Sunday Service 19th April

3 days ago
9 min read

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXgh0MbLPNU

John the Baptist: Redemption

19/4/26

Call to worship

Hymn 127(JP): I will sing the wondrous story

Time for all Anne

Hymn 137(JP): Jesus is Lord, creations voice proclaims it

Reading: Luke 3: 1-22 Liz

Prayer

Hymn 489: Come down O love divine

Sermon

Prayer

Hymn 484: Dear Lord and Father of mankind

Benediction

Welcome to our meditation for 19^th April.

Holy Week is past, Easter is past.

A new time has begun, and to reflect on that we go back and start to reflect on Christ’s ministry, because in looking at Christ’s ministry, we start to see what our ministry should look like.

But we will reflect on that after our reading from Liz.

Sermon

The lectionary, the order in which we go through the Christian year, seems a bit strange at first sight.

But it does have its own logic.

It starts with Advent and the coming of the Messiah: then it rushes through the next few months leading to Lent and the culmination of the mission of the Messiah seen in his death and resurrection.

And then having gone at breakneck speed through his life in three months, it seems to start all over again.

The reason for that is that having been assured that the promise of the Messiah has taken place through the passages of Advent and Christmas,

and seeing the work of the Messiah fulfilled through the passages of Lent, Holy Week and Easter,

we now come to what we do with that knowledge, what does our ministry for God look like?

And to reflect on that we reflect on Christ’s ministry...because deep down our ministry is Christ’s ministry.

And we start with baptism.

Or rather we start with repentance.

Because any ministry we have starts with repentance.

It starts with our need for repentance.

My only problem is that word ‘repentance’ because the word itself creates an image.

It create an image of someone who is no good,

realising that they are not good,

and feeling shame, or being guilty and sorry,

they then try really hard to be different, to change their ways.

Scrooge from a Christmas Carol comes to mind, a man devoted to acquiring money at all costs and doesn’t see how much it is destroying his humanity until the ghosts of Christmas come to visit him and warn him where his life is going if he doesn’t change his ways. And change he does, becoming one of the most generous men alive.

Or King David from the Old Testament, who has an affair with Bathsheba and kills her husband so that he can marry Bathsheba who is pregnant with his child.

He thinks he has gotten away with it until Nathan the prophet confronts him and tells him that God is unhappy with his behaviour.

Or the old style revival meetings when the preacher up front finished the service with a Call to Repentance, for people to change their ways and come to Christ, and hundreds of people walk forward.

People were lost, and now they are found.

They enter the service as sinners, and leave as Christians.

The problem with those images of repentance is that they imply obvious evil, and most of us do not see ourselves as evil, so we don’t see our need to repent.

They also imply that repentance is a one off thing.

And there is nowhere in the Bible that suggests that repentance is a one off thing.

So what is repentance then?

Simply put, repentance is a moving towards God’s ways.

Now for some that will be extreme, if you have been living a self-centred, mean spirited, individualistic, not caring about anyone but yourself kind of life...

and then you move towards God’s life

then that is going to be a full turnaround of your life, it could be very spectacular and completely life changing.

Like Billy Sunday, a professional baseball player in the 1880s; he went along to revival meeting and became a Christian. And from that moment on he renounced drinking swearing and gambolling and became one of the most influential preachers of his age.

For others that might mean giving up what we have been doing for God, and moving onto something else.

Which may not seem a lot, it may not even seem important, surely any work we do for God is good?.

But the reality is that if we are not doing as God wants us to do, then whatever ministry we are doing, it isn’t of God, no matter what good we think we are doing.

The sad truth is that no matter what good we are doing,

if we are drifting away from God, then that drift is going to get wider and wider.

So every now and again we need to repent, seek what God wants us to do, and get back to doing that.

Let me give you an example of how quickly things can go wrong if we are not in line with God.

And I am going to use my marriage as an example.

At the start of the year Roseanna and I were stressed out,

we were looking for a house and we thought we had a house, then we didn’t have a house, then we may have a house.

And this state of flux went on for about three months.

We were both a bit stressed, and because we were both a bit stressed, maybe we weren’t communicating the way we should have.

Nothing bad, nothing serious, but just not fully communicating.

Now the next bit is really important.

We have a shelf in cupboard under the stairs that we keep the cereals on. Normally we have six cereals on that shelf, a couple for me that I like, a couple for Roseanna that she likes, and a couple for the grandchildren when they come for a sleepover.

Now there was a sale on in the supermarket where we go to where to buy the cereals so I bought a few extra packets...so we ended up with nine cereals on that shelf.

Even I thought that was a bit much so decided that I wasn’t going to buy any more cereals until we had used them up.

A few weeks later I notice that we are down to three cereals packets.

Not surprising as we had had a couple of sleepovers with the grandchildren and my son and his wife had spent part of a week with us.

So I decide to top up and get a few extra packets, of course Roseanna is with me when I buy these packets. And watches me as I put them on the shelf.

The next week, before shopping, I am in the cupboard and I notice that we only have three cereal packets on the shelf.

Had I not brought three packets the week before, or was that a couple of weeks before?

Or maybe it had only been last week but the three packets that were originally there had little in them.

Not a problem, the sale was still on so I bought another lot of cereals.

Again my wife was there, and didn’t say a word.

Until the next day.

The next day I go into the cupboard to get a cereal and there is only three packets of cereals there. This has just gotten weird.

So I shout up to Roseanna asking where all the cereals have gone..

At which point she shouts down to look two selves down.

You see a few weeks earlier Roseanna decided that nine cereals packets was too much and it was blocking the light in the cupboard so she tidied the cupboard and moved all but three cereal packets two shelves down.

And even though it was only two shelves down I never looked because I always got my cereal packets from the top shelf.

And every time I put the new cereal packets on the top shelf, where they always are, the next day Roseanna moved them two shelves down so that they didn’t block the light bulb.

That day when she told me to look down two shelves, there was 19 packets of cereal in the cupboard.

Not because either us had been evil. Not because either of us had done anything shameful,

but just because we hadn’t discussed something that either of us thought was important.

I never thought to ask, ‘Why are we going through so many packets of cereal?’

She never thought to ask, ‘Why are you buying so many cereal?’

If either of us had...things would have changed so much quicker.

But until we did talk, nothing was going to change.

That is why this passage is so important,

because it takes different people in different stages of their journey of faith, and forces them to see that they ALL need to repent...they all need to ask the same question of God, ‘What should we do?’

We have those who already have a faith.

The God fearing worshiping Jews...they know that just being born a Jew isn’t enough, they can feel it, they can feel that their relationship with God isn’t the way it should be.

And they ask the question, ‘What should we do?’

And John gives really practical advice to them.

‘Whoever has two shirts must give one to the man who has none, and whoever has food must share it.’

Then there are the tax collectors, people who are Jews, but people who had drifted big time; so-much-so that the other Jews had ostracised them. And they ask the same question, ‘‘What should we do?’

And John gives really practical advice to them.

‘Don’t collect more money than is legal.’

Then there are those who never knew God, the strangers to faith, the Roman Soldiers...and they ask the same question, ‘What should we do?’

And John gives really practical advice to them.

‘Don’t take advantage of your power over the people.’

Our life with Jesus is not just a life, it is a ministry.

It is based on trust.

Trust that God has a purpose for us; we have meaning in his eyes.

And if that is the case then God wants us to live the life he has set for us.

But that means repentance, turning from the life we are living, and walking the path God has set for us.

But that also means talking to God, asking God the question ‘What should I do?’

And realising that whatever the answer,

it is going to be practical, it is not going to be some theological treaty or vague platitude.

Because our life is real, and practical, and it needs real and practical answers.

Faith is like marriage, or any meaningful relationship, it needs communication.

It’s not that hard, but if we don’t talk, then we drift.

That drift may be hardly noticeable at first, built the longer it goes on the wider the chasm.

How do we stop it happening?

Well the first step in our journey is always the scariest one.

Asking God the question, ‘What should I do?’

And then doing it.

Let us pray

Heavenly Father,

What then should we do?

We probably asked you that question a long time ago, and willingly and enthusiastically we heard and followed,,,that is why we are here.

And the joy and hope that came with that obedience is why we are still here.

But when did we last ask you that question?

It’s not that we meant to drift away.

But we were busy doing your work, or thought we were doing your work.

But maybe years ago you asked us to move onto something else, to develop in another way, and we just didn’t want to hear, or maybe we were enjoying what we were doing to much.

We failed to realise that no matter what we ware doing, even if it is the most religious of things, then if you want us to do something else, then we aren’t following your path for us.

We failed to see that just because we are committed, just because we are dedicated, doesn’t mean that we are committed or dedicated to you.

And maybe the real truth is that we don’t ask the question because we are scared of the answer.

We are scared that you will ask too much of us, even though you have told us that if we take up your yoke it will be easy.

We are scared that others will think we have let them down.

Scared that others will think less of us.

So we follow the path of least resistance, follow the path that others set for us.

And in doing so withdraw from the adventure you set us on.

And because we are not following your path, we forgo the support, the drive, the purpose and meaning that is waiting for us on that path

We give thanks though that there is one hope.

You do not give up on us.

You still call out to us, asking us to repent, asking us to change our ways, asking us to follow where you ask us to lead.

You still believe that we can be disciples, still have people shouting out in the wilderness where we are, delivering a message of change.