Sunday Service 25th January

Not playing fair

25/1/26

Call to worship

Hymn 404: I danced in the morning

Time for all 

Hymn 351:  Jesus hands were kind hands

Reading:  Luke 6:1-11  John

Prayer

Reading: Luke 13:10-17

Hymn 534: Make me a captive Lord

Sermon

Prayer

Hymn 198: Let us build a house

Benediction

Welcome to our meditation for 25^th January.

One of the biggest flaws we have as humans is that we read scripture and think that it doesn’t concern us.

It is about people long ago and far away, of a very different culture...and their arguments seemed important then...but they aren’t important now, we have already fought and won those battles.

This couldn’t be further from the truth today.

Because this is about how we see God, and how we should see God.

But we will look at that after the prayer and readings from Elaine

Sermon

Sabbath laws.

Doesn’t really concern us.

It is a battle of another culture, another time, another place.

It is about freedom to do what we want to do on a Sunday.

And we are free to worship on a Sunday, or not worship on a Sunday.

The Sabbath was made for us, not us for the Sabbath.

And we miss the point completely.

This is a very complex discussion about the nature of God and how we see God.

This is a scary discussion were we will find out that we are more like the Pharisees than Jesus.

And it all comes down to, do we see God’s relationship with us as fellowship based or rule based?

Now I think we would all say with confidence that our faith is fellowship based. It is all about how we are in relationship with God, isn’t that what our faith is all about?

You would think so.

The only trouble is that if we scrape away at the surface, and not very far off the surface, we find we love our rules.

Our problems started way back at the enlightenment.

During the enlightenment there was the growing idea that God wasn’t in charge of everything; that the world could be explained.

When the lightning flashed through the sky it wasn’t God lashing out.

When thunder bellowed through the air it wasn’t God being angry.

If someone died in a flood it wasn’t God punishing them.

The world stopped being described by God being behind it.

The world was described by rules, laws.

When an apple fell it always feel the same way, because it followed the rules, it followed the law of gravity.

Lightning and thunder could be explained by weather patterns.

And if we, if the weathermen, got it wrong, it wasn’t because there was no rules, it was because we didn’t understand the rules right, or we hadn’t worked out the rules yet.

If there was a God, then God had set the rules in motion, and then let it be.

And this could be summed up in one phrase...actions have consequences.

And not only did that philosophy affect science, it affected theology as well.

God had rules, and God obeyed the rules.

So we had ministers explaining away miracles as the people trying to explain things that they didn’t understand, but there was a scientific explanation for them.

Do we believe in a rule based God, or a fellowship based God?

Even the Bible we have this conflict going on all the time.

The Jews were Gods chosen people.

How do we know?

Because they followed God’s rules.

They had the Ten Commandments.

Their sons were circumcised.

When the church was young and had a mix of Jews and Gentiles there was the big fight between whether Gentile Jews should follow Jewish dietary laws and circumcision laws.

The argument being that God had given those rules to guide us.

If you weren’t following God’s rules then how could you claim to be following God?

This is still a battle that is being fought within us every single day.

I, as a minister, have an official code of conduct that I am expected to follow.

I will be honest about this...I don’t know what is in the code of conduct, and I don’t care.

I am sure that if Presbytery hauled me under some disciplinary matter for it...they would argue that I am suggesting that ministers could be child abusers or drug addicts or steal all the money from the collection, or have affairs with members of the congregation.

I would argue that following a code of conduct doesn’t make me a good minster; doing as God wants me to do is what makes me a good minister.

But I know that rules based faith is always close by.

I know this because every time one of you feels like someone has offended you...you come to me demanding that I do something about it.

He has broken the rules, he had no right to say that or do that...YOU need to do something about it.

I know this because every time I see something in the news I detest I go to God about it and ask when he is going to do something about it.

When will politicians that abuse their power get punished for what they have done?

When will people in authority who are negligent, and people suffer because of it, get disciplined for what they have done?

Deep down we think we should get into heaven because we haven’t broken the rules, not badly anyway, not the important rules.

In the Bible one of the rules is that to commit a homosexual act is an abomination...and there are ministers that would say that they are condemned to hell because of that, they are deliberately going against God’s law.

In the Bible there is a rule about not shaving off your beard, that it is an abomination...if we are being fair to scripture then anyone who has shaved is going to hell.

‘But no,’ we say, ‘we don’t believe that, we believe in a fellowship God.’

And I say, ‘So there is a place in heaven for child abusers as long as they have a relationship with God.’

Do you feel the conflict yet?

So let’s get to our passage.

God made a Commandment, ‘Remember the Sabbath, to keep it holy.’

This is an important law. But it isn’t very specific. What does it mean to keep it holy?

Well Holy means to keep something separate, dedicated to God.

The Sabbath was obviously a day when we should reflect on our relationship with God, because God is a God of relationship.

But that’s a internal thing that no one can monitor or judge or observe.

Unfortunately rules are meant to be monitored and judged and observed.

Rules are not meant to be broken.

If the law says that the speed limit is 30 mph then it means that the speed limit is 30 mph, not 30 mph when it suits me.

The rules are there for a reason, and if you break the rules there are consequences.

This is a rule, God’s rule, set for a reason, and if it is broken then there are consequences.

So over the years people defined what that meant.

Well it was a day of rest.

As God was a God of fellowship then it was a family day, not a work day.

It was a day when you reflected on the blessings God had given.

So going to worship was obviously important.

But as a rule it is hard to pin down.

Breaking the Sabbath was obviously a bad thing. But how did you know if you broke the Sabbath?

So more rules were given to help define what was allowed and what wasn’t..

And the rules got more and more specific, more and more limiting.

.

So here is the problem.

If the aim of Sabbath is to bring people closer to God, what happens when the rule does the opposite?

That people are in pain or suffering...and the cause of that is because you can’t work on the Sabbath and do something that would relieve that pain?

Is God rule based or fellowship based?

If you break a rule of God shouldn’t you be punished?

In the eyes of the Pharisees, Jesus was breaking the rules of God, and in doing so encouraging others to break the rules of God, that would drive people further from God.

Well the rules of Sabbath were guidelines,

Does that mean the rules of marriage are guidelines?

Does that mean the rules of murder are guidelines?

Does that mean the rules of home ownership are guidelines? So if you go on holiday and I like your house I can just enter it and claim it?

I have a lot of sympathy with the Pharisees.

As someone on a spectrum I like rules, I love patterns.

I love right and wrong, black and white.

I hate ambiguity.

And relationships are all about ambiguity and compromise and forgiveness and grace and turning the other cheek.

Rules are clear-cut and easy.

Relationships are messy.

The truth is, God is messy, because God is a God of relationship.

Our symbol of faith is a crucifixion. You don’t get any messier than that.

And on that cross was an innocent man who deserved retribution for what had been done to him.

Instead he offered forgiveness...because that is what our relationship needed.

If we truly believe in relationship faith, then that means messiness, and the only rule that matters is, what grows the relationship...with God with others.

I want to finish by showing you a game.

The game is simple, but as all games are, it is rule based.

Each contestant has a plastic animal at the end of a toilet roll. The object of the game is to get the animal toward yourself by rolling up the toilet roll.

The irony of all games is that they are rule based,

to make things the same for everyone, to make it fair.

Yet all games are not fair, because the people aren’t the same, and the people themselves make the advantage.

So for instance the rules of football are the same for everyone, so that the game is fair. But Rangers and Celtic are the only two teams in Scotland to win the premier league in about 40 years, because they have the advantage of having more money, so they can buy better players. So the way the rules are written, to ensure fairness, always gives them an advantage, which doesn’t seem fair.

In this game there are certain advantages.

There is a ten year old who has the advantage of age and experience.

There are two eight year olds who have the advantage of length of arms and competitiveness.

And there is a four year old, with a lot less experience, shorter arms.

Now remember the aim.

The aim is to get the animal to you first.

The rules state that you roll up the toilet paper to get the animal close to you. (Video)

That always brings a smile to my face every time I watch it.

God is a God of relationship, it doesn’t matter what the rules are, he is going to get close to you.

We don’t get closer to God by following rules; we get closer to God by following the relationship.

Let us pray

Heavenly Father,

We love rules when it suits us.

When we see others break the rules, and see them get away with it, we don’t think it is fair.

The huge companies that pay no tax while we are taxed left, right and centre.

The nations that invade other countries and everyone else seems to stand by and let it happen.

The neighbour that plays music all night long and the police never seem to come round and do anything about it.

Rules are there to make society tolerable for everyone.

We love to constrain you with the same rule system;

who are good enough to get into heaven, who are not.

who you should bless, and who you should curse.

who you should forgive and who you should punish.

But you don’t follow our rules...worse; you don’t care about our rules.

Instead you care about your creation; you care about the people in your creation.

Not just the ones we care about, but everyone.

And what is worse, you expect the same from us.

That we don’t see our lives as self centred, but other centred.

That we live our lives trying to see others the way you see them...

as damaged, as flawed, but in need of love, in need of direction, in need of time and commitment and compassion.

But that seems so hard, that seems so draining.

It would need more love than we have.

It would need your love, your spirit, your commitment.

As we see how much you have sacrificed so that we may have a relationship with you, as we see how much you committed so that we had the possibility of a relationship with you,

as we see how much you much love us never to have given up on us...

may we in turn use that sacrifice, commitment and love, to reach out to others with Your sense of relationship.

Lead us as Jesus led your disciples then,

that we might know what taboos to break and what commands to affirm:

seeking always love to be at the heart of it all. Amen.