Sermon Peter Took  Sunday 22nd January 2012 evening

With the decline in the world’s economy, there haven’t been too many occasions in recent years when we could say, and mean, “That was a good year!” Sadly, the opposite is more usually true. There was the Queen’s famous reference to an “Annus Horribilis” Do you recall that? You do? It was in a speech in 1992. Twenty years ago! Scary!

So, to brighten up the horizon, just a little, I want to tell you about a year that really was … “A very Good Year!” And that was … 1809!

I kid you not, 1809 was a very good year, and that was so, despite the wars that occurred in that year. History recounts that there were more than 20 battles. The six o’clock news would have been dominated, by the Peninsula War in Spain, and Napoleon’s invasion of Austria. But 1809 stands out, as the year of birth of some very famous people.
In France, Louis Braille, the inventor of the alphabet for the blind, which bears his name to this today. In Germany, the famous composer Felix Mendelssohn. In England, Alfred Lord Tennyson, who would become one of our finest poets and writers. And if that glittering gallery is not enough, two remarkable men were born on the same day. On the 12th February 1809. In America … Abraham Lincoln, probably the greatest American President ever . And In England … Charles Darwin, who was to achieve fame with his Origin of the Species

No doubt the Daily Telegraph’s headline review of 1809 would have said: "The destiny of the world has been shaped this year on the battlefields of Austria and Spain". But in fact, history was being created in 1809 in the cots of newly born babies around the world!

But these really important events of 1809 didn’t reach the headlines then, because in 1809 nobody knew they were happening. The importance would be revealed in the future. When Jesus said to Andrew and Simon Peter “I will make you fishers of men”, it made little contribution to a ‘good year’ at the time it was said. Because the importance would be revealed in the future.

A fisherman on the Lake of Galilee would use one of three methods of fishing, depending on the fishing conditions of the day. First, there were baited hooks for catching individual fish. Next, a net that was thrown into the sea; a cast net. I fact, there were two types of cast net.
The first was called the “amphibleestron”, which was in the form of a bag, coming to a point at the bottom. Its mouth was about 3 foot in diameter with weights around it, which kept it open when it was thrown and closed it when it sank in the water. The fisherman would wade in from the shore and throw it a considerable distance, with great dexterity.
The other cast net, called a “diktuon” was too heavy to be thrown and so would be used by fishermen when they found themselves at sea surrounded by a shoal of fish. The third fishing method was a drag net, which would be drawn behind a boat, with floats on the top and weights on the bottom.

To fish successfully, they needed to see what the fishing conditions are like. There was no point in using a baited hook when there were shoals of fish and equally there was no point using a drag net when there were only few fish in the water. A similar process of assessment will greatly enhance our effectiveness in taking the Good News to the local community, and to friends and family.

The fishermen had to be patient. Often the fish did not co-operate by obligingly swimming into the nets. Sometimes they would be out fishing all night – and perhaps have nothing to show for it. But they didn’t give up. We need to be patient in prayer when immediate results don’t seem to happen. Have Faith.

Two nuns were driving down a country road when they ran out of fuel. A farmer at a nearby farmhouse was happy to give them some petrol; but the only handy container he had was an old bedpan. The nuns returned to their car, and as they were pouring the petrol from the bedpan into the tank, a passing car stopped. The driver rolled down his window and said,

“Excuse me, sisters. I just want to say what a wonderful example this is of your Faith!

In faith, we need to be real followers, committed to go wherever Jesus takes us. The disciples picked by Jesus were real followers.

A young woman wanted to go to college, but her heart sank when she read the question on the application form that asked, "Are you a leader?" She was honest, and wrote, "No," and returned the application, expecting the worst.

She received a reply letter from the college: "Dear Applicant: A study of the application forms reveals that this year our college will have 452 new leaders. We are accepting you because we feel it is imperative that they have at least one follower."

Jesus needed and still needs people who are willing to follow him to the ends of the earth. True Followers are completely dependent on Jesus
Have you learned to depend upon Him for everything in your life?

The workers in a cotton factory were told: "When your thread becomes tangled, call the foreman.” A young woman was new on the job. Her thread became tangled and she thought, "I’ll just straighten this out myself." She tried, but the situation only worsened. Finally she called the foreman. "I did the best I could," she said. "No you didn’t” said the foreman. “ To do the best, you should have called me”. If we want to have a real life - the best life we possibly can - we need to learn total dependence on God.

And we should learn to use the particular gifts that God has given us.
There are some people (but not many!) to whom God has given the natural gift of evangelism. People who can preach the gospel to anyone who comes within range, and, figuratively and literally, can do it standing on a street corner. I have known such a man locally. His name was Ray Doel. You may have known him. Or, in years past you might have been accosted by him, as you walked along The Parade. He died just a couple of months ago - on 26th November. His funeral announcement said “Please wear something bright!”

Were you waiting for me to reach the point where I say that each of us is an evangelist, and we have to go out into the secular world and bring our families, friends, neighbours, and colleagues to church? Well, I’m not going to say that. As I have observed already, very few people have the gift of that sort of evangelism. But we all have the ability to show the world that we are Christians.


This can be done, and should be done, individually. Set a good example; Demonstrate by action! But, even better, The world can be shown true Christianity by action together! This is so important!
Show the world together how wonderful it is to belong to the church family, to be a member of the St Mary’s fellowship. To be a true follower of Jesus Christ.

Mostly the effects will be in the future. But there is always the possibility of an instant conversion. Remember, the actual conversion of unbelievers is not your responsibility. You create a setting in which the power of the Holy Spirit can work.

Remember particularly to be patient. A favourite acronym of mine is
PUSH. Have I mentioned this before here at St Mary’s?
Pray Until Something Happens!
It’s a really good acronym because every time you come to a door with PUSH on it, you are reminded. Pray Until Something Happens!

I started with a reference to a particular year, And how the births of famous people in that year would make the news a good bit later. Right, it’s test time! What year was it? [1809]

And I mentioned five names in all, who were they?
Louis Braille, Felix Mendelssohn, Alfred Lord Tennyson

Who were the two who shared the same day of birth?
Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin,
And what day was that? 12th February 1809

Good. Just making sure that you were awake!

Braille; Mendelssohn; Tennyson; Lincoln; Darwin. I doubt whether anyone here is going to be as famous as these five. (There’s a good title for a book in there, somewhere). But there will be some who have the gifts to Spread the Good News, Although not necessarily on street corners! And if that is you, please do not neglect such a gift.

I do know that we all can pray . Pray for specific people known to us, who are not followers of Jesus. Pray for those who think they are Christians, but in reality are only church-goers. I was in that group until my mid-forties. Pray that by living out our lives as Christians, we will show those around us, those whom we meet at work and play, what it means to be a Christian.

And PUSH them! By which I mean, of course, Pray for them.
Pray, Until Something Happens.

Sermon Richard Spicer “Civic Service”

          15th December 2011

57 – The Authority of the Baby Jesus – silly or great, rumour or truth? -
Isaiah 9: 2, 6-7, Luke 1: 26-38 and Luke 20: 20-26.

Let’s bow our heads in prayer. May I speak in the name of God in union with Jesus the Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen

An Admiral of the Fleet was standing on the bridge of the ship he was commanding as it made its way to its destination overnight. Ahead through the darkness he could see a light. He said to his signalman, “Signal to that ship to move aside to let us pass through.” The signalman sent the signal. After a few moments the reply came back –short and sweet – “No”. Taken aback and bristling with anger the Admiral commanded the signalman, “Repeat the signal and add, “We are the flagship of the British Navy!”
After a few moments the same reply again came back – “No”.
By now the Admiral was incandescent with rage and shouted at the top of his voice, “Signal that I am Admiral of the Fleet.”
The reply came back a few moments later. It said, “I am a lighthouse-keeper!”

We are about to celebrate the birthday of Jesus Christ. In at least one way Jesus was like the lighthouse- keeper in the story. He had authority. He was sent by God his Father to live on earth fulfilling the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah – our first reading tonight. Isaiah prophesied that God would exert his divine authority by sending a child, his Son, on whose shoulders will be the government of his world. Furthermore that Son Jesus will reign over David’s Kingdom Israel and establish and uphold justice and righteousness from that time forever. If there was any doubt about the authority of Jesus this prophecy dispels it once and for all.

Our second reading tonight from the Gospel of Luke is the next instalment of the story of the authority of Jesus as many years later Isaiah’s prophecy comes true. God sends the angel Gabriel to Nazareth to visit Mary and tell her that she will give birth to a child, not just any child but a son to be named Jesus. And he will become King of the Jews and reign for ever.
And the birth happens. And then, even as a newborn baby lying in a feeding trough for animals his authority and importance was great enough to bring some Jewish shepherds through the night to worship him and some Wise Men from many miles away to acknowledge him as a King.

During his three-year period of ministry here on earth the authority of Jesus was challenged many times. One such time involved the Pharisees – educated legal experts, priests and scribes – and their attempts to trap Jesus into making blasphemous remarks about his authority. The story is told by Luke in chapter 20 of his Gospel and may well be familiar to you. It goes like this.

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus if it was right to pay tributes to Caesar, this was Tiberius Caesar, the Roman Emperor under whose oppressive regime they were governed at the time. Jesus replies by asking them about the coins they have in their pockets. These were Roman coins with the head of Caesar on them. The coins also had inscriptions proclaiming Caesar, amongst other things, to be son of God. The Pharisees were wrestling with a significant difficulty of their time. As devout Jews worshipping God how could they pay taxes to a pagan overlord in Caesar? And yet to refuse to do so would be suicidal. Jesus fuelled the debate even more by reminding them that they conducted their businesses using this money. Coins which had a picture of a human being together with words which clearly flouted the Jewish Law to which they clung, or professed to cling onto, so obsessively.

The Pharisees answered Jesus’ question by confirming Caesar as being depicted on their coinage. Jesus then delivers the coup de grace, saying that they should give to Caesar what is his and to God what is God’s. Hence the familiar phrase.

Jesus had escaped from the trap set for him and the Pharisees astonished by his answer could say no more. His response is still true for us today. We should give to those who are in authority over us – the present day equivalent of Caesar – be they politicians, councillors or tax-collectors – what is theirs. But we must all also give to God what is God’s. Such is his authority and therefore the authority of his Son Jesus.
The authority of Jesus was questioned several other times during his life and ultimately his enemies with help from Judas Iscariot did manage to convince the secular authorities to sentence Jesus to death by crucifixion. But God then exercised his divine authority on that first Easter Day. He resurrected his only Son Jesus from the dead. Isaiah’s prophecy that the Kingdom of Jesus would last forever was ultimately fulfilled. And crucially for us, more than that, much more than that. For Jesus took to the Cross all the sin of everyone in the world, everyone who has been born and died, everyone who is alive today and everyone who will be born in the future. And once and for all he paid the price with his life so that through his grace he promises that we can all be forgiven and have eternal life with him in heaven. But there is a condition and that is that we, believing in him and his authority over us, repent of our sin. It is of course an entirely reasonable condition, for if we do not believe then we would be accepting his promise under false pretences. The familiar words of John’s Gospel chapter 3 verse 16 sum up his promise perfectly, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that all who believe in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”

• From the prophecy of God through Isaiah,
• From the humble silliness of the newborn Babe of Bethlehem lying in an animal’s feeding trough to his divine greatness as a King and Saviour.
• From the rumours surrounding his life on earth to the truth of his Resurrection we can trace a story of divine authority.
Are you part of that wonderful story? This Advent and Christmas are great times for us all individually to reflect on the authority of Jesus AND EITHER BECOME FOR THE FIRST TIME PART OF THE WONDERFUL STORY OR RECOMMIT OURSELVES TO BEING PART OF THE WONDERFUL STORY.

Let’s pray. Almighty God we thank you for sending your Son Jesus to be with us at the first Christmas. Help us to understand his divine authority and to live our lives giving to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to You what is yours.
Lord Jesus, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Amen.

Sermon  Richard Spicer Sunday 27th November 2011

56 – The Light on the Hill -  – Matthew 5: 14.

Let’s bow our heads in prayer. May I speak in the name of God in union with Jesus the Son and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen

What is the highest that you have been whilst still in a building that was attached to the ground?
Maybe you have been in the Sears Tower or the Empire State Building or even the current tallest building in the world – the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. Or perhaps in this country you have been on the Millenium Wheel.

About 4 years ago I attended a Conference at Guy’s Hospital in London. It was held in the Guy’s Tower – on the 29th floor. The view across London and beyond was spectacular – to the point that during the lectures the curtains were closed!
At the coffee and lunch breaks we gathered next to the large viewing windows to take in the vista before us pointing out landmarks to each other. It was early July so the weather was clear and bright and we could see for many miles.

At the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel chapter 5 Jesus says to his crowd of listeners, “you are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden.” In a role reversal to this my view from the top of Guy’s Tower shows the whole city of London – unhidden. Jesus calls us to be the light of the world – shining here in Cubbington and beyond.

The title of our worship this evening is “From Darkness to Light” as we celebrate Advent Sunday – the beginning of the season of Advent where we prepare to celebrate the coming of our Lord Jesus at Christmas. He came to a world of people in Darkness as the Light God sent. Jesus proclaimed the Good News of the Gospel of Salvation in his ministry on earth, “that all that believe in him should not perish but have eternal life with him in heaven”.

Our last reading – from the book of Isaiah chapter 42 pronounced Jesus to be “the light for the Gentiles” – a light to illuminate all the world, even the darkest corners. Once the light of Jesus had shone upon the world for just over 3 years he returned to his Father 40 days after his Resurrection on the first Easter Day. His words “you are the light of the world” to the crowd listening to the Sermon on the Mount now hit home to us as we ARE the crowd of our generation – “we ARE the light of the world.”

We at St. Mary’s Church Cubbington proclaim ourselves as the “Light on the Hill.” Not just because physically the Church is situated on a hill. But, like Jerusalem – the city on the hill Jesus was describing in Matthew chapter 5 we cannot, and indeed must not, be hidden. In the next verse Jesus says words we know well about not hiding our light under a bowl. We cannot be shining our light out to the community if we hide it. We should be doing’s God’s work in Cubbington and beyond, a work that has been going on longer than the 900 years that a church has stood on this hill.

The really, really exciting news that the Reverend Graham Coles will be joining us next year as our leader and pastor means that this Advent is particularly special for all of us here at St Mary’s. A time of real preparation. A time of new beginnings as it was at the first Christmas 2000 years ago. The birth of Jesus transformed the world “From Darkness to Light.” We need to continue to shine that light – the light of Jesus - a light to illuminate the whole parish and beyond just as the view of London I saw from Guy’s Tower spread out before me.
This is the challenge for us tonight – to be a light to the Gentiles.
ARE YOU READY FOR THAT CHALLENGE?

Heavenly Father, we thank you that you sent your only Son to live on earth to show the people living in darkness a great light. Help us to shine as lights for you in our community this Advent Sunday and in the coming year. Be with Graham, Samantha and their family as they prepare for their advent – their new beginning - and be with us as we prepare to start working with them to your glory in this place.
Lord Jesus, in your mercy, hear our prayer. Amen.

Sermon Peter Took Sunday 9th October 2011-10-11

Mark 10: 17-31

This evening I am going to depart from the usual sermon structure of examining the scripture and trusting that my words are the words of God. Instead, for some of the time at least, I am going to put forward a very specific opinion, which is not shared by everyone, and hope that this will prompt you to into careful thought. What I have to say you might find provocative. If you do, I will have achieved my purpose!

Over the years I have grown to have a certain sympathy for a few - just a few - of the characters in the Bible who are cast as baddies. People who I reckon seem to be
put down to a greater extent than they deserve. The first one is the man who gave the order for Jesus to be put to death. Pontius Pilate.

Pilate was Governor of the Roman Province of Judaea, from AD 26 to 36. More precisely, he was the Prefect, serving Emperor Tiberius. Little is known about his early life. Just in passing, I was fascinated to read that there is one theory (although I suppose that ‘legend’ would be a better description) that Pilate was born in Scotland!
The story has him as the illegitimate son of a Roman ambassador and a local girl. This is somewhat unlikely given that the Romans had not yet invaded Britain at that time, but there are persistent stories that prior to the invasion Caesar Augustus dispatched envoys to establish diplomatic relations with some of the important British and Caledonian chieftains. In the village of Fortingall, in Perthshire, there are alleged ruins of a Roman house known as "The House of Pilate”. At the very least, it’s a good story, although I must keep it in perspective by adding that very similar accounts of Pilate’s birth can be found in towns in Spain, and France.

As well as the details given in the four Gospels, Pilate is also referred to by Josephus, who is a well-documented and reliable cross reference for information relating to that time. In modern times (indeed, as recently as 1961) the so-called Pilate Stone was discovered in the area, with an inscription confirming that Pilate was prefect of Judaea. The stone is now in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. This sort of background information helps to paint a picture of a man who had a reputation as a hard-line enforcer of the Roman law. My submission is that what Pilate did was precisely what one would expect a loyal Roman Governor to do. In fact, he showed a lot more compassion than some of his contemporaries might have done.

We all know the story; he washed his hands of the whole affair in public. Eventually he let the crowd have their way, because to Pilate (and remember, he had Herod’s concurrence) this pathetic man called Jesus wasn’t important enough to spend any more time on. That is how Pilate saw it, and arguably that was exactly how it was - from his viewpoint. Just before we leave Pilate, I’d like to add one further thought. We know that Jesus was going to die, and rise again. And someone had to start
the sequence of events that would lead to that inevitable conclusion. That someone was Pilate.

The second name on my list of people who took a lot of stick and possibly more than they deserved, is Judas. Most Christians still consider Judas a traitor. Indeed the term Judas has entered many languages as a synonym for betrayer. My main defence of Judas follows the same “someone had to do it” argument outlined as part of Pilate’s mitigation. Someone had to begin the events that led up to the Crucifixion and that someone was Judas.

There are many ‘for and against’ arguments . I lean towards the notion that Jesus saw the betrayal coming, and said so. Which means that Judas was caught up in destiny, rather than an act of freewill. Martin Luther was in this school of thought. John Calvin also subscribed to pre-destiny and said that God had willed that his son should be delivered up for death, but it would be no more right to brand God guilty of this crime,
than to transfer the credit for salvation to Judas.

These observations I’ve offered, on the respective positions of Pilate and Judas, are just the bare bones and each of these men could have considerably more time devoted to argument and counter argument. And I acknowledge that many people have many opinions regarding the things I have been saying about Pilate and Judas.

But I must move on, the third and final name on my list. It is, of course, the young man in the reading, from Mark chapter 10. He appears to have been a Yuppie of the day.
The term Yuppie is getting quite ancient, it means Young Upwardly-mobile Professional and it seems to describe this man rather well. His falls on his knees and addresses Jesus as “Good Teacher” - and this draws a sharp rebuff from Jesus. “Why do you call me Good?” he asks, - and there is no friendliness in this! Jesus is thinking “is this sincere, or just some flannel?” Jesus tests this out as he reminds the man of those commandments that have to do with social responsibility and justice. He reels off a list; murder, adultery, stealing, false witness, no fraud, honouring parents. It is interesting that Jesus picks out the commandments that begin with “You shall not” . And the young man says: “Been there, done that, all my life long”. In effect he was saying that he had never done anything that was wrong. And I have no doubt that that was true.

Then comes verse 21. We’re not going to skip past the first few words, in anticipation of what is to come. The verse begins “Jesus looked at him and loved him”. This is the classic phrase used by a parent when scolding a child “Son, I’m doing this because I love you”. And Jesus says “Sell everything, give it all to the poor then follow me”. And the man goes away sadly, because he cannot do it. He had great wealth, but it had never entered his head to give it away. When Jesus suggested it to him, he could not. True, he had never stolen, and he had never defraud anyone, but neither had he ever been, nor could he compel himself to be, positively and sacrificially generous.

I do not say that I condone his action, or non-action. He had the choice to fulfil the conditions set out by Jesus, and he let the opportunity slip by. But I have always felt that he is branded just a little more harshly than perhaps he deserves, and I am sympathetic. Up to that point in his life he was streets ahead of the average apathetic man-on-the-street. I like to think that he went away to think about it, and soon afterwards he did exactly what Jesus had asked. It just didn’t get an entry in the Bible. Well, perhaps!

How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God! That’s verse 23, and it’s repeated in verse 24. And then in verse 25, a very well-known line: “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God”. I don’t want to go off on an enormous tangent, about not getting to heaven through good works; and the Grace of God which takes us on that path when we accept him into our lives; and then, as Christians, wanting to do good works.

If you positively Don’t Do bad things, you have Respectability. When you are Doing good things, in the name of Christ, you are a Christian. That was where the young man got it wrong. So Jesus confronted him with a challenge. In effect he said, "Get out of this state of moral respectability. Stop looking at goodness as being an act of Not Doing Things. Do something positively. Sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then you will find true Happiness in time and in eternity." The disciples, listening in, were amazed at this teaching. The whole of the Jewish way of life was the pursuit of gain. The Old Testament teaching said that those who were rich had been blessed by God - and similarly those who were going through ill health and adversity were under some form of punishment from God. Jesus throws out all the interpretations of the law introduced by the Pharisees and says “put your treasure in heaven”.

Letting go is not natural human nature. We seem determined to hang on to what we’ve got, and to want more! What is it about those parents who find it impossible to let their children go? Is it because they love them? If so then love becomes a kind of prison. The refusal to let go in almost every instance is the fear of losing that thing or that person. And the paradox is this; if we refuse to let go we will almost certainly lose the very thing we want to hang on to.

Love lets go. That is a fundamental truth which comes from the pages of the Bible time and time again. How else could we become the kind of responsible person God wants us to be if we didn’t have the freedom and space to make our own choices? How else could we mature and develop and progress if we didn’t have the opportunity to make mistakes and learn from them? Real life is all about relationships; with God and with each other, and genuine relationships are founded upon freedom.

Love lets go. But the opposite is also true. Love never lets go in the sense that it never stops loving. It’s one thing to allow others the freedom to believe and do whatever they will. But it is all too easy then to distance and dis-associate ourselves from them and take the attitude that it’s their choice and they must live with it. Jesus encountered this attitude. It was typical of the Pharisees. They stood at a judgemental distance from those they termed “sinners” and wouldn’t go anywhere near them unless they came back into line. Contrast that with Jesus’ attitude to this young man who turned his back on the Kingdom of God. Jesus let him go but never stopped loving him. God is like that. He lets us go but never stops loving us.

Sermon Jenny Lister 18th September 2011

"Are you envious because I am generous?"

Anyone who has anything to do with young children, whether as a parent or as a teacher, or in cubs or Guides or church groups, knows that one of their most frequently uttered phrases is, 'It's not fair!'. Do you remember saying it? The issue may be the amount of food on plates, or turns with the ball, or bedtime, or possession of the best crayons, or any number of things, but the cry is still the same: 'It's not fair!'.

Where do small children get this sense of fairness? It seems to be built into human nature, a sense that the world should be a fair place, but is often not, and that human beings have the right to protest if things are not fair. And this sense stays with us as we grow up. We grumble if we feel someone else has got the promotion we deserve. We protest if our rightful needs are not met, especially if those of our neighbour are. We can’t understand why a good and God-fearing person should suffer terrible pain or a terminal illness. It’s just not fair.

At its extremes, this sense of the importance of fair play can lead to horrific action. Not long ago a man, who had in fact been cleared of wrongdoing, was killed by his neighbours because they thought he was guilty of the crime of child molesting of which he had been accused. They thought he should get his just deserts, and so they took matters into their own hands.

This innate human sense of fairness is what gives our Gospel parable of the workers in the vineyard its shock value. The landowner hires some labourers at the beginning of the day, and agrees with them their pay, the normal daily wage and they go happily to work. He goes again and hires some more at midday, some more in the middle of the afternoon, and some more still at the end of the afternoon.
When pay time comes, those hired last are paid first and get the normal daily wage. The first to be hired see this, and expect more for themselves. It's only fair that they should be paid more, they worked more hours after all. They are disgusted to be paid only the normal daily rate, even though that was what they had initially agreed and been happy with.

I wonder whose side you are on when you hear this story. Do you think that those first workers have a point? They have slaved all day in the sun, but they have only earned as much as those who have only worked for an hour. Think of your workplace or one you know about. Would it be fair for everyone to be paid the same, without regard for the effort they put in? The landowner's response to the objection is really thoroughly unsatisfactory; ‘he can do what he likes with his own money’ he says. True, but it does not address the issue of fairness, which is the problem here. Imagine what would the Unions make of it!

And how might Jesus' first listeners have reacted? Parables are usually designed to shock in some way, and this one is no exception. We can perhaps imagine the audience expressing agreement with the first workers. Someone in the crowd might mutter, ‘It's not fair, they should have got more for all that extra work'.

But perhaps a more thoughtful person in the crowd might say, 'But the workers who were hired last, how were they to feed their families if they were paid only for an hour?' 'Ah,' someone else might reply, 'but that's their own lookout if they hang around the market place all day instead of doing a good day's work.' 'But perhaps it wasn't their fault,' replies our first listener, 'perhaps they did their best to be hired, but there wasn't enough work to go round that day. Isn't it better that the landowner should be unfair than that children should starve?'

You see where that line of argument has taken us? . It has shifted the ground of the debate from issues of individual fairness, to broader issues of justice in society.

That imaginary debate is one that we all need to have with ourselves from time to time. The example of the neighbourhood vigilantes shows how easy it is for our inbuilt human sense of fairness to get out of hand. It is good to pay attention to what is fair. But it is also right to think beyond issues of individual rights, to pay attention to broader issues of justice in society. And that gets us into issues of refugees and fair trade and multinational companies and so on.

But this is not just a story. Jesus prefaced his parable with the words, 'the kingdom of heaven is like...' . God is the ‘Landowner’ in the Kingdom of Heaven, the people Jesus is addressing are the labourers. People being people had obviously been thinking that the most deserving would get into God’s Kingdom. You may remember when John’s mother asked Jesus if her son could sit at his right hand when he died? Well, the Gospel was being spread, not only amongst the Jews, but Gentiles too, not only among the rich but among the poor too. God’s Kingdom was for everyone and Jesus was saying that even the newest converts to his message would be as welcome and valuable as those who had put all the spade work into spreading the gospel, enduring much for their troubles. In other words there is no hierarchy for being deserving of God’s forgiveness and acceptance and love.

What a hard pill to swallow for those who had been faithful to the Jewish Law, had lived exemplary lives and then would have to put up with the newcomers and ‘riff-raff’ being placed before them. What a hard pill to swallow for life-long church goers today when they realise that God is just as welcoming to those who turned up last week for the first time and gave their hearts to him. We must never, ever underestimate God’s generosity and complain that ‘it’s not fair’. It’s his love to give to whoever responds to him - and there is enough for all, so it’s very fair.

Sermon Peter Took Sunday Sept 11th 2011 6pm

Mark 8: 27 to 9:1

Heavenly Father, we come this evening to study your word, and thereby seek to discover your will. Guide our reading, our listening, and our thinking, so that your message of long ago may become new in our hearts today, and we will come and follow you. Amen. 

Before the events in the reading from St Mark’s gospel, Jesus had been concentrating on teaching the crowds using parables, but this the point at which all that changed. From now on, he was to focus on preparing the disciples for the events which were to happen very soon; his suffering and his death.
One great truth about how to deliver truth is that it should be well-timed and expressed in an appropriate form. The crowds were as children, and through the gentle message of the parables had received children's milk, but from that time on, the disciples were about to be fed with meat. It was an important happening. You have probably noticed that verse 32 has a very significant phase.
“Jesus spoke plainly, and Peter took him aside” Peter took… How many people do you know, whose full name appears in the Bible? Just for good measure , I'm also in Matthew chapter sixteen, verse 22, although I have to admit that that is Matthew’s version of this same story. I am very modest about this claim to fame, and anyhow, I know for a fact that I'm only in second place, because I actually know someone whose name appears more often than mine. It’s my grandson, Jacob Took. He can be found three times, all in Genesis.
So, Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him. There are times when we all make utter fools of ourselves. So often ,we forget that a person who is an expert in one subject may be a complete dunce in another. Or, even putting specific skills (or a lack thereof) to one side, it is still true that in one instance we
can speak priceless truths, and then a moment later blurt out total rubbish. That was Peter. Just before this event, Jesus had asked him "who do you say I am?" And Peter, without hesitation, had replied "you are the Christ. But now, as they say, he opened his mouth and put his foot in it. Suffering and death were obviously not part of Peter's idea of what it meant to be "the Christ, the son of the living Lord" and he told Jesus as much, in a blunt and forthright manner. And Jesus came back at him. "Get behind me, Satan. You're not on the side of God, you're on the side of men!"
How can such a faithful servant of Christ get it so right one day and so wrong the next ? To call Peter a "Satan" is a severe rebuke, although the translation here is from a Hebrew word which means "adversary" or "accuser". Peter, without doubt with the best of intentions, was trying to persuade Jesus not to take the journey to Jerusalem - a journey which was to lead to events which would prove to be the very foundation of what we now call Christianity. Jesus recognises in Peter the voice of the devil, trying to turn Jesus away from the path set by God. Jesus answers Peter's pitiful argument as if he really were the devil, but there is a very encouraging aspect to this part of the story, which I have to admit had not occurred to me, before I began to research for this sermon. It's knowing, that if we are in a close relationship with Jesus, he will affirm us - or rebuke us - as befits our actions.

Finding out what really counts in life entails letting go of self-protective shells and to boldly go where
the Lord takes us. This may be a different path for each individual, but the general route is clear. It's here in verse 34. We must deny ourselves and take up our cross. And then verse 35 is a sort of explanation of verse 34; whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Christ, will save it; will find it. This is a theme which is often the central focus of St Paul's writings - that we should die, in the sense of leaving behind the greed and temptation and sin of human life, and be born again, living for Christ. I'm not all that keen on the description "born-again Christian" but this what is meant to be implied.
And so to verse 36, and a well-known line of scripture. "What good is it, to gain the whole world, but lose the soul ?" Over the years I have acquired various biblical commentaries, and one of my favourites, for good common-sense observation, is written by the Rev. Albert Barnes. It is dated 1832. I hope you will enjoy (as I did) his comments on verse 36:
How foolish are the men of this world! in a little time, how worthless will be all their wealth! It is gained by anxiety, and toil, and tears. It never satisfies. It smoothes no wrinkles on their brow, alleviates no pain when they are sick, and gives no consolation with regard to the future. Others will soon possess (and perhaps scatter in dissipation) that which has been obtained by so much toil. And while they scatter or enjoy it, where shall the soul of him be, who spent all his probation to obtain it? Alas ! lost, lost, lost ! For ever lost ! And no wealth, no man, no devil, no angel, can redeem him, or be given for his soul. In gaining the world, he gained two things; disappointment and trouble here, and an eternity of woe hereafter. How foolish are the men of this world !

After that, I'm almost reluctant to move on to verse 38, but move on we must, because now we are building towards a crescendo. The final verse 38 and the first verse of chapter nine, which concludes the account, are really quite deep theology, and each could easily have a full sermon in its own right. Verse 38, surely, is a reference to the second coming (bearing in mind that that phrase is never actually used anywhere in the Bible). Jesus says…“if anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him - when he comes in his father’s glory with the holy angels”. And chapter nine, verse 1 appears to give a clue to when this would be. Surely it would be reasonable for the disciples to assume that "some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom" must mean that Jesus' coming in glory would be within their lifetime, or at least, the lifetime of some of them. Clearly, history has recorded that this was not so. Of the various suggested explanations, there are two which seem most plausible. The first is that Jesus would very shortly be transfigured, in the sight of Peter, and James, and John, and that this could properly be viewed as his "coming in glory". Another idea is that the "coming" referred to in verse 38 is the second coming as we understand it, (or perhaps I should say, to the extent that we think we might understand it), whereas chapter nine, verse 1 is looking upon the resurrection as the moment of divine declaration. In his letter to the Romans, Paul says that Christ was "declared with power to be the Son of God, by his resurrection from the dead".

This weekend, the whole world is remembering the events of 11th September 2001, known universally as Nine-Eleven. It was a day, ten years ago, when everyone knows where they were and what they were doing. Where were you? Heather and I were on holiday on a cruise ship. It was the “Royal Princess” named by Princess Diana in 1984. Most of the cruise holidays on the “Royal Princess” had been in European waters, but in 2001 she was on a North American route, and on 10th September 2001 she was in New York harbour. We set sail at 9.20 pm and history would record that we were aboard the very last ship to sail past the familiar sight, on the port side, of the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. The next morning those towers would be gone for ever. The rest of that holiday was unlike any other cruise holiday. The great majority of the passengers were New Yorkers; there were only around twenty British people among the passengers and we found ourselves being the shoulders to cry on. We were consoling the Americans. On the Sunday following, a memorial service was held on board. It was much as you might expect: O God our help in ages past; Amazing Grace; Abide with me; 23rd Psalm. Somehow a very American event. The closing hymn was “America the Beautiful” for which the chorus is:
America! America! God shed his grace on thee.
And crown thy good with Brotherhood
from sea to shining sea.

We Brits agreed afterwards that at that moment we felt like honorary Americans. A memory that will stay with me for ever. There are quite a few lasting memories in the parts of this passage that we have looked at this evening. Reminders of what we already know in our hearts, or in context, in our souls. A reminder that this was the point in time when the mood changed. A reminder of Peter, not for the first, or the last time, behaving just as we do on occasions. Whatever we may have promised Jesus, we do not serve him as we would wish. As he would wish. A reminder that the Lord will come again in glory. And finally a reminder that if the Soul is forfeit, what good is the world ? Where shall the Soul be, of one who has the world? Alas! it will be lost ! For ever - lost !

Sermon   Richard Spicer   11^th September 2011

54 – The Challenge of Forgiveness– Matthew 18. 21-35. 

Let’s bow our heads in prayer. Lord Jesus may the words of my mouth be your words and the thoughts of our hearts be your thoughts as we study your Gospel this morning. Amen. 

A man surveyed the scene around him. He was standing on a pile of rubble – timbers, stone, broken glass, twisted metal and fragments of scorched cloth. All around him were other piles of rubble all soaking wet. Despite the cold of the early morning he was not cold as the smouldering piles of rubble radiated lots of heat. Looking up through a fog of smoke he could just see the sky where the roof had been. The sky had a dull orange glow. Ahead of him and to his right and left stone walls stood blackened by the intense heat of the fires. Behind him he could see the great tower, its top disappearing defiantly into the fog. And beyond that he could just make out the tower and roof of Holy Trinity Church, thankfully almost completely untouched by the inferno that had devastated the building in whose shell he was standing.

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Then Peter came to Jesus. “Master,” he said, “how many times must I forgive my brother when he sins against me? As many as seven times?”

“I wouldn’t say seven times,” replied Jesus. “Why not – seventy times seven?”

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