Friday 30 March 2018

Good Friday Reflection

This is the reflection I am using at Hamilton:St John's Church this afternoon as part of their three hour vigil.  If you are going, I suggest you wait til later to read this! 


 A word of distress:  ‘I thirst’.

So that the Scripture would come true, he said, “I am thirsty.” There was a jar full of vinegar there, so the soldiers soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a branch of a hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ mouth.

We live in a world where we don’t like to be uncomfortable.  We moan about the weather being too cold or too hot, or too lukewarm.  We are never truly happy.  We complain about the children never playing outside, then moan about them hanging out in gangs or making too much noise in the park.  We complain about the shortcomings of the NHS or education or even the Church but when they are not available we miss them.  We seek compensation for potholes, where previously our parents would have told us off for not looking where we are going.  Our media constantly pushes us to seek compensation for everything from delayed trains and flights, to mis-sold PPIs to being a passenger in a car accident.  And yes, there are times when it is appropriate, but no one ever shares the statistics of businesses that fold because of living in such a compensation driven environment.  For everyone praying for a hot summer, there are those praying for rain for the crops.  Those who are seeking compensation for a delayed train, know nothing of the one who thanked God for the delay so they could make that interview, that meeting, that important moment in their life. 

Sometimes there is more than what we see or know.  The author of Hebrews reminds us…

Hebrews 5:7-9 NCV
While Jesus lived on earth, he prayed to God and asked God for help. He prayed with loud cries and tears to the One who could save him from death, and his prayer was heard because he trusted God. Even though Jesus was the Son of God, he learned obedience by what he suffered. And because his obedience was perfect, he was able to give eternal salvation to all who obey him.

 Good Friday is a day where, at face value, it seems to be a failure. Everything rests on a person, who currently is hanging, crucified on a cross. But sometimes not everything is what it seems…what seems to be failure isn’t.  There is, at times, purpose, even in distress and suffering, but only if we know why.  In Matthew we read Jesus’ understanding of what will be. 


37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and stone to death those who are sent to you. Many times I wanted to gather your people as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you did not let me. 38 Now your house will be left completely empty. 39 I tell you, you will not see me again until that time when you will say, ‘God bless the One who comes in the name of the Lord.’”[b]
As Jesus left the Temple and was walking away, his followers came up to show him the Temple’s buildings. Jesus asked, “Do you see all these buildings? I tell you the truth, not one stone will be left on another. Every stone will be thrown down to the ground.”
Later, as Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, his followers came to be alone with him. They said, “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that it is time for you to come again and for this age to end?”
Jesus answered, “Be careful that no one fools you. Many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will fool many people. You will hear about wars and stories of wars that are coming, but don’t be afraid. These things must happen before the end comes. Nations will fight against other nations; kingdoms will fight against other kingdoms. There will be times when there is no food for people to eat, and there will be earthquakes in different places. These things are like the first pains when something new is about to be born.
“Then people will arrest you, hand you over to be hurt, and kill you. They will hate you because you believe in me. 10 At that time, many will lose their faith, and they will turn against each other and hate each other. 11 Many false prophets will come and cause many people to believe lies. 12 There will be more and more evil in the world, so most people will stop showing their love for each other. 13 But those people who keep their faith until the end will be saved. 14 The Good News about God’s kingdom will be preached in all the world, to every nation. Then the end will come.
We know that Jesus went to the cross willingly but it hurt. It was the hardest thing that Jesus ever did.  Jesus was fully human.  He needed rest, he needed sleep, he needed food, he needed friendship and he felt pain – pain of the heart as well as physical pain.  As we gaze upon the cross, we find in those words – I am thirsty – a painful reminder of his humanness and suffering.  His mouth dry, his lungs burning, his muscles aching from the pain of trying to lift himself to breathe.  Our hearts break at the pain of those words, as he draws strength to say his final words with his final breath.  Let us hold on to the cost and sacrifice, that we might value the purpose of his distress and allow it to change us for the better.

As we hang our heads in sorrow,
We come with heavy hearts,
Broken hope for the morrow
The beginning of the end.

As those words pass his lips
‘I am thirsty’  - we offer
Vinegar which he sips
Seeing the end beginning.

Can we ever truly know?
Can we truly understand?
Our regret and guilt we show
For ending the beginning.

Yet he gave his all that we might
have hope, faith and eternal life
That all may have the right  
To a new beginning that knows no end.

Monday 19 March 2018

Should the Church embrace death and suffering?

Edited sermon from Sunday 18th March asking the question whether the Church should be willing to embrace death and suffering.  Built on the fact that Jesus did and death was not the end.  Continuing reflection on God’s Church.

23 Jesus replied, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. 25 Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.26 Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honour the one who serves me.
John 12:23-26
As you look back on your life I wonder what you see, feel, remember.  Recent losses and troubles may colour your perspective a little and it can be hard to push back.  But as you cast your mind back, and allow yourself, just for a moment to view the spectrum of your life with all its ups and downs, its bright colours of happiness and joy, muted colours of sorrow and trouble what is the overriding feeling?  As you remember the people – the boyfriends and girlfriends who broke your heart in school and it felt like the end of the world, your children as they chased each other round the house yelling, the year the Christmas turkey landed on the floor when being lifted out of the oven, the wedding day, the promotion at work, the day you bought your house, the person who led you down a dangerous path, the criminal who broke your life somehow, the friends who helped you love yourself, the bullies who tried to crush you…so much life.

Life is not just something that happens to us, life is something that happens within us and through us.  Our actions impact not just on us, but on those around us. The very fact that we exist changes the very fabric of the world.  We might feel insignificant – about all there are billions of people in the world.  And in the billions of people who have ever been we have Jesus.  Born in a stable to teenagers, in a little country in the Middle East, with no wealth, no social media, no printing presses or Rupert Murdochs.  Insignificant yet not.

Jesus was an ordinary person, with admittedly extraordinary parenthood.  He was relatively popular amongst his own kind, and still people wanted to introduce others to him. The Greeks that had arrived in the run up to the Passover couldn’t fully participate because they weren’t fully converted to Judaism but they were open to God.  And Jesus, in the way he does so wonderfully, takes this request and sees it as the divine sign that the time is now.  Although Jesus had some interactions with Gentiles, the majority of his mission had been with Jewish people.  This request from the Greeks shows that the message of God was spreading, and Jesus knew he would be lifted up and draw all people to him.

When we study the story of Jesus in the Gospels we see plenty of opportunities for Jesus to take different paths.  In today’s story he could have gone and met with the Greeks and perhaps started something there.  Instead he chose to embrace death and suffering.

It was a conscious decision to embrace death and suffering. This is not a path we are programmed to embrace.  If anything we avoid it or circumvent it.  How many movies and stories are written about the elusive fountain of youth?  How much has the legal institution grown through the compensation market where we get restitution for everything – including train delays of more than 30minutes.  Imagine if the broken down vehicle or the driver who caused a traffic jam on the M8 had to pay compensation to all drivers caught up in that…we’d all drive a lot more carefully! We don’t like suffering and if we have to suffer, someone else has to pay.

Jesus embraced death and suffering as part of life.  And we know that he didn’t do it with a devil may care attitude.  He wasn’t suicidal.  He wasn’t an idiot.  He wanted to live. He had the same innate desire that the majority of us have – he wanted to live.

Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour”?

The author of Hebrews writes:

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered  and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him  and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.

The key element of this passage is the recognition given that Jesus wept, suffered, pleaded and yet remained obedient despite everything. And because Jesus remained faithful, eternal salvation is for all who will look up and acknowledge him.  We can look at Jesus and think what he did was easy for him.  But it wasn’t.  And you know what that should encourage us.  We should be able to look at that and draw strength.  Embracing death and suffering is not easy and it shouldn’t be easy.  But sometimes it is necessary.

We wouldn’t be here today if it wasn’t for the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus gave.
No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name!’

The church often behaves as if it should be protected somehow from death and suffering.  And I am not talking about the literal death of loved ones, although we need to do more talking about that sometime.  I am talking about the wilderness period that the Church finds herself in.  We shy away from it and go off to talk to the Greeks about the love of God. We can keep doing what we are doing and we might find an equivalent to the Greeks, but what if like Jesus we need to see the bigger picture.  It wasn’t that Jesus didn’t care for the Greeks and certainly they were open to knowing God.  And it would have been new territory for Jesus but it wasn’t enough.

Jesus draws people to him.  Jesus says he will draw all people to him. People will come because they want too.  They are intrigued, they are curious, they are open and they come because they see something in Jesus that calls out to them.  Is that why there is so much faith outside the church?  Jesus does continue to draw people to him, but when they come to Church what version of Jesus do they find?  A welcoming Jesus, a hostile Jesus, a bland Jesus, a powerless or a powerful Jesus, or dare I say it – will they even find Jesus?

Stay with me.  What if we see death not as a final destination but actually a valuable part of the circle of life, even for the Church? What if, instead of pursuing the fountain of youth, we actually allowed death to happen?  Jesus trusted God his Father and boy, it was hard.  It was a dark time but was it worth it?  Absolutely. What if we need to let go and allow death to happen in the Church?  What would it mean for us?  What could it mean for us?
It’s a brave new world!

I don’t think I know the answer but Jesus took that lonely walk to the cross, knowing that God his Father was the primary mover. He believed that God had a purpose for him and enough faith to get through the suffering and ultimately death.  And we know that the reward was worth it both for him and us.  For Jesus to be able to continue on the path he had to pray, he had to stay in close communion with his Father and he had to have faith that God knew what he was doing.

Does the Church have the willingness to lay it all on the line and embrace death and suffering for the glory of God?  Or are we fighting death with every breath we have? Are we drawing up plans that fit the model of management this world understands?  Are we fighting to survive or are we willing to glorify God whatever the cost? What if we are so stuck on the ‘Greeks’ that we are missing the bigger picture?

Jesus said the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church.  We are the bride of Christ, and we are promised a new heaven and a new earth.  We are held by the God who created the world, who loves us so much that he found a way to reconnect us with him, but until the final consummation of that we walk in a damaged and hurting world.  Yet we are the one people who shouldn’t fear death or even suffering.

Perhaps, instead of chasing our tails, we need to stop doing what we are doing and start what we should be doing.  Perhaps we need to let death happen, and trust God to bring life.  Now I am not advocating that we shut the doors here or that we dress in black and mourn the death of the Church like the Victorians. What if death meant that the Minister was a leader not a manager?  What if death meant that instead of trying to keep three congregations in Blantyre, we simply worked together to keep the church in Blantyre?  What if death meant that worship on a Sunday morning was less about the minister and more about all age participation?  What if re-birth meant we walked the streets of our parish every week, praying with people in the street, or getting involved with local activist groups or helping the primary school rebuild their garden?  What if death meant a fresh start, a Spirit-filled experience?

What if we took the time to really think and pray, to dream and to grow?  Jesus spoke of death not as a final destination but as a new beginning.  Whenever he spoke of his death he spoke of life almost in the same breath.  I will die but three days later I will rise again.  The seeds are planted in the ground and they grow and become fruit full of seeds.  What if we were willing to serve Jesus even if meant that embracing death and suffering?

However, we must keep our eyes on the prize – to receive the crown of life.  We don’t do this for nothing nor for personal gain.  Through our faith, through our life, through our example we can see the fruit of the Spirit blossom in our homes, in our churches, in our work places, in our schools, in our communities and even in our world.  That is our reward.

But we are not going to push through the wall if we don’t push through together, knowing that ultimately Jesus right in the midst of it pushing with us.  Like a seed striving for the light, pushing through the dark soil, let us be the Church of God’s people, willing to push and strive, that all people get the opportunity to be drawn to Christ.

Sunday 11 March 2018

Hitting the Wall- Give in or Push Through

This is a slightly edited version of the sermon preached in Blantyre Old on 11th March 2018, using readings from Numbers 21 and John 3.  It left many pondering and reflecting, even one who wanted me to cheer up!  It is not all doom and gloom because God is present in the wilderness and at the oasis.  Thanks for reading and may God bless you and yours. (PS this is twice the length of my average sermon!)

To be honest I am not sure where to start this week.  These past few weeks have been really challenging for me and I am currently in turmoil.  And the passages today, as we spin ever faster towards Holy Week leave me wondering if we have forgotten who we are about.  Are we like those Israelites in the desert moaning and complaining, wishing we had stayed in a place where conditions were pretty horrible but somehow better than where we are?

They had escaped extreme poverty and bullying, being slave labour under a Pharaoh who was getting crueller by the day.  But the trek to the promised land was proving long and difficult.  They weren’t interested in what lay ahead but caught up in the misery of the moment, and were looking back with rose tinted glasses.  They became inward looking, focussing on all what was wrong and missing the fact they were free.  Of course, the journey was hard, the food repetitive and the circumstances somewhat less than ideal.  They had run out of patience  and weren’t willing to spend time in the desert, roughing it.

I wonder if the Church is in the wilderness, roughing it having escaped the heady days of forced attendance and participation where belonging to the Church, especially as an Elder, could help land that decent job.  We remember days of Sunday Clubs numbering in the 100s but forget that in the main church for children was super boring.  We remember days of young women’s clubs in a generation where often the escape to a church women’s group was the only escape in a hard life of housewife and child rearer.  We remember days when churches were full but faith was not necessarily the reason.  Of course, there were good people in the Church, just as I am sure there were Egyptian leaders who were good and kind as well.  But from around 1963, and to a certain extent even earlier after the Second World War, Christianity began its downward spiral.  People became more confident in themselves and turned their back on the Church.  Arguably, a lot of people didn’t turn their back on God but on the Church, and a more recent study called the Invisible Church suggests there is still a high proportion of people who have faith in God but not part of the Church.

The Israelites spent a long time in the wilderness, around 40 years.  Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness and the Church is naïve if she thinks she won’t spend time there.  But we can chose how we embrace the wilderness experience.  We can be like the Israelites and moan and complain.  We can look back and only see the good, filtering out the negative – kind of like we do when we speak about the dead.  We can turn it all on God – why have you abandoned your Church Lord?  Why are we flailing around in the dark?

Yet perhaps we need a wake up call.  It makes uncomfortable reading that God sent the snakes into the camp.  I want to push back against it and yet I am called to trust in God’s sovereignty.

My children don’t like it when I punish them, and I sure didn’t like being punished as a child.  There are punishments I will never forget, which by today’s standards would be totally deemed inappropriate yet even 30 years ago weren’t.  Some of you will even know what it felt like to have the belt or the ruler over the knuckles.  And remember the phrase ‘wash your mouth out with soap’ – I know that one.  Jessica read that as I typed it and was totally disgusted!  Understandably but back then…

So we have to take everything in context – the Israelites were being particularly obnoxious and ungrateful to their God, even if we can sympathise with their circumstances.  However, God doesn’t leave them wallowing in their pain and suffering, but comes with forgiveness.  It requires Moses to make the bronze snake and the people have to make a conscious decision to look up at it.  The Israelites could choose to be stubborn and remain downcast and not look, or to look up and be healed.  In the story we see a forerunner to Jesus, but Jesus comes not just for the Israelites but for the whole world.

The whole world – I love this.  Our God comes not just for Jews or for the Romans or for British people or white people – but for the whole world. And if there is any verse that your average Christian or RE pupil might know – it would be the one ‘for God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son that whosoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life.’

My concern is that we have, in the western world in particular, deemed that God is for the people in the Church only.  We measure the success of a congregation by the number in our pews on a Sunday morning.  We measure success through our financial ability to pay our way.  What we do meets the needs of people already in the Church and limits anything that means taking risks, spending money or doing things differently.   Suddenly God loving the world becomes much smaller in our understanding and the Church turns inward.

We need to remember that God’s church is thriving in the majority of the world and the exception to that is the Western world.  The secular movement or humanist movement is fast taking over the western world, and with that comes reluctance to submit to any sovereignty or authority.  If we are truly honest with ourselves, the majority of the public put up with public figures such as politicians as long as they are not interfering too much in their day to day life.    Yet one of the fastest growing social groups at the moment is Slimming World – and people will go faithfully week by week and any time of the day, following a way of life that is collaborative, collegiate and requires accountability.  If they can’t make their regular meeting, they will go to another session, even looking up one up in a town they might be on holiday in.   Even long after a person has met their target weight they will continue to attend.  Someone even kind of apologised to me for joining it because she knows I can’t align with their understanding of food.

Now Slimming World may come and go but it will arise again in another guise, for it follows on the back of Rosemary Conley and Weight Watchers.  And perhaps, from that we can take comfort that the Church may be different but the underlying message will be the same, for the message of the Gospel is timeless.

But where these weight based agencies have grown and changed over the years, the Church could be accused of stagnating.  We have hit a wall.  I have hit the wall. How does the Church engage in a world that has moved on and the Church is still behaving like it is the 19th Century?  In 2015 I was included in the statistic of the Church of Scotland that said 4.8% of ministers were under the age of 40. I have moved into the next category but in 2015 just slightly less that 18% of ministers were under 50.  So guess where the other 75% is found?

If God truly loves the world then I believe that has to include our growing secular, atheist, agnostic, humanist culture.  But how are we going to reach them, and how are we going to reach them if we ourselves can’t commit to God?  How can we preach a message about God’s love if we don’t truly believe that God loves us?  People are not converted through words but through our actions, our presence, our energies in making God’s kingdom apparent here. Yet we say that Church doesn’t need us.  God doesn’t mind if we don’t get involved with the Church, and we can spout many a good reason, especially as the world gets busier and busier.  But we are so programmed to have Church on a Sunday morning that to not have it would require notifying Presbytery.  The most successful service time at the moment is a Saturday evening, when a number of the Catholic Churches in the area hold a service.  Their services are numbering in the region of 200 – is the worship any less on a Saturday night than on a Sunday morning? Sunday morning worship still happens, but there is a choice.

However, the problem I am struggling with, and I see replicated across the Church of Scotland is that we are not embracing alternatives.  With the few exceptions up and down the land we are stuck in a rut.  Regardless of what I offer here, the uptake is so low.  Messy Church is excellent but to be honest it is failing at reaching new people.  With the exception perhaps of three families who are not already connected with Sunday Church currently it is having a limited appeal, and we are no where near measuring up to other local Messy Churches.   Pancake Praise was a bust – people resorted to phoning people to come to that.  And even our support of Sanctus has dwindled to the sacred few so much so one minister wondered if we should continue with it.

And so I have hit a wall.  And by that, I am thinking of the wall in a marathon race – that moment where you can either throw in the towel and sink to the ground knowing that you gave your all and you have nothing left.  Or you hear the cheers and support of the crowd, the other racers who gently encourage you and you push through the wall and finish the race, not necessarily with class but at least with integrity and sheer determination.

Paul talks of us running the race, and for me, Jesus had to push through the wall in the Garden of Gethsemane.  By that point he was exhausted – mentally, physically and potentially spiritually.  He prayed in the garden, he prayed his heart out pleading for a way out, to be able to sink to the ground and call it quits.  But with God the Father by his side, and with a clear sense of identity and belonging, he is able to push through the wall, and continue to the finish line.

I am at the wall and I can see it standing right in front of me.  The wall is imposing, terrifying and to be honest, the thought of turning away is so inviting.  I could slink off into a new area but what I the Lord revealed is that the wall surrounds the Church.  Not just Blantyre Old but the wall surrounds the Church.  I can put off dealing with it by moving to a different place, but I would hit the same wall.  

This is the verdict: light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.

The wall is still there but now I see more clearly.  I still don’t know who to push through this wall, but I have realised something – I won’t get through this wall without you.  Jesus could have left his disciples in the upper room and said he was going out.  Jesus could have left his disciples in a safe place, but he doesn’t.  They have to be there, they have to be a part of the whole experience for it will shape them.  It was such a hard time, but at no point are they excluded from it.

God has journeyed with me so long and his grace and patience beyond my comprehension.  Like the disciples who can’t keep watch in the garden, I hear God shake up my selfish demon and speak directly to my heart.  He challenges the narrowness of my vision and reminds me that this journey of faith is not about being comfortable.  Remember those Israelites – it was a long walk.  Remember Jesus.  Even Peter, or Paul or John exiled.

There will difficult decisions to make in the future – Strathaven has voluntarily gone from 4 churches to one, Larkhall has gone from 3 to 1 not quite voluntarily in all cases, and Blantyre will be facing the proposal of one church with two places of worship.  And that is on track to happen in the next 7 years. The Church of Scotland anticipates a drop of 20% of available ministers in the next 5 years.  Given there are approx 750 ministers now… And then what happens after that…what happens from 2023-2028.  I know that sounds a long time away but that is ten years.  What will happen to the faith of our children – what will the faith of Kieran and Jessica who in ten years time will be 21 and 18 be?  And what role will you have played in nurturing their faith and the faith of all our children? We put so much effort into making sure our children get to take part in sports or uniform organisations – yet what effort are we putting into helping them develop their faith?  What effort is the Church putting in?

I don’t believe it is all doom and gloom – after all Jesus went to the cross, but he didn’t stay dead.  He rose again to new life – we are the Church of the resurrection – death is part of our journey.  The wilderness is part of our journey. The wall is part of the journey.

But I reiterate this – I cannot push through this wall without you.  I need you to be the church, to speak fondly and lovingly of God, of your Church and to get involved.  If you are not willing to step up and work for the future of the Church in Blantyre, there may come a day that the Church closes her doors here permanently.  Over the years we have downsized the number of churches and we will go to two church buildings at some point.  But in ten years will even those doors be closed?  After all – whoever saw the day when there would be no banks in Blantyre…

Yet we worship a God who so loved the world he sent his one and only Son that whosoever believes him will not die but receive eternal life…. Pray for God to show us the way, just as Moses did on behalf of the Israelites, and he responded.  Pray that God will show us, each of us, how we can encourage, nurture, develop the faith of those around us that we might truly be disciples not just consumers.  Pray that God will help us step into our community and parish and engage with those who know nothing of him or us. Pray that we find a way through the wall and be the Church in the 21st Century whatever that might mean...

Pray that in 450 years time someone will remember us in their history books or memory archives and say of us ‘they found a way through the wall and God’s people thrived in Blantyre and beyond.’ Amen.