Humour me!

Dear Friends,

Lee Griess recounts that the great American humorist, Will Rogers, had the reputation that he could make anyone laugh. President Calvin Coolidge, on the other hand, had the reputation that he never laughed. Want to know what happened the time those two met? Rogers was invited to visit the White House and as was the custom, the president’s assistant brought Rogers into the Oval Office. As was the custom as he entered, the assistant said, “President Coolidge, this is Will Rogers. Mr. Rogers, this is President Coolidge.” To which Rogers leaned forward and said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t catch the name.” With that, President Coolidge cracked up and started laughing.

Don’t you wish you were as quick on your feet as he was? For we think to ourselves I could do with being quick with a comeback and quick with just the right thing to say. Sometimes not having that ability, however, is a huge boon not least when we are stung by some criticism or remark. But on other occasions, when we really need to open a relationship, we can be at a total loss for words. That’s when sometimes a funny story can come in handy. Of course, it isn’t always the right way to deal with the situation. Yet, on others, it can cause another to relax, to open up even to see you as human.

So when next you come across someone who needs a bit of support, someone who is finding life a treadmill or someone finding things a tiny bit fractious, why not lighten their load with a touch of humour. Since often a smile if not laughter is the best medicine.

Take the example of Dawne Olson who was preparing to give a talk on unity at her women’s Bible study. She woke up early to type out the scripture verses. She wasn’t quite finished when her four children began coming downstairs asking for breakfast. She could hear them in the kitchen rummaging through the refrigerator and cupboards for something to eat. At some point they discovered half of a snack left over from night before. They all began screaming and fighting; each claiming the half-eaten Pop Tart.

As Dawne made a couple of futile attempts to quiet them down, she finished typing the verse in Matthew 5:9 that says, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God.” Taking her cue from scripture, she shouted into the kitchen above the noise, “Would somebody PLEASE be the peacemaker?!”

There was a moment’s silence and then Garret, age 6, piped up, “I’ll be the piece maker, Mummy!”

Then to his brother and sisters he said: “Here’s a piece for you and you, and a piece for you and one piece for me.”

Needless to say, Dawne had her opening illustration on unity and peace for that evening’s Bible study!

May you all have a peaceful and fun-filled June,

Graham

A Week of Crucifixion?

I don’t know about you – but I do feel the telly is rubbish at the moment! It was therefore a delight a few weeks back to watch a programme that truly engaged me for a whole two hours. It was about the annual competition
held by the metropolitan opera in New York to find the best young singers in the United States. As you can imagine this is a highly prestigious award and competition is fierce. The programme picked up when the finalists
from across the states meet up in the vast opera house itself and prepare for their trial debut on stage.

Well, needless to say, there are many tears and tribulations on the way until the few awards are dished out a fortnight later at the end of a gala evening. However, one singer stood out. He was large African American
with superb voice and bubbly personality. We all wanted him to win – and he did. This then was just reward for his years of privations including giving up college and working in a burger bar just to afford to develop his outstanding talent. Yet when the credits rolled and each of the winners successes in the following year were revealed, this 26-year old man’s achievements was strangely thin. The last of all screens told the awful truth. For, this young and outstanding opera star of the future died of cancer shortly after his first night.

Here then is a crucifixion – a crucifixion worth thinking about in this week of crucifixion.

How then do we cope with crucifixions?

How then do we make sense of as Paul had it: He became as humans are even unto death on the cross?

One way, is that of the rather smug gentlemen who debated on the radio last week. Now they were trying to make sense of the Astronomer Royal accepting the Temple Prize to look into quote – spirituality – unquote. And the paradox for them was how could an eminent scientist give any credence to religion; a human activity that was against rationality – that there was no evidence for – that defied logic. As result they agreed with another  speaker I heard who claimed that the universe – and therefore life – was entirely random. A conclusion she went to admit bizzarely – as comforting.

Yet surely the idea of a casino-like world complete with randomized life events is not comforting. In fact, surely it is no way to cope with crucifixions.

Another way to deal with crucifixions I heard of during the ordination of my student who will shortly depart for his ministry in army chaplaincy. During that service, an army chaplain spoke movingly of his discussions
with troops just returned from Afghanistan. These young men – at the peak of their youthful sense of immortality – had seen friends killed and maimed by bomb and the bullet. They themselves had feared their death
and their lifetime disablement and their inability to have children before going into battle. Who then did they turn too – not some online actuary calculating the odds. No – they invariably asked their padre to pray with them
and to pray for them. Here then is another way to face crucifixion – here then is a way to cope with apparent randomness of life – here then is a way to find a friend in an apparently cold & indifferent universe.

For, as the Philippians were to learn, it was God,  who was beyond their logic, that raised Christ up. It was God, who was beyond their experience, who gave him a name to mark him in history. It was indeed God who is beyond smug and chuckling rationality that let him conquer not just heaven and earth but the realms of death. Moreover, this conquest was not just for himself but to all who look to him through fear to be kept safe in crucifixion.

So if at the moment you a frightened of a crucifixion; if you are appalled by a crucifixion or you are suffering a crucifixion then cast not rational logic aside. Instead let it be expanded by the experience of Paul – let it be expanded by your experience of your faith – let it be expanded by the wisdom of the greatest chaplain of them all who is Christ Jesus. For then we can look upon Good Friday in the view of Easter Sunday. For then we can contemplate the cross from the viewpoint of the empty tomb. For then we can face the apparent randomness of crucifixion in the evidence of God’s word.

Because that alone spells out but one word and it resurrection ; that alone confers but one prize and it’s resurrection; that alone reassures in the chilling darkness with – indeed and forever – resurrection.

Amen

A Man for all Seasons

Matthew 5.17-20

Matthew 5.1-10

‘The past is a foreign country’, L. P. Hartley reminds us at the beginning of The   Go-Between; ‘they do things differently there’.  Put simple if we do not study the past we are not only doomed to repeat its mistakes we also do not learn what doing things differently could mean for us. Now this is the 450 year of the reformation in our wee Scotland and nearly 500 years since Luther posted his 95 articles on a door in back of beyond Germany. Yet these small acts dare I say in small places ripped Europe up more quickly than Hitler did when he invaded Poland.   Since we are talking about a time when being on the wrong side, having the wrong theology or worshipping in the wrong way could mean death. Indeed, the 30 years religious war killed possibly 30% of the German population alone; German total casualties from Second World War being around 11%. The Reformation too has had a much longer effect that the political upheavals that divided Europe with a concrete wall last Century. Since its differing ideas are still a barrier to unity in the Christian church even today. Nevertheless, the 15^th century of the reformation has much in common with our 21 st Century and therefore has much to say to us despite the controversies it still stirs up. So let us proceed but let us proceed gently.

Now I would not say that Erasmus was gentle but he certainly had a spirituality around him that made him try to be a peace maker. Born in Rotterdam in 1466, he lived in the years immediately preceding the Reformation and throughout it. Yet despite the violence, disorder and oppression it engendered, he remained a voice of rationality, calm and moderation. He indeed remained true to beatitudes.

And this scholar was well placed to do so. For, he was a towering intellect of his age and the key figure in the then humanist movement. Humanism back then I rush to say had little to do with today’s fig leaf term for militant atheism. Rather it was product of the renaissance when the individual citizen started to emerge from behind both the totalitarian control of the church and princes. It was the germ of every human being having the right to think for themselves. It was the embryo if little more of universal human freedom.

And Erasmus found these discoveries of human individuality in the classical works that brought back to life the thinkers of ancient Greece and Rome. He re-found in the ancient languages of Greek and Hebrew the true text of scriptures that had been less well translated many centuries before. Moreover, he pushed forward the brand new way of mass communication which was the printing press.

Since by Erasmus day, the church had both mired itself in corrupt practices and had allowed a very dry academic approach to the bible and theology reign. The latter is often typified, probably apocryphally, as theologians arguing how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. Instead, Erasmus and his colleagues such as Thomas More looked to scripture having a genuine impact of ordinary people’s lives – their problems, their fears and their aspirations. That’s why in a sermon, he once preached:

I would like to hear the farmer sing scripture at the plough, a weaver keep his shuttle time to it and the traveller find his journey better by its stories.

And what was Erasmus’ line of attack. It was to offer a new and more accurate version of the New Testament in Greek which then could be translated into people’s own languages. In other words, he wanted everyone to be able to read the bible for themselves or at least hear it read in the vanacular.

However, his vision would have been hopelessly optimistic until the invention of the printing press and its use of paper some 50 years earlier. Now texts no longer needed to hand copied onto expressive animal skin parchment. Now hundreds if not thousands of copies could be produced quickly and cheaply. Now new ideas could and did spread like wildfire across Western Europe.  Because, who can doubt that it is the printed word that has changed the average human lot than most other invention.  Erasmus view then was if the ploughman and milk maid were going to learn to read – it should be to read something worthwhile – something that will edify their common humanity and something that will draw them nearer to a personal savior in Jesus Christ.

Well ultimately Erasmus failed in his attempt to reconcile the reformers with the then only church. In fact, he himself never broke with that church and is often seen as neither fish nor fowl. Yet his legacy to us all is immeasurable. For, he provided the tools for both the Protestant Reformation and Catholic Counter Reformation. More to the point, he contributed hugely to the developing sense of an individual relationship with a personal God who stands above yet in total fulfliment of the law.

However, he also leaves us with one very relevant challenge to us here and how. Since, we too are now in a highly individualistic age. But we are also in a similar age as to that of Erasmus in terms of new forms of communication. Becuase just as the printing press utterly changed human history there is little doubt that Television and the internet are doing the same. Erasmus example then asks us – how do we use them for the good of our common humanity and enjoyment of God?

Interestingly, Erasmus, although a lifelong scholar, spent less time in universities than he did the printing shops of Europe. Because as the new technology spread to places like Oxford and Venice, printing presses became like polytechnics today. Since each needed master printers, editors, reviewers and typesetters versed not just in their own language but also Latin and Greek and maybe Hebrew. Here then were the factories of communication that feed those hungry for fresh and true word of God.

Therefore let us too not reject new ways of communicating. Instead, let us embrace them with vigour, enthusiasm and gratitude. For, arguably, Christianity in Britain has made a lamentable shambles of it use of TV. But let us not make the same mistake over the web and new ideas of Christian education such as interactive learning, games and newer forms of worship. For, not to join the future is to be lost in the past.

On the other hand, if do set our hand to the presses of this age, we will be faced with a hard task yet one that is undeniably in the lord’s service.  For as Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who is acutely points out – the task confronting the Churches is the bearing witness to Christ in a society that  wants to portray Christian faith as ‘an obstacle to human freedom and a  scandal to the human intellect’. But that is precisely the great ecumenical challenge to the Christian Churches in modern Britain and to every Christian.

Let us then take up that gauntlet, reform and press on…..

Amen

 

Martin Luther – Here I stand!

Texts:

Romans 1.11-17

Galatians 3.26-4.7

When they are on the goggle box, we all love court room dramas. And our next turning point in the Reformation has one. It happened during a legal sitting of the Holy Roman Emperor who was the overlord of broadly the Low Countries, Germany and Spain. For, you see, Martin Luther had been called before this diet to make his case in 1521. He had been promised safe passage there but this had been breached in the previous case of Jan Hus and he rightly could fear the flames of a heretic’s death. So in his first appearance at the diet of worms – yes the schoolboy howler of the diet of worms, he was naturally very nervous. And so when he was asked to recant his views, he must have been strongly tempted to do so. Yet he managed to ask for a night to think it over. The emperor granted that and next morning he returned with renewed courage. In fact, he stood his ground of basing his theology on the rational discovery of truth through Scripture. Albeit probably he did not use the words later put into his mouth – here I stand, I can do no other. Nevertheless, it was that stance which was the starting gun for the reformation.

But what were these views that a devout man would risk the funeral pyre for and spark a European conflict of such dimensions that were not paralleled until the 20^th Century? Moreover, what is the relevance of Luther’s theology today?

Well, without troubling you with a history lesson, Luther was reacting to both the thinking and practice of the church of his day. In general terms, the church considered that while we needed God’s help to get into a right relationship with him, some seeds of goodness lay within us. It’s a bit like serving a long prison sentence and then being given the generous offer of paying a large fine to be released. You dig out the old credit card and pay up from your own financial resources. Luther however, had a life long struggle find his wallet. In other words, year upon year, he fought to come up to the righteous measure of God; to meet God’s unwavering law as he saw it. But he felt a constant failure and feared God’s wrath at not being able to find any goodness within himself. Then he chanced on our Romans reading from today. He came to the conclusion, that nothing we can do can give us the right relationship with God.

But don’t worry – Luther knew a man who could. And that man was Jesus of Nazareth. For it is Christ -  who is external to us – that supplies all that is needed to get right with God – to be saved in the parlance. Returning to our prison analogy, we would be released not by our own payment but because the fine had been paid by someone else on our behalf. All that we would need is faith – faith in the man who had bailed us out – faith in Christ Jesus.

Well, assuming we too want to be in the right relationship with God, what did Luther mean by faith?

Certainly, he meant more than what many people claim is their faith today. Since, we can all hear the facts of Jesus’ life; listen to his words and even marvel at his needs. Yet unless somehow we actually go beyond an intellectual acceptance of Christ’s life and death and resurrection it is not saving faith. Instead, we must integrate the person beyond the parables into our heart of hearts. And we do that best by coming to complete submission; submitting to the truth that Jesus was born for us personally and submitting to he who alone who puts us right with God on an individual level. Put simply no church or minister can do that for you- only you can give in and find the living and saving Christ for yourself.

However, it goes beyond even that. For faith, to Luther, also meant trust. Now I don’t know about you but I am a nervous flyer in commercial aircraft. Pilot a glider or a light aircraft I can do – but when I enter the door of an airliner I feel the same as Luther at his can of worms. In other words, I have faith that the Boeing 737 before me can take me to London but I still have to have the faith to get into the contraption. So too it is with saving faith. We must not just believe that Jesus can get us right with God, we need also to rely that he has done so. That means taking risks in that faith. It means get out of the boat and walk impossibly on the water in that faith. It means truly living each day in that faith.

But Luther didn’t even stop there. Since for him there was a third and final aspect to being saved through faith. Because he saw faith not just putting us right with God and giving us a new dimension to living. Rather he saw faith uniting us with Christ. In his words faith bring union between Christ and the believer.

And that is pretty powerful stuff. This is the idea too of Paul that we heard of in Galatians. For, through faith, we cast aside slavery to rules and regulations, required practices and things we must do to get in with God. Through faith we forget worrying when we do fail. Indeed, through faith we will fail less often. Because through faith we are not just wiped clean and set free, we are adopted into the family of God.  And it is as his heirs alone we inherit a forgiven life eternal.

C S Lewis once wrote – In my most clear-sighted moments not only do I not think myself a nice man, but I know I am a very nasty man. I look at some of the things I have done with horror or loathing. Well, deep down I suspect most of us feel something like that from time to time. For that is the very nature of our mixed up humanness. Yet Luther, even if we spoke nearly five hundred years ago, shows us the way out of that pit of despondency. For, he said – have faith and invite Christ into that dark inner place. Countless Christians since have trusted rightly in that presence of Christ to get them through of the mess, over the chasm and out of the boat. And even in these Godless days, Christ still says to you and me; come brother, come sister – I will make you right  with God – I will make you free – Indeed, I will make you forever.

Amen

Time to be Still

by Elaine Hackney

In the 19^th Century, ministers might have used an hour glass such as this to time their sermons, particularily in the “Wee Free Kirks. Don’t worry. I certainly won’t be speaking for an hour! Nor will I be following a friends tongue in cheek advice——-Face the congregation and say the words of the last hymn ‘BE STILL’ Pause and then say ‘That is the end of the sermon. Now go outside and enjoy God’s wonderful word!’ You will certainly be remembered  for years to come“ he said! That would indeed be the shortest sermon on record!

9 year old Robbie, a young friend of mine, and his father have been tending their vegetable patches for some time now ready to harvest a bumper crop of potatoes, beans, leeks carrots, courgettes and tomatoes and sell for Church funds. His Dad came home recently after a long and arduous day at the office and asked Robbie if he had done his watering duties. ‘Daddy,’ I simply haven’t had the time’ said young Robbie . His parents were  amused at this response but rather perplexed. Where was this coming from? After all he WAS on holiday for 8 weeks! Then they realised that he was simply using an expression that he was hearing frequently at home and in our society today.

Our world is speeding up and we all live at a much faster pace than our parents and grandparents. We keep trying to do more and more and this is taking its toll, creating stress in our lives. Being SO  busy all the time depletes  our reserves and we need to find time to recharge the batteries and restore balance to our lives.

My Dear, wise friend Eric Milton, here today with Sheila his lovely wife (Welcome to you both) referred me recently to Psalm 46 verse 10 having listened to my account of the day I had just spent.  There in black and white were the words ‘Be still and know that I am God’ How well Eric knows me!

But it helped to channel my thoughts towards today’s sermon.

I am an ‘early bird’ and love to rise about 6 30 to walk round the 2 ponds at Monikie. At that time in the morning there is complete peace and I can enjoy the beautiful scenery looking right over to the rolling hills of Fife. 2 families of swans and their cygnets glide gracefully by through the water which can be like a millpond. Rabbits scurry by and occasionally I have come across a startled deer which pauses momentarily gazing at me with its limpid brown eyes before bounding away into the woods. This precious time in the morning has no demands and gives me time to be still and communicate with God asking his help for the rest of the day ahead. Now I understand why my own mother used to rise at least an hour before the rest of the family!

A young American college student was on a retreat one beautiful weekend in October. Her tutor announced that the students should go off outside and spend 45 minutes alone with God. The day before she had spotted 2 swings overlooking a lake with mountains in full Autumn colours behind—–the perfect place to spend time with God. As the group set off she overheard some others say ’Let’s go to the lake where the swings are. Immediately she was on ’Red Alert’! She simply had to get there first so off she raced dashing round the other way from the rest of the group in order to get there first. She rushed past a small white chapel, flew past a wooden cross and finally leaped on to the swing feeling good about her victory but too charged up to be still and know God. Then it hit her! She was too wrapped up in achieving an insignificant victory, therefore missing what was really important. In trying to be in control she had completely missed the things God wanted her to see on the way—-the small white chapel displaying Faith, the wooden cross for Hope and the gift of still time with God while sitting on the swing.

In Marks Gospel we read this morning of the busyness of Jesus’ life. When he returned with Simon Peter and Andrew to their house they found Simon’s mother in law very ill with a high fever. Despite the fact that Jesus must have been extremely tired and longing to rest with his friends and enjoy a meal with them, he went forward and took her hand. His personal touch and compassion healed her. Later that evening the whole village gathered outside and once again Jesus healed many, depleting his energies even further.

But Jesus knew his spiritual and physical energies were drained and he needed the time to recharge. So the next morning he rose very early when still dark and went off to a solitary place to pray to God. Then restored again he continued with his healing and ministry to those in need. You see, Jesus knew he had to prioritise and take time to pray and be with God.

Finding time to be still and pray is sometimes difficult  when there are so many other demands on our time, but when we are doing so much, going too fast, we can’t hear God. We can only hear Him when we create stillness.

We need to listen more. Have you noticed that we are actually becoming a nation of interruptors! You have only to turn on the television to observe this in the many interviews that take place. People don’t let others complete their sentences. They talk over each other, interrupting all the time. Everybody is talking and it seems nobody is listening.People have become impatient and can’t even let others complete a thought before they jump in with what they want to say oblivious to the other’s point of view! How rude!

In Ecclesiastes we heard the words ‘A time to be  silent and a time to speak. We should be quick to listen and slow to speak. A good counsellor, after all has to be a good listener. My poor husband often complains that he can’t get a word in edgeways  if we are out dining with friends because it seems no one wants to hear what he has to say!

Yes our lives have become too frantic. What happened to God’s Commandment to remember the Sabbath Day and keep it holy. 6 days we are told to labour and do all our work but the Sabbath should be a day of rest. How I long sometimes for the days when I was a child at my Grandparents’ home in Stonehaven. Sunday was indeed a day of rest– a day to recharge, be with the family-a day where we had time for each other and kept God’s Commandment. In those days no shops were open. People attended Church often for a morning and an evening service. Families walked together, talked together sang hymns round the piano. Yes I’m sure you can remember these days too.

Recently we took our Grandson Rhys and his friend to the Iron Age Crannog at Loch Tay. There we took a step back in time to the days where families made everything from first principles. The wheat was planted then harvested then ground between 2 stones to make the flour for the bread. The people spun the wool and wove the cloth for their clothes , they carved their bows and arrows, bowls from which to eat, dug out canoes to travel the loch in search of food. They cut down trees to make their dwellings. And all these activities were done as a family together giving the children good learning experiences at first hand. Stories would be told round the fire bringing the family together at the end of the evening. It was a hard life but a simple one with NO rush!

If you drew a pie chart and divided it up in to how you spend your day, how would it look and just how much time would be put in for yourself? I guarantee a very small proportion! Our lives are out of balance and we need to re balance, be still and find time.

In one of Helen Steiner Rice’s books I found this poem

Were you too busy this morning to quietly stop and pray

Did you hurry and drink your coffee then frantically rush away

Consoling yourself by saying God will always be there

Waiting to hear my petitions and answer each prayer

It’s true the great generous Saviour forgives our Transgressions each day

And patiently waits for lost sheep who constantly seem to stray

But moments of prayer once omitted in the busy rush of day

Can never be recaptured for they silently slip away.

So seek the Lord in the morning and never forget Him at night

For prayer is an unfailing blessing that makes every burden seem light.

Most of you know of my involvement with the Mary Slessor Foundation. I have in the past given talks about Mary’s life and the work of the Foundation.

In conclusion I would like to quote the words inscribed on Mary’s tombstone out in Calabar.

Mary was a whirlwind and an earthquake and a fire and a still small voice all in one. Maybe we should all have a still small voice.

Called to be a wind of change

Matthew 4.1-4

Most of our ideas of what the desert looks like come from Laurence of Arabia. And that means we think of smooth sand dunes rolling across the landscape like the waves of the sea. However, a TV programme this week disabused me of that image. For in it the desert was stone strewn and mountainous and ravine torn. A desert then is not defined by what it looks like but by something else. And that is, of course, a lack of water. Needless to say that fatal shortage, in turn, gives two other characteristics of deserts – a lack of food and a lack of living things. A desert therefore is a place where there is no generous provision.

Now it was each of these scarcities that Christ had to contend with in his tempting stay in the desert. For who can doubt that hunger, thirst and loneliness were the key components in his temptation. But, in overcoming the enticement to feed himself at the expense of God’s will, he insured the return of generous giving. Since, it was his subsequent teaching of God’s word that inspires and motivates self-centred hearts. It was his living the word of God that challenges self-seeking minds. And it was his generous dying for the word of God that became a powerful wind of change in all human barrenness.

Well, this Sunday we celebrate not a dearth of provision but an excess of generosity. For in our harvest festival we show gratitude to God for his bounteous gifts to us. And also at the end of our stewardship campaign we celebrate the generosity we have found in ourselves and in others. Put directly, we give thanks by answering the same call as Christ did and that is to put aside self and to be part of his wind of change.

For just as in the time when Jesus was led out into the wilderness by the Spirit, so to there is an overriding need for the winds of change in our today. The wind of change in a physically starving world that hungers for our Christian giving – a wind of change in a spiritually thirsting community that could flower with our Christian witness and a wind of change in a multitude of individual solitary deserts that would celebrate after even a few moments of our Christian time.

Indeed, there can be few countries in greater need of that wind of change than Afghanistan. Now sadly that benighted nation is daily on our news for all the wrong reasons. And so I thought today we could celebrate with one of its good news stories. Since, it was from western Afghanistan that Mari Mishmast tells of when her husband died she had to sell 5 of their 22 goats to feed her 7 children. Then drought came and the remaining animals died. She says she wouldn’t have known what to do if Christian charity had not gifted her six new goats.  Now she and her family had enough to live at least. But that is not the end of her story. Because her village is located in an arid region which has practically nothing of value except – you’ve guessed it – wind. Indeed that part of the world experiences 120 very windy days a year. It is so strong that you have to wrap a scarf around your face to prevent you breathing in the airborne sand; so strong in fact that often you have to brace yourself to prevent yourself being blown over. Yet that is why Christian Aid then chose to dig a water well deep down and set up a wind powered pump. The outcome is that the local inhabitants now not only feed themselves but gain some wealth from the 2000 animals that they breed.

Moreover, dare I suggest that such a generous wind of change is also likely to change hearts and minds as much as any political initiative to prevent the hatred that evil seeks to fester in that country.

Mari goes on to say – I am very happy and I want to say thank you directly from me to you. So at this harvest and stewardship celebration, let us also say thank you – me to you. Thank you to God for his generous providing. Thank you also to each other for resisting the temptation to keep and for freely giving. Above all, thank you to ourselves for being part of Christ’s wind of change. Because, it is that self-giving wind of change alone that provides the very water of life.  It is that God-serving wind of change alone that can make arid deserts bloom. In truth, it is only that grateful wind of change which fulfils the words of Isaiah: waters shall break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground – springs of living water.

Amen

Called to Believe

Called to believe

Texts

John 20.24-29

2 Corinthians 4.16-5.10

In a vain attempt to come across some modern unbelievable things, I rather stupidly pumped the words – unbelievable things – into the internet. And so I encountered the cat with four ears, the fact that earth worms taste like fried bacon and art made in latte coffee. I also learned that the average pencil can draw a line of 35 miles or write 55,000 words, that a hedgehog’s heart beats 300 to the minute, and that coca-cola would be green if no colouring was added. All these then are unbelievable but apparently true.

So what about a man who was killed by asphyxiation after being skewered through his wrists and hung up before being stabbed in his stomach to make sure he was dead. Finally, he was buried for nearly 48 hours before he appeared alive. Now, is that believable or unbelievable?

Well what we do not need to believe because is it certain is that this single unbelievable event caused a tiny band of frightened people to found a world religion that has shaped world history for nearly 2000 years and has 2 billion followers today. A number of believers which, I hop,e we count ourselves amongst here and now.

Nevertheless, we are still left wondering – How do we believe something that seems essentially unbelievable?

Well, the answer is to ask a different question and that is – why is it we find this event- unbelievable?

And the answer is, of course, because we do not hear of such a happening in our everyday. We ourselves have never seen such an event. Moreover, we are all sceptical of any claim made in the name of religion today. For, we do live in an age that does not really have faith in that which it cannot touch or see or maybe even buy. As a result, most people will say, when it comes what is their spiritually certainities – I only believe in my own senses.

Yet on the other hand in every other walk of life we must take much on trust. If it were not so, we would not be able to use paper money. We would doubt that men had landed on the moon. We would be left asking – did the First World War actually happen? In fact, can we really be certain that wee Johnny went to school last week just because he told us so. In other words, society cannot function for a second without a degree of trust. You cannot even stand up in your pew without a significant amount of trust in many things and people.

In essence then – believing in the resurrection event comes down to who or what we trust. Thomas, for example, was a very modern man. He did not trust the testimony of his fellow apostles. As he said – he would only trust his senses of touch and sight. And as a result, Christ met that need and Thomas believed – Thomas was blessed – Thomas became a believer.

Paul was different. Paul needed less his physical senses satisfied than for his searching soul to find union with the spirit of Christ. That requirement too was satisfied by the encounter on the road to Damascus. Thus Paul believed – Paul was blessed – Paul became a believer.

The risen lord therefore knew on both occasions what was needed to engender trust even certainty and he provided it. He provided it not through compulsion or to a set of evidential rules or a human agenda. He simply provided because it was asked for – it was in his gift – it was within his loving grace.

Therefore, I ask now – what do you require to believe – what is the barrier to your faith – what is stopping you fully meeting your call to be believers? For, if you confess your requirement in your heart – Christ will bless and gift and grace. He will provide the trust necessary. Is it a bible passage? Is it a happening in your life? It is a sense of love or peace or guarantee that has eluded you for years? Whatever it is then just ask and God will provide. For, trust me, he wants you amongst his followers – he wants you now as an apostle. He wants you to be a blessed foundation of the future church.

Yet the secular world out there is asking why is it so important that you believe that a 34 year old man was murdered, buried and was resurrected? Miraculous it may be – they might claim – but on its own, it is miraculous only for him yet irrelevant to us.

And that just isn’t true. For within that miracle is the grace to trust something else. Indeed within the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the means to meet our overwhelming requirement. And that is to be certain that our lives not just have meaning but that we will have continuation.

Indeed, it is very belief that Paul writes of in his letter to the Corinthians. Since, maybe as a result of the thorn in his own flesh which he makes reference to elsewhere, he feels his frailty, he creaks in his bones and he fears his mortality. And so rather in a reversal of Thomas, he says I will only believe my immortality when I can put my finger on it. And Christ then answers him and says look and see and know and believe. For, just as you trust that I am alive, so will you live.

During our first session of the Emmaus course, I think we came to a startling conclusion. And it was this – belief is better than certainty. For certainty comes from touch and sight, but leaves no room for the greater things beyond our puny faculties. Certainty also leaves no room for opportunity and wonder and discovery. But above all, certainty leaves no room for grace. For it was pure generosity that Christ came to earth, died and rose again. It was pure generosity he met the needs for Thomas and Paul to believe and so founded the Church in which we can trust. And it is pure unadulterated generosity that he provides us the knowledge, faith and hope of eternal life that our senses can never give. Since, unbelievable as it may seem, that trust alone is ever the believable blessing of God. And for that,we ever give him thanks.

Amen