Redeemed!

August 13, 2019 / admin / 2019, Sermons

Sermon by the Reverend Trevor Jamison for a North Shields Churches Together Service at Saint Columba’s United Reformed Church, August 11th 2019

Genesis 15:1-6; Romans 3:21-31

I should begin by saying how I find Cor van der Woude from the North Shields Salvation Army inspirational! At least, I found his choice of scripture reading for our Churches Together service last Sunday evening to be inspirational.

Last week, our reading was from Romans chapter one. And Cor introduced that for us with information and reminders about this letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to Christians living in Rome, a few years after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Cor helpfully reminded us that this is the longest letter or ‘epistle’ in the New Testament. Paul wrote it to a church, prior to making a visit.

Paul had not been to Rome before and so he was writing to people most of whom he did not know (if you look at the last chapter of the letter you see he makes sure to send greetings by name to everyone he does know in the church in Rome, to remind them of the links he has with them already).

Paul wrote because he intended to come to pay them a visit, where he would perhaps share with them his take on following Jesus, and the gospel which he says is, ‘the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, for the Jew first and also for the Greek [or gentile]’ (1:16)

Although many saw Rome as the centre of the world, it being the centre of a great empire, Paul’s eyes were on another goal. He was heading West, towards Spain and to the known ends of the earth. Maybe he saw this bringing of the gospel to the West as doing his bit towards God’s plan to bring all things to a proper conclusion for all of creation. Paul spoke Greek as well as Hebrew, for Greek was the shared language of the lands that Rome occupied to its East. To Rome’s West, however, Latin was the living language, along with whatever languages were spoken by the local peoples. I wonder if Paul hoped to recruit from amongst the church members at Rome people ones who could speak the language in Spain, so that he could most effectively share the good news of Jesus Christ there.

If so, Paul needed to be on good terms with the church in Rome. He needed to build trust, and his way to do that was to demonstrate his trustworthiness by sharing with them his beliefs, and how they related to the sort of life situations that the believers in Rome experienced.

That’s all a rather roundabout way of saying that I thought to myself, “if Cor chose a reading from Romans last week, why don’t I do the same this week?” No pressure upon those who lead the evening services on the 18th and 25th, of course! There’s no law that says you have to do this simply because someone do that the week before.

But I thought I’d mention ‘law’ because, of course, faith and law, law and faith, get a good mention in tonight’s reading from Romans; ‘but now, irrespective of the law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and prophets,’ is the opening verse in Romans 3:21-31, for example.

In fact, this passage is just full of interesting words. It is jam-packed with words and phrases familiar to church goers but strange to most people, or at least, strange when used in this way; words that inspire, puzzle and unsettle many of us: ‘law’, ‘righteousness’, ‘prophets’, ‘sin’, ‘glory’, ‘justified’ by God’s ‘grace’, ‘redemption’, ‘in Christ Jesus’, ‘atonement by his blood’, ‘divine forbearance’, ‘justified by faith’, ‘works prescribed by the law’. And all this in the space of eleven verses. There’s enough here for me to preach to you all night long, and then some.

Now being church folk – sisters and brothers in Christ, thank God – we have probably heard most or all of these terms more than once. We might think that at least some of them are straightforward, but that’s because we are used to them in our relatively comfortable church setting. Go outside the church and you find that either no one has heard of them or that they carry a somewhat different meaning. Let me give you example of that.

A couple of dozen years ago, I was a newly minted Minister of Word and Sacraments, as the official title goes in the United Reformed Church. I was sitting at my new desk in my only recently occupied study. I was probably basking in the good feeling of getting to put the word ‘Reverend’ in front of my name when the telephone rang – it did so more often in the days before emails. ‘Hello,’ said a woman’s voice at the other end of the line. ‘I wonder if I could ask you something about redemption?’

‘Wow,’ I thought, this ministry business is amazing; people ring you up out of the blue wanting to talk about theology. ‘Go ahead,’ I said. ‘Well,’ she continued, ‘my mother died recently.’ ‘I’m sorry to hear that’ (those college lessons in pastoral care were coming in handy). ‘I’ve been clearing out here house and that’s why I called you to ask about redemption.’ ‘Was it something in particular when you were clearing the house out?’ ‘Yes, it was when I found the tickets. That’s when I knew I could not just leave it but had to ask you about redemption.’ ‘Really?’ ‘Well, I know they are past their date, but…’ ‘But?’ Well I thought, if you still had the items in the shop, I could still pay for them to be redeemed!’ ‘Ah, you’ve telephoned 525 6606. You should have dialled 525 6066 to get Milton’s, the pawnbrokers. It’s a different sort of redemption that’s on offer at this address.’

‘For there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.’ (3:22, 23, 24) As I’ve said, I could preach on these verses all evening, but I’ll show a modicum of self-discipline; leave something to say for those who might come along behind me on another occasion. I’ll just stick to these couple of verses which only cover sin, glory, God, justification, grace, gift, redemption, and Christ Jesus.

Justification and redemption: ‘justified … by the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.’ There are several images that are used to try to describe that act at the cross by which God reconciled us and the rest of creation to God’s self through God’s Son, Jesus Christ. One of them, ‘justification’ comes the world of law, it’s like the judge, in a moment of mercy, deciding to declare you not guilty and send you out of court without a stain upon your character: justified in the eyes of God and the world.

The redemption image comes from the world of commerce. You’ve got yourself into a bind in life and you can’t get free. In fact, you’ve sold yourself to lifestyle and a life force that delights in your falling short of the mark. You know what’s the right thing to do but forces within you and/or acting upon you make you forever do the wrong the thing – Paul devotes the last twelve verses of Romans chapter seven to that theme, if any other preachers are interested. You are like someone in Paul’s time who has get so deep into debt the only thing you have left to sell to pay your debts is yourself. So off you go to the market and sell yourself as an indentured servant or a slave to the highest bidder.

And your only hope is that some friend – and they will be some friend indeed – will step in and redeem you. They will buy you back out of the slavery you got yourself into in the first place. And you will have nothing with which to pay them back: ‘justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.’ Now maybe I have a more pessimistic outlook on human nature than the majority of people. That might have something to do with growing up in Northern Ireland in the 1960s, 70s, and early 80s, and seeing how people in that sort of setting think and act. So, although I would acknowledge that there’s something of the ‘image of God’ to be found in any human being, I still see us as caught up in some sort of power or outlook – call it ‘sin’ if you want – in the face of which we are helpless.

We are like self-sold slaves in need of redemption that we cannot make happen, but which God makes happen; and if there’s a price to be paid for that to happen, well it’s God that pays it, not us. Some friend it is indeed, who buys back, and gives us back our very lives, and at no charge; it’s a gift, it’s grace, it’s glorious – God’s glory. We may fall short of the ‘glory of God’ but God, as see God in Jesus Christ, does not. As the hymn says, ‘what a friend we have in Jesus.’

There is redemption. There grace and there is glory, but for whom? It’s all very well hearing about this good news, but is it good news for me? Given the things that I know about myself – wrong thoughts and actions I can’t seem to avoid; right thoughts and actions that I never seem to get around to – am I included? Am I redeemed? Yes, I am, and so are you: ‘for there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.’

‘There is no distinction.’ In his letter Paul particularly has in mind the distinction between Jew and Gentile. But what he says there is no distinction. Imagine God taking you outside on a dark night, away from modern light pollution, and saying, ‘Look towards heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ (15:5) That’s who it’s for; everyone. It’s for all of Abram’s promised descendants. It’s for all the inhabitants of all of the planets that circle all of the stars of the universe: ‘there is no distinction.’ ‘Should even the entire universe need redemption, I will do it’, says God, and, ‘out of grace, out of love, and through love, and I’ll do it for free. And you, whoever ‘you’ are, is included.’

So, ‘thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ,’ (Romans 7:25): ‘there is no distinction, since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they [and we] are now justified by God’s grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.’ (3:22, 23, 24) Thank you, God, Amen.

Genesis 15: 1-6, redemption, Romans 3: 21-31

Don’t do That!

August 13, 2019 / admin / 2019, Sermons

Sermon Preached by the Reverend Trevor Jamison at Saint Columba’s United Reformed Church, August 11th 2019

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20; Luke 12:32-40

Don’t do that!

Last Sunday we listened to the parable of the rich fool (12:16-21), where Jesus says, “don’t do that”; don’t be like the man in the story; he who was concerned only with self and possessions, sparing not a thought for God, from whom the good things came, nor for the people who might be in need of the things he was hoarding. Don’t do that.

This week we have another, “don’t do that” message. That wouldn’t surprise a lot of people in today’s UK. For many, the word, “Church” has negative connotations. Even people who have spiritual interests (and there are many) avoid Christianity because they associate Church with an attitude of “thou shalt not”. They don’t believe Church is a place where the big social and spiritual questions can be explored together imaginatively, in non-judgemental ways. What might surprise them, however, and surprise some of you who are here today, is that today’s “don’t do that message” is … “don’t do religion”.

‘Hear the word of the LORD’, says Isaiah, in the opening chapter of the OT book that bears his name. (1:12) Today’s popular understanding of the reputation Sodom and Gomorrah is that it was all to do sexual immorality, but that’s a mistake. In fact, according to Isaiah, God says that the problem with Sodom and Gomorrah, and with the rest of the land of Judah, eight centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ, is too much religion: ‘what to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord … I have had enough of burnt offerings … trample my [temple’s] courts no more.’ (1:11, 12) ‘I cannot endure [your] solemn assemblies … and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me.’ (1:13, 14) And so, ‘when you stretch out your hands [in prayer] I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen.’ (1:15)

Imagine if we in this church were on the receiving end of something like that from God: “I’ve had enough of your Sunday services, week after week after week of them. Please, just don’t darken the doors of my church again. I hate what you’ve done with Christmas and, you know, I really don’t care how many times you have communion at Easter. I’ve given up on your prayers and if I have to listen to one more of those sermons, I am going to scream. Just don’t do that; stop doing all that religion.”

Or, at least, stop doing all of that religion, if your religion is just about worship and you are never going to do the stuff that goes along with it: ‘learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow,’ God says through God’s prophet, Isaiah. (1:17) Worship, which many people think is what religion is all about, is, it turns out, an affront to God, when it is not accompanied by righteousness; by right living; by doing the right thing.

Yet for Sodom and Gomorrah, and even for St Columba’s, all is not lost, because the God who is enraged by those who say they love God but who don’t love their neighbours, is still ready to sit down with such “religious” folk and put them right: ‘Come now, let us argue it out says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool.’ (1:18) God, it turns out yearns to be reconciled, even with the sort of religious folk who drive God mad. We always have the opportunity, to be reconciled with God when, instead of having to be told, “don’t do that”, instead we do the right thing and do it now.

And we do the right thing when we listen and respond positively to Jesus Christ, the one through whom Isaiah’s reconciling LORD has reconciled the world to God’s self.’ (2 Corinthians 5:19) Jesus, in his parable of the rich fool, presented us with someone who needed but failed to hear God saying, “don’t do that,”. Now, in today’s reading, Jesus goes on to talk about what we should be doing and how we should do it: ‘Sell your possessions and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven … for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’ (12:33, 34)

‘Sell your possessions and give alms …’. A few years ago we went on holiday to Marrakech in Morocco. Marrakech is famous for its souk, or covered market, and for the main square of the old city. Each evening the main square becomes a great outdoor market and eating place, drawing thousands of people, including all the tourists, of course. Whilst there I saw something that impressed me, and it wasn’t the snake charmers. Tourists, being people from affluent countries got approached by people begging for money, but they didn’t often give to them. On the other hand folk from Marrakech, stall holders and others, often did so. They didn’t give a lot; usually it was just one or two small coins. They gave unobtrusively; so much so that the right hand might almost not know what the right hand was doing; but they did give.

And I think they did so because they take their religion seriously, in a good way, of which God would approve. That’s to say, they are Muslims, and charitable giving – zakat – is one of the five pillars of Islam. So alongside their proclamation of God’s oneness and character, their regular prayers, their fasting, their pilgrimage, there is also alms-giving. You can almost imagine Jesus standing there in the square in Marrakech, nodding with approval and saying something like, ‘you are not far from the kingdom of God.’ (Mark 12:34)

Perhaps Jesus would want to say something similar or even more to this Church; that’s what we would hope anyway. And there would be some grounds for him to do so; some evidence that for us religion is not just about acts of worship, undertaken only to make us feel good (though, of course, regular participation in worship, like regular exercise, has benefits for all of us). For Jesus to speak positively of us, however, our practice of worshipping of God needs to be accompanied by our doing good to other people.

This includes our charitable or alms-giving. After all, that’s what Jesus said: ‘sell your possessions and give alms.’ For each of us as individual Christians to give money and our time to help others, because we believe that’s the will of God, and because we have heard the words of Jesus, is important. It matters that we as individual make charitable donations. It also matters that we give of our time, our gifts and our skills to aid those in need.

Our giving of money and time fits within the prophetic call of Isaiah to ‘do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, [and] plead for the widow.’ It’s of piece with things Jesus says elsewhere about clothing the naked, caring for the sick and visiting the imprisoned. (Matthew 25:34-36) So, sometimes, legitimately, our responses will need to go beyond charitable giving or acts of service and enter the realms of planning, systems and political solutions.

What’s true of us as individuals is true of us as a church community. Jesus calls upon us to accompany our worship of God with a giving of our money and our time to others. That all affirms this congregation’s ongoing commitment to a number of charitable organisations: Christian Aid, Commitment for Life, Compassion UK, Operation Christmas Child, UNICEF, and a number of local and other organisations on a one-off and occasional basis.

The message from Isaiah and the words of Jesus also affirm the work we undertake together as a church to help others, not just though financial gifts, but also in kind; food, time, conversation. I’m thinking here of our Café 2-21 on Tuesdays, our Square Table Lunches on Thursdays, and our early Bird Breakfasts on Sundays. Both of today’s Bibles passages contain powerful images of God getting together with people. In Isaiah, God invites them to come close for a conversation, in order to be reconciled; in Luke, Jesus talks of the Master who returns and sits down his faithful servants so that they can eat a meal together.

So, I’m hopeful that St Columba’s United Reformed Church is not quite Sodom and Gomorrah for the twenty-first century. Yes, we’re committed to actions widely identified as “religious”; worship, prayers, exploring the Bible together – guilty as charged as far as that is concerned. As long as we continue to make sure to integrate that with our giving and our care for others – a righteousness that’s not only about religion but about right action – I think we are storing up ‘treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, and no moth destroys.’ (12:33)

There is, though, an additional sort of sharing that remains upon my mind. I’ve already observed in this sermon that many people in our society, including many of the spiritually inclined, have a negative perception of the Church. They see us as caught up in religious structures and attitudes which make us unconcerned about wider society and much too prone to demand conformity to our views, rather than allowing people to explore spiritual issues in a community setting. You might think that’s unfair picture of who we are. The fact that we manage to integrate our worship, prayer and other spiritual practices alongside giving and service to others is, to some extent, a good answer to such accusations.

On the other hand, we don’t, as far as I can see, within the life of our church, give substantial time and other resources to creating opportunities for others to explore in an open, safe setting, spiritual questions, including the implications, challenges and joys of choosing to follow Jesus. I say that tentatively, because we are already a very busy church, though historically one of diminishing numbers. I am also reticent about saying it because I am not sure how we should go about doing it.

At the same time I think it would be good to give thought and have conversation about how a church can make something happen along these lines – creating opportunities for others, that they might want to take up, to explore spiritual issues , including what’s involved in acknowledging God and following Jesus. And I think we should have such a conversation sooner rather than later. That’s not because we are worried about the future of our church (though we might be) but because Jesus calls upon followers like us to live life as though the Master might return at any hour. In other words, not only to do good, but to do it now.

Isaiah 1: 10-20, Luke 12: 32-40, religion

What’s it all About?

August 5, 2019 / admin / 2019, Sermons

A sermon preached by the Reverend Trevor Jamison at Saint Columba’s United Reformed Church, North Shields, August 4th 2019

Ecclesiastes 1:2, ; 2:18-23; Luke 12:13-21

‘What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun? For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest.’ (2:22, 23)

Yes …

The minister’s back from his holidays and he’s not happy about it. Instead of reclining in my chair next to the tent, by the riverside in sunny France, sipping my glass of wine, I’ve had to go back to work. With my happy holiday experiences still fresh in the memory, I came back back to greyer weather and the demands of ministry, so I’m wondering, what’s the point of it all?

As the somewhat gloomy author of Ecclesiastes puts it, ‘What do mortals get from all the toil and strain with which they toil under the sun? For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest.’

Now you might want to support and comfort me with words such as, “for goodness sake, Trevor, lighten up and get a life,” and you might not be wrong to do so. All the same, our readings today, from Ecclesiastes and from this parable about a barn-building rich farmer (it only appears in Luke’s Gospel) invite us to ask , “what’s life all about?” What gives meaning and value to our lives?

These are reasonable and relevant questions to ask. After all, a recent survey of a group of people living in North Shields revealed that almost half of them did not believe that the things they do in their life are worthwhile: ‘For all their days are full of pain, and their work is a vexation; even at night their minds do not rest.’ Maybe you know some of the people around here who feel just like that. So what might give their lives, your lives, and my life purpose and meaning?

Can work give our lives meaning? Maybe to some extent, but, if so, is that just down to the pay grade? Why is a top surgeon paid so much less that a premiership footballer? And when a footballer retires and becomes a BBC Match of the Day pundit, is he really worth £440k p.a. – even if he is Alan Shearer!

Alternatively, perhaps we can find meaning through the things we acquire and possess – like books! Having said that, some years back, on the bus home from Newcastle, I chatted to a grandmother and her young granddaughter, Tracy. Tracy had been pressing gran to buy her a toy that had caught her eye whilst they were in town. Gran told me, however, that Tracy already had that toy, back home, but had forgotten, because she possessed so many other toys.

If work and money, if acquisitions and possessions, don’t guarantee a sense of meaning to life, what about reputation and celebrity? Amber Gill, this year’s Love Island winner – she’s from the NE, you know – has certainly achieved celebrity, and with the host of offers that will now come her way, possessions and work will soon follow on. To become a celebrity who is celebrated for being … a celebrity: is that what gives meaning to life?

Now, there’s a real danger here of hypocrisy; criticising others for their good fortune, supposedly on Christian grounds, but more because these are things I can’t have, don’t deserve, or which don’t interest me. You wouldn’t trust me to wield a scalpel on you or pick me for your football team so why should I be paid like a surgeon or like Alan Shearer? Tracy may have had more toys than I ever had, but then I had far more than my parents did when they were children. And Love Island’s audience is heavily represented among 16-34-year-olds in the C2DE socio-economic bracket, so criticism from me may be less the result of Christian insight and more the jealousy of an out-of-touch, culturally middle-class oldie.

All the same, these verses from Ecclesiastes do touch on something, I think. Many people do struggle, at least at times, to believe that their lives have much in the way of meaning. By themselves, work, possessions or celebrity status just don’t cut it. Ecclesiastes, however, is a lot stronger on diagnosing the problem than offering a cure. When we read Ecclesiastes in the light of Jesus’s life and teaching, however, we get some ideas about where to find meaning in our lives today. Look, for example, at this parable Jesus told about a rich farmer.

Does the farmer have work to do that fills up his life? Well crops don’t grow themselves, and although he cannot have done everything himself, he would have had to plan and oversee the planting, reaping and storage of the harvest. Did he have possessions? You bet! Not only did he own land but the crops it produced were so large that he decided to build bigger barns, saying, ‘and there I will store all my grain and my [other] goods.’ (12:18) Does he have celebrity status; a big reputation locally? Yes, probably. He might not have been popular, hoarding food in his barns in an era when hunger was an ever-present possibility for those who lived around him. On the other hand, he’d have known that people could not afford to ignore him, and that would be enough for a lot of people.

So, the rich farmer had work, which paid, he had possessions aplenty, and he had at-least-local celebrity status. What more could you want in life? No wonder he said, ‘[my] soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ (12:19) And God says … ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And these things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ (12:20) Maybe he should have read Ecclesiastes: ‘I hated all my toil … seeing that I must leave it to those who come after me – and who knows whether they will be wise or foolish? Yet they will be master of all for which I have toiled.’ (2:18, 19)

Surely one thing that Jesus’s parable of the rich farmer teaches us is that the meaning of our lives does not reside solely within ourselves and our own doings. Our relationship with others is an essential element in determining the meaning of life. The rich farmer ‘thought to himself, “what should I do … I will do this …. I will pull down … and build … I will store … I will say to my soul … [I will] relax, eat, drink, be merry,” but God said to him, you fool!”’ From beginning to end the man has no thought for God and makes no mention of other people; he thinks he makes all the meaning of his own life. ‘So it is,’ says Jesus, ‘with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God.’ (12:21)

What if that man, what if we, lived life, including our work and achievements, our acquisitions and possessions, and our reputations, with God and others in mind as well as ourselves?

Work and achievement: recognise that all your work and achievements take places in the context of God’s work and depend upon what God has done first. In the parable, it’s remarkable that in what was a very religious age the man made no mention of God when he listed all his achievements and intentions. It was all me, me, me. He stored up treasures for himself but was not rich towards God. And yet, all the man’s work depended on God’s work; the man’s life itself, the crops which grew, the land upon which they grew, its place on the planet within the vast ecological systems of God’s creation; all presented as a gift that enabled his human work and achievement. The man was an efficient farmer. Think of the things that you are good at doing and do them, knowing that God has given you these abilities and situations as a gift.

Possessions: so if the ability to do things in life is a gift from God then it follows the possessions we acquire also come to through God’s grace, God’s generosity. As gifts, our possessions are given to us to be enjoyed. In principle, there was nothing wrong in itself in the man’s intention to relax, eat, drink and be merry. It’s what time off, holidays, food and drink, hobbies, interests and a host of other things are for. The problem is that once God, the giver, is erased from the picture, the man sees these things only as his possessions and not also as gifts. They stop being something to be appreciated and instead become something to be hoarded: ‘I will build larger barns and there I will store all my grain and my goods.’

Reputation and celebrity: so, having failed to recognise that his work achievements and his goods come from God as gifts before they can ever be considered his achievements and possessions, what sort of reputation does this give to the rich man? There’s no suggestion in the parable that he is a tyrant, but he’s clearly regarded as a fool: ‘You fool! This very night your life is demanded of you.’ He’s a fool because he has been given so much as a gift and he doesn’t know what he should do with it. Imagine being given a huge box of chocolates as a gift. You know what you’re supposed to do; you’re supposed to share it with others.

The rich man gets given so much and he never so much as mentions sharing any of it with anyone when all around him there would have been people in need. Gifts from God are meant to be enjoyed and shared. He should have been saying “thank you” to God and sharing with others. As it is put elsewhere: ‘he does not realise that just as his soul is in the hands of God, so his surplus should be in the mouths of those who are hungry.’ ¹ If you are going to have a reputation, best it should be for recognising God’s gifts in your life and sharing them with others.

So what’s the point of it all? Work and achievements, acquisition and possessions, celebrity and reputation; none of these, nor all of these together, by themselves, will give ultimate meaning to our lives. As Jesus put it, ‘Be on guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.’ (12:15)

It’s when we put such things into the context of knowing God and seeing others that meaning emerges. Recognise what God has given you. Enjoy what God has given you. Share it with others. And in the midst of that your life can take on greater purpose and meaning.

I could say more, but I’ll stop there. After all, time is getting on, and I’ve got work to do.

¹ Amy Jill Levine and Ben Witherington III The Gospel of Luke. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018, p. 345.

Ecclesiastes, fame, life, Luke 12: 13-21, meaning, money, possessions, work

Summer, Sea and Sun

July 1, 2019 / admin / 2019, Sermons

Reflection by the Reverend Trevor Jamison for an evening service at Saint Columba’s United Reformed Church, North Shileds, June 30th 2019

Matthew 4:18-22; Matthew 8:23-27

“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy

Fish are jumpin’ and the cotton is high

Oh, your daddy’s rich and your ma is good-lookin’

So hush, little baby, don’t you cry”

Du Bose Heyward / George Gershwin / Ira Gershwin

Most or many of us look forward to the arrival of summer time, though we hay fever sufferers may have some reservations on that score. This year, summer time has taken its time getting here, and although the team who put together this service did so in the fairly recent past, it required a measure of faith for us to go with a theme of, Summer, Sea and Sun.

The “sea” element of this trio is a given, however, or at least it is here, living so close to the coast. The sea’s not going to disappear from our doorstep any time. In fact, if we humankind persist with our current high use of coal and oil and gas, triggering yet further climatic change, then the sea’s liable to be closer to our collective doorstep than we would like.

We’re not told about the weather or what time of year Jesus called Simon and Andrew, James and John, from their waterborne work of fishing. We don’t know in what season those disciples battled stormy waves before turning to a sleeping Jesus in despair and fear. Nor do we do we know if the sun was shining brightly before they set out, only to find themselves in peril upon the sea.

We do know that this was their working environment. Most of us associate summer with holidays. I certainly do, with many strong, happy memories of summer as holiday time, including times by the sea. As a child, I always preferred digging deep holes on the beach, rather than building sandcastles. I’m sure that must say something significant about my personality, though I don’t know what!

Yet, I enjoyed my holidays and you enjoy yours because other people are working. Cullercoats and Whitley Bay are no longer be quite the flourishing seaside destinations they were before the advent of cheap air travel and package deals, with “guaranteed sunshine” and large carbon footprints. Still, you don’t have to look too hard to see that there are a significant number of people around here who depend upon good business, helped by good weather, during the summer time.

So, tonight’s an opportunity not only to be thankful for holidays in themselves, but to remember and thank God for those whose work makes them possible: the hotel, shop, restaurant, café, and amusement arcade workers; the crew that keeps the Spirit of the Bay https://www.visitnorthtyneside.com/activities/activity/69/ trundling along; those who keep the holiday makers and other beach users safe – life guards and coastguard, RNLI and local Life Guard Brigade http://www.tvlb.org/ . For all of these, thank you, God.

Yet Andrew and Simon, James and John, and those other unnamed disciples, are remembered today, not because they worked on the water, or because on one occasion they were threatened by its storm-tossed waves, but because of their association with Jesus. The whole point of one of these gospel passages is that they ‘left the boat … and followed him.’ (4:22) And the story of that storm on the lake builds up to the pressing question for all Gospel readers and hearers: ‘What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?’ (8:27)

In the world of work, we talk about “holiday entitlement”: how many days you are due because of the work that you have done and the status of your job. Seen on this level, holidays are your right. And although I fully recognise that retirement is not the same thing as a holiday, there is also that sense that you have earned it; it’s yours by right; you deserve it. (Only with difficulty do I prevent myself from sliding into saying, “because you’re worth it”!)

Viewed from within the context of human economic and social systems, I suppose that’s true; holidays are our expectation and entitlement; and if we spend our money to holiday abroad we probably think we’re entitled to the sunshine as well! Cue a sudden storm at sea, however, and even highly qualified fishermen realise that things are not as much in our control as we like to think.

Step back for a moment and consider that the sun and the sea come to us courtesy of a creator. All our social structures, including our jobs and our pensions, our homes and our holidays, depend totally upon a functioning, created, ecological system. To put that in negative terms, no creator God means no sun, no sea, no holidays. Or, to turn that around, and look at it in a positive light, sun, sea and holidays: all gifts from God.

We enjoy the things we earn, and why not. But that there exists sun and sea and holidays, is down to God, and they come to us as gift, for which the proper response is gratitude. Recognise the scale of the gift and that will indicate the appropriate depth of our gratitude. And being grateful for sun and sea and holidays – for “holy-days” – being grateful, we will enjoy them all the more.

holidays, Matthew 4: 18-22, Matthew 8: 23-27, summer

Being Fruitful

July 1, 2019 / admin / 2019, Sermons

A sermon preached by the Reverend Trevor Jamison at Saint Columba’s United Reformed Church, June 30th, 2019

Luke 9:51-62; Galatians 5:1, 13-25

Luke tells us that, ‘a village of Samaritans … did not receive him [Jesus], because his face was set towards Jerusalem … [and] when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”’ (9:53, 54)

Well, that’ll teach them to reject the Prince of Peace – we’ll rain fire down upon them from heaven until they are totally consumed. As my late mother might have said, “Let that be a lesson to them,” though, of course, a bit late in the day to do any good.

What on earth possessed James and John, two of Jesus’s closest disciples, to say something like that? In fact, “possessed” is an appropriate word to describe their attitude and suggestion, for Luke tells us that Jesus, ‘turned and rebuked them,’ (9:55) much as he was known to “rebuke” demons or unclean spirits. What had got into Jesus’s disciples that they had so soon forgotten his teaching to, ‘love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you,’ and, ‘pray for those who abuse you.’ (6:27, 28)

Saint Paul would probably have described it in this way: James and John had got wrapped up in ‘the works of the flesh’ (5:19) when they should have been filled with ‘the fruit of the Spirit’ (5:22).

Just to be clear, though, when Paul talks about ‘flesh’ and ‘spirit’ he is not talking about our bodies versus our souls (as though you could separate the two); not talking material things as being inferior to spiritual things (as though you could separate them). No! Paul is talking about different attitudes, a different focus, different perspectives, which then lead to particular actions. And in this part of the, sometimes angry, letter he wrote to Christians in Galatia (somewhere in modern-day Turkey) Paul was addressing a long list of wrong attitudes and actions – ‘works of the flesh’ – that included enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions and factions.

So you can see why Paul might have said that Jesus’s disciples, John and James, were wrapped up in works of the flesh. They were completely caught up in all that was wrong in the relationship between Samaritans and Jews. There are differences of opinion about the history and identity of the Samaritans. Some say that they were descendants of Jews who were left behind in Palestine during the period of Jewish exile in Babylon. Whatever the case, there were differences, dissensions and difficulty in the relationship between Samaritans and Jews – people like James, John and Jesus.

A lot of the argument took place over the question of the proper location of the central place to worship God. Jews looked only to Jerusalem whilst Samaritans had their shrine at Gerizim: ‘our ancestors worshipped on this mountain but you [Jews] say that the place where people must worship is Jerusalem,’ said a Samaritan woman to Jesus when he asked for some water from a well. (John 4:20)

In fact, that’s exactly why this Samaritan village rejected Jesus when his messengers came to announce his arrival. Luke tells us, ‘but they did not receive him because his face was set towards Jerusalem.’ (9:53) You can just imagine how that went down with two good Jewish boys like James and John. It was the religious red rag to the bull. Not only do these people, these Samaritans, insist on worshipping in the wrong place, but now they have the cheek to reject our rabbi because he is doing the right thing. He is journeying to the only true place of worship: Jerusalem. These Samaritans need to be taught a lesson that they won’t forget in a hurry – so bring on the fire from heaven, that’s what we say … though maybe we should check with Jesus first.

Now all of this would be little more than a mildly interesting case study of religious differences in the ancient world if religious and social enmity, strife, and jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions and factions, were limited to Samaritan villages and Galatian churches of two thousand years ago. Such things, however, are all too apparent today, between cultures, between religions, and within religions themselves.

Think, for example, of today’s enmity and quarrels, between the USA and Iran, with its toxic historical mix of religion, empire and oil-fuelled economics. Think of the strife that continues today in the land that features in our Gospel reading; Jews, Muslims and Christians tugging back and forward over the land of Palestine and Israel. Look at the tensions and conflict between Hindu and Muslim, both within India, and between India and Pakistan. Consider the factions and anger that feature within the life of the world’s religions – between Sunni and Shia in Islam; between Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox within Christianity.

There are even rumours that such ‘works of the flesh’ as the jealousy, and anger, quarrels, dissensions and factions that exist within religions in general can also be found at a local level within some Christian Church congregations – though surely never within our own!

So what’s to be done about it? Well, first, as Jesus makes clear to James and John, and in no uncertain terms, we’re not supposed to just give in to such things. Disagreement with someone, even concerning things you hold dear, including issues of faith, are not the occasion for, and do not give us permission to indulge in, what Paul calls, ‘works of the flesh’, such as enmity, strife and jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions and factions. As far as these things are concerned, ‘Just say, “No!”.’

The problem with that, though, is that experience shows that campaigns for public good based solely on “just say no” … don’t work, or do so only in a limited way. Despite being told not to do these things, people go on doing them anyway. There is something in us that pushes us in the direction of wrong doing, and no amount of being told not to do it succeeds in stopping us. As St Paul said elsewhere, ‘I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing that I hate … now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.’ (Romans 7:15, 20)

So, we are not going to be perfect, but we could do better, and we will be helped to do so if there something positive to accompany the negative message of “just say no”. And so, in addition to what Paul warning about ‘works’ of the flesh, he also commends their positive counterpart; what he calls, ‘fruit of the Spirit’; things that James and John could have done with have a good dose of; qualities that would also benefit us, guarding us against enmity, strife, jealousy, anger, quarrels, dissensions and factions.

‘By contrast,’ writes Paul, ‘the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against such things.’ (5:22) Imagine how different the situation would have been had James and John been filled by these qualities.

Not been given the answer you want? Be patient. Disagree on the best way and the best place to worship? Be generous about the views and arguments of others. Someone does or says something that really riles you up? You could ‘command fire’ from heaven to fall upon them, as James and John propose, under the illusion that they or we can command anything from heaven, command God, rather than humbly request it. On the other hand, if you are filled with God’s Spirit so as to overflow with peace and self-control, then, James and John, you will respond in a more Jesus-like way.

There is a phrase that appears twice in today’s reading from Luke’s Gospel and once in our reading from Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. That phrase is, “the kingdom of God”. In Luke, as Jesus, along with James, John and the other disciples continues along his way, leaving behind the village that rejected him, there’s conversation about priorities in living the Christian life, and in what’s involved in following Jesus. Jesus says that the primary task of his followers is to, ‘proclaim the kingdom of God,’ (9:60) and that you need to keep focused on him if you are to be ‘fit for the kingdom of God.’ (9:62) Then, in his Letter to the Galatians, Paul warns them that those who practice these ‘works of the flesh’ ‘will not inherit the kingdom of God.’ (5:21)

Now, the phrase, ‘the kingdom of God’ is not so much intended to describe a geographical location, like Gerizim or Jerusalem. It’s less to be understood as the place where God is to be found than as being about God’s rule or God’s action. Where people are acting in particular ways … there is the kingdom of God for all to see. There’s a negative way of describing this in terms of what it is not. So, talking about enmity, strife, dissensions and the like, Paul says, ‘those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.’ (5:21)

But then he says, ‘by contrast’ (5:22), ‘the fruit of the Spirit is these things.’ ‘Works of the flesh’ are not in the kingdom of God, so, ‘by contrast’, ‘the fruit of the Spirit’ – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control – is of the kingdom of God. This is the way that God works, not through enmity, jealousy, anger, and the rest, but through such things as love, joy and peace.

So any society, any religion, any Christian congregation, such as ours; any person, such as you and me, will benefit from putting the focus as much or more upon what we should be doing, as upon the things we should avoid. When, as individuals or as a congregation, we are confronted with situations and choices in life, it’s useful to remember what we should not do, and it’s vital to remember what we should do.

Imagine what our country would look like if we tried to build its life, its structures and its institutions, upon the basis of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Imagine if these ‘fruit of the Spirit’ were the consciously and explicitly chosen values characterising the life of our church; its meetings and its ministries.

‘The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against such things,’ writes Saint Paul. (5:22, 23) In fact, practise these and we’ll be building the kingdom on God, in our land, in our church and into our lives.

So, may God give us the wisdom and strength to do just that. Amen.

fruits of the Spirit, Galatians 5: 1, Galatians 5: 13-25, Luke 9: 51-62

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