'Listening to the call of Jesus' - transcript of sermon at St John's celebrating 30 years ministry

St John the Baptist Littleworth 

Patronal Festival 2016

John 11.1-44

 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”

We are told that one of these disciples is Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. Most scholars agree that the unnamed disciple was John, who throughout the Gospel bearing his name demurs to mention his own name.

John the Baptizer came as a voice crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord.’

He was not the Messiah but the forerunner, the one who points people to Jesus, the perfect Passover Lamb of God.  Therefore, it was understandable that John the Baptizer accepted his disciples switching their allegiance to Jesus.

And it is a story from John’s Gospel that I would like us to consider this morning. 

In my early ministry, I served as a Community Evangelist in Luton and as a Parish Evangelist in Prudhoe, Northumberland.

During this 10-year period, I conducted hundreds of funerals.

This passage from John chapter 11 was often used.

It speaks eloquently of the human condition around the death of a loved one. We have that universal phrase that it seems everyone utters at some time, ‘if only.’  If only I had told them how much I love them, if only he had not taken that route, if only…

Even as we gather here this morning, there will be millions of people making this journey. Perhaps some of you have recently made this journey or, are currently travelling through this pathway, or will shortly make this journey.  

There is a huge amount of material in this passage to be unearthed and explored.  All that talk of resurrection and the ‘last day’ and Jesus being the resurrection and life – wonderful, wonderful stuff to explore.  However, let us move on because I would like us to move to the tomb and observe what Jesus does. (Worth remembering, we read the story in hindsight)

Quickly though let me mention the burial custom of the time. A body would be laid in the tomb and allowed to decompose. When that process had taken place the bones would be gathered, and put in a bone box – an ossuary. The ‘shelf’ would then be ready for another body.

By the way, you may wish to take something for the smell – ‘there is a stench because he has been dead four days.’

As we stand at the entrance to the tomb and watch, I would invite us to consider Christ’s compassion, his communication, his call and his commission. 

We first consider Christ’s compassion. 

You will probably know that the Bible was divided up into Chapters early in the 13^th century and by the mid-16^th century was further divided up into verses.

Whoever decided that just two words should form a verse was truly inspired. Chapter 11 verse 35 – ‘Jesus wept.’

It is more than just a verse, more than a chapter, more even than a whole book. It is like a tiny pebble thrown into a pond with ripples cascading outwards. This is Jesus deeply moved at the human condition, troubled in his spirit - and he weeps.

I tried to capture something of this in a short poem I wrote, called 

‘The Tears of God.’

Tears of God

In Nottingham

A young girl is shot

Where her body lies

Her blood spilt

God appoints and angel

To wash away the blood

With tears.

Myriads of angels

Do not sing

“Glory to God”

But stand

And weep

For this broken world.

By the gas ovens

Of Auswitch

The starving child in Africa

Where each person dies

God appoints an angel

To watch and weep

Thus the blood of the innocents

Are mingled with the tears of God

“…and he shall wipe away their tears”      (c) Gordon Banks 

Let me ask this question, when was the last time we wept for our broken world, for the broken people we encounter. For the broken bodies, broken marriages, broken relationships, broken spirits and broken minds.

Maybe heeding the words of that lovely Noel Richards song…

Filled with compassion for all creation,
Jesus came into a world that was lost.
There was but one way that He could save us,
Only through suffering death on a cross.

God, You are waiting. Your heart is breaking
For all the people who live on the earth.
Stir us to action, Filled with Your passion
For all the people who live on the earth.  

Next, let us turn to consider Christ’s Communication… 

So they took away the stone. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me.”

Jesus was so steeped and soaked in prayer that Jesus could say that He and the Father were one – what Jesus thought and said and did, so the Father thought and said and did.

How do we stand on that one this morning? Are we seeped and soaked in prayer, both individually and corporately. 

“When I pray, coincidences happen; when I don’t, they don’t,” said William Wilberforce.

Is that your experience – is that our experience.

There was a time when it was very popular to have a wristband with WWJD on them.

For some people they continue to be a good way of helping them to think through the situations they find themselves facing, asking the question, what would Jesus do.

However, I would like to suggest that we should strive to go beyond that. To seek to be so attuned and in communication with God, that we instinctively do the right thing in God’s eyes.

I am certainly not there yet – however I do give you full permission to challenge me about my prayer life. That said; don’t be surprised if I also ask you the same question. Indeed let us call one another to account and stir each other up that we may say along with Paul…

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3.12

Now we consider Christ’s call.  

It is interesting to speculate that if Jesus had not called out Lazarus’ name would more people have come out of their graves.

However, such is the nature of God that he knows each one of us and calls us by name out of sin, death, darkness and the grave.

"Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends. Revelation 3.20

I first became conscious of that knocking and calling of my name around the age of fourteen. At the time, I was attending a Church of England Senior School that taught a great deal about religion (of the C of E variety) but little about Faith. This was in the mid-sixties, a time of Cultural Revolution. A time of protest songs by Dylan and Donovan and many others. I was deeply fascinated and attracted to Jesus as a social rebel, standing against the establishment.

At the time I thought the Church had got him all wrong, he wasn’t divine or the Son of God, he was a great moral teacher and champion of the poor and neglected. I decided I was going to travel the world with this message, and practiced giving talks to my dog on the open moorland behind our house. At the age of fifteen and leaving school in 1966 and making a vow never to go back into school or a church ever again, I parked God and Jesus. I was off to Newmarket in the hope of becoming a famous jockey.  However, like The Hound of Heaven in Francis Thompson’s poem, God was on my case…

From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

                  But with unhurrying chase,

                  And unperturbèd pace,

                Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,

                  They beat--and a Voice beat

                  More instant than the Feet--

                "All things betray thee, who betrayest Me."

That call and knocking came again when I got married for the first time in 1972 and a couple of years later when we had our first child Christened. However, I didn’t respond then as both those occasions appeared more tied up in a religious ceremony that was part of a package than anything to do with a living faith in Jesus.

Come 1973 and watching a Zeffirelli film about St Francis, ‘Brother Son, Sister Moon,’ I was deeply moved. I thought if I could find the Jesus of St Francis that would be someone worth following. On March 4^th 1974 and the calling is getting louder and the knocking more persistent and the feet behind getting closer as I found myself working alongside David in a new job.

David was not religious, David was a Christian, and he had a faith in Jesus. I resisted and argued at first, but God was most definitely on my case now.

In November 1974, David gave me a Bible. I started to attend meetings, and reading others books about the Christian faith. The knocking and the calling continued until on the 1^st January 1975 I wrote in my diary ‘this year I resolve to become a Christian.’  I opened the door and invited Jesus into my heart and my life. Then all hell broke loose, but that’s another story for another time.

Let me ask you this morning, what is your story. Have you heeded that call, responded to that knocking? Have you invited Jesus into your heart and into your life? If you have, then I would love to hear your story, something I would encourage us all to do, to exchange our journey to faith stories and to share what God continues to do in our lives today. If you have yet to do that, I implore you with every fibre of my being, please do not leave this place today with asking someone to help you take that step. It will be the most important decision of your life.

Finally, let us consider Christ’s commission. 

The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face. Jesus said to them, "Take off the grave clothes and let him go."

Called out of sin and death into new life we emerge still wearing grave clothes – but that needs to change.

…put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. Romans 13.14

…. and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4.24

As God’s people, this is our task and this is our commission. Because God calls us as we are, and loves as we are, but does not want to leave us as we are.  

We are to help people who take that step of faith to strip away all the former habits that lead them away from God.

‘…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.’ Hebrews 12.1

 That can take some time and needs to be done with gentleness and sensitivity.

However, here is the thing that I find as I have walked with Jesus for the last 40 years. I still find myself on occasions putting back on grave clothes and slowly walking back towards the tomb. Is that true of you as well?

However, however, however, thanks be to God that…

…Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,  to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up  until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.  Ephesians 4.11-13

Brothers and sisters we are called no less than to become as Christ in the world wherever we may find ourselves and whatever we find ourselves doing – we are Christ’s ambassadors 24/7.  

Full of Christ’s compassion

Frequent in communication with Christ

Responsive to Christ’s call

Accepting of Christ’s commission

Let me close with some words from His Holiness Pope Benedict XV1

And only where God is seen does life truly begin.

Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we know what life is.

We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution.

Each of us is the result of a thought of God.

Each of us is willed,

Each of us is loved,

Each of us is necessary.

There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel,

By the encounter with Christ.

There is nothing more beautiful than to know him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him.

Amen

'Seek first the Kingdom of God and do not let the King down' - transcript of sermon St Bertelin's 19th June 2016

St Bertelin's Stafford Sunday 19^th June 2016

           Teddy Bear's Picnic celebrating the Queen's Birthday

Galatians 3.23-29 & Luke 12.22-31

“My job first, second and last is never to let the Queen down.”

Prince Philip

May it be that as God’s people we echo that as we say; our job first, second and last is never to let the King down. 

The King that is, to whom the Queen bears witness, as in the excellent souvenir book – ‘The Servant Queen and the King She Serves.’

So how might we let God down?

Let us explore that in the light of our Gospel reading. The one read at St Paul’s Cathedral as part of the Queen’s birthday celebrations.

Firstly, this needs just a bit of context.

In some ways, this section in Luke almost reads like a Q&A session with the Pharisees and others who in very typical Jewish style puts questions and teasers and ‘what if’ and ‘supposing ifs.’

Just before we pick up the story someone said, ‘teacher tell my brother to share the inheritance with me.’

Either he wasn’t there or not paying attention because Jesus has just been saying, ‘that God knows even the hairs on your head and that you are far more precious than sparrows and God loves you and wants the best for you.’

So why was this man worrying his head about the inheritance.

Last Wednesday night I watched the 1973 film by Zeffirelli ‘Brother Son, Sister Moon’ with a fabulous soundtrack by Donovan.

Zeffirelli presents a romantic portrayal of St Francis who comes across a bit like a 12^th century hippy. He shuns all earthly wealth, as he wants to live like birds, trusting his heavenly Father for everything. He dramatically hands back to his earthly father the clothes of his back.  

This Gospel passage from Luke 12 was of course deeply influential on Francis who took it in a literal sense.

We enter the story at verse 22…

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall wear.’

We need to hold in mind that these words were spoken to people who for the most part were living at subsistence level. Therefore, quite naturally, they had a very deep concern about their next meal and having at least some clothes to wear and a roof over their heads.

And Jesus said, ‘don’t worry about these things!’

Put this story into a modern Western world context and it screams out against the amount of money, energy and passion along with huge stress levels that very many people live under.

We have a culture based on dissatisfaction – certainly, dissatisfaction with what was the thing yesterday. The latest, the newest, the most up to date - is the order of the day. Advertising is based on creating dissatisfaction. (Some might even say greed)

And yet curiously their remains a deep thread of all things retro – from music of a former era, to vintage cars and tractors to antique furniture. Alongside the plethora of TV shows and films brought back and given a fresh 21^st century sparkle.

So maybe, just maybe, we are not that confident about what lies in the future and seek to take some comfort by retreating into the past.

So – given this, how is it that might be let God down?

To begin with by not heeding St Paul’s advice in Romans 12.2

"Don't let the world around you squeeze you into its mold...." 

We let God down by buying into the prevailing culture and suffer the same stress levels and heart attacks and illnesses as non-Christians.

We do not demonstrate a real alternative way of living and conducting our lives.

Sadly, I have seen some churches that actually add to the stress levels. They have such busy programs and events and activities, that it takes a small army of people just to keep everything moving along.

And as this is football season, let me offer a footballing metaphor. It sometimes seems that the church looks like a football match. Twenty-two people in need of a rest, watched by 22,000 in need of exercise.

We can let God down by not seeking him in prayer and saying that this is God’s church and we are God’s people – what is it that you God want to achieve and to build up and establish. What would the Kingdom of God look like in this place?

Remember the Church of God does not have a mission – the God of mission has a Church.

I don’t think for a moment Jesus is saying that food, clothing and what have you are bad in and of themselves.

It is where we place them in the order of our priorties that matters most.

Jesus said, For the nations of the world strive after all these things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added unto you.

Seek first his Kingdom…

Isn’t that what lies at the heart of this passage and isn’t that what lies at the heart of the Good News.

St Augustine said ‘Jesus Christ is not valued at all until He is valued above all.’

How does that stand with you this morning?

Is Christ above all, in all, through all in your life?

How does that stand with this Church, this People of God, is Christ at the head of everything?

Are you aware of the presence of Jesus at each and every meeting and gathering?

Just before we picked up the Gospel story Jesus told that wonderful story of Bigger Barns.

(And if you ever get the chance do listen to Ishmael sing a fabulous Children’s song based on this story... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESHr-FMz0w8)

The story Jesus tells is of man who is busy building his own Kingdom, his own Empire.

He decides he needs bigger barns in which to store all his extra grain and goods. They were duly built and filled. Then he died.

There is a story told of a man who was rather mean to his wife. As he lay dying, he made her promise that she would put all his wealth in the coffin with him.

Come the day of the funeral and after he was duly buried a friend came up to her, who knew about this request and asked if she had actually done what he had asked for.

Of course she said, I worked out all his wealth, wrote out a cheque, put it in the coffin, and if he can cash it then he can have it.

“Our job first, second and last is never to let the King down.”

Our job is to seek first the Kingdom.

Our job is to show to a watching world that there is a better way of ordering our lives.

‘Drop thy still dews of quietness till all our strivings cease, take from our souls the strains and stress and let our ordered lives confess the beauty of thy peace.’

The other way we can let our King down is by being ‘shy’ about faith and belief in Jesus as Lord of all.

Increasingly we have seen the Queen become more vocal about her deep faith that she would like others to embrace.

Here is one recent quote “It is my prayer that we may all find room in our lives for the love of God through Christ our Lord.”

Earlier in chapter 12 of Luke’s Gospel Jesus said;

Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

We can let down our King by not being as vocal about our faith as the Queen is.

It is great to see that so many Teddies have made it to Church this morning after a busy day they all had at the Teddy Bear’s Picnic yesterday.

Can I invite you once you have received Communion to go and pick up a small piece of ribbon and write on the ribbon the name of someone whom you would like to see fully embrace the Christian faith. Tie this onto your bear who will become your Prayer Bear. 

The prayer is simply that next year that person will be here, worshiping and following Jesus. Keep your Prayer Bear somewhere where you will see them so you will remember to prayer for that person.

If you have yet fully to embrace the Christian faith then can I invite you to take a ribbon and write Jesus. Whenever you see your bear, remember to say a prayer to Jesus, asking that he will make himself known to you. You may like to visit the website www.christianity.org.uk that will help you discover more about what it means to be a Christian.

Let me end with some words His Holiness Pope Benedict XV1

And only where God is seen does life truly begin.

Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we know what life is.

We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution.

Each of us is the result of a thought of God.

Each of us is willed,

Each of us is loved,

Each of us is necessary.

There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel,

By the encounter with Christ.

There is nothing more beautiful than to know him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him.