Merredin Uniting Church

Texts: Ruth 3:1-4, 14-18 & John 4:27-38

When I was at boarding school we always asked God’s blessing before the meal and then gave thanks in prayer afterwards. To me it seems that there are two distinct parts to this – and both are vital. And indeed, it follows the traditional Jewish custom – to seek God’s blessing, and then when He has bestowed it, to give thanks. It is a rhythm which is necessary for life.

Sometimes we confuse it. We say that we will ask the blessing before the meal but actually we give thanks. And perhaps that’s not so bad after all. We also turn our prayers of praise into prayers of thanksgiving – and that’s OK too. In a way that make our prayers less anticipatory and much more expectant. And that’s a good description of the life of faith.

But today we are here to seek God’s blessing upon the harvest which is about to begin, and in time we will give thanks for what He has done. And so, in our anticipation, we will be expectant, and in our thanksgiving we will know that we have been blessed.

So lets turn to the story of Naomi and Ruth. Naomi planned a way for her daughter-in-law Ruth to get the blessing of the harvest. It was a pretty strange approach – almost certainly very different to what Steve and Peter and Matthew and Grant and others will do ….

She had to …

• Wash and perfume herself,
• put on her best clothes.
• Wait until Boaz went to lie down, then when he was asleep go and uncover his feet and lie down there.

It worked … in the morning Boaz gave her six measures of barley ….

But it was not enough for mother-in-law, Naomi.

She knew that there was more in store .. “Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.”

And later in the story, we see that Boaz did not rest. He became Ruth’s kinsman redeemer. He became her husband and father of her children, he blessed this poor refugee with great abundance.

But hang on, there’s still more, for this refugee woman fleeing from the drought in Moab was to become the great grandmother of King David, to whom God was to make a promise that one of his descendants would always sit on the throne of Judah.

And the greatest of these descendants, and the One who still has His place on the glorious throne is none other than the One born of Mary, Christ come to earth, to reign forever upon the Throne of David.

Let me depart from that story for a minute to reflect on the words of Jesus, in Luke 6, our Lord says, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Ruth had six measures of barley poured into her lap (that’s about 50 litres), and she was blessed with a husband and children. Then she was to become one in the direct line of community from Adam to Jesus. All this despite the fact that she wasn’t Jewish and she had had no special relationship with God. She was just a Moabite peasant woman who married Naomi’s son who had since died.

But the measure she used was great …. And it was the measure used to bless her.

When her husband died, she had nowhere to go – a widow without children was a no-one. She decided to go to Judah with her mother-in-law. On the way, Naomi tried to dissuade her, for Ruth would have even less in Judah – a Moabite amongst the Jews.

But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.”

YOUR GOD WILL BE MY GOD – it was a profession of faith, it was a promise to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

And God blessed that step – He poured out a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, into her lap.

The blessing of the harvest is a response to faith. What we put into God’s hands He multiplies. We might not see it in this harvest but He will do it – a good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over. When we take the crop and release it to God for His blessing, He will bless it. His glory will be seen in it, in abundance.

Naomi trusted God and He went further than she had ever imagined. Ruth took the steps of faith and she was blessed to be a blessing. We must not, we can not, we dare not underestimate the providence of God.

And so, as we seek God’s blessing on the harvest, we must pray in faith, release the crop to God in faith, and be mightily expectant, by faith – trusting Him wholly and fully to bring His abundant blessing.

But the harvest is more than the crop from the seed we put into the ground.

We know the story of Jesus with the woman at the well, a powerful encounter between the Messiah and a rejected woman. In that encounter she put her trust in God and she believed Jesus to be the Christ. She went back to the village with the seed which had been planted in her and she reaped a harvest of souls which has never been matched in terms of response time in all of history.

She went back to the village which had rejected her – why else would she be alone at the well in the midday sun? And she blessed them with the truth which she had discovered. And they came to from the village to meet the Lord.

“Look,” said Jesus to His disciples, as the whole village wound their way out to the well, “open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest.” And the mass of people in flowing robes, the color of ripe wheat, must have looked like a paddock ready for harvest.

This is our ultimate harvest – to harvest the crop for eternal life. We are workers in the paddock of the Lord. We sow the seed, we reap the crop. We share our faith, we see people drawn to faith.

Ruth made decision to put her trust in Naomi’s God. She went in faith as an outcast refugee to sleep at Boaz’s feet. She sowed these steps of faith and reaped a crop of 50 litres of barley, a husband and children and a place in the line that would lead to Jesus.

An outcast woman comes out to the well at midday, to avoid the whispers and sidelong looks of the village women. She encounters Jesus who exposes her life for what it is – searching and empty. She sows her seed, she puts her trust in Him and her life gains meaning. Within two days a whole village comes to salvation. Jesus reaps a crop of abundance.

The Lord will bless the harvest when the seed is planted in faith – no matter how limited our faith might seem. He always does that … and always with greater generosity than the measure which we use.

The harvest of the soil and the harvest of souls. Amen

Good morning!

It’s a good day. And God is so good to us. So lets celebrate and rejoice in His blessing this morning.

I am feeling just so aware of a flood of God’s blessing these days for His Church and His people. Read these words from Psalm 57 and may your rejoicing in the blessing of God begin in your heart.

My heart is steadfast, O God,

my heart is steadfast;

I will sing and make music.

I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations;

I will sing of you among the peoples.

For great is your love, reaching to the heavens;

your faithfulness reaches to the skies.

Be exalted, O God, above the heavens;

let your glory be over all the earth.

Today we gather to seek the Lord’s Blessing on the Harvest about to begin and it is, and must be, with our eyes on Him that we seek this blessing for He is the Lord of all the earth, the Sovereign of the nations and the Creator of the Universe. But He is more than that. He is the One who came when we didn’t ask; the One who gives before we seek; who saves before we know that we are lost. He is our Saviour who has restored purpose to life and meaning to our existence. He is not just the Lord of Heaven and Earth, He is the Alpha and the Omega: the Beginning and End of all things. He is the God of history and the Lord of the future – He holds all things in the palm of His hand. And we come to Him to seek the favour which He so richly bestows on all who seek with an earnest heart.

Beyond the harvest of wheat, barley, canola and lupins lies another crop in which the Lord is much interested. It is the harvest of souls. Every now and then I find myself staggered at the incredible thought that God should love us so much that He would leave the realms of glory to enter into His creation and here to open the door for us to true life. Life is more than biology; more than merely living and breathing. Life is intentional in God’s eyes. It has purpose. God created humankind for relationship with Him. He is not the One on the other side of the Throne Room door, He is in our midst, in our heart, in our everyday. His desire is that we should “walk with Him, and talk with Him”. He does not want to be in the Garden alone (neither Eden nor Gethsemane!). The purpose of the Gospel is to declare that good news to the world; the mission of the Church is to provide the vehicle to make it known. I feel deeply privileged that the Church should be called “the Body of Christ” because it means that what Jesus came to do in incarnation is ours to do in mission. I just got goosebumps thinking about that again.

The plans from our Strategy Planning Day are continuing to unfold and its great to see things not only happening around the church but also in the amazing ways in which God is making the dreams possible. This week I met with Wayne Manoni from the Church of Christ and we were able to share many things from the different ways in which the Lord is giving vision. You will note for example in the Weekly Diary two new items – the Men’s Shed on Monday evening and the Sausage Sizzle at Roy Little Park on Wednesday. The Men’s Shed meeting is at Wayne’s home and he believes that this is an opportunity for men to come together in an unthreatening environment and to begin to share faith together. I believe that too and because it fits with one of our own aspirations I have asked him (and our elders) if we could be involved. I will be there this Monday evening. The Sausage Sizzle has been around for several years but has not stepped up to its potential to be a positive outreach to the wider community. Partly this is, says Wayne, because there have been only a few Christian people actually involved. The idea is to create a venue for sharing the gospel in a practical way and then to have a time of praise and worship and sharing of the Word. At present it clashes with our Prayer Meeting but I would encourage you to seriously think about going.

Next Sunday there will be no service at the Merredin Church or at Bruce Rock. Instead we will have a service at Merredin Senior High School in the Performing Arts Centre at 9am. We will be joined by 77 folk from the National Sing Australia Group and the local group as well. The other churches in Merredin have been invited but have noted apologies because they have other events in their own churches at that time. However all did say that we need to have opportunities like this to share worship together as a community. This too is, I believe, part of God’s intention in creating a community of congregations in Merredin who do and will continue to come together to celebrate at various times, and, more importantly, to work together to share the Good News about Jesus.

We are required to set up the seating in the PAC for the service, together with all the paraphernalia which goes with it. Could I ask for volunteers to come along on Saturday afternoon at 5pm to help with this? Entrance is via Throssel Street which is also the parking entrance for Sunday.

In our service today we will welcome into membership Dave & Larissa Quinn and Constance Manara. Gerhard Seymour will also be welcomed into membership later this month. Unfortunately he is working today.

Constance’s two sons Tee and Tendai will be confirmed into membership in the new year. Tee will be baptized beforehand. One of the areas in which the church often fails is the process of recognizing the transition of children into full membership. In the new year I will be conducting preparation classes for young people wanting to be baptized, or if they are already baptized, to be confirmed into membership. There will be more news of this later but in the meantime you are free to contact me.

God bless and enjoy the harvest.

Good morning – isn’t it interesting to have a fresh point of view? Of course I am speaking about the re-arranged seating in the church. This was one of the outcomes of the Planning Day, so welcome to our new church!

One of the other immediate changes is that I am in the office at the church each morning from Tuesday to Friday from 8am to 12noon. The idea is that this creates an “open church” feeling and offers opportunity for people to meet with me without feeling that they are imposing on my private space (not that you expect too much of that in the ministry but it is true that people are hesitant to call on you at your home). I will spend that time on admin work (lots to do, getting the membership roll, visitation program, etc organized) and mostly on preparation for training sessions and Sunday services. You will be able to call me on my mobile. The afternoons then will be for pastoral visiting. When I go to the outlying congregations the office will not open. The days when the office is closed will be indicated in the Newsletter. Dave Quinn has offered to be available in the office on Mondays.  A special “Thank You” to the person who has placed a magnificent desk chair in the church office. Also, to the person who donated the dishwasher for the Manse. Thank You, you are a blessing.

I want to use these pages as a constant reminder to us of the outcome of our Planning Day and the progress we are making in implementing the plans, so let me begin with a general summary of the outcome:

We decided that we would focus on only three of the twelve characteristics of an effective church at this stage. It’s a process of building so we can’t do everything all at once. The three focal points at the moment are:

1. Specific Concrete Missional Objectives
2. Pastoral and Lay Visitation
3. Adequate Use of Space and Facilities.

Let me deal with some of the specifics:

Specific Concrete Missional Objectives

The starting point was our Mission Statement – “Living the Gospel to Radiate the Love of Jesus”. Essentially we understood that this means that we are to live and to show people by example and teaching, how to live in the light of the Good News about Jesus.

We listed twelve different activities by which we could make this happen. I won’t enumerate them all now but basically it was an all encompassing plan which touched all age groups, genders and most areas of disfunctionality in society. This was not a judgement on any persons or groups but simply a recognition that without the light of Christ, it was difficult to live life really well. So, some areas are the Ride4Life program which is already far advanced in the planning. This is a plan to help children at risk to learn to cope with life through horse riding. ToddlerJam is another program which has already been on the drawing board. This is basically an opportunity for mothers of pre-school children to take time out while we care for their children. The opportunity is created to share about the struggles of motherhood and to introduce these mothers to a way of coping with life through faith. Other areas included groups for different stages of childhood, an adult singles group, Men’s Shed, Women’s Groups, marriage and parenting courses etc. One area was to have the church open in the mornings to assist people with completion of forms, orientate new people to the town etc

Pastoral and Lay Visitation

We are going to create a systematic program of visitation to members, first time visitors, the unchurched and the homebound. The intention is to raise up and train a small group of people in each area who will supplement the visiting which I do as the minister. I will initially train the pastoral teams and co-ordinate the visitation program. The idea is that each family is visited at least once per quarter while the homebound will be visited more regularly. The visits will be pastoral and have the specific intent of sharing life in the light of Christ.

Adequate use of Space and Facilities

The re-arrangement of the church and the opening of the office on weekdays was part of this aspect of our planning. Other things which will still happen in the church are the placement of a blind over the window near the projector screen, the setting up and use of the data projector in place of the overhead and (hopefully) the installation of a reverse cycle airconditioning system. Other items include the erection of patio tubes over the front verandah and shade sails over the children’s playground. In time we will also hope to extend the kitchen, toilets and tea room according to the plan which already exists.

While all of this relates primarily to Merredin, we will roll out this kind of strategic thinking to the other congregations in our Parish as well. An interesting part of the study was that each congregation could have at least five times more people in worship – 275 for Merredin and 100 for each of the other congregations. So, as we serve people in mission, we expect that more people will join as members and help to carry on the mission.

Speaking of members, we have two families who are coming into membership at the present time. The Quinn’s (Dave, Larissa, Olivia and Natasha) who have been with us for a while already; and the Manara’s (Constance, Tee and Tendai) who are from Zimbabwe. Constance is a nurse at Moorditj Mia. I have met with these families in preparation for membership and will continue to meet with others who desire to come into membership on a regular basis. If you would like to become a member of the congregation at any of our worship centres, please speak to me and I will visit you to formalize the process. Membership is a crucial aspect of belonging. Of course, as believers we are all automatically members of the Body of Christ by our profession to faith. Membership of the local congregation then becomes the concrete statement of our belonging and indicates where we are connected to the Body of Christ to serve Him.

May the Lord bless you and keep you as we grow in faith together. Amen

Texts: Isaiah 25:6-9, Revelation 21:1-6 & John 11:32-44

Today is All Saint’s Day. Most often, it is treated as a celebration of the “dear departed” and the focus is on hope for resurrection. The day before All Saints Day has become a popular celebration even amongst non-Christians but has taken a distinct ghoulish flavour as Halloween, or All Hallows Eve (All Saints Eve). It’s a bit sad when the world tries to frighten itself with death instead of looking forward to that which is to come when all this has ended, or indeed, if we live by faith, that which has already come because of the Cross and the victory of the empty tomb.

This is what our texts do this morning – Isaiah with his mountain on which a great feast is set and the death shroud is removed forever; the new heaven and new earth from Revelation which points us to the resurrection of the saints and then the raising of Lazarus in John’s Gospel.

Today – on this “All Saints Day” which, incidentally includes you and I, for we are also saints, I want us to focus, not on some future resurrection but on the new life we have today.

This new life burst forth from a hill outside Jerusalem over 2000 years ago. On that hill, that mountain, a feast of rich food, of aged wine – the best of meat and the finest of wine, was set. On that mountain, Jesus took the shroud of death and bound Himself up in it. Three days later He burst forth in resurrection – He swallowed up death forever, He wiped away our tears and He removed our disgrace. He brought us joy and gladness in our salvation.

On that day, He who is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, established a new beginning which would find itself completed in the new heaven and the new earth. On that day the Holy City comes down from heaven, dressed like a bride – and a loud voice cries out, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, no more death, mourning, crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

In our time dominated world we want to separate these events and yet they are the parts of the one event – a past time prophecy from Isaiah; an historical event at Calvary; and Revelation’s picture of the end of all things in some distant future. Three parts but one event. We struggle to grasp this because we are limited by time, but God is not.

We need a sequence, but for God everything is. He who is the great I AM, is at the same time, the one who says “I will be who I will be”. In God’s time all things have already happened for there is no time in eternity .. and yet nothing has happened, for it is still happening. For us there is the struggle of now and then, of action and reaction, sequence and consequence.

I know that this sounds crazy, but if you want to begin to understand God you have to stretch yourself outside of the constraints of space and time. You must understand that the prayer which you have yet to pray is already answered; your sins for which you come to seek forgiveness have already been forgiven.

God is great, majestic, unlimited by our imagination. When we see Him in all His glory we will stand there in our white robes with our eyes open wide and our mouths hanging open. We can’t limit God. We dare not attempt to second guess Him and we must never, ever play with Him.

In Christ, God has revealed Himself in a way that we cannot really comprehend – fully God and fully human. The Divine contained in a human body and yet omnipresent and omnipotent.

The Christ of God baffles the mind – so some would try to reduce Him to a man chosen by God but not divine. Others would say, a man, given God-like qualities. Still others that He is God but He was never flesh. The Bible though is clear. From Genesis to Revelation we see that we are dealing with something, someone, who is outside of our limited capacity to understand. So, by faith, I must believe the Bible; I must accept Christ, by faith; I must walk with Him, by faith; by faith, I must believe that my sins are wiped clean; I must know that He will come again, by faith.

It is faith that allows me to grasp this, for when we come to address God we are outside the realm of reason. We are in that place of new life given to dead flesh, of your life and mine being made utterly new. We are in that place where there is no limit to anything, because He is able to do exceedingly abundantly more than we can ever ask or imagine.

Do you sometimes feel that you have been left behind in coming to understand this? Do you sometimes look around and find yourself still there in that dead world where time marches forward from cradle to grave? Where hope is unknown and darkness abounds?

Are you still wrapped up in grave clothes?

Thirty one years ago God called me back from the dead just as much as He called Lazarus out of the tomb. I praise God for that and for those lovely people who have stood by and cheered as I have walked these past 31 years. Countless people who have shared a kind word, an encouragement, sometimes even a word of caution or warning but always we were fellow pilgrims on the same journey going to the same destination. And in this joyful throng of pilgrims, there was even sometimes no limitation of time, and it was, as if, we were already there.

This then is our place in the Kingdom … for Paul says that we are a new creation, the New Testament refers constantly to our new life in Christ. We are on this journey, we have been called from the tomb. There is a new beginning and we have already arrived.

But it is so hard for us to understand this in the to and fro and difficulties of life. John Bunyan captures this so well in the Pilgrim’s Progress.

It is only after the “place of deliverance” (The Cross) and the breaking of the “straps” (The Empty Tomb) that Pilgrim encounters “the Hill of Difficulty, The Valley of the Shadow, Vanity Fair, the Giant called Despair and Doubting Castle”. These are the struggles of faith in this life but Pilgrim presses on and ultimately finds himself in the Celestial City.

In Christ, we have been re-created for new life. And it is by faith in the risen Christ that we live this re-created life – it is a life of hope now, it is a life complete now, it is a life of victory now.

In the resurrection of Lazarus we given a glimpse outside of this time dominated world. We are introduced to the One who creates the ultimate reversal in turning death into life; and He thus substantiates His claim to give us new life in the new creation. And we see our task in this mystery.

Martha is shocked that Jesus wants the stone removed from the tomb. Lazarus has been dead 4 days – the soul has apparently already departed, the body is rotting. She is worried about the smell, she has given up on Lazarus. But then Jesus asks, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

The glory of God – the manifestation of the divine in the ordinary. This is glory … new life given to the rotting dead.

Jesus has come to call the dead to life, to remove the grave clothes, to set free those who have been confined to the grave without hope, and for too long. We, no-one, are so far from God that He cannot call us out into new life and make us into a new creation.

Christianity is not a religion – a philosophy which merely allows for the existence of God.

No – it is a lifestyle in which those who walk by faith put their whole trust in the One who not only made us (in His image) but who recreates us and gives us new life. From the darkest hole He retrieves us, saying to us, “Come on out”. And to those around us, He says, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

The church is the communion of saints, those still living and those already departed who have been called forth from the tomb. We have been given new life. When Jesus gave us new life on that day, on that hill, in that feast there were others who were there when that happened and they helped to move the stone and they removed the grave clothes. They are the church and they fulfilled the task of the church.

And we are the church. We cannot give new life, we cannot recreate – only God can do that, but what we can do is move the grave stone. And we can remove the grave clothes. When Jesus brings someone into His Kingdom, He calls us first to move the stone – the obstruction to life. Then He calls the dead to new life.  Our task then is to remove the clothes of death – what the world wrapped them in when they were consigned to the grave: assumptions, hopelessness and failure. This is the task of the church, this is work of the saints. Remove the stone, remove the grave clothes, celebrate the feast of the resurrection.