Sunday Service 1st June

Try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord

1/6/25

Welcome to our meditation for 1st June.

How should we live our life?

I think one of the problems we have is that we think we are in competition with God. We can either have the life that we want, or the one that God wants us to have. And the presumption is that the one that we want to have for ourselves is better for us than the one God wants us to have.

Or rather we would enjoy the life we set out for ourselves better than the life that God would set out for us.

But is that true?

We will look at that after Amanda lead us in our reading and prayer for today.

Sermon

So over the last few weeks we have been looking at the prophet Micah who lived in a world where everyone believed in a god, or gods. Belief in God was not a problem, knowing what that God expected from you was another.

Many Israelites believed that they had a contract with God...if they did the sacrifice stuff, then God would protect them from evil.

And we can still see that theology throughout the world.

There is a type of theology called Prosperity Gospel, if you agree to worship God, then he will bless you, if you don’t agree to worship God then God will punish you.

It is highly materialistic and manipulative.

But often we subconsciously believe it ourselves; especially when something bad happens to us...suddenly we go into contract mode,

‘What have done to deserve this?’ ...that implies we have broken the contract.

Or the mirror image of that...

‘How could God allow this to happen to me?’...that implies that somehow God has broken his side of the contract.

Both phrases imply that we have a contract with God, we will worship him, and he will bless us.

Instead the prophet Micah tells us that God wants us instead to have a relationship with him. That we walk together in this life no matter happens, and that our lives change and grow because of that relationship.

Paul, the writer of today’s reading, takes that even further and tells us that we shouldn’t just walk with God, we should live the life that God wants us to have,

And that’s hard.

Or it feels like it should be hard.

Because it implies that we have a choice between two lives.

The life we would want to have...and the life that God wants us to live.

The life where we are in control...and the life where God is in control.

The life where we can do what we want...and the life where we can’t do what we want, we have to do what God wants us to do.

I think that we have been led up a false argument.

We have been conned to make false choices; us or God.

And the reason I say that is that when you look at the world we have created, it isn’t a world where what we want...is actually what we want.

I love my three year old granddaughter heaps.

But she has a great flaw just now.

She wants what she wants and if she doesn’t get what she wants she acts as if the world is falling apart.

Or worse, if she even thinks that she is not going to get what she wants, then she freaks out, bursts into tears, collapses on the ground, goes into a hyper huff.

So the other day we are looking after her and she wants to go to the shops and get a sweet and she wants to go to the park and play. Now we are not against that.

We are quite happy about that.

But it is really sunny and very hot so we say to her, ‘We can’t go out just yet, you need to have suntan lotion on.’

Or rather, that’s what we intended to say.

Instead we got out, ‘You can’t go out just now...’ And she immediately went into tantrum stage, wouldn’t listen to anything we were saying, just crying and bawling.

It took us five minutes to calm her down and get her to listen to what we were actually trying to say rather than what she thought she was hearing.

As grandparents we are very aware that that is definitely not the best way for her to react to things not going her own way.

So we sit her down and explain why acting like a selfish brat doesn’t help things, in fact makes things worse.

The scary thing is, I see that attitude in adults all the time.

They get it into their head that the only way things can be done is their way, and when they don’t get their way they are fighting and screaming about how their rights are not being taken into consideration.

It is as if every other human being in the world is in competition with them and they have to fight for everything.

The irony is that in the end they get what they want, and they aren’t happy.

Because what they want is a world where they are queens and kings of all they see.

No one to defy them.

No one to correct them.

No one to challenge them or question them.

The only person that matters is them.

But what does that world look like?

Well we know because we see how society has changed over the last few years.

Less and less people eat out,

There is no need for them to do that.

They can order from any restaurant they want and the meal comes straight to their door. That way they don’t need to share their space with other customers in the restaurant.

They don’t need to put up with children that might be noisy or adults that might be too loud.

Less and less people go out to the cinema or to football matches.

There is no need to do that.

They can live stream the latest films or watch the latest match straight onto their giant tv in their house .

That way they don’t need to put up with listening to the person next to them crunch their pop corn or block their view when they stand up thinking a goal will be scored.

They don’t need to put up with the rain in a cold November night at the football stadium or the fidgeting of a child in a nearby seat who has got bored with the film.

We live in a world where people work from home, shop from home, entertain themselves from home.

You can do what you want and no one will judge you.

You can buy what you want and no one will judge you.

You can watch what you want and no one will judge you.

And some people can go days and weeks and months without physically meeting a real person.

And they are sold this as an ideal world, where they don’t need to put up with the complexities and inconveniences of other people.

There is no one to tell them what to do or how to live their lives.

They are masters of their own world, in complete control.

And the result is a world where there are more people with mental health problems than ever before.

The world that we would create for ourselves is not a world we would want to live in.

I know the world that Leah would create for herself world be a world where there is boundless amounts of ice cream.

A world where her sister would disappear when she was telling her that she wasn’t allowed just to come into her room and take things.

Where her mum and dad would disappear when they were telling her that she had to have a bath or go to bed.

The world Leah would create would inadvertently end up where she was alone and miserable.

Fortunately, just now, she doesn’t have the power to create that world.

If she doesn’t want a bath then her dad just picks her up and puts her in the bath.

If she doesn’t want broccoli then her mum just leaves it there but she doesn’t get ice cream as a treat afterwards.

The sad thing is that adults have more power to create their own world and they do, and inadvertently create a world where they are alone and miserable.

That’s what happens when we think it is a choice between the life we want, and the life God wants us to have...we opt for the life we create for ourselves and it isn’t that great.

Instead the real choice we have is seeing that the life God wants us to have...is the life we would want for ourselves.

If we trust that, then we work with God to move closer and closer to that life.

That might be a life where God challenges us a bit,

takes us out our comfort zone,

asks us to do things that we find a bit uncomfortable,

but in doing so we meet new people that become new friends,

we find we have new skills that we never expected we would have,

we become better, more rounded, more compassionate people.

We find those around us need a greater commitment from us, but also offer us a greater support when life is hard.

We find those around us are more fallible than we would like, but that also offers us a greater understanding of our own flaws.

As we see the need to forgive others, we find it easier to forgive ourselves.

As we look less into ourselves we find there is a world out there that is full of wonder.

I finish with reflecting on the questions Micah and Paul are answering.

The question that their people are asking, ‘What does God wants from us?’

And both are saying,

‘God doesn’t want a contract. So if that’s what we are consciously or unconsciously offering then we will be disappointed,

What God wants is for us to see that the life he offers us, is the best life we could have; a life full of complexity and purpose and love and meaning.

And that if we trust him, and follow him, then he will walk with us and he guides us towards that life.’

That is the real choice we have.

Let us pray

Heavenly Father,

Often we are lost in our thoughts.

We find ourselves reflecting on the past, trying to make sense of it, seeking to find out where things went wrong, allocate blame and seek to absolve ourselves from any failures.

We find our hearts are the centre of a war zone, a place where feelings and desires clash.

a place where fear and hope are often in conflict,

where distrust and trust are often in hostility,

where jealousy and love are often in dispute.

Forget about trying to please you Lord, how do we find contentment for ourselves?

And in that frame of mind it is easy to try to disconnect from the outside world.

Easy to create walls round ourselves to make life safe from others.

Easy to shield ourselves from the complexities and hurts that might haunt us.

At that time, if we are quiet enough, we hear you knock on the door of our heart.

You don’t want to argue with us or confront us about the life we have lived.

You want to take our hand and lead us out of the prison we have created for ourselves, and give us freedom to see the world, see others, even see ourselves, differently

You want to give us space to explore,

you want us to wander into places of wonder,

you want us to embrace the world creatively.

You challenge us to make something and put a piece of ourselves into what we have done whether it is a friendship, an act of kindness, a relationship, or even just a hobby.

And in that giving of ourselves, find love made visible,

 find that the world, the lives of others, our life has changed,

and changed for the better.

And in that, find that you have made us a light to this world.

May that be the vision we move towards.

Amen.