As many of you know, Rick Warren recently denied, on Larry King, that he ever supported California’s prop 8. Yet it is quite obvious that he did when he, was very clear about it that he did. You can read a whole article about it here*
His denial very much bothered me. He seemed to be back-pedaling from a corner he stuffed himself into. He wants away from the gay issue now (not on his “agenda”), which one can completely empathize with, but still a lie is a lie. I can understand him if he wishes to recant some statements, re-think some actions and opinions, or apologize to those he may have offended. This isn’t it though. He seems to by lying and trying to play politics in order to appease the masses.
Some have suggested a nice, charitable reading of this action: maybe Rick Warren forgot what he said. This seems unlikely. Churches run like companies, and Warren is the CEO. The issue of gay marriage probably came up many, many, times in meetings. He and others likely spent either a long time discussing this issue. The prop 8 question could not have escaped Saddleback church. How likely is it that he could ‘forget’ what he communicated to his congregation on this incredibly hot issue, which was campaigned for and debated about for months?
Maybe by never making a public statement, Warren had something in mind like a press conference or some kind of “on the official record” court testimony. However, but a pastor of his influence should understand that he is under public scrutiny, whether by pulpit or press conference. These days, youtube is enough to make anyone eat their words.
Of course, I have never been a fan of Rick Warren. Neither do I count myself as one of his detractors, but if he continues to pull dishonest, insincere, political double talk, I believe that he will find himself disliked by the sides he tries to appease.
============
*thanks, Allison
A really good day - beautiful weather. 3 Eucharists (one at home). I wish I had written down what I said this morning (thanks God) but it lead to a really really moving service.
Home communions this afternoon. The this evening the third of three addresses on Micah 6:6-8. Tonight - how do we walk humbly with God. The sermon follows. Again - a really amazing service... Lookig forward to tomorrow :-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Over these three nights we have been reflecting on this passage from Micah 6:6-8,
6“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Micah asks - how can I/my people renews our relationship with God. Micah asks this aware of the enormous gulf between the people’s lifestyles and the life God longs for them to live. God comes back with this engimatic statement - do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. On Monday we thought about what it meant to do justice, or act justly as some Bibles translate it as. The justice that God speaks of through Micah tonight is yes, seeking to live out the justice of God’s kingdom to the poor, downtrodden, and needy, to side with them and fight their cause - for it is God’s cause. The justice we are called to as a church tonight is, yes. seeking to challenge the unjust political, economic, social and environmental structure in society, for God challenges them too. The justice that Micah challenges us to do as a church is both of those and more.... but....
This Holy Week especially, It centres on the justice we recieve when we seek to renew our relationship with God, knowing that only He can show us justice for our waywardness and sinfulness, a justice that we do not deserve. Only He can call us back when we turn our backs on Him. It is the justice shown to us in Jesus, bridging that gulf between God and us, and offering us a renewed relationship.
Then last night we thought about the call to love kindness or mercy. Through Micah, God calls us to love mercy because that is what we have in fact each been shown by God. The mercy that Micah speaks of is not just compassionate behaviour. The word used in the Hebrew is hesed which is the kindness that one shows another whether a person or God. Moreover acts of hesed lead to other acts of hesed - it flourishes in and builds relationships. Micah here calls to love mercy, to a love in action which is enriches society, builds community and deepens relationships. Loving mercy is an action of setting free those who don’t deserve to be so.
So tonight, what does it mean for us to walk humbly with our God? A good place to begin would be to look back at those in the scriptures who have have learned this for themselves.
Abraham & Sarah, the parents of the Hebrew people, learned that walking humbly with God meant trusting God and walking with God into the unknown.
Moses, the one who led Israel out of Egypt and through the wilderness, learned that walking humbly with God meant trusting that God can equip you to do things you could not do on your own.
King David learned that walking humbly with God meant confessing one’s sin
before God. These words are attributed to David: “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)
Job learned that walking humbly with God meant that he would not understand all the ways and thoughts of God. God was God, and he was not.
Queen Esther learned that walking humbly with God meant that she would be
called upon to risk her life for others.
In the New Testament, the humble walk with God is best exemplified by the life of
Jesus. His life was single-mindedly God-directed. “The central theme in the personal life of Jesus (of Nazareth) was his growing intimacy with, trust in, and
love for his Father. His inner life was centered on God. For him the Father meant
everything.”
In answer to Micah’s question about renewing their relationship, God says that He is not looking for faithful following of religious traditions - the burnt offerings that Micah refers to, neither is He looking for His people to offer Him new fads or whims of desperation - the offering of the firstborn is a real clutching at straws by God’s people.
Instead God calls Micah, Israel and us to walk humbly with Him. Walking humbly with God is a metaphor for one who is right with God. One who walks with God is someone who has been graced by God’s presence and partnership in life and death. In other words our walk through life becomes humble only when on realises it is due purely to the unearned grace, mercy and call of God.
Now this sounds great, but this Holy Week and indeed always, our walking humbly with God is costly, for God calls for a physical sacrifice from us, but with no animal or oil in sight. For walking humbly with God demands much from us and tonight, God asks, how much are we willing to give up to walk with Him?
It begins with and continues regularly with confession. The disciple of Jesus
realizes that he or she is totally dependent upon God’s love and mercy. We can do nothing in our own strength.
Martin Luther says that the petition in the Lord’s Prayer (“Forgive us our sins as
we forgive those who sin against us”) serves God’s purpose to break our pride and keep us humble. When we pray this petition and examine ourselves, we will be reminded that we are no more righteous than anyone else, “that in the presence of God all people must fall on their knees and be glad that we can come to forgiveness.”
Our humble walk with God: grows through a “stripping away of all self-
sufficiency.” As Jesus set aside his place with God to become human like us, and the role of a servant, so God desires a similar emptying within us.
(Philippians 2:5-8) A daily walk of trusting in and becoming more dependent on God. A dying to self. More of Christ, less of me, said John the Baptist. (John 3:30) A stripping away of all self-sufficiency so that we can be used for God’s purposes.
The third characteristic of a humble walk with God is that the call to follow
Jesus leads us from a self-centered to an God-centered orientation. “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” (Phil. 2:3-4) Jesus, the servant, takes the towel and teaches his followers the values of the kingdom of God.
Here’s where the three mandates of the Micah 6:8 verse come together. The
mandate to walk humbly follows the two previous mandates, to do justice and
move mercy. The three are very much interrelated. When we live justly and show mercy to all people, we are walking humbly with our God. To walk humbly with God involves living justly and mercifully to all people. When we walk humbly with God, our lives take on the cruciform shape of our Lord.
(At the end of the Eucharist, before praying the Post Communion, I talked about how 'walking humbly with God' cashes up in real terms... reiterated the examples of Abraham and Moses and so on. I then linked other real life examples - Maximillian Kolbe, Oscar Romero, and Gee Walker the mother of Anthony Walker who was murdered in Liverpool a few years ago and in the face of his murder she forgave and forgave and forgave...)
Thanks be to God... Amen!
Home communions this afternoon. The this evening the third of three addresses on Micah 6:6-8. Tonight - how do we walk humbly with God. The sermon follows. Again - a really amazing service... Lookig forward to tomorrow :-)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Over these three nights we have been reflecting on this passage from Micah 6:6-8,
6“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Micah asks - how can I/my people renews our relationship with God. Micah asks this aware of the enormous gulf between the people’s lifestyles and the life God longs for them to live. God comes back with this engimatic statement - do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God. On Monday we thought about what it meant to do justice, or act justly as some Bibles translate it as. The justice that God speaks of through Micah tonight is yes, seeking to live out the justice of God’s kingdom to the poor, downtrodden, and needy, to side with them and fight their cause - for it is God’s cause. The justice we are called to as a church tonight is, yes. seeking to challenge the unjust political, economic, social and environmental structure in society, for God challenges them too. The justice that Micah challenges us to do as a church is both of those and more.... but....
This Holy Week especially, It centres on the justice we recieve when we seek to renew our relationship with God, knowing that only He can show us justice for our waywardness and sinfulness, a justice that we do not deserve. Only He can call us back when we turn our backs on Him. It is the justice shown to us in Jesus, bridging that gulf between God and us, and offering us a renewed relationship.
Then last night we thought about the call to love kindness or mercy. Through Micah, God calls us to love mercy because that is what we have in fact each been shown by God. The mercy that Micah speaks of is not just compassionate behaviour. The word used in the Hebrew is hesed which is the kindness that one shows another whether a person or God. Moreover acts of hesed lead to other acts of hesed - it flourishes in and builds relationships. Micah here calls to love mercy, to a love in action which is enriches society, builds community and deepens relationships. Loving mercy is an action of setting free those who don’t deserve to be so.
So tonight, what does it mean for us to walk humbly with our God? A good place to begin would be to look back at those in the scriptures who have have learned this for themselves.
Abraham & Sarah, the parents of the Hebrew people, learned that walking humbly with God meant trusting God and walking with God into the unknown.
Moses, the one who led Israel out of Egypt and through the wilderness, learned that walking humbly with God meant trusting that God can equip you to do things you could not do on your own.
King David learned that walking humbly with God meant confessing one’s sin
before God. These words are attributed to David: “The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)
Job learned that walking humbly with God meant that he would not understand all the ways and thoughts of God. God was God, and he was not.
Queen Esther learned that walking humbly with God meant that she would be
called upon to risk her life for others.
In the New Testament, the humble walk with God is best exemplified by the life of
Jesus. His life was single-mindedly God-directed. “The central theme in the personal life of Jesus (of Nazareth) was his growing intimacy with, trust in, and
love for his Father. His inner life was centered on God. For him the Father meant
everything.”
In answer to Micah’s question about renewing their relationship, God says that He is not looking for faithful following of religious traditions - the burnt offerings that Micah refers to, neither is He looking for His people to offer Him new fads or whims of desperation - the offering of the firstborn is a real clutching at straws by God’s people.
Instead God calls Micah, Israel and us to walk humbly with Him. Walking humbly with God is a metaphor for one who is right with God. One who walks with God is someone who has been graced by God’s presence and partnership in life and death. In other words our walk through life becomes humble only when on realises it is due purely to the unearned grace, mercy and call of God.
Now this sounds great, but this Holy Week and indeed always, our walking humbly with God is costly, for God calls for a physical sacrifice from us, but with no animal or oil in sight. For walking humbly with God demands much from us and tonight, God asks, how much are we willing to give up to walk with Him?
It begins with and continues regularly with confession. The disciple of Jesus
realizes that he or she is totally dependent upon God’s love and mercy. We can do nothing in our own strength.
Martin Luther says that the petition in the Lord’s Prayer (“Forgive us our sins as
we forgive those who sin against us”) serves God’s purpose to break our pride and keep us humble. When we pray this petition and examine ourselves, we will be reminded that we are no more righteous than anyone else, “that in the presence of God all people must fall on their knees and be glad that we can come to forgiveness.”
Our humble walk with God: grows through a “stripping away of all self-
sufficiency.” As Jesus set aside his place with God to become human like us, and the role of a servant, so God desires a similar emptying within us.
(Philippians 2:5-8) A daily walk of trusting in and becoming more dependent on God. A dying to self. More of Christ, less of me, said John the Baptist. (John 3:30) A stripping away of all self-sufficiency so that we can be used for God’s purposes.
The third characteristic of a humble walk with God is that the call to follow
Jesus leads us from a self-centered to an God-centered orientation. “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” (Phil. 2:3-4) Jesus, the servant, takes the towel and teaches his followers the values of the kingdom of God.
Here’s where the three mandates of the Micah 6:8 verse come together. The
mandate to walk humbly follows the two previous mandates, to do justice and
move mercy. The three are very much interrelated. When we live justly and show mercy to all people, we are walking humbly with our God. To walk humbly with God involves living justly and mercifully to all people. When we walk humbly with God, our lives take on the cruciform shape of our Lord.
(At the end of the Eucharist, before praying the Post Communion, I talked about how 'walking humbly with God' cashes up in real terms... reiterated the examples of Abraham and Moses and so on. I then linked other real life examples - Maximillian Kolbe, Oscar Romero, and Gee Walker the mother of Anthony Walker who was murdered in Liverpool a few years ago and in the face of his murder she forgave and forgave and forgave...)
Thanks be to God... Amen!
Sorry for the silence! It been way to long since I committed anything to the blog...
Lots has happened... 7 key working groups have been set up since a service to give thanks to God for the gifts and skills of the community. The groups are lay-led and are a way of ensuring ownership of the life of the church, that ideas get generated by the community and are owned by the community, and that they do not stop with me because of the busy nature f ordained ministry.
I have met with most of the groups and I am now really excited about this initiative as some of the ideas are amazing and the energy generated is life changing!
What else? Age of Stupid? The Age of Stupid is a 90-minute film about climate change, set in the future, and stars Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in the devasted world of 2055, looking back at “archive” footage from 2007 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance? Why were we so stupid? Following this I have been exploring the possability of replacing our oil boiler with some form of renewable energy. I have also been drawn very willingly into the Transition town ideas and I am working with others to begin to explore how we can see Hemel becoming a transition town.
I am sure there is much other stuff that I should record here but I can't remember some of it! I have to say that the last few months have been really hard and I have been really strugging, but I am thankful that the corner has been turned!
Anyway here are two sermons - one from Monday night in Holy Week and one from tonight...
MONDAY:
Many of us have spent Lent, reflecting though sermon and study material, on scriptures linked to the 7 key areas of the life of our church - welcome, children, worship, nurture and study, publicity, community, and pastoral care.
Behind the scenes, as it were, I have met with each of these groups since the service on 25th January when we set them up. I have been so encouraged to see the group members take the God-given task of working within one of these groups to heart. I have also been amazed at some of the ideas that are being formed and acted on to deepen and demonstrate our love of God.
Then, one Tuesday, a couple of weeks back I was praying the midday office on my own in church. As I prayed a verse from the scriptures came into my mind,
6“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Why Lord are you giving me this passage? When all seems to be good, I think, at HT, why am I being presented with this? It is a passage that finds the prophet Micah in despair. As he looks at the community of which he is a part with God’s eyes - God helps him see a people who have abandoned Him. The people have turned their back on God, on His love, on His Law and walked away. Micah stands as a wayward child, longing to return to the love of the family home. But as Micah looks with God’s eyes, he sees a gulf between the attitudes and lifestyles of the people and what God is calling them to be. He sees a chasm so vast that he cannot cross - so far are his community from what God longs them to be. He asks then how they may restore and renew that relationship. As a good Jew, Micah knows that the way to seek the forgiveness and favour with God was through sacrifice. As Micah climbs the mountain to sacrifice to God - he does so hoping that what he offers might please Him and turn away His wrath.
Micah offers sacrifice after sacrifice to God. He offers what might be considered ‘reasonable sacrifices - a one year old calf, right through to the absurd, the unthinkable - the sacrifice of one’s own child. Now from a biblical perspective, this is the ultimate sacrifice, but one that was banned by Torah law. The sacrifice of Isaac is what God had asked of Abraham - to test his faithfulness - but He did not make Abraham go through with it. This was an unthinkable sacrifice. Micah can find nothing to throw down to bridge this gulf between humanity and God.
The picture Micah paints for us is this - the prophet and people are bowed low to the ground in supplication to God, minute grains of sand pressing into their foreheads as if increasing the determination of their prayer, and a priest of the Temple - a direct representative of God in the sight of the people - comes near, touches the stooped heads and quietly but reassuringly says,
He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
He doesn’t even seem to answer the question, which was something like - how can I/we renew my/our relationship with God? If the question is about renewing that relationship, how is doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with God the answer?
Tonight I want to to just focus on the idea of the imperative to ‘do justice.’ The call for God’s justice was a distinctive and persistent sound from the Hebrew prophets. When God could no longer stand those in power who used their power not serve but to manipulate, He called a prophet. The prophets generally did not see into the future but rather were made to see things as they are through God’s eyes, and to tell the truth of what they saw with the implications of injustice spelled out.
God would send a prophet to see injustice, to denounce it, and to remind the abusers that there was still a God and that God saw their atrocities and that God would vindicate those harmed by injustice. The prophets announced that unless this change happened by choice God would make it so by force.
What does the justice of God look like? Again and again in the pages of scripture, God’s justice is played out by showing favour to those, siding with those, who would not normally receive a just hearing and their cause to be fought for - the poor (Proverbs 29:14) , the fatherless and widows (Isaiah 1:7), servants (Colossians 4:1) and so on... Those who are on the receiving end of abuses of power. The Beatitudes are a good example - Jesus teaches of the blessedness or happiness of the poor, mourners, the hungry, and the persecuted. God sides with those who society would perhaps feel sorry for for only a millisecond before tuning a kicking them because they are down.
So what has this passage to say to us? The key areas that we are focussing time and energy are god news as far as the church is concerned. They are seeing many people using their gifts and skills to take ownership of the life and direction of this church. To play their part in listening to, and acting on what God is calling us to. They help to devote the time we have better and more effectively in reveling the kingdom of God. But in this Holy Week, as we reflect most personally on the cost of our renewed relationship with God through the most absurd and unthinkable sacrifice of Jesus the Son, what they do not do directly is renew our relationship with God.
We talk much of justice - in the courts, for the people of certain nations, in trade and international dealings, and yet if we got the justice we deserved, we wouldn’t like it very much - for all of us have and do misuse the power given to us - and pretty much all of us would be on the receiving end of judgement.
Yet this Holy Week, as we seek specially to renew our relationship with God, justice lies a it’s very heart. For there is nothing, Micah reminds us, that we can do bridge the gulf between us and God. He shows us justice through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, for through it, He sides with us all.
The justice that we are called to as a church tonight is yes, seeking to live out the justice of God’s kingdom to the poor, downtrodden, and needy, to side with them and fight their cause - for it is God’s cause. The justice we are called to as a church tonight is, yes. seeking to challenge the unjust political, economic, social and environmental structure in society, for God challenges them too. The justice that Micah challenges us to do as a church is both of those and more.... but....
This Holy Week especially, It centres on the justice we recieve when we seek to renew our relationship with God, knowing that only He can show us justice for our waywardness and sinfulness, a justice that we do not deserve. Only He can call us back when we turn our backs on Him. It is the justice shown to us in Jesus, bridging that gulf between God and us, and offering us a renewed relationship.
I thank God for an effective church. I praise God that He calls people to use their gifts and skills, but tonight, I am reminded of the need to do the justice of God - knowing that it was done to me first in Jesus. Amen.
TUESDAY:
One Tuesday, a couple of weeks back I was praying the midday office on my own in church. As I prayed a verse from the scriptures came into my mind,
6“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Last night we focussed on the idea of the imperative to ‘do justice.’ The call for God’s justice was a distinctive and persistent sound from the Hebrew prophets. When God could no longer stand those in power who used their power not serve but to manipulate, He called a prophet. God would send a prophet to see injustice, to denounce it, and to remind the abusers that there was still a God and that God saw their atrocities and that God would vindicate those harmed by injustice. The prophets announced that unless this change happened by choice God would make it so by force.
So what has this passage to say to us? We talk much of justice - in the courts, for the people of certain nations, in trade and international dealings, and yet if we got the justice we deserved, we wouldn’t like it very much - for all of us have and do misuse the power given to us - and pretty much all of us would be on the receiving end of judgement.
Yet this Holy Week, as we seek specially to renew our relationship with God, justice lies a it’s very heart. The justice that we are called to as a church tonight is yes, seeking to live out the justice of God’s kingdom to the poor, downtrodden, and needy, to side with them and fight their cause - for it is God’s cause. The justice we are called to as a church tonight is, yes. seeking to challenge the unjust political, economic, social and environmental structure in society, for God challenges them too.
The justice that Micah challenges us to do is centred on the justice we recieve when we seek to renew our relationship with God, knowing that only He can show us justice for our waywardness and sinfulness, a justice that we do not deserve, a justice shown to us in Jesus, bridging that gulf between God and us, and offering us a renewed relationship.
The call to do justice though is set in tension with a call through Micah from God, to love mercy. A woman once said that mercy was a 2 edged sword. She loved to receive mercy, but she hated being the one to show it. She was asked her why and she replied, ‘...because to be in a position to show mercy means that you have been wronged, and thus be in a position of power: you actually have the right to exact a price. To give mercy means that I have to relinquish my advantage, even my control over a situation and a person who has wronged me...’
Is it right, or just to show mercy to someone who is in the wrong? Shouldn’t there be appropriate penelties for wrongdoing? We still talking of mercy today - the mercy cops, mercy missions and even rather bizarely mercy killings.
Micah calls us to love mercy because that is what we have in fact each been shown by God. The mercy that Micah speaks of is not just compassionate behaviour. The word used in the Hebrew is hesed which is the kindness that one shows another whether a person or God. Moreover acts of hesed lead to other acts of hesed - it flourishes in and builds relationships. A good example is the story of Ruth. Ruth shows hesed to Naomi and Boaz, and Boaz in turn sees that kindness shown by Ruth as part of God’s love and plan.
Micah here calls to love mercy, to a love in action which is enriches society, builds community and deepens relationships. Loving mercy is an action of setting free those who don’t deserve to be so.
Isn’t this the problem with the answer that Micah has been given to his question - how do I renew my relationship with God? Do justice and love mercy... If there were a sacrifice or pennance that I could do, then I could pay something appropriate for my sin. The greater the sin, the greater the sacrifice. The deeper the wound the more difficult the penance. To work as hard for my atonement as I did to create the need for it would surely be beneficial. At least it would make sure that I too it seriously.
The mercy that we are called to as a church tonight is yes, seeking out the poor, downtrodden, and needy locally, to show them love and to prectically provide for their needs - for this God’s will. The mercy we are called to as a church tonight is, yes. seeking to play our part in rectifying the oppressive political, economic, social and environmental structures in the world, not for the sake of justice but for those oppressed by them The mercy that Micah challenges us to love as a church is both of those and more.... but....
This Holy Week especially, It centres on the mercy we recieve when we seek to renew our relationship with God, knowing that only He can show us mercy for our waywardness and sinfulness, a mercy that we do not deserve. Only He can call us back when we turn our backs on Him. It is the mercy shown to us in Jesus, bridging that gulf between God and us, and offering us a renewed relationship.
I thank God for an effective church. I praise God that He calls people to use their gifts and skills, but tonight, I am reminded of the need to love with the love and mercy of God - knowing that it was done to me first in Jesus. Amen.
Lots has happened... 7 key working groups have been set up since a service to give thanks to God for the gifts and skills of the community. The groups are lay-led and are a way of ensuring ownership of the life of the church, that ideas get generated by the community and are owned by the community, and that they do not stop with me because of the busy nature f ordained ministry.
I have met with most of the groups and I am now really excited about this initiative as some of the ideas are amazing and the energy generated is life changing!
What else? Age of Stupid? The Age of Stupid is a 90-minute film about climate change, set in the future, and stars Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in the devasted world of 2055, looking back at “archive” footage from 2007 and asking: why didn’t we stop climate change when we had the chance? Why were we so stupid? Following this I have been exploring the possability of replacing our oil boiler with some form of renewable energy. I have also been drawn very willingly into the Transition town ideas and I am working with others to begin to explore how we can see Hemel becoming a transition town.
I am sure there is much other stuff that I should record here but I can't remember some of it! I have to say that the last few months have been really hard and I have been really strugging, but I am thankful that the corner has been turned!
Anyway here are two sermons - one from Monday night in Holy Week and one from tonight...
MONDAY:
Many of us have spent Lent, reflecting though sermon and study material, on scriptures linked to the 7 key areas of the life of our church - welcome, children, worship, nurture and study, publicity, community, and pastoral care.
Behind the scenes, as it were, I have met with each of these groups since the service on 25th January when we set them up. I have been so encouraged to see the group members take the God-given task of working within one of these groups to heart. I have also been amazed at some of the ideas that are being formed and acted on to deepen and demonstrate our love of God.
Then, one Tuesday, a couple of weeks back I was praying the midday office on my own in church. As I prayed a verse from the scriptures came into my mind,
6“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Why Lord are you giving me this passage? When all seems to be good, I think, at HT, why am I being presented with this? It is a passage that finds the prophet Micah in despair. As he looks at the community of which he is a part with God’s eyes - God helps him see a people who have abandoned Him. The people have turned their back on God, on His love, on His Law and walked away. Micah stands as a wayward child, longing to return to the love of the family home. But as Micah looks with God’s eyes, he sees a gulf between the attitudes and lifestyles of the people and what God is calling them to be. He sees a chasm so vast that he cannot cross - so far are his community from what God longs them to be. He asks then how they may restore and renew that relationship. As a good Jew, Micah knows that the way to seek the forgiveness and favour with God was through sacrifice. As Micah climbs the mountain to sacrifice to God - he does so hoping that what he offers might please Him and turn away His wrath.
Micah offers sacrifice after sacrifice to God. He offers what might be considered ‘reasonable sacrifices - a one year old calf, right through to the absurd, the unthinkable - the sacrifice of one’s own child. Now from a biblical perspective, this is the ultimate sacrifice, but one that was banned by Torah law. The sacrifice of Isaac is what God had asked of Abraham - to test his faithfulness - but He did not make Abraham go through with it. This was an unthinkable sacrifice. Micah can find nothing to throw down to bridge this gulf between humanity and God.
The picture Micah paints for us is this - the prophet and people are bowed low to the ground in supplication to God, minute grains of sand pressing into their foreheads as if increasing the determination of their prayer, and a priest of the Temple - a direct representative of God in the sight of the people - comes near, touches the stooped heads and quietly but reassuringly says,
He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
He doesn’t even seem to answer the question, which was something like - how can I/we renew my/our relationship with God? If the question is about renewing that relationship, how is doing justice, loving mercy and walking humbly with God the answer?
Tonight I want to to just focus on the idea of the imperative to ‘do justice.’ The call for God’s justice was a distinctive and persistent sound from the Hebrew prophets. When God could no longer stand those in power who used their power not serve but to manipulate, He called a prophet. The prophets generally did not see into the future but rather were made to see things as they are through God’s eyes, and to tell the truth of what they saw with the implications of injustice spelled out.
God would send a prophet to see injustice, to denounce it, and to remind the abusers that there was still a God and that God saw their atrocities and that God would vindicate those harmed by injustice. The prophets announced that unless this change happened by choice God would make it so by force.
What does the justice of God look like? Again and again in the pages of scripture, God’s justice is played out by showing favour to those, siding with those, who would not normally receive a just hearing and their cause to be fought for - the poor (Proverbs 29:14) , the fatherless and widows (Isaiah 1:7), servants (Colossians 4:1) and so on... Those who are on the receiving end of abuses of power. The Beatitudes are a good example - Jesus teaches of the blessedness or happiness of the poor, mourners, the hungry, and the persecuted. God sides with those who society would perhaps feel sorry for for only a millisecond before tuning a kicking them because they are down.
So what has this passage to say to us? The key areas that we are focussing time and energy are god news as far as the church is concerned. They are seeing many people using their gifts and skills to take ownership of the life and direction of this church. To play their part in listening to, and acting on what God is calling us to. They help to devote the time we have better and more effectively in reveling the kingdom of God. But in this Holy Week, as we reflect most personally on the cost of our renewed relationship with God through the most absurd and unthinkable sacrifice of Jesus the Son, what they do not do directly is renew our relationship with God.
We talk much of justice - in the courts, for the people of certain nations, in trade and international dealings, and yet if we got the justice we deserved, we wouldn’t like it very much - for all of us have and do misuse the power given to us - and pretty much all of us would be on the receiving end of judgement.
Yet this Holy Week, as we seek specially to renew our relationship with God, justice lies a it’s very heart. For there is nothing, Micah reminds us, that we can do bridge the gulf between us and God. He shows us justice through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, for through it, He sides with us all.
The justice that we are called to as a church tonight is yes, seeking to live out the justice of God’s kingdom to the poor, downtrodden, and needy, to side with them and fight their cause - for it is God’s cause. The justice we are called to as a church tonight is, yes. seeking to challenge the unjust political, economic, social and environmental structure in society, for God challenges them too. The justice that Micah challenges us to do as a church is both of those and more.... but....
This Holy Week especially, It centres on the justice we recieve when we seek to renew our relationship with God, knowing that only He can show us justice for our waywardness and sinfulness, a justice that we do not deserve. Only He can call us back when we turn our backs on Him. It is the justice shown to us in Jesus, bridging that gulf between God and us, and offering us a renewed relationship.
I thank God for an effective church. I praise God that He calls people to use their gifts and skills, but tonight, I am reminded of the need to do the justice of God - knowing that it was done to me first in Jesus. Amen.
TUESDAY:
One Tuesday, a couple of weeks back I was praying the midday office on my own in church. As I prayed a verse from the scriptures came into my mind,
6“With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? 7Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?” 8He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Last night we focussed on the idea of the imperative to ‘do justice.’ The call for God’s justice was a distinctive and persistent sound from the Hebrew prophets. When God could no longer stand those in power who used their power not serve but to manipulate, He called a prophet. God would send a prophet to see injustice, to denounce it, and to remind the abusers that there was still a God and that God saw their atrocities and that God would vindicate those harmed by injustice. The prophets announced that unless this change happened by choice God would make it so by force.
So what has this passage to say to us? We talk much of justice - in the courts, for the people of certain nations, in trade and international dealings, and yet if we got the justice we deserved, we wouldn’t like it very much - for all of us have and do misuse the power given to us - and pretty much all of us would be on the receiving end of judgement.
Yet this Holy Week, as we seek specially to renew our relationship with God, justice lies a it’s very heart. The justice that we are called to as a church tonight is yes, seeking to live out the justice of God’s kingdom to the poor, downtrodden, and needy, to side with them and fight their cause - for it is God’s cause. The justice we are called to as a church tonight is, yes. seeking to challenge the unjust political, economic, social and environmental structure in society, for God challenges them too.
The justice that Micah challenges us to do is centred on the justice we recieve when we seek to renew our relationship with God, knowing that only He can show us justice for our waywardness and sinfulness, a justice that we do not deserve, a justice shown to us in Jesus, bridging that gulf between God and us, and offering us a renewed relationship.
The call to do justice though is set in tension with a call through Micah from God, to love mercy. A woman once said that mercy was a 2 edged sword. She loved to receive mercy, but she hated being the one to show it. She was asked her why and she replied, ‘...because to be in a position to show mercy means that you have been wronged, and thus be in a position of power: you actually have the right to exact a price. To give mercy means that I have to relinquish my advantage, even my control over a situation and a person who has wronged me...’
Is it right, or just to show mercy to someone who is in the wrong? Shouldn’t there be appropriate penelties for wrongdoing? We still talking of mercy today - the mercy cops, mercy missions and even rather bizarely mercy killings.
Micah calls us to love mercy because that is what we have in fact each been shown by God. The mercy that Micah speaks of is not just compassionate behaviour. The word used in the Hebrew is hesed which is the kindness that one shows another whether a person or God. Moreover acts of hesed lead to other acts of hesed - it flourishes in and builds relationships. A good example is the story of Ruth. Ruth shows hesed to Naomi and Boaz, and Boaz in turn sees that kindness shown by Ruth as part of God’s love and plan.
Micah here calls to love mercy, to a love in action which is enriches society, builds community and deepens relationships. Loving mercy is an action of setting free those who don’t deserve to be so.
Isn’t this the problem with the answer that Micah has been given to his question - how do I renew my relationship with God? Do justice and love mercy... If there were a sacrifice or pennance that I could do, then I could pay something appropriate for my sin. The greater the sin, the greater the sacrifice. The deeper the wound the more difficult the penance. To work as hard for my atonement as I did to create the need for it would surely be beneficial. At least it would make sure that I too it seriously.
The mercy that we are called to as a church tonight is yes, seeking out the poor, downtrodden, and needy locally, to show them love and to prectically provide for their needs - for this God’s will. The mercy we are called to as a church tonight is, yes. seeking to play our part in rectifying the oppressive political, economic, social and environmental structures in the world, not for the sake of justice but for those oppressed by them The mercy that Micah challenges us to love as a church is both of those and more.... but....
This Holy Week especially, It centres on the mercy we recieve when we seek to renew our relationship with God, knowing that only He can show us mercy for our waywardness and sinfulness, a mercy that we do not deserve. Only He can call us back when we turn our backs on Him. It is the mercy shown to us in Jesus, bridging that gulf between God and us, and offering us a renewed relationship.
I thank God for an effective church. I praise God that He calls people to use their gifts and skills, but tonight, I am reminded of the need to love with the love and mercy of God - knowing that it was done to me first in Jesus. Amen.
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