Fourth Sunday before Advent2 Thessalonians 1 Luke 19.1-10Gill is always forgetting where she has put the car keys. I cannot help there either because I do not always see where she puts them. We had to solve the problem. Then we saw the ideal gadget, a bleeper attached to the key ring, and which sounds when a button is pressed. Now, the keys are never lost.For something to be lost it can take on different meanings. If we are looking at the car keys they are lost when they are no longer where they are expected to be found. Day after day the keys have always been put in the same spot or on the same place on a shelf. But, on this one occasion, they were placed somewhere different. To all intents and purposes they are lost, especially if it is some days later when the keys are required and cannot be found in their usual spot.The other sense of something being lost really applies to us. When we are uncertain of our place in life’s pathway we too can be considered lost. but for us it is far more important that we should be found than say the car keys which we could possibly manage without for a time. There is always a taxi that can be called to relocate us to where we need to be if there is a sense of urgency in our trip.We often talk about being lost in life. We are in a place populated by the dammed and the doomed. I love Dad’s Army on the television. It is a program full of clean humour and almost impossible situations happening. One of the humorous lines is when Fraser says, ”We are doomed, doomed….” The company are in a situation where they can see no easy or practical way out. The future is grim. They are doomed indeed. They are hopelessly lost.But in the gospel treading this is not the type of being lost that we are looking at. Here it is the condition of being lost in one’s place in society. We might know where we are, at a road junction for instance, but where we are in the eyes of others may completely allude us. Where are we when we look at ourselves and our position with God?The last line of the gospel reading read, ‘the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.’ Jesus, the Son of Man, does not have a magic button. We, as the children of God do not come with a bleeper attached to us. So, there is no button pressing and bleeper sounding that can happen to announce where we are that we may be found.Instead, we have the gospels which are full of directions, like an atlas which is full of maps showing us the roads that we may take to reach our destination. There are parts in the gospels which relate to us at every point of our life. But, just reading the words without actually taking on board what they are saying to us will not necessarily help us to find our right position in life. The words demand from us action. Jesus speaks to us from the pages, from events in our life, from many directions, and it is in every one of these ways that he is expecting from us a response. He is looking to a change in life from us.Listening to the Word of God, hearing Jesus speaking to us, by whatever means, is very comforting. We are gradually and gently being brought back into the fold. The fold is the whole family of God, as his children we are being brought back as a farmer retrieves a lost sheep. We resume our rightful place in the household of God and in our Fathers’ family.Collect for the Fourth Sunday before AdventAlmighty and eternal God,you have kindled the flame of love in the hearts of the saints:grant to us the same faith and power of love,that, as we rejoice in their triumphs,we may be sustained by their example and fellowship;through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,who is alive and reigns with you,in the unity of the Holy Spirit,one God, now and for ever.
Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:5 Luke 18: 1-8Poor old Hamlet. He is standing there musing over a problem. He has a question and is seeking an answer. “To be, or not to be”. Way back in 1600, as a result of the playwright William Shakespeare putting pen, or quill, to paper, actors playing the part of Hamlet have stood on the stage and asked that question. In the 425 years from the time that the words were first spoken who knows just how many times those words have been uttered.Let us now look at the gospel reading. A judge is in a predicament. Being a judge he should be above temptation, he should be strong enough to avoid corruption, he should be a person without blemish, a model citizen, one people could rely upon and trust. It is likely that he was not a Jew. Any court dispute would have had three judges. One chosen by the accuser, one by the accused, and one appointed by Herod or the Romans. However, those, such as this last one, were notorious for being open to bribery.The judge possibly feared for his safety. Physical violence was possible, even from this lady who was a widow. By being bothered, or by repeated visits from the widow, the judge feared being worn out. This could be translated as exhausted or even being given a black eye. The means of receiving the expected exhaustion or black eye could be by assault and battery or by wearing him to sleep. Either way he feared for his safety and gave in to the demands of the widow.Jesus is saying that God will grant justice to those who call upon him. This is where we must look at how we contact God. A letter is no good and the phone is neither. We have to use prayer. The ideal is to find a quiet place and to speak to God, allowing him time to speak back to us. Bring before him your wants and needs, your fears and worries, and also your thanks and gratitude. Lay all of these before him so that he may act. Then listen. Use your every senses to allow God to make contact. And, as it says on the tube of toothpaste, repeat (adding that one word doubled sales in an instant, so the story goes).We are encouraged to contact God regularly, pray to him regularly. It is right to ask for the same things, to give thanks for the same things. God receives all of our petitions. He also acts upon them all. But, not necessarily as we might expect. It is often quoted that a parent, may say no to a child wanting to do something, especially if there is an element of danger involved. We cannot always expect that for which we are asking. Often a father has to refuse the request of a child, because he knows that what the child asks would hurt rather than help. That is just how God is. We cannot expect to know what will happen in the next hour or day or week. God knows what is good for us. For this reason we should not give up in prayer.At the end of the reading the question is asked, “will faith be found on Earth?” If we continue to speak with God, if we regularly pray to him, our faith will grow. Then, at the time when the Son of Man comes, he will find faith and love. Like Hamlet, we need to continue to ask our questions. We, however, ask of God, placing before him our needs. And then to remember, “Thy will be done”.Collect for the Eighteenth Sunday after TrinityAlmighty and everlasting God,increase in us your gift of faiththat, forsaking what lies behindand reaching out to that which is before,we may run the way of your commandmentsand win the crown of everlasting joy;through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,who is alive and reigns with you,in the unity of the Holy Spirit,one God, now and for ever.
Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity 1 Timothy 6.6-19, Luke 16.19-endToday’s gospel reading relates the fate of someone who lived a life surrounded by riches. Not only his clothing was out of this world, but his food too. I can imagine that after spending two or three days staying at a place where the food was not just first rate but of gourmet standard I would be more than ready to pop down to the local chippy or burger outlet to have some ‘real food’, food that was not over spiced but just straight and plain.Watching MasterChef on the television almost every plate of food is accompanied by cries of more spices, more spices. The original tastes are hidden by mountains of this extra taste and that one.In contrast we also read of Lazarus, a poor man. His diet would have been, at best, the scraps of food left at the chippy, for the main part.Both men died and passed from this world. Lazarus was carried by the angels to be with Abraham whilst the rich man ended up in Hades. There he saw his predicament and wished to warn his family against the possibility of them joining him in Hades, the halfway place for those awaiting judgement. He could see where he went wrong.But seeing where we go wrong is not always good enough. For the rich man, he was in Hades and there was no possibility of him leaving there. But, to warn his family, that would be a good thing to do. He was not to be offered that option.Throughout his life the rich man had had opportunity to change his lifestyle. The teachings of the prophets, the words from Moses, all of these were there to give him the opportunity to change the path that he had set before him to travel along.In our own life we are surrounded by advice, by teachings. Our libraries are full of books giving us, not only entertainment, but also knowledge, and importantly teaching. These resources all help us plan our life. But, above all, there is God’s Word.It is all right sitting in church and, when the vicar stands to deliver his address, listen attentively to his every word. I have known one organist actually take a book to read during the sermon! However, we go to church to get to know God, to bare our soul as we confess our sins, our wrongdoing. We go to receive Absolution and to sing God’s praise. We hear the Word of God. All of this helps us to fashion our lives. To decide just what we are going to do and how we are going to do it.At the heart of this passage is the way one leads one’s life. Or what we do with it. The rich man ended up in Hades, a place of suffering, because of what he did not do. All about him was the teaching of the prophets. Examples that were placed before him which he chose to neglect. He did not live a life of cruelty, one where he would go out of his way to inflict punishment upon others. That was not his sin. Instead, his sin was one of not doing anything. About him was poverty and want, pain and hunger.In those days one did not wash one’s hands after eating greasy food, for instance. Normally the practice was to wipe the hands on bread and throw the bread to one side. This was the type of food scrap that Lazarus was looking for. If the rich man had opened his eyes to see about him the need then those scraps would have been given rather than discarded. Here was his sin. He did not see about him the need.It was this neglect that cast him into Hades. Heedless of the teachings available to him, closing his mind to the evidence of his eyes, this was the evidence that convicted him to Hades.It would have made no impression on the rich man had someone come back to warn him. He was so blinded by his own lifestyle. Sending someone to warn his family would possibly have some effect but if they too ignored the teachings around them, they probably would take little notice, preferring to continue their exorbitant way of life here on Earth.We have mountains of teaching available to us. We have churches where we can hear for ourselves God’s Word. We have the media bringing before us the need in the world. If we close our eyes and shut our ears, then we too run the risk of being condemned to Hades. The time to act is now, not to moan when it is too late.Collect for the Fifteenth Sunday after TrinityGod, who in generous mercy sent the Holy Spiritupon your Church in the burning fire of your love:grant that your people may be ferventin the fellowship of the gospelthat, always abiding in you,they may be found steadfast in faith and active in service;through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,who is alive and reigns with you,in the unity of the Holy Spirit,one God, now and for ever.
Philemon 1-21 Luke 14.25-33Hate, or dislike, is such an emotive, sentimental, or controversial word. We associate it with a complete rejection of all that is being referred to. To hate something is to wash one’s hands of the object or idea. To harbour a complete dismissal. Is this what Jesus meant when he said, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple”? to turn one’s back on one’s family is a massive step. It leads to complete abandonment of all of our roots. Doing so would effectively cast us adrift from everything. We would be like a single occupant of a small boat in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. A position that many of us would find hard to contemplate.Of course, Jesus did not have this interpretation of his words in mind. Again, we need to remember that the language in the East used to be ‘flowery’. Many words would be used to describe something rather than just one. A concept or idea could be paragraphs long with many adjectives, adverbs, and much more being used to bring forward a point that just two or three well-chosen words would suffice.Jesus had many followers. At this time, whilst travelling to Jerusalem, he knew that he was heading towards the Cross. His followers, however, believed that he was about to enter that great city and take on the mantle of ruler, take on an empire. They were so wrong. Jesus had to put it to them in a way that they would understand and remember just how misled they were.Those who stood up and avowed their determination to follow him must be ready to sacrifice everything. They were not going along a path that would bring them all sorts of earthly power and glory, riches beyond imagination, standing in society well above all others. They must be prepared to endure suffering like no other. Suffering as that experienced by one upon a cross.Does this help us in our understanding of those words of Jesus? Probably more explanation is required here. It all centres around love. There are many different forms of love. For example, I have a love for ‘bread and butter’ pudding. It beats apple pies, treacle tart, what we used to know as ‘spotted dick’ at school but probably better associated with stodge pudding. That love is totally different to that in which I hold the members of my family.The love that Jesus is telling us that we must have is so very much different in every way possible. We must love him in a totally different way, a love which is complete and which cannot be compared. It is possible to follow Jesus. It is possible to do this without having to pin on oneself a badge saying disciple. It is like being a follower of some great football team without actually attending a game at their home ground. You follow their progress, discuss their game play with other devotees.Even in the church we see something similar. We see those who belong but take it no further. Those who are devout and earnest followers of Jesus but who do not progress that emotive connection any further. For many it is not for them. To progress makes high demands. Those demands are daunting. There is a steep road ahead. But we can take heart. High demands they may be but we are not left alone to meet them. We are called by Jesus to travel along that road yet we can take heart because Jesus will be there every step of the way. When we reach journey’s end Jesus will be there, ready to meet us.Collect for the Twelfth Sunday after TrinityAlmighty and everlasting God,you are always more ready to hear than we to prayand to give more than either we desire or deserve:pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy,forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraidand giving us those good things which we are not worthy to askbut through the merits and mediationof Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,who is alive and reigns with you,in the unity of the Holy Spirit,one God, now and for ever.
