St John the Baptist, Littleworth. Trinity One
The Staffordshire Young Farmers Club has a running
theme this year of Magic & Mystery.
At the Pre-show Reception for the Staffordshire County
Show they had their regular feature of ‘Staffordshire YFC Got Talent.
One of the ‘acts’ had someone tied up in chains and
ropes and escaping.
This got me thinking about our
Gospel and how tied up the Pharisees were in their strict observance of rules,
regulations and rituals.
(Here I invited people to pass around a piece of chain.
I also had someone tie my hands behind my back with specially designed handcuffs.)
So, what is binding you
and tying your hands behind your back?
What is preventing you
from becoming the wonderful human being that God intends you to be?
Are you tied up in rules,
regulations and rituals?
Or are you locked into some
particular fear?
Fear of lack finance, lack
of health and mobility, fear of death?
Are you carrying a burden
from your earlier years – unkind words or actions against you?
What is it that stops you
from flourishing?
Are you tied up in
something – pornography, addictions, bad temper, anger, bitterness and
resentment?
If
the Son set’s you free you will be free indeed. (John
8.36)
What about us as the
People of God in this place, what is binding us and preventing us from growing
and flourishing?
What is preventing more
people coming to join us and find that in Christ there is freedom – discovering
that among God’s people there is healing and forgiveness?
This is Dali’s Autumn
Cannibalism painted in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War.
Dali painted a picture of a country at war with itself and people devouring each other.
We may not exchange blows
and go to war with each other – but what about those unkind words or that email or the lack
of help offered when you could have done so.
Are we as God’s people
guilty of backbiting?
Or perhaps as God‘s People
we are a little like the Pharisee’s we heard about in our Gospel reading, tied
up and bound by our rituals, rules and regulations?
The Pharisee’s for the
most part loved God and in particular loved God’s law – they saw that as the
best way of expressing love of God.
They were a self-selecting
body who by the time of Jesus had been around for a couple of hundred years.
They had no real power or
structure – but people did listen to them and take note of their instructions.
In particular people would
want to know what the Pharisee’s thought about Jesus.
And in these two little
stories that are rich in a deeper meaning we see the Pharisee’s gnat straining
while camel swallowing.
It would be good at some
other time to explore the deeper and richer meaning behind these two little
stories.
But do we also have a Pharisaic
attitude.
Are we so tied up with the
way we like to see Church done that we have absolutely no room for anything any
other way?
Isn’t that what Bishop
Curry did at Harry and Meghan’s wedding.
He broke convention – he
spoke like a passionate African-American about God and God’s love revealed in
Jesus.
God’s love that is the
hope for the world.
God’s love that could
break the bondage of slavery, oppression, hunger, war and so much more.
If
the Son set’s you free you will be free indeed.
At the age of fourteen I
was enslaved to the adolescent angst of dying and in particular dying unknown.
I could see little point
in life if we simply wandered around the earth for a few decades and then
died. What is the point and purpose in
that?
Ten years on and I met
David – and David was a Christian – one of those ‘born again types’ I had not
met before.
And David gave me a Bible
in November 1974 and in that Bible I discovered this verse from Colossians 3.3
‘For
you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.’ (S)
On the 1st
January 1975 I made a New Year’s Resolution to become a Christian.
Long my
imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
Fast bound in sin and nature’s night;
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light;
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth, and followed Thee.
(Here I released myself from the handcuffs)
Over forty
years ago I discovered that if the Son sets you free then you will be free
indeed.
And the more I journey on the more discover it is all about
Jesus and making him known so that others may come to know the freedom God
offers.
All our PCC’s and Standing Committees, all our worship, all our
business, all our finance, all our various other gatherings – there is only one
reason I can see for doing any of this…
‘Sir we would see Jesus.’ John 12.21
Let me read again those verses from Corinthians but this time in
the Message Version.
‘Sir, we would see Jesus’
Because ‘if the Son set
you free you will be free indeed.’
Please do not go out of here still bound in sin’s and nature
night – come talk to me or others and discover that your chains can be left
here this morning and you can walk free to be and become the beautiful human
being God wants you to become.
Let’s not leave here this morning as the People of God with
anger or bitterness in our hearts. Let us resolve walk in love, forgiveness and
healing.
Demonstrating to a watching world that there is another way to
live in this world and that we can be free from anger and resentment.
That is why Jesus took the
Pharisee’s to task – they loved God but had become so caught up in rules,
regulations and rituals they had forgotten their core purpose and calling as
the People of God.
They were called to live
in such a way as to be a light to the Gentiles.
Today, as God People we are
now called to be a light to the world and demonstrate by our common life
together that there is another way, a way of love, healing and forgiveness.
And a final question for us to
reflect on...
What is it about our life and purpose at St John’s that makes us
unique and different from many other social groupings or clubs and
associations in the town?
THE KNOTS PRAYER
Dear God,
Please untie the knots
that are in my mind,
my heart and my life.
Remove the have nots,
the can nots and the do nots
that I have in my mind.
Erase the will nots,
may nots, and
might nots that find
a home in my heart.
Release me from the could nots,
would nots and should nots
that obstruct my life.
And most of all, dear God,
I ask that you remove from my mind
my heart and my life all of the am nots
that I have allowed to hold me back,
especially the thought
that I am not good enough.
Amen.
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