Where is God?

On the third of August, 2007, a seventeen month old child was taken to a London hospital, where the child was pronounced dead. The child had very severe injuries. Now three people await sentencing for, “causing or allowing the death of a child”. During the course of the last week there has been extensive news coverage of the case, and angry exchanges in parliament. We don't even know the child's name, just “Child P”.

Over the last two months, around 250,000 people have fled from their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo. That's the about the same number people who live in the whole of Stoke on Trent. They are homeless and starving, their children are being stolen to fight in child armies. All this is mainly because of the great mineral riches that exist under the ground that they live on, and the fighting over the control of those riches.

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Whose Image?

Put yourself in the sandals of those who had been following Jesus and learning from him. Three years ago you had a proper job. Who were you back then? Were you an outdoors type, maybe a fisherman? Were you more of an office worker, with pens, paper and calculations everywhere? Were you a widow, catching up with friends for a natter and sitting in the sun, looking after the grandchildren?

Whoever you used to be, you're someone different now. Spending three years with Jesus changes you. There was something about him that you'd found irresistible, and you'd left everything to follow him. You'd travelled round the country as he'd taught and done things that had left you breathless, confused and sometimes scared witless.

Now there's a funny feeling in the air. Recently Jesus has started going on about his having to die and some really far out stuff about coming back to life again. We've all come to Jerusalem for the passover festival but things are definitely a bit odd. A few days ago Jesus sent a couple of the lads to fetch a donkey which he'd ridden into the city. The crowds gathering for the festival had gone nuts, cutting branches off the trees, throwing clothes on the path, shouting out songs of the Messiah, of God's rescuer. The powers that be hadn't liked that one little bit.

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The Lord's Prayer

I'm really glad this morning to be talking about this prayer. Over my life I've had a bit of a strange relationship with it. I remember an assembly I sat in when I was ten. The headmaster was defending the fact that we didn't have much in the way of prayers in our school assemblies. He asked those of us who knew the Lord's prayer to put up our hands. I have to say that I didn't know it off by heart then, but there were a few who did. The Head went on to argue that this was the reason we didn't pray it in school assemblies. Looking back, I wonder if he was even aware of the irony that he was arguing that a school shouldn't do something because it would involve children having to learn something.

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Are you coming or going?

This is a bar of Divine Chocolate. If anybody can work out the link between what I say this morning and Boy George then they can have it. You have until I leave the building this morning to work it out. The answer will be on next week's notice sheet.

As I was mulling over the gospel passage for this morning, I was struck by the contrast between the two commands that Jesus gives in the course of the story. There are some similarities between the two orders: they both involve movement, they both require the hearer to do something, and they will both result in a changed life. But there is also a big difference between the two directions.

Can anyone hazard a guess as to what I'm talking about? What are the two commands?

The first is “Follow me” and the second is “Go and learn”.

In this story the first command is given to Matthew. Jesus is wandering around his home town, and he comes across one of the local tax collectors. The fact that he is a tax collector is very important.
We know that it is very important because it is the only detail we are given about Matthew. Here we have the story of the most important encounter in Matthew's life, and he tells it in about thirty words. We don't know his history, what he looks like, about his family, about his faith journey up to this point, anything. The only thing we know about Matthew is that he is a tax collector.

It's a bit difficult for us to really get why this is so important because we don't live in an occupied country. In Jesus' time, Judea was occupied by the Romans. The tax collectors were native Jews who collected taxes on behalf of the Romans, and took a fair bit for themselves as well. The two closest things I can think of are the collaborators in France during World War 2, and Guy of Gisbourne in the Robin Hood stories. This man extorted money from his countrymen, was hated by them, despised by the Romans and was barred from the Temple, prevented from going to worship God.

It was this person that Jesus invited to follow him. Come follow so that I can show you a better way to live and heal you.

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Dance or Weep?

Is it just me, or is that gospel reading a bit odd. What on earth is going on?

Jesus is teaching and some of John's disciples come and see him to find out if he is the one that John had been waiting for and pointing to. Jesus points out all the signs of the kingdom, people bring healed and released from captivity and says, “look what's going on, these things show that I am bringing the Kingdom that John announced was coming”

After the disciples go back to John, Jesus starts talking to the crowd about John and his message. The bit we just read was his summary of this discussion.

He quotes a children's rhyme. Now, the great thing is, nobody now really knows exactly what this rhyme meant.

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Motivation

What makes people do the things that they do? What is it that motivates people? What makes you get out of bed in the morning? As I was watching the Olympics a couple of weeks ago these questions were going through my mind a bit. What really struck me was the respect that interviewers and commentators had for the athletes who had devoted so much of their lives to the goal of competing at the Olympics, and perhaps to winning a medal. Now the Paralympics have started and we hear even more amazing stories of people overcoming huge obstacles to achieve their ambitions and dreams. These guys are seriously motivated.

In the reading we had from Romans, Paul is writing about what motivates people who follow Jesus. It seems to me that that there are two themes, or big ideas, that Paul wants to get across. He uses examples of the kinds of behaviour that Christians aspire to or should avoid, but he uses these examples not for their own sake, but in order to tell his readers something about our motivations, about the underlying reasons that we live the way that we live. There are two big ideas that Paul wants to get across. The first is to do with love and the second is to do with recognising the time that we are living in.

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Rock and Salvation

I thought that this morning we might have a look at the Psalm that is set for today. To help with this, I have printed out copies for you, so that you can take it away and perhaps reflect back on it.

It might feel a bit odd to be engaging with a Psalm like this. They were originally written as songs and poems, resources for the spiritual life of the people of God. They are a bit like our hymns and liturgical prayers today, and we don't often spend time examining the meanings and stuff in these. However it seems to me that we might find them more nourishing if we spent a bit of time chewing them over and savouring them.

I'd like to suggest that this Psalm can be thought about as a series of contrasts between what God is like and what the world is like. Coming out of this contrast is a challenge for how we live and go about our business.

The Psalmist starts by looking at what God is like.

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