• Ezekiel 37:1-14 – Life to Dry Bones
• Romans 8:6-11 – Mindset
• John 11:1-45 – Lazarus

Introduction

As we come to the end of Lent and prepare for the hard journey to Easter, both Gospel and Old Testament readings are substantial and very familiar. So, we need to take care. They may be familiar, but we need to hear God speaking to us today.

So, Let’s take time to read them, prayerfully and slowly (preferably aloud). Listen to what the Spirit underlines. Ask God for understanding. Remember Paul’s charge to Timothy – as we set ourselves to think and pray, God will supply understanding.

“Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. “ (2 Tim 2:7)

Romans will set the right tone

Romans 8:6–11    Developing a New Mind Set

The NIV translates v6 as “the mind of sinful man” vs “the mind controlled by the Spirit”. But this makes it sound like something beyond our control. What the original text is about, however, is mindset. Something that involves us.

First, though, there is indeed an underlying reality of our need for God to do something for us. Unless we have the Spirit of Christ in us, we are not able to please God, and not even able to submit to his word. Without God we are merely IN our sinful humanity – without God and without Hope (Eph 2:12). Our first need, then, is to turn to Jesus and cry out for help.

The good news is that if we have any sense of this need for his help, that is (in itself) evidence that God is already at work in us, reaching out his hand to us. His Spirit and only his Spirit, convicts us of our need for help (Jn 16:8). So, if this is you, be encouraged, cry out to God and he will respond (Rom 10:13).

But I am sure, that most reading this, will be (as Paul says) IN the Spirit, because the Spirit of Christ is in you. What, then, is everyone who is in Christ (who has the Spirit of Christ in them) ‘controlled’ by the Spirit, as the NIV implies? That’s not what this word from God suggests.

The whole sense of this part of Romans 8 – read from the beginning – is that we have been freed by the Gift of the Spirit of Christ to do what we could not do in the flesh; to walk (or live) as God’s word calls us to (which is righteousness); to submit to God’s law; to please God. In that freedom, living this way flows from a new mindset; a mind set on the Spirit and the word that the Spirit enlightens for us.

Receiving the Spirit – becoming IN the Spirit and the Spirit in you – can be instantaneous. Developing a Spirit mindset and walking in the Spirit are the work of a lifetime. Each day, each moment, we have a choice to set our minds and hearts to follow the Spirit.

• It requires Prayer – Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to selfish gain! (Ps 119:36)
• It requires Bible – letting his word abide and live in you (Col 3:16)
• It requires Perseverance – we will fall and fail, but press on (Jas 1:25)

It requires effort, because even though we are in Christ there is something about us still that struggles with this. Paul’s term for this is the flesh, and it encompasses all that is hardwired into our bodies, minds, hearts and souls that is from our old life. But, again, God helps –

“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Rom 8:11)

Hallelujah! “In all these things we are more than conquerors, through him who loved us.” (Rom 8:37)

Ezekiel 37:1–14

This promise – life to our mortal bodies – takes us to Ezekiel and his vision.

One of the hard truths of the Gospel is that God often needs to undo us before he can remake us, and we can often underestimate the depths of that undoing – we are so inclined to see ourselves as essentially ok.

Ezekiel’s vision was for a people who felt that “dried up”, whose hope was “lost” and who felt “cut off”. That latter word seems to have extra resonance in the Coronavirus crisis. Young people are often said to feel invincible, but older folk can feel the same. We need to let God takes to where these people were and feel what they felt.

Churches are shut and public services are cancelled. This may be temporary, but the truth is that many of our churches are more vulnerable that we realise. Some rural churches have closed permanently and even large and thriving churches need constant renewal. Many look to their church to sustain their life in Christ; how many of us look to our life in Christ to sustain church?

The end of the vision is a people who are a “mighty army”, who know that what they are is the Lord’s doing (not their own efforts or deserving) who know that he is Lord! A ‘might army’, speaks of a people who are in God’s hands, for his purposes. This is a word that I need to hear. I am convinced that our churches need to hear it to.

It starts with a valley filled with very dry bones. But these were God’s people. How had it come to this? In part, it was because they had neglected their life in God. They had set their minds on their own needs and desires rather than on the Spirit. They were still going up to the temple, outwardly looking like God’s people … but in reality, they had become dry bones

In part it was their doing, but it was also God’s doing. He had let them become dry bones, precisely so that when he gave them life, they would know that it was not their doing, but his. His desire was (and is) for a people who know him; a people who truly live in him.

And this work of God, bringing us to the valley of shadows, is not just for those who are failing to live in Christ as they are called to. It is also for those who are setting their minds on the Spirit to live in Christ. As Jesus said, Father prunes the fruitful vines so that they may bear more fruit (Jn 15).

So, I want to be careful when I read Ezekiel (I want us to be careful). I don’t want to see this just as a word for other people – it’s easy to think of other people who really need to hear this, but what about me, what about us?

But this is a vision of Hope! It is a word that says God is for us. “Can these bones live?”, he says to Ezekiel, who can only say, “O Lord God, you know.” Yes, they can. So, it is a word of hope, but is there any part in it for us? Yes. Speak the word, is his command. We are to speak the word to one another. And we are to hear the word when it is spoken to us

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” (Col 3:16)

John 11:1–45         A Personal Story

Romans and Ezekiel prepare and lead us to Lazarus. Here we see these things written in personal terms. We can read Paul and understand his teaching, but a personal story is so much more digestible.

Lazarus is ill and he is going to die. Jesus know that. But, because Jesus loves Lazarus, Mary and Martha … he delayed going. He could have hurried and healed Lazarus, but because he loved them, he let Lazarus die. When hard things happen to us and we question whether God really loves us, we should look to the cross – God has held back nothing in his love for this world – even those who will reject his love. Believe in his love even if you do not understand it. He is a rock of unchanging love –

“his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.” (Deut 32:4)

Then, when Jesus says he is going, some of the Disciples are fearful. Let’s go and die with him, says Thomas. How many of us are fearful in these days? Jesus does not rebuke the, but patiently draws them along with him. Our fears do not keep us from his love. God is for us even when we are fearful.

And, when they come to Bethany, Martha comes out to meet him, But Mary stays at home. Both of them have the same thought – if you had been here our brother would not have died. One comes out to Jesus and one stays away. Martha and Mary are very different characters. Here she comes to Jesus, on another occasion she is distracted by business, when Mary sits at Jesus’ feet.

Jesus doesn’t seem to have a generic response to all people at all times. He understands us as the people that we are, with extraordinary patience and love. At times he may rebuke our unbelief, but he does not condemn or reject us. That’s no reason to try his patience, but every reason to come to him, late or not, as indeed Mary did.

Nothing highlights this more for me than Jesus reaction to Mary & Martha as they come to him. He knows that he will raise Lazarus to life. He knows that people will see, believe and rejoice in his glory through this. But knowing all this, still he weeps. This is the Saviour that God has given to us. There is no one like him!

And, finally, of course, Jesus speaks the words ‘Lazarus, come out’. Lazarus is dead, he cannot here, and he cannot respond, but in those words of command, life is given. And, whenever Jesus commands us, with the command, he gives the power to respond.

There is much deep theology in this account of Lazarus’ death and resurrection. But there is also so much of real people and a real – extraordinary – saviour. One technique that I was taught with such Bible stories was to try and imagine myself as one of the characters in it – to inhabit the story. Which one are you? At different times (and sometimes all at the same tome) I find myself in all of them; something of me in my weakness and need, or in my stumbling faith. To every one of them Jesus says – I Am … I am the resurrection and the life … I am everything that you need, always.

Good Shepherd, there is no one like you.

• 1 Samuel 1:20–28
• Colossians 3:12–17
• Luke 2:33–35

Colossians – Getting Dressed for the Occasion

In this time of Coronavirus, more than ever, we need to heed the words of Colossians 3:12–17.

The things that God calls us to are feelings, but they are also choices. You can put them on just as you chose what to wear when you get up each day. God is calling us to make the choices that he makes and put on Christ, in:

Compassion means thinking of how others are feeling and putting their interests before your own. Kindness means treating others as you would have them treat you. Gentleness means treating others perhaps better than they deserve, recognising their vulnerability. Meekness or Humility knows that the world does not revolve around us.

And Patience (bearing with one another and forgiving one another) is an antidote to our frustrations and pride. We put frustrations and pride off when we clothe ourselves with Patience, Bearing-With and Forgiving one another.

Love binds all these together. And we are, as Paul reminds us, “Holy and Beloved”. Those who have been chosen and loved by God should, above all people, know what it is to love … as we have been loved.

When the world around us is panic-buying, ignoring good counsel because they think that they are invincible, whatever the risk to others; When families locked in together, working from home and trying to teach their children at the same time; when some are left all alone and forgotten … we need to heed these words.

But it is not easy, and we will need to feed our hearts and minds if we are going to be able to do this. So, we must keep making time to read God’s word and let it really settle in our hearts and minds. We must keep making time to worship God, with thankfulness and love – feeding on his goodness and truth in a time when it may seem less real in our world.

So, as we live in the context of the Coronavirus, much more we must seek to live in the greater reality of Jesus Christ. The virus will pass, he is eternal. The virus may harm and even kill, but it cannot extinguish the life of Christ in you.

We may think that in these times the world is facing the consequences of its reckless disregard for God’s goodness and truth, but God is still in charge, still working his purposes of love and grace out in our world. And this, even this, he will work for good for those who love him. Jesus is Lord!

1 Samuel – Putting Loved-Ones in God’s Hands

Hannah had longed for a child all her life, and in her old age God granted her request with the birth of Samuel. In modern parlance he might be described as a ‘rainbow-baby’, though personally I am not keen on that term. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that Hannah loved Samuel as a precious gift.

Given this it’s a surprise to read that, when Samuel was weaned (how old that would have been in that society we are not sure) she brought him to the Temple and gave him to God – for his whole life, as long as he lives.

This year we face a Mothering Sunday when most will not be able to visit their mother. And we do so at a time when those mothers seem more vulnerable and at risk than ever before. How can we bear this?

The answer, and its not an easy one, is to sit a while with Hannah. Hannah loved Samuel as the son of her old age, a very special son. But she recognised that in a very deep way, Samuel was not hers to hold and keep.

She did not stop loving Samuel all her life. Every year she made a new robe for Samuel and took it to the Temple. So, every day Samuel could literally clothe himself with his mother’s love.

Yet, she let him go into the Lord’s hands. Hannah shows us that we can love and still let go; that loving we can see letting go into God’s hands as an act of costly love.

I don’t think that there is any easy way to do this and only God can help us to do it. But the reality is that we are all, first of all, in God’s hands. We may love our mother (or children, family or whoever) and feel as if that loved one is ours in some way, but first of all every one of us is God’s. And though we love and care for those we love, we will not be able to do everything for them that our love wants to do. Only God can hold, nurture and keep them, so that no one can take them out of his hands.

So, let us sit with Hannah and learn how she did this. Let us place our loved ones in God’s hands, even when this feels like letting go from our hands. And let us trust his love and power – so much greater than ours.

We can still make our robes for them, however that may be; in phone calls, gifts and above all our prayers.

Luke 2:33–35 – A Sword shall pierce your heart as well

In a time of fear and real suffering, when deaths that any other year would have been largely invisible are counted daily before our eyes, we need to remember the suffering and death of our Lord.

Without Jesus, suffering – which is an unavoidable part of all life – seems futile, meaningless and tragic. We avoid thinking about it in the main, because otherwise life itself would be impossible – futile, meaningless and tragic. But sooner or later its reality will catch up with us, and most of us are entirely unprepared.

But Jesus has changed that. It is not that he has done away with suffering – though a day will come when he will – but he has himself entered into our suffering and transformed it. Without him the ultimate end of suffering is death. With Jesus, trusting in his suffering and death, its ultimate end becomes life; eternal life, fullness of life, reigning now in life!

Because Jesus has suffered for us and died, suffering and death are not taken from us, but they are transformed. So, Mary is told “a sword will pierce your heart also”. Some of us will learn again the reality of this during this Coronavirus crisis. So, let us also learn how Jesus can transform that suffering, so that our grief may not be without hope.

Paul learned this lesson. Just as, at his conversion and call to service, he was shown “How much he must suffer for the sake of my name” (Acts 9:16). So, in later life he says:

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—  that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.  Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Phil 3:7-14)

Sooner or later ‘a sword will pierce your heart also’. Will it destroy you? Will it destroy your faith? Or will you receive it as grace – a very hard grace admittedly – because you have been counted worthy to suffer with him who has suffered for us all.

Only Jesus can transform your suffering, and mine. Now is the time to prepare our hearts, by giving them to Jesus. Now is the time to share the gift of Christ with others; to bear him and reveal him in our lives, as Mary did for us, regardless of the cost.

Have you yet discovered “the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord”? Now is the time

Our Gospel and Epistle readings, his morning, challenge us in our love for Christ and our spiritual complacency. They make us look at Easter and the days that follow in ways that carry Lent forward in our pilgrimage with Christ.

In the Gospel

In the Gospel (Jn 12:1-8), we see the extravagant love of Mary and the sinful greed of Judas Iscariot, but it is Jesus own words that really jar – “the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.” Jesus puts worship of him above the needs of the poor.

Of course, it is not either/or, he is not saying do not meet the needs of the poor. And there is something about the timing here (they will not have many more moments to worship him in the flesh). Still, Jesus could have been worshiped in other ways and the money saved for the poor, but Jesus honours Mary for her extravagant Gift in a way that challenges our love for him.
Nothing matters more than loving and worshiping Jesus with all we are and have.

Perhaps we have to ask ourselves; what is the relationship between the two great commandments?

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it:

“You shall love your neighbour as yourself.”

On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. (Matt 22:37–40)

The first is ‘first and greatest’ because comes before all others and all others must flow from it. If we do not love God truly and absolutely, we cannot truly love our neighbour. Too many people think that loving their neighbour is enough, and see Jesus merely as a good example to follow. But Jesus calls us to love God in him with everything we have and are – so what’s left over to love our neighbour? The answer, in Jesus, is more than we could ever have imagined.

In the Epistle

Then, in the Epistle (Phil 3:4-14), we see Paul laying aside his Jewish heritage, with all its real privileges and blessing, in order to seek Christ. We might understand his laying aside a reliance on legal obedience to pursue a righteous based on faith, but he is saying much more than this – his very birth-right as a Hebrew, must not get in the way of his pursuing and having Christ.

And, then, we might expect his new faith to be his confidence in Christ, but even this he lays aside in a daily, all or nothing, pursuit of knowing Jesus Christ. Whatever this relationship with Christ is, he (even Paul) has not yet arrived, but is still seeking, pressing in.

There is sort of Christianity that claims more than it actually has, and more than it is willing to sacrifice to pursue. Paul challenges us to look again at our complacency in the face of what God is calling us to.

The New Way

A New Thing, a New Way

And, all this echoes the reading from Isaiah (Isa 43:16-21).

In this reading, God highlights what he has done for his people, calling to mind their extraordinary rescue from Egypt. He is the Lord;

who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick

(Isa 46:16-17)

But, having brought this to mind, he says “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old.” Open your eyes, he says,

“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”

(Isa 46:19)

This new thing is a new way … in the desert. It’s a way that calls his people to leave the past and come out to a desert experience.

In the mosaic law there was a festival commanded after the final harvest – the feast of Booths or Tabernacles (in Jewish Sukhot). In it, the people were to come out of their homes and build booths or tents, remembering their experience in the wilderness. Isaiah speaks of something like this, but greater, a real leaving behind of history and comfort to make a new wilderness journey.

I am the Way, the Truth and the Life

As we approach the trials and journey of Holy Week, we will hear again Jesus’ words to his disciples:

“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life”

(Jn 14.6)

He is the new way, that God speaks of in Isaiah, a desert way that calls us to embrace the cross (taking up our cross) and follow him.

As we come towards Easter, we will have an opportunity to follow him (to walk with him) and – as Paul says – to “share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death”. And, on Easter Day, we will rejoice in his resurrection and the new life that he owns and shares with us in his resurrection glory, as he pours his Spirit into us.

Easter People – who embrace the Cross

And, often, we will move on from Lent and Holy week, to live in that new risen life as if it has all been accomplished. In Christ it has, of course, but not in us.

We are Easter People, living in the good of the resurrection … but there is no Easter, no resurrection, without Good Friday and the Cross. And Jesus still says to his Easter People “take up your cross and follow me”.

That’s why Paul, who has experienced more of the new Easter life than most of us will experience this side of Glory says things like this:

“that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”

(Phil 3.10-11)

Or, when he writes to the Corinthians

“I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”

(1 Cor 2:2)

You might expect him to want to know nothing but Christ resurrected and glorified, but no, it is Christ Crucified that he seeks amongst them.

Knowing Jesus; through dying to live

One day, for us, it will all be accomplished;

“Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.”

(1 Jn 3.2)

But now we are still pursuing this – counting everything else as rubbish compared to this – and Jesus calls us to follow him, by picking up our cross. He calls us to seek his life by laying down ours.

Paul’s words describe and extraordinary faith:

• One that is so confident in Jesus and his way (his upward call), that Paul is willing to give up everything to follow him and come to know him.
• One that is so unconfident in himself that he pursues this way, each day as if is the first, as if everything depends upon pressing on; through suffering and dying with Jesus “if by any means” (what and extraordinary phrase) he may obtain this life in Jesus.

How does our faith, our life, compare to this?

How much does our life show a passion to truly know Jesus, whatever it may take?

God is calling us, in Jesus, to something more and higher – it’s the “upward call of God” that Paul speaks of. And, we are to content with where we are, and what we have.

As we draw towards the end of Lent, we may feel that there is light at the end of the tunnel at Easter. But there is something in me, something of God’s call, that wants to extend Lent into Easter and beyond; in prayerful seeking, in hungry reading of God’s word, in cross-embracing living …

that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead and gain Christ Jesus, our true goal and treasure.

A Difficult Day for Some

I ought to acknowledge, however, at the start, that Mothering Sunday can be a difficult day for many:

• It may renew the grief over the death of your mother
• It may renew your grief over the loss of a child
• It may renew your grief that you were never able to be a mother.
• It may, for some mothers, who feel they don’t fit the expectations of society or the church as mothers, bring a sense of isolation or even guilt.
• It may, for others (especially the men here this morning), feel as if the day has nothing for you.

However, I hope that if you find yourself in any of these categories, or others I have not mentioned, you will find that today is also for you. Sometimes God may speak to particular individuals, or speak to biblical ideals, and you may feel left out or that you don’t fit. But, even when it’s not directed at us, God’s Word has something for each and all of us. And, when we feel we do not fit, or meet God’s expectations and ideals, we can discover that, in Jesus, God’s truth is always accompanied by his grace.

Let’s Ground this In God

Let me start, therefore, by grounding this day in God himself. The Bible speaks of God as Father and there are all sorts of reasons for that, but we know that God is more than we understand by the description ‘Father’.

In the beginning he made humanity in his image; and he made them male and female. His Image is not male or female, but male and female. There is something about God that cannot be displayed in male or female only, but only in a unity of male and female; a unity that requires that each of us fully realises what it is to be male or female.

And, though God is not often referred to in scripture as Mother, God is shown as a mother in many ways. Our reading from 2 Corinthians, for instance, mirrors the motherly care of God that we also here in Jesus as he longs to gather his recalcitrant children under his wings like a mother hen.

So, ladies (mothers) I want you to see all that you are as grounded in the character of God, as you image forth his character in your life.

The Agency of Women in Scripture

I could also say something about the vital agency of women in scripture; from the women who changed history (like Deborah, Rahab, Esther, and Mary). But there were many more, often whose names we do not know, who were equally instrumental as mothers. It is interesting to see how many of the ‘good’ Kings in Israel were as they were because of their mothers.

There is a whole stream of history and truth in scripture that is not highlighted enough. But we have three scriptures this morning, and I want us to see what they are saying, without being too side-tracked.

Today’s Readings

Let’s look at the readings set for Mothering Sunday.

2 Corinthians

In 2 Corinthians, “the Father of mercies and God of all comfort”, brings together what we might see as the fatherhood and the motherhood of God. Mercy speaks of a holding back of judgement, but Comfort speaks of a granting of help and love in a way that epitomises what it is to be a mother.

So, again, I want you to see, what you are and aspire to be as mothers, as coming from God, bearing his image and glorifying his name in your life.

But, the scripture does not stop there. It also speaks of the cost of such love and comfort. The ability to comfort, itself comes from suffering and being comforted yourself. Note, it’s not just suffering – we are familiar enough with that – but suffering that finds its comfort in and from God.

And, in this there is a sharing in the suffering and comfort of Christ himself. The link, and sharing in Christ, is so intimately woven that Paul can be confident of our comfort because we are sharing in Christ’s suffering.

There can be few mothers here, if any, who do not recognise suffering as mothers in their lives. I hope there are also few who do not recognise God’s comfort.

Exodus and Moses

Then, in our Exodus reading, there is another reality for us to recognise.

A mother’s instinct is to comfort and protect – to gather your chicks under your wings. But, God calls us to something else as well. Jochebed, Moses’ mother, had to let go of him – into the waters of the Nile, but also and more importantly, into God’s hands. Her older daughter waits to see what will happen, but for Jochebed, it is a real letting go.

Mothers also need to let go, to let their chicks fly the nest, but I think that there is more than this going on here. To me, it looks more like baptism. In baptism there is a symbolic reality of death and rising to new life. But, for a child (like Moses), and for a mother (like Jochebed) who has just produced this new life – from her very self – it is particularly demanding.

It speaks of holding this new life – life from you – and recognising that it is not yours. So, you let go of it into God’s hands. And, Like Moses, you receive it back to care for, but now not as your own, but rather as God’s child. It is a powerful and dramatic display of an awesome truth for Mothers. These children are not your own, but God’s.

And, there will come times when it is not about letting them fly the nest, but coming to the end of your own capacity to be a mother – and letting them go into God’s hands (and theirs, in God). Perhaps through ill health, or circumstances, or their own choices; whatever, it is a hard lesson to learn, and you need scriptural examples, like Moses, to give you courage and faith.

Jesus, Mary & John

And, then, we have this strange reading from the Cross. Strange, I say, not because Jesus is showing care for his mother, but because Mary already has other sons who could look after her. Why does he giver her into John’s care?

I don’t really know. But I think it might be because, at that stage, Mary’s other sons had not yet come to believe in Jesus. Up until then, they (and Mary) have only appeared trying to rescue Jesus from himself – to which Jesus responds by declaring that his Disciples are his real family. After his resurrection, Jesus would appear to James (the oldest of these step-brothers) and he would believe and become a key member of the Jerusalem church, but now Mary needs a faithful Christian to care for her.

What this highlights, perhaps, is Mary’s vulnerability. Though she would put many of the Disciples to shame, when they ran away whilst she stayed and watched at the foot of the cross – yet she was still vulnerable. We all need to know our vulnerability (men and women). But, in a society where women can be expected to have it all and do it all, perhaps it is particularly important to recognise that this pressure does not come from God. He cares for us and puts us in families and, ladies especially when you are not part of a Christian family, you need to hear this.

It’s a difficult reality for us to talk about, and it has implications for men and women, but motherhood brings particular vulnerabilities and – perhaps – requires (in God) particular relationships of mutual care.

Celebrating and Giving Thanks – with Understanding

So, our readings remind us, as we celebrate mothers and give thanks for them, that we need to do so with understanding. We can’t just let society shape our view of motherhood, or celebrate it as simply as ‘motherhood and apple pie’. We need God’s light, his word, to renew our thinking and direct our hearts.

Which, as we celebrate and give thanks, brings me to my final point.

A Special Day?

I said that today was also a special day for other reasons. We have special days, like Mother’s Day, Father’s Day etc. to highlight needed realities. So, this Sunday is also special for two other reasons:

Did you know that it is Bring your Bible to Church day?

Have you brought your bible with you today? Perhaps you didn’t know it was Bring your Bible to Church day. It’s not enough to hear the readings (or have them in the pew sheets) you need to see them in your Bible – to hold them yourself and take them with you when you leave.

This is so important that we have Bring your Bible to Church day. It’s so important that we have it every Sunday.

Today it doesn’t matter if you did not know and have not brought your bible. We have Pew Bibles you can use. And, if you don’t have one we can supply one to you – we love to supply people with Bibles – only one condition, that you bring them to church when you come.

Did you know that it is also Bring the Holy Spirit to Church day?

Did you know that?

Jesus promised to be with us (by his Spirit) when we meet together – even just two of us. His Holy Spirit is with in many ways, us when we meet, but principally because he is in us – we bring him as we meet and recognise him on one another. How else are we going to worship, or hear, or encourage one another – we’re useless without him.

This is so important that we have Bring the Holy Spirit to Church day. It’s so important that we have it every Sunday.

And again, it doesn’t matter if you did not know and have not brought him. We have the Holy Spirit for you as well (not just Bibles) – we love to supply people with the Holy Spirit – only one condition, that you bring him to church in you when you come.

Mothering Sunday

To day we are celebrating Mothers and Mothering Sunday. We can’t do that without his word to guide and inspire us and we cant do it without his Spirit to enlighten and empower us. So I am glad to celebrate all three special days as one.

All our readings today carry a clear and challenging message. They can seem hard and judgmental; but they are meant to be loving. When someone is sleepwalking into danger, a soft call is highly inappropriate.

Consider the readings set for Lent 3

• Isaiah 55:1–9 a call to listen, and live
• 1 Corinthians 10:1–13 a call to learn the lessons of our history
• Luke 13:1–9 a warning against the false comfort of comparison

Isaiah

In Isaiah there is a call to Listen to God, to Look at his Promises and to Seek Him (turning away from those things we have been doing and thinking that are turned away from God).

The clear implication is that God is calling out to a people who are not hearing him or considering his promises, and whose lives and thoughts are turned away from him, to ungodliness. If we are what we eat, we are feeding ourselves on things that are doing us no good and do not satisfy our innate hunger. Ultimately these things are inimical to life – as the medics now say, they are ‘incompatible with life’.

So, God calls us to wake up to who we are and what we are doing:

• Turn and Seek – turn from our ungodly ways and thoughts and seek his mercy and grace.
• Listen to him – to pay careful attention to his call and his promises

When Jesus spoke to the crowds in parable, he was looking for those who had ears to hear; who were listening to God in what he was saying. We can be so deaf; so unable to imagine anything better than the unsatisfying scraps we feed ourselves on. It’s time to judge ourselves, before we are judged.

Corinthians

Perhaps, one of the biggest dangers for us, is that we see ourselves as part of God’s people; we feel we are feeding on his ‘spiritual food’; we are (in some sense) baptised into the same history and experience – but we may still fall and fail, just as many of his people have done in the past.

What’s going on here. It looks like church in so many ways, but “with most of them God was not pleased”. Somehow, all of this real supernatural blessing, did not penetrate their hearts enough to show in their lives.

The things that God highlights are interesting (not all of them are obvious to modern Christians):

• Idolatry
• Sexual Immorality
• Testing God
• Grumbling

I don’t suspect that many of us have a shelf of carved idols at home, but that does not mean that we are not idolatrous; covetousness is idolatry, anything that we hold in our lives in place of God is idolatry, any ideas about God of our own that we hold in place of the truth is idolatry. This generation is probably more idolatrous than any.

And, sexual immorality is equally widespread. What God has set within the bounds of lifelong marriage, like a carefully protected river, has overflooded its banks, spoiling lives and communities. We are so lax we can’t even see it!

And, we put God to the test all the time; whenever we push at the boundaries of his law, like teenagers assuming we can get away with it; invincible and invulnerable. But God is not to be taken in vain, mocked, or presumed upon

“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”

“Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.”

“do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”

(Ex 20:7); (Gal 6:7); (Rom 2:4)

And, as to grumbling, it’s the air we breathe. But grumbling is as much an affront to God as sexual immorality.

But, God says, look at the example of my first-called people; “these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.” This is a call to look at ourselves seriously in the light of God. It’s time to judge ourselves, before we are judged.

Luke

And, finally in Luke, Jesus challenges us, in our propensity to make ourselves feel better by finding someone else to look down on. It’s too easy for us to compare our lives to others (if very selectively), when we should be comparing ourselves to what God has called us to be.

Again, God’s word cuts through to the reality of our complacent lives:

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.”

(Heb 4:12–13)

We assume that everything happens for a reason, so we see the calamities that come to some people as God’s judgement on their lives. But judgement in this life does not work as simply as that.

There will come a day when judgment will be detailed and accurate; when we “are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account”. But, in this life it is not as simple as that:

• Some seem to go from wickedness to wickedness and always seem to prosper – God gives them over to their desires in a way that allows them to plumb their depths unhindered.
• Some, those whom he loves and calls his own, suffer the pains of discipline and transformation; not as punishment, but as love that calls us to be all that he has saved us to be.
• But, mostly, we live in a world that is spoilt by mankind’s sinfulness, in a shared experience of appropriate suffering and undeserved mercy.

The precarious vulnerability of our lives and the sin-bent challenges of this world should make us eager to draw close to God. But too often we comfort ourselves with the tragedies in others lives and tell ourselves that we are ok.

Scripture tells us that all those who seem to prosper so long in their wickedness are, in fact in a slippery place, and their downfall will be sudden and unexpected (Ps 73.18). It’s time to judge ourselves, before we are judged.

It’s time to judge ourselves, before we are judged.

We don’t often think about judgement. For all the above deceptive reasons, we think we are ok. But one day we will all stand “naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account”. We will give account and be judged.

• If we are not In Christ by a true and living faith, we will be condemned; cast out into the darkness away from God.
• If we are in Christ, we will not be condemned, but everything in us that is not of him will be consumed in the fire of his holiness (1 Cor 3.15). I don’t think that will be a pleasant experience.

So, as I say, it’s time to judge ourselves, before we are judged.

A Challenge to Us as Church

And finally, there is s clear challenge to us in our scriptures this morning that should make us humble and thoughtful:

“Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.”

(1 Cor 10.12)

But it not just a case of an individual reflection. There seems to be a theme, this Lent – in the scriptures that are set in the Lectionary; and in what God keeps laying on my heart. This Lent is about much more than a personal spiritual MOT. There seems to me to be a need for a whole-church MOT.

They are not alternatives, so I am not talking about something other than, or less than a personal spiritual reflection – rather I want to recognise that who I am in Christ (who each of us is) is not just a personal reality; in Christ we are members of his body, members one of another (Eph 4.25)

God’s plan is not merely to save individuals, but to build a church – a community of people united and living by faith in Jesus, displaying the glory of Christ to the whole of creation (Eph 3.10). And, our response to his word this morning is not just about our own salvation, but about God’s passion for his church.

God is shaking up and waking up his church in these days. He is calling for us to take his church seriously … and we are his Church; who we are in him (each one of us) determines the church that we are.

A Gospel Challenge – Good News

To speak so much of judgement may not sound like good news (or Gospel), but if our lack of self judgement is keeping us from seeing our need of God, while God stands ready to show mercy and grace – such a wake up call is the only true good news

So, for ourselves and the church we are part of (and for that matter, every other relationship we are bound up in) –
It’s time to judge ourselves, before we are judged.

Readings for this Sermon

• Genesis 15.1–18
• Philippians 3:17–4:1
• Luke 13:31–35

Despite the picture, Church is not the building, but the people. So, God’s word speaks to us this morning:

• Of a promise that Abraham’s faith will produce a family (a people) of faith in God, who will be beyond numbering. [it also speaks, in the verses that are left out in the Lectionary, of that people’s suffering before their fulfilment].
• Of the visible church being a mixture of those who truly are son’s and daughters of Abraham’s faith, and embrace the way of self-sacrifice (the cross) as they seek a new kingdom; and those whose hearts are still set on their own self-preservation – but the true Christians are not earthly, but Citizens of Heaven through the Cross.
• Of Jesus commitment to Save, offering his own life for his sheep; but of the fact that many, who are his people in name, appear unable to truly receive him.

It’s talking about us, the Church!

Who? … Why?

So, let’s do something a bit different this morning. Look around – this is the Church. We are only part of the church; in St Keverne, in our Benefice and in this world. But, in a very real way, in this local gathering, we are Church.

If I wasn’t here this morning, and we had no music, organ, or anyone to lead this service (whatever that means) … you would still be the church!

• Part of God’s promise to Abraham
• A Mixture of Cross-embracing Faith and world embracing self-centredness
• The people who Jesus suffered and gave his life for; including some who find that cross-shaped good news hard to receive.

That’s us.

So, I want to start with two questions this morning:

• Who are you … in your hearts and minds? Do you even have a sense of who you are?
• Why are you here? Why do you come, week by week?

Who are You?

I know it’s a massive and almost unanswerable question, but we need to try and answer. If you don’t have a real sense of who you are (whatever that is), you will be like a leaf in a storm; tossed about, a product of other people and circumstances, unable to really be anything.

For example – The things that you do are not really a result of knowing right and wrong, they come from who you are (Just as Jesus said, they come from inside you; who you are; Matt 15.18)

Ae you Christian British, or British Christian (or Cornish) – what comes first? Where is your citizenship?

Jesus shows what this looks like; the pharisees say run away, Herod wants to kill you; and Jesus says, that’s not me, what’s that got to do with me …

Who is it that has come here today?

Why are you here?

And, why are you here?

Again, I know its an impossible question; why do you come generally, why have you come today, what are you bringing and what are you looking for? There are loads of questions hidden in this simple question; why are you here?

But still, it’s important – today, it’s important.

Perhaps there is no One right answer. Even if you are here because you are part of Jesus body and love him and his people;

• you might be here, hungry to feed on him,
• you might be here overflowing with praise or a word from God,
• you might be here looking for answers to a question that trouble you,
• you might be here wanting to pray about something, or someone,
• or you might be here just looking for a refuge, with nothing left but knowing he loves you.

Or, you might be here for none of those reasons; out of habit, or comfort, or curiosity, or duty, or because you are on the rota to do something …

Church

These things are important because you are the Church. Not just when we gather together – you are still part of the body, the church, at home, at work and in everywhere you go – but here we see one another and here we are, in a special way, Church.

What if I had not turned up? What if there was no music and no one to lead this service … what would you do?

What if, because there was no Vicar and no service was advertised, but the building was still open … what would you do. What if the building was closed; what would you do? The scripture offers us challenges and encouragement – where are you?

“For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food”

(Heb 5:12)

“What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.” (1 Cor 14:26)

(1 Cor 14:26)

You know that such things have happened, and sometimes people who have come to church or chapel all their life, have just stopped going anywhere!

The Deanery Plan

There’s a reason for all of this; or perhaps two

The Challenge of Clergy Reductions

The first and most obvious is that church as we know it is going to change. Of course, it already has been changing; you used to have one vice dedicated to this parish and now you share him with three other parishes.

That sort of change is only going to increase. It has the danger of being a race to the bottom or managed decline. But, is there a better way of facing this challenge?

The Purpose of God

And there is a deeper reason for my asking these questions, and that is that what is happening to us (this challenge) is God’s working, his plan

Something New

“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.”

(Isa 43:18–19); (Isaiah 60:1)

Time to Wake Up

“Therefore it says, “Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

“Awake, awake, put on your strength, O Zion; put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city; for there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean.”

“Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.”

(Eph 5:14); (Isa 52:1); (Rom 13:11)

Time to Grow Up

“I hope to come to you soon, but I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.”

“For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?”

(1 Tim 3:14-15); (1 Pet 4:17)

The time when the Church could comfortably hide itself in a friendly, relatively Christian, society has passed. God is calling his Church to wake up, both to the times that we live in and to the calling we have. Quite what that looks like is not clear, but it will be something that grows from the reality of Jesus living in the particular people in each church.

A Christian Presence in Every Community

The Church of England has a mission statement “A Christian Presence in Every Community”. I believe that is what God is looking for also. But, note, it does not mean a Church in every community, let alone the same expression of Church in every community – a congregation of a dozen older people cant be the same as an all age congregation of 200 people … but each can be what God calls them to be. And, in partnerships between congregations – a larger sense of being church – we can be much more than we think.

You are the church. I do not make or shape what this church is – whatever influence I may have – you do. My role is only to build you up, to discover together what God is calling you to be.

In the past Church has often been like something that is provided – something you can join, attend, support and serve – but this has never been what church was meant to be. Church is not provided by some external leadership or institution, church is organic, living; it is what you make it together in Christ.

No More Making Bricks

In Egypt, the Israelites had to make a living by making bricks. And it became harder and harder as the resources for brick-making were reduced and they had to make more and more bricks. Church can sometimes feel like that, as our resources diminish but we are asked to make more and more bricks (Safeguarding paperwork, Data Protection paperwork, Building Repairs and so much more)

Now God is calling us out, to leave the slavery of brick-making behind and journey to a way of life that will be like the first garden, a land flowing with all the good things we need.

The way there is through the desert; leaving solid houses to live as pilgrims in tents, pitching the temple of God’s presence everywhere we are, relying on mana for each day – facing the temptation to grumbling and disagreement, but knowing the need of mutual love and a closeness to Jesus.

It may look like something smaller to start with. And the leaving and losing of those things that have been our comfort and security will be like grieving (for some more than others). But this is God’s way, and if we do not take it that changes will still come, and we will be unprepared. The losses will still happen, but we will have no hope.

Look at One another … and Look at Jesus

So, God is calling us to open our eyes. Look around. The people you see are what God is calling in this place to be his Church; to wake up, grow up and become the new ting that he is calling forth.

And, God is calling you to open your hearts to him; trusting that he is in charge of what is happening. He is calling you to draw close to him; this new thing is first a new you in Jesus as you entrust yourself to him and discover who you are in him. He is calling you to open your eyes and minds to see him – the Holy Spirit in you and in us, like the pillar of fire and cloud that led his people once before, through the desert.

We are setting out, and we can’t see exactly where we are going. But we know that he has called us together; we are (look around) his people. And he has called us to himself, and given us a great shepherd to lead us, together, into life.

• Reflect on who you are
• Reflect on who God is
• Reflect on your relationship with God

Out of this God will call us to do (abstaining or engaging). But we have to start in the right place.

There is a call in our readings to look at yourself; in the example of the Testing of Christ, and the call to remembrance in Deuteronomy.

There is a call also to look at God; in the God that Jesus reveals to us in his testing, and the call to remember and rejoice in Deuteronomy

There is a call to look at your relationship with God; in the call to faith in Romans, the example of Jesus in his testing and the whole message of Deuteronomy

Today’s Readings

• Luke 4:1–13
• Deuteronomy 26:1–11
• Romans 10:8–13

A Time to Reflect and Look …

Look at Yourself

In Jesus’ Testing

Jesus experience in the wilderness is often called his Temptation, but it is better understood as his Testing (periazō). The Devil may tempt to make him fall, but God intends to Test in order to prove – to prove what is truly in Jesus – and to approve. Just as Peter refers to the “tested genuineness of your faith” which is proved like gold (1 Pet 1.7).

In Jesus we see that what is proved, by this testing is his Hunger (or desire), his Love, and his Trust.

Jesus, what is it that you truly desire, what are you really hungering for? It’s not bread, or any of the things with which we so often feed ourselves (though our father knows what we need and will give it to us). Rather it is God’s Word; his truth, instruction and wisdom. What’s your hunger? Truly.

Jesus, what is it that you truly love? What is it that has captured your mind and heart; and inspires your passion and devotion? It’s certainly not people and what they think. Rather is God, the Father; whose goodness, beauty, wisdom, power and holiness is all that he worships. What is it that you love? Truly.

Jesus, what is it that you truly trust in? Go on, prove it. But Jesus does not need to test God; he will show his trust when he lets himself be taken and nailed to the cross, but he does not need to test God, he trusts him. What is it that you put your trust in; your experience, other people? Or do you trust God even when he does not do what you look for from him? Truly?

Deuteronomy

Look at yourself. Who do you think that you are, truly? In Deuteronomy, God calls us to remember that we are nothing and nobody; simply those who in our helplessness have called on God, and he has blessed us

“A wandering Aramean was my father …”

Deut 26.5

I am a sinner saved by utter grace. I have nothing that I have not received. And, outside what Christ has given and worked in me by faith, there is no good thing in me; no gifts, no wisdom, no wisdom.

Every year, God’s people were to bring the fruits of God’s blessing to his temple and say these words. Every year we come to the Cross on Good Friday and say the same things. Every Sunday, perhaps every day, we have an opportunity to see ourselves again, and in our unworthiness recognise all that God has done with us and brought us to be.

Does this resonate with you?

Look at God

There is a call here also, to take a look at God. To often our God is too small, to mean, to ordinary.

What sort of God is it that his words and his ways can be our daily bread; our daily hunger and desire? What sort of God is it that can be better than eating, better than entertainment, better than being with family and friends, better than a career, better than a comfortable life?

This is our God!

What sort of God is it that who he is can be so entrancing (so beautiful, wonderful, glorious, close and loving) that we cannot but love him with all our heart and mind and soul and strength; above all else?

This is our God!

What sort of God is it that we can trust him above all else; whatever our fear, or worry, or circumstances; whether he helps us now, or help is delayed, or never seems to come? What sort of God is it that we can trust, without any need to test him?

This is our God!

So, God calls his people, as they come to him with their thanksgiving for the things that he has given them; not to just give thanks and enjoy those gifts, but to Rejoice in the Lord – in the one who has given and will give all that we need.

Not just:

“you shall rejoice in all the good that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house”

Deut 26.11

But

Rejoice in the Lord, and again I say Rejoice!”

Phil 4.4

Look at Your Relationship with God

And, finally, we are called to look at our relationship with God.

Looking back at the idea of Testing. If it is about proving – you can’t test, or prove what is not there; all you can do is show that it’s not there

So, what is your relationship with Jesus – I say Jesus, because he is our relationship with God; you can’t have a relationship with God outside Jesus?

None of us has the relationship the Jesus has, and demonstrates in his Testing. But, he invites us into a relationship with him, and to share in his relationship with the Father.

That’s what our Romans reading is about. The way to have a relationship with God is not hard. It does not require any great spiritual exploits: either trying to rise up to the heavens, or to reach beyond the grave to the dead.

“But the righteousness based on faith says, “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the abyss?’ ” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).

Rom 10:6–7

Jesus has done all the spiritual exploits, and now, the word of faith (i.e. Jesus) is near you – in your heart to respond to, and in your mouth to speak out.

So, always, no matter how far we may feel we have to travel to God – however far we have wandered away (like the prodigal son) – the journey to him is near to you. Jesus has made that journey so that you can simply turn to him and receive all that he has done; entrusting yourself wholly to him in faith.

Lent; God’s Gift to You

So, the, Lent offers us a time to:

• Reflect on who you are
• Reflect on who God is
• Reflect on your relationship with God

It’s a precious gift. So, as Paul urged us in our Ash Wednesday readings:

“…, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

2 Cor 5:20-21