Last Sunday's thought: By what authority are you doing these things?

‘By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?’ It was a question that, in one form or another, Jesus was asked many times during his ministry. ‘…who do you say that I am?’ he asked his disciples (Matt. 16:15; Mark 8:29; Luke 9:20) at Caesarea Philippi. At Nazareth, because he had been brought up there and his family was known, his ministry was rejected: ‘a prophet is not without honour except in his own country…’ (Matt. 13:57; Mark 6:4; cf. ‘no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s home town’: Luke 4:24). Our Lord’s ministry on this earth provides us with plenty of examples of criticism and rejection. Far from seeking compromise and consensus, Jesus was prepared to hit out at his critics: ‘the tax-collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you’, he tells the chief priests and the elders in the gospel. The choice of words was not calculated to endear him to his critics.

Any preacher, minister or priest can face such questions if he says something which is uncomfortable, or which does not conform to the current consensus. Yet if the church is to prosper and grow, comfort zones have to be challenged. The new Conventional District to be established around the Church of St Guthlac with effect from 1 October is called ‘an intentional mission initiative’ which ‘seeks to increase the number of disciples and the depth of discipleship at St Guthlac’s’. It is not therefore about maintaining the status quo. It is about increasing discipleship in both senses – numbers and depth. There is no point in seeking to increase the number of worshippers if we are only offering them a feeble, dumbed down version of the good news of Jesus Christ. No, we seek to deepen our own discipleship while at the same attracting others to join us by the warmth of our welcome and the quality of what we have to offer: the story we tell, in other words, is so powerful and compelling that not to be part of our worshipping community is to miss out on something that is life sustaining and life enriching. We are the poorer if we are not present in Church each Sunday to hear the good news and celebrate our love of God and of his son our saviour Jesus Christ. In one sense, what we are trying to do is all relatively simple. This does not make the task of managing ‘an intentional mission initiative’ itself either simple or easy.

If this development is to prosper, it needs, in humility, to be dedicated to God. The words of the assassinated bishop Oscar Romero are pertinent: ‘We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it’s a beginning, and a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest.’

Last Sunday’s Thought: will we be among the first or the last?

Equal pay for unequal work! The parable of the labourers in the vineyard (Matt. 20:1-16) is puzzling and seems to contradict our basic understanding of economic justice. Ask any group of bystanders and they are likely to give you this opinion. ‘If this is the kingdom of heaven, how can this God be just?’, some may ask following Isaac the Syrian. The parable recounted by Matthew has to be placed in context, for Jesus has just congratulated the disciples who have followed him by promising them their reward in the kingdom, where they will exercise the authority that was formerly exercised by the judges over the tribes of Israel (Matt. 19:27-30).

But, as always with Jesus, there can be no rewards for complacency. If, as seems likely, this is a parable illustrating the last judgement rather than contemporary social conditions, then we are warned against human reckoning and human presumption: the judgement rests with God alone, who may choose to reward the apparently less deserving as well as those who are confident in their deserts yet who are also warned against envy: ‘are you envious because I am generous?’ Just as judgement comes in God’s time, not man’s, so too the nature of the judgement will be God’s and not man’s. Each of the workers in the vineyard received the same wage. Our sole concern is not with how God reaches his judgement, but the promise of the same reward, which is admission to the kingdom. In that sense it matters not whether we are first or last. The important point is to arrive at the right destination!

Last Sunday’s Thought: how easy do we find it to forgive?

The events of 9/11 challenge Christians in their duty of forgiveness and reconciliation, because there is no evidence of any expression of contrition or repentance from the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks and their supporters. ‘How many times must I forgive my brother when he sins against me? As many as seven times?’, Peter asks Jesus, already extending the three times that Jews taught forgiveness was merited (it was not merited on the fourth time the offence was committed). Not so, Jesus says: not seven times, but seventy times seven – 490 times, or a virtually unlimited number of times. In ch 17 of Luke’s gospel, we are told that, if asked for forgiveness seven times on the same day, we are to grant it!

But what of forgiveness and reconciliation, when there is no contrition or repentance? Jesus teaches us also that there is a free, unmerited forgiveness, which does not presume or rely upon prior repentance. Jesus’ prayer for those who persecuted him – Father, forgive them for they know not what they do – is the clearest example. We are counselled to forgive so that we ourselves are forgiven. ‘Should you not have mercy …, as I have mercy on you?’ And again: ‘For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive yours.’ Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you, Paul tells us in Ephesians (4:32). Knowing that we need to forgive others is part of the evidence of Christ working in our lives through the Holy Spirit. None of this is necessarily easy: it has to be prayed for and worked at.

Last Sunday’s Thought: are we willing to be on fire for Jesus?

John Wesley tell us in his journal that on 24 May 1738 he had a ‘burning experience’ that changed his life. ‘About a quarter before nine, while [the preacher] was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.’ Others, such as Blaise Pascal in the seventeenth century, have had a similar ‘burning experience’. After they recognized Jesus in the breaking of the bread at Emmaus, Cleopas and the other disciple said to each other, ‘Wasn’t it like a fire burning in us when he talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?’ (Luke 23:32). God’s fire, we are told by the Prophet Malachi (Mal. 3:2, 3, 6), is like the refiner’s fire: it does not destroy us but purifies us, separating the good from the bad. As John the Baptist prophesied, Jesus baptizes us with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matt. 3:11). Are we willing to be on fire for Jesus?