It's the Law

What is happening to this ball? What happens when I let go of it ? Why does that happen? Does it make any difference who drops it? Will it always fall?

Dropping this ball illustrates the law of Gravity. This morning I’d like us to think about some different kinds of law that crop up in our readings, but also in our lives.

The first question is, “What is a law”. I came across a great definition this week from a Chinese Christian teacher called Watchman Nee:
“A law is a generalization examined until it is proved that there is no exception. We might define it more simply as something that happens over and over again. Each time the thing happens it happens in the same way.”

Does this definition work with my ball? Does it happen over and over again? Does the same thing happen the same way each time? Yes, it does.

The three kinds of law that I would like us to look at this morning are; God’s moral law, Laws made by people and the Perfect Law of Freedom.

We start with God’s moral law. These are the laws that God has given people so that they can know how they should live. If we follow these laws then we can live well with each other and with God. They are referred to in both our readings. Jesus is talking about God’s moral law when he talks about , “evil thoughts, vulgar deeds, stealing, murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, greed, meanness, deceit, indecency, envy, insults, pride, and foolishness” all being forbidden. Why are they forbidden? They are forbidden because they prevent us from being fit to worship God. If we do these things then we damage each other, our relationships with each other, and our relationship with God.

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Bending the Knee

I was at the Potteries Museum on Saturday with the rest of the family. Tabitha has been learning about the Tudors in histroy at school, and they had a Tudor day at the museum, so we all headed along to see what was going on. Well, there were a dozen or so people in Tudor costume, talking with lots of thees and thous, and generally being Tudorish. Including, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

They had some Tudor musical instruments, they had a drum, and some pipes and they might even have had a trigon, but I'm not sure what one of those is, so I couldn't swear to it. Having played the gathered company a couple of tunes, they asked for volunteers to teach a Tudor dance to. As part of this, the victims / eager volunteers where taught the correct way to bow and curtsy. The dancing master insisted that gathered crowd ought to learn as well because we all needed to bow to the King. So he showed us all how to do this, and then instructed us to reverence the King. Which about half of us did, the rest being distracted or bored or just indifferent. At which point the King barked, “Those who do not bend to the King will break”. We had another go, and far more people made some attempt at the correct bow.

Nebuchadnezzar did more than bark a pointed comment, he threatened execution, and quickly to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. If they didn't get down on their knees, and pronto they would be toast.

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Slavery and Freedom

This sermon was put together with the help of "Keystone", the youth group at St Peter's Church, Littleover. I really enjoyed spending some time with them over a couple of weeks, thinking about what it is to be Christlike, and particularly about this teaching from Jesus.

This passage is about freedom and slavery, truth and deception, and life and death. Jesus has been teaching in the Temple in Jerusalem for a week or so, going in every day, sitting there and holding forth to those around, engaging the religious experts in debate. In that time he's said some pretty controversial things about himself, and about the way that the people of God are living out their faith.

These things have provoked different reactions among those who have been listening. Some have decided that he is a dangerous rabble rouser, who threatens their power, someone who needs to be silenced. Others have had faith in him, have believed him, have wanted to follow him.

But Jesus is always clear about a couple of things. He's not very interested in head knowledge alone. He is interested in our whole beings and lives. He's an all or nothing type of guy. Throughout the gospels he makes it clear that choosing to follow him is a costly choice, it is a choice that must be made whole heartedly. It changes our whole lives. But the other thing is that Jesus offers freedom, life in all its fullness, depth. As good as it can be. Jesus is an all or nothing type of guy.

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