John 14:1-14 The Way the truth and the life Something we would often do when I was in Africa in February was to find a motorcycle or boda-boda driver, pay them a couple of quid and follow them to where we need to get to like a hotel or a restaurant. We were unable to do this in Kisumu, Kenya because we arrived late and after a certain time the drivers all go home, so we had to rely on Google maps to find where we were staying but in Uganda that never happens because shops rarely shut and drivers rarely sleep. Then, when we found the right road by now in the small hours of the morning, we had to find the right gate to get us into the private road then find the right gate to get into the right house. What would it be like? It looked OK when we booked but was it and would there be enough room? Both gates opened for us and a young man; the askari came out of his own house in the grounds to let us into our house. It was huge as he kindly took our bags in and showed us round. Each of us had our own huge bedroom with our own bathroom and bed nicely made. We slumped on the huge sofas as the last bags were brought in. “You won’t see me in the morning said the young askari but there will be someone coming in later - but welcome.” We apologised for being so late but he was all fine. Before long we were all asleep in our rooms eventually awoken later that morning by vervet monkeys scrambling over the roofs and tapping the windows! We did meet our young askari again and invited him to join us for dinner and discovered he was a graduate and a local church worship leader. The picture my Kenyan experience portrays illustrates much of what Jesus is conveying to us in our Gospel reading. Some of this passage is frequently chosen when someone dies – in my Father’s house are many mansions and I am going to prepare a place for you provides a lot of reassurance to many mourners which Jesus prefixes with the words that start this passage “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.” This is a promise from God who loves us. And, Jesus continues, you know the way to the place where I am going” to which Thomas who is always good for saying what everyone else is thinking, says “no, Jesus we’ve got no idea where you are going – how can we know the way?” And Jesus responds a little like my boda-boda driver by saying I am the way. You don’t need a map or a satnav – just follow me. Not only that but I am also the truth. You do not want to stray away from the course Christ has set before us and I am the life. Only through me, says Jesus will you have life and life everlasting. Many Christians wish Jesus never said this and regard it as the height of arrogance. How dare John or anyone put these words in Jesus’ mouth. How dare Jesus suggest he is the only way. Others and I would include myself in this, take the opposite view. This is one of the most powerful passages in the Bible and Jesus says this not out of arrogance but simply because it is true. But more than that, you cannot dethrone Jesus out of some misguided notion of political correctness without enthroning someone or something else, be it Buddha or Mohammed or Krishna or Mamon. As Bob Dylan once sang – you’ve gotta serve somebody and it may be the devil or it may be the Lord but you’ve gotta serve somebody. And it is not just this passage. Jesus made this claim at various times in different ways. I am the gate, the good shepherd, the true vine. The whole new testament affirms this as did the early church and as do we over 2000 years on. I had to get through several gates and doors to get into our house in Kisumu including 2 international border crossings. But Jesus is our means of access to the Father. For us Christians there is no room for replacement with vague general truths. As baptised believers we claim union with the Jesus who is the way, the truth and the life. That is what baptism signifies being baptised in the name of Jesus, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, being redeemed, bought back by the love of God through what Jesus did for us on the cross. What Jesus says in this passage is not the claim of an arrogant mad man. It is the truth of a God who loved us so much he came to live among us, die for us to buy us sinful people back to him. To rise again for us and promise us eternal life with him. That does not sound like arrogance to me but simply amazing love. Amen
Luke 10:25-37 Whenever I read this most famous of parables – the Good Samaritan my mind is drawn back to the journey to Entebbe Airport, the main international airport in Uganda which is situated on a peninsular into Lake Victoria about 45 minutes out of Kampala. It sounds like a lovely setting and in a way it is but most flights back to London leave at night or in the early hours of the morning and the only reason any vehicle driving that road at that time would be to get to the airport to fly out of Uganda and the probability someone white and wealthy might be in that vehicle is more than sufficient to tempt bandits to hold up your vehicle and take what they can. So, the safer option is to book into an airport hotel the night before and book a driver to drop you safely off at the airport ready for your flight. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was just as dangerous, situated in a gulley with steep hills rising on either side offering opportunities for bandits to hide and leap out and attack anyone who looked good for the money seemed like open season for the bandits and that his the fate the befell the man in this parable told by Jesus in response to the question the lawyer asks Jesus “who is my neighbour” when the law says love your neighbour as yourself. It is also the question Lord Atkin had to consider in probably the most famous English court case from 1932 when Miss Donoghue drank an opaque bottle of ginger beer that had been bought for her and in which was a decomposing snail. Mr Stevenson was the provider of these bottles of ginger beer. He didn’t know Miss Donoghue and had no contractual with her since Miss Donoghue did not buy or pay for that bottle of beer. So, the Judge had to ask himself “Who, then, in law is my neighbour?” and his answer was persons who are so closely and directly affected by my act that I ought reasonably to have them in contemplation as being so affected.” And yes, this is word for word what Lord Atkin said and so a link was created between Miss Donoghue and Mr Stevenson that made the producer liable because Miss Donoghue was his neighbour. Jesus answers this question in a slightly different way by recounting the reaction of the 3 different characters to the plight of this injured and now penniless man. No one knew this man but all saw his condition but only the third passer-by offered any assistance to this unfortunate man and I think it is fair to say, he went the extra mile; taking him to a nearby inn and pays for all his care and returns on his way back up to Jerusalem to settle any outstanding debts. Now, I should say something about the comparison between Jews and Samarians. ~Both believe in the same God but Samaritans only relied on the first 5 books of the Bible as the word of God and so like the Jewish Sadducees did not believe in life after death. Samaritans also believed that Holy of Holies was on Mount Gerazim, not Jerusalem. But because of these differences Jews hated Samaritans and vice versa. The very suggestion of a good Samaritan to a loyal Jew like this lawyer was hard to take and so when Jesus asks the lawyer which of the 3 people who encountered this man turned out to be his neighbour, he cannot quite bring himself to say the Samaritan but rather “the one who showed mercy to the injured man” was his reply and Jesus tells this lawyer to go and do what a Samaritan had done in that parable, to identify with him and that would be a hard pill to swallow for the lawyer. For us it carries none of the same impact but the practice of identifying with Biblical characters is a good spiritual discipline going back to Ignatius of Loyola and beyond. Are their equivalent people to a Samaritan in our own society that we can substitute? Or do we identify with someone else? In reading up for this I discovered that a survey had been done in America and Africa – sadly they did not say where in either continent on who you identify with. Americans tended to go for the 3 passers-by - the Samaritan, pries and Scribe. I was not surprised from conversations I have had about this passage that most Africans asked, identified with the injured man. How you read a Biblical passage like this can and should affect how you should act and respond. Mr Stevenson in that court case tried to argue that he had no responsibility for Miss Donoghue after she drank that ginger beer. She did not purchase it from him and he did not even know her and yet the Court held they were neighbours. He produced it, she drank it. Jesus says whoever you encounter or become aware of is your neighbour who you should love as you love yourself. Why? because it forms part of the law of God in the summary of the commandments but equally because it reflects the world wide reaching extent of the grace of God that should be reflected in the lives we lead however challenging that might sometimes be for us. Amen
Do not Rejoice that the spirits submit to you but rejoice that your names are written in heaven Luke 10:20 I can recall occasions when I have spoken at Christian meetings and at the end there was an invite for people to come and give their lives to Jesus and to my surprise, people came and did I count them? You bet I did! And I am sure there was rejoicing in heaven over one – well quite a lot more than one sinner who repented – but there was a fair amount of rejoicing down here on earth too, not least from the preacher! And maybe that is not too awful, is it? It has all happened through and in the name of Jesus after all. In a sense that is no different from those 72 disciples who were sent out by Jesus with authority from Jesus to drive out demons in his name – and they did and the demons fled and when the 72 disciples returned (some versions say 70 – it really does not matter) they were all pretty chipper. All those demons they had removed. Not only that but they were able to tread on serpents and scorpions and no harm would come to them, I wonder how many of the 72 actually tried that?! Well, Jesus was not that surprised, I am sure when they returned. He knew it would happen and had happened. This was why Jesus came to earth, as it says in the first letter of John “The Son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the evil one” (1 John 3:8) and Jesus had given authority to these disciples to fulfil that purpose on that mission. And Jesus is not disappointed or complaining that the 72 are celebrating what has been accomplished with the people they met while out on the mission field but Jesus says don’t rejoice in how many demons you forced to submit any more than we should keep a tally of how many people we have led to Christ. Why? Because, actually they did nothing, we did nothing – Christ did it all through us. Instead, Jesus says you should rejoice that your names are written in the book of life. That is the big deal – not the number of suppliant demons but where your name is recorded. It is quite fascinating looking through some of the old church registers and seeing all the names. The first name in one of the registers in Manton where we live in Rutland, is Shillaker from 1837 and there are still Shillaker family members living nearby today. Indians who search their family history travel back to the town or village connected with their name and in that place, there will be keepers of the family records going back centuries, often much further than we can often trace back in the UK, written on cloth and people from that family come from all over the world to update these cloth scrolls with their family members. But for those of who believe in God we rejoice that our names are written in the book of life and reference to this book come up time and again in the Bible. It is not a family history but a record of those chosen by God. Moses prayed to God for the people he led out of Egypt, praying that God would forgive their sin and if not, then Moses asks that he be blotted out of the book God has written (Exodus 32). The Psalmist writes of the “book of the living” (Psalm 69) and the prophet Daniel prophecies that everyone whose name is written in the book of life will be saved (Daniel 12) and Paul in his letter to the Philippians mentions several people whose names are written in the book of life and don’t start me on the Revelation of John, the last book in the Bible – there are just so many references to this book there. This is where our great joy is to be found. In Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. “Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” This is not something that you did. This is something God did. “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”–is the name that would be written on that plaque nailed to the cross on which Jesus died, so that your name and my name would, if we believe, be written in heaven, in the Lamb’s book of life. God wrote your name to his book of life when you were converted baptized into Christ. The triune God placed his name upon you and a place has been reserved for you, not because of what you do, which does not mean you should do nothing for God any more than those 72 disciples did great things is Jesus’ name and so should we as his disciples but what you do is done in God’s strength whereas your name can be in that book of life only by God’s grace and that is something worth rejoicing about. Amen
Pentecost Sunday – Led by the Spirit Today is Pentecost Sunday, which arguably marks the beginning of the Church when the Holy Spirit fell on the people in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. So, what is Pentecost? I have sat through too many talks involving chiffon scarves and hairdryers over the years to try and demonstrate Pentecost. But what is or was the Day of Pentecost and why were all these people there when the Holy Spirit came? Well, it all has to do with harvest. Now, unlike our churches today who celebrate a single harvest for everything on one day usually in early autumn. Different countries celebrate at different times of the year – so, in Uganda I have been to harvest Festival in February, towards the end of the dry season. First century Palestine had several harvest festivals for different crops, and they were timed between each other. The first of these harvests was the barley harvest known as first fruits harvest and took place on the Sabbath following Passover at the very point Jesus rose from the dead that first Easter which led Paul to write to the Corinthians of Christ’s resurrection as being the first fruits for those who had fallen asleep. But Pentecost was the wheat harvest which took place 50 days after the first fruits harvest – hence Pentecost and was the wheat harvest or festival of weeks as it came 7 weeks after the first fruits harvest. People would gather for harvest celebrations and it is therefore quite appropriate that the Holy Spirit came on the people gathered for Pentecost celebrations. From the very outset when Jesus called his first disciples, harvest featured when Jesus called his first disciples the fishermen brothers Simon and Andrew saying, “follow me and I will make you fishers of men,” harvesting souls for the kingdom of God. Not all of us are fishermen but led by the Holy Spirit if we follow Jesus, he will make us for his kingdom and his glory – follow me and I will make you. This is the essence of Pentecost being made in God’s image and for His glory and being made to be led by that same Holy Spirit. Time after time in the Acts of the Apostles we read of Apostles being led by the Spirit. Look 6 chapters on in Acts from the reading we had today and we see Philip being led by the Spirit to an encounter with an Ethiopian official on the desert road back home and his conversion and baptism, Two weeks ago we saw Paul and Silas in chapter 16, led by the Holy Spirit out of Asia into Europe, to Philippi where people were converted and baptised. Pentecost works because the Holy Spirit leads us and we respond to that leading. But how do we respond? By going out in the power of the Holy Spirit and leading to help bring in the harvest? Or do we respond negatively by suggesting that these Spirit filled Christians at 9.00 0’clock in the morning were all drunk and just needed to sleep it off and maybe they would be ok again by lunchtime? Or, to give a Bedfordshire example from about 45 years ago when my local Vicar in Barnet had served his curacy in Luton in the neighbouring parish to St Hugh’s Lewsey, where the late Revd. Colin Urquhart was leading a charismatic Anglican congregation and saw it as a fad that would soon go away and if it was still around in 25 years it might just might be worth considering. Well, we can do the maths!! But how are we going to respond? To be led by the Spirit or question the validity of the Holy Spirit or just wait and see? It is good each year to hear again that amazing story of the first Pentecost after Jesus ascended to heaven but its value is not in the story or even the imagery of the coming of the Holy Spirit but what we do as Christians with what we do with what we know? Are we being led by the Spirit or rather hoping that if we ignore then it may go away? I am not sure this is ever really an option but neither do I believe we all have to become charismatic Christians or undergo some separate initiation to be baptised in the Spirit. What we do however need to do is to be prepared to be led by God through His Holy Spirit and be ready to serve God as the Spirit leads us. I invite you to join with me in singing as a prayer the short hymn Lead me Lord, Lead me in your righteousness by the 19th century African American composer Samuel Sebastian Wesley for which there is a link and works well as a prayer. But for now, let us pray. Lord, we thank you that you have not left us alone but give us the gift of the Holy Spirit. Help us to be led by your Spirit and grow in grace and love as we are guided, supported and led. Amen Lead me Lord, Lead me in your righteousness, Make your way plain before my face. For it is you Lord, you Lord only, that makes me to dwell in safety. https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=lead+me+lord+lead+me+in+thy+righteousness&mid=8B091D5E7F286CB432648B091D5E7F286CB43264&mcid=4C165DBDC4AC4225B621F3463F4C4910&FORM=VIRE
