When Ivana Trump stood on the steps of the Trump tower in New York and proclaimed taxes are for the little people’ she was stating what we all know to be true anyway. There are ways round paying taxes, you can put your money in an off shore account, you can decide not to declare any earnings, or even to declare more liabilities than you have to get the money back in tax.

But we know there are two certainties in life, death and taxes. In the end not even Ivana Trump managed to evade the tax man, she was caught; as some day she will be caught by death the other certainty. Now some bright spark in this country came up with the ultimate torture for taxes, self assessment. Not only do the government take a chunk from your wages they ask you to work out how much you owe.

Where did they get the idea from? It could have been the Romans. They never actually paid anyone to gather their taxes. Instead they appointed a tax collector and would then tell that person how much they expected him to raise. The person then decided by what methods they raised it; what taxes they would levy. Also their wage came from the tax levy so they increased the amount they charged over what the Romans asked for.

Now this is what you call power, having the ability to create a tax for anything at your merest whim. If someone displeases you, tax them into the ground. If someone is being too successful  draw up a new tax. Need money for that new extension? Tax the people. All this left that person totally hated and despised by the general populace.

Whoever they were, they were the cutting edge of Roman occupation and they were the people who implemented Roman oppression. Although rich they lives were in constant danger from nationalists and if ever caught unawares all they could expect was a swift death by stoning.

Zaccheus was such a man was. Over the years his wealth had increased while those around him became poorer. He ate the very best foodstuffs while they fought over a crumb. His wine flowed like water while for them it was a luxury. Everything about him spoke of wealth and spoke of the contrast between him and the people. Rich , powerful and utterly alone.

Would you like to have all the money in the world? Would you like to have power beyond your imagination? Even at the expense of all your friends? This poor man was to be most pitied because that was the choice he made. What a lonely existence his life was fated to follow.

Zaccheus wanted to see who Jesus was

Until that day when Jesus walked into his life.

Now there’s no getting away from the fact that when Jesus came to town everything and everybody wanted to see him. People who were crippled and diseased to be healed, the authorities to see what he taught, if it was blasphemous and against Caesar. Joe Bloggs wanted to see what he would do, he was the best show in town. Not even Zaccheus was willing to miss it.

He was short and he was hated, the last thing he needed was to be among a hostile crowd so he found a tree to climb up for a better view and also to get out from the crowd. If you were at a football match and you saw hundreds of the opponents team coming down the street, you’d make a swift getaway. So did Zaccheus.

But the thing to note is that he didn’t have to go and see Jesus. There was no legal requirement to hear this person. They were a rabbi, a teacher who moved around so there was no tax going to be taken from him. In fact Zaccheus had no professional reason to search out Jesus. So the reason he went to see him must have been personal. He must have wanted to see Jesus.

Was it at this point then that he became a Christian? With the desire to see Jesus? No it wasn’t. Luke chapter 23 verses 8 says When Herod saw Jesus he was greatly pleased, because for a long time he had wanted to see him. Yet we know from Herod’s subsequent actions that he did not become a Christian. Ghandi once said ‘I’d become a Christian if I ever met one.

Interest in Jesus is good but its not enough on its own. Interest in the church is good but again its not enough on its own. Don’t be interested in the medium but in the message and he whom the message speaks about.

Imagine a priceless diamond which sparkled in the light, its beautiful. This stone is encased in a band of gold. Now which holds your interest the stone or the gold? Why it’s the stone of course , the gold is merely used to show off the stone. In the same way the church is here to show off the jewel that is Jesus Christ. Sadly many, many people come here , they sit from week to week, yes possibly even year to year and yet there is no interest in the jewel only in the band.

Having an interest is not enough.

Zaccheus welcomed him gladly

What motives Zaccheus had for accepting Jesus invitation we do not know. He could have been doing it to spite the Pharisees. In your face, Caiaphas, Jesus is coming to tea with me. It may have been that because he was a lonely man with no real friends he welcomed the chance to share company among his own people. Whatever his motives he welcome him gladly into his home.

In knowing this we must realise that this was not only Jesus turning up it was him and his disciples and perhaps one or two hangers on as well. Maybe the chief priests too so they can keep an eye on him. It was a huge undertaking at such short notice. Would you like it if the Queen said she was coming to dinner, and then you realised that meant her , her personal assistant , her maids in waiting, her security details, the lot? You’d be happy but you’d also be afraid because lots of different questions are going through your mind.

First one is how does he know my name? What does this person who comes from Nazareth want with a Galilean tax collector? Second what does he want with me, third do I have enough food in? Even with all this he welcomed Jesus gladly into his home.

This is a stage beyond interest. Zaccheus was happy to take Jesus in and to be seen by him. He was comfortable with him being in his home, his personal space. So was this when he became a Christian? When he let Jesus into his own space?

No. Lots and lots of people are happy with Jesus. Its easy to believe in Jesus, anyone can believe in Jesus. Until the going gets tough and then you find out what he really means to you. In the parable of the sower Jesus talks of seed that falls on rocky ground where the earth is shallow. Its grows quickly but when the sun comes up it withers because there is no  root there.

This is so true. After Lady Diana’s death thousands of people crammed into Hyde Park and mourned her. They all gathered together saying the Lords prayer, yet they had no idea what they were really praying for. Thousands of people all praying for God’s will in their lives and yet when they left the park they carried on those same lives as if they had never ever prayed.

They were comfortable with God in that setting, yet not comfortable in their everyday life. Which is so often the same as us. It’s easy to believe in Christian company, its easy to believe while sitting here but what about out there? Do we take Jesus out there with us? IF we never take Jesus with us into our worlds then it probably will not last, because there is not real attachment there.

Zaccheus changed his lifestyle

What was Zaccheus to do though, he was happy with Jesus in his home, the chief priests were fizzing. People were amazed at these events. So now caught up in the feast he makes a pronouncement that whatever has taken from the Jews he will give back 4-fold.

Notice that this is a tax collector admitting that he has defrauded the people. If ever they needed a reason to lynch him they had it. Also he had just made his job much harder because these people were the same people he taxed and they now knew he was taking them too much. After Jesus left Zaccheus was in for a very hard time indeed.

Was it here he became a Christian? Yes it was, when Jesus stopped being comfortable and became life changing that’s when he showed that Jesus was in his heart. Its only after he makes this pronouncement that Jesus says salvation has come to this house, only then.

Conclusion

Can you and can I make the same sacrifice as he did? Do you think Jesus can say of your house that salvation is there, and does having him there make any kind of impact on you? What would happen tomorrow if Jesus had never existed, how would it change your life?

Zaccheus having met Jesus saw someone who offered a totally different way of looking at things. Totally alien to every instinct he ever had and you know it drew him like a moth to a light. That’s the trouble when we let Jesus past our comfort zone into our lives, our lives will never be the same again.

Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it’s been found difficult and not tried. So said. G. K. Chesterton.

Were you to listen to our society they would tell you Christianity is dead. A thing of the past but no more. They couldn’t be far more wrong, for the power of Christianity comes in its  ability to change people inside and out, and to draw them together in close bonds of fellowship in Christ.

Do you share those bonds of Christ today or are you interested in Christ.  I pray its more than interest.

Only when you finish the book and you can see how all the different parts of the story went together do you get an appreciation for the skill of the author. When you look at the story, the smallest most insignificant thing early on turns out to have major implications later, but you don’t realise it until you see the whole thing laid out.

I am convinced that when we finally see the whole of history laid out; everything from the first moment through to the last, when we see all the connections, the significance of our own lives will become apparent.

You may wonder what you are doing here, you may wonder about your purpose, you may know it, you may think you know it, you may not know it. However never mistake that there is a purpose. You are here for a reason and although that reason may not be clear, there is one.

Solomon, reputedly the smartest man ever to have lived penned the following words:

I know the heavy burdens that God has laid on us. He has set the right time for everything. He has given us a desire to know the future, but never gives us the satisfaction of fully understanding what he does.  (Ecclesiastes 3:10-11)

We have only the scope of our own lives to find meaning. We cannot see how our lives fit into what has gone before or what will come after, but some day we shall.

The Meat

The interesting thing about Jeremiah is he got a glimpse into his own significance that he had no idea about.

The LORD said to me, “I chose you before I gave you life, and before you were born I selected you to be a prophet to the nations.”  I answered, “Sovereign LORD, I don’t know how to speak; I am too young.” Jer 1:4-6

The call of Jeremiah is not actually the first  call, it is the confirmation of that call. Unbeknown to him God had already looked at Jeremiah and decided he had the correct spread of abilities and skills to be the person to be his prophet at this time.

We know God stands outside time. We know from the Bible he does not age or grow old. He is eternal which means he has always been. That means he can see the whole book of time from beginning to end and knowing that he also knows who is going to be best for a specific role at a specific time. He knew that Jeremiah would be the one.

So even before Jeremiah was born, God had given his life a purpose. Imagine all those days that Jeremiah was growing up thinking why am I here? Wondering if he would ever do anything significant and God had already chosen him to be a prophet.

Actually there is no instance anywhere in scripture of God telling someone their life had no purpose. Time and again he finds people who seem to be living insignificant lives and brings home to them the true significance.

Remember in the New Testament the lady who broke a jar of ointment over Jesus feet? Everyone else said she should have sold it and used the money but Jesus said that wherever people spoke about him, she would be remembered. Her act had significance way beyond the act itself.

It is a basic belief of Christianity that everyone is precious in the sight of God. Indeed the evidence from Jesus own ministry is that people society wrote off were of the most importance. He was castigated for being around the despised, the broken, the outcast and the marginalised. Yet every time he left these people their lives had a renewed purpose.

He brought home to them that God has a purpose for them. No one is useless in God’s eyes.

*** Break ***

There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit gives them. There are different ways of serving, but the same Lord is served. There are different abilities to perform service, but the same God gives ability to all for their particular service. The Spirit’s presence is shown in some way in each person for the good of all.

(1 Corinthians 12:4-7)

Here is the thing. If you want to find your purpose in life, look at the range of abilities and skills God has given you and ask yourself what can you do with them?

If everything fits together in the great tapestry God is weaving then you and only you can be in the place you are. He has given you, your abilities and skills because he wants you to do something with them.

While he confirmed Jeremiahs call, he also confirmed that calling was not going to be easy.

I cannot count the number of times watching a movie where the messenger gets shot for bringing bad news and that’s what really happened.

Try and picture this scene. God turns up to tell Jeremiah he had a mission, he had a purpose. Then he tells him that mission was to bring bad news to the most powerful people in the world. You are going to spend your life telling the Kings and Queens of this land they are going to be destroyed.

No one likes being the bearer of bad news and Jeremiah was going to spend his life doing it.

It’s important to realise the purpose Jeremiah was given, was not to deliver the bad news. That was the method.

The purpose was to act as a moral compass for the rulers that would hopefully draw them back from their ways to worship God.

So whilst it appears God was setting Jeremiah up for a negative life, he actually had a very positive thing to do. It just wasn’t going to be easy.

Fast forward a couple of thousand years to a man called Jesus teaching his disciples and he tells them to be salt and light. He instructs his followers to be the same moral compass for others as Jeremiah was.

I’ve told you before that when I turned 16 my granny gave me £100. What I never told you was that she gave me a red £100 note. It was beautiful to behold. I so wanted to go into a shop and hand it over whilst asking for a penny chew.

When I did spend it, 3 things happened. First of all the shop attendant used one of those special marker pens on it. Secondly they called over their supervisor to see whether they would accept it and thirdly they held it up to the light to see if it was real.

Jeremiah and Jesus followers were to be the light. They were to live such lives that when they went to the rulers and told them, they were not living properly. It was their lives that were the plumb line against which to measure.

In working out his purpose, his life was going to be part of it. In using his gifts, his life, that purpose would be made clear to all who saw him and through seeing him, their lives would show their shortcomings.

It is quite a scary thought that as Christians so often our lives do not show great distinctiveness.

Let me ask you this. Do you know why you are here? From the way you live your life, from the day to day routine, the priorities you have, could someone else discern your Christianity?

“In Charles Colson’s book, Loving God, he tells the story of an incredible ninety-one-year-old woman, known affectionately as Grandma Howell…

As she moved into the twilight of her life, she had more than one reason to let depression take over–to just give up and die. Her youngest son had died. Her oldest son was in declining health. Many of her friends were dying and she had begin to believe that she had nothing left to live for. One day she prayed with all of her heart and told the Lord that if He didn’t have anything more for her to do, she was ready to die. According to Grandma Howell, God spoke three words: Write to prisoners.

After arguing with the Lord about her lack of education and her age, Myrtle wrote her first letter:

Dear Inmate,
I am a grandmother who loves and cares for you who is in a place you had not plans to be.
My love and sympathy goes out to you. I am willing to be a friend to you in correspondence. If you’d like to hear from me, write me. I will answer every letter you write.
A Christian Friend,
Grandmother Howell

When the letter was sent to the Atlanta Penitentiary, the prison chaplain sent Myrtle the names of eight prison inmates. That was the beginning of an unbelievable ministry of encouragement. Over the next months, this elderly woman carried on an extensive written ministry with hundreds of incarcerated men and women— and all of it was done from her little room in a high-rise home for the aged in Columbus, Georgia.

According to Colson, writing to the prisoners was only half of Myrtle’s joy. They wrote back! And their letters were warm, rich epistles of gratitude. One inmate who signed her name ‘Grandmother Janice’ wrote:

Dear Grandmother,
I received your letter and it made me sad when you wrote that you think you may not be alive much longer. I thought I would wait and come to see you and then tell you all you have meant to me. But now I’ve changed my mind.

I’m going to tell you now.

You’ve given me all the love and concern and care that I’ve missed for years and my whole outlook on life has changed. You’ve made me realize that life is worth living and that it’s not all bad. You claim it’s all God’s doing, but I think you deserve the credit.

I didn’t think I was capable of feeling love for anyone again, but I know I love you as my very own precious grandmother.”

Conclusion

God here confirms the call and significance of Jeremiah. Through the exercising of his skills and abilities that call will be worked out. Even though it is not easy.

Irrespective of your age or your education or you good looks or your money…. Your life has significance for God. If you want to know why you are here use these skills and gifts because it is in using them you will find your purpose.

Amen.

Of course our situation and his are very different. For one thing no one, at least in this country would advocate armed resistance to the government. If Gideon were alive today he would probably be called a terrorist and his face would be plastered all over the internet with rewards for turning him in.

To the midianites and the amalekites he was public enemy number 1 and they would have liked nothing better than his head on pole.

Now would anyone in the churches today advocate sending home volunteers; imagine going to a church and being told there were too many people in that church so you should go home! Never going to happen.

His situation and ours were very different. I do want to draw you a picture though so you understand what it was that God asked Gideon to do.

When Israel settled Palestine after the exodus they didn’t actually drive out all the local tribes in one go. It took generations from the Exodus right up to David and Solomon’s kingdom for Israel to fully occupy the land. At first they managed to subdue those tribes living in the hills but not those in the coastal plains nor those migrant tribes living in the desert.

Because they were weaker it meant every harvest time these tribes would raid Israel and plunder her harvests, keeping her weak. No one up to now who had stood up to them had survived, so Israel pretty much had a broken spirit as a nation.

Look at verse 2 and see it says there the Israelites hid in the caves. Then look at verse 11 and see that Gideon was doing the harvesting in secret. He was no big freedom fighter, he was just a kid working the farms and living under oppression and trying to get by.

The Meat

This was the situation that God stepped into. If you read the Bible you will be amazed at how often God steps into situation that appear hopeless. His pattern doesn’t seem to be to step in when things are rosy but in response to people relying on him. It’s infuriating and it’s certainly not what he would like.

Gideon said to him, “If I may ask, sir, why has all this happened to us if the LORD is with us? What happened to all the wonderful things that our fathers told us the LORD used to do—how he brought them out of Egypt? The LORD has abandoned us and left us to the mercy of the Midianites.”

(Judges 6:13)

I love this verse because that is exactly what any one of us would have said to God. Gideon who knows his history cannot understand why God has allowed this to happen. If he did all these great things before, if he beat down the biggest bad boy on the block in Egypt, then surely he could have done something about these Midianites and Amalekites?

Because life has been tough he demands some answers from God, he demands God explain himself. Yes if God proclaims how much he loves his people then he sure hasn’t show that love. Why, Gideon wants to know, why? The only conclusion he can make is God has left the people.

In speaking to a lot of people in the church today, especially those who lived through the 1960’s and 70’s there is the same frustration at what has been lost. They remember Sunday Schools full to the brim, they remember churches at the centre of their communities and they lament what is lost. In this congregation there was the 2^nd biggest Sunday school in Scotland when trains were hired for the Sunday School picnic. And all that is no more. Why?

Wouldn’t it be great if God came here and explained why all this happened. Yet in scripture God does not answer our why’s. When Job took God to task for being unfair he was told, where were you when I created the world? God doesn’t do why.

Answering they why does not actually make anything different. God could well have told Gideon why it had happened but Gideon would still have been in the same wretched situation. If your neighbour breaks your window, they can tell you why but the window is still broken. Of more importance at that point is actually doing something about it.

When God responds to Gideon it is not the why. God is interested in doing something about the problem.

Gideon said to him, “If I may ask, sir, why has all this happened to us if the LORD is with us? What happened to all the wonderful things that our fathers told us the LORD used to do—how he brought them out of Egypt? The LORD has abandoned us and left us to the mercy of the Midianites.” Then the LORD ordered him, “Go with all your great strength and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I myself am sending you.”

(Judges 6:13-14)

There is actually a good biblical principle in this, which we are going to explore. The calling of God is to make a difference, not to talk about what difference needs making.

First thing: Go!

Time and again through scripture you will find this command to go. Abraham was called on to go to the promised land. Moses had to go into the desert leading the nation of Israel, Jesus commissioned people to go into all the nations.

In fact the only point I am aware of in scripture where people are told to stay relates to the disciples when Jesus said stay in Jerusalem and wait for the spirit to come. Even then it was a temporary thing because they were waiting to go once the spirit had arrived. There is a biblical imperative, a motif in the scriptures that shows God wants people to go.

We sit here and we wait for people to come through that door and join us. We talk about people coming to church when in fact the bible says we do not wait, we need to go.

There is absolutely no point in sitting in here and saying we need to do this, we need to do that and not doing anything about it.

At some point there was a decision made in heaven to send Jesus to earth because we earthlings could not make it to heaven. He had to go to earth. So God asking us to go is actually a reflection of what he himself did through Jesus.

If you want this church to be full. If you want to see others worshipping God then each one of us needs to be prepared to go. We cannot wait here and open the doors hoping people will come because they will not. We need to go.

I remember at one point hearing a debate about what makes a good footballer. They spoke about speed, stamina, talent, all of these things. However one thing stood out; it was a person who never waited for the ball to come to them. They saw the opportunity and they moved to the ball.

Go. Read the Bible, it is all through it.

Second thing: with all your great strength

Gideon was from the smallest tribe from one of the smallest families. He was a nobody. He was such a nobody he was making wine in a secret cellar in case the Midianites turned up. However God saw more potential in Gideon than Gideon saw in himself.

What on earth was God doing calling him a person of great strength when clearly he had not displayed any strength up to that point?

Another biblical theme you will find is that God never asks anything of people they cannot do. God appears to have this innate ability to see the potential inside each one of us. Potential we are unaware of.

Who would think a bunch of rag tag fishermen and social misfits could start and found a worldwide movement that was going to dominate the globe centuries later?

Who would think the very person whose job it was to hunt down these new Christians would become the very person responsible for spreading the faith across the Roman Empire?

My Grace is sufficient for you is a biblical text that shows you are not asked to do something you cannot do. That of course does not mean it is something you want to do or something you will find easy to do. In fact you can be pretty much assured what God asks us to do will be difficult and hard; require time and energy and yes money. But it will not be impossible, it just might seem that way.

You probably sit here and think that this isn’t you but yes it is. You might not see your potential, God certainly does.

Third thing: rescue Israel from the Midianites

Gideon was given clear instructions from God about what he expected the outcome to be. He knew his task, he knew his calling. Doesn’t mean to say he thought it was achievable, however it is what God holds out for him.

Look through the Bible and see clearly that when God speaks he is clear about what he wants his people to do. Abraham was to move into the Promised Land and live there. Moses was to lead the people through the desert to go back to the land. All the prophets clearly understood the message they were to take, Isaiah, Jeremiah, etc, etc.

The apostles were to become fishers of men. Paul was to take the gospel to the gentiles.

The commission we were left was:

Go, then, to all peoples everywhere and make them my disciples: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And I will be with you always, to the end of the age.”

(Matthew 28:19-20)

You cannot get more clearer than that. As a Christian that is your calling. It is not to have the biggest or best church you can. It is not to have the deepest knowledge of the Bible. It is clear.

What is this church about, it is making disciples, teaching people to obey everything Christ has taught us. That is what we are about and that is our job. When we finally stand before God he is going to ask us how we went about doing our job…. Being the biggest and best will count for nothing.

Please note in this that God gave Gideon a task that might well have seemed impossible. To one man on in a big vat of grapes in a hidden cellar. A man with no military training and no standing in his country, it would be pretty impossible. Except that God never asks from you what you cannot do.

What is being asked of us is pretty clear.

The last part of this is: I myself am sending you

Gideon was being commissioned by God to do this.

He never went on his own strength or his own inclination but in response to and with God. That is what made all the difference.

Remember in the New Testament when Jesus is talking about the eye of a needle and how difficult it is for a rich man to be saved? He went on to say, what is impossible for man, is possible for God.

At the end of his great commission he also said, I am with you always, to the end of the age. When he left he said that God was sending another to be with us so we would not be alone. Of course he meant the Holy Spirit.

Gideon was doing this in the strength of God and with the authority of God. Isn’t it interesting that rather than have a huge force of soldiers, God whittled them down to 300. It was not their smallness that bothered God, it was their huge numbers.

When the film the Lord of the Rings came out I was at the cinema. It was the 3^rd instalment, The Return of The King and the 2 hobbits had almost completed their journey. They were taking refuge in a very barren landscape before the final trek up the mountain where they expected to die.

Sam turns to Frodo and says “Even little people can change the world”

What made their victory so great was their own weakness.

But his answer was: “My grace is all you need, for my power is greatest when you are weak.” I am most happy, then, to be proud of my weaknesses, in order to feel the protection of Christ’s power over me. I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and difficulties for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

(2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

Paul wrote those words when he was talking about his weakness before God.

If you and I try and do this on our own strength we might as well go home. The only way we can do this is in the strength of God.

Conclusion

So from our look at Gideon this is what we have to think about:

1. The command to go.
2. The potential God sees in each of us
3. The clarity of our call
4. The sufficiency of God

As you leave here, please think and pray about how each of these are working themselves out in your life.

Amen.

When this was advertised the wording they used was to describe what we were doing was to celebrate the long Easter holiday weekend; no word of Jesus or Christ or Christianity in there at all.

Our country is getting more and more secular; consequently Jesus is taking less and less prominence through the year. Think about how much Jesus is kept out of Christmas and it becomes seasons greeting. Now even in Easter he is slowly slipping out of it.

The thing is we do not know what to do with Jesus. Dan Brown in the Da Vinci Code wants us to believe Jesus moved to France, settled down the Mary Magdalene and founded the French Royal line. Another growing myth is actually that Jesus went to Kashmir in India and lived the rest of his days there as a holy man.

Main Argument

There is only one problem with this. It is not actually what he said:

Then Jesus said to them, “How foolish you are, how slow you are to believe everything the prophets said! Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and then to enter his glory?”

(Luke 24:25-26)

He entered his glory, what on earth does that mean? Throughout his ministry he kept saying that he had come from the father and was going to return to the father. He kept talking about the future glory he would have with God the Father in heaven. So when he is talking here about entering his glory he is not talking about going to France or Kashmir or anywhere else except going back to heaven to be with his Father, once he had accomplished his mission.

This really is why Easter is so important, because it was the culmination of his mission. It was when everything came together and he did what he said he would do; including going back to heaven, going back into his glory.

One of the great messages of Easter is that our faith is not dead. We do not worship a corpse or a tomb or a grave. We worship a living God, Jesus Christ. Because he did what he said he would do and came back from the dead we can actually believe everything else he said.

We can also actually believe what was written about him because there is more historical evidence for the Bible being true than any other book from ancient times. The oldest copy we have is about 350AD which is really old and what you have in your Bible in front of you actually is the same as written then. You can believe it.

What does that mean for us?

Look closely at what Jesus actually said.

It’s interesting that the basic position of the Bible is that every single one of us, every single human being is incapable of making it to heaven on our own. Irrespective of how good you are, how many brownie points or air miles you might have gathered, you cannot get there yourself or by your own merit.

That is very different to other faiths. Muslims believe God holds a profit and loss account over your life. If at the end you are in loss it is straight to hell with you. The sad thing is some Muslim clerics are teaching young men that blowing up non Muslims is an automatic pass into heaven.

Buddhism and to a degree Hinduism is also about a profit or loss account. Depending on how you treat others, that is how the world will treat you. They call it Karma. At the end of your life your karma is weighed up and if you have lived a good life you are reincarnated in a higher being but if your karma is bad you come back as a lower being.

The ultimate aim is to achieve enlightenment through many cycles of reincarnation.

The scary thing is that enlightenment is oblivion, there is nothing but non-existence to aim for. Again though it is all on your merit.

Christianity is singular in that it is the only faith based not on your merit. There is nothing you can do that will cause God to owe you entry into heaven. Christianity is a faith based on the reality of being human. After all it was the reality of humanity that caused Jesus to come here in the first place.

So what?

Christians rely not on what we do but on what Jesus has done. It is faith in him, that he will fulfil yet more of his promises that is at the heart of this faith. That’s why we always say, all you have to do is believe. Yet as we know belief is the hardest part.

Conclusion

Easter is the affirmation of our faith. It is when we raise our voices to the sky and say Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed!

It is when we stand up and say I believe. It is when we nail our colours to the mast and proudly say we are Christians.

This is our faith and this is our time.

It is not a holiday, it is not a long weekend. It is a celebration of Jesus return to his glory having accomplished his mission. It is a living faith.

Centuries ago, Baptisms and new professions of faith were on Easter day because this was a day of new beginnings. If you are here then you have the chance to make this Easter a new beginning in your life. Trust in Jesus, believe in what he has done for you and know the experience of God for yourself.

Amen.

The Bible tells us to always be ready to give a reason for our faith, to know what our faith is about. After all if this is the foundation of our lives, we really should be able to explain it. So…. the sacrifice of Jesus.

This passage is normally read at Christmas because it is about the birth of Jesus. You would expect a reading about the cross to be read on passion Sunday. Yet this passage is about his sacrifice because his first sacrifice was not on the cross, it was when he came to earth. Let me say that again, his first sacrifice was not on the cross it was when he came to earth.

God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit are what we call the Godhead. Together they are one being and we can’t really explain or fully understand the exact way they relate to each other. Just that they seem to have distinct roles in how they relate to humanity.

These 3 were together for all eternity until a decision was taken by Christ, the Son, to go to earth. I have often wondered what that day must have been like.

In this clip from the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring the council have gathered to decide what to do about the great evil in the world. They have to find a way of destroying the ring because the ring contains the essence of evil but to destroy it means a dangerous journey into an evil land that will probably result in death.

Even if you don’t know the story, look at Gandalf’s face when Frodo announces he will take the ring into Mordor to destroy it. [Play Clip]

I have often thought that something similar must have happened in heaven where they gathered to do something about the evil in our world and find a way of destroying it. I imagine they went through every option until finally the Son said I will go. I will become a human, I will live and die and suffer all the pangs of humanity. I will place myself willingly under that evil so that we can destroy it.

What kind of motivation, other than love, causes one person to willingly separate themselves from heaven where they have been for eternity? See the first sacrifice of Christ was not the cross it was he came to earth as a baby boy.

Mat 1:23  “A virgin will become pregnant and have a son, and he will be called Immanuel” (which means, “God is with us”).

If God is with us it means he is not in heaven he is not with his father with whom he has always been. He is not immortal, he is not pain free, he is not free from sufferings, he is not surrounded by the angels. He is not there, he is here.

This was the first sacrifice of Jesus.

**** BREAK ***

Christ always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force he should try to remain equal with God. Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had, and took the nature of a servant. He became like a human being and appeared in human likeness. He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death— his death on the cross.

(Philippians 2:5-8)

Putting his first sacrifice alongside the cross I hope you see the lengths Jesus went to. He must have considered the end point, the reason hugely important. There is no way he would have done this if there was another way. Nor would he have done it if he did not care for us.

So you sit in here today and you know that by his action’s God has demonstrated his love for you. By his sacrifice, his sufferings, his death, he has proven beyond all reasonable doubt his love.

Were you to present this evidence in court as proof of his love, any judge would have no qualms about granting him custody.

So the question then is not did he sacrifice or did he suffer. We know he did. The question is how do we respond?

When you consider all that he did and all that he went through God is well within his rights to demand a response.

I have often heard people say the gospel message is not fair. Why does God demand a response when really it’s about doing good?

Well, even by the standards of human fairness, if you had done all the things God had done, had suffered all the things God had suffered and people didn’t want to know, you would have the right to feel peeved.

So how do we respond?

One of the biggest mistakes people who do not go to church make about people who do go to church is to assume church is all about good people looking down on bad people.

Nothing could be further from the truth because church is really about people gathering to make a response to what God has done for us. The Bible says we love God because he first loved us. If it was not for what God had done we would not be here.

So this is our response.

What though is the extent of your response to God?

Recently, I saw a letter written by a relatively new Christian to the person whose life had influenced hers so greatly. She actually lists about a dozen qualities she found contagious in the life of this older Christian. Listen to some of what she wrote:

You know when we met; I began to discover a new vulnerability, a warmth, and a lack of pretence that impressed me. I saw in you a thriving spirit – no signs of internal stagnation anywhere. I could tell you were a growing person and I liked that. I saw you had strong self-esteem, not based on the fluff of self-help books, but on something a whole lot deeper.

I saw that you lived by convictions and priorities and not just by convenience, selfish pleasure, and financial gain. And I had never met anyone like that before. I felt a depth of love and concern as you listened to me and didn’t judge me. You tried to understand me, you sympathized and you celebrated with me, you demonstrated kindness and generosity – and not just to me, but to other people, as well. And you stood for something.

You were willing to go against the grain of society and follow what you believed to be true, no matter what people said, and no matter how much it cost you. And for those reasons and a whole host of others, I found myself really wanting what you had.

Now that I’ve become a Christian, I wanted to write to tell you I’m grateful beyond words for how you lived out your Christian life in front of me. [Quoted from Becoming a Contagious Christian]

What is the extent of your response to God?

Sitting here week after week but doing nothing is not good enough. What more do you want God to do to motivate you? What other sacrifice do you want from him that he hasn’t already given?

Does the extent of your response go into your time? As well as Sunday morning there are numerous other opportunities for worship here. There is the bible study on Monday evening, the quiet time on Thursday mornings, Talking Point on Sunday evenings, the Ladies Fellowship on Tuesdays. All of these give us an opportunity to respond to God.

What about taking time to read our bibles and to pray? That too is part of our worship. Taking time to talk to others about God. If you and I have neighbours who don’t know God why on earth are we not talking to them?

Other than time what about money.

For your heart will always be where your riches are.

(Matthew 6:21)

What you do with your money will actually show where you place God in the importance of your lives.

It was the custom in Israel to give the first 10^th of your income back to God as a response to God for all he had done. This wasn’t seen as a chore but as a blessing because God had given them their land, their nation, their laws, everything.

Consider carefully what God has given to us in terms of our land, our laws, our Christian heritage? We have so much to be thankful for and yet so often what we do with our money does not reflect this.

Per capita giving in our congregation is really bad. On average each person on our roll gives £2.56 per week. It’s not good enough.

Our response to God should be seen in our givings.

Conclusion

This is hard and very unpalatable teaching yes. But when you sit down and you actually think about the sacrifice of Jesus what kind of response can we ever make in comparison?

As your minister I urge you this Easter to make it a time of deep reflection about our response to this as a Church.

What it means for the people living in our parish depends on what it means for us in our response.

How we respond to Christ will actually be the defining thing of our lives on both sides of eternity so it is not to be taken lightly. Amen.

The truth of the matter is that whilst Bill Gates has given many speeches and no doubt spoken to many high schools he never came up with these rules or delivered them. They are actually from the book “Dumbing Down our Kids” by educator Charles Sykes. They are attributed to Gates ad now because it has been repeated so often everyone thinks it is true… but just because you say something often enough does not make it true.

The passage we read in Mark’s Gospel is one the church has struggled with for generations. It has a very tough message that is even tougher for us than it was for Jesus day because relatively speaking we are far richer than even the rich man here. Compared to us he would have been pretty poor.

So if Jesus talks to him about his possession what on earth would he be saying to us? Consider that in the past fortnight a man was beaten up in New York by 3 15 year olds for his mobile phone. In the past, others in this country have been beaten up for their trainers, for their cars, in their houses as they are being robbed. We have far more yet as a society we expect and want far more.

I remember sitting with a man called Terry one day who had come through a lot. He was telling me how when he and his wife married their first house was an old converted railway carriage. He remembered fondly getting their first twin tub, their first TV and moving to a new house later that had proper insulation and plumbing.

He was telling me all this as we were talking about his daughter’s wedding and he was describing the house she was moving into that had every gadget under the sun and how she was wanting for nothing. The things that Terry considered essential were not the same as his daughter. Compared to his starting out, his daughter was seriously well of.

The more we have, the more this passage is difficult. So what is going on here? What was Jesus talking about when he met this young man?

The rich young ruler is the kind of young man you would love your daughter to bring home. He was wealthy, he was upright, he had a good reputation and at least outwardly he did everything a good upstanding person would do.

When he approached Jesus and said “Good Teacher” he was being both formal and polite. A bit like saying Good Sir can I have a moment of your time?

The natural response from Jesus was to say something like, Good and honoured young man but of course Jesus has a habit of coming at things differently.

The young man kept the law with the commandments built into his daily routine. So he never knowingly broke any of the main rules of Jewish religion. It’s also likely that he managed to keep all the additional rules of the Pharisees as well. There was nothing about this person that you would say was bad or dodgy. If he had a brother his mother probably castigated him why he couldn’t be more like this one.

The problem was these were all things he did. He was earning his way into heaven by keeping a set of outward rules that lulled him into thinking he was doing ok.

So when he came to Jesus it would have been easy just to learn about the additional things Jesus wanted him to do and then do them to. He would still have been on target to get into heaven.

Yet as we know Jesus sees into the heart of the matter!

This young man was relying on his own endeavour. His wealth meant he was cushioned from hardship, removed from relying on anyone else. It gave him the ability to face life on his terms.

By selling his wealth that cushion was going to be removed. Without all his money he would have had to rely on others.

It is harder for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God because that rich person is used to relying on what they have whereas a person with nothing knows they have nothing.

A person with nothing comes to God and says will you take me as I am. They come to God without any bargaining power.

Yet a person who has great wealth is always tempted to come to God and bargain with them. The mistake is thinking that just because I am rich in the things of this world I will use that to advance in the next world when the currency of the next world is not the same as this one.

Was the young man willing to remove his safety net and come to Jesus? No chance.

Unless you and I are willing to come to Jesus and say here I am, I bring nothing with me. Then nothing is going to happen.

*** BREAK ***

It was Jewish custom to give 1/10 of your income to God. If you are giving 1/10^th of £1 million pounds that is an awful lot to give but it still leaves you with £900,000 to spend.

If you are giving 1/10^th of £60 per week that £6 you’re giving up makes a huge difference.

With £900,000 still to play with you can pretty much do what you want but with only £56 every penny has to be counted out.

You see, there was no personal sacrifice in this young man’s life.

The Butterball Turkey company in America set up a hotline to answer consumer questions about preparing holiday turkeys. One woman called to inquire about cooking a turkey that had been in her freezer for 23 years.

The operator told her it might be safe if the freezer had been kept below 0 degrees the entire time. But the operator warned the woman that, even if it were safe, the flavour had probably deteriorated, and she wouldn’t recommend eating it.

The caller replied, “That’s what we thought. We’ll just give it to the church.”

In a church in the Deep South where the preaching style was a “talk back” sort of style. The pastor was getting the congregation exited about their prospective future.  The preacher said, “this church is like a crippled man who needs to get up and walk under the power of Jesus.”  The congregation replied, “let it walk preacher, let it walk.”

Then the preacher said, “This church like Elijah on Mount Carmel has got to run.” The congregation replied, “let it run preacher, let it run.”

Then the preacher said, “This church has got to mount up on wings like eagles and fly.” The congregation replied with enthusiasm, “let it fly preacher, let it fly.”

Then the preacher added, “Now if this church is going to fly it’s going to take MONEY.” The congregation replied with lack of enthusiasm, “let it walk preacher, let it walk.”

Whenever we talk about personal sacrifice there is a fear that this is the church asking for more money when really nothing is further from the truth. Do we need money, yes we need money, everybody needs money and with more money we could make a bigger difference in the community. We could change more lives.

This young man had the option to sell all his possession but he chose not to. He made a conscious decision that he preferred to hold onto what he had than to follow Jesus.

That is not a question about money; that is a question of vision.

Look at this lady here. Her name is Aung San Suu Kyi. For most of the past 20 years she has been under house arrest. Her personal sacrifice is driven by her vision for a free Burma.

What about this person. No one even knows their name. What caused them to face down a column of Chinese tanks? They were driven by their vision for more democracy.

How about this person. Brother Andrew spend his entire life bringing Bibles to people in persecuted countries. First of all behind the Iron Curtain in communist Europe and latterly across the middle East. What caused him to spend his life doing this?

He was driven by his vision.

What caused Livingston to spend his life in Africa, Slesser to spend it in the slums, Mother Theresa in helping the poor? It was all vision.

What caused the young ruler to walk away? Their lack of vision.

Conclusion

Today is the first Sunday in Lent a period when we traditionally give things up. A time of personal sacrifice. It is no bad thing in our culture to have a time like this.

But you know we are in very, very, deep danger of doing exactly what the rich young man had done. Remember that he had couched what should have been a life of service to God into a nice set of habits that he could keep and feel smug over.

I’ve kept the commandments, I’ve done all these things, I’ve given up chocolate or biscuits or wine. I am going to do without for the next 40 days.

What about the other 325 days of the year? And at what point did doing without something pretty minor come to symbolise the sacrifice Christ asks of us?

Just because Lent is repeatedly reduced to giving something up doesn’t make it true.

Jesus said and come and follow me. The sacrifice he wanted was the young man’s life.

Jesus makes a big ask which we are in danger of reducing to a 40 day annoyance. There is no vision in that.

Jesus makes a big ask, come and follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Come and follow me and your life will mean something. Come and follow me and we will change the world.

That is the vision he gave the disciples and that is the vision of the church.

Do you want to be part of something bigger than yourself? Do you want to change the world? Then personally offer your life as a living sacrifice to Christ.

Do you want to make a real difference in Granton? Do you want the people in the Boswalls, Royston, Crewe, Wardieburn to have their lives changed? Then offer yourself as a living sacrifice.

What is your vision for this parish? What is your vision for your neighbours?

Father John Powell, professor at Loyola University in Chicago, writes about a student in his Theology of Faith class named Tommy;

Some twelve years ago, I stood watching my university students file into the classroom for our first session in the Theology of Faith.

That was the day I first saw Tommy. My eyes and my mind both blinked. He was combing his long flaxen hair, which hung six inches below his shoulders.

It was the first time I had ever seen a boy with hair that long. I guess it was just coming into fashion then I know in my mind that it isn’t what’s on your head but what’s in it that counts; but on that day I was unprepared and my emotions flipped. I immediately filed Tommy under “S” for strange…very strange.

Tommy turned out to be the “atheist in residence” in my Theology of Faith course. He constantly objected to, smirked at, or whined about the possibility of an unconditionally loving Father/God. We lived with each other in relative peace for one semester, although I admit he was for me at times a serious pain in the back pew.

When he came up at the end of the course to turn in his final exam, he asked in a cynical tone, “Do you think I’ll ever find God?”
I decided instantly on a little shock therapy. “No!” I said very emphatically.

“Why not,” he responded, “I thought that was the product you were pushing.”

I let him get five steps from the classroom door and then called out, “Tommy! I don’t think you’ll ever find Him, but I am absolutely certain that He will find you!” He shrugged a little and left my class and my life.

I felt slightly disappointed at the thought that he had missed my clever line — He will find you! At least I thought it was clever. Later I heard that Tommy had graduated, and I was duly grateful.

Then a sad report came. I heard that Tommy had terminal cancer. Before I could search him out, he came to see me. When he walked into my office, his body was very badly wasted and the long hair had all fallen out as a result of chemotherapy. But his eyes were bright and his voice was firm, for the first time, I believe. “Tommy, I’ve thought about you so often; I hear you are sick,” I blurted out.

“Oh, yes, very sick. I have cancer in both lungs. It’s a matter of weeks.”

“Can you talk about it, Tom?” I asked.

“Sure, what would you like to know?” he replied.

“What’s it like to be only twenty-four and dying?”

“Well, it could be worse.”

“Like what?”

“Well, like being fifty and having no values or ideals, like being fifty and thinking that booze, seducing women, and making money are the real biggies in life.”

I began to look through my mental file cabinet under “S” where I had filed Tommy as strange. (It seems as though everybody I try to reject by classification, God sends back into my life to educate me.)

“But what I really came to see you about,” Tom said, “is something you said to me on the last day of class.” (He remembered!) He continued, “I asked you if you thought I would ever find God and you said, ’No!’ which surprised me. Then you said, ’But He will find you.’ I thought about that a lot, even though my search for God was hardly intense at that time.

(My clever line. He thought about that a lot!)

“But when the doctors removed a lump from my groin and told me that it was malignant, that’s when I got serious about locating God. And when the malignancy spread into my vital organs, I really began banging bloody fists against the bronze doors of heaven. But God did not come out. In fact, nothing happened. Did you ever try anything for a long time with great effort and with no success? You get psychologically glutted, fed up with trying. And then you quit “Well, one day I woke up, and instead of throwing a few more futile appeals over that high brick wall to a God who may be or may not be there, I just quit.

I decided that I didn’t really care about God, about an after life, or anything like that. I decided to spend what time I had left doing something more profitable. I thought about you and your class and I remembered something else you had said: ’The essential sadness is to go through life without loving. But it would be almost equally sad to go through life and leave this world without ever telling those you loved that you had loved them.’”

“So, I began with the hardest one, my Dad. He was reading the newspaper when I approached him. “Dad.”

“Yes, what?” he asked without lowering the newspaper.

“Dad, I would like to talk with you.”

“Well, talk.”

“I mean .. It’s really important.”

The newspaper came down three slow inches. “What is it?”

“Dad, I love you, I just wanted you to know that.” Tom smiled at me and said it with obvious satisfaction, as though he felt a warm and secret joy flowing inside of him. “The newspaper fluttered to the floor. Then my father did two things I could never remember him ever doing before. He cried and he hugged me. We talked all night, even though he had to go to work the next morning. It felt so good to be close to my father, to see his tears, to feel his hug, to hear him say that he loved me.”

“It was easier with my mother and little brother. They cried with me, too, and we hugged each other, and started saying real nice things to each other. We shared the things we had been keeping secret for so many years.

“I was only sorry about one thing — that I had waited so long. Here I was, just beginning to open up to all the people I had actually been close to.

“Then, one day I turned around and God was there. He didn’t come to me when I pleaded with Him.

I guess I was like an animal trainer holding out a hoop, ’C’mon, jump through. C’mon, I’ll give you three days, three weeks.’”

“Apparently God does things in His own way and at His own hour. But the important thing is that He was there. He found me!

You were right He found me even after I stopped looking for Him”

“Tommy,” I practically gasped, “I think you are saying something very important and much more universal than you realize.

To me, at least, you are saying that the surest way to find God is not to make Him a private possession, a problem solver, or an instant consolation in time of need, but rather by opening to love. You know, the Apostle John said that. He said: ’God is love, and anyone who lives in love is living with God and God is living in him.’

Tom, could I ask you a favor? You know, when I had you in class you were a real pain. But (laughingly) you can make it all up to me now. Would you come into my present Theology of Faith course and tell them what you have just told me? If I told them the same thing it wouldn’t be half as effective as if you were to tell it”

“Oooh… I was ready for you, but I don’t know if I’m ready for your class.”

“Tom, think about it. If and when you are ready, give me a call.”

In a few days Tom called, said he was ready for the class, that he wanted to do that for God and for me. So we scheduled a date.

However, he never made it. He had another appointment, far more important than the one with me and my class Of course, his life was not really ended by his death, only changed. He made the great step from faith into vision.

He found a life far more beautiful than the eye of man has ever seen or the ear of man has ever heard or the mind of man has ever imagined.

Before he died, we talked one last time.

“I’m not going to make it to your class,” he said.

“I know, Tom.”

“Will you tell them for me? Will you … tell the whole world for me?”

I will, Tom. I’ll tell them. I’ll do my best.”

So, to all of you who have been kind enough to read this simple story about God’s love, thank you for listening. And to you, Tommy, somewhere in the sunlit, verdant hills of heaven — I told them, Tommy, as best I could.

If this story means anything to you, please pass it on to a friend or two.

It is a true story and is not enhanced for publicity purposes. With thanks, Rev. John Powell, Professor, Loyola University, Chicago.

He made the great step from faith into vision?

Personal sacrifice does not start with giving something up, it starts with catching a vision. Whose vision are you catching?

Amen.

Appendix 1

RULE 1

Life  is not fair – get used to it.

RULE 2 

The  world won’t care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you  feel good about yourself.

RULE 3
You  will NOT make 40 thousand dollars a year right out of high school. You won’t be a vice president with car phone, until you earn  both.

RULE 4
If  you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. He doesn’t have tenure.

RULE 5
Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your grandparents had a different word for burger flipping they called it Opportunity.

RULE 6
If  you mess up,it’s not your parents’ fault, so don‘t whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

RULE 7
Before you were born, your parents weren’t as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying  your bills, cleaning your clothes and 

listening to you talk about how cool you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent’s generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

RULE 8
Your  school may have done away with winners and losers, but life has not. In some schools they have  abolished failing grades and they’ll  give you as many times as you want to  get the right answer. This doesn’t bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

RULE 9
Life  is not divided into semesters. You don’t get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you find yourself. Do that on your own  time.

RULE 10
Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to  jobs.

RULE 11
Be nice to nerds. Chances are you’ll end up working for one.

Whilst these pictures bring home some of the impact these disasters have had only someone who experienced them can truly gauge their impact. Speak to an observer and speak to a survivor; you will get very different recollections. The more distance there is from you to the event the harder it becomes to convey what it was really like at the time.

Imagine for a moment a city in uproar. Violent demonstrations, police on the streets, people gathering in small knots and whispering about the events of the last few days. Imagine, survivors who have been to a place called Golgotha and there witnessed the crucifixion of a man who everyone had expected to change the world. For 3 years this man has wandered the land giving sight to the blind, allowing the lame to walk and yes even raising the dead. For 3 years the crowds grew larger and larger, the expectation grew beyond measure and now… it was all for nothing because he was violently killed and his followers had evaporated like mist.

Words cannot convey the emotion that was present in Jerusalem at this time. As we move down the years and our distance from the event become ever greater we struggle to catch the atmosphere… but it’s a struggle we must never give up. For to truly understand what is going on here we must try and put ourselves where Cleopas and his friend were. Now….

Any policeman will tell you show 10 different people the same thing and they will all see something different. Let 10 people listen to the same sermon and they will all hear something different…that is the nature of humanity.

In exactly the same way. Just because you know something does not mean you understand it. Last week the Engineer was out fixing the photocopier and he was talking about fusing units and stuff like that. I know when I press the button it makes a copy, I have no idea about the internals. How the thing works is a mystery that I accept every single time I press the button and expect a copy to come out.

Now you and I accept mysteries all the time. How does a liquid crystal display work, yet we expect the TV to come on when the button is pressed. How does the Cyclone action of a Dyson Vacuum cleaner work? Yet we expect it to pick up dirt. More times than you probably realise we know and use things but we have no idea how they work. They are a mystery to us.

Knowing and understanding are not the same thing.

 From reading this passage it is patently obvious that Celopas and his friend knew all about the events recently happening in Jerusalem but they didn’t understand any of it.

The Meat

They knew and had witnessed Jesus fall from grace. They carried with them the experience of everything that had happened as survivors but they never understood the reasons behind it.

It took a stranger walking with them to help them put their experiences into perspective so that then they could understand. Actually it took someone who already understood it to show them what was really going on.

If I am blind, I cannot show another blind person the way. If I don’t know the way, how on earth can I show someone else? All that happens then, is you both keep going round in circles.

“So then, where does that leave the wise? or the scholars? or the skilful debaters of this world? God has shown that this world’s wisdom is foolishness! For God in his wisdom made it impossible for people to know him by means of their own wisdom. Instead, by means of the so-called “foolish” message we preach, God decided to save those who believe. Jews want miracles for proof, and Greeks look for wisdom.” (1Co 1:20-22)

If 2000 years ago the people who experienced the events of Jesus story struggled to understand it, then we really have no chance on our own.

To a Christian the Christian message makes perfect sense yet to the non-Christian it is madness. Dawkings the great atheist of our time can’t make sense of any logic in matters of faith. For him this really is foolishness. He thinks anyone who believes is in self denial which is why he titled his book the God Delusion. On the other hand to someone like Rowan Williams the Archbishop of Canterbury it makes perfect sense.

You and I may know everything there is to know about faith. We can memorize the Bible from cover to cover, we can be able to sing all the hymns without words yet faith can still be a mystery to us. It’s even possible to base your life on the teachings of Jesus and live your life in a Christian way without understanding what it’s all about.

Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.”

You see the only way for the life changing truths of Christian faith to become real is to encounter Jesus for yourself. That’s what happened to Cleopas and his friend. That’s what happened to Paul when he encountered Jesus on the Damascus road and throughout the ages it’s what happened to people.

Paul quite rightly says it is not by our wisdom we can know God. In fact the more we try to know God by our own wisdom and on our terms, the more faith is a mystery. Jesus taught, the first shall be last and the last shall be first, he taught that to get everything you first had to give away everything, to be the greatest you had to become like the least. And of course ultimately it is not what you know, it is in whom you trust. These are not the ways of this world.

Understand then that you and I cannot make anyone else a Christian. No force of might, or power, or reason will every result in anyone becoming a Christian. For that to happen they have to encounter God for themselves; they have to personally come to a point of trust in Jesus with their lives.

This actually is one of the great mysteries of faith.

So if we cannot make Christians what can we do?

Jesus walked with Cleopas and his friend. Through his actions with them, they were drawn to him. That’s what we are called to do, to draw people to Christ by the way we live. Your life and mine should make being a Christian attractive to the people round about us.

In your normal life with the other people in your house, in your block, in your street, in your work, in your club, on the bus, in the supermarket, and on and on and on. Everywhere we go and everyone we meet should be left wanting to know more about what makes us different.

I find it interesting and challenging that the longer these 2 spent in Jesus company the greater was their desire to stay in his company. So it wasn’t a case of acting nice and then thinking that is that done for the day it was about who he was. His character was attractive to these 2.

Now it’s hard enough saying do my actions attract people to Jesus, it is another thing entirely saying does my character?

When it comes to life’s circumstances and what goes on each day, how do you respond with gratitude, mumphing, or grouchiness? And is your response determined by your circumstance or by your character?

I have come up with a quiz to assess your response.

Let’s start with question 1: You are in the 10 items or less queue, cash only line at Morrisons with your 2 cans of beans and 1 can of Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom Soup with a fresh £5 from your ATM machine in your hand. The person in front of you has 15 items and a chequebook in their back pocket. How do you respond?
A. Gratitude for the Beans on Toast your family will enjoy.
B. Mumph and wonder if the guy ahead of you failed math or reading.
C. Yell at the cashier, “Checkout Line Violation — 15 items! 15 items!”

Question 2: You receive a letter from the Revenue, stating you will soon be receiving a £1,000 refund on your tax return, how do you respond?

A. Gratitude to live in Britain, land of hope and glory

B. Mumph about the other £10,000 you paid in taxes last year.
C. Rip the letter to shreds while demanding more.

Question 3: You receive a letter from the Revenus, stating you will be audited. How do you respond?
A. Gratitude to live in Britain, land of hope and glory

B. Clench the phone and call your accountant.
C. Write the Evening News an angry letter about tax oppression in Scotland.

Question 4: You are driving your daughter to school, and as you drop her off, the car in front of you decides to just park there, trapping you in the school parking lot. How do you respond?
A. You look out the window and give thanks for this time to stop and smell the roses and car fumes.
B. Grab the steering wheel tighter as steam comes out of your ears.
C. Blow your horn continuously until you sound out “move your car” in Morse code.

If you had all B’s for your answers, you need to take a breath, chill out and relax. If you had all C’s for your answers, you may need therapy. If you had all A’s, you are a good candidate for sainthood! If you had a mixture of A’s, B’s, and C’s, welcome to the club.

The reality is we are all a mixture of a,b, and c’s. And surely one of the greatest mysteries of faith is that God in his infinite wisdom could love such as us with such an unconditional love.

God love you at your worst. God has looked into your dark places; the bits of your character where even you don’t want to look and he has loved you.

Jesus loved these 2 people who had actually been there but hadn’t understood anything.

What a mystery this faith really is.

Conclusion

This is a good thing because as Paul wrote. God has hidden all this form the wise. You don’t actually need to be super intelligent or to have all the answers. You don’t need to be saint although I am sure it would help.

You just need to bring people to Jesus, to the place where they will encounter him for themselves.

So as we leave here, we need to hear the challenge of scripture.

We need to respond to God in such a way that we don’t try to explain that which we cannot. But we do try to live in such a way that draws others to him. And if people say but I don’t understand this you can say neither do I.

I can’t explain it, that is the mystery, I accept it, that is faith and I want nothing more than for you to accept it too.

Amen.

Being seen as a founding father of the church meant others brought him letters that he then replied to and this letter to the Colossians is one of those. Now we don’t have the original letters so all we can do is look at Paul’s replies and read from them the problems he was being asked about.

With Colossae, some Church leaders had turned up who were causing confusion amongst the local believers. Remember they were young Christians who did not have the written New Testament to follow so they were very vulnerable to people turning up and saying they were church leaders. There was no vetting or disclosure in those days!

These people turned up and told the Colossians that to be a proper Christians you needed to be circumcised, you had to be very strict in what you did and did not eat; also and most importantly that the worship of God was through what they called spiritual rulers and authorities.

Try and picture this scenario.

These teachers come along claiming an authority and lead the church down this new path. Because they have little grounding against which to measure what they are hearing they embrace it. So any new people who discover that church are actually being taught stuff that is not Christian but masquerades as Christian.

If you know someone very dear to you is being taught stuff that is totally wrong you do something about it so Paul sent back to them a few of his group originally from Colossae with the task of getting them back on message. They are going to have to leave behind their new direction and go back to the faith they originally were given.

Paul understood something very important. Every church, every believer tells a story but not every church tells the same story, nor every believer. Because he cared for them he wanted to make sure they were telling the correct story.

Pray, then, that I may speak, as I should, in such a way as to make it clear. Be wise in the way you act toward those who are not believers, making good use of every opportunity you have. Your speech should always be pleasant and interesting, and you should know how to give the right answer to everyone. (Col 4:4-6)

 You can only pass on the right story if you know the right story yourself. You cannot pass on something you do not know.

Every so often people approach the ministry team for a baptism.

They are motivated through love for their baby to stand here and receive a blessing from God. When we talk to them, it becomes pretty clear they have no idea what it is they are actually promising to do.

Do you promise depending on the grace of God, to teach your child the truths and duties of the Christian faith; and by prayer and example to bring them up in the life and worship of the Church?

How can someone teach the truths and duties of the Christian faith unless they know them? How can someone be a good model, be an example of Christianity unless they have experienced it first themselves?

That is why a couple of years ago the Kirk Session decided than anyone who comes for Baptism in this congregation should do either the Alpha Course or Christianity Explored. That way they will know the story they are committing themselves to.

You cannot pass on what you do not know. In exactly the same vein, if you have been taught something that is not right then you will pass on what is not right.

Again as a ministry team we find ourselves in many varied situations some of which break your heart. Dysfunctional families who seem to pass on that dysfunction from one generation to the next. Children whose only role models are bad ones but they grow up thinking that is how normal people behave.

The story recently in the press where the 2 boys from Edlington tortured the other 2 boys was utterly horrific. You would not think that such a thing could happen in a country with Christian roots. When authorities looked into the case they soon realised these boys were modelling the behaviour they had observed from their parents. It was the story their parents showed to the kids that played a significant role in what happened.

The Guardian Newspaper of Friday 22^nd January wrote:

If a psychiatrist had to dream up a textbook example of the sort of domestic background most likely to set a child on the path towards serious crime, then it would probably look a good deal like that endured by the two young brothers at the heart of the Edlington case.

Caught between a depressive, drug-dependent mother and a violent, obsessively jealous father, the boys grew up, in the words of a defence barrister, amid “routine aggression, violence and chaos”. It was, he said, a “toxic family life”.

Any parent knows the story you model will be picked up by your kids. It is not what you say; it is how you live that will have the most impact on their lives.

The Edlington incident highlighted for many a wider problem in our society. The dream leaders have held out is broken.

David Cameron actually used the words broken Britain in one of his speeches: “The biggest challenge facing Britain today is mending our broken society. That will not happen overnight: long-term social change needs long-term thinking. And the Conservatives are the only party doing it.”

He is half right because our society does need fixing but the answer will not come from any political party. Isn’t it interesting that the people in charge recognise things are not all well but they have no idea how to fix it? They have swallowed their own story for so long they have no idea what to do.

Thomas said to Jesus, “Lord, we do not know where you are going; so how can we know the way to get there?” Jesus answered him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one goes to the Father except by me. (John 14:5-6)

It is in the church, it is the Christians who should be modelling that different story. You and me and everyone else gathered here should be modelling a different story in Edinburgh. Every single believer in every single church, across all the denominations should be showing by our story that there is another way.

Indeed it is the Christian belief that Jesus is the only way.

See the problem in Colossae was the church has been sidetracked. What was the way of Jesus had become something else where it was no longer about Jesus. Whatever this group of people were they were in danger of not being a Christian church. Paul was really worried for them.

What’s really sad is the number of churches out there today where it’s not about Jesus. It’s about keeping the building open, having the most people, running the most community events. All of these things are fine and good but they are not the main point of the story. Our story was, is, and will be about Jesus Christ. He is the only way.

Part of the role of the church is to tell our story. Indeed the way of story is to model this in our lives. We should not only tell people there is another way, we should show them this by the way we live. Our story should always point to faith in Jesus Christ.

As a Christian minister out and about one of the big sadness’s I see is that people have made the great story of God about themselves. Why are we so caught up with image today? Because we are so caught up with ourselves. Over the past few years any programmes about God and faith have slowly disappeared from our TV screens. Instead now we have reality TV, where we are the main focus, where once again it is about us. Moving down the generations the notion of helping others has gone because now we ask, what’s in it for me? Again about us.

The great story of God loving his people has been superseded by the story of me.

If the church will not speak up who will? If we as Christians will not show the way, who will?

At the same time pray also for us, so that God will give us a good opportunity to preach his message about the secret of Christ. For that is why I am now in prison. Pray, then, that I may speak, as I should, in such a way as to make it clear. Be wise in the way you act toward those who are not believers, making good use of every opportunity you have. Your speech should always be pleasant and interesting, and you should know how to give the right answer to everyone. (Col 4:3-6)

Paul was in prison yet it was not about him. His letters carry no lobbying for his release. It was always about the story of what God did in Jesus.

Even in prison Paul looks for opportunities to tell the story. Then gives this advice to the Colossians:

Be wise: Good advice! We should be wise in our actions to others. The Colossians had not been wise when allowing themselves to be seduced by these new people. There is a challenge for all of us to keep our eyes focused on God. It is so easy to be sidetracked and we need wisdom.

Make good use of every opportunity: This is a challenge for us as a church and indeed as individuals. Opportunities once gone will never come again so make sure your eyes are open to them.

Pleasant and interesting speech: He’s telling us to engage with people. To make sure that our personal interactions with people do not put them off.

Lastly: Know how to give the right answer. The only way they could do this was to know the truth. Paul was exhorting them to remain focused on Jesus.

Conclusion

The way of Story is really important.

As a congregation we need to decide how we share the story of God with us. We need to make sure we share it in a way that people can understand it and yet we need to make sure we don’t compromise the essential element of that story. Jesus.

Individually it is equally important our story is focused on Jesus. Whether you are in here, at home, in the bowling club, on the bus, in the supermarket, in the car. Wherever you are, make sure your story is that of Jesus.

 As our society moves further and further away from the story of God it is increasingly essential we keep telling it. If we love our people and our community then we can do nothing else.

Amen.

In the first century there was something called the Jewish Diaspora where for a number of reasons Jews had been spread across the ancient world and were living distinct lives in a number of different communities. This map shows you an estimation of where they were.

These Jews could not get to the temple in Jerusalem, instead they met in local houses and where there were more than 12 families they formed a synagogue. All over the ancient world in major cities synagogues were springing up.

Whether it was in Rome, in Antioch, in Damascus, these Jews shared a core set of beliefs that marked them as Jews. Not everything they did was the same but their core beliefs were shared irrespective of where they were.

Paul then was used to a culture where groups were here, there and everywhere but still were known as Jews.

It is little surprise then that when the Christian church began to expand out from Jerusalem, those Christians who used to be Jews saw it in pretty much the same way. Distinct communities that had a shared central core of beliefs.

What is interesting is if you compare the initial spread of Christianity you will see it pretty much follow the Jewish Diaspora. That is not surprising because Paul targeted synagogues with his message.

The glue that held this network of churches together was belief in Jesus as Messiah and no church was more important than any other. It wasn’t until after Emperor Constantine that Rome took on more significance than anywhere else. At this point, the most important place was Jerusalem because the apostles were still around.

In the same way no one person had any more importance than another within these churches. Because we live in a world where all human life is precious and the rights of freedom are things we take for granted we miss the personal impact of what Paul is here saying.

A Roman citizen had rights that a Greek Citizen did not. A Jewish citizen had a historical knowledge of the Old Testament a Roman citizen did not. One might be a Master and one might be a slave. So the person sitting next to you could have the power of life and death over you.

Yet within the setting of a church everyone was equal. Slave, Master, Greek, Jew or Roman did not matter because they were all united in Christ and they were all the same.

At one point a popularity contest broke out between Christians in Corinth where they were claiming an importance based on the personality who led them to faith and this is what Paul wrote:

When one of you says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos”—aren’t you acting like worldly people? After all, who is Apollos? And who is Paul? We are simply God’s servants, by whom you were led to believe. Each one of us does the work which the Lord gave him to do: I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plant, but it was God who made the plant grow. The one who plants and the one who waters really do not matter. It is God who matters, because he makes the plant grow.  (1Co 3:4-7)

See we think we live in a world where people strive for advancement and that is true but it is nothing like Roman times. Then people had to earn their citizenship and would go to any lengths to get it. Yet Paul understood one of the core marks of a Christian community should be humility.

And because of God’s gracious gift to me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you should. Instead, be modest in your thinking, and judge yourself according to the amount of faith that God has given you.  (Rom 12:3)

During the days when Mohammed Ali was a great boxer, he would go around in his arrogance and say that, “He was the greatest.” Humility was never his strong suit.

One day, back in his prime, he was on an airplane and the plane was ready to take off and the flight attendant had repeatedly told him to put on his seat belt. He finally told her, “I’m superman and superman don’t need no seatbelt.” The flight attendant didn’t hesitate a minute but shot back with, “Superman don’t need no airplane either, now buckle up.”

What is Christian humility? The best description I have seen of this comes from the Bible itself, from the book of Philippians Chapter 2:

The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had: He always had the nature of God, but he did not think that by force he should try to remain equal with God. Instead of this, of his own free will he gave up all he had, and took the nature of a servant. He became like a human being and appeared in human likeness. He was humble and walked the path of obedience all the way to death— his death on the cross.  (Php 2:5-8)

We probably don’t realise it but the celebrations of both Christmas and Easter are actually celebrations of the humility of God. God seeing the predicament mankind was in took it upon himself by his choice to come to earth as a baby and go through death. His free will made himself subject to the very people he was trying to reach. Imagine the vulnerability of God as a child when before he came to earth he was God.

The truly humble are not known by what they saw, they are known by what they do. You cannot talk humility you can only demonstrate it by your actions.

Many years ago there was an infamous Arch Bishop called Beaton. He was a very pompous man who demanded his place. One day when visiting a cathedral somewhere in Scotland both he and the Dean were in procession and approaching a door. As they drew closer to the door they slowly began to speed up as each was determined to go through the door first, thinking that they were most important. Lo and behold, they got stuck in the door and had to be helped out, and the congregation erupted in laughter.

Their actions betrayed a complete absence of humility.

True community displays humility. If someone out there were to characterise our lives, do you think they would use the word humble? If somebody walked in off the streets to observe one of our services, do you think they would say we were humble? It’s really something to think about.

There is a second main characteristic to the community as described by Paul here and we will look at that after this hymn:

**** BREAK ****

So we are to use our different gifts in accordance with the grace that God has given us. If our gift is to speak God’s message, we should do it according to the faith that we have; if it is to serve, we should serve; if it is to teach, we should teach; if it is to encourage others, we should do so.

Whoever shares with others should do it generously; whoever has authority should work hard; whoever shows kindness to others should do it cheerfully.

(Rom 12:6-8)

There was once a pastor who had a little five-year-old daughter. Now the little girl notice that every time her dad stood behind the pulpit, and was getting ready to preach he would bow his head for moment before he began to preach. The little girl noticed that he did this every time.
So one day after the service the little girl when to her dad and asked him, “Why do you bow your head right before you preach your sermon?”

“Well Honey” the preacher answered, “I am asking the Lord to help me preach a good sermon.”
The little girl looked up at her father and asked, “Then how come he doesn’t do it?”

The easiest thing in the world is to say what we don’t like. It is far easier to tear down than to build up without realising when tearing something down that we are actually tearing down a person.

Whatever your gifts are, they are your gifts. No one else in the world has the same combination or the same measure of gifts as you. They are God given gifts.

Remember humility? Humility stops someone saying my gift is better than your gift. You are rubbish.

You see true Christian community carries with it an innate value for the person behind the gift recognising everyone is loved by God.

Again, remember Paul was writing to a group of people who covered all sorts of different social strata yet through faith were the same before God. It took humility for a master to serve a slave in those circumstances and would only happen when the master saw the slave as more than a slave.

Your act of service to others actually shows how you value them and how you value yourself.

A few years ago Diana Ross was going through Heathrow when she went nuts at a security person because they dared to approach her. Her actions showed she thought she was better than anyone else.

Let me put it this way.

We talk about offering service, of getting involved in your church and doing things. That is only part of this equation since service offered has also to be service received.

So we are to use our different gifts in accordance with the grace that God has given us. If our gift is to speak God’s message, we should do it according to the faith that we have; if it is to serve, we should serve; if it is to teach, we should teach; if it is to encourage others, we should do so. Whoever shares with others should do it generously; whoever has authority should work hard; whoever shows kindness to others should do it cheerfully.  (Rom 12:6-8)

You and I are neither too good to offer our talents to others nor are we too good to receive the talents others offer.

Authentic Christian community will show this in the way it behaves. Our challenge as a church is to model this kind of community to the outside world. When the world then asks how so many different people can work in so many different ways we will be able to truthfully answer that while different we are united in Christ.

So when something happens in church consider carefully the person behind the act of service before we say anything to rubbish it. Just because we do not like it, does not mean it is worthless.

Conclusion

Humility and service were the two things that would characterise these ancient churches; they are also what should characterise our churches today.

A man fell into a pit and couldn’t get himself out.

A subjective person came along and said, “I feel for you down there.”
An objective person walked by and said, “It’s logical that someone would fall down there.”
A Pharisee said, “Only bad people fall into pits.”
A mathematician calculated how deep the pit was.
A news reporter wanted the exclusive story on the pit.
An IRS agent asked if he was paying taxes on the pit.
A self-pitying person said, “You haven’t seen anything until you’ve seen my pit.”
A fire-and-brimstone preacher said, “You deserve your pit.”
A psychologist noted, “Your mother and father are to blame for your being in that pit.”

A self-esteem therapist said, “Believe in yourself and you can get out of that pit.”
An optimist said, “Things could be worse.”
A pessimist claimed, “Things will get worse.”

“Jesus, seeing the man, took him by the hand and lifted him out of the pit.”

Jesus humbled himself and lives a life of service. As his disciples we are called to do no less.

Amen.