Ephesians 1:1-2 Identifying with Paul's introduction to Ephesians

 

here is a link to a Spotify recording of this message preached at HopeWhangarei  June 15th 2025

https://open.spotify.com/episode/1PxsF5337MgdqqRhxJg1Zq?si=rQJ0NhkaRpKybHpPar24vQ

Over the next six months we are going to be immersing ourselves in the letter to the Ephesians.

A letter that has been called the high point of Paul’s writing and theology, the queen of the epistles.

There are many people who have been bought to faith by reading Ephesians. If it were  presented in a paperback with endorsements printed on the back, you might have the words of prominent twentieth century Presbyterian minister, educator and missionary John A Mackey printed there.

“… this book saved my life…” he said after reading Ephesians as a boy amidst the rocks and stars of the Scottish Highlands …“I saw a new world… everything was new… I had a new outlook, new experiences, new attitudes to other people. I loved God. Jesus Christ became the centre of everything… I had been ‘quickened’; I was really alive.” 

It might be a bit of an insider joke, but I couldn’t help but think of the 1986 scifi film ‘The Highlander’ when Mackey spoke of being in the Scottish highlands and experiencing the quickening.

Ephesians continued to inspire and motivate him all his life. Mackey believed that Ephesians was for today, the most contemporary book in the bible. "As the apostle proclaimed God’s order in a time of social disintegration, so it offers us today community in a world of disunity, reconciliation in place of alienation and peace instead of war."

Likewise as I read it I see it offering hope and a way forward in a world that is wrestling with identity. Where people define themselves by gender, sexuality and racial grouping, and ideas like critical theory pit groups against each other in terms of power, in terms of oppressors and the oppressed, colonizer and the colonized, allies and haters, often with only a dim hope of resolution. Ephesians offers a new way  a new identity that gives real hope…being ‘in Christ’ a term used with several variants approximately 35 times in the letter. Karl Marx’s hope was in the new man and the new society but Ephesians gives us the hope of a new creation in Christ.

This morning, we are looking at the opening two verses. On one level they present us with a simple generic introduction to a letter in first century roman culture.  They tell us who it is from, the sender, who it is to, the recipient , and brings a greeting… Kia Ora, gidday. But really its so much more than that as Paul takes what is necessary, a social convention and nicety and transforms it into an introduction for the whole book. He transforms the identity of the sender and recipient and introduces to his message…

While it would be easy to start with the sender and the recipient, Paul’s introduction and greeting identify for us the central characters of this letter and its story. The main thing you notice about these introductory verses is the repetition of the mention of God and Jesus Christ. Each of the three lines focuses on God and Jesus. They and their work are going to be the center of what Paul is writing about. One commentator speaks of the enthusiasm and passion that comes through that repetition. If its not too disrespectful, Paul comes across almost like an excited Labrador pup. Yet behind that you catch a glimpse of the prominence and importance of this for us: The sender and recipient are identified in relationship to  them, and the sender and recipient are related to each other through God and Jesus Christ. His greeting is bought and is an extension of the work and ministry of God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace and peace are not just sentiments and hopes for Paul’s readers they are concrete certain realities coming from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I’ve used that same repetition for effect.

The Christian message and faith provides us with a starting point and a source for meaning and identify that is beyond our selves, our situation and how we are defined as an individual or as a group. It invites us to see our story in relation not to history and place, but a larger reality, God’s redemptive story. God working out God’s plans and purposes through Jesus Christ, in the world.

Look I should also add for those of you who are concerned about the trinity and wondering where the spirit is in this. In Ephesians the Spirit is mentioned and seen as at work. In his list of every spiritual blessing Paul talks of being marked with  a seal, showing we belong to God, that seal is the presence of the Holy Spirit within us. In his prayers he prays we may know the power that raised Jesus from the dead, and identifies that power with the holy Spirit. The holy spirit gives gifts to the Church to grow us up into unity and maturity lacking nothing.    

Let’s identify the sender and recipient.

The sender we are told in Paul, there is some debate amongst scholars if it is Paul or student of Paul’s using him as a pseudepigrapha, claiming his authority. It’s a technical discussion, and there is enough evidence to see this letter being written by Paul. But Paul identifies himself in relationship to Jesus and to God. In Ephesians 4 Paul speaks of being a prisoner for the Lord so it is quite possible he is writing from prison.

Firstly, Paul calls himself an apostle of Christ Jesus. Apostle means a send one, and in the first century it indicated someone who was a sent official representative. Another word you might think of is the word herald. Apostle is used in several different ways in the New Testament, it applies to the twelve who were with Jesus in his ministry and met Jesus risen from the dead. It can also mean someone who has meet the risen Jesus outside that twelve, and in 1 Corinthians 15 Paul talks of being a witness to the risen Jesus as one untimely born. Later it comes to mean a missionary someone who has the authority of the gospel message.  Paul’s other favorite title for himself is that of a servant or slave of Christ, and he is not trying to obtain status through using apostle. Rather as a servant of Jesus he is acting on his masters’ orders. Paul here does not see being an apostle as an occupation he had chosen or earned, rather it is by the will of God.

We are reminded how Saul was a religious Jew, a pharisee amongst the Pharisees who had persecuted the church, until he met Jesus on the road to Damascus. And Paul’s life was changed, he now knew Jesus was the Messiah and God then chose him to be an apostle to the gentiles. In Ephesians Paul will talk of the mystery that the gospel was for the gentiles as well as the Jews that’s God’s plan all along was for the two to be one people in Christ.  We see Paul’s identity formed by God through meeting Jesus Christ, by grace. Paul shows us how that change of identity changes our attitudes and how we relate to others.  He is a totally different person in Christ.

Likewise the recipients of the letter are identified in relationship with God and with Jesus Christ. This letter from an early age has always been associated with the church in Ephesus but in the earliest manuscripts we have there there is no mention of Ephesus. It simply says to the saints in God, the faithful in Jesus Christ. This has lead some to see this epistle as a circular written to a group of churches. Possibly the churches of Asia Minor of which Ephesus is the major city. In Acts 19 we have a record of Paul’s three years of ministry in Ephesus and we are told that the gospel became know throughout Asia Minor by his ministry, so it would fit that Paul would write to those churches. Churches that were predominantly gentile which fits the emphasis of the message of the book.

Again we see that Paul identified his recipients in relationship to God and to Jesus. He calls them the saints in God. We normally associate the term Saint with people who are special who are morally superior people, who in the catholic tradition preformed miracles and worth of canonization. In protestant circles saint was a title from Celtic Christianity to denote the founder of a church, or a missionary. But in scripture saint is never used singularly of a person. It is always the saints, and it comes from the Greek word hagios which means being set aside and holy. Paul is saying the people that he is writing to have been set aside by god for his purposes. They are a holy people, as it says in 1 Peter 2:10. Like the instruments in the temple in the old testament were sent aside for God’s use. The te paipera tapu the maori bible uses the term te hunga tapu. Hunga means a group of people and of course Tapu means set aside from everyday mundane use for the sacred. Again its not because they were good enough it is because of God’s choosing. We can’t separate this word saints from the second identification Paul uses ‘the faithful in Christ. Again we might think of faithful as an attribute, a virtue we have. However it has more the sense that we have put our faith in Jesus Christ. It is because we have trusted in Jesus that we have been set aside for God, become his holy people. By grace as we confess our sin and turn to God, Jesus imparts his righteousness to us, and we are holy…Our identity comes from God by grace through Jesus Christ.

In the later manuscripts it does say in Ephesus. Ephesus was a spiritual heavy place, the center of the worship of the Greek Godess Artemis, we know that during Paul’s time the goldsmiths who made their living making idols to sell rioted because they feared that the gospel was making such inroads that it was cutting off their income source.  It was a city and region where jew and gentile would have lived very separate lives almost been at odds with each other. But now they equally have this new identity as God’s holy people through belief in Christ, and it changes how they relate and live in the world. It breaks down that enmity and calls them to live as family together in Christ. It calls them to love & follow Jesus ethics and way not the way of their pagan world. We too share this dual Identity in our time and setting, in Whangarei, in New Zealand in our twenty first century world with its challenges and difficulties, and  in Christ which we are given by grace and that calls us to live in a new way, that reflects God’s purposes and plans and God’s mission.

That is a good segue to look at the greeting that Paul uses for his readers. Grace to you and peace through God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We’ve become used to Paul’s greeting that we don’t realize how radical it was for its original hearers. The traditional Greek greeting was charin which means rejoice or joyous greeting. But Paul uses a play on words and uses charis which sounds similar but means grace. So to Paul’s original listeners it would sound familiar but they would think ‘hold on there is something slightly different and new here’. But also Paul ties that together with the traditional Jewish greeting as well ‘Shalom’ peace. Writing to a church hat was working out how to be this new people of God together that was important. It is like in New Zealand it is becoming more and more common for people to greet one in te reo and English, and depending on the circumstance other languages as well. It is a way of articulating the hope of unity.  

But they are also not just pleasantries again they are made concrete and real as they come from God through Jesus Christ. It is by grace that we are bought into relationship with god, and here Paul emphasizes that new relationship by affirming that God is ‘our’ father. In Christ we are being bought together as children of God. AS john says in the prologue to his gospel to all who believed in him he gave the right to become the sons and daughters of the Lord most high. Later in Ephesians Paul will emphasis the universality of God’s saving grace by prefacing his prayer in chapter 3 by saying we bow the knee to the father from whom all families in heaven and earth takes their name. the book starts with Paul speaking of the grace of God as he recounts the spiritual blessing God has bestowed on those who believe. He will speak of how that has made it possible for diverse people to become one and that God ha given gifts to build the church up into maturity and unity. It is by grace, through Jesus Christ.

Peace shalom has the idea not of that feeling you might have sitting beside a calm lake or with the absence of conflict or stress, but rather it has to do with wellness, or as Leonard Sweet puts it right relationship. Peace with God, with one another, with the create world around us, with our possessions and with the spiritual realm. In the second half of the letter of Ephesians Paul will speak of how our new identity in Christ is worked out in those relationships, how we treat each other, how we relate in the power structures of the day… submit to one another… and how we deal with the spiritual forces arrayed against us… put on the whole armor of God. That peace comes though God’s grace but it is the work that we need to do putting that into practice in our lives, with the help of the Holy Spirit. In the beatitudes Jesus says blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God. We are called to be peace makers. Work at peace in our lives and world. Share the gospel so people can have peace with God, love one another, work at being one, that means dealing with injustices and conflicts, for the original readers it meant dealing with the divide between Jew and gentile.

We’ve brought those things together in the title of our series on Ephesians grace ‘every spirit blessing and peace ‘new life in Christ’

I just want to finish by inviting us to identify with Ephesians. Maybe as Ephesus wasn’t mentioned in those earliest of manuscripts it’s easy for us to slide our own address in there in Whangarei in New Zealand, in our twenty-first century home, hear yourself addressed as the saints in God, people set aside for the purposes the mission and glory of God, a hunga tapu. Hear that you are that because you have put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. That it is by grace and hear the call for peace to live out of that new identity in a new way that reflects that wholeness, right relationships that God calls us into.  My Prayer is that as we work our way through Ephesians that you too may feel a quickening… and feel fully alive in Christ. That you may you know ‘Every spiritual blessing and new life in Christ'. 

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amos 7... living with the tension between the necessity of judgment and the possibility of mercy

 

John Goldingay says that the chapter of Amos we are looking at this morning invites us into the tension between the necessity of judgment and the possibility of mercy:  Our understanding of God as both holy and righteous, who will not allow injustice to flourish and go unanswered, and loving and kind, who forgives and faithful to his covenant relationship. As we’ve been going through Amos I know many of you are wrestling with the passages about God’s judgment, it's hard going. This passage  gives us two examples, Amos and Amaziah, of how we can live in that space, live with that tension. One positive and the other negative.

The passage also throws up some interesting questions like does God change his mind? There is that repeated refrain at the end of the first two visions Amos has where God says I will change my mind or as the NIV puts it I will relent… and does intercessory prayer work? As God’s reaction comes in response to Amos’s short but powerful prayers for Israel. Forgive, stop. Little Israel, personified as Jacob, cannot survive.

And how does all that connect with us here and now.

We are working our way through the scroll of Amos. Amos is the first of the written prophets in the Old Testament.. Amos is a farmer from Judea, and he comes to the northern kingdom of Israel and brings God’s word for them. A word that as they have not kept their covenant relationship with their God. Through false worship practices and social injustice. Unless they return to God, God is going to judge or discipline them.   The lord Roars let justice flow.

The passage today starts the third major section in the scroll. Amos had started with a series of God’s judgments on Israel's neighbours, for their transgressions, drawing his audience to agree with God’s judgment as a series of three and four of their actions were described. This draws the crowd in only to find that Amos’ real intent was to show that Israel themselves were also worth of God judgment. We can point the finger at those people out there but God invites us to look at our own life, our own society our own hearts. Revive us Lord start the work in me… Then we had a collection of words that Amos received from the Lord. Where he uses poetic form, like calls to worship and funeral dirges to call Israel to turn back to God. Now we move from words that Amos saw to a series of five visions that Amos sees of what God is doing. Chapter 7 recounts the first three of those visions.   And here, Amos himself steps into the story. We have interaction with God in prayer and also an account of his conflict with Amaziah the priest at Bethel.

Ok let’s work though Amos’ three visions and then we’ll look at what it has to say to us.

Amos’ first two visions follow an almost identical structure. We are told the Lord shows Amos what is to come. It is if the prophet is in the council chamber of God as his plans unfold. Amos responds in prayer, and God says this will not happen. Maybe it’s a bit like going to the doctor and they have to tell you the worst case scenario.

The first vision is of a swarm of locusts that God is whipping up. In chapter 4 Amos has talked of God sending locusts to call Israel back to himself, but this time the vision is one of complete devastation. The timing of the swarm is interesting, as it talks of being after the Kings portion of the harvest. Early in the growing season there would be hay harvest which would go to feeding the kings horses. Then as the rest of the food crop now is growing the locusts would come in and devastate the food for people and animals alike. The result of no harvest would be suffering and starvation.

Amos cries out to God. the word forgive he uses here is the word for a royal pardon. It is the royal prerogative for lift off the punishment for a crime that has been committed. The people deserve this punishment, it is just, but Amos calls for God to have mercy.  It is the same type of word that is used in Jesus parable, where the king forgives the debt of the servant who owed him a vast fortune. Amos calls Israel, Jacob, refereeing back to Jacob who while being a scallywag was the one whom God chose over Esau. We are used to this personification of a group in modern times.  Where the plight of a certain group will be shown to us in the story of one person. Amos’ plea for God’s mercy is based on the fact that Jacob is small, and weak spiritually and unable to withstand such a punishment. Also we see Amos’ heart here is for the people, aware that it is the farmers who were already suffering from the oppression of wealthy land owners who would suffer the most. The king has his share, and the wealthy can always move or get food imported.

The second vision is of a judgment by fire. Again this is one of the curses mentioned in Deuteronomy 32 for constantly breaking the covenant with God.  a fire that would burn even to the roots of the mountains. Maybe Amos was contemplating these curses when he saw what the result of them might look like. The fire here burns up the water even to the depths. Ancient near eastern cosmology had the waters below the world, from where springs and rivers came. The picture id of a volcanic eruption or maybe a meteorite strike. The result was a draught where even the water in the aquafer dries up. I think we’ve all seen the images of people in desert climates desperately digging deeper and deeper wells to try and find any water. Again Amos prays not looking this time for God to forgive but a simple stop. Amos can say this because he aware of the nature of God. again, God says this will not happen.

Then Amos has a third vision.  A vision that revolves around a word used no where else in the scriptures and which people have wrestled with translating. The word literally means the metal ‘tin or lead. From the Middle Ages it has been interpreted as a plumb line. A lead weight on a string by which you could judge if something is straight and true. God is going to show that Israel is crooked and as a society is not true.  But in the context it can also mean that Amos saw walls of tin or lead. Walls of the fortresses of Israel that looked strong but that God was showing were weak, that would be torn down. Israel put their confidence in their military might and strong walls but compared to the power of God they were not strong. Either way it is a vision that God will not spare Israel. Which finishes with God being specific about what will happen. The high places will be torn down the shrines which are place of false worship will be destroyed and God will wage war against the house of jeroboam, the king. God’s discipline and judgment will be against the places which have caused and allowed and led Israel astray. They not the people will be destroyed. We don’t know if Amos is not given a chance to intercede for his people or not as almost like an interruption we have Amaziah come and tell Amos to stop prophesying. To go home and make his living there… He reports him to the king as a stirrer, and Amos finishes by speaking a personal word of judgement on Amaziah. Making God’s judgment on Israel very personal to him and his family.

Ok what does this have to say to us today?

Firstly we ned to do some theology. At the heart of this passage is the reality that God is holy, God will not let sin and injustice go unpunished. There is a necessity of judgment. One of the questions that people ask is why doesn’t god come and deal with all the bad stuff now/ part of Amos’s answer maybe the first section of this book, we look and see what is going on out there and want god to do something… but what if we looked at what is in our own lives and our own hearts. Also maybe we have a mechanical almost computer idea of what God is like. God is preprogrammed to act when things get to a certain level, God will act.

October 10^th 1987 is known as Black Monday. On that day the world stock markets lost about 25% of there value. One of the contributing factors to that fall was ‘automated trading’ computer programmes that were in place as portfolio insurance. If certain things happened they would automatically trigger selling stock. However at the same time suspend buying. The day before that Monday the market acted in a way that triggered that insurance mechanism. It mean that stocks were being sold, but no one was buying and the value plummeted, before they could turn the programme off.  Our view of God then becomes cold and impersonal God, reacting as it is programmed.

But that is not the God of the Bible, that is not the God we see in Amos. God is responsive to relationship with his people. God listens to the cry of his people, the intercession of even one righteous person in this case. It is not God’s nature to want to see people judged and punished, it is God’s nature to have to judge sin and injustice.  In response to Amos God gives Israel more time to repent and turn back to him. Ultimately we see God’s character revealed in Jesus Christ. God sending a prophet and intercessor, to call people back to himself, to repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. But who also could provide a way for God’s justice and mercy to be shown. In that Jesus gave himself to received God’s punishment for what we had done wrong, in return for us receiving his righteousness. A royal pardon from him.

Secondly, in this passage there are two ways in which we can respond to the requirements of Judgment and the possibility of mercy. Amaziah shows us a negative way. Amaziah’s response is to say stop saying that. We don’t want to hear about God’s judgment. Go away. You are just saying those things because somehow you are benefiting from them.  Let’s just keep the status quo. Amaziah is a religious man, he is a priest at the shrine in Bethel. His religion calls him to be steady as she goes… he maybe proclaiming that God is blessing us… it was what Israel thought because things were going well… but it neglected and di not deal with the injustice and suffering that was going on. We can respond to God like that… steady as she goes don’t rock the boat, I don’t want to think about all this stuff. Amos shakes Amaziah out of his indifference by applying what will happen to his own situation… We might think its pretty hard and harsh… your wife will be prostitute, like many women in war she will be open to sexual abuse, and your children die, and you will die in exile. However like many old testament stories it is left open ended we don’t know if it snapped Amaziah out of his complacency or not. Maybe its left like that so we can examine our own hearts our own lives our own responses.

The second example is Amos, when Amos is confronted with the tension between the certainty of judgment and the possibility of mercy, it turns him to prayer. We see Amos’s love for the people he is prophesying to.  God has called him to do this, and he saying these things in the hope that the people will turn again to God. He is willing to beseech God on behalf of these rebellious people.  Lord forgive, Lord stop. Don’t do it God. Give these people more time to turn back to you. He becomes an intercessor. The role of a prophet is to mediate between God and his people. To represent him to them, through sharing his words and what he has received, but also representing the people before God in fervent prayer.   

How do we respond to the necessity of judgement and the possibility of mercy. It calls us to pray. To pray for those who do not know God who have not come to put their trust in his son Jesus. To beseech God to reveal himself to them, to forgive and to stop, to give them more time to repent and return. As I was reading for this message a couple of things came up. Hard things to say…one commentator said the church spends more time praying for the physical wellbeing of those within its community than the eternal wellbeing of those outside it. Like Amaziah our thoughts can be focused on the wellbeing and blessing of our people, over the plight of the world. In 1 Timothy Paul encourages us to offer all kinds of prayer for all people because God does not anyone to perish. I don’t think it means we stop praying for our own, but there needs to be a balance. The second was Amos shows us that we do not give up on praying for those in danger we must be persistent in prayer. Maybe you’ve been praying for someone for years and years don’t give up. Even as Amos saw the inevitability of judgement still he prayed for God’s mercy.  Gary Smith pts it quite eloquently when he says “ give up on Nobody! Pray still! Lay none out for spiritual death until they are laid out naturally dead.” Amos tells us that such prayer is heard in heaven and that god responds… That such prayer is impactful. God listens.

We pray knowing that we have the example of the perfect intercessor, advocate in Jesus Christ. Who laid down his life for us, took on our sin our wrongdoing on the cross and was able to impart his righteousness to us. The one who is the possibility of mercy in the certainty of judgement.

The other thing that Amos does of course is he goes and tells what God has shown him. He is not just a man of prayer but of action as well. Now I’m not suggesting that we go round with the sort of stinging words that Amos had for Amaziah. But Amos’ heart and words were for people to come back to know God and to follow his ways. It is at the core of our gospel. That we have all fallen short of the glory of God and deserve God’s wrath, however in Jesus life and death and resurrection God has made a way for us to know forgiveness and new life. God will put his holy spirit within those who turn to Jesus and believe to enable and empower us to live a life that reflects God’s goodness and justice. It’s a message that people need to hear. When you look at the New Testament you see Peter and Paul, lead by the Holy Spirit, communicate that in different ways to different people groups, connecting with what I at the heart of their culture.

How do we live with this tension between the necessity of judgement and the possibility of mercy. It should call us to love, a love like Amos’s whose heart is broken by the things that break god’s heart. It should call us to pray for our world and its people that they would come to know the possibility of God’s mercy in Jesus Christ. This passage show us this prayer is effective. It calls us to be prepared to proclaim as God has spoken.  

Amos 4... A Liturgy Of Missed Opportunities

 

here is an audio recording of this message preached at HopeCentral on February 23rd 2025

 https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/hope-whangarei/episodes/Amos-41-13-A-Liturgy-of-Wasted-Opportunity-e2v80mk/a-abpvme9 

When I read the passage in Amos chapter 4 I couldn’t help but think of those occasions you hear of a motorist driving the wrong way on the motorway, straight into oncoming traffic, into impending doom. The image behind me is from the New Zealand Hearld in November 2023.  Where an elderly motorist in a red Suzuki Swift was caught on video going the wrong way on an Auckland motorway.

My mind sort of wandered and wondered what must have happened before the motorist got into that situation. You’ve probably all been on those interchanges over the motorway in Auckland. You have signs that tell you which way to go so you know where to turn and if you follow them you’ll be alright. They even have dead ends for the turn offs your not supposed to use. If you did manage to turn the wrong way down an off ramp there is a sign that says wrong way, turn back, no entry. You’d have to ignore that. This is my imagination right, but its Auckland New Zealand you could just about guarantee, there would be a man in a hi viz jacket putting out cones along the off ramp. He would have seen you coming and waved his arms and shouted at you ‘ turn round you are going the wrong way. If you don’t there will be a disaster.’ You’d have to avoid him as he courageously tried to step out in front of you. You’d have to swerve to avoid cars coming up the ramp in the opposite direction, disregard the angry blast of their horns.  It was reported that earlier the motorist in the article, had also been seen trying to drive the wrong way down the off ramp at another intersection, swerving to avoid cars before, thankfully, doing a u-turn.

Even once you were on the motorway there were those who tried to help. In the incident in that photo, the article praised the drivers he confronted. A man in a ute stopped in front of him as did people in the lane next to him, trying to block his way and to give him room to turn around and go the right way. But the motorist in the red Suzuki Swift dodged round them and pulled out into the faster lane to try and keep going the wrong way.

If he or you didn’t listen, didn’t heed the warnings, then it was going to end with a crash!

 Thank God it wasn’t too late for the motorist in November 2023… As eventually he did turn round and simply speed off down the motorway, the right way, as if nothing had happened.

Amos chapter 4 says Biblical scholar James Cranshaw is ‘A liturgy of missed opportunity’ in an almost Monty Pythonesque satire of a call to worship at the shire in Bethel, Amos points out all the warning signs, that God has used to call Israel to turn back to him. That they had ignored, there is that repeated refrain “but you did not turn back to me”,   So many ways the lord had roared, and now like the man inj the hi viz frantically waving his arms of the Ute driver doggedly trying to stop that motorist, Amos is the last chance before Israel will meet head on The God whom they simply pay lip service to, their so called worship rituals  having more to do with a show of public piety that genuine love awe and worship of God. Their society did not reflect the love and justice of God…  the LORD roars lets Justice flow

Lets look at the passage.

In my minds eye I could see Amos coming to Samaria or Bethel, and up on the balcony of the mansions in the middle of town there are party’s going feasts. Th wives of the officials and corrupt merchants gather for long lunches where they are enjoying the best food and wine. The laughter and merriment sort of shows that they are drinking excessively. Now Amos is not anti-wine but what hits him is the demand for more and more, living this luxuriant lifestyle. Revelling in excess and wealth based on the oppression of others. Celebrating and amusing themselves in a way that is ignorant of or as Amos say encouraging injustice.  Maybe even as he is standing there looking he can hear the bidding and the hammer fall in a slave auction as those who cannot pay back even small loans are being sold into slavery, and their lands forfeited. He had come in through the rural areas where the farmers were struggling with subsistence living, and all the equity of their land was being gathered into the hands of a wealthy and influential few.

Amos couldn’t help but think of the cows of Bashan. Bashan, was the richest grazing land in Israel, and was famous for its fat cows. Amos sees just like with those cows being readied for the slaughter. Amos knows that God is Holy and Just and will not let continued disregard for Israels covenant relationship with him. There will be a judgment. So Amos, inspired by the spirt  says thus says the lord… Like those prize cows these women will find themselves, being slaughtered and dragged out of the city on hooks, or like prized cattle be lead away with a ring through their noses into exile and captivity.  Which is what happened when the Assyrians captured Samaria in 720bc.

It challenging because as John Goldengay says

“People who Enjoy the benefits of oppressive structures and practices share in the responsibility for them and thus share in the judgment for them, even if they are not directly involved in their administration.”

I wonder what Amos would see when he looked at us? Would his heart be grieved by a standard of living and consumerism, with the possibility of slave labour, and unjust labour practices in our supply chain? While there has been concerted effort to address treaty grievances, maybe he would wonder about prosperity based on land confiscated at the end of the land wars and other means.

Amos then seems to follow the crowd to the shrine at Bethel. A place he would automatically associate with  apostacy. The proper place to worship God was the Temple In Jerusalem, and when Jeroboam 1 had set the shrine up he had erected a golden calf and said it was the calf that had lead the people out of Egypt.  But as Amos watched he would have seen people coming and being called to worship by the priest. There were sacrifices and offering being bought. But as Amos watches he becomes aware of two things. One is that these sacrifices are not for the forgiveness of sins, there is an absence of self-reflection and concern that lives were not lived in way that reflected and honoured the LORD. The was an unholy disconnect between words, ritual and lifestyle.  Even the thanksgiving offerings and tithes and freewill offerings were being made in a way that was to draw attention to the giver not out of reverence to God. Grand gestures but did it go more than skin deep more than a public show… If Amos had been a fan of Australian sit coms he may have had that famous line from Kath and Kim echoing in his mind ‘ Look at Me, look at Me, Look at Me’. Jesus in the sermon on the mount warned his followers about the spirituality of the Pharisees who prayed and fasted and did all the right things, but again it was a show of their piety  to get status and applause rather than genuine worship and seeking after God.

Inspired by God, Amos satirises the priests call to worship. Come to bethel and sin, come to Gilgal and rebel… Then maybe the priest had used a psalm which spoke of all the good thing God had done, God’s saving acts. Maybe they had used a prayer that was designed to renew the covenant relationship. Amos ceases upon that and still focusing on God’s faithfulness recounts many of the difficult times that Israel experienced, famine, draught, mildew, locusts, plagues… pandemics in our vernacular, war and conflict, and what scholars see as possibly an earthquake. Yet in all those times Israel did not stop and think, they did not see these things which echoed the covenant curses in Deuteronomy 28. Consequences for disobeying the covenant. Faced with even these things they did not change and turn back to God.

I have to say one of the big questions people have is around the difference between God revealed in the Old testament and God revealed in the New. We see the Old Testament God as a god of wrath and judgment and the New Testament as one of Love. Passages like Amos 4 are part of that. I was listening to a pod cast by the Bible Society UK called #Shetoo where women theologians and biblical scholars were wrestling with the terror passages in the Old Testament, that speak of abuse and violence towards women. And what they say to us today… One of the guests on the pod cast made the comment that one of the big differences between the New and Old Testament was time. In the New Testament the books were written over a short time, with a very clear focus, the gospel of Jesus Christ and how to be this new people of God together. Even then many letters were written as communities were dealing with false teaching and  behaviour inconsistent with that gospel. Then Old Testament is written over a long period of time, and deals with a whole raft of issues to do with a nation state in covenant relationship with God. The passage in Amos 4 over a small period of time shows that god has been at work calling his people back to himself over a long period of time. The wilderness wanderings, the cycles of disobedience, conflict, repentance and deliverance in judges, the history of the kings and through the prophets. In fact when the cannon of the Old testament was being put together, the big question was looking back at Israel’s past and seeing God’s steadfast and faithful love. Before they were disciplined By God he spoke through the prophets, when they repented, he saved them, even the exile of the northern kingdom and southern kingdom were faithful to God’s covenant promises, God was disciplining his people… and he bought them back. In the New Testament as we have been in Christ, there have been times in history where the church has headed away from God down the motorway the wrong way: false teaching, slipping into nominalism, where the public display of piety masked a lack of spiritual vitality, times when we have committed the worst of injustices. God by the Spirit has had to speak into those times and call us back to him. Francis of Assisi, The reformation, revivals down through the ages. Revivals by the way usually start with the people of God becoming aware of the love and holiness of God and being prepared to confess where they have gone wrong… it starts with repentance.

The other question that this passage brings up is Does God cause bad things to happen to us, to get our attention? Amos’ answer would be that the one who created the heavens and the earth, the sovereign God is able to speak to us through those difficult times. My mentor Jim Wallace once preached a sermon that has stuck in my memory. He was speaking of why thinks go wrong. he said that there are four main reasons for that. The first is that we live in a fallen world, and bad things happen. People call it the problem of evil. Much of the wisdom literature in the Old Testament wrestles with the question why do bad things happen to good people. Sometimes Christians think they’ve missed the fall and gone hang gliding instead, wrong. The second is that there is a biblical principle of you reap what you sow, and often bad situations and difficulties are the consequences of bad decisions, our own or ones that we didn’t have any control over. It’s cause and effect. The gospel can bring transformation into those situations, turning round generational and individual situations, but we still have to deal with the consequences in that journey. The third is that we have an enemy of our soul in the devil and bad things can be  spiritual attack, some people want to see a demon behind every bush, and it takes a lot of discernment when speaking of spiritual attack, and as Christians we can trust that god has defeated our enemy at the cross. The last is that yes God is speaking, the LORD is roaring. In Jonah, God sends a storm to cause Jonah to repent and turn around and obey him. Paul speaks of the Lord not allowing them to go a certain way as they awaited a vision to go over to Macedonia in his second missionary journey.  Amos would say that bad things difficult times were great opportunity for people to stop and reflect and see what God just might be saying to us. For us to turn and again seek God. it is amazing when you look back at life its then that you can see how God has used all the things in our life to lead and guide.  

Amos finishes his oracle by saying that the people of Israel will meet the God they say they worship. As sure as if your going the wrong way down the motorway you are going to meet traffic head on. There view of God as one who could be paid lip service to and hopefully manipulated by doing the right rituals at the right time would meet them. A Holy and Righteous God who does not allow sin and injustice to thrive. It would mean judgment and discipline.

Amos finishes with a doxology. Inviting the people gathered for worship to again comprehend the majesty and power and sovereignty of the God who had called them into a covenant relationship with him. The God of creation, who formed the mountains, created the wind, but also a God who speaks (unlike the idols of the countries round them) and reveals his thoughts to mankind, a God who reveals himself, and of course we see the ultimate revelation of God in Jesus Christ becoming one of us. The LORD God almighty.

 I really struggled to know how to sort of bring what is a heavy message on a heavy passage into land. As I was wrestling with that I was reading a book called lead by prayer and one line just stood out to me. The author says “ repentance is not just a nice addition to our prayers lives, it is core to our walk with God.” Not to try and earn the favour of an angry God, or simply for salvation. The life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has bought us into a new relationship with God. He has replaced our sin with his righteousness. We are justified with God through our LORD Jesus Christ. It is a gift imparted to us. Repentance is needed for that initial turn around from going our own way to going Gods. But it is an ongoing process, as we know more and more of the love of God, more and more of the majesty and holiness of God, we go though this process of realising that we need to change to become more like Christ. The process of mortification, dying to ourselves and sanctification, becoming more like Christ.

Our hearts are deceptive and we are fallen human beings, as we come to know more and more of the goodness and the holiness of God. How much he has loved us, then we see the darkness and deceptiveness in our hearts. But because we are in Christ, because of what he has done for us, we know that we can confess our sins, and God who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us rom all unrighteousness. We can trust the Holy Spirit that God has put within us, to lead us to live anew way. That is not only about personal spirituality but it leads to being willing to seek justice in our society and world as well…

The Lord Roars Let Justice flow.

Mark 3:7-19 Called, Responded, to be with, sent... the twelve and ... us!

 

read Mark 3;7-19 

What jumped off the page for you? What word or phrase or idea caught your attention as you listened to the reading from Mark this morning? You know when you hear scripture read or read it often one thing will leap out at you. It may resonate with you, it may raise a question, it just may seem new like you’ve never noticed it before, or it just makes a connection with something else for you. I’ve found that is a way that the Holy Spirit will catch my attention as I read scripture prayerfully.   I want to give you a moment just to share what stuck out to you from the reading this morning with a person next to you… whatever it is however trivial or profound although remember I’m preaching the sermon today.

 I’ve been focusing on this passage for a while and there are three things that really stuck out for me.

The first was the crowd pushing in on Jesus. In fact the Greek word here gives the idea that they were falling over each other to get to Jesus. Demanding his attention, it was no longer Jesus reaching out to touch others it them reaching out to touch and grab him. To get what they want.  I couldn’t help but think so many demands. So many expectations. So much need… What do you do when your to do list, is to long to do… and you see these things tripping over each other vying for your attention and time.. and your back is against the wall… well in Jesus case the lake. What happens to your priorities and purpose? I know that doesn’t even stop when youré retired… I was in the supermarket one evening and this elderly man came up to me and asked if I liked shopping. He had been dutifully following his wife and a shopping trolley round the store. He then told me he was exhausted and tired, he was 84 and he’d been working all day helping renovate his son in laws house, now he was out doing the weekly shop. At that stage the man’s wife looked round for him, and I said “I’m just here for a bottle of milk and you’d better catch-up mate.”

The second is that list of names… The twelve disciples that Jesus called to himself. What struck me was some of them are familiar, they appear though out the gospel… mainly Jesus inner circle… Simon peter, John, James and  Andrew, Thomas we know from John’s gospel and for another reason, we know Judas Iscariot, but some of them are unfamiliar, they are only recorded here, they even have different names in the other gospels… they are part of the twelve but they seem to just disappear into obscurity.  We don’t know their stories but here they are called to be disciples of Jesus to be with him and later sent out by him.

The third thing that stuck out to me, and this was more as I have focused on the passage is how it clearly articulates what it means to be a disciple. He appointed or chose them, called them to himself, first and foremost to be with him, then he sent them out to preach and have authority over unclean spirits. That last part bit got me thinking … and

Well I want to work through the passage and then come back and reflect on these three things.

We are on a yearlong journey through the gospel according to Mark… what Mark calls ‘the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ’. The series is called The Way of the cross… as in Mark’s fast paced narrative, the focus is on Jesus as the suffering servant, who will give up his life for many. It invites us to strip away many of the cultural expectations we have of Jesus and what it means to follow him and again realize as one commentator puts it we are an army whose only weapons are service and self-sacrificial love. That to be a flourishing Christian community is ironically to follow Jesus on the way of the cross.

The passage we read from Mark this morning, marks a transition in the narrative… up till now we’ve been introduced to Jesus as his baptism and have been looking at his early ministry in Galilee. His preaching in the villages and towns calling people to repent and believe because the kingdom of God was at hand. Developing a group of followers. Healing the sick and showing that he had authority over unclean spirits. All this leading to conflict with the religious authorities of the day, which culminates in Mark 3:6 with the Pharisees and members of Herod’s party meeting on the sabbath to make plans to kill Jesus, ironically just as they had criticized Jesus for healing the man with the withered hand on the sabbath.

In response Jesus now moves the focus of ministry to the lake shore, and in the next section of the gospel we have Jesus crisscrossing the lake. But also, as Jesus selects a group of twelve disciples there is a focus on his teaching and preparing them for ministry. We also see that despite growing opposition to Jesus from the religious authorities that his fame is growing. We are told that a great crowd follows him: many from galilee, more than that we see that there are people coming from Judea, Jerusalem, Idumea, from across the Jordon and from the region around Tyre and Sidon, the whole of Israel, both Jewish are also more gentile ones. In the rest of the gospel Jesus goes and ministers in these different regions.

 As I said before this great crowd are falling over each other to touch Jesus and  be healed. There is a great need… I wonder if it was a little bit like the hysteria round modern day pop stars or celebrities. I remember starting work at the bank in queen street the week Charles and Di came to visit. The street was packed with people jostling to get close, straining against the hastily erected ropes. Hoping to say Hi and shake hands. As well as them falling over each other we have people with unclean spirts falling down. The unclean spirits know who Jesus is, they call him the Son of God… but it is not out of reverence, William Lane in his commentary says in the ancient world, if you knew who someone status and true identity was it gave you some semblance of power over them. Kind of like in a movie or a book where you have a character say ‘you’re not fooling me I know who you are and what you are really like”. But here, Jesus shows his authority by commanding them to be silent and leave. These shrill unhuman voices are not the ones that are needed to proclaim Jesus identity and nature. We see in response to the push of the crowd and demands that Jesus asks the disciples, who were fishermen to have a boat ready for him. That fits with the later journeys across the lake but as Luke tells us in Luke 5:1-11 Peter suggested Jesus got in the boat pushed off from shore so he could focus on teaching the crowd. There is a place on the lake now called the bay of parables which is amphitheatre shaped, and tourists are amazed at the clarity of sound as they are on the shore and some one speaks from out in the bay.

But again the crowd is ambiguous in Mark. They come to Jesus many for what Jesus can give them, looking for healing not because they are longing for the kingdom of God… and Jesus goes out onto the mountain by himself, away from the push and calmer, just like after the crowd had come to Simon’s house when he had healed Simon’s mother-in-law. Now he can refocus on what his mission is about and he build on his plan of calling people to come and follow him by selecting and calling twelve to be with him and to be sent out to preach and given his authority to drive out demons.

We have the list of the twelve from amidst a greater number of disciples. Simon whom he calls Peter. Peter which we are not told means Rock, Not the pro wrestler actor. I love Timothy Gombis’ take on this. Righty he talks of Jesus hopes for Simon to be steadfast and faithful and dependable as he will assume a key role in the spread of the gospel and the early church. But Gombis suggests that it may also have been a friendly jib at Simon being slow to learn, it was hard to get through to him. Like with James and John whom he gave the name ‘the sons of thunder’ it has the feel of close camaraderie, even a slight sense of humor. James and john could have been fiery preachers or just loud over the top personalities, with hair triggers. But it is a show of genuine friendship.  Andrew is Simon’s brother. Bartholomew, while being adopted these days as a first name is actually just a last name… it simply means son of tholomew. Matthew is traditionally equated with Levi, we don’t know why the change of name, maybe it was because of the stigma of having been a tax collector, early on Christians would choose a new name when they came to faith, Thomas which means twin, James son of Alphaeus, this could be Levi’s brother as Levi is also called the son of Alphaeus in Mark 3:14, which mean there could have been three sets of brothers in the twelve.  Thaddeus is not mentioned in the other gospels, but in them there is a second person called Judas and you could imagine the other judas being tired of saying…’ no not that one not Iscariot the other one’ and finding it easier to adopt a different name. Simon the zealot, the zealots were a political party inside Judaism alongside the pharisees and Sadducees who were willing to advocate violence to over threw Roman rule. It maybe that Simon was a prior member of that group. Finally, Judas Iscariot, Iscariot most probably meaning a man from Kerioth, a village in Judah and Moab. Then we have the spoiler alert this is the one who betrayed Jesus. 

There is of course significance in twelve as here we see Jesus establishing the roots of a new people and a new family of God, reflecting the twelve tribes of Israel.  People that will be with Jesus and will proclaim the Kingdom of God and show its authority and authenticity. Later in this chapter, without spoiling Pauline’s thunder, when Jesus is confronted by his family to come home with them he says that his family are those who do his will. In selecting the twelve he has started that family… A family who by grace you and I are part of as we come to faith in Jesus Christ.

We’ve unpacked the passage a bit, and now I want to go and reflect on what stuck out to me.

The first is how Jesus dealt with the demands needs and pressure of the crowd. This is helpful for us in all areas of life, as we face expectations, workloads, pressures, dealing with others needs and that most pervasive characteristic of twenty first century life… Busyness. Jesus takes time out to be by himself. We see this was a discipline in his life. To take time to be alone. Over the last three-week period in preaching there has been an emphasis on sabbath rest. Both Pauline and Lorne spoke on it. Jesus makes time for refreshment and recharge; he makes time to look at his mission and purpose and priorities and refocus on what is important. We are not told in Mark, but in Luke we are told Jesus spent the night in Prayer before he called them to him. It wasn’t simply alone time it was focusing on that key central relationship with God his Father. Being on a mountain here picks up that idea of encounter with God as well. Then we see that he has an answer to how he is going to advance his mission and call, he  calls people to come and to work alongside him. He goes and finds a team to be with him in dealing with the push and in being able to minister to others. When we face stress and demands and peoples expectations there is need for us to find time alone, time alone with God, for sabbath rest  and also to look at sharing the load with others and focusing again on what is essential and important. As I was preparing this sermon that spoke to me and I took day out to go and pray and read scripture and find clarity for myself and my sense of call.

That leads on to look at what this passage tells us about being disciples. Followers of Jesus. The twelve are like a template for us. The first thing is they are called to be with Jesus and they respond.  There is a need to respond to Jesus call, to come into relationship with him, through his death and resurrection. We can be like the crowd and simply have Jesus there to meet our needs. Health and prosperity are two of the idols of our western world, and it is easy for us to simply see Jesus as a means for us to have that cultural image of a good life. But the call of Jesus is to repent from going our own way and go his. To be a disciple is to spend time with Jesus, to learn from him, to become more attune in our character and nature to Jesus, to be Christian means to be Christ like, and that comes as we spend time with Jesus, often in a group context as well, as we learn to relate to one another as Christ loves us. Then we too will be sent out to witness and proclaim and tell about Jesus. The more we spend time with Jesus that it wells up within us, as we see what Jesus does, as we hear what Jesus says. As the Holy Spirit bring Jesus words to mind.  Yes that will bring us into direct conflict with the powers of this world, but we have Jesus authority over them. I’ve had some encounters with the demonic in my lifetime and ministry and as I said that last part made we wonder a bit what it means. Is it talking about deliverance ministry? Again I think Timothy Gombis is helpful.

 "The primary way down through history that Christians push back the darkness and unclean spirits is when they live authentic, Christ orientated, lives. When we reflect more closely the Kingdom of God."

Now you may have noticed that I skipped the second thing that stood out to me the names, well I did that deliberately because I want to finish with that point. Those names some well know and that appear again and again in the gospel and the story of the early church, others who simply are obscure and we don’t know their stories, but we do know they were called to be with Jesus and they went out and proclaimed the good news of Jesus Christ, and drove out the darkness in Jesus name. Mark titled his writing the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, son of God… that story continues, that good news is for us as well… we are at this end of the unbroken chain of people who Jesus called to be with him and sent out and Our names, your name, my name are amongst those who are that new people of God in Christ…be it playing an upfront loud role, or simply being one who spends time with Jesus and is sent amidst the business of life, the demands and expectations with Christ to witness to him in our time and culture, our crowd, put simply at the supermarket, the retirement village, the street, the work place, the family, school, friendship cluster, he has called us to be with him and sent us out to. Your name… you…me… we together. Will you hear that call?

Mark 1: 29-39... A Day in the life of... Signs of the Kingdom Of God

 

I was driving to Auckland for a conference this week and the Beatles song ‘A day in the life of…’ came on the radio. It’s the last track of the 1967 Sargent Peppers Lonely Hearts club band album. I found myself singing along. The song captures something of the mundane nature of everyday life. The start and finish of the song written by John Lennon was inspired by simply reading the newspaper, the significant events, a prominent man killed in a car crash, and the trivial page fillers, like a series of holes being dug in Lancashire, “now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall”. The middle of the song, written by Paul McCartney remembering that rush to get up, get dressed, drag a comb across our head, grab the bus and head off to school… or work, day-dreaming along the way… all finished off with that most memorable sustained piano chord, like the lingering last rays of a setting sun. Just a day in the life of… and I went into a dream, well my mind wandered as I drove to the reading we had this morning…  You see, the last part of Mark chapter one has that kind of feel to it. An ordinary sabbath day in Capernaum, at the synagogue, home for a meal, dealing with sickness in the family, waiting till after sunset to do things that needed to be done, ( remember for the first century jews a day went from sunset to sunset,) alone time reflective time, quite time as the sun rises after a busy  day. Yet into that everydayness we see with Jesus, the kingdom of God breaks in bringing freedom, healing, wholeness and acceptance.

More than that we are also presented with a day in the life of Jesus Christ early in his Galilean ministry. In fact in his commentary Kent Hughs says Mark present us with a day in the heart of a healer. Full of preaching, compassion, action, then alone time with God in Prayer, and finally having to refocus on what Jesus mission is. A day in the life of…

We are embarking on a year long journey through the gospel according to Mark… what Mark calls ‘the beginning of the Good News of Jesus Christ’. The series is called The Way of the cross… as in Mark’s fast paced narrative, dd you notice the words like immediately in the reading this morning, the focus is on Jesus as the suffering servant, who will give up his life for many. It invites us to strip away many of the cultural expectations we have of Jesus and what it means to follow him and again realise as one commentator puts it we are an army whose only weapons are service and self-sacrificial love. That to be a flourishing Christian community is ironically to follow Jesus on the way of the cross.

Mark’s gospel started with the witness of scripture, from the book of Isaiah to who Jesus was, then we meet Jesus at his baptism by John the Baptist, and have an account of his temptation, where in the wilderness Jesus is able to over come Satan. Then Jesus starts his ministry he goes about preaching ‘repent, and believe the good news because the Kingdom of God is at hand”. With Jesus coming the reign of God has come into the realms of humanity, and we are called to live in a new way. A way that reflects God’s love, righteousness and justice. Jesus starts to gather a group of people around him, he calls some Galilean fishermen to come follow me and they will become fishers of men, help to bring people into this new relationship with God through Christ. Then it seems that instead of following Jesus its like he follows them home to Capernaum. Jesus goes to the synagogue and is invited to speak, and we start to see that as the kingdom of God is at hand that the powers of darkness are started to be pushed back. A demon possessed man is set free and delivered. While the people don’t really get who Jesus is the unclean spirt is told to be quite because it recognises Jesus as God’s holy messenger. The people are amazed, who is Jesus and what is this new teaching. Now we move to today reading… again it seems to simply be moving through the day in the life off… Jesus heads to Simeon’s place for lunch.

In this passage we are given a glimpse in to the everyday life of the disciples, or at least Simon, who Jesus will name Peter. We find out that Simon is married, and his mother in law lives with them, maybe she is a widow… later in 1 Corinthians 9:5 Paul tells us that Peter took his wife along with him on his mission trips. But this story also shows us Peter’s personal accounts as a major part of Mark’s sources.

As they arrive home, they discover that Simion’s mother-in-law has a fever, and is unwell. First century jews saw fever as a unique illness they didn’t necessarily see it as a symptom of an underlying illness, and as it could be from an infection it was seen as a serious matter. We are told immediately Jesus goes to her, takes her by the hand and lifts her up, she is healed, gets up and serves them. This getting up and serving them shows us a couple of things: the first is that the mother in law is totally healed, normally when you recover from a fever you are left weak. May of you will know from recent experiences, like the effects of COVID, that linger weakness and brain fog. But here the woman gets up and immediately serves Jesus. Secondly, unlike in our culture it wasn’t the mother in law or the women who did the serving, it was not a done thing for a women to serve a rabbi, but here Simon’s mother in law shows us the appropriate response to Jesus healing and intervention in ones life, she serves him. She is an example of what it means to be a disciple.

One of the things that we might not get from this story is the radical nature of what Jesus does. In Mark’s gospel Jesus touch is important, Jesus is always touching people, following on from our reading this morning he touches the leper, later he puts his finger in the ears of the deaf man, he dines with Levi and his friends.  Francis Moloney in his commentary notes that there is no record anywhere of a first century Jewish rabbi grasping the hand of a woman. Jesus crosses a cultural and religious barrier here, out of compassion and concern to heal and lift up Simon’s mother in law. In Mark Jesus is always reaching out to people across those barriers and bringing healing and kingdom life. Where as for the religious jews they saw such touching as making them unclean, Jesus touch always brings healing, restoration and transformation.

Its important to note in Mark’s gospel that the story of women are very important, Jesus is the beginning of Good news for men and for women, we see that in the first two miracles presented here. Both in the public space, often seen in those days as men’s space and the private, or home space, which was the women’s domain. Jesus reaches into both.

The narrative quickly changes and we see that as the sun sets that the people of the town bring all their sick and those possessed by evil spirits to Jesus. They crowd around the door of Simon’s home. Jesus heals the sick and frees people of the evil spirits. Jesus shows his compassion for people and his power and authority, having defeated Satan we now see the darkness rolled back. But in Mark’s gospel its always hard to understand the crowds response to Jesus. They flock to Jesus seeing him as a miracle worker not necessarily as the Messiah, coming for healing, not out of repentance and belief. I’m not rugby league fan, but this year like many I’ve been swept up in the ‘up the wah’s’ I’ve joined the band wagon, because of the Cinderella like story of their success. But as part of the crowd, I’m not a rugby league convert. The crowd in Mark want Jesus but don’t actually become fully committed to who he is.

Then the scene and the frantic pace of the narrative changes again, We are told Jesus gets up early in the morning before the sun rises and goes away into a lonely place to pray.  In Mark’s gospel wea re told that Jesus goes to pay at pivotal times. I’m sur it was his regular routine to spend time alone in prayer with his father, but in the narrative it always comes at crunch times. How was Jesus going to handle the success he had had at Capernaum, as the crowd gathered round the door. That pressure is intensified as the disciples come looking for Jesus and Simon says “everyone is looking for you Jesus”. There is the expectation that Jesus will continue to do what he has been doing in Capernaum. Here is a good place to set up a base of operation, as my friend mark Keown commented on this very point at a conference this week, we could start a big church here Jesus. Is Jesus going to bow to the will of the crowd? The answer of course is that Jesus reaffirms his ministry and mission, that he is to go to the other towns and continue to preach his message repent and believe for the kingdom of God is at hand. But everywhere Jesus goes of course the kingdom of God continues to push back the powers of darkness people are set free, are healed and are welcomed back into God’s people.

What is there for us from this passage today?

Firstly, as Mark calls his narrative the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, I want to affirm that Jesus Christ is still good news for us today. That in Christ, the kingdom of God has broken into our everyday life as well and pushes back the darkness. Jesus can free us from oppression of spiritual forces today. Jesus can heal people today. We have people who are willing to pray at the end of the service today, willing to be like the door that the crowd gathered round that you can meet Jesus through. The good news of the kingdom is still for us today, you and I are called to repent, and believe the good news because the kingdom of God is at hand. Maybe you are here today and you need to acknowledge Jesus as the messiah and the son of God, and receive forgiveness through his death and resurrection and turn to follow Jesus.

For those who know and follow Jesus I think that as we move through Mark we are going to be confronted and encouraged by Jesus touch to reach out across the various social barriers that we have today, just like the Jewish folk of Jesus day, with the good news of Jesus Christ. There is a kind of fear that I believe many of us have of people who are different than us. People who seem like they are outside of what we think of as socially acceptable. We are concerned that somehow we will be contaminated by contact with them, that we will be dragged away from our faith. But when you see Jesus you see that his touch was the opposite, it bought new life, kingdom life, freedom, healing and wholeness to those he touched. We believe that Jesus is with us today by the Holy Spirit as well, and in our everyday life we too can see that kingdom life reach out in our touch, our presence our compassion and care, across all those social barriers. Even as it did in the reading today to that most troublesome of groups… mothers-in-laws. I thought about starting this sermon with a mother in law Joke, I went on the website and there was a whole heap of them. But the website I was on was from grooms at weddings, and it said it takes a brave man to make such jokes, and I thought even more so in church as it is a mother-in-law rich environment… and I’m not that brave. But you know when we realise that we are on the other side of the cultural barriers of Jesus day and have received his grace, When I preached this sermon the other day kris reminded me of the old Jewish prayer ‘thank you Lord I am not a gentile or a woman…when we thing of that it helps us to rethink the social barriers of our own day. Racially, culturally, socio economically we reach across with the cleansing, welcoming the healing touch of Jesus.

 Lastly, the line that really stuck out to me was “everyone is looking for you”. We all live with the expectations and demands of others on us and our time. Be it the popular and successful, the crowed at the door, or the pressing issues, those urgent things that demand our attention, I am always reminded of the quote that helped Eisenhower with his priorities and planning  "I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent." Or even the peripheral, those edge things sidetracks, that can stop us individually and corporately from focusing on our mission and what Jesus has called us to do and be. We need to take the time in our busy lies in the face of all those things looking for us,  to spend time like Jesus praying and seeking God and also then to have the courage to go to another place, to do what we believe God is calling us to do, to be about his kingdom and walking the way of the cross in the midst of our ordinary life… to allow the kingdom of God to break into  a day in the life of… a day in the life of you, a day in the life of me  a day in the life of of us.. to break into an ordinary everydayness in Whangarei…

Just as you have received Jesus Christ as Lord, live in him: encouragement and snares in Colossians 2:6-19

 

Kris and I went up to Cape Reinga earlier this year, it was our first time to that most northern windswept tip of New Zealand… along the track down to the light house are plaques pointing out features of the landscape. One plaque points to a Pohutukawa tree known as Kahika or the survivor. It may be easily overlooked, it’s probably not a great specimen tree. You can see it in this photo to the right of that outcrop. There it is right at the end of the point on a rock face in a very precarious and exposed place. It has always been there as long as people can remember. Always standing strong in the salt air, battered by wind and storms, tide and time. As the plaque says it’s miraculously rooted firmly on a rock. It’s a good illustration of one of the metaphors Paul uses in the passage we had read today as he encourages the church at Colossae to continue to live their lives in Jesus Christ who they have received as Lord. Rooted in him.

We are working our way through Paul’s letter to the church in Colossae, the series is called Colossians: Christ and Christ alone. Colossae is a church in the Lycos valley in Asia Minor, modern day Turkey. Paul had never been there, but he writes as he feels one with them in spirit but not body, and he’s writing from prison. He is writing to encourage the church and warn them against those who would try and say that the new Christians in Colossae need these extra things for salvation, something as well as Christ to lead a full life, something else for their future hope. He writes to assure them of the supremacy and sufficiency of Christ. Christ and Christ alone.

Verse 6 and 7 actually form the centre of Paul’s letter. This is where the body of the letter begins.

In verse 6 Paul starts this section with the word therefore or so then. All that has gone before is leading to this point. His introduction where he had placed the churches identity and address in Christ. Where he had given thanks for their faith and love and prayed for their growth in knowing Gods will and living in a way that pleased God. Then the wonderful affirmation and hymn focusing on the person of Jesus, and the sufficiency of his life, death and resurrection. Then speaking of his own passion, his own work and suffering for the gospel. Now because of all that he turns and encourages the Colossians to walk in Christ and warns them against false teaching that would try and drag them away from that and back into captivity.

therefore he says… Since you have received Jesus Christ as Lord, continue to live your lives in him. Epaphras has proclaimed the gospel to them and they had come to receive it, committed themselves to it. Jesus Christ is Lord is one of the most ancient of the confessions of the church. It is acknowledging Jesus, God’s anointed one, the long awaited Jewish messiah as king of their lives. In the roman world the affirmation was Caesar is Lord, the roman emperor ruled, his will was what guided people’s lives, but for Christians it is different they/we acknowledge that Jesus is king, they we are citizens of his kingdom and live by his rule. But it is a confession that was even more than that. Lord or the Greek word kurios is used in the Septuagint, the early Greek translation of the Old Testament to translate LORD, written in capitals which Jews used for the name of God YHWH, so they wouldn’t accidently say it in vein. It is a confession of the divine nature of Jesus. As Paul will say in verse 9 in Christ the fullness of the deity lived in bodily form. That confession was the core of the message they and we received and it is what calls them and us to live that out in Christ

Then Paul uses a series metaphors to fill out what it means to live or walk in Christ. The first is an agricultural one… rooted in Christ. That we may find our foundations in Jesus Christ. Like Kahika that northern most Pohutukawa, something solid for the whole of life. Where we get our sustenance from, that provides a solid base for who we are and how we live, despite lifes storms and difficulties. As Paul had found with Jesus amidst his sufferings.

You’d think Paul would carry on with agricultural metaphors but he unashamedly mixes his metaphors. He moves to an architectural metaphor. Built up in him, you might expect it to be growing from the roots, but it is the idea of being built up like a building. It picks up the corporate nature of the church… As it says in 1 Peter we are living stones being built together into the dwelling place of God. We have a foundation in Jesus Christ we build on that together. Remember in his thanksgiving for Colossae Paul had talked of their faith in Christ and their love for all God’s people springing from the hope that was stored up in heaven. Our corperate life is so much how we grow in Christ.

He moves on to what Scott McKnight says is a judicial metaphor. They are strengthened by what they were taught. We can have assurance because what we have been taught about God is that God keeps his promise and can be trusted. NT wright sums it up as it’s confirmed and settled like a legal document. We have confidence that in Christ we have been justified and set right. It’s a done deal.

Finally overflowing with thanksgiving, the metaphor here is of a cup of wine brimming over the top. Of festivities and celebration. In Christ and what Christ has done for us we have a joy in life. Wine also is an image of the spirit in the scriptures and picks up the idea of a spring of living water overflowing from the presence of Christ in us.

With these mixed metaphor’s Paul sums up the fullness of the Christian life. It picks up what Paul had prayed for the Colossians in his opening prayer as well… that they would produce fruit, grow, be strengthened by the spirit and rejoice with thanksgiving. It is a great summary of what it means to walk in Christ for us today as well as for them.

Then Paul turns and warns them about those who would try and take them captive to a human philosophy. A hollow and deceptive, or fake hope. Of course we come up again with the question of who Paul’s opponents are in Colossae. Is Paul anti all types of philosophy? Where in places like Acts in Athens he seems quite comfortable in engaging with it. What are the elemental spiritual forces? Evil spirits or the spirit of our age in human structures. I feel that it is both human structures and traditions and dark forces as well. It seems as we read through the text that Paul has the Judieisers, in mind here. Jewish christians who want gentile Christians to conform to the Jewish religious system . That is borne out in the two warnings Paul gives. His focus in verses 9-12 on circumcision, then in verse 16 and onwards about the Jewish ritual laws round food and special days. We know that they were causing lots of trouble in Galatia which wasn’t too far away from Colossae and Paul fears their empty ideas were causing trouble here as well.

Paul addresses those things in two ways. Firstly he puts Jesus over and against human traditions. In Christ the fullness of the deity dwelt, making Jesus so much more superior to the traditions of man. Why then says Paul should we still be asking gentile Christians to be circumcised. Circumcision of course was a sign of Jews from birth being part of the God’s covenant people. Why says Paul would you want to much around with cutting off a small part of the body, when in our baptism in Christ the whole of our old sinful self has been cut off, has been buried with Christ and raised with Christ. It’s God not human endeavour that has done this. Even in the Old Testament there was a longing for something more than just an inward sign, but rather a change at the very core of our being and in many places in scripture they talk of that as a circumcision of the heart. A term which Paul picks up in romans 2 to talk of true circumcision not done on the outside by human hands but by the spirit (romans 2:25-29).

Paul then moves on to talk of what Jesus has done for us by his crucifixion and resurrection. He does it in a way which shows clearly the irony of cross. The upside down nature of his kingdom. In crucifying Jesus the authorities thought they were defeating Jesus. But Paul uses the very language of a king and his triumphant victory to argue that Jesus is sufficient. While we were dead he made us alive again. He forgave our sins, cancelling the charge of indebtedness which stood against and condemned us. Paul here uses the idea of the titilus, the list of charges that were nailed above a criminal when they were crucified so everyone could see what they had done. But here instead of being for our condemnation, they are nailed to the cross and we are released and set free. Because the innocent one Jesus Christ, the king of the Jews died in our place. So it’s taken away. It and spiritual forces behind it have been disarmed and made a public spectacle of and triumphed over. The image here comes from the victory a roman emperor would have once they had defeated an enemy, they and all their soldiers and wealth would be paraded through the streets and publicly humiliated and they would end in death at the cross. But Paul says in Christ’s death he has done that to the hollow philosophies of humanity, the structures of this world as well as our sin.

He then moves on to give his second warning in verse 16-19. Don’t let people put you down because of what you eat or drink or with regard to a religious festival, a new moon celebration or a Sabbath day. New moon festivals and special religious days probably also tied in with the Jewish sacrificial system. So again Paul has the Judeisers in mind who are wanting gentile Christians to observe the ritual laws of the torah. Again Paul says why, why bother with these things they were foreshadows, things that pointed to a reality that has come in Jesus. The sacrifice once and for all for the forgiveness of sins that would reconcile us to God.

Paul goes on to talk about people to be aware of, on guard against. He speaks of people who have a false humility. Some of these early false teachers practiced a type of extreme asceticism, that on the surface looked spiritual, but was seen as a way of trying to appease God, outside of what Christ had done. The worship of angels is a hard one for us to get our heads round… Angel worship may have been part of pagan worship in the area, you’ll remember when we looked at Revelation that twice John has to be reminded not to worship the angel who was showing him what was to happen, but to only worship God. Another scholar suggests that part of it was also that the false teachers may have focused on angels to come and help them, and prayed to them rather than trusting and praying to Jesus. He also warns about people who focus on he dreams and visions that they have seen, recounting them in great detail, there focus is on these things not on Christ. Such people can try and pull us away from Christ. Paul says they are not connected to the Head in Christ. There focus is in puffing themselves up rather than Christ whose focus is the body of Christ being bought together rooted, built up strengthened and overflowing in Christ.

How does this apply to us today?

Two ways firstly, the encouragement just as we have received Jesus Christ as Lord to continue to live in him. To have confidence and hope and find unity and joy in who Jesus is and what he has done for us. Christ and Christ alone. Allow that to be the focus the foundation and the guide and joy for our lives

Secondly, the same warning. It’s easy for our for us to be moved away from Christ to manmade religious things, to traditions and thinking they are as important or more so than Jesus …to be weary of any form of Christ plus. Ritual, and traditions and expressions of faith spiritual disciples are helpful, as long as they focus us on Christ. We also still need to be careful in listening to people who might lead us away from Jesus. It was interesting while I was preparing this message that On Monday I was walking round the Hatea river loop tack and a man stopped me asked me if I was a Christian. He told me because Jesus was coming soon he had given up his job and was going round talking to people. He told me at great length of the visions he had been given. I listened politely and in the end had to go because I had an appointment. But as I left I started to weigh what he’d said I realised his focus was on what he had experienced not on Jesus. What he was doing and what he saw didn’t add up and conform to scripture. We need to evaluate what we hear in light of Christ, in light of the gospel of Jesus we have been taught. That has been passed on to us by people like Paul and his epistles.

We started with the illustration of the Pohutukawa at the northern most point of New Zealand kahika, the survivor. That was rooted firmly on a rock, and grew even in the most adverse of conditions. It’s a great illustration. But I was a bit reluctant to use it as because the plaque said that no one remembered the tree ever flowering. So maybe it is a good illustration of what Paul encourages us of and what he warns us of in this passage, that Christ plus is not a foundation for a fruitful and full life. It is only as we find ourselves rooted and being built up together in Christ, and being strengthened by what you have been taught and overflow with thanksgiving for what God has done for you in Christ you will find that your life blossoms and grows even in those hard places. Its Christ and Christ alone.