Merredin Uniting Church

Isaiah 2:1-5

Romans 13:11-14

Matthew 24:36.44

Today is the first Sunday in Advent, the start of the church year. This is the season when we begin the preparation for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But it is not simply a preparation for Christmas – that is the celebration of only one way in which Jesus comes to us.

 

He also comes amongst us now, in the every day – most notably in Word and Sacrament, but also in His constant Presence with us, for before His ascension He said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” We know the Presence of Jesus when we pray, when we need comfort, when we cry out to Him.

 

But Jesus will also come amongst us again, in the flesh, to judge creation and to bring the time of peace and joy which Isaiah so eloquently presents to us today.

“In the last days,” He says, “the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.”

 

We are in the last days; the end is coming – we can be certain of that. But when will it be?

Its not for us to speculate on the time – even Jesus said that only the Father know the time and hour. But we can be prepared.

 

We have been affected by several tragic deaths in the Wheatbelt in the last few months. Lives suddenly ended on the highway of life. There have also been those who, having lived their lives, long and as well as they were able, passed on from this world into the next.

Last Sunday afternoon a little girl, fell off the tractor her grandfather was driving. Not even four years old, she died under the rear wheel of the machine. It is a family tragedy.

When each of these people were born and growing up, living their lives, they had no idea when that life would end. We do not know, and more than that, we are not going to know.

As Jesus said in our Gospel text, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

 

The desire to know the end is very much part of our society. People spend millions on psychics, tarot cards, fortune tellers and astrologists in order to get a glimpse into the future. I am not sure what the total spend is but a report in the London Telegraph this week (which, incidentally was covering the Eurozone financial crisis) said that Italians spend eight billion dollars a year on fortune telling.

 

If we know what the future holds, if we knew when the end would come, we would pretty much do what we like now, knowing that we could always do the rush at the end to get everything right at the last moment. We would know what to do with our savings, our possessions, our superannuation, our purchases …. Life would be a breeze.

The problem is that not one of us even knows if we will see today’s sunset.

 

In our gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus is speaking of the ordinariness of His coming. People will be eating and drinking, getting married, working in the field and in the kitchen.

He came in an ordinary way when He was born in a stable in Bethlehem. He comes in an ordinary way into our lives every single day – perhaps that is why we often do not even comprehend His Presence.

And He will come in an ordinary way when He comes again – two men working in a field, one will be taken and the other left; two women will be grinding with a hand mill, one will betaken and the other left.

 

And this tells us something about the way in which we should be prepared for the coming of Jesus – we should focus, not on the end times, but on the purpose which God has for us and the world right now.

Martin Luther said that if he knew that the world would end tomorrow he would still plant an apple tree today. Live your life as if it will never end, prepare your heart as if it will end in a few minutes.

 

If we knew when the end was near, the temptation would be to hole up in a bomb shelter and wait. We would create a fortress mentality, guarding ourselves against the enemy – the unbelievers, the homosexuals, the wicked, the drug addicts and alcoholics, the bikies … in fact, everyone who we do not agree with, because we are pretty sure that God doesn’t agree with them either.

Instead, however, God calls us to live in the midst of uncertainty. It is only in that uncertainty that we discover the certainty that Jesus Christ is in the midst of it with us.

When we stop trying to figure out “when”, we will have the energy to listen to “what” God is calling us to do today.

 

Advent preparation is about removing the “noise” from our lives so that we can see and hear the coming of Jesus amongst us today. Jesus spells this out very clearly in the next chapter of Matthew – the text we used last week.

In the Judgement scene of the condemned, they say to Jesus, “‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’”

 

Jesus often comes to us in the least of our brothers and sisters. In the form of those who we do not, in our assessment of ourselves, consider to be equal with us or deserving of God.

The danger is that we will miss His coming to us in the busy-ness of our religious preparing, or our self-righteous attitude.

If we ignore, or trample, our neighbours today we will not be ready to to welcome Jesus when He does come into the ordinariness of our lives today, or when He returns in all His glory.

We are to live in constant readiness – not in personal righteousness – but in attentiveness to the Holy Spirit who is always with us.

If this were your last day on earth, how would you spend it?

THINK ABOUT THAT FOR A MOMENT…

If you aren’t spending it that way, why not?

 

As you know, I have been preparing and working out the plans for next year in our Parish. As I have been doing that I have become much aware of how much of what we are planning is about preparing to know Christ’s Presence with us now, and when He comes again.

Focussing on worship – do you realise how much of our worship is actually focussed on rehearsing our death? Each time we come together, we remind ourselves and encourage each other with the promise and hopes that carry us through the difficult time of death.

“This is a foretaste of the feast to come.”

“The Lord bless you and keep you.”

“The peace of the Lord be with you.”

And so much more!

 

Worship is not only about the adoration of God, it is also about community – these are the things of eternity.

 

We are also focussing on the Scriptures and Prayer. This is the communication of heaven. God speaks to us through His Word; we speak to Him through prayer. We need to know the language of heaven before we get there.

(Our family once flew into Paris from New York. It was a long flight that began in Los Angeles and we had planned to spend a few days resting up and seeing the sights before going on to Johannesburg. The problem was that the travel agent had messed up our hotel booking and it was the Mayday weekend and all of France had descended on the capital. There  was literally “no room at the inn”. And we couldn’t speak the language. We could speak English, Afrikaans and a bit of Zulu but those were all irrelevant to a Frenchman. Its going to be like that for us in heaven, unless we learn the language of heaven now through the Scriptures and prayer.)

 

And we are wanting to be more involved in outreach and mission – to be able to give water and blankets and Christ’s love to the least of these.

 

We are heightening our awareness of Christ’s coming. We are, as Paul says in our text from Romans, “recognising that the night is almost over and the day is nearly here.”

We are “understanding the present time, waking from our slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed.”

 

Yes, we are living in uncertainty, but that uncertainty is about things that really do not matter. Our certainty is built on the One who is with us and who will continue to be with us always.

 

Advent is about refocussing and regrouping. It is a time to take stock of our lives for living it well in the midst of uncertainty.

 

Christ came as a baby and we celebrate. Christ will come again, of that we are assured. Christ comes in our midst today, right where we are living at the moment.

And so we begin Advent – “preparing for the revelation of Jesus in the joy and sorrow, the laughter and the tears, the comedy and the tragedies of our daily lives here and now.” (Edward Peterman)

 

What a joy there is in being together in worship today. We take it so much for granted but, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer says. “between the death of Christ and the Last Day it is only by a gracious anticipation of the last things that Christians are privileged to live in visible fellowship with other Christians.…Not all Christians receive this blessing. The imprisoned, the sick, the scattered lonely, the proclaimers of the Gospel in heathen lands stand alone. They know that visible fellowship is a blessing.” — Life Together, Chapter 1 “Community”, p. 18

 

The season of Advent continues … as we await the Last Day. Last Sunday, at the start of the Advent season we asked the question, “What would you do today if it were your last day on earth?” – today our focus is on the difference that Christ’s Incarnation, Presence and Expected Return makes in our life. You don’t need to be a Christ Follower for this reality to make a difference in your life – it will anyway! However, choosing to follow Jesus does turn this difference into a pleasant journey.

 

Today, in Merredin, we join together to celebrate the baptism of Reze Coetzee, the daughter of Fanie and Suzette. Today she enters into this journey as she is baptised into Christ. Some might say that she is too young to understand this, and that there is no conscious decision on her part. That’s true but, as I always say, with regard to the baptism of infants, when the parents are convinced of their own faith in Jesus Christ then they want their children to share that faith. Infant baptism, has two aspects to it – there is the covenant of Christ, in which God commits to receive and be with the child; and there is the covenant of the parents, in which they undertake to lead their child in the way of righteousness by the example of a Christian life. And, as at every baptism service, we all have the privilege of affirming our own baptism vows as we profess our faith in the words of the Apostles’ Creed.

 

I am still in the throes of planning the detail of our program/life for next year and some of this is included elsewhere in this Newsletter. The three main events are the Alpha Course talks which will be given during the usual Sunday services in each congregation. In Merredin this will finish by May 6th but the other congregations, who only have two services a month, will only complete in September.

The Alpha Course is a practical introduction to the Christian faith, covering such areas as Jesus, the Bible, prayer, the Holy Spirit, resisting evil, witnessing, healing and sharing faith. Many people around the world have been deeply influenced by the course which began as an introduction for new members at an Anglican Church in Central London. It has also been credited as being one of the vehicles which God is using in the present revival spreading through the United Kingdom. Another is the 24/7 Prayer Movement (which is connected to the same Anglican Church in Brompton). We will be setting up a Prayer Room along the guidelines of the 24/7 Prayer Movement during Holy Week next year.

Superimposed over the Alpha Course will be the LentEvent which runs during Lent from February 22nd (Ash Wednesday) until April 8th (Easter Sunday). I received the LentEvent Journey Guide and Resources this week. Having looked at the 2012 material, I see that it is much more focussed on the Sunday services (and group study) than on being a personal journey guide. That’s not going to work while we are focussed on the Alpha Course. I believe that it would be better for me to give guidelines and encouragement in the Newsletter than for each of us to purchase a Journey Guide. We will still use the LentEvent focus on “This One Life” and as an interest stirrer and fundraiser for Missions during the season.

We are however still going to use the E100 Bible Reading Challenge during 2012. In Australia, most Christians own a Bible, but only 39% will read it one or more times during the week. Only 20% of Christians read the Bible on a daily basis. One of the main reasons for not reading the Bible is that people find it hard to understand. The E100 Bible Reading Challenge features 100 carefully selected readings designed to give people a good understanding of the Bible story. The “E” stands for Essential and each of the essential 100 readings range from a few verses to a few chapters. The motivation behind the challenge is to build a regular habit of spending time with God through Bible reading and prayer.

 

Thank you to all those who completed the NCLS questionnaire and the Pastoral Information form. Copies of the latter are available for those who have not yet completed it. I had to fill in a very different NCLS form as the Pastor of the church. I found it quite inspiring and it affirmed for me that I am in the place where God wants me to be – both geographically and spiritually. I am convinced more than ever of my call to the ministry. The questions dealt with positive things like hope, satisfaction and confidence, which all got a big tick from me. It also dealt with negative things like unhappiness, depression and uncertainty which are not at all a part of my life.

 

Finally – Sven and Linda have decided, after much prayer, to forgo the opportunity of a firm job in Melbourne, in favor of staying in WA. We are delighted – Linda will join Tegan at King Edward and Sven is waiting a response to a number of job applications. Meanwhile Quinten is changing jobs in a couple of weeks.

 

Shalom

 

You may have heard of the death of the little girl run over by a

tractor in Mumballup last Sunday. The sad news is that she

was Georgia Tilbrook, the granddaughter of Roy & Val

Tilbrook who worship at our congregation in Mukinbudin. She and her mum were in

the scoop of the tractor going to feed the pigs. Her mum got out and Georgia jumped

out a little later. Roy, who was driving the tractor didn’t see her and when he moved

forward she fell under the back wheel and died instantly. She was the daughter of

their son Mark and would have turned 4 years old in January. This is a very sad and

traumatic time for the family. Her funeral took place on the farm yesterday and most

of our congregation in Mukinbudin went down for the weekend. We have therefore

cancelled the Mukinbudin service this morning. Please keep them in your prayers. I

am reminded of Angus Buchan’s account of how God helped to restore his own

brokenness after his 4 year old nephew Alastair died in his arms after falling from the

tractor which Angus was driving. It is only in Christ that we can cope in situations like

this and it is prayer which brings us an awareness of His Presence with us.

I have been chatting with a few folk to gauge the response to the proposals for next

year which I outlined last week. By and large there is good acceptance and even a

stirring of excitement. One of the things which concerned me was how we would

physically be able to have discussion groups in the services after the Alpha Talks.

Normally Alpha is run in a meal setting with groups already sitting around tables.

Some folk have also indicated to me that they are uncomfortable in group discussion

settings, even if there is no requirement for them to be involved. So, on reflection,

and after some prayer, I think that we could dispense with the discussion groups

without detracting from the overall intention. We will, in any event, have opportunity

to chat over morning tea; and we do plan to have a responsive ministry time after the

service for those who would like it as well. I will provide a calendar of dates and

topics next week.

I have also been in discussion with the outlying congregations regarding the change

in services (which allow me to spend time with folk in each congregation). Bruce

Rock have requested that we change their services to every second week rather

than two consecutive weeks a month. They have also indicated that they might like

to have a go at doing one of the services themselves each month with help from

myself or one of the elders at the beginning. I will have a similar discussion with the

folk in Mukinbudin this week.

The Lentevent material for 2012 is now available for order at www.lentevent.com.

The theme for this year is “This one Life” and examines how we might live an

authentic Christian life, a life which is faithful to Jesus Christ. Although the study is

group based, it can be used as an individual study (which is the way we plan to use

it). It guides us into a daily pattern of personal prayer, meditation, worship and

study. The cost of the books has been increased to $12. I will provide details for

ordering next week.

If you didn’t get a chance to complete the NCLS survey form last Sunday, I am sure

that there will be opportunity today. Please take the time to do it – it provides

valuable information for church planning, particularly in the rural areas.

While we are filling in forms, I have again included a page for details of our

congregation members, adherents and others who would like to join us on our

journey of faith. The data is only for the use in the pastoral ministry of the church

and your privacy will be respected. Please complete it this morning, tear it out of the

Newsletter and hand it to me..

Next Sunday will be the baptism of Reze (Lisa with an “R”) Coetzee, the daughter of

Fanie & Suzette. We hope that you will join us as we welcome this child into the

family of God.

Shalom

 

Text: Exodus 20:1-17 (Thou shalt not murder)

The first murder on planet earth was when Cain killed his brother Abel out of jealousy and the anger which comes with it.

Today we look at the 6th Commandment – You shall not murder. This commandment may not be the most frequently violated of all the commands, but when this one is disobeyed, more is broken than the law. From the beginning, human life has been sacred to God because we are made in His image.

God values the lifeHe gave us, but from the beginning human beings have sold it at a bargain price. Besides Cain’s murder of his brother Abel, Genesis records many other acts of violence. And the Bible records hundreds of murders. And they didn’t stop with Revelation. History records millions. We are a murderous people.

There is however more to the sixth commandment than a way of measuring how far the human race has fallen from the ideal. None of us is guilty of murder. Probably none of us has even been tempted by it. But that doesn’t mean we can breeze through this commandment as if it has nothing to say to us. As with all of these commandments from God, there is more than first meets the eye.

First I want to look at several things that are not prohibited by this commandment.

First of all, it is significant that the commandment God gave was not “Thou shalt not kill” but rather “Thou shalt not commit murder.”
The Hebrew word that is used here is very specific and refers to murder.
It’s obvious that God didn’t intend to prohibit all life-taking, because the penalty for murder under the law of Moses was death. So if this commandment meant that you could never take a person’s life, then you couldn’t have someone punished for murder. There is a definite distinction made in the Bible between killing which is lawful and killing which is unlawful. Lets look at some of these…

Justifiable homicide
The law of Moses said there were certain times when a person was justified in killing another person. Suppose, for example, someone breaks into your house in the middle of the night. You wake up and discover him, there is a struggle and the thief is killed. According to the law of Moses, that type of killing didn’t fall under the sixth commandment.
We read in Exodus 22:2 “If the thief is found breaking in, and he is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt for his bloodshed.”

War
The Bible is clear also that the same God who told the Hebrews not to murder often sent them into war and told them to kill. And nowhere in Scripture New Testament or Old, are soldiers told to give up their military careers in order to be faithful to God. I would assume, then, that there are at least occasions when a person would be justified in taking a life in times of war.

Capital punishment
The Old Testament not only permitted but required the death penalty for certain crimes.
This is the only law which is repeated in each and every one of the first five books of the Bible. God commanded the death penalty be given for murder, rape, kidnapping, and several other crimes.

When we look to the New Testament, when Jesus was on trial before Pilate, He never challenged the state’s right to execute criminals. Rather, Jesus acknowledged that right and told Pilate that his authority came from God (John 19:10).
In Romans 13:4, Paul makes it clear that the authority of the government to punish wrongdoers comes from God. “For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.”

Well, enough of what the sixth commandment does NOT say. Let’s talk about what it does say and, more importantly, why it says it.
God says, “You shall not murder.” What is the message or the principle that God is trying to get across to us in this commandment?
Basically, God is saying that human life is precious, it is sacred, and we ought to have the utmost respect for all human life.

First, because we are made in the image of God.
In every other act of creation, God said, “Let there be,” and it was so. “Let there be light.” “Let there be plants.” Let there be birds and fish.” God spoke and creation occurred.

But the creation of human life was different. God said, “Let us make man…” God didn’t just speak us into existence as he did everything else. No, he made us. We are the closest thing in all creation to God. We are the only part of creation made in the image of God.

I like the words of T. S. Eliot who said, “…There’s something in us, in all of us which isn’t just heredity, but something unique. Something we have been from eternity. Something… straight from God.”

Second, human life is valuable because of the price that was paid
I once visited a member of a congregation and found that he collected comics. What’s a comic worth? Well, I’m sure if you added up the material cost, it might be around a dollar. But if you’ve got a rare comic that everybody wants to buy, it might be worth several hundred dollars. You determine the value of something by what someone is willing to pay.
That concept is important, because it tells us exactly what a human life is worth. And God considered our lives so valuable that He was prepared to give the live of His earthborn Son so that we could live in eternity.

The sixth commandment is about more than just murder. Which is a shame because I was beginning to feel pretty self-righteous because I’ve never murdered anybody. Ultimately the sixth commandment has to do with the respect I have for people and the value I place on their lives.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ’You shall not murder,’ and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment. But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ’Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ’You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire.” (Matthew 5:21-23)

I think what Jesus is saying is that when we get this angry with someone then deep down inside we’re thinking that this person doesn’t deserve to be alive. In that instant of anger, we’re saying, “I don’t want to have anything to do with this person….as far as I’m concerned my life would be better if his life would end.” And perhaps we have been at that point more often than we’d like to admit. If we’re not careful, we can live our lives motivated by anger and hatred.
But I would suggest that the principle of the sixth commandment even goes beyond that. It is a call to respect people and care about them.
That means that if we want to see the true value of human beings, we need to see them from God’s perspective. Because the only way to truly cherish the lives of other people is to see each and every person the way God sees them: made in his image, and worth more than the life of his only Son.

Let me give you an example of how we might do this – you might remember the story of Terry Schaivo. This is a quote from Wikipedia..

Theresa Marie Schindler “Terri” Schiavo was an American woman who suffered brain damage and became dependent on a feeding tube. She collapsed in her home on February 25, 1990, and experienced respiratory and cardiac arrest, resulting in extensive brain damage, a diagnosis of persistent vegetative state (PVS) and 15 years of institutionalization. In 1998, Michael Schiavo, her husband and guardian, petitioned the Pinellas County Circuit Court to remove her feeding tube. Robert and Mary Schindler, her parents, opposed this, arguing she was conscious. The court, after 7 years of deliberation  determined that Schiavo would not wish to continue life-prolonging measures. She died at a Pinellas Park hospice on March 31, 2005, at the age of 41. Some have since maintained that her death constituted judicial murder.
It seems to me that not only physicians but the rest of us are smart enough to know the difference between protecting, enhancing, and empowering a human life with reasonable hope of recovery and merely prolonging the process of dying. Skill and technology that help our recoveries are admirable and ethical; the same skill and technology used to prolong our dying are unnecessary and ill-advised.
Maybe a key issue here is our common insensitivity which fails to see that what is best possible treatment for a person lacking higher brain function is not always the most treatment possible. The idea that an emotional observer’s faint hope of another’s recovery is better than peer-reviewed medical judgment under extensive court scrutiny over several years is simply irresponsible.

Death is sometimes an ally instead of an enemy. Perhaps death itself needs to be reconsidered by all of us. It is not an absolute evil. It is sometimes an instrumental good for those without reasonable hope of recovery. Sometimes the real evil lies in forcing someone to endure existence that is no longer really life.

However at the root of the Sixth Commandment is God’s concern for how we treat each other.
And any time we violate the dignity of a human being we are treating that person with contempt
Any time we permit our anger to seethe and boil without resolution, we devalue not on the relationship we share with that person, but also that person’s life.
Any time we dismiss someone out of prejudice, dislike or disrespect, we fall under the condemnation of the sixth commandment.

To Jesus, every human being is a brother and sister. And because we are members of the same family, the human race, we have a responsibility to each other. In Genesis, with the memory of his brother’s blood still fresh in his mind, God confronted Cain. “Where is your brother?”

“Am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain asked. God said to him, “The blood of your brother cries out to me from the ground.”

Yes, Cain, you are your brother’s keeper. And so are all of us.

The challenge of the sixth commandment is not simply to avoid the taking of human life, but to value the life that God gave … to treat it with dignity and the deepest respect.

 

Revolution Discovery Night

Tonight (Wednesday Nov 16th) we are inviting everyone from the local Church community to come to a special information night at the Youth Centre, starting at 7pm. You will learn all about Revolution Youth, here testimonies from teens, and maybe even participate in some UPRISE activities. A light Supper will be provided. See the flyer that is attached. Feel free invite others from your Church and other Churches in town.

Summer Camp Meeting

We are having a planning meeting for Summer Camp 2012 this Saturday (Nov 19th). If you are interested in coming to the meeting or need more details, talk to Jono.

Summer Camp Fundraisers

We have a few fundraisers in the pipeline for the Summer Camp. We have a car wash at Ando’s coming up (date to be confirmed at the date we did have got change due to a miscommunication and is now taken by someone else).Some of the teens have been busily working to organise a special fundraiser—a Movie Night at the Pool on Saturday Dec 3rd. These teens are passionate about it, and it is great to see them take the lead in organising. They are looking for volunteers to fulfil certain roles so please talk to Brooke O’Neill, Kaylee Horne, Caitlin Phoebe, James Lavers, or Katie Enriquez (or one of the other teens). I believe that Kaylee is incharge of volunteers.

We are also looking at doing a Sausage Sizzle at Two Dog in mid December, so stay tuned for more detail.

– Revolution Youth aims to reach the youth of Merredin and surrounds, and connect them with Christians that will help and encourage them to grow closer to God, produce Godly fruit, and discover a life that honours Jesus as Lord, Saviour, and King.