Sermons:
Last 3 Sermons (January 22, January 15, January 8)
January 22
Scripture reading: Mark 1: 14 – 20
Sermon:
In Canada policy statements whether political, economic or environmental that would influence our lives as Canadians usually comes out of Ottawa. Important Provincial matters in Ontario are dealt with in and from Toronto.
When Jesus announces the Kingdom of God he chooses not Ottawa or Toronto but St Jacobs.
When the curtain opens on Jesus’ public ministry we see Galilee, not Jerusalem the capital city of the Jews or Rome the Washington DC of the NT world.
St Jacobs is probably a nice place, but it’s not the kind of “happening place” where one would expect a world changing drama start unfolding.
That’s the kind of reaction Galilee might have received from the sophisticated people of Jesus’ day.
But as the curtain rises on the active phase of Jesus’ ministry, that is where we find ourselves - in Galilee and the message is - The kingdom of God is near.
The message of the arrival of the Kingdom of God stirred all kinds of passions within Jewish hearts.
The message of the arrival of the Kingdom of God pretty much boils down to an expected new reality where God would be totally in charge!
The story above all stories for the Jewish people was the story about the Exodus – the time when God heard the cries of his people in their slavery in Egypt and came to rescue them, bringing them through the Red Sea, leading them through the desert and eventually home to the promised land.
The announcement of the Kingdom of God would have brought excitement to those listening to Jesus’ announcement because the Kingdom of God is about God leading His people into a new reality once again where there would be some similarities to the historic Exodus experience. Most certainly the new reality implied the removal of the Romans from Jewish society and the return of Jewish independence and self-governance.
The first disciples heard in the Kingdom call a reality that calls for a readjustment of their lives around it!
But then again we might ask: Jesus we see how these fishermen readjust their lives around the Kingdom call and follow you but couldn’t you have chosen a different group of followers to carry out the work of the Kingdom? You start out recruiting and calling to your side simple fishermen smelling of fish and looking every bit like the working-class folks that they are.
Can it really be that this group of uneducated fishermen was in touch with the deepest truth of the universe? Yes!
We know the Jesus story how He saves the world through humility, gentleness, compassion, and sacrifice.
If this is the way He operates it makes sense to begin with a bunch of people who couldn't get much more humble even if they tried! The messengers fit the message. In fact, over the course of his ministry if Jesus had any significant struggles with his disciples, it was the struggle to keep them humble. There were times when they started arguing amongst themselves as to who was the greatest and then Jesus directed them back down to the street level of service. The disciples needed to be common, ordinary, and above all humble if they were going to do Jesus any good and so change the world.
With Jesus and the announcement that the Kingdom of God has come near we enter the promise of a new world, a new creation, a new order where things will be changed because God is in control now. The kingdom of God means that here and now we are set free to imagine the world differently – but not only to imagine the world differently but to live differently. We are no longer supposed to be limited and restricted or bound by the way things are. We are set free to imagine and to live our lives according to how things will be and should be according to what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5 – 7. God’s kingdom opens up our future, we are set free to re-imagine, re-envision and reframe the world in which we live.
But is this really for me; is this really for Knox we ask? On the grander scale of things here in Canada we are so small and insignificant.
When you study Mark from beginning to end you discover that basically he is saying that his entire gospel account from chapter 1 through to the end of chapter 16 is but the beginning of the Good News and God’s Kingdom that finally knows no bounds. And where does all of this start and end - in humble Galilee. When we listen to the angel’s words to the women at the empty tomb of Jesus in Mark 16:7 we hear them say: You must go to Galilee for there you will see him. Mark is directing his readers back to 1:14. We need to go back to Galilee, back to the humble beginning of the Gospel and the humble characters that live there. But why - because “Galilee” is the place where most of us live. Most of us don’t live in the citadels of power or in celebrity lime light. No, we live in the ordinary Galilees of the world, in places where the powerful and the famous of the world most probably will never visit. Most of the time it’s from the “Galilees” that God calls the humble to become fishers of men and to live powerfully and change the world.
January 15
Scripture Reading John 1:43 – 51
Sermon:
I will never forget my amazement when I first saw a battery operated Cradle and Swing! These battery operated Cradle and Swings can gently rock from side-to-side or from back-to-front to simulate a parent walking or rocking the child. This enables new Moms and Dads to catch some desperately needed naps or to just get important stuff done.
But when babies grow older and start walking on their own it becomes more and more difficult to trick them with an illusion of moving because when they learn to take those first baby steps they are more and more on their way to wherever they want to go. The time for swinging and swaying in one spot is over.
When Jesus started his public ministry it was no cradle and swing experience but an “on-the-road” experience from the word go. Jesus’ invitation to his first disciples and to all of us is simply: “Follow me”!
The call to follow Jesus is not a call to “sit down and listen,” but an invitation to get up and follow; it’s about motion and mission.
The moment John the Baptist identifies Jesus as the “Son and Lamb of God”, and points his own disciples towards Jesus, Jesus is on the move and we His followers are on a journey with Him. On this journey we will enter new and unfamiliar territory; this journey constantly calls for the formation of new faith perspectives.
All four Gospels affirm in one way or another that the discipleship journey is a painstakingly “step-by-step” undertaking.
We see His first disciples being totally off-balance at times, we see them unsure at times; as they take their baby steps they many a time stumble and fall but this is part of the discipleship journey – this is part of getting out of the cradle and swing. The reason for all of this is because Jesus constantly challenges us as he did his first followers to step over the man-made dividing lines – he challenges his disciples to step over the line between Galilee - the safe place for the Jews - and Samaria the place where those whom we don’t like and mistrust live; over the racism lines between Jew and Gentile, over the line between pure and impure, over the line between God’s vision and human viewpoints.
Yes to be a disciple of Jesus we need to step ahead
Stepping ahead in faith means stepping away from the familiar and even stepping beyond what we know to be our own best abilities.
Discipleship is about transformation that happens when ordinary people step ahead. That's what happened to these simple people we call the first disciples. If you would bring them all together into our sanctuary today, we would never in our wildest imagination guess by looking at them that they had the potential to change the world. But they did because it was to them that the secret of the universe was first revealed and they stepped ahead. To step ahead is when we trust God and not our own abilities and in this trust we truly begin to move forward in faith.
To follow Jesus also means that we need to step up to the plate
Discipleship means to continue the ministry of Christ in our world.
Discipleship is about our words and actions.
I am constantly struggling with the question: How do we step up to the challenges of brokenness that face people in our first world society where the government has taken over so many of the things that traditionally belonged to the ministry of the church?
Let me share an example of what I mean by stepping up to the plate.
Last year in my country of birth, SA, hundreds of people were just evacuated from an apartment building in Pretoria without having alternative housing provided – inconceivable something like this would happen here. These people were literally out on the streets. Who stepped up to the plate to lend a hand? Some congregations did. They decided to turn their church halls into temporary shelters for these unfortunate homeless people. Church members would provide food and clothing for as many of the homeless as the building would hold. Of course there were also those who felt this was not the church’s responsibility – the local government evicted these people; let the local government deal with the crisis and problems – some of those helping out were confronted by the argument that the church ought to stick to the business of preaching the gospel and stay away from these kind of activities that are very disruptive for a local congregation.
When people ask where Jesus is in all this stepping up to the plate ministry, a congregation stepping up to the plate can answer like Philip did to Nathaniel in our reading: "Come and see". You have to be there to experience what we are talking about! Involvement in Jesus ministry is not a cradle and swing ministry and many won’t see until they come to those places where one can see the grace of Christ at work in the world.
What are the needs of the broken people in our first world context and how can we serve those needs as Disciples of Christ.
I know many modern day people that don’t have a very positive perspective on the church. Many of them when they hear the Name Jesus and when they hear the word Church would have a Nathanael reaction – Can anything good come out of the church?
But we are the ones chosen by God to invite – come and see – and when people do come and see may they experience a people stepping ahead and stepping up to the plate.
I close with a story about a woman who brought home a plaque that said, "Prayer changes things." She put it in the kitchen, above the sink. Her husband came home, and said: Take that down, please. Why she asked? Don't you believe in prayer? He said: Yes, but I don't believe in change.
Discipleship implies change. Responding to Jesus’: Follow me, means transformation. This change is no change just for the sake of change; this change flows from our first action, our most important decision to respond to Jesus’ invitation: Follow me. Change in a congregation is determined by the One who leads and our Leader is the one who calls us: Follow me and my mission for your life. This journey then takes us where He wants us to go.
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January 8
Scripture Reading Matthew 2:1-12
Sermon:
On this second Sunday of 2012 we celebrate Epiphany and a text book definition of this celebration could be: celebrating the manifestation of the divine nature of Jesus to the Gentiles as represented by the Magi.
Might sound like a boring definition but Epiphany Sunday is all about new expectations, new possibilities; it should be all about the claiming of new promises. The magi in Matthew’s gospel perfectly embody the hopes and dreams of a truly “new” year. Just look at the magi - they strike out on a new path, into new territory, because they believe in the reality of a new future. They left their homeland, their security and their comfort zones based upon the summons of a star and a prophecy.
Actually, they only had half of a prophecy. The Magi knew a new king has arrived but they did not know where he was. So without knowing where the new King was or who they were looking for, the Magi left their homes “in the East” and traveled west to Jerusalem. They came seeking something huge and transformative and went to the religious capital and the seat of power for the Jews. They logically assumed that this “new king” would be found within Herod’s own family. That’s why they entered Herod’s court looking for the royal child because they wish to “do homage” to this child - an act that would recognize the authority of this new ruler King. Herod panicked by such a prospect and he immediately summons the chief priests and scribes to learn from them where the Messiah was to be born. Herod receives a unanimous and definitive answer - Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophets. And off the magi went travelling towards Bethlehem.
Epiphany Sunday poses the question: are we capable of looking ahead, are we willing to trust God’s word and His guidance, leading us like a star to His destiny for our personal lives and congregational life? Are we able given God’s promises, to adapt, to make changes to the way in which we live our lives and live our life together as a congregation so as to help others to meet Christ and God’s love in Him?
The magi knew that if they wanted to move forward, they had to be willing to step out into the unknown and embrace the possibilities of a new future, based on their trust in the “prophesy” that would ask of them to adjust their journey accordingly.
None of us know what awaits us in 2012. We can make plans but no one can predict the future. We cannot know the future but we can know the One who holds our future in His hand and trust him for the journey as we adjust and adapt to His guidance.
Don’t believe that you can’t change or adjust, don’t believe that a congregation can’t change or adjust. Even Biologists tell us that the key to the survival of a species is one word: adaptability. As cute and photogenic as panda bears may be, they are lousy adapters. They only eat one thing: bamboo. They only live in one place: bamboo forests. Take a panda bear and turn him loose in the habitat of his black bear or grizzly cousin here in Canada, and he will starve to death. When the bamboo forests are gone the panda will be gone too. We humans have always been the stars of adaptability. Unlike the bamboo diet of the pandas, we can eat almost anything and everything. We have figured out how to survive in freezing temperatures up north, and believe me you will also be able to survive humid rain forests on the equator or scorching deserts if you need to.
The magi adjusted, they changed their travel plans, they accepted the news that Jerusalem is not their final destination, and start out on another journey to Bethlehem. And when they finally reach the house of Joseph and see the long-sought child, think of how they must have reacted - such a long trip for such simple surroundings - no royal palace, just a humble stone house. But the magi adapted and celebrated anyway, recognizing the child’s royalty with the gifts they brought: gold for a king, frankincense for a priest, myrrh for a healer and prophet.
Just as the magi think there are no more surprises, they have to adjust and adapt again - to a dream this time - warning them of the wrongness of their direction. Instead of returning to Herod celebrating their location of the child, their dream tells them to return to their home “by another way” (12). Another way is just another way of saying “out of the way”, maybe taking a frustrating and even dangerous detour - but, firmly trusting in God’s warning in a dream they didn’t hesitate to take a different path, to strike out into unknown territory again.
Epiphany calls us to recheck our spiritual compasses; examine exactly which course we are following.
As Christians we live in a relationship with the One who is The Way, The Truth, and The Life and He constantly prepares his followers for “another way” - His way - and His way many a time are unfamiliar to the ways of the world but they become our ways when we follow the one who is The Way, The Truth and The Life. If we only and always go where we want to go, then the question arises: who is in charge of our lives?
My wish and prayer for all of us this coming year is: may we trust the God of “another way.”
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