Month: July 2018

Act Justly

Historical context

Israel was undergoing a period of economic growth, there was relative peace, cultural prosperity and religious revival. At all the religious festivals the temples were full to capacity.

Everyone, it seemed was happy ….. except the poor and God.

Their religious fervour was not matched by compassion and justice.

The marginalised and the most at need in society were being excluded.

There were dishonest dealings

“Shall I acquit someone with dishonest scales, with a bag of false weights?”
“Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds!
At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it.
They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them.
They defraud people of their homes, they rob them of their inheritance.” Micah 6:11, 2:1-2

The rich are violent and lie “Your rich people are violent; your inhabitants are liars and their tongues speak deceitfully.” 6:12

The judicial system was corrupt – it was not a question of right and wrong but of who had the most money to bribe the judge.

“Both hands are skilled in doing evil; the ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire—they all conspire together.” 7:3

This idea of bribing the judge says Micha has influenced the way you come to God.

In these opening verses of chapter 6 they rack up their offerings as if the ever-increasing value of their offerings will buy Gods favour.

Burnt offerings of calves a year old

Thousands of Rams

Ten thousand rivers of oil

My firstborn (Canaanites practiced child sacrifice)

What then is an acceptable sacrifice to ensure God’s blessing? This is a question not limited to the time of Micah but one that echoes even today.
The people of Micha’s day believed that God was like their dishonest judges who could be bought with a bribe.

Do you know a sad truth – this is not so far from how many Christians believe and act.

It is an inherent trait in many western Christians that we believe that we can earn God’s grace or that in some way we, by our acts of religious obedience we can maintain that relationship.

We too can be guilty of trying to bribe and manipulate God to do our bidding.

“Come on God” we cry “what must I bring or do for you to bless me”? “I have tithed, I live a good life, I serve at church, I read my Bible, I pray, I…..”.

The answer is you cannot impress God with what you bring but rather by the life we lead, and I don’t mean a pious holy life but one that actually treats other people with compassion, Justice and Mercy.

We can live lives indifferent to those around us or worse, and then piously bring our worship to God and wonder why he seems so far away.

God is never impressed by our religious devotion. He doesn’t care what you wear today, how many times you have been to church this year, how long you spend reading your bible or how many hours you spend praying. He isn’t even interested in how many people you have witnessed to or “won to the Lord”. More, God is not put off or offended by your bad language or by the fact you watch PornHub, that you drink too much or you are a Harry Potter fan.

Here is his question

How have you treated your neighbour?

Not just the person next door but your neighbour. And remember what Jesus definition of who your neighbour might be.

The lonely, the outcast, the one hidden behind the leylandii hedge, the alien (immigrant), the widow and orphan, the vulnerable and the lonely. The kid bullied on social media and the gay guy who is hiding his sexuality at church. The mum or dad struggling with the kids and the kids struggling with mum and dad. Your racist and homophobic neighbour. Your noisy neighbour. Even your rich and comfortable neighbour. Your Conservative, Labour, Liberal, Green and Raving Monster Loony Party neighbour. Your Brexiteer and Remainer, your Democrat and Republican Neighbour. When Corbin is your Neighbour or May is your neighbour, Trump or Obama.

Have you acted justly – treated them, right? Have you stood in the gap, risked your reputation?

Acting Justly isn’t just about the legal definition, it isn’t just about the law courts. Its about our daily acts of kindness and justice to those around us.

Did you see the wedding of Meghan and Harry?

One of the most talked about parts of the wedding has been Bishop Michael Curry

In his sermon he said ‘Love God Love your neighbour and whilst you are at it love yourself’

He spoke about the power of love. But then he went on

A power a real power a power to change the world
He died to save us all.
Sacrificial redemptive love changes lives, and it can change this world
Love makes room and space for the other to be. (See 1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
This love, this is the way of Jesus. And it’s game changer.
Imagine our homes and families when this way of love is the way.
Imagine our neighborhoods and communities when love is the way.
Imagine our governments and countries when love is the way.
Imagine business and commerce when this love is the way.
Imagine our world when love is the way.
No child would go to bed hungry in such a world as that
Poverty would become history in such a world as that.
The earth would be as a sanctuary in such a world as that.
We would treat one another as children of God, regardless of differences.
We would learn how to lay our swords and shields down by the riverside to study war no more.
There would be a new heaven, a new earth, a new world. A new and beautiful human family.
The very dream of God.

Now you see I am a Practical theologian – I even have a master’s degree in Practical Theology and so I am forced to ask the question ‘how’? I’s so easy to speak of such a world of love but how would that work out what would we need to do to make that a reality.

Jesus says we are blessed not by hearing the word but by doing it!
Did you see the faces in the congregation as he spoke – the most engaged was Megan herself.

He quoted 1 John Let us love God for God is love. He that loves knows God. Whomsoever loves God knows God. Whoever you are.

For I desire mercy not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings. Hosea 6:6

For the Lord is a God of justice

Isaiah 30:18 New International Version (NIV)

¹⁸ Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!

In the text today we are called to act justly.

What does that mean?

Literally – living with a sense of right and wrong and acting on it.

As I am getting older I find that I am as a friend of mine put it ‘easily triggered’.
Pat says I poke wasp’s nests.

I do it on social media I do it in meetings and even when I am preaching.

Things just get under my skin more – I can’t let things go un-said when people are being hurtful and excluding others.

When I was a young Christian up until I was in my 40’s I hated the idea of a ‘social gospel’. It was all about saving souls, rescuing people from hell.

What I didn’t realise was that people didn’t need saving, they needed setting free.

Isaiah Agenda Isaiah 61:1 New International Version (NIV)

The Year of the Lord’s Favour

61 The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,^[a]

Jesus quotes this passage in Luke 4 then adds

²⁰ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹ He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

How often have we prayed ‘Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven’?

That is a social gospel prayer – you see God’s kingdom of justice and love will not magically appear but will be brought about by the people who know him. And others.

Our history is full of men and women who made a difference because they could not be silent to the injustice that was happening around them

William Wilberforce, Shaftbury, the Booths. Even Michael Curry quoted Martin Luther King

These people could not sit back and say ‘God bless you have a nice day’ they had to put their lives on the line to make a change.

How would you feel if you had to buy your young child an SOS watch? One child a week is abducted in Phnom Penh alone.

It shouldn’t be or just be these big issues – ah there’s a thought you could buy The Big Issue.

Proverbs 31:8-9 says
8Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
9Speak up and judge fairly;
defend the rights of the poor and needy

It is about you giving your neighbour a voice or to join your voice with theirs.
And remember who Jesus said was your neighbour!
It is small acts of kindness and justice that change peoples lives.
It is being willing to be associated with those others shun
It is a willingness to say here I am God use me

 

Isaiah 11:3-4 New International Version (NIV)

³ and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.
He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
⁴ but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.

Our neighbours are waiting to see if we will raise our voices on their behalf
And yes it takes effort.

One of the great technologies and evils of our ages is Social Media.
But it can be a place to stand up against injustice – just check your facts too

I get flack for posting pro LGBT posts but it has saved lives

Isaiah 58:1-10 New International Version (NIV)

True Fasting

58 “Shout it aloud, do not hold back.
Raise your voice like a trumpet.
Declare to my people their rebellion
and to the descendants of Jacob their sins.
² For day after day they seek me out;
they seem eager to know my ways,
as if they were a nation that does what is right
and has not forsaken the commands of its God.
They ask me for just decisions
and seem eager for God to come near them.
³ ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say,
‘and you have not seen it?
Why have we humbled ourselves,
and you have not noticed?’

“Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please
and exploit all your workers.
⁴ Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife,
and in striking each other with wicked fists.
You cannot fast as you do today
and expect your voice to be heard on high.
⁵ Is this the kind of fast I have chosen,
only a day for people to humble themselves?
Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed
and for lying in sackcloth and ashes?
Is that what you call a fast,
a day acceptable to the Lord?

Now it gets practical

⁶ “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:
to loose the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free
and break every yoke?
⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—
when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness^[a] will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
⁹ Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk, (Social Media)
¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry – (That’s effort right there)
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.

Jesus said as you have done to the least of these you have done it to me.
Visit the prisoner, clothe the naked, feed the hungry

Our task today, your task as a church is to flesh that out in your situation.

Who are the prisoners in your community, the naked and the hungry – they may not be whom you expect.

Can I just say you are not alone. Look for those who are already doing the work and get alongside them and I don’t mean just look for Christian organisations.

The disciples came to Jesus and said we saw people casting out demons, but they are not of us.
Jesus reply – those who are for us are not against us.

None of this earns our salvation, that has already been given as a gift.

This is the expected lifestyle of those who claim to follow and love God

These are the actions of those who love – we cannot serve out of duty but out of love.

And when Jesus saw the crowd, the widow, the leper, the tax collector the sinner – he had compassion.

I pray today we may know a re awakening of the compassion of God in our lives.

Acting Justly is the way of Jesus.

 

 

Sometimes people say that they don’t agree with something I have preached. I would be really surprised if you at some point or another you don’t disagree with something I say.

It’s ok to question and even disagree. There is never going to a person who stands at the front of this church who is right about everything. With whom you are always going to agree. The Apostle Paul says that we should test teaching.
You and I are never supposed to be ‘passive passengers’ but in the right sense ‘critical participants’.

Teaching in the New Testament was more of a dialogue than a lecture. Consider Job, Jonah, Proverbs and Psalms, they are full of questions.
That’s why so often we read of people coming to Jesus to ask questions and to disagree.

If you disagree with me that is awesome, ……. so long as you know why you disagree.

Which fortunately brings us to today’s sermon

Love Mercy

Language is important

Lera Boroditsky has a TED Talk on – How language shapes the way we think[1]

Did you know there are over 7,000 languages in the world? Each of those languages expresses the world around them in different ways.

One of the first things we noticed when Pat and I started to learn Khmer (Cambodian) is that in the structure of a sentence the words are the wrong way around and very simple.

A phrase that was very important to me “Can I have a big bottle of Ankor Beer, please” A vital phrase if you are visiting the country.

Now it turns out there is small bottle and a large bottle of Ankor beer so for a big bottle the Khmer is

“Som Ankor doub tom moi”[2]

There are none of the intricacies of English, literally it translates as

Please Ankor bottle big one. (that’s one as in quantity)

We can forget that bible was not written in English but ancient Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic. As the understanding of these ancient languages grows so does our understanding of what the words in the Bible mean.

A translation of the Bible in English can be very different from its translation in French, German Swedish, Zulu, Russian, Indian or Cambodian. I remember when I was teaching theology at the college we would often have discussions with the international students about how their translations differed to ours.

The Bible often speaks of Love but in Greek there are at least three words that can be translated as love – eros, phillios and agape.

One translation of today’s text in Khmer reads “Act, justly Love Mercy. Walk Humbly. The punctuation is important. You could read it ‘Act Justly, Act Love, Act Mercy. Walk Humbly’

I like this translation, love is then included and sandwiched between Justice and Mercy. Justice, Love and Mercy are actions we must engage in. Just like Justice, so Love and Mercy are not just theoretical concepts, good ideas but are a way of living. We are to live our lives that reflect radical justice, love and mercy.

By reading a text in a different way it can help us with our understanding, broaden our vision.

If acting Justly is our action – Loving mercy is our motivation.

Now please understand that whilst we would want to say our acts of justice and mercy are driven by love – the recipients of justice and mercy don’t care where it comes from.

Love mercy – again when you think about it that too can have different meanings. I can love mercy, I can be the sort of person who just loves to have to opportunity to show mercy to other people. Or I can act with loving mercy as opposed to begrudging mercy, convenient mercy, political mercy such as Pilot with Barabbas.

In the text today, we are to do both. We are in our natures to love to do mercy and to offer it in love it is to be loving mercy.

This is why Love is sandwiched in between justice and mercy – if you love then justice and mercy are a natural outflowing of that love.

What is mercy – if this were a lecture or seminar class I would now go around the room and ask for you definitions and write them on a board.  Sadly we don’t have time so I’ll just go to the dictionary instead and give you two definitions

Mercy -:

1. Compassion or forgiveness shown towards someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.
2. Kindness that makes you forgive someone, usually someone that you have authority over:

See also – leniency, clemency, compassion, grace, pity, charity, forgiveness,

Biblical Mercy

I came across this quote.

…..mercy then comes to be seen as the quality in God that directs him to forge a relationship with people who absolutely do not deserve to be in relationship with him. Mercy is manifested in God’s activity on behalf of his people to free them from slavery; it is neither theory nor principle……

Because God is the initiator, the mercy he gives is gracious, unmerited, undeserved. [3]

This then is the mercy we are to show to others. gracious, unmerited, undeserved. And I would add unrestrained.

Leviticus 19:33-34 New International Version (NIV)
³³ “‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. ³⁴ The foreigner residing among
you must be treated as your native-born.
Love them as yourself,
for you were foreigners in Egypt.
I am the Lord your God.

Note :-  They must be treated as your native-born – there is no room for racism because we are to seem them as if they were born here – in the culture of the day ‘as if they were born from your own family.’

Secondly to love them as yourself (a concept Jesus expands on later) To see the foreigner, stranger and alien as if looking in a mirror and treat them as you would want to be treated, indeed as you would treat yourself.

And the motivation for this mercy? Well says the writer of Leviticus it is because you know what it is like to be the outsider, the foreigner, you were the stranger the alien.

I am grateful to Paul Scanlan and his sermon  ‘Love/Mercy is a baton not a gift’ for the next part:-

A Story About Forgiveness

^23-25 “The kingdom of God is like a king who decided to square accounts with his servants. As he got under way, one servant was brought before him who had run up a debt of a hundred thousand dollars. He couldn’t pay up, so the king ordered the man, along with his wife, children, and goods, to be auctioned off at the slave market.
^26-27 “The poor wretch threw himself at the king’s feet and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ Touched by his plea, the king let him off, erasing the debt.
²⁸ “The servant was no sooner out of the room when he came upon one of his fellow servants who owed him ten dollars. He seized him by the throat and demanded, ‘Pay up. Now!’
^29-31 “The poor wretch threw himself down and begged, ‘Give me a chance and I’ll pay it all back.’ But he wouldn’t do it. He had him arrested and put in jail until the debt was paid. When the other servants saw this going on, they were outraged and brought a detailed report to the king.
^32-35 “The king summoned the man and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn’t you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?’ The king was furious and put the screws to the man until he paid back his entire debt. And that’s exactly what my Father in heaven is going to do to each one of you who doesn’t forgive unconditionally anyone who asks for mercy.”

Jesus tells this story as a response to a question by Peter as to how many times to we forgive some one that hurts us. And peter says should I forgive as many as 7 times (as if 7 was a really big ask). And Jesus replies try 70×7 (which is 490) And there are some religious people who would take that reply literally and when they got to 491 they would say well I have done my bit. They would actually keep a record of how many times they had forgiven you.

Jesus is making the point that forgiveness is not about quantity. Forgiveness, grace and mercy and kindness is about quality.

This parable is about mercy and forgiveness but like all parables it is also a window into the nature of God.

You see in an ideal world – a world where the kingdom of God truly is enacted the it is like the king who forgives.

All of you are forgiven – all in the kingdom of God are forgiven.

We have a habit of what we call in the west grading on the curve. We look at others and try to work out if we are better or worse than them.

Folly of grading on the curve.

You see we are all pretty near the bottom, but human nature doesn’t like that. You read the papers when a murder is committed, and people shout for justice and all sorts – forgetting that we too are the offenders.

You tell me you have not committed murder – ever been angry with someone? Jesus says you have committed murder in your heart. Not been like David who committed adultery? But have you ever looked just too long as David did?
Ever called anybody a fool?

Jesus says: “What comes out of a person is what defiles them. 21For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that evil thoughts come—sexual immorality, theft, murder, 22adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23All these evils come from inside and defile a person.” Mark 7:20-23

If the law applied we are all guilty.

There is not a single person here who didn’t have a debt they couldn’t pay and God didn’t make you pay – he cancelled the entire debt.

Few things make God as angry as forgiven people who do not forgive.

You know the fellow servants see the actions of this man who was forgiven but then refuses to forgive and it says they were ‘outraged’, they were angry at the injustice. They were angry that forgiveness hadn’t been shown.

In the church, certainly in the west people in the churches get outraged over all sorts of things that I don’t think God even worries about. If only we could get motivated to get angry about the lack of forgiveness that would be something wouldn’t it?

forgiveness, mercy love is not a gift given to and for you alone but is a baton for you to give away. A church that is influencing its community is a church that has moved out from being a holy huddle looking inward at itself but is looking outward into the world with the eyes and actions of Jesus. A community committed to passing on the love of God in any and every way they can think of.

The servant in this story saw mercy, forgiveness as a gift – I have received mercy. But then it stopped with him.

You do not own love – it is not yours the mercy you received does not belong to you – you are only a custodian of love for a while but it must be passed on or it ceases to be love.

In a relay race if you don’t pass the baton on then the race is over. More than that if you don’t pass this on and try to keep it just for yourself it is like stale food and starts to go off and rather than being appealing it actually puts people off.

Now please understand I know why we would rather have the present than the baton. Having to give love away is costly – it can cost reputation, it can cost time and effort, yes it can be dangerous but it is in the end what is most fulfilling.

God said to Abraham ‘you are blessed to be a blessing’.

Love cannot be contained. The outgoing love of God is seen in Jesus – Jesus came to lay down his life in love that we might live.

And here is love, not that we loved him but that whilst we were still sinners Christ died for us.

Get this we didn’t even like Jesus and he gave his life his love for us.

Let me give you a warning – if you don’t share Gods love if you don’t pass it on – God will find someone who will. He will find a church who will. And if there is no church he will find someone else to share the love outside of the church.

But if you will take God’s love and run with it –share it – pass it on the you will breathe life and hope into not only your church but your family and your communities.

Jesus says you have freely received so you must freely give.

This love must also be without conditions – I know of churches that say well to be a part of us and to receive the love you must change first. Jesus never said that. Jesus accepted and then believed that the power of God’s love would do the rest.

This video has to one of my favorite church videos ever https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUJpJyth3J4

I love the tag line “Where Mercy is required”

We cannot have a boarder control at our church doors, not a quota not a visa check.

Most churches should be filled with spiritual undocumented aliens.

When Jesus died on that cross he declared God’s grace love and mercy to all humanity.

Do you know God loved you from before you were born. His love could not have been greater. He didn’t love you and more when you became a Christian he was just thrilled that now you knew that love.

In Luke chapter 15, Jesus tells the parable of the three lost things – a lost sheep, a lost coin and a lost son. You know none of those things lost their value because they were lost!! From their creation they were valued.

Being found does not increase your value – it doesn’t change the heart of God what it does is reveal to us the value we were always held in.

Let me give you some final texts to encourage you as we finish

Matthew 5:7 New International Version (NIV)

⁷ Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.

Luke 6:36 New International Version (NIV)

³⁶ Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

James 2:13 New International Version (NIV)

¹³ because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Hosea 6:6
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

This a text Jesus uses when questioned about his questionable table companions.

Matthew 9:9-13 The Calling of Matthew

9 As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. 10 While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11 When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13 But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice. ’For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Let me ask you this, when was the last time, when ever have you been with people where if a picture was shown on Social Media others might be offended?

Let’s ask another question, who have you avoided?

How then can we who are recipients of that love, who know we no longer live under law, who are free and have found our Joy, how can we now withhold that love from others. Let us make a commitment that from here I will take the baton of God’s love and grace and forgiveness, his mercy that he has shown me and pass it on.

[1] https://www.ted.com/talks/lera_boroditsky_how_language_shapes_the_way_we_think

[2] My apologies to all my Khmer speakers

[3] https://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/mercy/