By J. Edwards John:14 verse 27: “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid.” For me, these words are some of the most encouraging and powerful in the Scriptures. I’ll explain why I think so in a moment, but first, let us took at when they were spoken. Jesus was in the upper room on the night when he was betrayed, with the eleven disciples, Judas having already departed to contact the religious leaders. Jesus knew he did not have long to live and these words were among the last he spoke to his followers. Soon they would be in Gethsemane, where Jesus would be confronted with a choice; should he walk away from betrayal, torture and death, away over the Mount of Olives, the way to freedom illuminated by the Passover moon? Or should he remain, in an agony of prayer, to await his betrayer and his captors? We all know the outcome.
All the more incredible, therefore, that just a short while beforehand he had said these words to his disciples. ‘Peace I leave with you.’ He knew they were troubled and confused and would soon be scattered, like sheep without a shepherd. Now, he was giving them his last will and testament. He had no material possession. But he gave them something far more precious: his peace. This was the peace that during the at times challenging ministry in Galilee and Jerusalem, had kept him calm. No matter what threats from religious leaders, no matter what pressure from the crowds, always, he possessed his peace. Perhaps it was this that, when he warned the disciples time and again that he would be arrested, tortured and killed, they could not believe it. ‘How can it be true; he is too calm!’ was perhaps their response. Always, there was his peace. Now, they would need that same peace to stay with them, the peace that could only come from the Father and the Son through their Spirit. And we can see them witness to it in the book of Acts, that when they stand before the same Sanhedrin that condemned Jesus, they were at peace with themselves, entirely without fear. By now you’ll have gathered why, for me, these words of Jesus are so powerful. Time and again I have experienced their real power in my own life, ensuring that in trouble and sorrow I was not overwhelmed, but enabled, by the peace of God, to stand firm. Jesus says, ‘My peace I give to you.’ Yes, this promise is for you. I hope you have already experienced it. If not, then I trust that you will be encouraged to turn to God in prayer and so be enabled to receive His peace as His gift to you; that you may know that His Peace is beyond understanding and will keep you and yours safe in the love of God in Jesus Christ, now and always.
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By J. Edwards
Often in the gospels we come across short paragraphs, which say that when Jesus went to a certain place, crowds of people would assemble and that He would heal them all. And from this we can see that Jesus never turned anyone away, there was no distinction, all who needed help were given help and their lives were transformed as a result. Nor must we imagine that Jesus healed people in crowds, without regard for individuals. The person before Him always commanded His full attention and he would go to great lengths to seek out people in need. Here then is just one example of Jesus focusing on an individual person. He was visiting Bethesda (Mark 8:22) when some people brought a blind man to Him and begged Him to touch the man. Jesus knew that the noise of the crowd would distract the blind man so he took him by the hand and led him out of the village, Then, alone with the man, He put saliva on his eyes laid his hands on him and asked him, ‘Can you see anything?’ And the man looked up and said, ‘I can see people, but they look like trees, walking.’ Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Why did Jesus ask the man concerning what he could see? This is the only time, apparently, that he did so. And what was the reason for the man’s inability to see things as they really were? If you think about it, it's as though the man was seeing people walking upside-down, with legs waving in the air like branches, and their bodies like tree trunks below. I believe that the man really was seeing things upside-down! When Jesus had touch him the first time, yes, the man’s eyes were healed. But, think about it, light passing through a single convex lens gives an inverted image on a screen. On that basis we should all see everything upside down, because it takes two lenses to transmit an image so that it is see the right way up. And for us it is known that our brains that turn the image that arrives inverted on the retina the right way up, so that we can see things properly. When Jesus touched the man the second time, it was simply to enable his mind to turn the man’s world the right way up, which enable him to see perfectly. The science behind understanding this story was first explained to me, years ago, by a friend who was a medical student. A case of modern science helping us to understand what was going on in the gospels! And of course, Jesus is now as He was then, and cares for each one of us as individuals, precious in His sight. A great theologian was once asked to sum up his theological thinking in a few words, to which he replied, ‘Jesus loves me.’ Amen. by J. Edwards (17th August 2023)
I have been struggling with the problem of evil, lately. It’s come to the fore as a result of reading about the crucifixion of Jesus in the four Gospels. I kept asking, ‘Why? Why was it necessary for the most perfect man who ever walked on Earth to suffer this most cruel and agonizing death? Some theologian would say it was necessary for our ‘salvation,’ to reconcile a fallen human creation with a loving God. But couldn’t God have found another way to do that, rather than by offering Himself to die on the cross. It wasn’t only the crucifiction that was bothering me. It was also the whole problem of world-wide human suffering in our own day. We have the war in Ukraine, the ongoing suffering following the war in Iraq in 2003, and the conflict in Syria after that. Then we have all the refugees from Afghanistan, Syria, the Middle East and Africa seeking new life in Europe, many of them dying in the attempt, not to mention victims of violence, war, injustice, terrorist bombings and shootings the world over. I do have a tendency towards feeling depressed, and when I consider life as it is for so many people today, I have been asking myself, ‘What on earth is the point of it all? Why did God create a world in which so much suffering could affect so many people?’ And I haven’t even mentioned climate change. The answer came to me when I was out for a walk one evening. I realised that I needed to look back behind the cross, to the origins of humankind. It seemed to me that in the beginning, God’s plan and purpose was to create a being which would of itself be capable of doing good. A being who could love, to the extent that s/he would sacrifice herself, if need be, for those whom she loved. A being moreover who would, like God, be capable of creating beauty in terms of music and art, architecture and design. A creature who would enhance God’s creation by bringing love, joy, beauty into it, by the way s/he lived and by what s/he did. But in order for that to happen, human beings would have to be given the ability to choose between good and evil, to choose whether to be selfish or unselfish, to be cruel or to be kind. Human beings were designed to create a good world, but in order for that to happen, they had to be given the ability to choose the opposite, to unleash forces that could destroy the planet and millions of its inhabitants. And so, we had Hitler, Stalin, Putin, to name but three. And just part of the explanation of the suffering of Jesus on the cross is that here is God taking responsibility for that and in so doing demonstrating in the clearest possible way that God’s response to the brutality of a cruel world was to accept that cruelty himself, in the body of a human being. Yes, ‘God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.’ So much flows from this. But I will mention here, just two points. 1). To quote a phrase from a prayer of an African child, ‘Lord Jesus, I know that today, there will be nothing that will happen that you and I can’t handle.’ If Jesus could die on the cross in order to break the power of evil to rule the world, this Jesus who loves me and in whom I trust, will enable me to cope with whatever life brings here on Earth, and finally will bring me to himself when my time comes to depart. 2). Paul, to quote him again, said, ‘As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.’ (1 Corinthians 15:22). Just as humankind came into being by God, so this same God has authority to reconcile to himself all who have lived (regardless of what they believe) in a way that is acceptable to Him. (See Matthew 25, the parable of the sheep and the goats). This could lead on to a debate about heaven and hell, and who will be sent to the latter etc. I would recommend C. S. Lewis’s book, ‘The Great Divorce’. He suggests that ‘hell’ is simply a place that’s available as a dull alternative for people to escape to, people who feel that they feel unable to stand before God, because it would be too painful, so they would prefer to get away from God to a place where they can exist without having to experience the pain of His presence. In response to this, our aim must surely be so to live in the light of God’s grace on Earth, that we shall, by God’s grace, be enabled to stand before God in heaven. by J. Edwards
Heaven is indescribable in terms of what it must be like to be there, and the reason for that is not difficult to understand. First, however, we must define how life exists on Earth. Albert Einstein described the Universe as existing in space-time. So, we are all confined to live in three-dimensional space and to move together along the same time line. So, for example, if I want to get from London to Edinburgh, it will take me, by road, seven and three-quarter hours to travel the 403 miles via the M1 and A1. Distance and time are constraining factors controlling all our lives; people who have relatives living in Australia, for example, have to make a huge commitment to take the time and make the journey to see them. Now, given what we understand about God, as Supreme Being, and knowing that Heaven is defined as the place where God is, how does space-time connect with this? In the New Testament, particularly, for example in the book of Revelation, people who dwell in Heaven are believed to live in space-time just as we do. And the Lord of all being is depicted as being enthroned, in one place at one time. Now the problem with all this is that it does not match up with what we know about God. For it’s impossible to believe that God is constrained in terms of distance and time as we are. This is clear from the resurrection appearances of Jesus in the Gospels, when he enters into the upper room through a locked door, and can come and go at will. The conclusion has to be that our existence in Heaven is not bounded by space-time. Because God is in all places within and beyond the universe at any one time, then so are all the inhabitants of Heaven. It’s hard even to define, because place and time have no meaning in eternity. So now we see that heaven is indescribable in terms that we can understand. How can we exist in a body that does not breathe and that does not move through space and time? How can there be music in Heaven, if there is no time? On a positive note, it is clear that each person in heaven is in constantly, continuously, in communication with God and with every other person in heaven, always. For me, this is what brings the Church’s teaching on the communion of saints to life. For they are all with God, and because God is near, they too are near to us all. The Church in Heaven and the Church on Earth is thus one Church of God. And don’t imagine that those who have departed this life have suffered loss. Don’t feel sorry for people, who you may think never saw their grandchildren. For it is impossible for these people of God to suffer loss of any kind as for them, every loss is more than made up, every hurt is healed and every sorrow turned to joy by the very presence of God in whom they now live. We may not be able to describe Heaven, but we can rejoice in the reality of our life in Christ, which we are already embarked upon, a journey along which we travel until we arrive in that place where we too will discover a new reality, new life, joy and love, beyond anything we could imagine here on Earth. In Ezekiel 33:7-11, God made Ezekiel a watchman for the House of Israel, warning him that there are wicked people who will die for their sins. If we do not try to dissuade them of their ways, we will also die. If we try to dissuade them and they do not take any notice, we will still be saved. So the question is, how do we tell people when they are in the wrong? In Romans 13:8-14, Paul tells the people of Rome that they have a debt to love one another. They must not only keep the commandments but love their neighbour as themselves, as it says in Leviticus 19:18. Paul is talking to a community and focusing on brothers and sisters being together, wrapped in love. If somebody does stray, it is out of love, care and respect that they should be challenged. We must clothe ourselves with the Lord, Jesus Christ, and not gratify the desires of a sinful nature. In Matthew 18:15-20, Jesus tells his disciples that if a brother (or sister) sins against you, there is a process to go through. Firstly, talk to them alone. If they do not listen, two or three others may be brought along to help testimony. The Book of Deuteronomy 19:15 says, "One witness is not enough to convict a person; it must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses." If that fails, it must go to the Church, and if that fails, he is to be treated as a pagan or a tax collector. The Church today needs to take heed of the process that Jesus put into operation, but first, we need to check ourselves. Who is it that says that sin is a sin? When one person feels that they have been the victim, who is to say it is true? The person doing the accusing seems to have a lot of power. When you point your index finger in an accusatory manner, look at the shape of your hand. You have one finger pointing accusingly, but you have three other fingers pointing towards you. This is a reminder for us to consider whether we have been complicit in the sin. Have we, in some small part, enabled the sin to continue by tacitly saying nothing in the past? So, before you have your one-to-one, consider what right you have, whether you are part of the problem and who says it is a sin, anyway. If your brother fails to respond, you move on to the next stage by bringing two or three other people. They must go with a purpose of trying to ascertain the truth, just as you would have gone in an attitude of love and restoration with ears to listen and to try to understand where your brother is coming from, so must the other two or three witnesses. They are not there as a mob but to ask questions and to establish the truth. If they have been open-minded, non-judgmental and impartial and still believe that the brother has sinned, then it must go to the Church. Even then, there has to be a spirit of restoration, but if the sin continues, the brother must be treated as an outsider. However, it must still be in the spirit of love, and that is why the Romans' reading is vital in conjunction with the Matthew Gospel. Today, we have Cancel Culture, which means that people are stopped from speaking if their views do not adhere to certain principles. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a voice of reason in the time of the Nazis when Adolf Hitler assumed power. Certainly, Hitler's antisemitism was a view that we would not wish to promote. So Cancel Culture, while creating a sense of accountability by those holding various views and perhaps providing a platform for more marginalised voices to be heard, does not fit within Matthew's Gospel of Jesus as there is a lack of due process. There seems to be no investigation, discussion or fair judgment. There is an overemphasis on punishment instead of promoting dialogue and education. It seems to cater to a mob mentality and certainly stifles free speech, creating a climate of fear and self-censorship. There is a lack of love. Ironically, if Cancel Culture had existed in Jesus' time, He would have most definitely been "cancelled". Jesus tells his disciples that if someone is wayward, then there must be every opportunity for that person to repent, and the spirit of seeking truth must be done with an overarching environment of love, care and support. The restoration of the brother's return to the community is paramount. The Christian Church can become stronger in the way it deals with those with whom there are disagreements. Both parties can learn, and whilst generally speaking, nobody likes confrontation, we must not let injustices go. It is also important that all of our dealings are as if Jesus were with us. How would we react if we knew that Jesus was in our very midst? Would that change our behaviour? As Matthew says in verse 20, "For where two or three come together in my name, there I am with you." We recall that Jesus says there are two great commandments: to love God and to love your neighbour (Matthew 22:387-40, Deut 6:5, Lev 19:18), but then he added that we have to love our neighbour as He has loved us (John 13:34-35). That means self-sacrifice, agape. It means no sense of vengeance, no sense of hatred, no sense of revenge, but purely wanting restoration and for Jesus' love and Jesus' grace to permeate through all of our dealings. This sermon was first preached by Reverend Martin Wheadon at Gants Hill United Reformed Church on 10th September 2023
Inspired by Luke 18:9-14 When I first started ministry twenty years ago and went to different churches preaching, I would start by asking this question. How many wheels has a car got? "Four," would be the reply. Then someone else would shout "five" because there is the steering wheel. Finally, someone would shout "six," because there is a spare wheel in the boot. I then used wheels five and six as an analogy to how we use prayer. Do we use it to help steer our lives, seeking God's direction and guidance, or do we use prayer as a spare wheel, only to be used in an emergency?
Thinking about prayer, not only in conjunction with today’s reading of Luke 18:9-14, but because prayer is abundant in the Bible, I wrote down some thoughts about the subject. I offer them in no particular order of importance. PUSH, seen on many doors, can be an acronym for Pray Until Something Happens. This, of course, corresponds to Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians 5:17, where we are encouraged to pray without ceasing. Prayer builds up our relationship with God. We come as we are, and our prayers are always good enough. Prayer enables us to find peace, calms the body and removes us from the stresses and strains of a situation as we articulate our feelings and offer them to God. Prayer helps us think. Prayer enables us to listen to God's guidance, so there must always be an element of silence. Prayer offers us perspective and a bigger picture, allowing us to remove ourselves from the myopic to God's universal vision of the world. By praying, we keep perspective as we acknowledge that we are not the centre of the universe. Prayer helps us be observant because we take an interest in the world. We pray for our brothers and sisters worldwide. Prayer enables us to focus on God. Prayer helps us see ourselves as we are and means removing our mask, which we put on to help us in daily life. We need to come genuinely to a God who knows us well. Prayer enables us to be compassionate and to see whatever issues we have through God's eyes. Prayer needs action. So we pray and create the energy to keep going, for persistence in prayer is vital. We also have to think about what actions are needed to help those prayers come true. Prayer enables us to receive God's grace, align our thoughts with God's and seek the justice which God wants for all of his creation. Prayer allows us to hand everything over to God, and we have to have an attitude of expectation that our prayers have been answered. Whilst it is a cliche, it is true that sometimes the answers to prayer are "yes", sometimes "no", sometimes "maybe", or sometimes all in God's time, not ours. But it is also a cliche that you need be careful what you pray for. Sometimes it is not good for us, and that is why the prayer is denied. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view.” Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote, “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.” Are we the answer to someone's prayer? From prayer comes imagination, and from imagination, we start dreaming. We dream of what life could be like, and through imagination, create situations that could resolve our issues. From dreaming and imagination, you build a bridge to reality. Prayer is a process. It is a process of cleansing and understanding. It needs acceptance of the situation and then looking for opportunities to do God's work. Through prayer, we can perhaps see what God wants us to do to help others as well as ourselves. The motives of our prayers are clear to God, and God cannot be fooled. So we need to examine our motives for why we wish something to occur. So, prayer is about relationships. It is about understanding that God is love. It is about seeking a direction in life. It is providing us with strength and energy and renewed commitment. It is about aligning our wishings with God's. It is about believing in miracles and trusting in God. Prayer helps us imitate Jesus, his values and the obedience that Jesus had to God, which, of course, was an extension of Jewish values, such as looking after the poor, the widows, and the marginalised. One thing that stops our prayer life and the development of our spirituality is pride. In the Luke reading, we see a pharisee, a good, holy man, who went over and above what was needed, but there was no space for his to grow. He could not see the need. Self-importance filled his life, whereas the despised tax collector, not even able to look up, came to the temple in humility, recognising he was a sinner and requesting mercy. So our prayer life has to direct all our life and has to give us room to grow, so that we can be more like Jesus in all that we do. I am going to take each reading separately, so first, the Genesis. The book of Genesis, whilst written by Moses, has its origins in four different ancient sources. The weirdness of this passage may be because it contains parts of these various sources, especially if they came from different cultures.
It is hard to explain Jacob fighting with God, even if it is God incarnate - that is God made flesh. The context of this reading involves Esau. As we recall, Jacob tricked Esau out of his birthright. So, this meeting is between Jacob and a man who vowed to kill him. Jacob’s anxiety may be exacerbated by the fact that Esau is meeting him with 400 men. So the context of this strange dream or encounter is on the day before this historic meeting is to take place. I think this resonates with all of us because we have all had that feeling of foreboding. Indeed, I read that two-thirds of adults in England say they regularly experience “Sunday Scaries”, which is anxiety about the coming week. So Jacob could have been having a restless, sleepless night. Is Jacob wrestling Esau in his dream, an angel or God incarnate? We do not know, but it is the wrestling that fascinates us. I am old enough to remember World of Sport at 4 pm on a Saturday when Kent Walton would say, “Welcome grappling fans”. Wrestling and grappling involve flesh touching flesh. It is an all-embracing struggle as one person tries to outpower, outthink and outmanoeuvre the opponent. I like the idea of Jacob wrestling with God because, as a Christian, it permits me to wrestle with God myself. Not physically but mentally, calling God to account and trying to understand God’s ways. Even Jesus wrestled on the night before his crucifixion. So I think it is okay to wrestle with God in our minds. Encountering God will change you. In acknowledgement of that, in this story and throughout the bible, names are changed following encounters. Jacob became Israel, which can mean God saves or one who struggles with God. Abram became Abraham and Saul became Paul. Simon became Peter the Rock. So, names are important as they reflect the new personality formed by an encounter with a living God. The story has a happy ending. Rather than killing Jacob, Esau forgives, just as later Jacob’s son Joseph would forgive his eleven brothers. So I take away from this reading permission to wrestle with God whilst acknowledging God’s sovereignty over me. Encounters with God create a change in you, and it is okay to face our fears, trust in God and be obedient to God. It is a story of forgiveness and moving on. From the Luke text, there is much for us to take. The persistent widow talks to us about justice, faith and persistence in prayer. We know that the judge had no regard for God or others, although we do not know if he were corrupt, as some commentaries state. It might be that all judges are corrupt, but the passage only tells us that he was ungodly. According to Deuteronomy 16:18, the role of the judge was to render just decisions, and Exodus 22:22 reminds us that we should not mistreat any widow. Yet, the widow, a woman without a husband, probably childless, was the most marginalised person in society other than children. Yet she has a voice. Despite having no power, no influence and no people supporting her, she uses her voice effectively because of her persistence. There are many examples of persistence in today’s society. Walt Disney, for example, was told a mouse would never work. Oprah Winfrey was told she was unfit for television. Stephen Spielberg was rejected three times from film school. Elvis Presley was fired after one performance and told “you ain’t going nowhere son, you ought to go back to driving a truck. Sidney Poitier was told he could not act and that he would make a better dishwasher. Colonel Sanders of KFC fame has his “Finger Lickin’ Recipe” rejected 1,009 times. J. K. Rowling had her Harry Potter books rejected by 12 different publishing houses. So, persistence pays off. The story speaks of faith. The woman did not know that she was going to have her request granted, but she had hope and faith that somehow she would be heard and her cause righted. From this, we can take that ability to keep going in faith, so long as we are also enveloped by prayer. Some people say that prayer is a waste of time, yet through prayer, we can harness the energy, articulate our thoughts, and hopefully see the world through the eyes of God. Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809-82), in his book Idylls of the King, said, "Pray for my soul, more things are wrought in by prayer than this world dreams of; wherefore let thy voice rise like a fountain for me night and day." Prayer indeed works. Sometimes this is in ways we were not expecting. Sometimes it is not in the time frame we want but in God's time frame. Sometimes the prayer we ask is not right for us and is consequently sidelined, but the power of prayer gives us the energy to try harder. If we keep on praying, we keep the hope alive. The interesting thing about this reading is it shows the unusual happening. The widow wins. Sometimes, when we keep on going, we do get the break that we need. I wonder if the Kingdom of Heaven is a kingdom where the unusual happens. Regarding prayer, I recall Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-82) in his book Self Reliance and other essays saying, "Prayer is the contemplation of the facts of life from the highest point of view." So with prayer, we are trying to see things from the compassionate and merciful eyes of an ever-creative, ever-loving God. Prayer through God's eyes helps us see the bigger picture. In this parable, we see ourselves as perhaps the widow fighting our just causes. But are we ever the judge? Do we have people who continually annoy us, and to get rid of them, we give in? Remembering that we are sometimes the judge, not the widow, may create humility in us. The main take from this text is how great God is, that if the judge can be moved, how much more God will listen to us. It reminds us of God's ability to listen but also the persistence of prayer. Paul writes in his first letter to the Thessalonians 5:17 that we are to pray without ceasing. Thomas Edison wrote, "Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is always to try one more time." And who can forget Winston Churchill's famous speech, where he stood up to the people longing to hear Churchill at his greatest oration, saying simply, "Never, never, never give up." Finally, I leave you with the acronym, PUSH, which stands for Pray Until Something Happens. Also remember, it is always the squeaky gate or wheel that gets oiled first. The shell is there to keep the conker safe and put off predators. So, let us reflect upon what keeps us safe. Do we find our security in Jesus or in other places? The shell also represents a mask. Sometimes we wear masks to navigate through life. Some bullies at school choose bullying as a mask for their own insecurities. Let us remember that Jesus sees through our masks and sees the true beauty that we possess. The conker represents true beauty. It can be polished, making its lovely brown shine. It is totally aesthetically pleasing. Let us meditate on the beauty of the conker and just enjoy it. Enjoy the feel of it, the touch. Let us remember that it is a seed, so the conker also represents potential. Let us think about our own potential. For this conker to grow into a tree and produce other conkers, it needs the right soil, rain, and sun. We know how to make this conker grow into a tree, but what do we need for our potential to grow? What is our soil like? Our environment? Our values? Our friends and family? Do they encourage and support us? Are they there for us in times of difficulty? Do we have role models? Do we know what we want to achieve? Whatever our potential, look upon this conker as a representation of what we can offer. This conker is so much more than a seed. We are also much more than what people see first of all. Conkers contain aesculin, which Doctor Google, the source of my information, advises is a blood thinner and counters water retention. This conker contains anti-oxidants, which prevent cell damage and contains. It is twenty times stronger than vitamin C in the fight against free radicals. Wrinkles are diminished after a minimum of 4 weeks of use. Horse chestnuts strengthen hair roots and accelerate hair growth. Apparently, it is also a treatment for varicose veins and haemorrhoids. Also, the horse chestnut was so named because its seeds were once used to treat ailments in horses. So within this one conker, through the brilliance of science, there is the opportunity for healing. I understand that the saponins in conkers are soap-like chemicals that are sometimes added to shampoos and shower gels. If you put a conker in your wardrobe, the triterpenoid saponin wards off moths. Fresh conkers, as they dry, emit the moth repellent. In Victorian times, the shells were ground and used to make flour. This is not recommended because conkers are poisonous. As we continue our meditation, think about how we can heal others. What inner strengths do we have? Have we been poisonous to other people? Should we be seeking forgiveness because we have hurt someone, even unintentionally? For the final part of our meditation, put a cross on the conker. The cross of Jesus reminds us that Jesus has CONKERED death. Let us use this conker to think about how we conquer evils. Reflect upon Romans 12:21, “don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.” Remember the words of Jeremiah 15:20, “they will not conquer you for I am with you to protect and rescue you.” Psalm 91:10 says, “no evil will conquer you”. This conker represents eternal life. Jesus has conquered death through his resurrection, and as Christians, we can be reassured that, though we may die physically, our life continues in spiritually heaven. This humble conker, which in autumn you can see on the ground in plentiful supply, offers so much just as we offer so much. Everywhere we go, we can spread the gospel of the good news that Jesus has conquered death. We demonstrate this in our way of living: our positive attitude and ability to heal others by being there for them, walking alongside them and praying with them. Amen. This sermon was first preached by Reverend Martin Wheadon at Wanstead United Reformed Church on 9th October 2022
Reading: Luke 17:11-19 Leprosy is the common word used when talking about this reading, but I believe that in the original Greek, “skin disease” is actually mentioned. Leprosy has now changed its name to Hanson’s Disease to avoid some of the stigmas. In the days of Jesus, if you had a skin disease, it was considered contagious, so you were either hounded out of the village or you went voluntarily amongst a community of other skin disease sufferers. Unable to work, sufferers had to beg, and commentaries tell us that if they did enter the village, they had to give a warning that they were coming so that people could get out of their way. It is to this community that Jesus performs a miracle. The ten men with a skin disease called to Jesus in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us.” Jesus’ reputation was obvious as he was mentioned by name. When they shouted to him at a distance, Jesus had compassion and healed them. Leviticus 14 covers a situation where somebody was ill with a skin disease and was cured. They had to get a certificate from a priest to confirm that the cure was genuine. So Jesus complied with the Jewish law, telling them to ask a priest to confirm they were cured. Then the ten go in faith, believing that they were healed, but it was only one who came back, praising God and then thanking Jesus. The order is quite important. We praise God for God’s greatness and then say thank you. We must acknowledge God’s part in the process of healing. To illustrate this point, the one person who came back is a Samaritan, a race of people hated by the Jews. The life lessons, or what I call the GHIJ lessons, in this passage are as follows. G is for gratitude. We must always have a life of praise and an attitude of gratitude. For this dispels negativity and focuses on the positive. Once we start looking for things for which we a grateful, we find more and more. The more things we find, the more it increases our praise. The more we praise, the more we are thankful. The more we are thankful, the more we praise. This virtuous cycle condemns the negative and isolates it so that you can concentrate on the positives of life and in so doing become healthier and feel the benefits. H is for healing, not just the power of Christ to heal, but also the wonder of our body, which can heal itself. Whilst cuts and bruises may leave a scar, over time, they are healed. In this busy world, spiritual healing can take place if you find spaces of peace, a place where you can still your mind, rest and relax. It is the healing power of Christ and the healing power of our bodies made by God on which we have to focus. Find a place where you can be at rest, still and calm. I is for inclusivity. In this story, Jesus focused on the Samaritan. The Jews hated Samaritans to get the plaudits, but Jesus’ love is unconditional. We have no idea if the ten men with skin disease deserved to be made better. Jesus does not weigh up if you deserve to be better, Jesus just makes people better without judgement. In a society that tends to make tribes and highlight tensions between groups of people, we must see people as Jesus sees. That is as precious children of God. J, of course, is for Jesus. Our life lesson here is to try and model Jesus: radical, fearless, loving and compassionate. From this simple story, take away the life lessons of having an attitude of gratitude and of finding places of healing, both physical, mental and spiritual. Always be inclusive. Listen to voices you would not usually listen to, and do not prejudge. Focus on Jesus and his lifestyle, his values and beliefs. This sermon was first preached by Reverend Martin Wheadon at Wanstead United Reformed Church on 9th October 2022
Luke 12:13-21 - in which the farmer builds a bigger barn to house his bumper crop; Colossians 3:1-11 - which in essence says, if you have got stains on your shirt, change your shirt. There are some other readings you might like to look at first to give some background context. Our pericope is from the wisdom section, therefore, you might like to refer to 1 Kings 3:8-13, in which Solomon asks for wisdom; and Isaiah 22:13b, which says eat and drink for tomorrow we die. This can be compared with Luke 12:19, which quotes eat, drink and be merry, but in 1st-century Palestinian culture, they would have known the Isaiah version. James 4:13-17 reminds us that we do not know what tomorrow will bring, and Luke 16:19-31 is the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Matthew 6:21 reminds us, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also,” and Luke 12:33 tells us to sell possessions and acquire a purse that will not wear out, a treasure which will not be exhausted. Ecclesiastes 2:19 reminds us that you cannot take it with you. This bundle of references is a useful starting point for today’s story. Luke 12:1 tells us there are 1,000s in the crowd, and it is from this crowd that one person comes forward, asking about the fairness of his inheritance. Deuteronomy 21:16-17 tell us that the firstborn gets a double portion of the inheritance, as is played out in Luke 15:15-16 in the story of the prodigal son, where the younger son gets one-third of the estate. The man asking Jesus a question about inheritance shows the importance in which Jesus was held. They thought his authority would be able to solve the dispute, but Jesus did not want to get involved. Instead, he uses the opportunity to talk about greed. In the story, the farmer’s land has produced abundantly. We are not sure what effort the farmer has put in, but we assume that he did everything he needed to help the land and followed the legal requirements of gleaning (compare the book of Ruth, where being poor, she was able to take wheat from the outskirts of a field). We also assume he has paid his tithe of one-tenth because we are not told otherwise. The key question that this story prompts concerns security. Do we get our security from God, from our neighbours and community, or do we solely rely upon ourselves? Another question the story prompts is what do we do with our gifts? How do we use them? Do we store them up or dish them out? The answer is that whatever gift we have has to be used for the glory of God and for the benefit of others. The farmer was only thinking of himself, and the story is full of “I”. We do not know whether there were poor people or if the neighbours needed to have some wheat because they had not had such a good harvest. Or by storing the grain, was the farmer endeavouring to fix market prices, for the law of supply and demand means that if he reduces the supply, the price will go higher? What would you do if you had this abundance of food or wealth? Would you keep it or share it? Do we put our security in God or in ourselves? The farmer shows no gratitude to God, and the story is one of self-importance. The Colossians reading helps us answer how we should be as people. Paul writes to the people of Colossi, telling them to stop having feelings and emotions of impurity and anger and instead put on clothes of compassion and kindness. So let us, for a moment, stop and breathe. We breathe in and we breathe out, we breathe in and we breathe out, we breathe in … So lets breathe out some of the bad things within us. Using the Seven Deadly Sins as a guide, breathe out pride and breathe in compassion. Breathe out greed and breathe in kindness. Breathe out lust and breathe in humility. Breathe out envy and breathe in gentleness. Breathe out gluttony and breathe in patience. Breathe out anger and breathe in forgiveness. Breathe out sloth and breathe in love. We are often made to feel adequate when listening to the television and the advertisements because our economy is based upon materialism and consumerism. The economy of God is based upon sharing so that we do not hoard but give. Let us give ourselves an internal audit and ask ourselves these questions:
Once we have questioned ourselves, we can move forward. The farmer ate, drank and was merry, but for not long. The story says that God, who uniquely appears in the story and speaks, takes the farmer's life away. His wealth did not save him. So, the lessons from this part of the story are we should not make plans without including God, and we should not store up our wealth but rather share what we have. Wealth does not need to be money; it is our gifts, our resources, having an attitude of sharing and an attitude of community. It is a fabulous story from which we can glean so much, but in essence, find your security in God, share what you have, build your relationship with God and clothe yourselves in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, forgiveness and love. This sermon was first preached by Reverend Martin Wheadon at Trinity United Reformed Church, Upminster, on 31st July 2022
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