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Sermon of 12 September 2010 The Lord's Supper 1 Corinthians 11.17-34

1 Corinthians 11.17-34

What was the very first meal eaten on the moon? The Lord’s Supper!
When the lunar module touched down
Buzz Aldrin asked Houston control for a few moments of silence
and invited each person listening in to think about what was happening
and to give thanks in their own individual way.
Aldrin gave thanks by taking bread and wine.
He opened some little plastic packages
and poured the wine into a chalice his home church had given him.
He noticed how in the one sixth gravity
the wine curled slowly and gracefully up the cup.
He has told how as he read a short passage of scripture
‘I sensed especially strongly my unity with our church back home
and with the church everywhere.‘
It is good to think that this astronaut, amid the technological triumph
was aware of his need of Christ and of his bond with the church.
But what about the other man just a few feet away in the space craft?
Did he share with him?.
It is sad that it took years for Buzz to get over his disappointment
that Neil Armstrong claimed the privilege
of being the first man to step on the surface.
It was good to have the Lord’s Supper on the moon
but even at holy moments like that we are still imperfect people.
Isn’t it always most difficult to relate to the person nearest you,
be it on the moon or Cork or in Corinth?

Here in Cork, the problem may be even greater
because we live in a culture which has placed a lot on the sacraments.
In the major religious tradition, the mass is celebrated at almost every service
including funerals and weddings.
The problem with such frequent communion services
is that it may lead to unreflecting, unprepared communion
without full awareness of the person next to you,
nor, most of all, of the giver of the feast

In Corinth, things had got so bad in casual, unthinking communion
that Paul had had to say
(20) ‘when you come together it is not the Lord’s Supper that you eat.’.
In those days, a real meal was combined with the Lord’s Supper.
It was called a ‘love feast’
but there was not much love in the Corinthians’ love feast.
The rich people came in early, laden with food and drink, and a great party.
The slaves and the poor came in later, hungry, tired, empty handed.

Have you ever come late to a party, and all the food has gone
and the people stand around in little groups, ignoring you
and you feel really out of it as a latecomer,
and especially if you couldn’t help being late.
Things like that happen at parties, but should they happen in the church?

Paul says this is a travesty, an abuse, a farce.
People who get greedy and drunk and behave as if in an exclusive club
cannot be said to be ‘recognising the body of the Lord’ (29)

So Paul says, harshly but rightly, that God will judge such behaviour:
he may even afflict some with illness and death
as a severe discipline to bring the church to its senses.

Now we are not to conclude that if we are ill
it is because God is judging us for an irreverent or uncaring deed or attitude.
Sometimes our suffering is a direct judgement on our ill disciplined behaviour:
the leader of our country knows full well now
that it was not a good idea to stay up to 330 in the morning
and then try to do an important interview on breakfast radio.
If you are sick and are wondering
if you have done something for which God is disciplining you
God will show you what the problem is
and you can confess the wrong you did and he will restore you.

But this is a solemn warning about what may happen
when we are irreverent at the Lord’s table
and show our indifference to God and to others.

We all know of parties which have been spoiled by a ‘party plonker’
someone who dominates things with a loud voice, often oiled by alchohol
and there’s a bad taste left for everyone else
and you can imagine how the host feels, with hospitality abused.

What Paul is saying in 1 Corinthians 11 is that
there is a wonderful welcome to us to come to Christ’s party
and a solemn warning not to despise or abuse his hospitality.

Jesus told a story in Matthew 22.1-14 which shows what happens to people
who abuse the invitation of a king to his son’s wedding banquet.
There are those who reject the invitation outright
and treat the bearers of the invitation with contempt and even worse.
Well, those people get what they deserve from the king.
Then he sends out more invitations to all sorts of people, good and bad.

You can see who is who in the story:
the first group who rejected are the Jews, rejecting Jesus;
the next group are the non Jews, which includes us,
that’s the wonder of the gospel invitation,
it’s offered to everyone, wherever you’ve come from
whatever you have done, whatever you’ve been like.
But that doesn’t mean you can treat the host in any old sort of way.

At the banquet is a man not wearing a wedding garment.
The custom was that a special gown was handed out at the door
but for whatever reason, this man just turns up in his own clothes.
It’s like turning up to meet the President at her home in Phoenix Park,
in your gardening clothes, shabby and soiled.

So this man meets the bouncers. He is excluded. He has no answer to give.
He had a free invitation
but he could not be bothered to make use of the new clothes, freely available.

Is not that story saying something very serious
both to those who reject the invitation totally
and to those who want to enjoy the favour of the king
but are not prepared to change in any way?

Can you not see Jesus with wide open arms, welcoming us, --
he whose arms were stretched out on the cross for us
and some people only superficially respond to that invitation
but actually they join those who stream past the cross
and its invitation to share in the light of God’s loving presence
and both groups move into the darkness of being without God
and excluded from the heavenly feast forever.

How should we respond then?
It is the same as with any invitation:
REPLY, GET READY, MIND YOUR MANNERS, SAY THANKS

REPLY,
As it says on some invitations RSVP,
from the French Respondez, S’il Vous Plait
Reply to Jesus. Thank him for the invitation.
Tell him indeed that you feel most undeserving
and then let him remind you that he died for you
not because you were worth saving, (why then would he have to die for you?)
but he died in order to deal with your sin and make you worthy

GET READY

Then you must put the the white wedding garment that our host offers
It is so well described in the communion hymn:
‘Mine is the sin, but yours the righteousness:
mine is the guilt, but yours the cleansing blood
here is my robe, my refuge, and my peace;
your blood, your righteousness, O Lord my God!’
.
Imagine having some special clothes in the wardrobe which were a gift.
Somebody chose them carefully for you, made sure that they fitted,
a gift that cost a lot, but suppose you never wear them?
What would the giver think? And do you get the benefit?
Respond, clothe yourself in the robe of righteousness:
let your eating of the bread and drinking of the cup at the table
be an expression of that repentant faith, that personal commitment to Jesus.
Say to him,
‘Lord I thank you for the invitation, and I come though I am not worthy,
for I also thank you for the robe of righteousness freely held out to me
so that I may sit at your feast, and no-one will throw me out.’
MIND YOUR MANNERS

Although we are unworthy of Jesus’ death for us
Christ calls us into fellowship, to live in his presence, to have him live in us
calls us to a life that will be worthy of him
and, as Paul writes here to the Corinthian Christians
to examine ourselves, lest we eat and drink unworthily.
The free and undeserved invitation to feast with Christ
calls us to ask if there anything in my life
which contradicts me being at the Lord’s table:
things you think or do or say, or don’t do but should have done
anything that you would be ashamed to bring into the light of Christ?

Tell him about those things, don’t hang back because of them,
Say Lord, these things are wrong, forgive me.
May I know I am forgiven
and may I also know that your spirit is in me
to help me to live in a different way.

Make sure this examination you do is of yourself and not of anyone else.
It’s so easy, isn’t it to look around and think:
‘What’s he doing here?’ ‘Do those people really believe?’
‘How could God invite her?‘
but that is not what we are asked to do.
We are asked to examine ourselves, not other people.
Have I responded? Am I wearing the clothes provided for me?
And in regard to the other people round about,
not what have they done, not even what have they done to me
but am I right in regard to them?
Do I offer them forgiveness,
even if they won’t ask for forgiveness
or even feel they don’t need to be forgiven?
If we can’t help feeling there is something wrong in their lives
the first question we should then ask is how can I help them?
Will I at least pray for them, and pray humbly, aware that I’m just as sinful?
Could I offer help in some way? Can I encourage? Show sympathy?
Doesn’t John write in his first letter
that if we are serious about loving God whom we have not seen
then we are to be serious about loving our brother whom we have seen?
For if we don’t love the people near us, whom we do see
can we really say we love God whom we don’t see?
To be indifferent to other people, not to care for them,
is as bad as irreverence for God;
the two aspects always go together, a restored relationship
with God in Christ and with each other in Christ.

Finally, the last thing we should do when we leave a party:
SAY THANKS
The Lord’s Supper is of course
permeated with thanksgiving through and through,
which is why some churches call it ‘eucharist’
from the Greek word for thanksgiving.

As Jewish people at the Passover thank God for gifts of bread and wine
and for the whole story of their deliverance from slavery
and as Jesus did the same at the last supper
so in our communion service we should not only give thanks
for the wonderful giving up of Christ to save us
but also afterwards we should go on being thankful:
thankful that it was good to draw near to God
and have this special communion with him
thankful for spiritual nourishment
thankful for fellowship with each other
thankful for the privilege of being invited at all.

Lord,
remind us of this high privilege of touching holy things in the Lord’s Supper.
Forgive us for when we handled carelessly.
May the ears which have heard your word of forgiveness and reconciliation
be deaf to dispute, gossip, back biting.
May the tongues which have sung your praise
be free from deceit and accusation.
May the eyes which see the tokens of your love
take in only whatever is pure and good and lovely
and may the bodies which you nourish in every way
be refreshed with the fulness of your life
that lasts for ever and ever and gets better and better.

Sermon of 12 September 2010 No 9 False Witness or Faithful Witness? James 3.1-12

James 3.1-12

Lord, as we look at your Commandments
take from us any thought about how bad other people are, breaking your laws
and we congratulate ourselves that we are not as bad as them.
Rather may our prayer be that you will have mercy on me a sinner.
Teach us where we are going wrong and how to get back to you.

She must have thought she would never be caught.
There she was stroking this cat sitting on top of a wheelie bin
and the street was empty.
So on an impulse she popped the poor animal inside.
Fortunately for the cat, the bin had been emptied
and its owners heard its cries hours later.
Unfortunately for the woman involved they had a tv camera installed
and with the help of Facebook or Youtube her crime went round the world
and she was soon caught.

Much as I love cats
there is something about the reaction to this story that disturbs me.
Yes, the evidence was conclusive, there was nothing false about it
but isn’t there something false in the reaction?
Something vindictive, something out of proportion to the wrong?
Did you notice how the clip was played and replayed on the news
while the real news should have been about the floods in Pakistan or billions of bank debt?

If the point of ‘You shall not bear false witness’
was only that we should tell the truth and not lie
this would be a short though worthwhile sermon
but what this command highlights
is the danger of what we say about other people
and the danger of how we say what we say
even if the what should happen to be true.
There’s something disturbing in the reaction the cat in the bin story
in how it has been reported and how it has been received.

The 10th commandment which we looked at last week
deals with our inner desire to have more and more and how we lose our peace
but the 9th commandment targets what we say
and we may extend its scope beyond the very important area of giving true evidence in a court
and not doing someone down by lying about him and falsely accusing him.

Something very serious has gone wrong in a society
where the legal process is undermined by lying
but something is also deeply wrong where there is a culture in general
of loose talk and gossip and character assassination.

People sometimes say words don’t matter but they do, deeply.
On 9/11 those poor people on the doomed planes
used their mobile phones to talk to their loved ones to tell them ‘I love you’.
Don’t those words matter?
Or the promises made in a marriage, or any promise,
or the verdict pronounced in a law case ‘Guilty or Not guilty’?
Those words matter so much.

Even Christian people can cause great damage with our words
as James makes clear in 3.1-12
He warns to be careful if you want to be a teacher in church
‘because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly‘.
He says that Christians all stumble in many ways.
‘If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man,
able to keep his whole body in check.’
Then he says that the tongue is a small part of the body
but it can do great good or great harm.
It’s like the small bit in a horse’s mouth
where a huge animal can be turned in any direction
or a big ship can be steered by a small rudder.
The he uses the picture of a big forest fire caused by one small spark
and goes on to state that on-one can tame the tongue.
‘It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.’

Here James is describing that struggle which we all have in this life
that even though we are forgiven and accepted by God
there are bits of us which still need to be converted
bits of us deep down which cause us to think and say stupid things -
things which often we bitterly regret for the harm they do.
So we are people who can use our tongues at one moment to sing God’s praise
and in the next moment actually to curse other people.

James is clear that this should not happen.
It is a contradiction of who we are in Christ.
Every time we see this contradiction in ourselves we must never be happy about it
We may seek and find forgiveness for it
but we must learn to regret deeply and renounce those parts of us
that still react in disobedience and produce such bitter fruit.

Are we aware of how one little word can be like a spark in a dry forest
and start something that gets out of control?
We need to be aware of a downward spiral
where innocent chat can suddenly change into something poisonous or devastating.

Lets think about the different levels of our conversations.

At level 1 it is simply everyday chat about everyday things
the weather, people’s health, the economy, sport.
No problem.

In level 2 we dip with talk that is true but unhelpful.
How positive and constructive are these remarks?
"He never comes to church." "Her father is a drunk."
"Those people never change.”
Do you see how we can say something true
and yet become negative and destructive, condemnatory?

Level 3 is when truth is abandoned as we exaggerate
or hear someone else say something that gets it wrong and we don’t correct.
One distortion leads to another. "I saw her at the doctor's."
"Perhaps she’s pregnant." "Maybe it's twins'" "She's going to have twins."
And then (months later) "I wonder what happened ... "

A film company advertised with this quote from a review
saying that the lead actor was ‘fierce, magnetic, irresistible even…”
What the advert. did not say was that the review went on
‘But even this actor can only do so much.’

Do you see how it is so easy to twist and distort and quote out of context
and uncritically repeat what others have said without checking it out
or asking: ‘Is this what a follower of Jesus should say?’

And then it’s not a long drop to Level 4
where we deliberately lie for our own advantage.
I hope you see that this 9th commandment refers also to
Level 2 - talk which is negative and unhelpful
and to Level 3 - talk which selects and distorts.

How then may we bear faithful witness instead of false witness?

J John in his book ‘Ten’ about the Commandments
recommends this THINK test.

T is it True?
H is it Helpful?
I is it Inspiring?
N is it Necessary?
K is it Kind?

Obviously, if something is not true, we should not say it.
But we need to think also that some things could be true but unhelpful.
It may be true that someone’s father is a drunk
but it could be so cruel and unnecessary to say that.
We need instead to think of things to say
that are inspiring and positive, constructive and encouraging.
We need to ‘talk in the light'.

That’s not say we can never tell somebody off for doing something wrong.
While we need to encourage
we should not lock into some kind of sickly sweet mutual admiration group
where we live in la la land and never get real about things that need sorting.
Paul in Colossians 3 says
we should 'teach and admonish each other with all wisdom'
that is, we should have a relationship with each other
where we can tell someone off and they can correct us too
when it is done in a wise and controlled and humble way
when we prayerfully discern when it is the time to say something
and when it is not the time.

So, do we ‘talk in the light’?

Is what we say about people when they are not there
the same as we would say when they are there?
Is it both true and helpful and inspiring and necessary and kind?

And do we also talk of the light?

Are we willing to replace gossip with gospel?

Are we ready not simply to have speech
that is true and helpful and inspiring and necessary and kind
but also that speaks of Jesus?

Please don’t panic when I mention this.
I am not saying that we all have to preach in the open air
or give out leaflets or talk to complete strangers about our faith
though God does call and equip some people to that gift of evangelism
but it is clear that every Christian is called to be a faithful witness.
We are not to deny Jesus.
If we are asked we should say something.
It’s not that we have to give knock down answers to Stephen Hawking or Richard Dawkins
but that we can simply share what we believe in our deepest heart.
Even if our testimony goes not much further than saying
something like: ‘I can’t answer your difficulties about suffering or science
but I do know this, that I love Jesus and more important Jesus loves me.’

As Peter wrote in his first letter c 3.
‘Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you
to give the reason for the hope that you have.
But do this with gentleness and respect.’

Do people near us know not only
that that we are truthful and reliable and kind and positive people -
we ‘talk in the light’
but also that the reason for this is that we follow Jesus -
we ‘talk of the light’

False witness or faithful witness?
Pastor Jones in Florida is in danger of being a false witness.
Where is any gentleness and respect and wisdom
in his proposal to have a public burning of Korans?
That’s easy to see
but if we keep quiet about our faith all the time, isn’t that false too?
Or if our everyday talk is not in the light?

One last thing, which I will repeat each week with each commandment.
The law of God shows us what God wants in our lives
but does not show us how to be reconciled with God.
The commandments are instead a map showing us ways in which
to please and serve the God who has first loved us and rescued us.

We must always remember how the commandments start
with God telling his people who he is and what he has done for them
and therefore this is how they are to live.

The preface to the ten commandments is in these words,
I am the Lord thy God,
who have brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.
The preface to the ten commandments teaches us
that because God is the Lord, and our God, and redeemer,

therefore we are bound to keep all his commandments.

We must never think:
if I can just control my speech, conquer my tendency to exaggerate and gossip
then God will love me and I‘ll be a good Christian.
Rather, we should be thinking
because God loves me and I am secure in him
then I can guard my tongue,
I don’t need to let it run away and cause damage
and I can start being truthful and helpful, inspiring, wise and kind
as my words and my deeds reflect his light in me.

Set a watch O God on my lips
May every word be a reason for people to praise you.
May the Holy Spirit make us in every way faithful witnesses.
Helping us to speak the truth with grace, truth in love
truth to build up and restore not to knock and condemn
Help us to speak graciously, sensitively and wisely
knowing when to speak and when to be silent.

Sermon of 5 September 2010 No 10 Covetous or Content? Colossians 3.1—17

Theme: The Ten Commandments

Title: No 10 Covetous or Content?

Date: 2010-09-05

Colossians 3.1—17

Lord, as we look at your Commandments
take from us any thought about how bad other people are, breaking your laws and we congratulate ourselves that we are not as bad as them.
Rather may our prayer be that you will have mercy on me a sinner.
Teach us where we are going wrong and how to get back to you.

17 “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour.”

Have you had that experience
when you finally decided what you’ll have in a restaurant
and then when the meals arrived
you wished you’d ordered what your neighbour was having?

Or a car sweeps past you on the motorway a 10 reg. gleaming fast …

Or think back to how you felt at school prize day or sports day
and what you felt about people going up to get their prizes and medals.
Were you really happy for them
or were you thinking ‘it should have been me’ I wish it was me’.’

I am starting this series on the Ten Commandments
from the end rather than the beginning -
lets not say it’s the wrong way round;
rather we are starting with that which is nearest to our experience
because even if we have never stolen or committed adultery or murdered
we have all coveted.

To covet is to have desire for something
in a way that takes away all peace with God or neighbour

it may be a possession or it may be a position
it could be a car or a sports medal or a job promotion
but if our desire leaves us feeling discontented, angry, jealous
then we’ve crossed the line between desire and coveting.

Lets be clear that not all desire is wrong
We have deep desires for good things:
pleasure and joy, belonging, security comfort and safety excitement adventure
We want to be well respected, looked up to, to be significant and loved
and to have some meaning in our lives.
We desire that those near and dear to us should do well.
Those are not wrong desires
but desire becomes coveting
when we have an illegitimate or wrongful desire for something
that, for whatever reason, is not ours to have.

Lets look at some Bible stories that illustrate the dangers of crossing that line

We start with the earliest story and perhaps the saddest
what happened in the garden of Eden in Genesis 3.
Somebody pointed out to me recently
that so many of the Ten Commandments are prefigured in Genesis 1-3
That there is only one God whom we should worship
that we should honour him as creator and not worship the creation – no idols
that we should respect the one day in seven principle of sabbath rest
the foundations of family life, marriage and children are there
and in c 3 clearly we are to set limits on our desires, do not covet.
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,
and that it was a delight to the eyes,
and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,
she took of its fruit and ate,
and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. ‘

Good to eat, good to look at, good for the ego
to make you wise and independent of God
These inflamed desires shouted so loudly that the clear command of God
not to eat of that one tree, with everything else freely available
was set aside, ignored.
The result?
7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.
Shame and guilt. They hide from each other and they hide from God
That wonderful free open relationship with the LORD
where they could walk and talk with him was lost;
the results of that disobedience have marked and shaped
every human being since.
To covet is to have desire for something
in a way that takes away all peace with God or neighbour:

Don’t fondly imagine that a good Christian redeemed by God
is immune from coveting:
John wrote in his first letter (2.15-16), addressing believers:
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world.
If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For everything in the world
—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes
and the boasting of what he has and does
—comes not from the Father but from the world.
Isn’t it almost as if John is commenting on Genesis 3?
Good to look, at good to eat, desired to make one wise …

Or take the story of King Ahab in 1 Kings 21
a wealthy and powerful man who still wanted more
who coveted Naboth’s vineyard.
The vineyard was close to Ahab’s palace.
Ahab offered to buy the vineyard to use for a vegetable garden,
But Naboth refused to sell the inheritance of his fathers.
He saw that property as something he had inherited
and held in trust to pass on to his descendants
a conviction which was supported by the Old Testament law;
What happens next shows how Ahab had crossed the line
from a reasonable desire to extend his garden to a covetous desire
which destroyed his peace with God and his neighbour
(4) So Ahab went home, sullen and angry
because Naboth had said, I will not give you the inheritance of my fathers.
He lay on his bed sulking and refused to eat.
And then his wife Jezebel proposed a wicked solution
to set up false charges against Naboth and get rid of him.
And Naboth was wrongly convicted and executed
and Ahab got the property he longed for but he got no peace with God.

It’s a very good rule of life
that if something goes wrong, if we don’t get what we want
and we react with anger, sulking, resentment, jealousy …
then we have let our desire which might otherwise be fine and good
cross that line of danger into disobedience.

I could give many more examples from the Bible about these dangers:
the jealousy Saul had for David, his desperate, insecure, driven life,
or Simon in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 8.9-23) who so wanted spiritual gifts
that he thought he could pay money for them
but Peter warned him to repent of his bitterness of spirit and captivity to sin.

But the ultimate warning about being greedy
is surely in the story Jesus told about the rich fool
A rich man had a fertile farm that produced fine crops.
He said to himself, “What should I do? I don’t have room for all my crops.”
Then he said, “I know! I’ll tear down my barns and build bigger ones.
Then I’ll have room enough to store all my wheat and other goods.
And I’ll sit back and say to myself, ‘
My friend, you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy!
Eat, drink, and be merry!’”
But God said to him, “You fool! You will die this very night.
Then who will get everything you worked for?”
Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth
but not have a rich relationship with God. (Luke 12:16–21 NLT)

Lets be absolutely clear that coveting -
our out of order, out of control desires for whatever -
destroys peace with God and peace with others.

The collapse of the Presbyterian Mutual Society is a scary revelation
of how even respectable prudent moral Presbyterians
can be guilty of covetousness.

[The PMS is a savings group for members of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland
a bit like a credit union which is currently in administration.]
I speak as a saver who wonders will I get my money back.
Many of us were attracted by the good interest rates year by year.
We were at best naively over confident
that it would be well supervised and regulated.
We went along unthinkingly with the bubble economics of the boom years
that property values and shares would always keep rising.
We can put some of the blame on the British government
for some actions and lack of action
and we need to be aware that some small savers
are in serious financial hardship
but having said all that, anyone involved needs to ask:
were we swept along by an undercurrent of covetousness?

Dr Stafford Carson, last year’s Moderator
has been trying to help in this situation.
Recently he commented that sadly the staff of the Society,
secretaries answering the phone and doing admin.,
have had to endure all sorts of abuse as if it were their fault.
Do you see the difference
between an understandable concern to manage one’s money
which makes you disappointed at this outcome
and a giving way to anger and bitterness like Ahab, like Simon
when things don’t turn out the way we had planned?
Have some savers crossed the line into coveting
threatening their peace with God and with others?
A matter for continued repentant prayer.

What are the answers or antidotes to coveting?

HEART SURGERY

Simon in Acts 8 had been baptised, he was among the followers of Christ
but Peter discerned that his heart was not right,
he needed to repent of his craving for spiritual gifts
and the folly of thinking he could buy them.

It is not just Simon whose heart is not right.

God made a wonderful promise through the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel (36:26):
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you;
I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh”

This heart transplant is exactly what happens when we come to know Jesus.
He removes from us our old hearts, curved in on themselves,
self-obsessed and selfish.
In their place, he gives us his own heart. It is an extraordinary exchange.
He takes our messy, malfunctioning hearts and replaces them with his.
If your heart feels tired and self-obsessed,
might it not be evidence that you need that heart transplant?
Whoever we are, wherever we are,
we need to ask him to take our old hard heart from us
and give us his heart instead.
We all need a heart transplant.
We need to turn our lives over to Jesus,
to stop running our lives on our terms and accept his terms
to allow his death to cover our sins
and to live in the power of his resurrection.
Have you had that heart transplant?

And just as after heart surgery
people need to learn new ways of exercise and lifestyle
to stop their new heart and arteries getting clogged up
with a new heart
so we need the following disciplines which run counter to coveting.

BE THANKFUL AND CONTENT
It was there chiming away in the final verse in our reading from Colossians 3
Be thankful, (15) gratitude in your hearts towards God, (16)
giving thanks to God the Father through him (17)
And contentment is seen in Philippians 4.11-12
The apostle Paul, wrote from prison:
“I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation,
whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want”
in or out of prison, in good times and bad, in boom and recession.
Are we known for being thankful, contented people,
or ungrateful, discontented, complaining.
Whose company would you prefer?

DON’T THINK ‘MINE’ THINK ‘GOD’S’

It is a good exercise to imagine our hands as holding on to all our possessions
and to all we hold most dear in life
it might be our position at work or in the community, what people think of us
our big ambitions.
Do we not often grasp everything tightly? It’s for me. It’s mine.
Like a child with a toy, we don’t want to let go and share with someone else.

We need to come to a place where we see all that we have and all that we are
as gifts from God held in trust for a while
to use and enjoy but to hold lightly not tightly.

To covet is to have desire for something
in a way that takes away all peace with God or neighbour

When we hold on too tightly where is our peace with God and others?
When we learn to hold things lightly, thankfully
as belonging ultimately to God and not us
we shall find peace.

One last thing, which I may repeat each week with each commandment.
The law of God shows us what God wants in our lives
but does not show us how to be reconciled with God.
The commandments are rather a map showing us ways in which
to please and serve the God who has first loved us and rescued us.

We started with the last commandment
But lets remember how the commandments start
with God telling his people who he is and what he has done for them
and therefore this is how they are to live .

The preface to the ten commandments is in these words,
I am the Lord thy God,
who have brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.
The preface to the ten commandments teaches us
that because God is the Lord, and our God, and redeemer,
therefore we are bound to keep all his commandments.

We must never think:
if I can be less covetous, less greedy then God will love me.
Rather we should be thinking
because God loves me and I am secure in him
then I can let go of all this stuff and desire to acquire
and being grumpy when I don’t get it
and I can start being thankful and content and generous
and holding things in trust.

‘If we could just obey this one commandment
it would have such an impact on our lifestyles
that the change would perhaps draw more people to Christ than anything else.’
(Stephen Gaukroger)

And could it be that people are not being drawn to Christ in great numbers
because we don’t obey this commandment?

Riches I heed not nor man’s empty praise
Lord, you are our inheritance, now and always

Let us no longer crave the salty water which just makes us more and more thirsty
Let us know what it is to drink deeply of your love and grace in Jesus
Setting us free, giving us life, enabling us to overflow with blessing to others

The Shorter Catechism on the Ten Commandments

(basic teachings of the Presbyterian Church, drawn up in 1647, in modern English]

Tenth Commandment Exodus 20.17

You shall not covet your neighbour’s house.
You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife,
or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey,
or anything that belongs to your neighbour.


Q. 43. What is the preface to the ten commandments?
A. The preface to the ten commandments is in these words,

I am the Lord thy God,
who have brought you out of the land of Egypt,
out of the house of bondage.

Q. 44. What does the preface to the ten commandments teach us?
A. The preface to the ten commandments teaches us
that because God is the Lord, and our God, and redeemer,
therefore we are bound to keep all his commandments.

Q. 80. What is required in the tenth commandment?

A. The tenth commandment requires
full contentment with our own condition,
with a right and loving frame of spirit
toward our neighbour, and all that is his.


Q. 81. What is forbidden in the tenth commandment?
A. The tenth commandment forbids
all discontentment with our own situation,
envying or grieving at the good of our neighbour,
and all out of order, inappropriate thoughts or feelings
about what our neighbour has.

“Coveting is like sea water;
the more we drink the thirstier we become.”
(Schopenhauer 1851)

Sermon of 29 August 2010 Psalm 110 Acts 2.22-36 Jesus is on the Throne

Psalm 110 Acts 2.22-36

While I was in our church building on 'Cork Heritage Day'
one of the visitors we welcomed was enthusiastic about his visit
to the top of the 'Elysian'a new skyscraper in the city centre
from which you can see Cork from a new perspective.
You get a bigger picture.

Stafford Carson at the ‘Confident in Christ’ conference
spoke about the big picture of the global perspective.
He suggested we have a too limited view of what’s going on in the world;
our horizon stops at the end of our pew or our street.

Across these islands in Britain as well as Ireland church statistics are in decline
and it‘s easy to get depressed.
But the global perspective is different.
St Vincent de Paul wrote in 1640
a year which was violent and bad across Europe.
The great Catholic champion of the poor predicted that the church of the future
would be the church of Africa, of S. America of China and Japan.
With the exception of Japan that has turned out to be a true prophecy.
Across Africa, S America , China and much of Asia
Christianity has vital growth - new churches, many conversions
and much joyful endurance of persecution.

We should also be encouraged that this great growth of the church
undermines the allegation that missionaries were only tools of western colonialists.
In all these areas of growth colonialism is a fading memory
but the churches grow as authentic churches of their people not colonial hangovers -
Chinese or Brazilian or Korean or African churches …
These growing churches are led by people from those countries
and they are now sending missionaries westwards.

In 1910 a third of world’s population was Christian predominantly in America and Europe.
In 2010 of a vastly increased world population a third is still Christian
and the trends suggest this will still be the case in 2050.

So as we look outwards beyond our borders and small horizons
there is so much to encourage us and challenge us.
Christianity will be predominantly a Christianity of the poor
a different spiritual universe;
it flourishes among the poor and the persecuted;
It is declining among the rich and the secure.
We need humility therefore to find out how we witness and live as Christians.

Stafford Carson, who knows the USA well
cautioned us against looking across the Atlantic
and trying to copy successful churches there.
He also commented on the folly of trying to trim or change our message
to make it more palatable to the Western secular worldview.

While we take heart from what is going well in other places
the challenge is to understand what God is saying to us in Ireland.
The words of Peter in Jerusalem on the day the Holy Spirit fell
are a good place to start.

But before I take you briefly through what he says about Jesus,
lets think about what we might say
if someone asked us what is important about Jesus.
We might say that he was a man,
a good man who did a lot of wonderful things.
We might speak about his cruel death on the cross.
We should also mention his resurrection from the dead
to show that he is more than a man he is the Son of God.
What should we say next? What does the creed say?
‘On the third day he rose again from the dead …
he ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty’
Do we often miss out on the ascension of Jesus?
His triumphant arrival into heaven? His coronation?

His sitting beside the Father in full authority?

The ascension of Jesus should not be left out.
Many of our spiritual struggles, our sense of defeat, inconsistency, apathy
arise because we have forgotten about the ascended crowned Jesus.

THE REALITY OF THE REIGN OF JESUS

This is where Peter takes the people in Acts 2.
He starts as we might with the man Jesus. (22)
He reminds them of how they put Jesus to death (23)
He then affirms the wonder of the resurrection (24)
and quotes Psalm 16 where King David declared (27)
you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
Peter then reminds them that (29)
‘David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day‘.
but David was speaking of the resurrection of the Messiah, the Christ
the coming anointed King
And Peter says that Jesus is this risen King (32)
‘ God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact.’
But does Peter stop there?
Jesus is King not simply because he is raised from the dead
but because he is (33) ‘exalted to the right hand of God,
The great King David died and was buried.
He did not rise from the dead still less go up into heaven.
But David prophesied in Psalm 110
"`The Lord said to my Lord: "Sit at my right hand
5 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."'

Psalm 110:1

Peter then declares to the people:
‘God has made this Jesus whom you crucified both Lord and Christ’

CRUCIFIED BY PEOPLE, CROWNED BY God

Here is an important difference between King Jesus and any other ruler.
It’s hinted at in the life of Jesus in the gospels.
Have you ever noticed that puzzling thing
that again and again when Jesus did something wonderful

healing the sick, feeding thousands of people
he does not want any publicity,

he tells people to keep quiet about it?
Particularly after the feeding of the 5000

people come to make him king (John 6.15)
and Jesus goes off on his own.
He will not be made king.

The only crown he had from human beings was a crown of thorns.
The only cries about him as King were cries not of praise and celebration
but of mockery and derision.

Jesus chose the cross instead of a crown.
He took the road of suffering rather than political struggle.
He would let nothing distract him from being the perfect sacrifice for us.
His coronation in heaven had nothing of sinful human manipulation about it.
Jesus is King not because his followers then said he should be

or because we today say he is.

Jesus is King because God says he is.

We live in a part of the world where Christianity is now seen as bad news, not good:
out of date, irrelevant, discredited, oppressive, stupid …a minority interest,

a cultural curiosity out of which people think they have grown
(and some of you from other countries have found the contrast shocking
because in your home place Christianity is very good news)

But here’s the thing.
What people think about Jesus and Christianity does not change this reality.
Jesus is King because God says he is.
He is not subject to opinion polls and statistical surveys
and especially when the mocking or the indifference gets to us
we need to spend more time in the throne room of God
where Jesus sits at the right hand of God
and then go out to tell people that the King reigns and he is coming back.
We are not begging to make Jesus king as if it were in doubt
We are proclaiming the universal Lordship of Christ
We are calling people to come to terms with the good news
that he is the king of glory.

In Greek usage in New Testament times ‘evangelist’ could be used

to describe the king’s herald going before him to tell towns and villages
the good news that the king was coming.
Jesus himself used the word in that way in Mark 1.15
when he preaches the good news and says
“The time has come. The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news’
Our good news is now even better
in the light of the cross and the resurrection and the ascension.
The kingdom has come:
Jesus Christ has died for our sins

Jesus Christ is risen
Jesus Christ sits at God’s right hand.
He who suffered and was humiliated
now has his rightful place on the throne of God.

JESUS SITS AT God’s RIGHT HAND

Psalm 110 says
[1] The LORD says to my Lord:
"Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet."

When we think of a throne we think of a golden seat
with room enough for one king or queen at a time.
But thrones in those days were like sofas:

the king could invite someone as the highest honour
to sit with him in the seat of power.

And to sit there, not simply to rest but to reign.
There is the sense in his sitting down of a work completed:
His suffering is ended, his sacrifice completed
but we know there is much work on earth still to be done.
The end result is not at all in doubt -
the enemy is on the run
but there still remains a lot of mopping up to be done,

a lot of sorting out a lot of announcing of the kings’ reign.

So there is also the sense which we use when we say a law court is sitting
which is another way of saying that the judge is at work hearing cases, giving judgements.
So here the king sits on the throne in session (sitting) to attend to the affairs of the state.

Jesus is not on holiday or in retirement
He is on our case. He is interested in how we are doing.
He knows and shares our sorrows and joys.
And he is willing to hear our petitions and cries for help
when things get tough.

THE MYSTERY OF THE KINGDOM

The Bible is realistic.
This kingdom of God is not always clear in the here and now.
There is still sin, struggle, suffering, misunderstanding, disobedience.
That is why Psalm 110 says v 1
till I make your enemies your footstool.
Not all the enemies have yet submitted to Christ but one day they will.
And v 2 reassures us you will rule in the midst of your enemies.
That is a precise description of what is happening today.
Earthly rulers make borders and seek to exclude enemies

but here down on earth Christ’s kingdom is being established right among his enemies.
Messiah has entered the camp of his enemy
and he has a volunteer army, his people will offer themselves freely
and they will be as numerous as drops of dew at daybreak
3 Your troops will be willing on your day of battle

THE METHODS OF THE KINGDOM

The war rages, we are behind enemy lines
but Jesus rules in the camp of his enemies
and it is only right to pray and expect
that at least some and we could say many of the enemies of Jesus will be destroyed
not by being crushed in a bloody battle
but by becoming the friends of Jesus, by being converted.

The big danger of using a military picture of war and fighting
is that we think of it in a fleshly and not a spiritual way.
We can so easily get proud and vindictive and vicious in this struggle.
But the kingdom of Christ is not of this world (John 18.36)
and the weapons we use are not of this world.
Stafford Carson quoted Tim Keller that
in Christ we have ‘the strongest possible resource for practising
sacrificial service, generosity and peace making’
At the very heart of our view of reality is a man who died for his enemies
praying for their forgiveness.
This means we must not act with violence and oppression towards our opponents.

Later on in Acts chapter seven we read of the dreadful death of Stephen
stoned for his faith in Jesus.
Do you remember what he prayed as he was dying:
‘"Lord, do not hold this sin against them."
A prayer for forgiveness.
We are then told that Saul of Tarsus was there consenting to his death,
holding the coats of his killers.
What happens just a chapter later?
The conversion of Saul of Tarsus, the No. 1 persecutor of Christians.
The battle we fight is not a ‘jihad’ an unholy war
to cow people and coerce them to becoming Christians.
It is a battle fought with prayer, repentance, consecration to Christ
and with love and forgiveness for our opponents
with the desire that their eyes may be opened as our eyes had to be opened
to realise that Jesus Christ is Lord
and we all need to submit to him.

Lets be confident, therefore,
that there shall be significant conversions in our time.
We should pray and expect conversions among the Taliban.
Why not? It has happened to paramilitaries in this country.
We should pray for and expect conversions among leading atheists and critics of Christianity.
We should pray for and expect spiritual strongholds to fall.

Jesus crowned by his Father and seated on the heavenly throne
has not put his feet up and left us to a vain struggle down here.
He is vitally interested in what we are experiencing
and is with us in a holy fight.

Be King in our lives, Lord Jesus.
Help us to remember what it means that you sit at God’s right hand.
Let us not crown you in this church
but have another God and Lord outside.
Help us by the Spirit’s power
to live under your rule and reign consistently and continually

May your eyes see the king in his beauty
May you ever worship him seated on the throne
May his hope give you purpose in living;
may his joy be your strength;
may his purity keep you clean in thought and action;
may his peace transform all your relationships;
may his blessing make you truly thankful;
and may you ever live in his love.

Sermon of Sunday 22 August 2010 Great Peace and No Stumbling Psalm 119.161-176

Psalm 119.161-176

165 Great peace have they who love your law,
and nothing can make them stumble.

Think for a moment how you react when something goes wrong.

Do you panic and run around like Corporal Jones in ‘Dad’s Army;
shouting ‘Don’t panic’?
Do you look around for some else to blame? ‘It must be their fault’
Do you turn the blame in on yourself? ‘It’s always my fault.’
Do you blame God?
How do you handle pressure from others and criticism?
Is it likewise either accusing them or condemning yourself?

And then you realise that you are no longer walking with God
- you’ve fallen flat on your face, you’ve stumbled.

Isn’t v 165 such a positive and challenging call to keep walking
and not let ourselves trip up?

165 Great peace have they who love your law,
and nothing can make them stumble.

One of our missionaries in India found herself with an Indian pastor
acting as mediators between Hindus and Muslims
in violent conflict with each other.
It was not the easiest place to be but she recalled saying to her colleague:
‘you know we ought to feel afraid, but I don’t’
and he said the very same;
and then one of them said to the other:
‘This must be nothing other than the peace of God.’

They had great peace in their close relationship with him
and so they were kept from fear in a fearful situation
and kept from any kind of reaction that would have tripped them up.

At the Coleraine conference ‘Confident in Christ’
one of our missionaries in Malawi told the story of a dreadful road accident.
A family he knew were moving house.
They had piled all their furniture on a truck and the family sat on the very top.
As the truck climbed a hill it skidded off the road and down a bank
and one child was killed and the others in the family badly injured.
As he went to the hospital he wondered how he could comfort them
but the family comforted him.
The father said as African Christians often say:
‘God is good all the time, all the time God is good’
How can you say such a thing at such a time
unless you have that great peace which helps you not to stumble?

Is our peace great? Are we confident in Christ?
‘Here on Jesus Christ I will stand. He's the solid rock of my life.’
That’s easy to sing, but is it true for us?
Is it still true when things go wrong?

The secret of the great peace that keeps you from falling is
in the phrase ‘who love your law’.
65 Great peace have they who love your law,
and nothing can make them stumble.
This phrase does not refer to people who love bible studies
and know a lot about the Bible and win Bible quizzes.
It refers to people who rejoice in the covenant agreement
they have with God
people who love the Bible in the Old and New Testaments or Covenants
because it shows us how our relationship with God is grounded
and how it is to be lived out.
The writer of Psalm 119 is so passionate about the Law
because it is the link for him between heaven and earth,
between a holy God and us sinful humans.
It is God’s declaration to his people, bad and disobedient as they are
that he still loves them and has delivered them from slavery
and wants them to express that liberation by living in new and better ways.

Of course the New Testament shows us that Christ is the fulfilment of the law
so we love God’s law, we love the whole Bible
because it shows who Jesus is and what he has done for us
The holy scriptures are able to make you wise to salvation
through faith in Christ Jesus
as Paul reminded Timothy (2 Timothy 3.15)
And as he went on to say (vv 16-17)
'All Scripture is God-breathed
and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.'

If you want to be grounded in the great peace of God
you need to be well acquainted with the words of God
so that you won’t get tossed around in the storm or wander lost in the dark.
As Selwyn Hughes put it
'Someone who tries to live without the guidance of the Bible
is like a captain of a ship brushing aside his charts
and saying he will be guided only by his intuition.
No one can remain spiritual who is not scriptural.’

Ajith Fernando directs ‘Youth for Christ’ in Sri Lanka.
He spoke at the ‘Confident in Christ’ conference
and was very open about his own weakness.
He tells his workers:
‘When things are going well, read your bible,
that when things go badly it may help you.’
And he told this story about how he had become discouraged
by the great difficulties they were facing:
war, persecution, poverty, internal divisions.
One day he heard his wife saying to the children
in the sort of loud voice wives use when they are talking to the children
but have a message for their husbands.
‘Father is in a bad mood, lets hope he goes and reads his bible.’
Ajith said to us:
‘When I go to the scriptures I enter another world
where there is stability and security and I am lifted up.’
How relevant to Christians anywhere when so much is unstable and insecure!

65 Great peace have they who love your law,
and nothing can make them stumble.

And indeed even when we do stumble
what else helps us get up than what God says?

Lets be clear as we close that this is God’s peace from God’s word.
Jesus promised his disciples at a time of great fear and uncertainty
that he would give them his peace, not the world’s peace.

We all love the world’s peace:
times when the sun shines and it’s calm and bright
and the phone doesn’t ring and your neighbour’s music isn’t too loud
and burglar alarms aren’t shrieking away.
But that's a temporary peace.
And sadly some people think they can get peace
from a bottle or a pill or a needle.
but that is an addictive peace that destroys.

The world’s peace evaporates at the first sign of trouble
The great peace of Jesus is there in the times of trouble.
As somebody put it (E Clowney)
‘Peace is not just quiet fellowship with the Lord in the upper room.
Jesus gave shalom to his disciples
as he sent them into a world of trouble and suffering
and as he went to the cross
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.
In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."
(John 16.33)

So how do we react when we face trial and trouble?
Panic? Blame? Despair? Hurt?

I will not try to hide from you that I am not an expert in great peace.
Those who know me the best will know my weakness
that I too have bad moods when I need to go and read my Bible
and renew my relationship with the Lord.

My life, like all our lives, is a work in progress
and I thank God that things that used to annoy me a lot
don’t bother me so much now.

When I got into conflict with people especially over spiritual matters
it used to unsettle my peace.
If somebody said to me they didn’t believe in God at all
or mocked my beliefs as childish and out of date
I used to get defensive or depressed or even vindictive
trying to think of a smart reply to come out the winner in the argument
and have the last word.
A lot of that had to do with my desire to be right
and to be seen to be an effective, successful Christian.
I am still grieved by unbelief, it is sad when people mock Jesus.
I still struggle with criticism
how to accept it when it makes a fair point
and to leave it with Jesus when it is undeserved and unfair.
He took a lot of undeserved and unfair criticism.

But more and more I have come to see that my great peace
comes only from being accepted and forgiven and established by Jesus Christ
who died for me and is risen and exalted.
And I love the words of God in this book
because they make that clear
and reassure me when I get down
and challenge me when I get proud
and correct me when I want to go my own way.

Here on Jesus Christ I will stand.
He's the solid rock of my life.
It’s not the work of my hands
There's no other place I can hide
'til the storm that rages subsides.
My voice cries to God from the flood,
and I'm saved because of his blood.
He's the solid rock of my life.

Some verses from Psalm 112 (1,3-7)
make a good commentary on Psalm 119.

[1] Blessed is the man who fears the LORD,
who finds great delight in his commands.
[3] Wealth and riches are in his house,
and his righteousness endures forever.
[4] Even in darkness light dawns for the upright,
for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man.
[5] Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely,
who conducts his affairs with justice.
[6] Surely he will never be shaken;
a righteous man will be remembered forever.
[7] He will have no fear of bad news;
his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.

Speak to us, Lord Jesus ‘with the voice that spans the years,
speaking life, stirring hope, bringing peace to us’
you have died to be our peace, you have risen,
one day we shall be with you for ever.
Until then help us to cope joyfully with trouble
in your joy and your peace.

Lord,
help us to understand and accept your providence
which causes it to rain alike
upon the just and the unjust
and scatters things of this life
as trifles of so little importance
that they mean neither love nor hatred.
Please fix our steps that we may not stagger
at the uneven motions of this world,
but steadily go on to our glorious home,
neither judging our journey
by the weather we meet with
nor turning out of the way
for anything that happens to us,
as true followers of Jesus Christ.
(adapted from George Hickes edn
of devotions in the Ancient Way of Offices by John Austin
in An Anthology of Prayers ed. AST Fisher)


'May you receive the peace that Christ gives you, not as the world gives
May your hearts not be troubled or afraid.'
May his presence within guard and keep you from sin
Go in peace, go in joy, go in love.

Sermon of 15 August 2010 Taking in God's Word Psalm 119.137-160

Psalm 119.137-160

“We took shifts copying for 20 days continuously,
two copying and two correcting.
By the last night, we finished and went to return the Bible.
Exhausted, we fell asleep on the way.
Morning came and we rushed to return it to the elderly woman,
constantly apologizing.
We started reading our hand-copied Bible immediately.
At the time we had 10 churches, and we used that Bible during meetings.
This copy was lent among the churches.
This Bible is very precious to us.
We hid it at a meeting place by digging a hole,
putting it in and covering it with a rock.
I used it for 10 years, until it was discovered and confiscated.’’
(Chinese Christian)

How much do we value our Bibles?

“Thousands of people have given their life for it.
Prophets were killed for it. Apostles were killed for it.
Martyrs throughout church history have been were killed for it.
Today people are killed for it. And we just put it on the shelf?“
So says Brother Andrew ‘God’s smuggler’
who has devoted his life to sharing God’s word in the Communist world
and recently in Islamic countries.

Maybe you have been thinking that Psalm 119 with its 176 verses
is really rather too long.
I have to confess that I faced a bit of a block looking at this week’s section.
What new thing could I say from it that we have not already heard about
the light for our path and the passion to tears and freedom and suffering?
So lets turn to Nehemiah 8.
and highlight some things about how Ezra and the people responded to God's word -
it is a sort of demonstration in practice of many things in Psalm 119
We are in Jerusalem in the 440s BC;
a group of exiles under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah
are trying to rebuild Jerusalem, the ruined walls and the ruined temple.
Chapter 8 of Nehemiah gives us the start of the spiritual rebuilding programme
as a disorganised group of people begin to find their re orientation,
their new direction by God‘s word.

In the seventh month after their return
all the people assembled in the square before the Water Gate.
They told Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses,
which the LORD had commanded for Israel.
So Ezra brought the Law before the assembly,
which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand.
He read it aloud from daybreak till noon
And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.

v 1 'all the people ... told Ezra ...to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses,
and all the people listened attentively.'
Ezra was not imposing God's word on the people, it was their desire to hear it
they knew they needed direction, they told him to bring out the Book of the Law.

v 2 tells us that it was a great cross section of all people
men and women and all who were able to understand.
meaning children of an age to take it in

v 3 challenges us on our hunger for God’s word.
Are we among those who say a service should never last more than an hour and preferably less?
'He read it aloud from daybreak till noon....
And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law.'
We are talking of a gathering to hear God's word of 5 to 6 hours!

It would be interesting to do a survey some Sunday across Cork city
to measure the length of the sermon and the size of the congregation.
You may be surprised to hear that some of the best attended churches
have the longest sermons.
And if we could find out accurately the level of satisfaction
the sense of closeness to God, the feeling that it was time well spent
there could well be a link between the longer time taken with God’s word
and the depth of satisfaction.

V 4 shows us that Ezra was not on his own.
He was flanked by 13 other people who were presumably leaders in the community
giving the message that this wasn't Ezra out on his own
that the leadership of the community were with him shoulder to shoulder.
(When we have the Lord's Supper, something like this is seen as the elders sit with the minister.)

V 5 first simply describes how Ezra was visible to the whole crowd
but then it shows their response of awe and reverence.
As he opened the book, the people all stood up.
and then in v 6 they lift their hands in response to Ezra's praise
and then they prostrate themselves to the ground.

Just notice how demonstrative they were and how inexpressive we are!

vv 7-8 brings us an important principle that the Bible is not just to be read
but also explained
The Levites mentioned here may have been doing some translation
as the people may not have all understood the classical Hebrew
that Ezra was reading
but they may also have repeated and expanded what had been read
much as a preacher seeks to do today to make sure that everyone understands.

Like the Ethiopian in Acts 8 reading the prophet Isaiah.
Philip asks him: 'Do you understand what you are reading?'
and he replies: 'How can I, unless someone helps me.'
And Philip opens his mouth and tells him of Jesus.
People need the Bible explained; people need to be pointed to Jesus.

Their explanations must have been very clear and direct
because v 9 shows us the people weeping
as they listened to the words of the Law.
They realised just how far over the centuries they had strayed from the Law of God
They began to understand how the long years of exile
had been God's just judgement on his faithless people.
They realised that their lives were like a ship wrecked on a sandbank or a reef
because they had ignored the charts and the pilot's advice.
How foolish they had been, how disobedient and faithless
to a God who loved them and had saved them at the Exodus!
But here's a thing. Nehemiah and Ezra and the Levites
do not indulge in finger wagging. They do not thunder on:
"Weep indeed you foolish sinful people,
you deserve everything that's coming to you'

No, they say Don't weep! Rejoice!
10 'Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks,
and send some to those who have nothing prepared.
This day is sacred to our Lord.
Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength."

The point here is the one in the old children's chorus:
'He did not come to judge the world, he did not come to blame
it was to seek the lost, it was to save he came.
And when we call him Saviour, and when we call him Saviour
we call him by his name.'

Jesus will judge the world one day, but the reason for his first coming
the reason the scriptures are given is to make us wise by faith to salvation.
This is God's guide to life saving.
Nehemiah and the other leaders knew this even instinctively.

So the people wiped their tears away and went to party,
'to celebrate with great joy' in no selfish way,
They shared food with those who had none, so that no one was left out - why?
'because they now understood the words that had been made known to them.'
Words of challenge, yes, but first of all words of grace.
Direction for their walk with God.

Let's finish then by thinking how we apply this in our time and place.


1 HOW HUNGRY ARE WE FOR GOD'S WORD?
I don't think we should beat ourselves over the head
to be exactly like the people in Jerusalem 2,500 years ago
but their zeal should challenge us.
Standing for 5-6 hours, listening carefully, there's hunger to hear God.
Or the Chinese believers who spent hours copying the Bible out
while we leave it on a shelf?

One of the things I look forward to this week at the conference at Coleraine,
is the diet of bible teaching which will be offered by four committed, careful bible teachers.
I need to hear sermons too as well as give them.
I was talking with one of the speakers years ago
about what it really means to be a Presbyterian
and he said simply: ‘if you take away the Bible from the Presbyterian church
we have nothing left worth holding on to.’

There is a sense too in which many of the churches in this part of Ireland
need more of the Bible.
Pray with me that in our 150th anniversary next year
we may highlight the Bible at the heart of what we do and are as a church.
Not that we will ignore Jesus, not for a moment but if we don’t know the Bible,
in the end we won’t know Jesus
we will end up with our own ideas about him
which may keep us happy,
but at best spiritually malnourished and at worst totally and fatally led astray.

Pray with me that our bible teaching series on the Ten Commandments
planned for a year from now will find acceptance in the wider community
NOT that we can feel good about running a successful event
but that people will see the vital relevance of the Bible for their lives.

2 HOW SHOULD WE SHOW REVERENCE
FOR GOD'S HOLY AND LIVING WORD
In some Presbyterian churches people stand up as the Bible is brought in.
In some other churches people stand while the Gospel passage is read.
In some churches the clergy hold the Bible up above their heads and even kiss it
In India I found it good to see the congregation standing with their bibles held high
and singing a short song before the bible reading.

As Ezra read, did you notice that the people kept standing for hours.
And we just sit?

I will defend our practice of not holding the Bible up on high and not kissing it.
I don't think we need to stand up when it is brought in or when it is read,
because there is a danger in any ritual
that people can do a symbolic act that seems to honour the Bible
and yet in their hearts they could be far from accepting its truth.

But I need personally and I sense many of us need to remember
that God's word is holy and living.
I remember in Gujarat that the Bishop’s wife noticed
I was putting my bible on the floor under my chair.
Like a good wife she got her husband to mention to me
that contact with the ground is seen as dirty and defiling
and he made the point gently and graciously.
You may say that’s only a cultural value
but since then I think a bit about where I place my Bible.
From one perspective it’s only a book
but it’s the book from which God speaks.

When we come to sit at the Lord's Table
I am sure we all sense that that is a holy and precious time
and in some way God comes near.
But every Sunday when the minister says 'Let us hear God's word'
that should be a holy and precious and awesome moment.
We are going to hear what God says.
Or in our mid week bible groups or in the holiday bible clubs
it may be a much more informal atmosphere
but the same truth applies, and we need to be much in prayer and expectancy:
God is going to speak and we should show reverence for his holy and living word.

3 DOES GOD'S WORD MAKE US WEEP FOR OUR SIN
AND REJOICE IN HIS GRACE
When we are hungry for and reverently approach his word
Nehemiah 8 then gives the basic response when God speaks:
sorrow for our sin, joy in his grace.

There is a time for weeping over our sin
mourning over our failures that is an authentic response to God's word.
I will even say that if we have never wept in our walk with God
and in our encounter with his word there is something wrong,
we need to seek to meet God in a deeper way.
I hope you were challenged last week by the tears of the psalmist
running down his cheeks because God’s law was not being obeyed.

But what the leaders are saying here is that God’s forgiving grace
has priority over our deepest sin.
The time for weeping over sin should not drive out the time for rejoicing
because God in his mercy has not rejected even his sinful people.
We are right to be concerned about the ways we fail God
but the principle of grace is that we can not hope to change our ways
unless we see the Bible as first of all not as a book of do’s an don’ts and musts and oughts
but as a book of grace
where God tells his people, that he loves them, that he has given his Son for them
that he will leave them nor forsake them.

That is not in any way to minimize the seriousness of our sin
but it rather to help us see that we can only deal with our sin
from a full understanding of God's generous undeserved love
which calls us to a life of joy
and in a life of joy to know the strength of God to change our lives.

And often it may happen that as we rejoice in God's grace
we will be brought to tears at the thought
of our thanklessness, and ungraciousness and unworthiness.

4 DOES OUR ENCOUNTER WITH GOD'S WORD
RESULT IN PRACTICAL CARING RESPONSE?
This last point is short enough, you may be glad to hear.
Short for me to say, but long enough for us all to carry through.
As the letter of James says, 'Be not hearers of the word only but also doers'
The people went out and celebrated as they had been told.
They shared with the poor so that they could celebrate too.
The next day they reinstituted the feast of Tabernacles
and celebrated the giving of the Law of God for a further week.
It was an indication of their new seriousness in following God's word.

What will you and I do?
Will we make time later today to reread Nehemiah 8, or have we too much on?
Can we find ways to share what we have with others?
Will we understand that while we are not required to stand and listen to bible teaching for 5 hours
there is none of us who could not hunger more for God's word
and honour it more as his living message
and seek the appropriate response
of gladness for his grace and sorrow for our sin.

God of the living word,
give us the faith to receive your message,
the wisdom to know what it means,
and the courage to put it into practice,
(A New Zealand prayer book)

O Lord, you have given us your word for a light to shine upon our path'
Inspire us to meditate upon that word, and to follow its teaching,
that we may find in it the 'light that shines more and more
until the perfect day.'
through Jesus Christ our Lord
(St. Jerome c. 347-420)

O Lord Jesus, let not your word become a judgement upon us,
lest we hear it and do not it,
or believe it and do not obey it.
Thomas a Kempis 1380-1471