Sermons

This Easter has been all about service, about being prepared to serve whenever and wherever you are called to do so. It doesn’t matter what age you are and where you are, God has a role for you.

I only caught the end of our Maunday Thursday service, but the theme under discussion was about serving, about Jesus washing the feet of the disciples. We were joined by friends from other churches and after the service one of the people who comes to Filling Station wandered in seeking some food, something to drink and someone to talk to. He’s well known to us, has problems with addiction and housing, family and benefit issues. He freely admitted that he was under the influence of something,  yet despite that was confident that he would not be turned away and that his friends from West View would listen, advise and most importantly help without judging. I have no idea what our guests thought of this character who came in, hugged a couple of people, sat down and promptly demolished handfuls of cakes and biscuits, all the while talking as if he couldn’t stop. I know what our church members thought though. They raided the freezer and kitchen cupboards to put together a bag of food for the family, listened to what was going on, offered advice and prayer and organised for follow up  meetings to help  with  the current situation.

This servant spirit for me certainly continued on into the Easter weekend as I did my usual town pastors shift, followed by a sunrise service and then my stint working the video side of our tech desk at church. I had a quiet tour with town pastors until at 3:10 am a young man came seeking views as to what it meant to be a Christian, what that meant for folks from other faiths, and where we would all end up. Our newest recruit to town pastors gave him some honest answers and I tried to share my own faith journey with him. We’re never sure what takes root in such conversations but we left him hopefully with some thoughts to mull over. The team eventually clocked off at 3:40 am. A couple of hours later I’m then up and on my way to a cold blustery sunrise service on the headland. Sadly I’ve not much in the way of photos from this as I forgot to put the memory card in my camera and my phone ran out of power. Clive Hall led this short service and did a great job competing against the awesome noise of the sea hitting the breakwater and sea wall. As always the atmosphere of the sunrise service is something special. A few dozen Christians remembering the dawn of the resurrection really sets the proper tone for Easter reflections. The bonus as always is the 3Bs… Bacon Butties at the Baptists. Headland Baptist church as always getting up early to  serve hospitality to the rest of the Christian community who gathered to greet the new dawn of the greatest day in history. After a short time of fellowship I was on my way home. I managed to grab a quick hour of sleep before heading off to West View for the morning service. Tim led the service supported  by Amanda and Jonny with Jonny’s cousin called in to serve as our drummer. The song choices were fantastic this morning, and Tim involved a lot of the young people in the service. Eleanor was also pressed into service to provide the artwork for our “family” tree where everyone at church was asked to add their names. With a little artistic licence we ended up  with the resurrection story told by Lizzie as Mary Magdalene, the boys as Peter, the other disciple and the other,  other disciple.  They did a lot of running about. They were greeted by the girls as angels with red cowboy hats. All of our young people served to illustrate John’s version of events in Chapter 20, verses 1 to 18. It got across the real core of what Jesus expects from us. What we do for the least of his people we do for him. We focused on how Mary Magdalene recognised Jesus. It was when he said her name in only the way he could. In telling Mary to go and tell the others he was creating the first apostle, the first missionary. He was also summoning his church together, sharing and serving together as a family, calling God their father. And my  short term plan… to borrow a phrase from a well known “blogger” , “and so to bed”

Ian led today’s service with Amanda helping with the singing and notices. Matty shared some thoughts from the men’s Bible study, He reflected on Jeremiah 13 and the linen belt or loincloth that God had instructed Jeremiah to buy and then to hide in a crevice in the rocks. When Jeremiah was eventually instructed to go and retrieve it, it was spoilt and ruined. Matty reflected that this was like God’s gifts for us and that without care they too would be ruined.

Yvette brought us the word from Phillipians 2 5:11. We may all remember that verse that says that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow.

Yvette outlined some of the background to the letter. Paul’s letter is to the Philippians, written from a prison cell (again!). It’s written to an important group  of Christians who have formed the first church on mainland Europe. Phillipi is important in Roman world as it is a city with it’s own autonomous authority.
The passage is about unity and selflessness. Paul in describing putting others first, describes perfectly what his own attitude is, modelled on Christ . The attitude we give to people is usually the attitude we get back. We are windows to Christ and what we need to do is make sure what we portray is not distorted. Jesus never turned anyone away, he always made time for people and also for his father. We reflect on this Palm Sunday with our crosses made from palms that the people who welcomed him on this day subsequently turned on him, denied him, betrayed him and turned their backs on him.

Jesus knew this was going to happen. He even asked for this terrible cup or burden to be lifted from him, He never lost sight of the fact that what needed to happen was whatever God willed and he did it,  he did God’s will. We all can appreciate and realise what it being betrayed by his friends must have felt like, it must have hurt. Jesus goes to his death, a painful death. It’s not an easy death. The details are disputed about exactly where the nails went.  Modern research now suggests that the nails in his feet might have been done sideways. Whatever the details there is no doubt that this is a truly horrible death. Crucifixion is death by suffocation. Because he loves us and loves his Father he suffers this.

The gospels show how much he loved us and loved his father.  Yvette pondered on the fact that even though he had unlimited and ultimate power, Jesus chooses the powerlessness of living as a human to save us, the feeding living being tempted , and being constrained by time. He came as a carpenter, a jobbing builder, a nobody, to a young unmarried mother. We don’t even know if Joseph is there to act as a stepdad as we don’t hear about him again in the gospels. The first 30 years of the life of Jesus reveal very little we hear nothing. He could have come in power with the heavenly army. Instead he came as a baby, grew to be a worker and a servant. The era that Jesus is born into people could actually sell themselves as slaves, they could be there voluntarily . Thankfully we were bought at a price from Satan, freed when Jesus paid the price and set us free. The more time we spend in God’s presence the more we become like he wants us to be. Jesus is irresistible. All who meet him bend the knee. We need to see nothing but him . Imagine if people could see the sun (the Son) in our eyes. Imagine the consequences. More prayer gives more power.When we obey we are rewarded. Imagine the treasures we are building up. Yvette finished by praying for the coming Holy Week and Easter.

Reflecting on what Yvette had preached on I was reminded of some of the training I had undertaken for Hartlepool Town Pastors. Part of that training focussed on avoiding conflict and being aware of how our actions affect and influence others. The Betari Box model expresses the fact that our attitudes and behaviours have a direct effect on the attitudes and behaviours of others.  We need to let the Son shine from us and be the best Bible that people get to read each day. A tall order and we will not always manage it. The good news is that God does not hold it against us. We get to keep on trying each and every day.

The men’s Bible study  on Monday continued their journey with Jeremiah and it seems apt to end with Jeremiah’s prayer and God’s answer. What false gods or worthless idols are people following today?

19 Lord, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress,
to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say,
“Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good.
20 Do people make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!”
21 “Therefore I will teach them—this time I will teach them
my power and might. Then they will know that my name is the Lord

Tim and Jonny led today’s worship. Tim continued with the theme of looking at the highlights of the Old Testament. The Bible is mainly rooted in the history of people. The first 11 chapters are pre history, no iPads, no history books, all oral. The main purpose is to reflect God, God is , God is the creator who remembers his people.

There was probably a man called Noah. There definitely was a flood. The early writers were interested in getting us to follow God. These chapters lead us to Abram. The call of Abram is found in Chapter 12. Some 9 generations after Noah a man named Terah is born. This guy is loaded he has a big estate , father of a great family estate , lots of land, and has 3 sons, Abram, Nahor and Haran.

Tim tried to compare this to the Dallas series of the 1980s but not sure anyone was a fan! Haran has a couple of kids . Nahor marries Milkah, Haran’s daughter after he died in Ur. Abram marries Sarai and they take in Haran’s son, Lot. Abram is due to inherit a large part of the estate. Terah dies and the sons take over . But the family line is set to end because  Sarai is barren and carries that pain. Then God tells Abram to leave.

This family has a theme of barrenness , Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah all go through this pain. This family of the whole earth begins life in this situation of barrenness.

Let’s be honest if we wanted to write this story we’d have started from a better place. But God had other ideas . This is a speech of God. In the New Testament we will find God’s word is a person, Jesus! Not a chapter in a book.

Easter is fast approaching, here in two weeks. It’s  a celebration of resurrection, giving life to the dead and calling into existence things that don’t yet exist. People formed by Gods world. A world bringing order from chaos. God calls those who are barren and without hope into hope.

This whole story is about this contradiction that to stay in safety is to remain barren. The call to Abram is to go blindly into the future. Abram doesn’t know where he is going but God will show him. Today’s society is too focussed on self. The summons is an incredible promise . Who ever loses his life., This Sunday’s Word for , Acts 3:1 is a call for the faithful to move in life. There is an incredible promise wrapped in this call to Abram . God says “I will make…”,  “I will bless…”, “I will curse..” These are the gifts of god , in the self presentation of God. Compare these with what God gave Adam and Eve in Genesis 3.

They are simply given here as a gift of God. They do however depend upon Abram receiving the gifts. The Promise concluded with a commissioning. This text hints at purpose of the church. In Galatians 3:8 Paul traces that call of the church back to Abram. The good news is God wills life and hope for all people. For all people with no qualifier, and no criteria to meet. Nothing happens if there is no verse 4, no “So Abram went.” He believed the promise of God and went! He travelled the northern shrines . The geography is not really the point though. It’s about pilgrimage and journey. Abram trusts the promise. Would we, we like to be settled and secure. No one likes change. God is a God of movement,  of journeys, of stepping out in faith when called. There are numerous examples of this. God is a tent dweller he moves. Look at his Tabernacle. in Hebrews Jesus too has nowhere to lay his head . By faith Abram made his home in a foreign land, from this one man comes numerous decedents . All this from a man who because of his great age could be considered as good as dead. God calls us to be tent dwellers and it’s not one generation, not just the here and now. God’s promise assumes we pass it on to future generations. Abram enters the land, finds it full of Canaanites, he doesn’t fight them. The promise of God is hard, not easy, to believe and practice . Has to be done in the midst of others who don’t believe. Abram’s is an interesting relationship with no evidence of conflict. The Canaanites may even be a temptation. There is no evidence he tried to covert them. His task was simply to live amongst them , and he leaves altars as he moves around. Tim posed the question, “Where’s your place to connect to God, or is it maybe a simple wooden cross in your hand.” God was about to do something amazing for Abram. Abram simply responded . That’s all God wants us to do. Take the first step, let God bless others through you. Take the step even when you don’t know where the journey take you help us is to trust.

Tim then highlighted some of the inspiration behind the rewrite of the words to the hymn Jesus shall reign that we sang today. The inspiration behind this was Eric Liddell, of Chariots of Fire reputation. He was sitting in a railway station being mocked and questioned about his beliefs. His answer was simply to sing the words of the song to his mockers. Eric Liddell just sang the words to his mockers as a simple way of demonstrating that he was indeed a man not afraid to follow when God calls.

This Sunday was also the time when a small band of us went to Sheraton Court to share worship and songs with the residents.  Tim, Terry, Stella, Esther, Matty and Brenda went to share some time and sing some songs. It is both humbling and a privilege. Even though we had slightly less residents in attendance this time they truly made up for it with their enthusiasm in joining in with the songs. I’ve included an extract of some of the songs,  slightly croaky as some of us are still  getting over colds.