Merredin Uniting Church

Our focus today is on “Being Holy” – this is much harder but also much easier than you may think. Much harder, if you think that you have to do it alone, and much easier, if you realize that the only thing you have to do is to make the choice to be different in this world. The choice to follow the way of God as indicated in our lesson from Leviticus and by Jesus, in our continuing reading from the Sermon on the Mount. We are to step away from the world’s way of personal fulfilment and self-aggrandisement in order to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves. This might seem strange to focus on our neighbor rather than God so that we might be holy but until we care about our neighbor we are handicapped in our relationship with God. Jesus put the two together – Love God, love your neighbor. And when we do choose to follow in His way, He will be with us – He will never leave us, nor forsake us.

At SNAC last Sunday evening we were given opportunity to write some poetry beginning with the words, “When Christ shall come …” Here are a few of the poems:

When Christ shall come

with a triumphant call

we’ll all join in

and have a ball.

Young and old

Short and tall

He’s our Saviour

Come one, come all.

When Christ shall come

we have won

The devil is dead

That’s all to be said

When Christ shall come

and all things are done

what glory there shall be

for those who are the chosen ones

heavenbound are we

in peace and harmony

we shall all be free.

At SNAC, I also suggested that the Bible can be read in much more depth than we usually do. I used John’s Gospel as an example and I guess I got a bit carried away so here are some brief notes …

John wrote his gospel around 60 years after the death of Jesus, much after the other gospels are written. He also wrote it for a different purpose – “so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life in His name.” (John 20:31)

Although the gospel is often called the “book of signs” it details only seven miracles, whereas the other three gospels have up to 20 each. Seven is significant too, because it is the Biblical number of perfection or completeness.

Each “sign” is matched by an “I AM” saying. The”I AM” sayings stem from God’s name given to Moses in the account of the burning bush. When Moses asked the Lord what His name was He declared “I AM who I AM” (YHWH) (Exodus 3:14). In the “I AM” sayings Jesus is, in fact, declaring Himself to be none other than YHWH, the God who is, and who has always been and always will be.

Feeding of the 5000 = I AM the Bread of Life

Healing of the man born blind = I AM the Light of the World

Raising of Lazarus = I AM the Resurrection and the Life

Death and Resurrection of Jesus = I AM the Good Shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep

Changing water into wine = I AM the True Vine

Healing of the Official’s son = I AM the Way, the Truth and the Life

Healing of the man at the pool of Bethesda = I AM the Door of the Sheep

The incidents which John writes about have a much deeper meaning than what appears at first. For instance:

The first person Jesus speaks to is Nicodemus (a Jew), the next is the Samaritan woman (A Samaritan) and then the Royal Official (a Gentile). The sequence marks the progress of the Gospel, “first in Jerusalem & Judea, then in Samaria, then to the ends of the earth”.

When Jesus speaks to the Samaritan woman, He tells her that she has had five husbands and the man she is now living with is not her husband. On the surface this looks like a bit of prophetic insight, but if you read 2 Kings 17, you will see that Samaria was repopulated by five national groups after the defeat by Assyria. Each group brought their own god (the word used is “Baal” which could also mean husband). Things didn’t work out with their “gods” so they tried unsuccessfully to follow the God of the Jews.

Similar explanations can be found for virtually every incident which John reports. Remember that John is writing for a persecuted church which knows Jewish history and has carefully researched the Scriptures. They are deeply committed believers, prepared to die rather than deny their faith.

Blessings to you in Jesus (Hope to see you at the next SNAC service, which someone described as the best kept secret in Merredin).

Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18

1 Corinthians 4:1-5

Matthew 5:38-48

OUCH!

How can I possibly be holy like God?

How can I ever be perfect like my heavenly Father?

And yet this is the command ….

“Be holy, because I, the Lord your God, am holy.”

“Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

These words from Leviticus and the Sermon on the Mount are crucial if we want to be salt and light in the world. As Christ followers we are compelled to put them into effect.

They describe absolutely the only way that we are ever going to make any difference in the world – indeed, if we are to be any different from the world.

Just one person making the decision to love as God loves is likely to have more impact for the Kingdom of God than a thousand evangelists, a million Christian how-to books or any number of outreach campaigns.

Lets begin with the over-arching challenges …. Holiness & Perfection.

1. We are called to be holy.

What does that mean? What do we have to do?

Well, holiness is first and foremost a divine attribute. It defines the very nature of God and refers to that which is distinct, and radically different from the ordinary.

As Christ-followers we are to be radically different from those who do not follow Christ; not because we are better, but simply because we are following God’s way which is very different to the world’s way.

2. We are called to be perfect.

What does that mean? What do we have to do to be perfect?

The Greek word is teleios.

The word does not mean “entirely without any flaws, defects or shortcomings”.

What is does mean is “having reached its conclusion; or being beyond practical or theoretical improvement”.

We cannot be like our heavenly Father, but we can live the way that God intended us to live.

So when Paul says that as servants (or ministers) of Christ we have been entrusted with the secret things of God, He is saying that we have been enlightened to the kadesh (the holiness) and to the teleios (the perfection) of God. And we are called to be faithful to the revelation of this mystery.

By the world’s standard this mysterious way of God is foolishness.

And we do, I believe, ordinarily shy from the way of God’s love because  our natural inclination is to lean into the world’s way.

For some strange reason we see a threat in following God’s way and some form of protection for us in following the world’s way. If I yield my self to care for someone, I feel that I am  exposing myself to abuse; but if I remain hard-hearted, or retaliate, I somehow have control over the situation.

That’s bizarre, to say the least. It is the Lord who offers protection, and, in fact, its the world, the flesh and the devil which are the threats.

Several years ago I received a phone call from a man who was threatening suicide. It was about 3am on a Sunday morning. I spoke to him for about 30 minutes and then I asked if I could come to see him. He gave me directions. He lived on a farm out in the country. I drove out in the dark and after several wrong turns I arrived at his house. He was alone and drunk, and carrying a loaded revolver. Several times I said to myself, “I should not be here, this is too dangerous.” But I stayed because the Lord kept saying to me, “I need you to show this man that I love him.” I stayed with him, just talking and drinking coffee, until the sun came up, then he gave me his revolver and told me to go home. Three hours later we were both in church and he looked a lot better than I felt.

In complete contrast to my natural inclination, I had somehow followed God’s way. It was the dangerous option but it was the the only option which would have worked. He had to know that God loved him and God had chosen me to show that love.

Being holy is an infinitely practical exercise …

You cannot be holy in theory. And you cannot do it on your own.

The most important aspects of life are our relationships. We need them and they define us. When our houses are threatened by fire, most of us would grab our photo albums before we even reached for our wallets.

Relationships are more important to us, even in two-dimensional photographs, than virtually anything else under the sun.

The world in which we live is filled with many kinds of human relationships, some are pleasant and some are painful, some are friendly and some are hostile. In this conflicting situation  of relationships we need a “polar star”, a governing principle which will work in any and all circumstances.

And that is exactly what we are being presented with today.

The governing principle for our relationships is the standard which the Lord has set for Himself, and for us.

We are called to be “holy” as God is “holy”. We are called to be “perfect” because our heavenly Father is “perfect”, and throughout our text from Leviticus we have the refrain, “I am the Lord.” It is the reason why we show care to others.

Leave the gleanings of the harvest and the fallen grapes for the poor and alien – I am the Lord your God.

Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.

Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord.

Do not do anything that endangers your neighbour’s life. I am the Lord.

Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.

And then the other points too. Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not deceive one another. Do not defraud your neighbor or rob him. Do not hold back the wages of a hired man overnight. Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. Do not go about spreading slander among your people. Do not hate your brother in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in his guilt.

These might seem to be random comments but they all define what it means to love one’s neighbour. They define the fair and equitable behaviour that expresses concrete concern for the needy and the sorts of justice that establishes and maintains the community which God desires. Love of neighbour rests upon and expresses the love of God; and the love for God is expressed in the way in which we show love to our neighbour, and so behave as the people of God.

Up to this point, I am pretty sure that we are all in agreement that this is a good thing.

And then Jesus steps into the picture … It moves from theory into practice ….

He steps up the ante – He pushes us to a new level.

You have heard it said, but now I say …

Its not just “an eye for an eye” – simple retaliation. No, I want you to to yield even more – if an evil person strikes you on one cheek, then turn the other to him also.

If someone wants your tunic, then give him your cloak too.

If someone forces you to go with him one mile, then go two miles.

Don’t lend your money, give it away.

You have heard it said, “‘Love your neighbour’ but now I say to you that’s too little, now I want you to ‘love your enemy’”.

If you love your neighbour you’re just doing what the world does, but if you want to follow me, then you’ve got to do what I do. You’ve got to reach the full conclusion, you’ve got to go beyond the need for improvement.

You’ve got to be generous and extravagant in your love. In fact, I think Jesus would say, “be over generous and over extravagant” in your love. I have set you the example!

Wash the feet of those who betray you and deny their relationship with you.

Be prepared to die for people who have sinned against you.

Care about those who whip you and curse you.

None of this js a threat to you because I will always love you.

The bottom line is this ….

You can never out-give God.

You can never forgive more than God has forgiven you.

You can never love the way that God has loved you.

And even if you do mess up: become angry, critical, rejecting and very far from holy – God still loves you.

And He still wants you to step across the boundary.

He still wants you to be extravagant rather than cheap in your love.

He still wants you to be generous in your love rather than stingy.

We continue this morning with the challenge of the Sermon on the Mount and the call to live our lives in a new way as we follow Jesus. You will remember from last week that in Moses’ summary of the Covenant conditions, he said that we are not to follow our own way. He warned against following a path which is not God-directed by saying that “to say ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart’ is a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit.”

Today we continue to examine what it means to find ourselves in the Kingdom of God, specifically how we are to be “God’s Building”.

The Kingdom of God is a very well known but much misunderstood concept. There are some who believe that the Kingdom will only come when Jesus returns; there are those who say that the Kingdom will be on earth, and others who say that it will be in heaven. For me, the Kingdom of God is something which captured my attention many years ago and which I have spent hours reading about and researching – one day, I will write a book on it … but for now, just a few words.

The primary focus of the ministry of Jesus was to usher in the Kingdom of God. Just as Moses received a Covenant from God by which the people were to live in the Promised Land, so Jesus came to bring a new Covenant by which we are to live in the Kingdom of God. He variously said that the Kingdom was ‘near to you’, ‘in your heart’, and ‘at hand’. There was an imminence and proximity in His message. This Kingdom was conceived in the incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus and was born through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. The guidelines for living in the Kingdom are found in Jesus’ teaching, specifically in the Sermon on the Mount. Thus the Kingdom already exists. It exists in the hearts of God’s people and through our intimacy with God in the Spirit, it is present both in this world and in heaven.

The point of this very brief summary of my “as yet” unwritten book is to say that the Kingdom of God is ‘housed’ in the community of Christian believers – we are God’s building! This was the closing sentence in our reading from 1 Corinthians 3:9 last week and Paul continues by saying that the foundation of this building is Jesus, and we are God’s Temple because God’s Spirit lives in us.

I’ve heard this text used to get people to stop smoking … but that’s just so ordinary isn’t it. We are much more than human bodies trying to keep out the bad things that will kill us; we are human bodies, connected in community, being God’s Temple and filled with the Holy Spirit who gives life. This is absolutely stunning good news and I will share more in the sermon today and even more when I finally get round to writing the book.

The Marriage Course kicked off with an introductory dinner and presentation on Thursday. It will start officially this coming Thursday at 7pm and will last 7 weeks. We have room for one more couple. It costs $200 which covers a romantic dinner for two plus manuals. In the introductory video we heard that:

Couples need to spend more time together (Right! Seven “dates” coming up.)

We need to understand that we are different (who’s the Rhino and who’s the hedgehog?) You’ll have to come along to understand the question.

We need to understand that we communicate love for each other in different ways. (One likes gifts, one likes compliments, one likes holding hands etc).

Speak to Margie or myself if you would like to join in.

The Men’s Group will be in recess until after The Marriage course ie after Easter.

Muckaround is off to a great start with six new members on Friday. They are looking for help making banners for the KCO camp. Also for some adult folk to accompany them on the Clean Up Australia Day for safety (sharpies & snakes) and especially as mentors. Details on the “What’s Up” page.

Ride for Life launches on March 19th. This year we want to make the activities a focus of prayer. Details still need to be worked out but we would have some kind of prayer roster and/or prayer room for people to pray for the program and for those participating in the program. If you can pray for an hour or two over the weekends between March 19th and April 17th, please give your name to Kevin today or asap. We will get back to you with the finer details and some guidelines for praying. PS This will definitely help you to begin to understand what it means to be the Kingdom.

Be blessed…

Isaiah 49:8-13

1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23

Matthew 5:27-37

Last week we heard of Moses’ preparation of the people on the Plain of Moab before they could enter the Promised Land. He said that they could accept the terms of the covenant and have life and prosperity; or reject God’s direction and have death and destruction instead. Jesus says something similar in the Sermon on the Mount.

Moses spelled out the covenant terms in just three points:

YHWH is your God and you are His people,(Deut 29:13)

You are to have no other gods nor idols, (Deut 29:17,18)

You are not to follow your own way. (Deut 29:19ff)

He was pointing us to God alone as the One who can and will lead us into the Kingdom Come. We cannot find our own way there, and we cannot live there without Jesus as Lord of our life.

Today’s Old Testament text is from Isaiah. God’s people are in Babylon, held captive there since the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians. After the return to the Promised Land from Egypt, God’s people had initially been led by Joshua, then by judges and finally by kings. The first King was Saul, followed by David and then Solomon. After Solomon’s death, the kingdom was divided into north and south and the people steadily fell away from the original covenant expectations. They had followed their own way, rather than God’s and the consequence was death and destruction – and captivity in Babylon for 70 long years.

Isaiah brings a message of hope. God will rescue them, God will bring them back:

“In the time of my favor I will answer you,

and in the day of salvation I will help you;

I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land

and to reassign its desolate inheritances,

to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’

and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’”

As in most of Isaiah’s prophecies, it is a word, both for the people then captive in Babylon, and a prophecy of the Messiah who is revealed in Jesus.

I will answer you – the captives

I will help you – the captives

I will make you a covenant for the people – now also including the incarnate Jesus, who sets captives free and lets prisoners out of the dark dungeon.

The Kingdom of God is a deeply profound concept. It was the centre of Jesus’ preaching; almost all His parables point to it; and He defined His message as ‘the proclamation of the Kingdom’.

And just as Isaiah prophesied about restoring the land and reassigning its desolate inheritances, so Jesus spoke about the Kingdom come – it was near, close at hand and in your heart. In the Kingdom, the poor hear good news, the brokenhearted are bound up, the captives are set free and the prisoners are released.

Thus the incarnation of Jesus was not only to provide atonement and salvation through His blood, but to usher in the Kingdom of God – to declare a newness of being for those who come in faith. His death at Calvary was vital to this purpose – for our sake – so that we could enter into this Kingdom.

We could not enter the Kingdom without the death of Jesus – for this purpose He took on frail human flesh in His incarnation, and laid down that life in covenant grace so that we could be part of His Kingdom.

In His resurrection, He has shown us that He is alive and He has opened the door for us too, to enter into His Kingdom through His resurrection.

The Kingdom was inaugurated on earth through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the first Christian Pentecost. It had however been present on earth from the time of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. And it had been here before Adam’s Fall into sin which separated us from God.

This was the fulfilment of the prophecy of Joel – the outpouring of the Spirit on all people; the restoration of Judah and Jerusalem (which means God’s Kingdom). It was the declaration that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved for there is deliverance on Mount Zion (another reference to God’s Kingdom).

Our faith, as Christ followers, is just this – Forget about all the bits and pieces, the ceremonies, and the church structures.

Our faith is in Jesus who came to declare His Kingdom Come and to usher it in.

Our faith says that we believe this: that Jesus is Lord; that He is Lord of heaven and earth and Lord over our lives.

Our faith says that we will not follow our own way but we will follow the way of Jesus.

And our faith says that we are God’s building – not a structure of brick and iron, but a home, if you will, for God’s Spirit. It is the indwelling Spirit of Christ in the heart of the believers which defines the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom is here, it is within us, and yes, we still pray, “Thy Kingdom Come” because the Kingdom has not yet come into every heart, and God’s will is not yet done on earth, as it is in heaven.

But with Christ as our Foundation Stone and with God’s Spirit within us, we live in a new dimension. We are the Temple of God …

Did you notice what Paul said, after having told us that we, as believers, are the Temple of God. He said, in verse 20, “All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.”

All things are yours: Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life, death, the present and the future – everything.

Of course he doesn’t mean that you own these things – what he is saying is that in the Kingdom, under the Lordship of Christ, we view things in a very, very different way. We are seeing through God’s eyes now, and in His sight, “the wisdom of this world is foolish.”

In Christ, you are the Temple of God, you are God’s building, God’s field. The Kingdom comes upon you when you put your faith in Christ and God fills you with His Spirit.

Then you are in the Covenant of God and all His things are yours. You can trust Him fully and without hesitation.

In Christ, your “yes” can be “yes” and your “no” can be “no” – there is no need for subterfuge, lies, cheating or secret thoughts.

For in the Kingdom, Christ is your foundation stone, the rock upon which you are built. He is the dependable source of your being, He is your reason for life.

He will rescue you from captivity and set you free from bondage. He will bring you into the fullness of His Kingdom.

And there, all things are yours. Without the limitations of the so-called “prosperity gospel” which can only promise a Mercedes in your garage, the Kingdom is about life and prosperity in all the fullness of the promise of God. Amen

This was my devotional reading on Wednesday (from Eugene Peterson’s Living the Message), I thought I would share it with you.

“St. Paul talked about the foolishness of preaching; I would like to carry on about the foolishness of congregation. Of all the ways in which to engage in the enterprise of church, this has to be the most absurd -this haphazard collection of people who somehow get assembled into pews on Sundays, half-heartedly sing a few songs most of them don’t like, tune in and out of a sermon according to the state of their digestion and the preacher’s decibels, awkward in their commitments and jerky in their prayers.

But the people in these pews are also people who suffer deeply and find God in their suffering. These are men and women who make love commitments, are faithful to them through trial and temptation, and bear fruits of righteousness, spirit-fruits that bless the people around them. Babies, surrounded by hopeful and rejoicing parents and friends, are baptized in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. Adults, converted by the gospel, surprised and surprising all who have known them, are likewise baptized. The dead are offered up to God in funerals that give solemn and joyful witness to the resurrection in the midst of tears and grief. Sinners honestly repent and believingly take the body and blood of Jesus and receive new life.

But these are mixed in with the others and are, more often than not, indistinguishable from them. I can find, biblically, no other form of church.”

He goes on to quote from 1 Corinthians 1:26-28 …

“Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of the ‘brightest and best’ among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses, chose those ‘nobodies’ to expose the hollow pretensions of the ‘somebodies’?”

The church is indeed a very strange kind of organization with an even more strange modus operandi but the church is the way that God has planned to build His Kingdom. We find the church in a few people gathered together in a lounge room, falteringly trying to understand the Scriptures; in little churches dotted around the rural landscape; in vibrant and thriving city churches with multiple ministries; in stone cold cathedrals which seem only to serve as auditoriums for organ recitals and for ceremonial weddings and funerals. Yet in each place there are people – some belong, some are mere tourists, but all are seeking to build the kind of life which Jesus calls us to: the Kingdom Life.

Our tour guides in this Kingdom sometimes just show us around the buildings, others teach us the songs of the journey, still others tell stories of bygone eras in order to inspire us for the days to come. We feel uncomfortable on this journey sometimes, while at other times we are far too familiar – what if God were to actually show up?

But all the while something is happening deep inside of us – and its not the tour guides who are doing it, but God, who is actually showing up all the time. He confronts us with our mistakes, applauds our victories, helps us deal with difficult situations and people – and in every single encounter like this, it is the hand of the sculptor forming and re-forming us into perfect vessels.

We have a great deal of leeway in the formation – we can choose not to be moulded by just staying out of it; we can stubbornly resist any moulding at certain points of our life by claiming our right of freewill, and sometimes we will submit simply because we have no energy left to resist.

We don’t always have a clear understanding of what it is that God wants to do with us – that which is revealed in the Scriptures is sometimes obscure and difficult to understand; and that which should seem obvious in life is often covered over with the tangle of culture, circumstance and personal comfort. But God is at work, He is doing things in our life, He is moulding us, despite all of our resistance. When we withdraw from Him, or fight Him, or get angry with Him, He comes right back; perhaps from a different angle, perhaps with a different force, perhaps working in a different area for a while.

I have this picture of God working on our lives like a Master Sculptor – we start out as blocks of granite (or clay), without beauty or form. But God sees what we can become. Throughout the journey of our life, He is at work, so that, at the last, we will be perfect before Him.

What a great God He is!

Love to you all from a fellow chunk of clay!

David