Serpent or Saviour? Transcript of sermon at HMP Stafford 26th May 2019

HMP Stafford - 26th May 2019

John 5.1-15

The healing of the man at the Pool of Bethesda. 

In the earlier part of the year I had an ongoing nagging chest pain following a cough.  I eventually went to the doctors and because I am a man of a certain age they put me through a battery of test.

After some weeks and several blood tests, which they were concerned about, the surgery phoned me and asked me to make an appointment because the doctor wanted to discuss the results. I booked in, turned up and waited until I was called. The first thing the doctor said to me, ‘hello and what can I do for you?’  At first you think, well you asked me to make an appointment to discuss my results, isn’t it obvious why I am here?’  But of course, the doctor is seeing lots of patients and so it is the right question, even if to us it seems obvious.

‘What do you want me to do for you?’

Asking what appears an obvious question with an equally obvious answer is what at first it seems Jesus is doing with the man sat by the pool of Bethesda.

“Do you want to get well?”

It is rather fun to imagine this scene being played out today and being recalled.

There was Josh, sitting in his usual spot, been there like for years and years and years.

Then this man came up to Josh, who was obviously unable to walk, and he asks him, ‘do you want to get well.’ 

Well hello – of course not, I love sitting here day after day, week after week and month after month and year after year – of course I don’t want to get well – this is my life and it is all I know. Why should I want to get well – why do you think I sit here by this pool in the hope of healing?  For the good of my health!

But it’s a similar question Jesus asked others – like a blind man who came to him. 

Jesus asked him, ‘what do you want me to do for you.’

We might want to say, ‘isn’t it blindingly obvious?’

And yet Jesus knew that healing would bring in a whole new way of life.

It would create new opportunities, fresh challenges and real responsibilities.

On most Thursday night I help with a local Riding for the Disabled Group. 

Some have physical disabilities, others have learning challenges, all to varying degrees. One of the things you learn very quickly is who needs more help when it comes to dismounting. I often lead round a young man who has learning difficulties but who is very capable of jumping off the horse himself – and he takes umbrage if someone tries to help him. So, we watch carefully and gently keep a hand ready to steady him should he lose his balance.

Others we have to literally lift of the horse. 

But whatever it is we mustn’t assume, and we need to give as much choice and control as we can to the person we are helping.

‘What do you want me to do for you?’

‘Do you want to get well?’

And today Jesus is here and is asking that question of us all.

Because each and everyone one of us is imprisoned – and I use that word intentionally.

Each one of us if we are truly and brutally honest are ensnared, trapped, bound and in the grip of something.

And Jesus comes and says to you and he says to me, ‘do you want to get well.’

Do want to change – do you want to have life and have life in all its fullness?

Are you ready to face the challenges this will bring?

Are you ready to face those who say, ‘o, a leopard can never change its spots?’

And today, right here and right now Jesus can bring you into that new place, that new life, that new hope – that place with new responsibilities.

Our youngest son is just on the spectrum of being Asperger’s, although he was never diagnosed, nor was his dyslexia and dyspraxia. However, in hindsight and with a little more knowledge about behaviour we have come to realise what was going on and that he wasn’t just being a very naughty boy, which is what we were often told.  

In school the other children knew how to aggravate him so that he would become disruptive and perhaps sit under a table and refuse to come out.

Or he would lash out angrily – then very often say, ‘they made me do it.’

We tried to get him to understand he always had a choice on how he reacted.

I remember my mum used to say to me when ever I used that phrase, ‘well everybody was doing it’ – ‘well if they all jumped of a cliff would you do the same?’

Now those with Asperger’s, and dyslexia and dyspraxia I know face real challenges.

And they need to learn coping strategies.

And to a varying degree we all need to learn strategies to help us live fruitful lives and not just sitting by the pool waiting for someone else to help us.

St Paul offers us a very good strategy that begins with the mind.

Romans 12.12  Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.

Because it is our minds, in that private sphere, that we need to pay very careful attention.

See if this rings as true for you as it does for me…

It begins with something seen or read…

Then you begin to play around with the idea in our thoughts – allowing the image to grow and develop

And then sometimes that is followed by the action

In the Letter of James, we read…

We are tempted by our own desires that drag us off and trap us. Our desires make us sin, and when sin is finished with us, it leaves us dead.

In the Eastern Church they talk about a serpent coming into your home.

At first the head appears, and you do nothing. Then more of the body slithers in – but you still do nothing.

Then before you know where you are the whole serpent is in your home and whispering in your ear just as he did to Eve, ‘did God really say – and why should you take any notice of what God or in fact what anyone says.’

‘You know you want to do this, and it feels good and will make you happy.’

'So, just go ahead and do it.'

And Jesus comes and asks, ‘do you want to get well.’

Then Jesus will bring you healing but here is what you must do next time that old serpent pokes his head into your life…

Cut it right off there and then and don’t give it any house room.

Jesus used very dramatic language on one occasion – 'if your eye caused you to sin, pluck it out.'

He was not advocating mutilation but seeking to drive home the point that we need to be on our guard and in particular about the eye gate.

‘Do you want to get well?’

Well do you?

Or are you gong to sit there day in and day out, by the pool because you think no one will help you?

Well let me tell you do have people who can help you.

You do have people here who can lead you to the great physician.

You do have people here who will help you pick up your mat and walk.

You do have people here who will walk alongside you and help you to recognise when that serpent pops up his head and will help you find ways of cutting it off before it grows and starts to drip is poison into your life.

I am sure it took this man some time to make the adjustment into his new life – and it takes time for us all to adjust to a new life in God.

In fact, it takes all of our lives. None of us will stop being tempted – none of us will stop needing forgiveness.

And here is an extra bit of good news.

Imagine if Jesus had gone to that pool a year later – and to his surprise he sees this man there and unable to move once again.

Do you think for one moment that Jesus would say, what are you doing here, I healed you a year ago, why are sitting here? Well, tough, you had your chance and you blew it.

Of course, Jesus wouldn’t say that.

How do I know that - because I accepted Jesus and his healing of all my sins and wrong doing on the 1^st January 1975.

And since then I have still messed up – I have fallen short – I have allowed that old serpent to come slithering into my life and whisper in my ear and drip his poison.

But here’s what I have learned, that Jesus is always ready to forgive.

Because as we read in the Letter to the Hebrews 4.15

‘For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are--yet he did not sin.’

‘Do you want to get well’?

Well do you?

Today you can begin a new journey or began a journey you began some while ago, but with a fresh heart and mind to start over.

Serpent or Saviour – that’s our choice this morning.

You can stamp on the serpent and turn to the Saviour – or you can welcome the serpent and turn away from the Saviour.

It is our choice – so, which one are you going to choose?

Serpent or Saviour?

And remember Jesus said ‘… if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’

Break Every Chain....  https://youtu.be/EtyVdC7E6Wo

'Fruitful Lives' - transcript of sermon at St Anne's. Brown Edge Fourth of Easter 2019

St Anne’s, Brown Edge Forth Sunday of Easter

Acts 9.36-43 Psalm 23 
Revelation 7.9-17 John 10.22-30

It was said of Harold Wilson that he always answered a question with a question.  Apparently one day he was being interviewed on the television and the interviewer said, Mr Wilson, it has been said that you always answer a question with a question, why is that.’  Mr Wilson leaned forward, lit his pipe and said, ‘who said that?’

MP’s are known for saying a lot but not saying anything. 

You have only to listen to John Humphrys on Radio 4 trying to get a straight answer to a straightforward question.

This is what lay behind the wonderful – ‘Yes Minister’ with Sir Humphrey Appleby giving knowledgeable, sound and very clear advice.

Sir Humphrey: It is characteristic of all committee discussions and decisions that every member has a vivid recollection of them and that every member’s recollection of them differs violently from every other member’s recollection. Consequently, we accept the convention that the official decisions are those and only those which have been officially recorded in the minutes by the officials, from which it emerges with an elegant inevitability that any decision which has been officially reached will have been officially recorded in the minutes by the officials and any decision which is not recorded in the minutes has not been officially reached even if one or more members believe they can recollect it, so in this particular case, if the decision had been officially reached it would have been officially recorded in the minutes by the officials, and it isn’t so it wasn’t.

A first glance at our Gospel reading for today, and indeed in many other parts of the Gospels, we might think this is exactly the same sort of thing that Jesus is doing.

So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’

Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. 

Jesus was of course employing what was a long tradition, using a teaching method common to  wise men and woman, sages and prophet’s and teachers of the religious way. And a very Jewish way of answering questions.

It is to answer in such a way that the person asking the question comes to understand and discovers the answer for themselves.

And here, it is the things that Jesus is doing that he draws his questioner’s attention to…

The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; 

Remember John the Baptist in Herod’s prison, he sent his disciples to Jesus to ask just the same question, are you the Messiah?

And Jesus response?

So he replied to the messengers, "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.

Words, even clever words and well put together phrases can be empty and vacuous if they carry no substance, no practical outworking.

Jesus again…

Watch out for false prophets! They dress up like sheep, but inside they are wolves who have come to attack you.  You can tell what they are by what they do. No one picks grapes or figs from thorn bushes.  A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit.  A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot produce good fruit.  Every tree that produces bad fruit will be chopped down and burned.  You can tell who the false prophets are by their deeds.

Our lovely little story from Act talks about Tabitha – and we don’t get to know much about her but this we do notice…

Now in Joppa there was a disciple whose name was Tabitha, which in Greek is Dorcas. She was devoted to good works and acts of charity. 

What about you and what about me – what do people say of us, what do people see as we go about our daily lives?

What kind of fruit are we displaying?

Not just when we are in here with a definitive focus on God, but out there in the daily rough and tumble of life.

As we do our shopping and someone is rude to us.

Or someone cuts us up while we are driving.

Or we hear some salacious gossip – or perhaps we hear someone being talked about in a negative way – do we join in?

Let me put this direct question to you, and see if you are able to answer it with a clear cut answer.

If you were on trial in a court of law for being a Christian would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Okay, a few people might know you go to Church – but does that really mean you are a Christian?

They may say of you, well I am pretty certain they believe in God.

But if we read our Gospels we know that demons believe in God.

The week before last I was at the ‘On Fire Mission Conference’ and we had as our theme ‘Called to Holiness.’

We were reminded that holiness is not sitting in Church thinking holy thoughts – but out in the world bringing the aroma and presence of Christ into the world.

Some of you know I am a runner and take part in the occasional half-marathons and 10k’s.

One of the most amazing things about running in races like this, and we saw it again recently in the London Marathon, is that the runners encourage each other and help each other to run the race set before them.

And that’s our call and encouragement to each other…

I Peter 1.15-16…

But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

And as God’s holy people abiding close to the Saviour and filled with the Holy Spirit we will produce fruit, fruit that will last.

We hear of what this fruit is in a number of places like Galatians 5.22-23

 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Would there be enough evidence to convict you if you were accused of being a Christian?

Think of it like this…

Imagine you walking along with a glass full of water and someone bumps into you – what’s going to spill out – the water.

So, what would spill out of you when someone bumps into you if you are filled with the Spirit of God?

But be honest, what actually spills out of you when people bump into you?

When you encounter people who are not their best at that moment – perhaps to frazzled, or busy or burned out or maybe just down right rude?

It makes no matter – as God’s holy people if we are truly filled with the Spirit of God it will be the Spirit of God that spills out…

…love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control

Jesus invited people to look and see what he was doing as evidence that He and the Father were one and that He was about the Fathers business, that He was fulfilling His divine call.

Are we truly showing evidence of a holy and fruitful life lived fully for God and His purposes?

Are we showing that as individuals in our day to day lives?

And are we showing that as God’s people – as a Faith Community – as a Church – as St Anne’s, Brown Edge?

Is there a distinctive difference from the way St Anne's conducts its affairs from any other social gathering or group in Brown Edge?

To close let’s hear and heed a passage from Paul’s Letter to the Romans, 12.1-2….

‘The Message’

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

And check out LICC -  'Fruitfulness on the Frontline'

                    www.licc.org.uk

Called & Commissioned - transcript of sermon St Mary's, Knutton Third Sunday after Easter 2019

Sermon St Mary’s Knutton 5^th May 2019 Third Sunday after Easter

Acts 9.1-6 & John 21.1-19

To begin, two quotes…

Michael Quoist in his book ‘The Christian Response’

‘You are a unique and irreplaceable actor in the drama of human history, and Jesus Christ has need of you to make known his salvific work in this particular place and at this particular moment in history.’

ABC Justin Welby – 2015 Lambeth Lecture

'I want to start by saying just two simple sentences about the church. First, the church exists to worship God in Jesus Christ.  Second, the Church exists to make new disciples of Jesus Christ. Everything else is decoration. Some of it may be very necessary, useful, or wonderful decoration – but it’s decoration.'

Now let me remind you of the Vision of Lichfield Diocese…

“As we follow Christ in the footsteps of St Chad, we pray that the two million people in our diocese encounter a church that is confident in the gospel, knows and loves its communities, and is excited to find God already at work in the world. We pray for a church that reflects the richness and variety of those communities. We pray for a church that partners with others in seeking the common good, working for justice as a people of hope.”

With this in mind and with key personal shifting or retiring this year, the Diocese is taking the opportunity to restructure at all levels to better serve the commitment to develop discipleship, to encourage vocation and to see inspirational evangelism – you may have seen this on Diocesan information and written as EVD or sometimes DVE.

Now let us turn to the two stories we heard today about Peter and Saul (who we know better as Paul).

But first let me say a word about the place of the Bible in our life as the People of God.

It is, and always has been and always should be our foundational text from which we draw insights, instructions and inspiration.

However I have known Churches that are fixated on buildings, or programmes, or filling rotas, or which songs or hymns we should sing.

All in their proper contexts good things – but as Justin Welby pointed out they are decorations, maybe good and needful, but decorations none the less.

The Archbishop usefully reminds us of the purpose and the calling of the Church – worship and making disciples.

As someone once said, ‘the Church of God does not have a mission, but the God of mission has a Church.’

This is sometimes referred to as the ‘Missio Dei’ – the Mission of God.

And our Scripture’s tell us in one overarching and ever unfolding story of God’s mission. It’s wonderfully encapsulated in the hymn with this opening verse…

God is working his purpose out,
as year succeeds to year,
God is working his purpose out,
and the time is drawing near;
nearer and nearer draws the time,
the time that shall surely be,
when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God
as the waters cover the sea.

That’s our calling and that’s our purpose as the People of God.

I sometimes suggest that every time the PCC meets there ought to be one extra space, perhaps with an open Bible on the table. That is to remind us of the place for Jesus in our discussions and deliberating.

And of each and every item on the agenda this ought to be our primary question – ‘how will this help us to know Jesus better or help to make Jesus better known.’

For it is in Jesus that the redemptive purposes of God are fully revealed.

For a starter just think about the difference it would make if we not only said the Lord’s Prayer but lived it out and strove to make it a reality in our lives, in our families and across our nation and the world. 

And in this great task we have both an individual calling and vocation and a corporate calling and vocation.

The quotes I began reflect that – the first from Michelle Quoist speaks of the individual call and then the one from Justin Welby speaks of the nature and the calling of the Church – as the body of Christ.

And our two stories of Peter and Saul/Paul can help us consider the call of the individual and the call of the corporate.

The story of Peter’s restoration is most wonderfully and tenderly told.  We get to know Peter as we read the Gospel accounts because he is presented to us with his flaws and failings. Rather like Oliver Cromwell was to say many years later, ‘paint me warts and all’ - so we get to know Peter warts and all.’

And we know Peter, we know people like Peter, and we might even be like Peter.  The mouth is open before the brain has time to engage the gears and something is blurted out or some action is taken.

No, never will I deny you, the others might, but me, I will die for you.  And then it would seem initially at least, Peter might just do that. As Jesus is arrested it is Peter who is waving his sword around in defence of Jesus.

But that’s not the way Jesus is going to win this battle – swords and harsh words and petty jealousies and bullying and violence – that’s the way of the world.

Jesus came to bring a loving revelation not the violent revolution many were looking for.

And then we see Peter following Jesus as he is taken into the courtyard of the High Priest – another act of impulsiveness but when it came down it he failed.

We hear a threefold denial and fisherman’s curses.

And today – today we hear the wonderful story of the resurrected Jesus gently taking Peter out of earshot of the others following a night of fruitless fishing until given insight by Jesus on which side to fish from.

We hear Jesus ask three times if Peter loves him – matching his three fold denial. As Peter declares his love for Jesus so he receives his commission and vocation.  To lead, guide, nurture and tend the young church in its foundational stages.

What we learn here to put it into modern parlance is – ‘if you mess up then fess up’ – and move on.

Now let us turn to our other character Saul and the wonderful story of his conversion.  Whatever it was that happened it was enough to turn Saul into Paul and his world view upside down – or perhaps we should say the right way up.

Saul in due course also receives his call and vocation…

Paul (let’s call him that now) recalls this account three times and we can read them in the Acts of the Apostles.

What’s your own conversion story – how did you come to faith. Can you tell your story, like Paul was able to do?

I met somebody the other day who was able to tell the exact date and time, 2pm when he gave his life to Christ.

My own date is the 1^st January 1975 when at the age of 24 I made a New Year’s Resolution to become a Christian.

But maybe you would say to me that that you have always known God and you have never been knocked of a horse and had that moment of blinding inspiration and change. That you just grew up and into the Christian faith.

When it comes to sharing your own Faith story I often invite people to use two mnemonics to help them frame their story.

BEN & ANN

Ben stands for those who speak of a definite life before without Christ, a particular life changing encounter(s) and what life is like now. These are what we might term conversion Christians.

Then we have Ann and this stands for those who have always known God but then came to recognise the need to have an owned faith and then how that is being worked out now in their day to day life. These are what we might term as cradle Christians.

Peter was restored and brought back on the right track. 

Saul thought he was doing God’s work until he met the risen Jesus which sent him off in another direction altogether - Saul the persecutor became Paul the evangelist.

And we can be eternally grateful because it is Paul’s rich Hebrew heritage and deep desire to know Jesus better and to make Jesus better known that we have a rich treasure trove to mine in the Letters.  

These can help us to live the Christian life both as individuals and as the People of God, the Body of Christ, to use one of Paul’s own metaphors.

But whether you or more of a Ben than an Ann or an admixture of the two the most important thing is in which direction are you travelling?

Jesus began his ministry by saying…

 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."

Repent means to turn around 180 degrees and go in the other direction.

As we have heard afresh again recently when we journeyed with Jesus through Palm Sunday, onto his passion, crucifixion and then resurrection – there are but two ways and two paths.

The way of Caesar and the world or the way of God revealed in Jesus – either Caesar is Lord or Jesus is Lord.

Remember the famous legend of Peter during the reign of Emperor Nero. The subject of a film, called. “Quo vadis?”  This is the question Peter puts to Jesus as he sees him walking towards Rome along the Appian Way. Jesus replies, “Romam vado iterum crucifigi.” I am going to Rome to be crucified again.

At which point Peter repents, turns around and goes to face death in Rome by crucifixion.

Today and every day you and I will choose which path and which Lord to follow.

And choosing to follow Jesus isn’t about escaping to some sort of eternal life in heaven when you die.  That’s not the Christian hope or story.

The big story is about God’s redemptive purposes for the whole of the created order.

And you and are invited to help with those redemptive purposes by showing in our lives as individuals and together as the People of God how we are designed to live as authentic human beings in God’s world.

And you and I are commissioned to tell others about this Good News and invite them to repent and to join in God’s Mission of bringing everything into good order.

Until that great and glorious day that we read about in Revelation chapter 21 when heaven comes to earth and there is the ultimate marriage between God and his created order.  

Until then we are called to follow Christ in the footsteps of St Chad and in the footsteps of St Peter and St Paul. We are called individually and collectively to discover our vocation, deepen our discipleship and engage in evangelism.     

So let me ask you this question…

Which I ask it both as individuals and also as the People of God, as members of this Faith Community….

Quo Vadis?

Where are you going?

Let me close with a Consecration Prayer of Prebandery Wilson Carlile, Founder of Church Army that you may wish to echo in your hearts...

And now and here I give myself to you,

  and now and here you give yourself to me;

  and now and here I find your love within.

Break through me Lord that others I might win;

Your wounded body and your life blood poured

 impel me forth to live and preach you Lord.