Tag Archives: Love

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Decalogue

Click here to listen to the audio recording of this 16-minute message. Or watch the video here on Facebook (the message starts 24 minutes into the recording). Or read the text summary below.

Today, we focus on the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments, from Exodus 20:1-17. In the church where I became a Christian, a reformed evangelical church, we had the Decalogue up on the walls at the front of the church – they were presented as the most important verses of Scripture and central to our faith.

Four of the commands are about our relationship with God – essentially, it is supposed to be an exclusive relationship (“no other Gods but me”) – a 100% commitment to God, to Yahweh. And six of the commands are about our relationships with people – essentially, they are supposed to be ethical relationships – we are to treat people well.

In the First Testament, the Decalogue was written on stone tablets, but the very finger of God. But the later prophets, Ezekiel (11:19 & 36:26) and Jeremiah (31:33), wrote about having hearts of flesh instead of hearts of stone, and of God writing God’s law on our hearts.

We see this fleshy version of the Decalogue most powerfully in Christ’s incarnation – God come to dwell among us in human form. And Jesus, when asked about the Decalogue, distills them into just two: Love God and love your neighbour. These align well with what I wrote about – to be exclusive with God and ethical with people. But what is particularly emphasised in Jesus’ summary, and not obvious from the Decalogue, is love. (In Exodus 20, love appears only in verse 6, as an explanation of God’s jealous love for God’s people.)

If I were still at the church where I became a Christian, I’d be advocating for removing the Decalogue – the First Covenant Law – and replacing it with Jesus’ Great Commandment – the distillation of the Second Covenant, which is rooted in freedom and love.

That brings us to our gospel reading for today (John 2:13-22), where Jesus clears out the template. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, this story is narrated during Holy Week, on or after Palm Sunday, and as being the trigger for Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion. It is the culmination of Jesus’ offensiveness to the Jewish priests and leaders. But in John’s gospel, it comes as Jesus’ second act, right at the start of his ministry – following immediately on the wedding at Cana. The wedding story, with its extravagant and exceptional wine, is a story of freedom, generosity and abundance – the abundant life that John writes about so much. While the clearing of the template story is about God’s demand for our exclusivity and ethics.

Here, at the start of his ministry, Jesus acts out the requirements of the Great Commandment. Firstly, God’s house is being used in unholy ways. The things of God (the animal sacrifices) are being sold and bought. There is no place for such unGodly things in the very house of God. The exclusive relationship with God that is required by the Decalogue and by the Great Commandment, is being violated. And in addition, the people – the worshippers – are being exploited, having to pay to exchange currencies, to purchase animals for sacrifice. This is not ethical, not loving.

Jesus clears the template as a demonstration of the Great Commandment – Love God, Love your neighbour!

These standards that Jesus sets for us are impossibly high. I, certainly, fail again and again at these two seemingly simple commands. I stray from my exclusive relationship with God, and I fail to love others as myself.

Thanks be to God, Jesus bridges the gap between the high ideals and our broken efforts. He connects us to God, and his faithfulness transcends our fickleness. He strength transcends our frailty. He maintains the bond of fellowship between us and God and each other, even when we inevitably fail.

And so, as we continue our pilgrimage through Lent, let us continue to turn back to Jesus, and recommit ourselves to the Great Commandment: love God, love others or be exclusive with God and ethical with others.

Picture downloaded from https://www.thecatholictelegraph.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/ten-commandments.jpg

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Noah’s Ark foreshadows Christ’s Cross

Click here to listen to the audio recording of this 27-minute message. Or watch the video here on Facebook (the message starts 24 minutes into the recording). Or read the text summary below.

Our readings for today – the First Sunday in Lent – includes God’s Covenant with Noah after the great flood, in Genesis 9:8-17. Below I present this text from the interlinear bible, which endeavours to translate the Hebrew word-for-word into English:

8And God spoke to Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, 9“Behold, I, even I, am establishing my covenant with you, and with your seed after you, 10and with every living creature which is with you, among fowl, among cattle, among every animal of the earth with you, from all that go out from the ark, to every animal on earth. 11And I have made stand my covenant with you, and all flesh shall not be cut off again by the waters of a flood; nor shall there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

12And God said, “This is a sign of the covenant, which I am about to make between me and you, and every living soul which is with you, for everlasting generations. 13I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of a covenant between me and the earth. 14And when I gather the clouds on the earth, then the bow shall be seen in the clouds. 15And I will remember my covenant which is between me and you, and every living soul in all flesh. And the waters shall not again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16And the bow shall be in the clouds, and I shall see it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living soul, in all flesh which is on the earth.”

17And God said to Noah: “This is the sign of the covenant which I have made stand between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

It is worth taking careful note of the language used this passage, to gain an understanding of how radically inclusive God’s post-flood covenant with Noah was. See below the same text with coloured key words.

  1. In green, note the 8 uses of “you“: 5x “with you”, 1x “with your seed” and 2x “me and you”. God’s message to Noah is very directed towards him and particularly towards a partnership with him – the ‘with’ and the ‘and’.
  2. In yellow, note the 6 uses of “every“: 1x “every living creature”, 2x “every animal” and 3x “every living soul”. The Hebrew words behind the English all point towards living entities, whether human or animal – context may lean us towards one or other, but overall, the passage speaks equally about both people and animals.
  3. In blue, note the 5 uses of “all flesh“. In the Hebrew, ‘all flesh’ refers to the skin or flesh of any living being – again, people or animals, and also plants. The verb form of this Hebrew word means to be full of life, hence the skin (perhaps with its reddish colour) prompts us to think of living beings. But the Hebrew verb also means ‘good news’ and that’s a lovely link between this passage and the goodness of the Kingdom of God that Jesus preaches.
  4. In pink, note the 7 (yes 7!) mentions of the “earth“. In 5 of these, the reference is merely to people or animals “on the earth” – the earth is just a ground (soil) on which living things live. But in verses 11 and 13, we get two radical statements. In v11, God says that a flood will never again destroy the ‘earth’ – this is an expansion on God’s covenant not to destroy living things (animals and people) – now God also commits to protecting the earth itself. Moreover, in v13, God says that the rainbow “shall be a sign of a covenant between me and the earth”! Not only is the Noahic Covenant with Noah, people, animals AND plants, it is ALSO with the very earth itself. As if the earth is a living and sentient being! A great passage for those committed to ecospirituality.
  5. Finally, in lime, note the 5 uses of “between“. Two of these are “between me and you” emphasising a close partnering between God and Noah. The other three ‘between’s are between God and the earth, every living soul and all flesh. Here God shows his partnering with people, animals, plants and the planet (and perhaps by implication, the cosmos).

In short, this passage strongly emphasises a radical inclusivity by God towards the whole of God’s creation, encompassing not only all of humanity, not even also only of all animals, but also of the entire planet itself. This implies a universal covenant – a broad baobab tree with enough space for all created things to shelter under is branches. Humans, plus, plus, plus!

In this same passage, we also have 7 uses of the term “covenant”, which is why this passage is referred to the Noahic Covenant, following the devastating flood. A covenant is a binding agreement, and we get the heart of it in v11, “I have made stand [erected] my covenant with you, and all flesh shall not be cut off again by the waters of a flood; nor shall there ever again be a flood to destroy the earth.” The famous rainbow (mentioned three times as “bow”) is “a sign of the Covenant” – it is not the Covenant itself; just a symbol or sign that points to it (vv 12-13).

But what is most striking about this sign, is that it appears to be more for God’s benefit than for ours. God says in v16, “And the bow shall be in the clouds, and I shall see it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living soul, in all flesh which is on the earth.” The bow is there for God to see, so that God will remember the covenant. It is hard to imagine God might forget about the covenant, so this is particularly intriguing, suggesting a strong commitment on God’s part.

It is reminiscent of the Passover blood that the Israelites painted on the doors of their homes. Exodus 12:13 has God saying, “When I see the blood, I will pass over you.” Here again is a sign that God sees that activates Covenant protection and blessing.

Image from https://img.freepik.com/premium-photo/cross-hill-with-rainbow-clouds-sunset_879736-1041.jpg

God’s covenant with Noah is universal – humans, plus, plus, plus. It foreshadows a far later Covenant, made in Christ.

This new covenant that we have through Jesus Christ is similarly radically inclusive and universal. Jesus died for the sins of the whole world, not just of some. Thus everyone can potentially be saved. And perhaps, if one adopts a universalist theology, God may just find a way to actually save every person. I don’t know, but I hope so!

Christ expands the Noahic covenant and completes it. His death and resurrection is God’s final Word on salvation. Christ incarnated, ministering, on the cross, resurrected and ascended is the new sign, replacing the rainbow. It fulfils the Noahic covenant.

We look forward in Lent towards remembering and walking through this new covenant that Jesus makes possible for the whole of creation.

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Healthy church

Click here to listen to the audio recording of this 30-minute message (yes, again a bit longer than usual). Or watch the video here on Facebook (the message starts 24 minutes into the recording). Or read the text summary below.

This sermon (preached a week ago on 4 February 2024) is about a healthy parish – what makes for healthy parish life. It emerges, in part, in light of various churches failing to uphold core values around clergy integrity and sexual relations. A model for a healthy church is presented, based on the readings that were set for today in the Revised Common Lectionary, viz. Isaiah 40:21-31, Psalm 147:1-11, 1 Corinthians 9:6-23 and Mark 1:29-39.

Jesus is always our model for everything to do with Christian living, including corporate or collective Christian living – the church. This model is influenced by the readings above and also by how Jesus lived his life, related to God and people, and exercised his ministry.

1. Personal relationship with God

The foundation of a healthy church – and the foundation the triangle above – is each member’s personal relationship with God. Our collective well-being rests on the aggregate of each individual person’s health relationship with God. In Mark 1:35, Jesus leaves his ministry to spend time in his personal relationship with God – he does so repeatedly, even though there are so many people waiting for his healing ministry and teaching. If a personal relationship with God is important to Jesus – who is God, the second person of the Holy Trinity – how much more important should it be to each of us.

When you fly on an airplane, you will be told that, in the event of cabin decompression, oxygen masks will drop down from above your seat. And you will be told to put your OWN mask on FIRST, before helping others (including your children). This is an apt illustration of the need for each of us to see to our personal relationship with God. I, as priest, must ensure the robustness and depth of my relationship with God.

2. Preach words

In 1 Cor 9:16-18, Paul refers to his preaching as central and as God-given. In Mark 1:38-39, Jesus says he needs to go to other villages to “preach there also”. He goes on to say, “That is why I have come”. Preaching words is important to build people’s faith.

But for a health church, I suggest we translate preaching as our words. Too often our words are harsh, judgmental, critical and gossipy. Such words break down, alienate, diminish and harm. There is no place for such words in a healthy church.

Our words should heal and create. Psalm 147:4 says, God “determines the number of stars and calls them each by name”, while Isaiah 40:26 reiterates, “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name. … not one of them is missing”. These verses indicate how the words of God bring stars into being, as he names and calls them. Similarly, our words – whether good or bad – can call things into being.

Therefore, our words should be deliberately encouraging, edifying, building up, loving. Last year, we spent the whole of Lent reflecting on Jesus’ command to “love one another”, where we teased this out in detail.

3. Heal through actions

Mark 1:29-34 and 39 say, “…[Jesus] went to her, took her hand and helped her us. The fever left her … Jesus healed many who had various diseases. He also drove out many demons … So he travelled throughout Galilee … driving out demons.” Isaiah 40:29-31 says, “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall, but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” Psalm 147: 2-3, 8-9, says, “The Lord builds up Jerusalem; the gathers the exiles of Israel. He heals the broken-hearted and binds up their wounds. … He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills. He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call.”

These words are all of healing actions. How we behave impacts the health of a church. When we exclude, abandon or just do nothing, we harm the church. We break it down and weaken it. Rather, we should engage in actions that build up a health community. We can do this by simply showing up, instead of being absent. And through simple acts, like cooking a family a meal when they’re going through a hard time, giving someone a call or sending them a message, helping to clean up. In our tradition, we share the peace during the service – we can make sure we greet all the people around us, instead of rushing off to chat with our friends and ignoring a visitor.

4. Empathy

I have placed ’empathy’ at the centre of the graphic of a healthy church, even though the word ’empathy’ does not appear in the Bible. But the concept is there, for example in 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, Paul writes:

19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. 20 To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.

Here Paul steps into the shoes of others, in order to understand them from inside, in order to share the Gospel in a way that makes sense to them. This effort to feel with others is core to empathy.

We see this profoundly in Jesus. Until Jesus was conceived, God had no first-hand understanding of what being human was like. God was not a man, and didn’t have personal experience of being human. But when Jesus incarnated in Mary’s womb and was born like any other human, God got a first-hand experience of being human – God discovered empathy for the human condition.

Too often, however, we jump to negative conclusions, without first exercising empathy. We assume the worst of people, rather than considering other less judgmental reasons for their behaviour. For example, if we don’t see someone for a few weeks we assume they have lost their faith or reneged on their responsibilities, when in fact they might be ill. Instead, let us rather assume the best – if we’re going to make an factless assumption, let’s make a positive one rather than a negative one, until the facts suggest otherwise.

A church that is grounded in personal relationships with God, that speak and act in ways that build up and encourage, and that chooses to empathise with each other, is likely to be a healthy community. This is the kind of community or body that God desires for us. It takes some effort on each person’s part. Working together, we can build a healthy church centred on God.

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Mental health

Click here to listen to the audio recording of this 30-minute message (yes, a bit longer than usual). Or watch the video here on Facebook (the message starts just before 21 minutes into the recording). Or read the text summary below.

This message is not so much a sermon, but rather a ‘talk’, about mental health. It emerges from Mark 1:21-28, where Jesus exorcises a demon and makes a ‘madman’ well. In Jesus’ time, most manifestations of psychological problems would have been interpreted in spiritual terms – a demon was at work. Today, there would be a tendency to define those same manifestations as psychosis, using psychiatric, medical terminology. Perhaps both have some truth.

The human has long been understood as a tripartite being, comprising body, mind (or soul) and spirit. This implies a sense separateness within a person, where these three parts operate separately:

But rather, these three parts are closely interacting, with the body and mind influencing each other, the mind and the spirit influencing each other, and the spirit and the body influencing each other – far more integrated and whole, something like this:

However, despite this integration, when someone presents with a physical (body) problem, like cancer or diabetes, we’d all cluster around and support that person. But if they present with depression, or anxiety or schizophrenia, we would tend avoid them, to speculate, to judge, to question their faith, and so on. We generally treat psychological problems differently from physical problems, even though they are interconnected. Psychological challenges tend to be stigmatised, even today.

The interconnection or integration I’m talking about is nicely illustrated in the Greek word sózó, which means both healing and salvation. In our New Testament English translations, most of the words ‘heal’ and ‘save’ are the same in the Greek. To be spiritually saved is tantamount to being physically (or psychologically) healed. For example, the woman who had been bleeding for years (Luke 8:43-48) was sózó – she was both healed and saved, and she was also restored into a harmonious place within her society (which stigmatised menstrual blood). Many English translations say she was was ‘made whole’ – that’s a good translation!

At this point in my message, I related my own experiences with depression, brought on a combination of genetic and environmental factors, that had me in psychotherapy for many years, on antidepressant medication for several years, and in a psychiatric hospital for a month. I am not going to type this up here. It is in the recording, and I’d rather you hear my story verbally than in writing. It is not essential to this message, but it does provide a first-hand account of mental illness, and recovery, and continual working on maintaining my mental health – I think of myself as a depressive in remission. This starts at about 27 minutes into the video recording and about 6 minutes into the audio.

In my recovery, two books were very meaningful to me, and might be to you:

I hope that this talk about mental health and my personal sharing about my own depression will be helpful to you in a few ways:

  1. I hope this helps to destigmatise mental illness, because although I have had quite severe mental illness through many years of my life, I have also done quite well in life and feel that my life is good and meaningful. If you find yourself struggling with mental illness or struggle, I hope you will be less judgmental towards yourself and your symptoms, and more open and kind to yourself. And similarly towards others.
  2. I hope this helps you become more self-aware and to self-care more. Jesus commands us to love God and to love our neighbour as you love yourself (Matthew 22:39). This last phrase is not a commandment, as such. There is a tendency among Bible scholars to assume that all people love themselves, even too much. But in my practice, many do not love themselves; people suffer from low self-esteem and even self-loathing. We should love ourselves more – like putting on the oxygen masks in the aeroplane before you help others.
  3. I hope this helps you to pray and read the Bible more. These practices are about creating space for God to be present in us, and for us to experience God’s presence. John writes about the desire that we should experience life, and life abundantly (John 10:10)! Psalm 23 speaks of a table, a feast, prepared for us.
  4. I hope this encourages you to seek help when you are suffering from mental health challenges. You can do this by asking your priest or minister for prayer and anointing – this part of the contribution that the church can offer you, in line with James 5:14-16. You can do this also by seeking therapy from a psychologist or clinical social worker. And you can to this by seeking medication from your GP or a psychiatrist.

I ended this talk with a 2-minute prayer for those who have listened to this message, and I encourage you to listen to or watch this prayer. It start a little after 47 minutes into the video and a little before 27 minutes into the audio recording.

Image from https://www.hypresslive.com/2024/01/18/breaking-the-mental-health-stigma-in-the-workplace-in-2024/

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Grace amazing

Today’s reading is Matthew 20:1-16. It is the story about a landowner who hires people to work in his field, starting from early in the morning (perhaps 5am) until 5pm in the evening. He promises the first a denarius – a generous day’s wage; and he promises the later workers a ‘fair’ wage. He comes out himself even late in the day and asks people why they are standing around doing nothing, and they say, because no-one has hired them, and so he hires them, knowing that humans were created to work – God’s first commands to Adam and Eve are to work in the garden and take care of the earth. This is the first grace: we are invited to work with God.

Evening comes and the landowner calls the workers together and pays everyone the same – a denarius. The workers who started early are understandably unhappy. But this is not a story about labour and economics. It is a story about grace. God’s grace is abundantly given to all of us, whether we start early or late, whether we do much or little. Think of the thief on the cross beside Jesus in Luke 23 – he could do nothing on that cross, yet he entered into Christ’s paradise. The landowner asks the disgruntled workers if they are envious that he is generous – do you envy my grace? Grace if fundamentally unfair. This is the second grace: we ALL get what we do NOT deserve.

Fix your eyes on Jesus. Be amazed by grace.

Just last night, my wife Trina shared with me this video of ‘Amazing Grace’ sung differently by Dan Vasc. It fits so perfectly, I cannot help but conclude it was God’s prompting.

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Following the new wine

Click here to watch the video of this 28-minute message on Facebook (the message starts about 29 minutes into the recording). Note that this is an active sermon – worth watching, rather than just reading. I don’t have an audio recording of this message. Or read the text summary below.

Matthew 9 tells the story of Jesus calling Matthew: “As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.” And Genesis 12 tells the story of God calling Abram: “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.” Go! Follow me! These calls have nuclear power to move people – Matthew got up and followed Jesus, Abram packed and moved into the unknown.

Jesus is calling you and me today – Follow me! Go! – but to where? Where do we go? Where do we follow?

Matthew 9:16-17 gives us invaluable insights into what Jesus calls us to, in the metaphor of new wine in new wineskins:

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

Although the metaphor is a bit obscure, at very least we can take from this that there are challenges in mixing the old and new. Jesus leans strongly in favour of the ‘new’ – new wine and new wineskins are what we’re after. A few verses earlier (v13) he gives another clue about where we are following him to, when he quotes Hosea, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice”. Mercy represents love for people, while sacrifice represents religion. Jesus is saying – indeed God is saying – I don’t want your religion, I want your love for people. This is the ‘new’ teaching – or rather an old teaching renewed – that Jesus gives us. And the whole of Matthew 9 illustrates this with examples.

Come along with me – follow me! – as we briefly consider the seven stories that illustrate following the new wine in Matthew 9:

  1. The chapter opens with a paralysed man, brought to Jesus by his faith-filled friends. Jesus sees their faith and says, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” The teachers of the law are outraged by Jesus’ presumption of having authority to forgive sins – they’re not interested in the man, only in their theology. Jesus responds strongly and heals the man as evidence of his authority to proclaim forgiveness of sins. Jesus’ love for this physically and spiritually broken man takes precedence over the teachers’ petty theology.
  2. In verses 10-13, Jesus attends a party hosted by Matthew, who is now following Jesus. Matthew’s friends are tax collectors and sinners – ‘bad people’. The Pharisees – another religious group – are disgusted and ask Jesus’ disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” They are not concerned with the humanity of Matthew and his fallen friends – they are concerned only with religious piety and ‘rightness’. They dehumanise these broken people. Jesus confronts them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but those who are ill… For I have not come to call he righteous, but sinners.” Jesus’ love for sinners, for bad people, takes priority over everything.
  3. In verses 14-17, while still at the same dinner party, the disciples of John the Baptist come and ask Jesus, “How is that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” Their use of ‘often’ (we fast often) betrays the religious pride. Their interest is in religious observance and spiritual discipline. But Jesus dismisses their concerns, asking “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them?” He has little interest in fasting or other religious piety – he is more interested in spending time engaging with people. It is in this immediate context that he speaks about new wine – he is not interested in religious and theological precision and rightness; he is much more interested in human relationships, fellowship, compassion and love.
  4. In verses 20-22, while still at the same party, a synagogue leader tells Jesus that his daughter has died and asks if Jesus can come and help. Jesus leaves immediately, as his compassion for this young girls outweighs his fellowship with Matthew and his friends. On the way to the house, a woman who has been bleeding (menstruating) heavily for 12 years touches his cloak and is healed by Jesus’ power. Her faith is strong: “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.” Jesus stops and speaks with her, he proclaims healing and wholeness and salvation. We imagine he took hold of her hand as he lifted her up onto her feet. While in the other stories there are crowds of noisy people around, here there is silence. Men and women keep menstruation quiet and private – it is not public. And in those days, women were considered unclean during their period. For Jesus to engage, speak, touch her was to make him unclean. He didn’t care about that – he cared just for her.
  5. Reaching the house of the synagogue leader, there is a noisy crowd outside. They mock Jesus when he says the girl is just sleeping. He goes up to her room and takes her by the hand. Touching a dead person makes one unclean, but Jesus doesn’t care about that – he cares only for the girl. She is revived and gets up.
  6. Briefly, Jesus continues on his way and heals two blind people, “According to your faith let it be done to you”. He sternly warns them not to tell anyone about him healing them. He is not interested in recognition – he cares only about their sight.
  7. And then he encounters a demon-possessed man (perhaps today a schizophrenic). He drives out the demon. The Pharisees cannot recognise Jesus’ compassion for this man’s wholeness and well-being; they say, “It is by the prince of demons that he drives out demons”.

Jesus quoted Hosea, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice”. Jesus tells about the new wine – his people-centred gospel of love and inclusion – that is incompatible with the old wineskins of religiosity, piety, self-righteousness. He is all about people: “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners”.

So, as we follow Jesus, as we answer his call to ‘Go!’, we must put people before religion, relationships before theology, acceptance before judgement, inclusion before exclusion, love before judgment. This is the new wine of Jesus’ Gospel that should be poured into the new wineskins of our hearts and churches.

Featured image from https://www.wholelifechallenge.com/weekly-challenge-8-reach/

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Love through acceptance and unity

Click here to listen to the audio recording of this 22-minute message. Or watch the video here on Facebook (the message starts about 24 minutes into the recording). Or read the text summary below.

During this Lent 2023, we are reflecting on Christ’s repeated command to “love one another“. (Remember that ‘one another’ and ‘each other’ refers to our brothers and sisters in Christ, that is, our local and global congregation. This is not to say that we don’t need to love people outside the church! No!! But it is true that Jesus emphasises the love we have for one another within the church, because it is by this that people will know that we are his disciples and will become curious to find out more about this Jesus.)

This week we focus in on the many passages that describe this love that we have for one another as being characterised by acceptance and unity.

In John 17:20-26 Jesus emphasises this unity. In John 17, Jesus prays for his disciples and then for all believers, including us in the future who came to believe through their message. He prays “that all of them may be one”, and again “that they may be one”, and then clarifies that he’s praying that we (Christians) may be one “as we are one” – that is, as Christ and the Father are one. That is the quality of oneness that Jesus wants us to experience with each other! The same kind of oneness that the Father, Son and Spirit experience within the Holy Trinity. And so Jesus continues to pray “that they may be brought to complete unity” – not just any old unity, not just grudging agreement or apathetic compliance, but complete unity. Jesus has very high expectations for the kind of closeness and harmony he wants us to experience among each other in the church.

And he then says, “Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” Sjoe, that’s a big ‘THEN’! It means that our oneness, our unitedness, is a condition for our witness. In other words, if we are fractured, splintered, out of touch with each other, unloving and critical towards each other, all these things – then we cannot be Christ’s witness to the world. Remember what Jesus said just a few chapters earlier: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:34-35). It cannot be clearer than that, can it? We have to be unified, we have to be one. It is Jesus’ core command. 

So, how is the church doing? I leave you to reflect on how your own local church community is doing in relation to unity and oneness. But when we look more broadly at my denomination - the global Anglican Communion - like many denominations, eish, we are doing badly. Our church is on the brink of fracturing right now, over different views of sexuality and gender, and particularly over what defines a marriage. I think there is nothing wrong with different views on things - difference can be refreshing and difference is built into the New Testament image of the church (as we'll soon see). But when different views become hostile dogmatism, toxic judgement and name calling (like 'apostacy' and 'blasphemy' and 'heresy'), then we have totally lost what Jesus has called us to - to unity and oneness. Such dogmatic stances are a recipe for disaster.

But let us continue to unpack what the Scriptures have to say about love as acceptance and unity. In Ephesians 4:1-16, Paul picks up on Jesus’ words about the love that the Father has for him being in us, and that he may be in us just as the Father is in him. This is the language of interpenetration – that we are bound up together as one, as a body, where all the parts are interconnected. This image of the church as the Body of Christ is most fully developed in 1 Corinthians 12. This chapter is so well known that I’m not going to talk about it here, but it is a great chapter to read again in this context.

In Ephesians 4, though, Paul writes repeatedly about oneness. In verses 4-6 he uses ‘one’ seven times! “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Those last words are again about interpenetration, aren’t they?) This oneness of the church community is strongly emphasised in Paul’s thinking.

But he quickly goes on to speak about the diversity of the church community: “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service” (Eph 4:11-12). Here we have extensive diversity – different gifts, abilities and roles – a kaleidoscope of difference.

Paul deftly hold these apparent opposites – oneness and diversity – together. In v12 he says that all these parts of the body are “held together by every supporting ligament”, that Christ “is the head” that helps us walk in the same direction” (v15), which enables the “the body of Christ [to] be build up until we all reach unity in the faith” (v12-13), that we must “make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (v3) and that this requires us to “be completely humble and gentle, patient, bearing with one another in love” (v2). All this language speaks of intention, commitment and effort towards unity – it won’t just fall out of the sky – we have to work at it. We have to work at love.

When it comes to the things of the church and to the witness of the church to the world, Jesus and Paul repeatedly emphasise both our diversity and our unity. But UNITY or ONENESS is always the overriding message. And LOVE is the key, essential and only strong-enough force to bridge the gap between unity and diversity. We must love one another, we must accept each other and be united, we must become one body, we must celebrate and accept differences – this is Christ’s repeated command: acceptance and unity.

Featured image from: https://godisabrowngirltoo.com/category/speak-the-truth/

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The primacy of love

Click here to listen to the audio recording of this 14-minute message. Or watch the video here (the message starts about 26 minutes into the recording). Or read the text summary below.

This sermon is the first in a series of five on the Lent theme, “Love one another”. This theme is part of a larger theme on ‘Identity’, which our Diocese is focusing on this year – who are we as Christians, as the church? Within this broad theme of Identity, our parish is focusing on Jesus’ command to ‘Love one another’. And today, our particular focus is on the primacy of love.

Our Gospel reading for today (John 15: 1-17) has a strong emphasis on remaining in Christ as he remains in his Father and in us, and on remaining in Christ’s love, as he remains in his Father’s love. This passage ends with, “This is my command: Love each other!” (John 15:17). It echoes an earlier passage (John 13:34) where he says, “A new command I give you: love one another”. This is a repeat of his Great Commandment (Matthew 22, Mark 12 and Luke 13): to love God with all you have, and to love your neighbour as yourself.

About this Great Commandment, Jesus says, hang all the law and the prophets. Gal 5:14 echoes this, “The entire law Is summed up in a single command: love your neighbour as yourself.” And Romans 13:9 similarly says, All the commands and “whatever other command there may be are summed up in this one command: Love your neighbour as yourself. … Therefore love is the fulfilment of the law.” You can hear that this command is repeated again and again across the New Testament.

In addition to the command to love one another, there are dozens of other passages in the New Testament that speak about ‘one another’ or ‘each other’ and they all seem to refer to our relationships with people within the church – with other Christians, in the household of faith. There is supposed to be a special bond of love among Christians. As Jesus says in John 13:35, “By this [love that you have for one another], everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another”. We are what Paul later describes as the Body of Christ in 1 Corinthians 23.

The big question is: Are we exemplifying this kind of love for one another here in our church?

This love that Jesus talks about incessantly is more than just behaviours; it is our very identity. Deut 6:6-9 unpacks how the great command of God, to love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength, is to become the very fabric of life: “The commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and why you walk along the road, when lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.”

You can hear from this how central the Great Commandment is to God. It is a summation of the entire law, because it is the primary value of God. In Jesus, the command to love each other is the summation of God’s revelation to humanity and his central and persistent message. This love for each other reflects the very heart of God. We are called to develop a culture of love – a pattern of living that is deeply embedded in our habitual practices as a community. Our love for one another here in the church should be so engrained that we barely think about it.

There is a lot of caring in this church, but I think we are not yet living up to Jesus’ example and expectations. During this Lent we want to immerse ourselves in this central teaching of Jesus and this central value of God. Let us become deliberately conscious and mindful of how we interact with each other, and purposefully work to be more loving and more caring towards each other.

Featured image, “Love One Another”, by Emma Taylor, from https://www.emmapaints.com/shop/ski5coarmeyb8vhyk7uo4b0prs6wmq

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God, the Bible, the Church and Sexuality

Click here to listen to the audio recording of this 34-minute message. Or watch the video of the message here on Facebook (the message starts about 23 minutes into the recording). Or download my fairly detailed sermon notes (not a full-text transcript) in MS Word.

Today’s set of compelling readings from Micah 6:8, Psalm 15:1-3, Matthew 5:3-10 and 1 Corinthians 1:27-28, point us to the heart of a God who is concerned for those who are marginalised, vilified and outcast. They also emphasise that our responsibility as Christians is to be merciful, kind, humble, inclusive and generous.

In light of these readings, today’s message addresses the complex and controversial topic of sexuality in the church, particularly homosexuality. This is a topic that has been long ignored and more recent has lead to deep divisions within the the church between those who are against and those who are for (or at least tolerant of) gay relationships. Many gay Christians feel deeply rejected by the church – not just for what they do sexually, but for who they are – for their very being, their humanity, which is experienced to be under attack by Christians and the church.

In today’s message, I endeavour to the following, which I encourage you to watch, listen to or read, using the links provided at the top of today’s blog.

  • Some clarification of terminologies, particularly the difference between gender identity (who I see myself as being in terms of gender – traditionally male or female) and sexuality (who I have sexually or romantically attracted to – traditionally heterosexual or homosexual). Both of these terms have become increasingly diverse and nuanced in recent years.
  • Developing an understanding of how the Scriptures were authored within particular historical and cultural contexts that differ vastly from contemporary society.
  • I address five broad points of discussion in this message:
    • The belief of many Christians that heterosexuality is God’s only legitimate sexual orientation. I’ll show that this is not true.
    • The belief of many Christians that the Bible does not anywhere say that gay relationships are okay. I’ll show that this is not entirely true.
    • The belief of many Christians that the Bible condemns homosexual relationships as an abomination. I’ll show that this is not true.
    • The point that among the numerous laws in the Bible, some Christians draw on preconceived cultural beliefs to justify their condemnation of homosexual relationships.
    • And the primary of love that is presented in Jesus Christ’s teachings and his example of radical inclusivity.
  • Based on the above discussion points, I draw 4 key conclusions:
    • In human relationships, God is most interested in the quality of our love.
    • God is not interested in the sex or gender of the person we love.
    • Marriage is sacred, a divine joining together, and must be protected.
    • Marriage (defined as a sacred joining together or union) is not restricted to a man and a woman.
  • And in light of this I hope that my parish and your church community would aspire to:
    • emulate Jesus’ example of radical inclusivity, diversity and love
    • create a church space where people of various sexual orientations feel welcome, accepted and loved
    • focus on and champion the quality of love in human relationships.

I do appreciate that the views of Christians on the subject of homosexuality vary widely, and that there are many that will view my understandings and interpretations of the Scriptures as false and heretical. Our views on this subject can be deeply divisive. Nevertheless, I take Jesus’ lived life (how he behaved with people he encountered) and Jesus’ spoken teachings about what is most important to God as the central guides to make sense of the rest of Scripture. He is God incarnate – he is the perfect reflection of who God is. He himself says, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). I follow him.

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What happens to souls

Click here to listen to the audio recording of this 23-minute message. Or watch the video here on Facebook (the message starts at about 26 minutes into the video).

Today we celebrated All Souls, also known as the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed. In fact, it should be celebrated on 2 November, but we moved it today, since it’s Sunday. It is the day on which remember all those whom we have loved and lost – parent, family, friends, and others who have died. Later in the service we came up to light candles to remember and appreciate them.

Strictly, the ‘faithful departed’ mean those who died in the faith. But what about those who died outside the faith? What happens to them? And, indeed, what happens to the faithful departed? In this message, I try to explain the main teachings in the scriptures about what happens to us after we die. The truth is that the Bible presents rather mixed and even contradictory accounts of this, which can leave us a bit confused. Perhaps because no-one who has died, has come back to explain what happens. But what we can rely on in all this, is the grace and love of God, whose heart is open to humanity.

Psalm 130: 3-4 says, “If you, Lord, kept a record of sins, Lord, who could stand? But with you there is forgiveness , so that we can, with reverence, serve you.” And late, the same Psalm encourages us to “put your hope in the Lord, for with the lord is unfailing love and with him is full redemption”.

So, what happens to those die in the faith?

  • There are some verses that say our spirit goes immediately into the presence of God. Luke 23 tells of Jesus hanging on cross and saying to the one criminal hanging next to him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Today means today – not sometime in the future, but this very day. 2 Corinthians 5:8 is also thought to say that we transition immediately into the presence of God.
  • But other passages suggest we go to sleep for a period, until the last day. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-15 speaks three times about believers who were asleep – all those who died before Christ’s second coming would remain asleep, until he returned and woke them up with a the trumpet call of God.
  • Either way, it seems that our bodies will be resurrected only on the last day, when Christ returns – the second coming. Whether you’ve been cremated, or long buried and decomposed, or recently buried, God seems able to raise up our bodies. 1 Thessalonians 4:16 speaks about this, as well as several other passages about the resurrection, e.g., 1 Corinthians 15:12-58.
  • And will the faithful departed then be judged? John 5:24 and 29 say ‘no’: “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged, but has crossed from death to life … Those who have what is good will rise to live”. But 2 Corinthians 5:9-10 say ‘yes’: “So we make it our goal to please [God], whether we are home in the body or away from it. For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due to us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad.”

It’s all a bit confusing! Although we may not know the specifics of the mechanisms of what happens after we die, we can surely rest assured that we will experience the love, grace and forgiveness of God.

And what, then, about those who die without faith in Christ? What happens to them?

  • In John 3:36, Jesus is pretty blunt: “Whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.”
  • And John 5:29 reinforces this: “Those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned.”
  • Again, in Luke 13:27, Jesus speaks about the narrow gate through which few will get, and the door closing and the owner saying, “I don’t know you! Away from me!”

It seems then that there is no hope for the ‘unfaithful’ departed. But, we must remember the repeated messages through the entire Bible about God’s great, extravagant and all-embracing love. This gives us hope, that maybe somehow God will find a way to win over the hearts of all or at least many people who died outside of faith.

  • For example, Lamentation 3:31-33 says, “For no-one is cast off by the Lord for ever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to anyone.” This points us to the heart of God, which seeks good for every person.
  • Col 1:17-20 also speaks of God’s desire to save every person: “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
  • And similarly in Ephesians 1:9-10 tells us that the mystery of God’s will is “to bring unity to all things iun heave and on earth under Christ”.

Since Christ died for the sins of the whole world, and not just for the sins of the faithful, universal salvation is at least a possibility. God’s love is radically inclusive, not exclusionary, and so there is the possibility that all could be saved. But God does not force himself on people – we have the right reject God. But it is perhaps hard to imagine unbelievers encountering the God of love face to face and denying his existence or rejecting his offer of a relationship. His love is almost irresitable.

And so, we try to win over those who do not believe, through our witness, our words and our prayers. And we continue to pray for those who have died outside the faith, that God will make a way for them to find salvation. We don’t have to understand how – that’s God’s business. But we can pray and hope and trust in the expansive and extravagant love of God.

Featured image from https://live.staticflickr.com/5046/5642983250_95071a5ca8_b.jpg