Waiting in hope (Early Watchnight)

Preached on: Saturday 24th December 2022
The sermon text is given below or can be download by clicking on the “PDF” button above AVAILABLE SOON. There is no PowerPoint PDF accompanying this message.
Bible references: Luke 2:1-7
Location: Brightons Parish Church

Sermon keypoints:
– Why the wait?
– Waiting for hope
– Worth the wait

SERMON TEXT AVAILABLE SOON

Waiting and loved

Preached on: Sunday 18th December 2022
The sermon text is given below or can be download by clicking on the “PDF” button above AVAILABLE SOON. Additionally, you can download the PowerPoint PDF by clicking here 22-12-18 Message PPT slides multi pages.
Bible references:
Location: Brightons Parish Church

Sermon keypoints:
– waiting to be loved
– the message of love

SERMON TEXT AVAILABLE SOON

Waiting for King and kingdom

Preached on:
The sermon text is given below or can be download by clicking on the “PDF” button above AVAILABLE SOON. Additionally, you can download the PowerPoint PDF by clicking here 22-12-11 Message PPT slides multi pages.
Bible references: Luke 1:26-38 & 46-56
Location: Brightons Parish Church

Sermon keypoints
– In the waiting you are seen
– Waiting for justice
– Waiting for King and kingdom

SERMON TEXT AVAIALABLE SOON

Waiting on God

Preached on: Sunday 4th December 2022
The sermon text is given below or can be download by clicking on the “PDF” button above AVALABLE SOON. Additionally, you can download the PowerPoint PDF by clicking here 22-12-04 Message PPT slides multi pages.
Bible references: Luke 1:5-25
Location: Brightons Parish Church

Sermon keypoints:
– Waiting when God is silent
– Waiting then God speaks
– The God who waits and acts

SERMON TEXT AVAILABLE SOON

Prayer changes things

Preached on: Sunday 30th October 2022
The sermon text is given below or can be download by clicking on the “PDF” button above. There is no PowerPoint PDF accompanying this sermon.
Bible references: Luke 17:20-21 & 18:1-8
Location: Blackbraes Shieldhill and Muiravonside

Let us take a moment to pray before we think about God’s Word:

Come Holy Spirit and soften our hearts to the Word of God. Let there be light.
Come Holy Spirit and teach us the things of the Kingdom.
Come Holy Spirit with power and deep conviction, for we ask that ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Recently, down the roads at Brightons we had a few volunteers come and share an incredible story with us, during the service there. We have an All Together Time which is normally some time to engage with the children but we also use it to maybe share testimony or are there bits of news. And so, I’d asked Nadia and Allison to share a recent experience of theirs because, on the Monday night just before, Nadia had been at the Fellowship Group that she attends and during that time someone had shared a prayer request for their son, who’s a student, to find some accommodation. I’m sure we’ve read in the news about the lack of accommodation for students and so, they committed it to prayer. On the way home that night, Nadia remembered that she knew a friend in Glasgow who had a flat and sometimes it was available and so she contacted her friend who came back that night and said actually, it was available and she was just waiting to see how God might want to use it. So, by the following morning, this student had a flat. But the story doesn’t end there, because then Nadia went to Pre-Fives, the toddler group down at Brightons that morning, the Tuesday morning, and during the prayer time before the start of it one of the other volunteers, Allison, shared a Bible verse that had spoken to her that week or maybe even that morning, about sharing your faith and being bold to share your faith and so, in that time of prayer, Nadia really took that to heart and when she went into Pre-fives that morning and got talking with some of the adults there, she met a couple and, rather than just exchange the usual pleasantries, because she took that word of prayer and encouragement from Scripture to heart, she decided to share, with them, this answer to prayer from the night before, and it opened up a whole range of conversation about faith, about coming to church, and then, maybe, God was on the case of this couple who’d just come along to toddlers that day, that He was wanting to be part of their life. And it all began with prayer. With a few words of prayer on a Monday night, with a few words of prayer on a Tuesday morning leading to a cascade of events the next day. And who knows where it will continue in that couple’s life. Who know. All this, prayer changes things. It brings about the unseen Kingdom of God that Jesus spoke about in our passage. It brings about that unseen Kingdom into both our lives and into the lives of people around us. And our passage today, we are called to prayer, we are encouraged to pray and, also, that we can keep on praying.

In verse 1 of chapter 18 we read ‘Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.’ To show them that they should always pray. Jesus calls us to pray, to be a people of prayer and part of this parable with this widow women, part of its purpose is to hold up to us her example that, without her persistence, nothing would have changed, and what we, in part, are to take away from it is that, without prayer, nothing which truly matters will change either. And that’s a point Illustrated across the scriptures.

So, we can go into First Timothy Chapter 2, a verse often used in reference to prayer where Paul says to Timothy ‘I urge first of all that petitions prayers intercession be made for all people for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives.’ Now, let’s remember, Paul is writing at a time when the church is being persecuted and so, he’s encouraging prayer for a leader, an emperor who was evil, that people wouldn’t like and I’m sure we know some leaders of government or others that we don’t like but yet, we are to pray for them because our prayers affect society, they affect leadership. But, maybe, the opposite is also true that when we don’t pray, things don’t change. And so, we all know of the economic crisis that we’ve been facing, particularly at the instigation of the mini budget some weeks ago, and we might want to just simply blame Liz Truss or others for that kerfuffle and the impact upon our lives. But, what if we, God’s people across this nation and here, are in part to blame because we just moaned and we criticized and we judged, but did we pray? Did we pray consistently for those in government?

Or let’s go to Acts chapter four. We’re at the end of chapter four. We read that the church is facing persecution and has gathered for prayer and, in one of the verses, we read that they pray. ‘Stretch out your hand O Lord.’ and maybe we wonder ‘Well, they’re just asking for God to take away the hardship, to click His fingers and magic it away.’ But that’s not actually what they pray. They pray for themselves to be changed, for them to have boldness in the face of their circumstances and maybe that’s the most pressing area for prayer for us, to be changed, to be changed from the inside out rather than just wishing things away. In these examples we can see how prayer is essential and so why it should be a priority for us. We are called to prayer because prayer changes things and especially changes ourselves. But, brothers and sisters, do we see it that way?

It’s often said that we’ve got time for everything else but prayer. Everything else seems much more urgent. Everything else seems to take greater priority but not prayer. We don’t make the space to slow down. We don’t meet the space to give time to prayer, to learn to pray. We put it off. Yet, the parable of this widow shows us why we are called to prayer. Just as her circumstances would not have changed without her persistent action neither will ours without prayer. So, let us respond to the call of Jesus to be a people who pray.

Now, one of the common pitfalls with this passage is to think that Jesus is saying we must persist in prayer because God is as unwilling as the judge. We read about his unwillingness in verses four and five. We read there ‘For some time he refused but finally he said to himself ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care what people think yet, because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice so that she won’t eventually come and attack me.’ He’s unwilling, he’s selfish, he’s only looking out for himself really and it’s common to think that maybe Jesus is comparing like with like, that God is like the judge. Yet, what Jesus actually says of God in verses 7 and 8 ‘Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones? He will see that they get justice and quickly.’ God is different to the judge. Jesus is not arguing like with like. He’s arguing from a lesser example to a greater example and He does that to encourage us. The Scriptures teach us that there’s at least five ways in which we have something greater in God than what this woman experiences.

So, for example, she is but a woman, a poor widow woman. She had no status in society, easy to be overlooked and ignored but that’s not our situation. We are the children of God and so we come before our Heavenly Father who will not ignore us.

She had no access, no rights really, to come before this judge but we have access. The way is open for us in prayer, to come before our God any time that we please.

She had no-one to come alongside her as she went to the judge. She went alone but that’s not the case with us because we have Jesus as an advocate before the Father for ours, we have the Holy Spirit living in us to take the groans and yearnings of our hearts before God on our behalf.

She had no leverage to influence this judge but we don’t need the leverage because we have the promises of God to stand upon, to claim, to cling to. He will be faithful to those.

She came to a cold court of law but, brothers and sisters, when we come in prayer, we come before the throne of Grace, the throne of Almighty God.

Jesus is arguing from the lesser to the greater. He’s saying, in effect, if this poor woman got what she deserved from such a selfish judge how much more should we be encouraged to pray because God is our Heavenly Father and we are reconciled to Him through Christ.

So, brothers and sisters, are we encouraged to be a prayerful people? Are we praying through the week, not just on a Sunday, and do we do so together at any point? Possibly not, but then, the thing to do is not to shrink from prayer, not to think it’s beyond you or too hard, but to give it a try, to find ways of growing in prayer.

When I came to faith at the age of 19, I probably had only three experiences of prayer, three common experiences.

The first was growing up saying bedtime prayers. Maybe you did the same and you maybe had a rote prayer. I had a rote prayer but that fell away probably around primary school somewhere and prayers at bedtime stopped. I heard prayers on a Sunday morning being said at church there by the minister and I had prayers from the minister at maybe a school assembly. Literally, those were the three areas of prayer I’d only ever come across in my life. But when I came to faith at the age of 19, a month later I started studying at Herriot Watt University because I’d taken a gap year after school, and when I went along to the Freshers Fayre, I found out about the Christian Union and got involved with the Christian Union and, within a very short space of time, some folks from the Christian Union invited me along to the prayer meeting that they held on a Wednesday morning at half past eight – Yes, even students can get up early! – when we gathered at half past eight for classes before starting at quarter past nine and we prayed. And, at first, I probably just did a bit of listening because I’ve never been exposed to something like that, but being in that environment around those people, it taught me to pray and to grow in confidence to pray out loud and that was a gift, a real gift. I probably wouldn’t be standing in front of you without that influence in my life.

Now, I will always encourage you to learn to pray out loud. I think it’s something we should learn to do but I recognize not everyone is quite ready to take that step yet. We can all find ways of growing in prayer, of weaving it into our day, our week, our rhythms so that it’s not just from Sunday to Sunday when we pray, but that we pray in many other ways, that it comes as easy as breathing to us, and, maybe, as regularly. And if we will grow in prayer, if we will find ways and rhythms to do so, there will soon come to be encouraged to pray all the more, just as Jesus sought to do in this parable.

Yet, we all know, there are times when prayer seems to go unanswered and that is the context of our passage today. In verse chapter 17 at verse 20 we read that Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the Kingdom of God would come and they asked this because they prayed for this, they’d been praying for 400 years, if not more, for the Kingdom of God to come. They wanted to be free of Roman rule. They wanted to see God’s Kingdom established with His justice and peace for their people and their land. And so, they asked this new Rabbi ‘Well, when will the Kingdom of God come?’ and then His answer, both of what we read and the portion we skipped over, He says that the Kingdom is hidden in part. He says, in verse 20, ‘The Kingdom of God is in your midst.’ it’s hidden, part through Him, through Him coming into the world. The Kingdom is breaking into the world. But He goes on to say more is to come. The Kingdom is here but not yet. It’s here in part but not fully. And so, He goes on, in the parable we read, to teach us to pray, to be persistent in prayer even. And so, in verse 1, He speaks of not giving up. In verse 3 the widow is described as coming, who keeps coming to the judge. The judge says in verse 5 that she keeps bothering him. She’s that persistent. In verse 7 Jesus speaks of the children of God who pray day and night and in verse 8 that He wonders when He returns, will He find faith, ongoing, persistent faith that displays itself in prayer. I wonder, does that describe us? Are we a prayerful people? Or, have we given up?

The Greek word for ‘give up’ in verse 1 can also be translated ‘to faint.’ It speaks of someone who has grown weary, who’s lost heart, who’s become discouraged and feels helpless. Maybe you come to church feeling that way today, or you’ve known seasons like that and, maybe, you’re in that place because you’re waiting, you’re waiting for God to answer our prayer and, when He seems to delay, you maybe wonder ‘Well, why does He delay?’

I’m not sure I can give you an answer to the why, but I read something that gave me encouragement nonetheless, as we wait upon God. Warren Wiersbe, one commentator, said ‘God’s delays are not the delays of inactivity but of preparation.’ God’s delays are not the delays of inactivity but of preparation. And he bases that upon Romans 8 verse 20 where Paul says to the church at Rome ‘We know that, in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose, God’s chosen ones.’ called ones as Jesus said in the parable are ‘the children of God’ and that includes us. And so, this verse is as true for us as for the Christians in Rome, that we know that, in all things, God works, God works for the good of those who love Him. God is at work. His delays are not of inactivity but of preparation.

We might gather today feeling discouraged about many things. The last time I was with you I brought news about the future of our churches in the Upper Braes and you may feel like God is inactive. Why are things not changing? Why is the church in decline? You might also wonder in this message ‘Well, if we start to gather for prayer, if we started a prayer meeting, if we learned to pray out loud, would God then change things, might we have a future?’ I can’t promise that. Even if you started to pray and gather for prayer, the building still might close yet, that does not mean God is inactive. Maybe in that season, maybe through those prayers, God begins our work of preparation, our work to change your heart, to make you more like Jesus, to grow you in faith, to grow you in passion, to grow you in boldness, to help you see you’re part of something new. Who knows what He might do and teach as you pray in that season but His delays are not of inactivity but of preparation. For our part, we are to keep on praying in and through the delays, refusing to give up, just like the persistent widow because we know we come to God our Heavenly Father and that He works for the good of His children.

So, brothers and sisters, let us take heed of God’s Word to us today and respond, both to the call and the encouragement of our Lord, to pray and, in so doing, be a people who keep on praying. May it be so. Amen.

Communion and children

Preached on: Sunday 11th September 2022
The sermon text is given below or can be download by clicking on the “PDF” button above. Additionally, you can download the PowerPoint PDF by clicking here 22-09-11 Message PPT slides multi pages.
Bible references: Exodus 12:1-3, 21-27; Luke 22:7-8, 13-20
Location: Brightons Parish Church

Sermon keypoints:
– Communion: proclaiming the death of Jesus
– Communion: more than a mere memorial
– Communion: for our children

Let us take a moment to pray before we think about God’s Word:

Come Holy Spirit and soften our hearts to the Word of God.
Come Holy Spirit among us and deepen our understanding of Your Word.
Come Holy Spirit with power and deep conviction, for we ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

So, we conclude our series today on Covenants and Sacraments and we’ve been exploring the Biblical foundation for our tradition, that sees children are sharing in the covenants and so, that baptism is then fitting for both children and adults because we understand it to speak more of God’s promise than our response and I must say I’ve had more interaction and comments on this series than probably any series in the last three and a half years. More comments on the door, more emails, more messages which has been lovely. Both those who have resonated with it and those who found it a real challenge and sometimes even disagreed with it. And so, I wonder if you might turn to your neighbor for 30 seconds in a moment and share with them one word to summarize your response so far. Has it been challenging? Hard? Boring? Unhelpful? Hopefully not those two but encouraging. What, however it might be 30 seconds. Over to you just now.

Well, sounds like there’s a lot of interesting words probably out there. Do pick up those conversations and maybe afterwards over a tea and coffee or here in the sanctuary if you’re able to linger for a little bit.

I’ll say at the start, as I’ve said each of the weeks we’ve looked at this, the aim of this series is not necessarily to convince you to change your mind but at least to raise questions. Questions to explore. Maybe to bring a word of challenge, that we might follow through the logic of our theology which I’m not sure we’ve always done. But, at least, to create, maybe create space for a range of practice particularly around Communion, because it was Communion and the idea of children sharing in Communion that really kick-started all this. Our Kirk Session reaffirmed the desire to allow children to share in Communion and to be much more proactive about that than we have been since we took a vote on it some 20 odd years ago or such like, but how the Kirk Session also wanted teaching on Communion before we embark on that and, as I’ve said in preparation, it seemed that we needed a much wider understanding so that we could eventually get to this week to understand well, not only what is Communion, but why would we allow children to be involved.

So, what is Communion about? What is its symbolism meant to convey to us? Well, our reading today from Luke’s gospel took us back to that moment when Jesus instituted Communion for the first time with His disciples. That original moment of institution and we read earlier ‘Then came the day of unleavened bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. Jesus sent Peter and John saying ‘Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover,’’ And we know from our reading that they do so and they go together to share in the Passover meal as part of the wider Passover festival that was a week long and, within that context, Jesus institutes Communion. And so, the context is Passover. That meal that was both a looking back and a looking forward. A looking back to what God had done that He had delivered Israel from captivity, that a life had been given, blood had been spilled, the Passover lamb, so that the judgment of God might pass over the Israelites and without that they would have been just as much in danger. But it was also all looking forward, a looking forward to when God would deliver His people more widely through the Messiah and that was a great hope and expectation of God’s people. And so, it’s into this context that Jesus institutes Communion. A new memorial meal. And so, the symbolism of Passover carries then into Communion as well. Jesus said a little later in the same passage ‘This is my body given for you. This cup is a new covenant in my blood which is poured out for you.’ Just as the life of the Passover lamb was given, so Jesus’ life is given for us, to save us, that the judgment of God might pass over us. After all, in the New Testament we read in Romans 6 that ‘The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our lord.’ Paul will go on to say in first Corinthians 5 that Jesus is our Passover lamb. He makes that very clear using those exact words and it leads them a little later on in the same passage same letter to say ‘Whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.’ And so, when we gather to share in Communion, we gather to proclaim His death and what He has done, that He has saved us, that He is the means by which this new covenant is established, this new covenant that replaces the old Mosaic covenant, but which does not undo but rather builds upon that covenant made with Abraham, that we saw in week one, that promise that He made, that God would have a people of His own. I wonder, as we celebrated last week The Lord’s Supper, did we bear that in mind? Did we bear in mind that, in some ways, it’s not all about us, maybe in many ways it’s not all about us? Actually, it’s about Jesus. It’s about proclaiming that good news. It’s about making that known and marveling afresh, that in grace, we would receive a Saviour and that we would be included in His covenant, undeserving as we are, He includes us, He dies for us.

I wonder if we know that and own that, when we share in the sacrament? Yet, is Communion more than just a remembering, is it more than a mere memorial? Is it just about remembering or proclaiming? Well, Paul will say in first Corinthians as well, he writes quite a lot in there about the Passover and Communion he says that because there’s one bread, we are one body and so, it reminds us of our unity, Also, we saw in our passage from Jesus saying that He won’t share in this meal until the fulfillment of the kingdom. And that’s picked up in the Revelation 19 where we see that future banquet, that God’s people will share in. And so, Communion points us forward, just like Passover did as well. So, it is more than mere memorial, bringing these parts in and yet we can say more even still.

And this is where we’re going to maybe diverge a little, depending on your background and tradition, because within what Jesus said is understood to be a promise. Jesus said ‘This is my body.; This is my body. And, as we heard last week, thinking about sacraments within our reformed tradition, a sacrament was understood to be an outward sign of a promise from God. And the promise for Communion is this promise, ‘this is my body.’ There is a lot of room for misunderstanding this and some of our denominations go down very different tracks from where we go, in the wider reformed tradition, not just of the Church of Scotland. Many congregations would see themselves as holding to how we interpret this, for we do not interpret this literally, and so, when we share Communion, it’s not the literal body and blood of Jesus, nor is Jesus behind the elements somehow, as some traditions would have it, but that, as we share in these visible signs, they’re signs pointing us to Jesus, pointing us to this fulfillment that, as we share in Communion, He is here by the Spirit, He’s in our midst. And so, as bread and wine nurture the body, Jesus, by His Spirit, nurtures our soul. And so, those signs point us to Him so that, in faith, we receive from Him and are nourished.

Now, I wonder whether that’s where some of our practice around Communion might come. Sometimes, we seem to be very overly serious at times and maybe it’s because of this promise, this understanding, but let’s remember too that Jesus is also present when we pray, Jesus is present in worship, that He’s amongst us when two or three gather, He’s amongst us as He inhabits the praises of His people, He’s amongst us as we read His Word. So. He’s amongst us in all these ways, to sustain our faith and to build us up and maybe, maybe it’s part of this that leads us in a reluctance to change. I’m not sure, but we can at least say that Communion is more than a memorial, it’s more than just a looking back and I think many of us could testify to a benefit when we share in Communion that, not only do we remember, but we also feel that benefit because upon our consciences, within our souls, is affirmed that Jesus died for us and so God loves me. Jesus died for us and so we are united. Jesus died for the redemption of all things and so that the kingdom will be all, in all one day, Communion is a very rich and meaningful gift from God not just to look back but to bless us, sustain us, as we rightfully proclaim His death.

So, what about children? And all of this and the benefits that we receive and what we mark and what we proclaim? What about children? Should they share in it? If so, is there a certain age? Do they need to have a measure of understanding around Communion? Let me be clear, that any change of practice, whatever we do in church, whatever we do should not be because of sentimentality or because something just seems like a nice idea, and particularly with something that means so much to us, we should do it because of the Scriptures, of following through the logic of our theology, of it contributing to the purposes of God amongst us.

And so, what then might be the grounds for including children and sharing Communion? Well, Jesus said ‘This is my body given for you.’ Was the body of Jesus given for our children? We’ve been saying over the last two weeks, that children share in the new covenant and so Jesus gave His body for them as well. That would be one reason to include our children in Communion. Communion, as we saw, also replaced Passover and Passover, as we read, was a meal that the family would share in and children would be present and so, carrying over that should mean then that children might share in Communion, that God wouldn’t necessarily change His practice with the change from one to the other. Now, some might say ‘Well, I don’t read in the New Testament anywhere of children sharing in Communion.’ and that’s a fair point, however, I’d respond to you and say ‘Well, there’s no mention of women sharing in Communion either, so we’re going to follow through that logic.’ Probably not. No, unless any of you are up for a real fight. Now, we might then reach a point where we say ‘Okay, okay, maybe children should be involved for those reasons but what age? What age, Scott? Do they need a level of understanding, a level of cognition about this because, after all, it’s a serious matter, it’s an important thing we do?’ And it is an important thing. Jesus says ‘Do this in remembrance of me.’ Paul says in first Corinthians that we have to examine ourselves and discern the body of Christ. We might ask ‘Well, can children do those things? Can they?’ Well, let’s think about these lines a little bit more. Jesus does say ‘Do this in remembrance of me’ and those words are quoted in and all the Gospels in one way or another, and by Paul in first Corinthians chapter 11. It’s interesting though, that when Paul writing in first Corinthians 11 quotes that he then concludes his writing of it in that little portion by equaling remembrance with proclamation. I wonder if we misread into remembrance that it’s all about memory? Remembrance can also mean proclaiming. Proclaiming this rather than it being sidelined, rather than it being neglected that, actually, it’s to be central to our life, it’s to be central to our message that is what’s to be core to us as a church. And there’s another point; we read this line very individualistically even, because that is our culture but, in the day of the early church, in the day of Israel with Passover or Communion, they were a much more communal society and so, maybe, they understood these words in a much more collective manner that, together, we share in Communion, that together we proclaim the Lord’s death, not necessarily just at the individual level and so, as long as we’re doing that together, we would be doing justice to the words of Jesus because, let’s remember too, that Passover was a remembrance and a proclamation and yet children were involved, involved from such a young age that the passage suggests they’ll come eventually to ask you ‘Why? What does this ceremony mean to you?’ They’re involved before they even understand but able to see that something is meant by this and so, they ask the question. So, I think there are grounds for children still being allowed to share in Communion without necessarily setting a benchmark because of this particular verse And, if we are going to set a benchmark that remembrance means we must understand and we must have a level of cognition, then what are we going to do with those amongst us who suffer from dementia? Are you going to go and ask them, well, what does Communion mean to you and, if they can’t give you a certain answer, are you going to bar them, are you going to cut them out? Why is it one rule for the adults and one rule for the children? And now, you might say to them well, you might say to me ‘Well, Scott, they’ve shown a life of faith so why would you just turn them away now?’ Well, what is faith? Faith is a sign that you share in the new covenant and haven’t we been saying that our children, the children of believers, share in the new covenant? Or what about Paul’s words in first Corinthians 11 about examining and discerning? Well, if you read around that passage, you’ll see that Paul gives that to correct sinful behavior. He doesn’t give it so as to exclude individuals or exclude children. It’s to discern, not the meaning of the sacrament, but that we are family, we are part of the body together and we have to examine the sin that exists between one another because of that sinfulness. That’s what we have to examine. And so, I don’t think, either in the words of Jesus or the words of Paul, that we shouldn’t preclude children from sharing in Communion. I don’t think we should set a bar for their entry necessarily, because, otherwise, entrance then becomes based on our understanding rather than upon grace, and wouldn’t we be potentially also stunting their faith, their growth of faith. We’ve remarked about the Queen’s life of faith, of faith that she came to have and own for herself in her early years so that, the moment that she became Queen, she could see it as a calling from God,

and then she followed through that faith all her days until the very end. And don’t we want that for our kids? Don’t we want to remove every hindrance to them and give them every opportunity to grow in that faith? It’s been said through various bits of research that everyone, adults and children alike, have different ways of meeting with God. Some of us are very word orientated and that if we’re not that doesn’t mean you should neglect the Bible but it means you might resonate with it a little bit less. Some of us are very service oriented or emotion orientated but others of us are very symbol orientated. It’s partly why we started lighting a candle during lockdown, to give that symbolic meaning of God amongst us. But children can be very symbolic in their learning of faith. In the practice of doing, they learn by doing. And, as a church, as a reformed church, we don’t really do symbolism much, do we? How much symbolism do we talk about or point our children to, really. The one symbol, beyond lighting a candle, is Communion and yet we bar them from it. And so, are we stunting their growth somehow, because we won’t allow them to come, for whatever reason. I worry that we’re stunting their growth.

So, where does this leave us? Well, I think we’re still on a journey. I don’t assume or conclude that I’ve necessarily convinced you and, as I say, I’m not seeking to convince you but, at least, to give you a measure of reassurance, hopefully, that there’s good grounds of this, Biblical grounds for allowing this change, I do think that we should be force feeding our children. So, just in case you’re wondering what does this lead to? I’m not advocating that we force feed our children and not to force feed an infant but I would, following the logic of our theology, I would say, as soon as a child seeks to share in the sacrament why not? Why not? They’re part of the new covenant and so let them share. But this will be a very personal and family-based decision. And that’s good, and right. And, okay, we’re not advocating that we have a uniform approach. Actually, maturity is not necessarily about uniformity. But I’m saying, you know, there is variance of understanding around baptism, about Communion, and can we hold that variance and tension, in unity, and so, allow space for a bit of both-and rather than either-or?

Now, I say, we’re still on a journey. I think there’ll be many questions because I’m sure I could have been clearer or more helpful. Looking forward to those questions. I had already put in a diary a meeting with the Sunday School leaders for the 27th of September but I think it might be of benefit to open that out. And so, if you would like to come and ask questions, wrestle through this a bit more, then come, come to that meeting. We’ll put it in the notices from next week. Ahead of December Communion, if we’re still aiming for then as an all-age Communion, I’d like to produce some materials to help families, to explain this to their children because understanding is not unimportant. Understanding is not unimportant. It’s just not the benchmark. The benchmark should be Jesus and what He has done and whether we share, and what He has done and, as I say, I think our children do and so, if we do go ahead with an all-age Communion in December, some materials for families might be helpful. But I think also, during that Communion, I recognize that there might be families that think well. I don’t want our children yet to share in it, but maybe we could offer a blessing, a prayer of blessing for the children, as adults, taking part in Communion so that no one is left out, that they still receive from God.

We’re still on our journey and I’ve tried to help us understand the tradition we share in and why, then, it might, following through that logic through, say that children should share in both sacraments. Hopefully we’ve seen its biblical basis. Hopefully we’ve seen how it still promotes grace alone, salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone, to the glory of God alone. But whether you’re convinced or not, I hope that we all grow in our confidence of God’s saving purposes and provision through Jesus, and maintain that bond of unity and peace for, as Paul says, because there is one loaf, we who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called one lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all, and to Him be the glory, now and forever, Amen.

Connection

Preached on: Sunday 29th May 2022
The sermon text is given below or can be download by clicking on the “PDF” button above. There is no Powerpoint pdf accompanying this sermon.
Bible references: Luke 24:36-47 & Acts 1:3-12
Location: Joint Upper Braes Churches

Some of you may have recognized that today is Ascension Sunday, Thursday would have been Ascension Day and we always celebrate the ascension on the first Sunday after that. And so, today is Ascension Sunday. And we remember that Jesus was crucified and we learned all about that at Easter time and then, much to the surprise of Jesus’ friends and His disciples, Jesus rose from the dead, just as we sang just now. He came right out of the tomb that had been covered with a great big rock. The first to see Jesus were some women and afterwards He was seen by a lot of people and one day Jesus came to see His friends. They had been cooking some fish on the beach for their dinner and when Jesus arrived, they were surprised to see Him in fact, the Bible tells us that they were terrified, they thought they were seeing a ghost, but Jesus explained to them that it was really Him standing there. He said ‘Check my hands. Check out my feet and you’ll see where the holes were made when the nails were put through my hands and my feet on the cross.’ Of course, Jesus disciples, His friends, were really happy to see Him and they shared their fish supper with Him when He said that He was also hungry. And, while they were eating, Jesus talked to His friends. He explained to them many things about Himself and about God His father and then He asked them to go with Him to a place called Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem, and while they were there Jesus promised His disciples that they would receive the Holy Spirit but that they should go back to Jerusalem and wait there until the time comes. Then Jesus blessed His disciples and as He gave them their blessing an amazing thing happened. Just as He was blessing them, Jesus began to ascend up to heaven right before their eyes.

They were trying their very best, just like you are, to look up and to see Jesus but the Bible says that a cloud came down and hid Him from their sight. And then two angels came and they said to them ‘Why are you looking up like that? Jesus will come again one day,’ the angel said ‘just as he left, he will come again.’

When Jesus went to heaven it was the end of His work that He had to do here on earth. He had done everything His Father, God, had told him to do and now it was time to do even more work for the people of the world.

God had sent Jesus to earth as a baby. Remember, we talked about that at Christmas time. Jesus was born in Bethlehem but now that He had finished all His work here on earth, He had to go back to heaven to be the connecting point to people all over the world, so that the love of God could be seen in every place on earth.

But, just think about it, the disciples, those closest friends of Jesus, they didn’t want Him to go, they wanted to hold on to Jesus. I don’t know for how long but they were, they really didn’t want Him to go. They were so scared that they would never see Him again they didn’t want to lose that wonderful connection that they had with Him. But the Bible teaches us that Jesus and His love is still connected to every single person in the world.

Look up, the balloon is pretty high, but we can still hold on to it because there’s a cord attached to it and in the same way we still have the connection to Jesus, the love of Jesus, so that we are never lost forever. He is with us always. Every one of us can remain connected to Jesus, to the heart of Jesus and to the love of God. The very last words that Jesus spoke before he ascended to heaven were ‘I will be with you, always, even to the end of time.’ Jesus is never far away from us. We will always have a connection with Him because of His love for us, because of the love of God for each one of us. We love Jesus that’s why we are here today. We have come to praise Him and to say pray to Him, to sing our lovely songs and to join with the children in rejoicing that Jesus is with us.

But we have a job also to do, and that job is to hold onto the connection, to hold onto Jesus. to hold onto Him through our faith and through our prayers. And we have another big job to do and that is to tell everybody that Jesus loves them just as He loves us, just as He loves you and just as He loves me. We must tell others that they too have a connection to Jesus and that His love is for each one of them. Amen, and thanks be to God.

Living generously

Preached on: Sunday 26th September 2021
The sermon text is given below or can be download by clicking on the “PDF” button above. Additionally, you can download the PowerPoint PDF by clicking hereCAP Sunday Presentation 2021 Slides.
Bible references: Luke 14: 1,7-15
Location: Brightons Parish Church

Good morning. I’m very croaky. I have not sung for probably about two years now that’s not true is it we all sing at home online but you can tell the difference from singing normally to this croaky voice that’s coming out so I do apologize a little bit this morning I do have some water so that’s great!You know a couple of years ago I was in a cafe with a friend, it was just before Christmas and I was absolutely delighted with myself because in about September I’d seen the perfect present for her so I bought this present and I wrapped it up and I’d sat on it until Christmas. Okay, and just as we were about to leave the cafe I put my hand in my bag and went don’t open it until Christmas and I could see this look of horror, pure horror on my friend’s face because clearly she did not have anything for me because she went um ‘I’ve forgotten yours can I pop it in before Christmas?’ and she was mortified for the simple reason that she had nothing to give in return.

We often have this desire to reciprocate, to be generous to the people who are generous towards us, and sometimes, if you’re anything like me, they’re generous towards us and you have to give them something that matches backwards, you know, even if you don’t like them – sorry, that’s just me all right – or sometimes our generosity comes with definite limits. Okay, so where I come from, you invite someone around twice and if they say no the second time well you don’t invite them again, do you. Because, frankly, inviting someone twice is enough you know, it’s not out of nastiness, it’s just that’s the way our culture is, but if we are only ever inviting people back who invite us to reciprocate. what does that mean for the people who have fallen on hard times or who find themselves isolated from us as friends or family.

Christians Against Poverty, or CAP for short, partners with churches like this and it is to help them serve and provide life-changing support to those who otherwise might be overlooked.

As Scott said, my name is Melanie Kilburn and I have the privilege of working with CAP to help people in my community in the west side of Edinburgh. Today I want to look at Jesus’s approach to generosity, His instructions on how to host a feast. I’m going to read to you a little bit of the passage that we’ve already heard from Luke 14 12-14 we had the scene set in the earlier verses. Jesus is dining at the house of an important Pharisee. The guy has invited all his friends and they know the pecking order, okay. They’ve jostled for the places to get to the best bits of the at the table. The Pharisees culture was to invite the important people, those who could reciprocate and maybe help them on the social ladder, but Jesus tears this idea apart and He turns it round, and He embarrassingly tells the Pharisee, in front of all his friends, how he should have organized the party, then Jesus said to his host when you give a luncheon or dinner do not invite your friends, your brothers, your sisters, your relatives or your rich neighbors, if you do they may invite you back and so you will be repaid, but when you give a banquet invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind and you will be blessed although they cannot repay you. You will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.

When Jesus is talking about a dinner here he’s talking about more than a physical meal, it’s code for the Kingdom of God. He’s making His point about with the way that God’s kingdom work,s the way that God’s love works. There’s a human way of loving which is reciprocal and then there’s a God way of loving which is relentlessly generous, relentlessly generous. God’s love to us, it’s relentless, He’s making a point that this is the way the kingdom works.

This is the love that we see in Jesus, that’s the love he’s talking about here. So, if God’s if God is relentlessly generous in His love to us how should we respond?

So, obviously, we can and we should love Him back but what we’re compelled to do from Jesus’s teaching is love others, to join Him in a life of generosity, especially to those who find themselves struggling, isolated, overlooked. It’s what flows out of the heart of the Gospel.

Now, I’m sure that you’ve experienced some isolation, loneliness, struggles in the events of the last two years, I certainly have, the hard truth is that for those in poverty this isolation was often an everyday experience even before the pandemic but without the Zoom quizzes and the family catch-ups. A recent survey of those who – sorry, this is a real statistic here and the statistic means people okay, so I’m sorry if I get upset about this but I love them – a recent survey says that those who have been helped by CAP found that before they were helped 75 percent had experienced loneliness or social isolation due to their circumstances.

As part of my role, I visit people in their homes and I meet people who say I don’t see my family in case they ask me how I am and I can’t hide that something’s wrong and I would be so embarrassed if they found out that I was in debt.

What I love about CAP is it enables me and my church to provide these people with life-changing practical support but it also gives us an opportunity to invite them into our community. You have this opportunity too and now I’m going to embarrass my friends, I’m going to introduce you to Fiona but also to Maureen and Stephen. Do you want to come and stand in the middle here so everybody up there can see it, come on let’s embarrass you, so Stephen and Maureen and Fiona, there you go, you’re gonna wave now because they can’t see, there’s more people up there. Okay, Stephen and Fiona and Maureen are debt coaches and they work at the Forth Valley Debt Center and we are celebrating today that you are now part of the Forth Valley Debt Center, Okay, so you can all go and sit down now.

I hadn’t told them that I was going to make them do that so there you go just so you know their faces. These are the guys that you’re going to be working with as you move forward.

I’m going to show you a client video now, and I’m going to let Simon from that video tell you his story.

My now deceased wife used to look after the finances, she was the one that was good with the money, where I wasn’t, and I’d built quite a lot of severe debt, unmanageable debt, so I was living in fear of eviction. I’d been served with an eviction notice from my landlords. I didn’t see a way forward it didn’t see a way out of it. So, I decided or I just tried to end it all.

it was actually my landlords who’d mentioned Christians against poverty they fast-tracked me and my debt coach Jim arrived in my doorstep nobody had crossed the threshold I’d been living there I think I’ve been there nearly two years so the biggest difference that Christians against poverty’s process made for me was that it was house visits by the July of 2016 I got that wonderful telephone call from headquarters that CAP where they said Mr. Moss you are now debt free and played the harmonicas and that’s one of the great sounds I’ve ever heard

I then went on a CAP event where I came to faith this lady put her hands on this on my shoulder and prayed for me just felt an overwhelming sense of calm and peace and love and warmth that I’ve never experienced before and I just knew I just knew that

what it was and committed my life to Jesus there and then

on a Sunday I can’t wait to get up for service I just love the church family that I’ve got we’re brothers and sisters in Christ but we’re closer than blood

and we support each other we live our lives for each other we’re there for each other and I praise God and thank God for that day that I now know he watched over me when I tried to end it all and he said no mate you’re not going yet you’ve got lots to do

i just felt such an overwhelming sense of wanting to give something back it’s turned my life around 180 degrees completely structuralist to you know having a real purpose in life now

both of my sons in conversations saw the difference that coming to faith had made to me Daz came up first he’s in minor crime so he’d been in and out of prison anyway he came to the service sat at the back listened intently we happened to be having that evening some baptisms in Newcastle so he chose to come along and get baptized and I’ve never felt so proud in all my life it was the proudest moment sorry

obviously it was a tragic situation for us for the family but the blessings for me personally is that he’s found Jesus and he’s taken being taken to glory um with his maker and he’s sat up there and he’s looking down on us and I’m sure he’s proud of what his dad’s doing life can still be tough but I know that I’ve always got my church family around me to support me and I know that I’ve always got Jesus as my best friend and as it says my superhero

I’ll tell you, back to the beginning of the video and I don’t know if you caught this, he said for two years no one but his landlord had crossed the threshold of his house. two years.
It’s just not right that someone has to live in that isolation and it’s not right that as the rest of the world gets back to normality many of those with unmanageable debt like Simon they’re going to remain locked in that prison of isolation and despair

Simon’s story is heart rending and if this resonates with you and your story don’t delay I want you to phone our free phone number to get help if you have unmanageable debt and our free phone number is 0-800-328-06

you can go on the CAP website and the number is there there’s even a button if you actually go to CAP Scotland and you can click and someone will call you back please if this is you don’t delay deal with your debts today

so just to explain what happens when cats when someone reaches out to cat for help what we don’t do is pay people’s debts for them okay what happens is um they have a home visit by a debt coach someone like Fiona or Maureen or steven or me and we are backed up by an army of expert debt advisors back in our CAP Bradford head office these teams they work with our clients to identify the best route out of debt and that might be debt repayment or some form of insolvency we negotiate they negotiate with the creditors on their behalf and they journey with them have for however long it takes for them to become debt free now when we say the term debt free these guys smile okay they smile inside because it’s our favorite term debt free it’s amazing so for Fiona and Stephen and Maureen their jobs are to come alongside the clients on their journey they help the client gather the information that’s needed and they help them understand the advice that comes from head office and the thing is that they need help with this they need help because they don’t visit the clients on their own they need chaperones they need befrienders they need people to help with administration and publicity they need help with social events and alpha courses they need help and that’s where you can come in okay on your

do we still call things pews are these pews okay so on your pews okay you have a form that you can take away and have a look at you could fill it in this morning filling this form in this morning isn’t signing your life away honestly they’re not like that I am but they’re not okay so please if you’re just interested in hearing more about our project then fill this in and give it to Fiona Stephen or Maureen or me the other thing is if you want to hear more about the charity we have some books of John Kirkby who is our founder it’s his um autobiography and they’re free okay you don’t have to pay anything for these and there’s also some stories of clients in a book called um joy stories of joy stories of hope I can’t even remember what the book’s called they go how embarrassing is that

each year over 2 000 people experience the freedom of becoming debt free are you going to smile debt-free and hundreds or more are helped to find employment through our job clubs or learn to live on you know navigate the life of living on the knife edge of poverty um on a low income through our life skills and our CAP money course many of you yourselves may have done the cat money course everything CAP does is about giving the church a hands-on way of loving people and connecting with people that we might not normally come into contact with

for Simon has as he experienced the love and generosity of Jesus through CAP and the local church he saw his life turn 180 degrees and that old generosity actually started to overflow from him into the people around him he went from being isolated to being a source of community and hope to his family and everybody around him doing exactly what Jesus told us to do in Luke 14 is the power of generosity in action because of one person and one church cared enough to reach out and not it was not just Simon was impacted his whole family and many other people besides were changed we actually have no idea of the impact that our generosity can have

CAP is about ordinary people like you and me in all kinds of churches making that choice and I wonder today what does that choice look like for you

perhaps you know someone like Simon and you could reach out to today or perhaps you’re sitting there thinking that there’s no one around you in this community that this could be affecting but I tell you from my experience there is unmanageable debt in every community every community

perhaps you have been inspired by the vision of CAP and at the heart of this movement of Christians against poverty we have over 30 000 people who give a regular monthly gift okay we call them life changes because they because their generosity is changing people’s lives without them none of what I’ve just shared would be possible their generosity often um inspired by their faith is what drives this whole thing forward and I am going to bluntly ask you today could you do that could you join them would you join them five pounds a month on a regular giving

it’ll help people like Simon get practical help come into a community rebuild their lives and have the opportunity of discovering the life-changing love of Jesus there are two ways you could give now you could give by going to visit CAP.org forward slash respond and many of you will already be giving to CAP but this is to CAP head office okay we have this army of people I’ve talked about down there and that’s like a juggernaut that we have to keep going in the background and many of you will already give to that but what we’re going to ask you to do this morning is this other form we’re going to ask you rather than giving to CAP head office of course you can do that we would like you to support your local debt center the fourth valley debt center on a regular basis five pounds a month to that doesn’t sound much to you maybe you can please you can give more if you want to but if everybody gave just that amount it would add up to a huge amount so that these guys can get on with the work of loving people

Scott’s going to talk to Fiona in a few minutes and she’s going to tell you how practically you can become directly involved our work is sustained through prayer so you could join our prayer team or you could become a befriender or a chaperone as I’ve said there’s lots and lots of ways of becoming involved

we are all invited to God’s table and His culture isn’t that He just asks a couple of times with a couple of invitations and then He stops because that’s enough He doesn’t do that He perseveres He pursues us and He pursues us forever we are invited to be at His table forever

He calls us to live generously to those who can’t repay us just like He does towards us and He asks us to use our tables to extend that same eternal invitation to the others around us

So, thank you for listening.

No Excuse

Preached on: Sunday 15th August 2021
The sermon text is given below or can be download by clicking on the “PDF” button above. Additionally, you can download the PowerPoint PDF by clicking here 21-08-15-Message-PPT-slides-multi-pages.
Bible references: Luke 14:15-24
Location: Brightons Parish Church

Let us take a moment to pray before we think about God’s word:

Holy Spirit, come among us and soften our hearts to the word of God.
Holy Spirit, come among us and help us to follow after Jesus.
Holy Spirit, come among us with power and deep conviction, for we ask it in Jesus name. Amen

Have you ever been at a meal with friends or family maybe and at some point someone slips in a wee comment that changes the whole atmosphere? Have you ever been there? Maybe it’s a comment about politics like independence or how good a bad our job our Nicola is doing. Maybe it’s in relation to a thorny family issue or a very delicate personal matter. Well, in Jesus day it doesn’t seem like they had the old adage that we have of never talking about politics, sex, or religion at the dinner table, and I guess if you’re meeting with a bunch of religious leaders you’re going to talk about religion it surely is going to be on the agenda, and so our story today finds Jesus at the table with a Pharisee, a prominent Pharisee and he’s surrounded by other guests probably other Pharisees maybe other appropriate people, no riff-raff at this special occasion, and already if you flick back in your Bible and look at the earlier part of chapter 14 Jesus has already done some quite startling and said some quite startling things and you could literally cut the tension in the air, it’s that palpable, and, I guess, that’s what prompts one person at the dinner table to say a wee comment that just jars a little bit. He says ‘Blessed is the one who will eat at the feast in the kingdom of God.” We might paraphrase this guest is saying ‘Brothers, brothers, despite our differences wouldn’t it be nice for us all to experience that great feast when the kingdom of God finally comes.’ Oh, awkward comment, because it seems Jesus is ready to kind of pounce on that, He’s ready to point out a number of false assumptions there, and so, he tells another parable

and in this particular parable Jesus is speaking of a certain man who is holding a great feast and he invites guests to be there. Now, in the culture of that day, when you invited guests to dinner you told them the day but you did not tell them the exact time, and this was because the host needed to find out how many guests were going to be there and then he or she would make sure there was enough food prepared. There’s no just walking down to Tesco for your burgers or venison or whatever it happens to be that you’re ordering that day, and so, just before the feast is ready, the host sends his or her servant to each of the guests to say ’That’s the meal’s ready, we’ve had the proper time so now’s the time to come to the banquet room.’ So, in other words, the people who were first invited and go to and they’ve actually said ‘I’m coming.’ they’ve already said they’re going to be there, the host is expecting them to turn up, and yet we find each guest making an excuse and that in itself and that culture would have been highly rude, and it’s made worse by their very poor excuses.

Now, Jesus doesn’t go into every excuse that every guest gives, He simply provides a sample of the kind of excuses.

And so, the first one says ‘I have just bought a field. I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ Now, in our culture buying a house takes ages doesn’t it, really annoying, it took a long time in those days as well, and so this man would have had many opportunities to go and examine the land it was about to buy, and what’s more feast happened in the evening and the call to come would have been in the evening as well, and so he doesn’t really have much time to go and visit this field before it gets dark. It’s a ridiculous excuse,

and the second excuse is very similar ‘I’ve just bought five yoke of oxen and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’ now he’s very polite but you wouldn’t buy something before you tried it out especially oxen that you want to make sure have got the strength to pull through that field. Clearly this guest just does not want to be there.

Now, the third excuse sounds a little more sincere, a little more important, we might say. ‘U’ve just got married so I can’t come.’ but he’s not very polite isn’t he, and how often how many weddings do you know that happened just a little within days, none, they take weeks and months to organize and it was even worse back in those days because marriage feasts could take up to seven days, a seven-day party. This guest has known about the banquet invitation for a long time and yet they’ve chosen to disregard it, they’ve chosen to snub the host and take for granted this feast that they’ve been invited to. So, his excuse is pretty poor as well,

and friends, there’s much that we could take away from this parable today, but one of the first take home lessons and questions for us is whether we are making excuses towards God’s invitation. Again, and again Jesus issues us with an invitation to follow Him, to come to Him for forgiveness and new life, and by coming to Him and finding in Him what our souls desire, and need to lay down our lives for Him and, just in case you think I’m making this up, here’s some invitations from Jesus:

He says ‘The kingdom of God has come near, repent and believe the good news, come follow me’ that’s issued to every one of us without excuse. He goes on to say ‘I am the bread of life, whoever comes to me will never go hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty’ there is a hunger and thirst in your soul that you will not find met by any other source. Have you come to Jesus? Have you allowed him to meet that deepest hunger and yearning of your soul and, key to all is, to know His forgiveness.? Jesus says ‘My blood is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins’. Could you say that you know your sins are forgiven, that you stand right with God? Can you say that, can you say it confidently? And then finally, Jesus says that if you’ve come to Him, if you know life through Him then actually, it will cost you. He says ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. Whoever wants to save their life will lose it but whoever loses their life for me will save it.’

Friends, Jesus issues us all with an invitation and it’s not just an invitation that you can tick the box and just leave it aside until the time is convenient. Each day, every morning that you wake up is a new day to choose to follow Jesus, to choose to respond to Jesus. So, have you responded, have you responded and this is for every age from the youngest to the oldest, have you responded? and maybe you think ‘Well Scott, I’m in church, I’m in church, I’m watching at home, maybe that’s enough, that surely shows I’ve responded.’ Well Jesus says this elsewhere ‘Not everyone who says to me lord, lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. Many will come to me and on that day, the judgment day, and say lord, lord did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons in your name, perform many miracles? Then I will tell them plainly ‘I never knew you.’

Friends, it’s possible to be very busy in church, it’s possible to be very regular in church and religious things, and to be religious on the outside and yet never properly respond to Jesus, and, just like with that uncomfortable guest who makes that awkward comment, it’s not enough to just say something nice, religious sounding, to have some nice pious sentiments, Jesus is not after that. He is after a people who know Him, who follow Him, and so they are known to Him too. Does that describe you, friends? Does that describe you? Are we people who make excuses? Do we make excuses? Do we keep Jesus at arm’s length?

In the parable each of the three excuses is a prioritization of something else above Jesus and the first two it’s simple materialism and we’re like ‘Well, I’m not like that. I’m not that bad.’ The third one is a bit quirky because it’s a marriage, it’s really important, God is really for marriage and yet, as we heard last week, to prioritize anything above Jesus, to delay responding to Jesus in preference for something else, well, that is the sin of idolatry, it’s making God second, and it’s turning something good into something bad. Are we people, are we a congregation, are we individuals who make excuses towards Jesus or do we respond to Him? Do we know Jesus and does He know us?

Because, if we’re pushing Jesus aside, if we’re prioritizing other things above Jesus, and snubbing His invitation then the parable does carry a warning ‘I tell you not one of those who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’ The invitation isn’t open-ended, it’s not open-ended, there is a time to respond.

Are you responding to Jesus and that might look like something different from your life, to my life, or to the person you’re sitting next to.

Maybe you’ve never responded to Jesus and said ‘Jesus I want you as my lord and savior’ and maybe today is the day for that. Or maybe Jesus is calling you to a deeper level of faith, maybe he’s calling you to make a particular choice, maybe he’s calling you to volunteer and serve in a particular way, something way outside your comfort zone or to make Him the priority of your life above everything else, and maybe today is a day to do that and so before we go on to one final point in our sermon today I want to take a moment to pause and to give us an opportunity to respond now, before we leave those doors and forget what God has said in this moment. So, let us take a moment to pray. Let us pray.

So, what is God putting upon your heart? Where are you needing to respond? What’s His invitation to you today, or in recent days and weeks?

And if you’re needing to come to Jesus for the first time or you want to recommit yourself to Jesus and ask him to be your lord and savior then in the quiet of your heart pray this prayer with me

Lord Jesus I’m sorry for the things I’ve done wrong

please forgive me as i name them in the stillness as i name my sins

I turn lord from everything that i know is wrong

I thank you, you died on the cross for me so that i could be forgiven and brought home that I could be a daughter or son of the living God

come into my life by your spirit fill me now that i might choose you each and every day

thank you, Lord Jesus

And if Jesus is already your Lord where do you need to follow Him? Where is he calling you to step out or prioritize Him? Do you need to share your faith with someone? Do you need to volunteer in a certain way? Do you need to turn from a particular area of sin?

Let me pray for you.

Lord, whether to acquire it ever it may be you’re saying to us individually and collectively we ask for your grace your grace that gives power to equip us to help us walk your way to following your footsteps to grow in holiness to give ourselves over to you in increasing measure pour out your grace fell as a fresh lord that we may have your power and love and conviction and all that we need that we might glorify you in our day and in our lives for we ask it in Jesus name amen

so one final point before we we finish up for this morning and Jesus he was speaking originally to the pharisees and through the pharisees not only challenging them but challenging the wider nation because despite all the demonstrations of power that we’ve seen time and time again over the summer as we’ve looked at different passages these leaders and these the wider nation are not responding to Jesus in the way they should they fail to see what God was doing in their day and it’s tragic really because this is the moment they have been waiting for 400 years since the last prophet and here comes Jesus and they don’t see him for who he is here is the man the pharisees are purifying themselves for they were doing so because they yearned for God’s kingdom to come they were sacrificing so much to usher in the arrival of the messiah all the quicker and yet they don’t see what is right in front of them they don’t see it in the parable those first guests that the host goes back to they are actually the Jewish nation, the original invitees in the parable and incar they caught they’re contrasted with who comes later in the parable we talk about the poor and the such like the blind the lame the crippled and so in contrast to the poor there is the rich the original invitees and Jesus is portraying him in monetary terms but he’s actually speaking in spiritual terms because as Paul later reminds us he says this about Israel my people the people of Israel theirs is the adoption to sonship theirs the divine glory the covenants the receiving of the law the temple worship and the promises theirs of the patriarchs and from them is traced the human ancestry of the messiah who is God over all this is the Israelites spiritual heritage they’re spiritually rich they’re spiritually blessed and yet they don’t respond to the invitation of Jesus they don’t see in Jesus their messiah

and what does God do in the parable he goes to others he goes around those original invitees he goes around his people and invites the nations invites those who were less spiritually rich they did not have this heritage though some thankfully in Israel did turn to Jesus and part of the issue that holds them back is they expect God to behave in a certain way they had certain expectations because God had made rules and they interpreted those rules in a certain way and that as such the messiah had to behave in a certain way and Jesus doesn’t conform with their expectations if you go back in earlier and look Jesus heals on the sabbath and that was sinful in their eyes the messiah wouldn’t heal on the sabbath the messiah obeys the laws of God but it was the laws of God as interpreted by them and so they missed out on who was in front of them and what God was doing in their day and it makes me wonder brothers and sisters do i do we make ourselves blind to the activity of God do we only see God’s hand at work and as long as it happens within our expectations as long as God conforms to our self-determined limits

do we only honor God if we follow our rules in the box we’ve put God in I’ve been talking about that box for two and a half years

so for example this touches on all areas of church life and how the minister should dress if i was to rock up in a pair of white trainers one day would that cause a stir does that is that honoring to God or not in your frame of reference might do that one day just to see if it pushes your buttons and or in worship what we do here on a Sunday morning what is and isn’t honoring to God in your view how much of that actually conforms to the scriptures and how elders should perform their duties

in what we prioritize and spend our money on in the duties the minister should perform and then the number of pastoral visits he should do in x, y, z either this could go on

what happens if someone was to come up to me during worship and say i feel God’s given me a prophetic word to share and my preference would be i would share that if they told me and what happens if i said if someone feels there may be God saying this and i was to share that word could we handle that or would or can we only worship God within the boundaries we have set because of our experience or dare i say our tradition and speaking of traditions is it possible that the Church of Scotland is really the worst at this in some ways now I’ve grown up through the Church of Scotland and I’m committed to the Church of Scotland in many ways so I’m not just targeting us but we are quite bad at this we’ve got our way our presbyterian way we’ve exported it across the world and maybe it blinds us to what God might want to do in our day because we’ve got this rich spiritual heritage and it is a rich spiritual heritage is it in many ways a good spiritual heritage but does it blind us to what God might do does it inhibit does it undermine us even because i was listening to a podcast just this past week and the individual being interviewed said this sometimes a tradition will not pass on the flame it will hand you the ashes sometimes a tradition will not pass on the flame it will hand you the ashes

and it it wasn’t in reference to the church of scotland so this could be anywhere anyway any organization but we’re thinking about ourselves just now because i’ve said it before and i’ll keep saying it we’re a declining denomination we’re a declining church congregation despite recent members joining us and yet because of our inherited size it’s great the brightest is so big and because of our successes we’ve got youth organizations and we’ve got sunday school and we’re looking to have a youth worker because of these successes it can blind us to the reality that unless things change unless we discern what Jesus is doing and where he is leading us in our day then in a very short period of time we might have to make some very difficult choices just look at the volunteer needs that we emailed out this week nearly every section of sunday school needs help more than half of our sections across girls brigade and boys brigade need help pre-fives needs help i’ve just named every area of ministry that we do with children and young people and if we don’t invest in that we don’t have a church

now we could do something about that we could step out our comfort zone we could volunteer no matter our age or stage

but there’s a question in my mind is does something on our tradition hold us back our way of doing church because as i say we are declining nationally and still locally and we see churches in the braze facing the prospect of having to close

is it possible that our tradition is not passing on the flame of faith of passionate workers worshipers of Jesus who live in their community and speak of their faith in such ways that it captivates their neighbors and they want to follow Jesus or are we simply just passing on some ashes to the next generation

and that’s hard to hear

but you know church i believe i really do believe God is on the move i believe he wants to be on the move i believe he’s doing things in the last two and a half years we’ve changes have begun but they’ve been uncomfortable changes at times we’ve moved from from um elders districts to pass-through groupings and you might think that that’s just a name change but actually there’s much more that it could lead to and we tried to experiment a bit with that over the summer but you know what for whatever reason only a fraction of our congregation said they were up for that and there might be very good reasons we might not want to give our contact details to people we don’t know i understand that

but these are our church family

and yet we weren’t up for it and how many things in the last two and a half years could you say you’ve implemented from a sermon because i don’t just come up with hopefully some nonsense i try to pass on some things i think will help you that will equip us so like after last week’s sermon did you go and buy a book did you do anything with that sermon because that’s a really simple thing i’m not asking you to go and evangelize your neighbor buy a book read a story get inspired or four weeks ago just before my summer break i gave you two ideas for prayer one who are the two people you’re praying for to come to faith locally have you got your two people have you done anything with that because see if we don’t pray for people we’ll never care enough for people to invite them to church or the other prayer idea was um are you praying before you come to church because you’re coming with expectation did you pray this morning even if you’re at home by the way did you pray

or do you just take it as oh there goes scott again young annoying minister who keeps challenges and i’m getting really tired of the challenge does it go in one near and out the other do we forget it by the time we get to the church door because i think God tries to inspire me to talk on a sunday i’m hopefully not just waffling some war hot air so are we doing anything about it are we just ticking the box of the invitation

God’s i believe God friends i believe God is inviting us into something more to have faith we could never imagine and he’s trying to get our attention he’s trying to get us to change to take us deeper in faith and to fuller walk with him not only for our benefit yes he wants to to quench the thirst of your soul as Jesus said but through you through us he has got much in store for our parish and for the braze area and he wants them to come into the kingdom and know his loving grace he’s inviting us to partner with him and if we will not listen if we will not respond to that invitation he might do what he did in the parable and what he did in the life of Jesus in the church he might go round us he might go around us because his invitation must go out the kingdom seats must be filled

and so the choice is ours will we respond will we respond to what God is doing in our day and in our midst

i pray it may be so amen

Called and Empowered

Preached on: Sunday 8th August 2021
The sermon text is given below or can be download by clicking on the “PDF” button above. Additionally, you can download the PowerPoint PDF by clicking here21-08-08 Message PPT slides multi pages.
Bible references: Luke 8:22-25
Location: Brightons Parish Church

Let us take a moment to pray before we think about God’s word:

Holy Spirit come among us and soften our hearts to the word of God Holy Spirit come among us and help us to follow after Jesus Holy Spirit come among us with power and deep conviction for we ask it in Jesus name amen in the new testament we have four books on the life of Jesus Matthew mark Luke and John and they wrote it for a purpose I wonder what you would say their purpose was why did these authors write these books so if you feel able and you’re close enough to someone maybe turn to a neighbor and share with them just for 30 seconds the first thought comes to mind why did they write these books and if you’re at home and then do post something in the live chat so 30 seconds why did these authors write these books over to you

so

well I’m sure there are probably a many answers to that and we’ll see later on uh what comes up in the live chat about what people at home maybe thought if they feel able to share that but if I was to ask our wider community the parish I wonder what they might see I i wonder if they would describe these books as simply a means of passing on religious morals and stories I wonder if they would describe it as a kind of propaganda even I wonder even if I asked them do you think there’s any relevance in these books what they might say I suspect that many people would say no I suspect many people might say well there might be if you’re religious but there might even be some who say well this book is dangerous it’s oppressive even because over my summer break um I read this book it’s called a war of loves and it’s written by a celibate gay Christian and it partly describes his journey from hostile atheist to a passionate follower of Jesus and at one time he would have said the bible was dangerous and oppressive and he wanted nothing at all to do with Christianity but then he came face to face with Jesus and that changed everything friends we might summarize that the reasons for these books in the new testament as to invite encourage and enable people of all ages to follow Jesus and that is our purpose also as a church that the authors they wanted people to know about Jesus and by hearing about Jesus choose to follow Jesus and by choosing to follow Jesus recognizing then that needs some help to know how to follow Jesus and so they include material for that too they were willing to do this they were willing to prioritize this and to put their lives on the line because something changed their perspective just like that young author I read about the last two weeks they all met Jesus and by meeting him and learning to follow him their outlook on life changed forever our passage today is one of those moments one of those moments when the disciples themselves have their perspective on Jesus challenged and stretched if you look back in in the book of Luke chapter 5 that’s when Jesus called his disciples and since that point he’s mostly taught he’s done a couple of miracles and so probably in many people’s minds they’re beginning to think oh who is this guy who is this guy maybe he’s a prophet you know like prophets they challenge people and so Jesus is certainly causing a bit of a ruckus and challenging the religious leaders but prophets did miracles as well so maybe Jesus is just another prophet sure a great prophet but just another prophet but then one day Jesus tells his disciples they’re going to the other side of the lake and among these disciples are some experienced fishermen so the journey’s not unfamiliar and they know how to handle a boat and so off they go not giving it a second thought and at some stage in the sale things are so calm that Jesus he falls asleep in in the book and the disciples continue on with the task of getting them to the other side maybe they’re they’re talking maybe they’re thinking about all they’ve seen and heard and about this individual who now rests in their midst and then at some stage a squall a windstorm comes upon them and that wasn’t unusual in that particular area because the surrounding topography created those kind of events but it’s a particularly bad one these experienced fishermen are scared for their lives and so they cry out to Jesus master master we’re going to drown

upon waking and assessing the situation Jesus calls out to the wind and to the waves he speaks to them and the storm suddenly dies down and all becomes calm the disciples are left feeling both fear and amazement and they say to one another who is this he commands even the winds and the water and they obey him is he just a teacher is he a prophet is he maybe something more because they would have known from the old testament that God is described this way you rule over the surging sea when its waves mount up you steal them who is this who is this amongst the disciples what appears to be God God in human form because he has authority and power and if you look on in that same chapter the next three stories reinforce this Jesus has power and authority over nature over the spiritual forces of darkness over illness and even over death and in time the disciples would journey with Jesus and see him die upon the cross be buried but then raised to life again and though this would convince them that he is the son of God in human form and they would be willing to share this at risk to their life even imprisonment and death because they were fully persuaded that Jesus is God he is God in human form with all power and authority and the apostle Paul would one day write about this to the church in Colossae saying the son is the image of the invisible God in him all things were created he’s before all things and in him all things hold together he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead so that in everything he might have the supremacy for God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him friends who is Jesus to you who is Jesus to you and might I ask what or who has supremacy in your life the disciples in our story were asked by Jesus where is your faith where is your faith basically in whom or in what is your faith we’ve all placed it somewhere our new members today they affirm that their faith is in Jesus that he alone is God he has supremacy in their life they take off the crown and give it to Jesus he’s their lord he’s their king he’s the one to whom they give control of their lives because he has all power and authority he’s more than a mere prophet or teacher so who is Jesus to you and what has supremacy in your life in our local community there were many answers to both of those questions some people might say that it’s work or success or popularity that has supremacy that’s the aim of life that’s what you have to aim for some people will prioritize family should have supremacy in your life for some individuals it will be circumstances or a particular experience which will define their identity a loss a an illness a really negative experience that’s what defines their life that’s what defines their values that defines their future and still others that I’ve met within our community they will turn and say supremacy is found in darker spiritual forces like tarot card reading or maybe a group that they belong to that group is the place that gives them identity and that group has the supremacy that group tells them what they can and can’t do so what are who is Jesus to you and what or who has supremacy in your life because the claim of the Christian faith is that Jesus is God he alone is God and as such he should have first place in our lives and to have anything else above Jesus is to commit the sin of idolatry and you know we can turn even good things into idols because as John Calvin reminds us the human heart is a perpetual idol factory we just turn out idol after idol even the good things and we put other things before Jesus so friends who is Jesus to you and will you allow him to have supremacy in your life now don’t think this is just for folks who are new to church or folks who don’t come to church because this was an important lesson for the disciples to learn to they needed to learn this to do what Jesus asked them to do next because if you go on in the book of Luke we read this when Jesus had called the twelve together he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal those who were ill Jesus who is God in the flesh who has all authority and power he delegates some of that power and authority to his disciples now we might say well that was just a 12. well go on to the next chapter what do we see the lord appointed 72 others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go the 72 returned with joy and said lord even the demons submit to us in your name so he gives power and authority to the 12 and to the 72 and can you imagine being one of those disciples can you imagine it one of the fun things to do with scripture is to imagine yourself there can you imagine it Jesus comes along and says hey could you go and heal someone hey could you go and cast out that demon what would be your reaction would you be all cool calm and collected I think inside I’d be slightly freaking out I’d be like really me and when you left and you came across that first unwell or demon-possessed person how ready and willing would you be to do what Jesus has done to give it a show like imagine that standing in front of that person and knowing that Jesus has sent you to do what he’s been doing imagine that would you feel up for it if you do it right now

suspect many of us wouldn’t

and to for those disciples to be willing to follow through on that call from Jesus they needed to know that Jesus was more than a mere man and they needed to be committed to hem more than to their own comfort because they were going to have to get out their comfort zone and to more than what seemed possible because to the rational mind this is just crazy now why am I bringing this up well often I think our perception of what it means to follow Jesus is quite limited we limit it to verses or ideas that we are comfortable with and we push aside a greater vision of Jesus and a greater vision of what it means to follow Jesus one author put it this way it’s a wee bit jargony but it’s worth reading it is a tragedy that the Christian religion is in many minds identified merely with pious ethical behavior turning up to church saying prayers and vague theistic beliefs you know some weird ideas about God suffused with aesthetic emotionalism so it makes you feel better and a male glow of humanitarian benevolence so you end up doing some good stuff for your neighbor this is not the faith which first awakened the world like a thousand trumpets and made people feel it blessed to be alive in such a dawn at one time people knew what Christianity really was the entrance is the history of a force of immeasurable range

what does it mean to follow Jesus to you is it about morals is it about knowing some good stories and turning up to church is it about being a good neighbor is it about making you feel better what does it mean to follow Jesus because those things aren’t necessarily bad they’re just not the whole picture because Jesus later on by the same author says you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth the church apparently has power if you follow Jesus you have a power within you to be his witness now why is that important why am I laboring this well if we reduce Christianity to morals and old stories and religious duty and a warm fuzzy blanket then we rob Jesus of glory and we rob ourselves and our children of what we need to follow Jesus because today we heard one of our promises that many of us have made one of our membership promises and it says this do you promise depending on the grace of God to profess publicly your loyalty to Jesus christ to serve him in your daily work and to walk in his ways all the days of your life and in our last teaching series if you remember on grace we learned that grace is intrinsically tied to God’s power and here in this context of this promise is the power to equip us in the power to sustain us and without a greater vision of Jesus and without a greater vision of what it means to follow Jesus we will not publicly profess our loyalty to Jesus we will shy away from that oh I’m not a Christian I don’t go to church and we will never invite anyone else to know Jesus because we will shy away from it because we will not rely on God’s power and our children and our children’s children will not walk in his ways all the days of their lives if again we and they don’t learn to rely on the one whose power can steal the storms and his power now resides in you and me we need to recover a Christianity that is more than turning up to church being nice because if that’s all that is I’m walking out the door and not coming back because I cannot be bothered with that and you know too many of us are not like this with our faith we are timid and many of our young people are timid because we’re not passing on to them a faith that makes them anything otherwise we’re timid in our faith and it’s got nothing to do with being an introvert or an extrovert so please don’t give me that excuse it has more to do with our conviction of who Jesus is and who we are as his disciples do we really under believe he’s God with all power and authority do we really believe that we are called and empowered to be witnesses and make known the kingdom of God

will we keep our faith in Jesus and hold on to his promises and allow him to have supremacy in our lives even over our comfort or what seems possible or will we become fearful the disciples became fearful in this story because they did not hold on to the promises God made God in Jesus he said they were going to the other side it wasn’t a wish this was going to happen this was a promise but when surrounded by that storm they forgot what he said and they were gripped by fear rather than by faith are we a church who are gripped by fear or by faith are we laying hold of God’s word even the uncomfortable bits or do we minimize Jesus and what it means to follow him to what is familiar and comfortable and by doing that are we robbing Jesus of glory and are we robbing ourselves and our children of what we need to follow Jesus you know over the years i’ve learned different ways to help me have a broader vision of Jesus and nurture ways that help me understand more of Jesus and what it means to follow him and there are there are various things but you’ll not be surprised by now that I’m going to recommend you some books are my thing I like reading stories and usually once a year I try and read a book that is more about someone else’s story and so the recent book was a war of loves but I could recommend you book after book here or something chasing the dragon red moon rising God smuggling a war of loves as I’ve mentioned surprised by the power of the spirit or the hiding place these are real people’s stories across the decades across situations demographics countries but they all tell a real life story of how someone met with Jesus and by meeting with Jesus their vision of Jesus was enlarged and they were helped to hold on to the promises that are there in scripture friends maybe your one take away from today is to go get one of these books and have a read and then come back to me with your questions because I’m sure there’ll be some there’s more to Jesus there is more to following Jesus than what any of us know and if our perspective of Jesus is to grow if our self-understanding of what it means to follow Jesus is to mature if we are to have boldness to live for Jesus and our readiness to let him have the supremacy in our lives then we need to get to know Jesus better and we need to get to know his promises and his word better and hold on in faith to him and to those promises. I pray