyterians certainly don’t say we are the one and only true way that is better than any other way.)   

In Romans, Paul is writing to the wider church encouraging all who follow Jesus.  He is  challenging them to not to worry so much about trying to be good with God by following the law, and he confronts the thinking that suggests that we can be right with God if we just follow all the rules or offer certain sacrifices. Paul urges us instead to focus on how we can be changed from within and then begin to make a difference in the world around us.  While Paul didn’t write it exactly this way, he would agree with the sentiment, “if you want to change the world, start with yourself and see what happens!  Paul assures us that we are right with God right now, and embracing that frees us to live as different people who do not conform to the ways of the world.

As Christians we do want to be known for what we believe who we are on the inside, and known for how we are in this world.  Behinds Paul’s description is an ethic of agape love.  Love that starts with God and flows from God to every living thing, even those who could be seen as enemies of God.   Living our faith is how we comprehend God with us and around us.  Our focus is not so much the after life, it is living life now in such a way that we experience and we reflect glimpses of God’s eternity.    

This passage is part of a longer section of Paul’s that has been likened to Jesus’ sermon on the mount.  Just as Jesus encapsulated what Christians ought to do into the dual commandment to “Love the Lord your God,” and to “love your neighbor as yourself”, Paul’s long litany of Christian characteristics is perhaps fully contained in verses 9-10. Verse 9 outlines the attitude – displaying genuine love, hating evil, loving good – while verse 10 calls us to action – to “outdo one another in showing honor.”  Competing not in an aggressive way as we are taught in our society, but striving to do our best in giving to others and sharing God’s love.  That is it in a nutshell.  Love and act. 

It is out of the abundance of the heart that a person acts and speaks, whatever fills the heart fuels the life.  A question for us, is what are we full of?  How are we known to others?  Are we living our faith in ways that others see it and recognize it?   Paul’s description is before us, do we see ourselves in it?  What can we do to become more like the description he sets forth? 

Paul urges us instead to focus on how we can be changed from within and therefore begin to make a difference in the world around us.  We are right with God right now, and that frees us to live as different people who do not conform to the ways of the world.  Today Paul describes what that looks like.     

Paul’s description of lives as living sacrifice is before us, do we see ourselves in it?  What can we do to become more like the description he sets forth?  Changed lives are what living faith is all about.  We have our calling and it has consequences.  If our faith doesn’t make any difference, what difference does it make?  Paul gives us a challenging, disciplined, curious statement about how we ought to live.  It humbles us, it calls us to live with compassion and energy.  But most of it calls to be live as people who are filled with love.   May it be so for you and for me.  Amen.

Good News for all Peoples

When I preached here in June we looked at the promises made by God to Abraham and his descendants, promises that God would make them into a great nation and bless them so that they would be a blessing.  As you read through the Old Testament, you see God fulfilling these promises through the nation of Israel, through the people who have come to be known as Jews.

Today we jump from Abraham’s time some two thousand years into the future, we jump over the Old Testament and into the New, landing in Paul’s letter to the Romans, chapter 11 which at first sight is all about the Jews and what has happened to God’s promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, now that, following the death and resurrection of Jesus, Christianity has begun to spread through the world.

But I don’t see Romans 11 as being primarily about the Jewish people or what God is doing amongst non-Jews, that is gentiles.  Rather this chapter is about a gracious God whose heart is such that he does not give up on people, it’s about the very character of God.  The previous chapter ended, “But concerning Israel he says, “All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.”  That’s the message that Paul wants these Christians in Rome to hear about God, that God holds out his hands to a disobedient and obstinate people.  That’s Gods sovereign grace, his undeserved loving kindness that never fails, it can’t be stopped.  God keeps his promises to his people.  So primarily this chapter is about what God does in the face of human hard heartedness.  And if we want encouragement as we seek to be a Church and to be Christians in a world that wants to reject God, then we need to understand the message of Romans 11

To set the scene, in Romans chapters 1-8 Paul has explained how God’s word is all about Jesus, all about forgiveness in Christ alone.  But the problem is that God made promises in the Old Testament to his people Israel, promises that all pointed to Jesus, but not all Jews have followed him.  In fact, most of them appear to have rejected Jesus.  So, have God’s promises failed?  In Romans 9 Paul answers, “no”, it was never God’s plan to save the whole nation of Israel.  Rather, God sovereignly chose to bring people into relationship with himself, because you’re saved by His grace, not by your nationality.  In Romans chapter 10, Paul tells us that it is faith in Jesus that makes people right with God.  So, the way that a person comes to be one of God’s people is by trusting in God’s word about Jesus.  And the Jews – they’d heard that word about Jesus, but a lot of them have chosen to reject it.  So, is God going to keep his promises in the face of that rejection.  And what is God going to do when people don’t believe him?  Will he just give up on them? 

Well, Paul answers these questions in chapter 11 “I ask then: Did God reject his people?  By no means!”  And here’s the first thing we need to see this morning.  God’s sovereign grace never loses those he chooses.  Paul gives two bits of evidence for this, look at me he says, “I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin”.  I’m a kosher Jew, and I’ve become a committed Christian.  What’s more, I’m the apostle to the Gentiles. 

And here’s more evidence from the history of Israel “God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew.  Don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah–how he appealed to God against Israel: “Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me”?  After the victory on Mt Carmel Queen Jezebel threatened to kill Elijah who cried out to God, “I am the only one left, and they’re seeking my life.”  And God’s answered, “I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” Elijah, you think there’s only you left, but I’ve got seven thousand.” God never loses those he chooses.  God’s grace is more than abundant.  Elijah wasn’t the only one left, God had a remnant.  And Paul says that’s the same today, there is a remnant, chosen by grace.  And why, “If by grace, then it is no longer by works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.”  In other words, it’s God’s free, undeserved, loving kindness.  God chooses people, and he does not lose them.  For Gods sovereign grace is bigger than people’s sin.  That’s why God’s people are never defined by being a particular race or group or church.  God’s people are never defined by being more morally upright or being a bit nicer than other people.  These things do not define God’s people.  God’s people are always defined by God’s gracious choice.  He chooses them and brings them to himself, and God never loses those he chooses. 

That should be great news to us because it can be easy to feel helpless like Elijah in our present-day world.  To say, well what’s going on Lord?  You’ve brought us together as a church here in St Martins and have given us the good news about Jesus that’s supposed to change people’s lives and we’re doing all we can, but frankly we aren’t seeing many lives being changed.   But God saves those he saves because he chooses them by grace.  It’s not the intensity of our efforts that causes people to follow Jesus.  It’s by grace alone, and nothing can change that.  And that’s great news because God’s grace is far, far bigger than our efforts.  His plan is far, far bigger than our timescale, and he will keep on working despite our feelings of despair and defeat and struggle for he is the God who holds out his hands all day long to obstinate and disobedient people.  His grace always triumphs in the face of hard hearts. 

But that doesn’t mean that the rejecting Jesus isn’t serious.  It’s extremely serious.  Hear what Paul says about the Jews who have rejected the Good News about Jesus “What then?  What Israel sought so earnestly it did not obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, as it is written: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes so that they could not see and ears so that they could not hear, to this very day.”  Paul takes two Old Testament quotes, and he makes a serious point.  That if you keep on rejecting Jesus, God will give you over to the path you choose.  He’ll let you have what you want.  If you harden your heart to his love, he will harden your heart to his love as well.  He confirms that hardness in you.  The second quote is from King David, the words of God’s chosen King, who speaks of judgement on his own people, offering little hope for Israel.  “May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.”  While God never loses those he chooses, don’t think that means that you can go on spiritual cruise control, that you can harden your heart to him.  No, if you reject him, that’s very serious.  Don’t presume there’s a way back. 

This raises another question, “Did Israel stumble so as to fall beyond recovery?  Not at all!”  God’s sovereign grace means he never loses those he chooses, but it also brings beautiful humility.  “Because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious.   But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fulness bring.  Do you see the three stages.  The Jewish people reject Jesus.  That drives the message of God’s saving love in Christ all over the world to the Gentiles.  The Jews see the life of the Christians and they become envious of what they have, resulting in their trusting in Jesus, thus fulfilling God’s promises to them.  And that’s seen through this section, indeed throughout the New Testament.  Remember that it’s the Jewish religious leaders who reject Jesus and have him crucified.  But as Jesus is raised up on the cross to die for sin, he draws people from all over the world to experience God’s love and forgiveness through him.  In the book of Acts, Paul goes first to the synagogues to explain the good news of Jesus to the Jews, but when they reject it, he’s goes to the marketplace and the squares taking the good news of Jesus to the gentiles.  You see, God’s grace is so vast that he uses his people’s rejection, and hard heartedness to save the world.  You have to be extraordinary powerful to be able to use those who oppose you for your purposes, but that’s what God is doing.  And if God can save people from all over the world through the rejection of the Jewish people, just think what he’s going to do through Jewish people coming to trust in Jesus.  In fact, Paul says that’s what drives him in explaining the good news.  “I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry in the hope that I may somehow arouse my own people to envy and save some of them.”  So, Paul goes to the Gentiles, so that they come to know Jesus, so that the Jewish people see how great Jesus is and turn to follow him.  “For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?” 

In verses 16 to 20 Paul seeks to humble us who don’t have Jewish origins, reminding us that we were born on the wrong side of the track, and yet God in his mercy has given us the promises he gave to his people.  And he does this by using a horticultural illustration.  The quality of an olive tree depends on where its roots are, the quality of the fruit depends on the branches.  For us here today, most, or all of us are not from a Jewish background, but we are trusting the promises of God, promises rooted in the Old Testament and given to the Jewish people.  The fruit in our lives is bursting out from the promises that God gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  So, says Paul, we shouldn’t be arrogant or think we’re better than them.  “If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not boast over those branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.”  A little bit of technical gardening jargon.  When you graft an olive tree, you cut off a small branch of an olive tree and carefully attach it to another olive tree and if you do it correctly the grafted branch starts to grow and takes the sap from the healthy olive tree its now attached to and eventually the grafted branch produces fruit.  Paul tells us non-Jewish people, that God’s cut off a branch of people who have rejected him, but he has taken us, branches from a wild olive tree, and grafted us into his cultivated olive tree, he’s grafted us into his people, so that we can bear fruit.  But remember where your sap comes from.  Remember where the roots are.  We’ve been grafted in.  They’re not our promises by right.  They weren’t spoken to our nation, so we’re hugely privileged.  Just because we have come to trust in Jesus doesn’t make us better than the Jewish people.  Rather it’s a gift of God’s grace.  And if he can do that for us, he can just as easily take the natural branches he has broken off and also graft them back into his people.  Remember that Jesus was a Jew.  He was the Jewish Messiah.  He fulfilled the Jewish law.  Don’t think that in some way being a Christian makes us better people than Jewish people.  The only difference is that we have faith in Christ.  “The Jews were broken off because of unbelief, and you gentiles stand by faith.  Do not be arrogant but be afraid.”  The fact that God’s Old Testament people, the Jews, can receive His promises and then reject him should make us tremble.  It should make us fearful that we would do the same thing and so cause us to take it as a warning.  “For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.”  Don’t forget, everything we have is because of God’s kindness and grace to us.  “Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off.”  If you’re a Christian here this morning, you must remember that your trust in Jesus is not about you, it’s about God’s kindness and grace to you.  The kindness of a stern God who by nature judges people who reject him.  And the only thing that that makes a difference between you and anyone else is that he has lavished his kindness and love upon you.  Which is why we must turn from any sense of self-righteousness, any sense of superiority, any sense that we’re better than anyone else.  No, we simply have a God who’s been kind to us.  Note the repetition, in verse 18, “do not boast”.  Verse 20, “do not be arrogant.”  Verse 25, “do not claim to be wiser than you are”.  We are hugely privileged, and we must not lose sight of that because there is probably no greater danger in the Christian life and following Jesus than presuming on God’s grace.  What does it look like to presume on God’s grace?  It’s when we start to be quicker to spot faults in others than in ourselves.  Faults in their doctrine, faults in their lifestyle.  It’s when we’re quicker to put others down than to build them up.  It’s when we don’t daily feel, I desperately need Jesus, that my relationship with God is only because I trust in Jesus today.  We should tremble before God, amazed that he loves us, outsiders by nature, grafted into promises that are not ours by right.  And that’s the heartbeat of the deeply attractive church that Paul says will draw other people in.  A church that’s so sold out on God’s gracious love in Jesus that it has a tangible humility.   A church that loves others and does not look down on them.  That forgives one another because they see their own faults.  That melts hearts that are hardened to the message of Jesus Christ.  A church of soft-hearted people who know they totally depend on God’s grace. 

God sovereign grace never loses those he chooses, God’s sovereign grace brings beautiful humility, thirdly God’s sovereign grace will save all his people.  “I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.” God has hardened the Jews so that the message will go out to the gentiles till they have accepted Jesus and become Christians for “In this way all Israel will be saved.”  Now Romans 11:26 is one of those verses that lots of Christians have disagreed about.  What does it mean that all Israel will be saved?  Most probably it’s that before Jesus comes back to judge, all the Jews that God wants to bring to trust in Jesus will trust in him.  This could be in an intense event just before Jesus returns to judge the world, or it could be happening all the time now, as people seek to share Jesus with the Jewish nation.  But God’s not going to lose any of his people either from the Gentiles, or from the Jews.  And that’s the nature of his persistent grace.  As Paul says, “As far as the gospel is concerned, they are enemies on your account; but as far as election is concerned, they are loved on account of the patriarchs.”  So, the good news about Jesus goes to the world.  God used the Jews.  But in terms of his chosen people, they still have God’s promises given to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and he does keep his promises, he will bring them in.  “For God’s gifts and His call are irrevocable.”  So, when God calls you, he calls you, and he doesn’t give up on you.  He doesn’t give up on his word of promise. 

In 55 days, in case you hadn’t realised, there is a general election.  Political parties across the spectrum are making promises of what they’ll do if we vote them into power.  But can those promises be kept?  There are probably two reasons why politicians can’t keep their promises.  One, their character isn’t up to it, they just don’t care.  Or two, they’re not powerful enough, they’re just not able to do it.  But God’s promises are utterly trustworthy.  His character is one of persistent love.  He is gracious, and he never loses those he chooses.  As to his ability he even uses the rejection of people to take his good news to the world so that he will save everyone he wants.  Therefore, Paul can say “For God has bound all people over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.”

At the heart of God’s plan is his merciful heart.  It’s his nature to order the world so that people are saved by His mercy.  No one can possibly think they’ve done anything to deserve a relationship with their loving heavenly Father.  All we are, is disobedient, whether we’re gentiles who never knew his promises, or Jews who knew his promises and have rejected him.  All people that come to a relationship with God, do so only because of His mercy.  You need mercy.  I need mercy.  Without mercy everyone is lost, disobedient and deserving punishment.  Mercy is the only door back into a relationship with God.  It flows out of his character, and it’s a door only he can open.  And that should move us to worship, whatever our background, whoever we are.  And so.  Paul bursts out into praise because he realises that there is nothing that happens in our world that is good, that is not the result of God’s mercy and love towards us. 

So, Paul finishes with praise based on Isaiah 40 and Job 41, two chapters that are about how enormous God is compared to us.  Who knows everything that God’s planned.  No-one.  Who’s ever given God advice.  No-one.  Who’s ever helped God out when he’s been caught short?  No-one.  God gives us everything we have.  We are not Gods councillor, he is ours.  We’re not Gods creditor, he is ours.  And that’s because we are not Gods creator, he is ours.  Our chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.  The purpose of the world is not that you and I feel good about ourselves, but that we see how good, how gracious, and how glorious God is.  The purpose of the world is not that we get our own way, but that we enjoy seeing God work out his ways amongst us and through us.  The purpose of the world is not that we can love ourselves, but that we know that we are loved by God through Christ despite ourselves, that we see that all that there is, is for His glory and we burst out in praise, as the Apostle Paul does.  You see, Romans 11 is good news for us and all people.  Yes, it’s complicated, yes, it has gardening and Jewish and gentile people in it.  But primarily it’s good news because it puts on the throne of the universe a loving heavenly Father who gives His own Son for us and brings that to bear on our hearts by the power of his Spirit, a God who will not give up on working out his plan for his people.  A God who never loses those he chooses. That is why Romans 11 is such good news.   

“Leftovers”

About 20 years ago, I led a group of college students on a mission trip to Kenya.  My sense of “mission trips” is that the people going receive the greatest benefit.  We went to ngong hills outside Nairobi, after seeing the city, we got back to the church and there were about 150 school children sitting in the rough wooden pews.  They had been waiting for us to arrive and they sand songs for us, we sang for them.  (No I wasn’t allowed to do a solo)  We had been told that many of the children there had not eaten for a day, sometimes there is food for the school lunch program and sometime not, some of the children could afford to go to school and many could not.  We were given boxes of cookies, shortbread to share with the children, so we began to hand them out to the children who were eager to accept.  Then came a very awkward moment, the elders of the church brought out about fifteen sandwiches for the guests to share and continue in conversation with the group.  It was clear that the sandwiches were for us and that the children were not included in the headcount.  They had been invited to remain and meet us and ask questions about America.  That’s when one member of the group said, I can’t do this, we can’t just eat these and not share.  We ate this morning, they didn’t.  Let’s give them what is here.   It was the closest thing to the feeding of the five thousand I have ever seen.  Those few sandwiches were divided up and divided up such that everyone got at least two pieces.  That wasn’t the part that got to me.  It was at this point that one person in our group, Lisa, had the courage to show unchecked honest emotion and began to openly cry.  Some in the group offered a hug or a kind word, as she said there is so much hunger, so much poverty, is this all we can do hand out a few bites?  The sight I will not forget is an elder from the church drying her tears saying “we have Jesus, that is enough.”

The feeding of the 5000 is the only “miracle” of Jesus that is recorded in all four of the gospels.  This incredible event takes place after Jesus has taught many of the parables and word about him has begun to spread.  People are flocking to see him and hear him.   So in our story, five thousand have gathered, and here, sadly only “males” would be in that count, so there were probably women and children as well, who knows how many in total.   Maybe 15,000 people. 

While Matthew, Mark and Luke don’t mention where the bread and fish comes from.  In John’s retelling of this story, we hear that the loaves and fish came from a young boy.  Like many others who play such important in scripture, we don’t know who is the little boy was, but we do know what a difference he made. It is easy to imagine that there were some in the crowd, who stayed at a distance,  and were too far removed to really understand what happened.  The question,  “Who was that little boy?”  is a good one – for without him – this miracle may not have happened. When Jesus was responding to the needs that were around him, the little boy was the only one who brought forth something to share. He was the only one willing to come forward and say “here’s what I have I know it’s not much but you could have it.”

There’s great deal to be learned from considering how Jesus interacted with the crowds and the disciples. We can only guess why such a large crowd was following Jesus.   Perhaps, some had heard of the tragic death of John the Baptist and sought Jesus out for comfort and reassurance. Perhaps some have been following Jesus for quite a while and were awaiting another series of parables.  Perhaps, some just saw the crowds and wanted to be part of the action, without any desire to be changed themselves in anyway.  We don’t know what motivated people to come out and join in. But now, in this moment, they were there – and they were hungry.  (Imagine having to feed all those people!)   Many of us today may be seeking Jesus for different reasons.  And we should take comfort and assurance, knowing that Jesus can and does take care of the needs of all of us of all who were there no one leaves hungry.  Whatever brings you near is fine.

This is a familiar story one that we’ve all learned in Sunday school, it puts to us a simple and clear call – to share what we have – and it will be enough to do wonders!  It is a living example of the parables that preceded in the scriptures; we’ve heard them in the past, the parables of the sower, and of the wheat, and of the mustard seeds, parables and points to reality of abundance in what appears to be scarce.  Each one of us knows scarcity, in one way or another, in our lives,  a scarcity of time, or money, or energy, to do the things we would like. We look at the demands on us and what the world seems to be asking and we think to ourselves “I just can’t do it I have nothing to offer it is better for me to retreat.”

As the gospels would tell it, just before this moment.  Jesus himself had had two experiences of apparent scarcity.  He is rejected by his home town when he tried to preach and heal, and he has just learned of John’s execution.  So there must be a great emptiness within him.   Now he is surrounded by thousands of people, his disciples presenting him with more scarcity and rather than turn them away saying I can do nothing for you, leave me alone. Instead of doing the understandable and the perfectly acceptable he embodies what he is been saying all along. He lives out that the kingdom of God is like a few loaves and fishes that can feed thousands.  He shows us that there are things that we can give away and give away and still never run out.

One of the most interesting and powerful prayer sessions I remember being part of was one where we first held stones in our hands and reflected on the hard places in our lives in the areas of scarcity where we felt we were hitting rock bottom, and then we held pieces of bread and reflected on the gifts in our lives that we had an that we could offer to others and never run out. What in your “lunchbox” that will you always have leftovers of?  For each of us,  there is something different.  (A love of people, a hopeful attitude, something within you as part of your very soul, that is a gift from God, that you share with others and yet never lose?  That search is part of our faith journey, to find what we have as gift, and then give it away to others.  (Could be a sense of laughter, an appreciation of music, a desire to serve the poor. We each have at least one thing.

Jesus refuses to stop helping just because he and the disciples are exhausted from work and with grief and from the crowd. In their weariness, the disciples can only see their meagerness and  shortness of their resources.   “We have nothing” they say.  Jesus does not let them stop at that and say “it’s okay, you don’t have much – I can’t expect much of you.”   Instead of focusing on their lack, Jesus commands that they bring what they have. Using the words of the Eucharist he accepts what they bring and gives it back and orders that the disciples give it away. The scriptures say he took, he blessed, he broke, he gave.

This is the model of discipleship. God calls us to bring ourselves, our lives, our failings, and our hope all before God. Are we willing to come, and say,  here is what I am, here’s what I have, you can have it. As we do – do we trust that God will take can get back to us and call us out to take an going to world and do wonders. We will give them we will give, and  still there will be more that something leftover! Amen.