Disciplined Worship

I wonder if you have house rules? And if you do, I wonder how they came to be decided. Let me give you some examples. In our house it's my job to load the dishwasher and put it on before I go to bed. We didn't need this rule before we had a dishwasher, and after we got one it soon became clear that it was going to be my job, because when Liz did it, I get cross about it not being loaded correctly, and I was informed in no uncertain terms that if it mattered that much, then I could do it. So I do.

We also have house rules about bedtime for the kids, and I expect that as they get older, we will have to negotiate curfew times that we expect them to be home by. I guess the first set of house rules we ever had as a family were the ones that Liz and I agreed to when we got married. The love, honour, cherish, be faithful vows that underpin our marriage and which sum up the values that form the basis for our whole family life together.

The thing that all these house rules have in common is that they all, in some way, are in place to enable us to live together happily and in a way which allows our our relationships within the household to flourish. Not all of them were there to start with, and some of the ones that we will need in the future are not yet in place. As family life goes on, the details of our house rules might change, but the underlying principles of love, faithfulness, and integrity will remain.

In our reading from Exodus, God is laying out some house rules for the family of the people of God God has sent Moses to Egypt, to rescue the people of God from captivity, and they are now three months out from Egypt, and they have reached the base of the mountain of God, Mount Sinai. Previously God had spoken to the ancestors of the people of God, people like Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel, and made promises that their children would become a nation.

Now God has bought those children to the place in which God will start to forge them into a nation. That nation needed some house rules to enable the people that were part of it to live together with flourishing relationships, with each other and with God.

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The Top of the Hill

During the summer Tabitha and I went on an expedition. We set out at around 9:30 in the morning and caught two buses from the place we were staying to reach the place where we would start walking. The cloud base was quite low and we started walking in the cloud, with grey all around, and droplets of water forming on our clothes. After about half an hour the cloud lifted a bit, and we could see the path, and some of the surrounding scenery, but we still couldn't see where we were going to end up. We continued to climb, back up into the cloud, and the visibility worsened again.

Finally we got onto the home straight, heading to our destination. We still couldn't see where we wanted to get to, but we had met the railway track and knew that that would lead us there. We didn't actually see where we had been heading all that time until we were about 50 yards away, and there it was, the top of .... any guesses.....Snowdon. Even at the top, we couldn't see much, so we sat down and had our lunch and headed home again. Even though we hadn't been able to see it, reaching the peak of Snowdon had been the reason for everything that we had done since we left home, it had overshadowed our climbing, even though it wasn't visible to us.

Jesus and his disciples had been on a three year expedition around Judea. Throughout that expedition, there was also a destination, one thing that overshadowed all that Jesus did, and said. He was also going to the top of a hill, but he was going to the cross on the top of the hill. For most of the journey the disciples didn't know that this was where Jesus was headed, but lately he had begun to tell them, to let them know. Clear glimpses of the destination were breaking through the cloud. In this passage, for the first time, Jesus tells his disciples that he is to be crucified. For the first time on the journey the exact destination is made crystal clear to the disciples. The cross on the top of the hill.

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Fasting

Jesus was sent by the Holy Spirit into the desert for forty days.

Jesus is right at the beginning of his public ministry. He had just had one of the most awesome spiritual experiences that anybody could ever have: he had been baptised, the Holy Spirit had descended into him to empower and equip him for the work ahead, and his Father had reaffirmed, in front of everybody, how much he was loved. Surely it's time to crack on, to get out there, he's on a high, time to start flying.

No. Jesus was sent by the Holy Spirit into the desert for forty days.

There were a few things that happened in the desert. We know that Jesus was tempted, that he experienced attacks by Satan that aimed to stop him starting his ministry. Now I'm not planning to talk about these temptations particularly this morning, but I want to ask where Jesus got his strength from whilst he was going through this difficult time? Now, it's a bit of a puzzle because we're not told by Mark directly, and neither are we told by the other writers of the accounts of Jesus' life.

Well, it might help if we think about the places where we might look for strength. We might look to friends or family. But Jesus was in a desert, so he didn't get his strength from there. We might look for strength in favourite books or pieces of music – like the castaways on Desert Island discs. But Jesus didn't have those things either, so he didn't get his strength from there. On a physical level we might think that the best way to keep our strength up is by eating healthy food. But Jesus didn't eat, he fasted. So he didn't get his strength from food.

In fact, we could go on like this all morning, but we would run out of ideas before we hit the truth if we stick to looking for physical answers. In one of the toughest times of his life, Jesus strength came direct from God by the Holy Spirit. And it seems to me that it is no coincidence that Jesus was sent by the Holy Spirit into the desert for these forty days. It seems to me that it is when we are in the place where the worldly things we sometimes look to for strength aren't there, that we can experience the strengthening power of the Holy Spirit most.

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What's the choice?

I don't have any choice. You don't have a choice. He doesn't have a choice. These are some of the hardest words that can be spoken or heard in today's culture. In our country it's all about choice. Having the right to choose. The right to choose where our kids go to school, the ability to choose where we live, were we work, who we are friends with, who are doctor is, which hospital to go to. The power of people choosing to buy some things and not others is what drives free market economies around the world.

So, how do we feel when we are told that we can't choose. That we have to continue to live in that house because we can't sell it. That our kids can't go to that school because it is full. It seems to me that more and more people are coming to believe that they have a right to choose in every aspect of their lives, and that if they can't choose then something is badly wrong.

And they'd be right. There is something badly wrong. Actually I think that there are three things that restrict our choice: Illusions, Barriers, and Compulsions.

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What's Missing?

Marmalade. This is the marmalade that I made from some of the left over Christingle oranges. I know that I was warned that they were the wrong type of oranges, but I thought I'd give it a go anyway. As you can see, this marmalade is a bit on the runny side. There is something missing, in this case, it's probably not got enough pectin in it.

I wonder if you've ever had the experience of thinking that there is something missing. Sometimes things just don't add up, and sometimes it's difficult to tell what it is that's missing. If you didn't know anything about making marmalade then you might not have been able to tell what was missing from this jar. Just that something wasn't quite right.

Paul had got a strong feeling that there is something missing. He'd been travelling around what is now Turkey and Greece, telling anybody who would listen about Jesus. He has now ended up in Ephesus. Whilst he was there he met up with a group of disciples. Now, in today's reading we only have a snapshot of their conversation, but I think that there must have been more to it than this. It doesn't really sound like the first line in a conversation, does it?, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

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Glory to the New Born King

Hark the Herald Angels sing.

While mortals sleep the angels keep their watch of wondering love.

The Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell.

The angel of the Lord came down and glory shone around.

A shining throng of angels praising God.

A few weeks ago I spent a Friday night in Hanley at Nightchurch. At about 1'o clock on the Saturday morning I was sat chatting with a couple of clubbers who had come in to get out of the cold, have a cup of tea and a chat. They started talking about angels. One of them had been advising the others about asking their angels to help them out when they were going through tough times. These girls were absolutely convinced that they have guardian angels watching over them, who answer their prayers and who leave white feathers as signs of encouragement and hope.

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Joy to the world?

"Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."

Now, in common with a lot of people, Paul was in the habit of putting the things that he thought were most important at the beginning of his lists. In this case, the emphasis is on the instruction to “Rejoice always”. One of the reasons that I think that this is the case, is that joy seems to have been a particularly important idea to Paul, and one that he valued very highly in the church at Thessalonica. In the very first paragraph of the letter, he wrote, “... you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers... ”1:6-7.

Now, I have to say that this is an instruction that I struggle with. How can I rejoice always when the world is in such a mess? How can I rejoice always when people that I love are ill or in pain? How can I rejoice always when people are losing their jobs and are afraid that they will lose their homes? Isn't it just insensitive and unrealistic?

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