Sunday, September 25, 2011

Philippians 2:1-13; Psalm 78; Matthew 21 23:32

In today’s reading we hear of the story of two young sons: one younger and the other one older. We had in the story one of the sons who said yes when his father asked him to go and work in the vineyard – and then did not do it. We have the other one who refused to work in the vineyard, and yet later changed his mind and went and worked in the vineyard.

I would like to ask those of you who are parents here today – do you find this story familiar to you? Did you ever have one of your children promising to do something, and then not do it all? Let us have a show of hands…..

Have you ever had one of your children telling you that they would not do it, and yet later on had a change of mind and did it for you? Can we again have a show of hands…?

This seems to be a common enough experience for parents, and it is no wonder that Jesus used this story in order to demonstrate to us what obedience is and what is not.

There was this man who had two sons. He went to the older son and asked him to go and work in the vineyard today. And the boy answers – and I think that you can very well imagine some of the things that his son might have said. I also think that you can imagine the tone of his response.

No father! I will not go! I already make plans for today. I cannot do it. No way. It is not my turn to work in the vineyard today. Get my little brother to do it. You are always on to me. It is not fair. Forget it!

There was absolutely no sign of respect from the boy – no honouring of his father – no respect – no admiration.

How do you think the father felt – he had a sick feeling right in the pit of his stomach – a feeling that his son is going astray – that his son does not care – that the entire thing is out of control – his family is going out of control and nothing good will come out of such a situation – indeed most likely – great harm will come out of it.

As parents most of us have been there, have we not? But can you for one moment put yourself into Jesus’ shoes? Imagine it from His point of view – the very Jesus who wanted us to work with him in order to build a better world – the very Jesus who invites us to work in the vineyard that produces the best fruit in the entire world – in the vineyard that produces the love and joy and peace and hope and strength that is so much needed in this world of ours…..

“I slaved and laboured so hard every day for my son, I have given him everything, a fine land, a fine home, and countless blessings, thinks only of himself!”

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, is that not what is happening with a lot of people in this world? This happens not only with little children – but with so many adults as well.

They are all living in a fine land, they have fine homes, prosperity, good health, and blessings too numerous to count, and they say to God, the source of all good things: “Who are you? I do not owe you anything. I have better things to do with my time and my life than going to church. I have better things to do with my money than sharing it with people who are too lazy to work.”

“I am not going to go to church every Sunday and listen to someone telling me all those things about faith, or sing all those silly hymns. My time will be better spent sleeping for a couple more hours. When should I spend my time in church, when I could be looking at ways to win at the horse races or with betting on soccer games. No way am I going to help make the experience of the Christian community any better by joining the choir, helping with Sunday School classes, or being friendly and encouraging toward other people as they enter leave the church building. This is just not for me.”

“Why should I bother myself to go out there and tell others about all the wonderful things that Jesus did for me? Why should I go on prison visits? Why should I care about injustice in this world? Why should I help those who are in need of help? Why should I ever help anyone who is not a family member? Preaching the Bible is for those mindless insensitive and crooked bible thumpers! It is only for those who are either in trouble or have nothing better to do! If people would just stop spending their money on such needless causes, or stopped spending money on killing themselves off, they will be fine. They do not need me!”

No. I will not help you!

No, I will not work for you!

No, I have better things to do with my time and my money!

No, what you want is not important!

No, I do not care!!!

Thank of how our Father in Heaven feels!

Yes, think of how our Father in Heaven feels!

How wonderful it must have been for the father in the story when he went to talk to his other son. In this story it was the youngest son, and the son in reply to the father’s request said, “Yes, Father, I will go!”

Imagine it for a moment.

Imagine how the heart break of the Father turned around.

My child cares for me, for the family and for what I want!

My child has respect for me!

My child is willing to help!

My child is wiling to do the work that the world needs doing if the fine fruit of my vineyard is going to grace the world as I wanted it to; if my healing word is to spoken to others, and my healing touch to be experienced by all those children of mine who are in need of it.

But we do know what happened, do we not???

We know from the story that we hard this morning, the story that Jesus told us, what happened. We know from our very own experience with our own children, with our own families, and from our own friends just how the Father felt. We know just how God feels. When the willing son did not do what he promised to do. When the unwilling son changes his mind and did what he was first asked to do….

Some people said that Jesus told this story for the benefit of the chief priests and leaders of the people in order to shame them – in order to force them to recognize that they were just like the younger son – worshipping and obeying God as an appearance – but deep inside, they were rebellious, self-righteous, hypocritical and disobedient.

Some people will tell you that one should understand the words of this story in the context of verses 23 to 28 of our Gospel reading of this morning, where we have the chief priests and leaders challenging Jesus about his authority to teach do work miracles.

We are told that we should understand this story to be how Jesus got back at the chief priests and leaders of the day. He did it by suggesting to them that they are really like the younger son – disobedient children of God. And that the sinners, were like the oldest son, who came to Jesus for forgiveness and for mercy, were those who changed their minds as to the way they were living their lives. Those were the people whom the chief priests and scribes could not abide with because those were the tax collectors and prostitutes.

This may be the case with the way that Jesus ended the story when he told the chief priests and leaders in verses 31 and 32: “You can be sure that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you ever will! When John the Baptist showed you how to do right, you would not believe him. But these evil people did believe. And even when you saw what they did, you still would not change your minds and believe.”

But to leave this story at this level of understanding is to miss the importance of the story for us here today. It only reduces the Gospel to simple history, and the Gospel is not and never was meant to be seen as history.

We here today know that the Chief Priests and Leaders of the people make a bad mistake. We know that their religion was only a matter of outward appearance rather than real inner passion.

So what???
What message does it give to us today?
What value to us apart from making us feel good does this judgment have on us today?
It is of great value if we ask ourselves as to which child are we?

Are we the ones who can recite the creed – the ones who can have our children baptized – even ones who work in the church and do all the things that make us seem holy – and yet nor really seeing and believing that God is working in and around us – just like the chief priests refused to believe that God was working in John the Baptist or in Jesus the Son of Joseph and Mary?

Are we familiar with religion – practiced even at religion? But not familiar with faith and with what it requires of us in our hearts and our heads and in our attitudes and our actions. What does it require of us and what does it do for us?

Or are we the ones who said at first – no way God – forget it; you do not even exist – and if you do – you are not what I want in a God – I have better things to do than pray and read that silly old book with all its rules and regulations, it wars and woes, its contradictions and craziness.

Are we the ones who led a life that was clearly wrong – ones who cheated on our friends, who stole from our employers, who drank and did drugs and lived on the street anyway we could? Are we the ones who do are using the excuses of being too tired from work to attend fellowship on a weekday?

And then changed our minds! Then, when listening to the pain that is within every human being; and to the voice promising forgiveness and wholeness that comes from without, through people like John and Jesus turned and received a new life?

Or are we somewhere in between? Children of God who try hard on some days to be faithful – and on other days – let our hardness of heart, our selfishness, our unwillingness to see God and listen to God in our daily routines get the better of us?

That is the benefit of this passage for us today – in asking ourselves who we really are – and what it really means for us.

And in asking who we are and what it means considering the Gospel that Jesus proclaims both in this story and elsewhere: the good news that it is possible to change one’s mind; that it is never too late; today at least – to become a child that is destined to see and enter the Kingdom of God.

It is all a matter of saving faith, a matter of seeing that God is and that God is willing and able and of accepting that and going forth and labouring at the work He has asked us to do for Him.

A matter of seeing that God is forgiving and gracious; of seeing that God is more interested in saving His children than in allowing them to perish; of accepting that God will give to us a new life – no matter how bad our old life is; and that He is able to accomplish all this in us; no matter how defiled we think that we have become when we turn to Him and allow Him to have His way with us…

It is a matter of seeing that God is present in the most unlikely persons that work each day around us, that as He spoke through the wild man of the wilderness; the one who wore the worst clothing and said the strangest things that as He spoke through a carpenter’s son and worked wonders in the world around him, so God is present today and in the most unlikely persons, in the least of our brothers and sisters; and that while present there in them He wants us to minister to him, to minister a cup of cold water; to minister some clothing to cover his nakedness; to minister hope and encouragement when he is placed in prison; and to bring comfort when he is sick in bed.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the good news I am preaching here today is not a gospel of what work we must do or not do.

It is not a matter of what we offer in terms of percentage of our income to God each year. It is not a matter of how to successfully avoid committing one or other of the seven deadly sins…

The good news I preach today is the Gospel concerning faith. It is the Gospel of believing; and in believing, in hoping and in praying, and in opening oneself to the power of God and to the will of God.

Today it is not too late to get right with God.

It is not too late to say to God – I believe – help me in my unbelief.

It is not too late to say to God – YES – I will go out in the vineyard after all. I will go with you as you go with me, and to work to bring the good news of your love to my family and my friends and to the whole world in all that I say and do. I will worship you and work with you and obey your will.

IT IS NOT TOO LATE!

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Exodus 16:2-15; Psalm 105; Philippians 1:21-30; Matthew 20:1-16

O Lord, we pray, speak in the calming of our minds and in the longings of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.

Did you ever hear the story about the company that chartered a ship for its top sales personnel?

On the appointed day the sales people swarmed aboard looking for their cabins. Minutes later one of them was on deck demanding to see the Captain.

One of the officers asked if he could help.

"My friend has a much better cabin!" the salesman said. "I did as good a job as he did and I want a cabin just like his."

"Sir, the officer replied, "the cabins are identical."

"Yeah," said the man, "but his cabin looks out on the ocean and my cabin looks out on this old dock."

I think that we often misunderstand the will and intention of God.

We get so wrapped up in what we think we need, and so bound up in our sense of what we think we deserve, that we fail to recognize what God is even now about and to remember what had God has already done for us.

It is said that when the people of Israel first grumbled and complained against God and against Moses, accusing them of leading them from slavery in Egypt only so that he could kill them in the wilderness, that God responded to their criticism - to their harping - to their lack of trust - by promising to provide them with bread from Heaven every day - and that on the first morning that they were to collect this bread that had formed like dew upon the ground, in thin flakes like frost, hey did not know what it was, and asked one another what it might be.

And so this bread - this stuff that formed on the desert floor each dawn - this daily provision from God - came to be called Manna - a word that literally means "What is it?"

Even though the people of Israel were liberated from their bondage in Egypt with incredible signs of God's power - even though the Red Sea parted to allow them through safely and came together again and destroyed their enemies - even though God made bitter water sweet and led them by a fire in the night and by a pillar of cloud by day towards the Holy Mountain where they would worship Him and towards the land God had promised to give them - even though God had proved his goodness to them, his love for them, they fretted and worried and grumbled and complained - and doubted the love of God, the will of God, to do them good, and then they failed to recognize how God had answered their complaints and their cries of need.

Perhaps it is always that way.

Certainly many people are like the salesman on the cruise ship before it left port, and like the Children of Israel before they reached the promised land:

- they are constantly comparing what they have been given to what others have been given,

- they are constantly comparing the past with the present and doubting what the future will bring,

- they are constantly evaluating what it is they think they should have against what they do have and forgetting what it is that God has promised to give them - they are constantly forgetting that it is nothing but the grace of God that has brought them safe thus far, and that God will bring them "home".

In part that is the message of the parable of the workers in the vineyard that was read this morning.

You know the story - how a Landlord needing workers to bring in the harvest goes to the local marketplace in the morning to hire workers and agrees to give them a denarius - or a day's pay - for the day's work.

Several times during the day the Landlord returns to the marketplace and finds people standing in the unemployment line - people who have no work, no income, and hires them, saying to them only that he will give to them what is right. Even at the 11th hour, near the end of the working day, the Landlord goes to the market and finds others standing around - people no one has hired - and he takes them on.

At the end of the day the Landlord pays off those he has hired - those he has liberated from the hunger and want of being unemployed - starting from those last hired and progressing to the first, and to each he gives a full day's wage - to each he gives enough money to buy them and their families their daily bread.

And those hired first complain and grumble about it - claiming that they deserve more than those last hired because they have worked harder and longer.

To which the Landlord replies - "I am not being unfair to you. I am giving you what you agreed to. Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. Don't I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?"

Are we like those hired first?

Have we forgotten the anxiety of starting a day wondering if we will find work enough to feed ourselves and our families? And the joy of being hired early enough in the day to ensure that we will indeed obtain our daily bread - that our families will not starve - that there will be enough to go round?

Indeed - as we sit in this church and look around at some of the people - some of the newcomers - some of those who have been warmly welcomed to our midst and who will come to the table of the Lord with us in a few minutes - do any among us resent the fact that they have been given the same rights and privileges by God that we have been given - that they will receive enough bread - enough love - to sustain them - enough to get them through to the next day?

Do we compare our labour to the labour of others and conclude that we should have more than they, more love, more respect, more thanks, more say in how things are run?

Undoubtedly, for those who think in worldly terms, the answer would be yes.

But the story of God liberating the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt (where they would have surely perished), like the story of the cross of Jesus and how it liberates from sin and death, is not a story about worldly wisdom - but story about divine grace.

It is not about what we deserve but rather it is about what we all need, and how God most generously provides it even when we do not "deserve" it.

Bread enough for each day - in a world where normally only those fortunate enough to be hired first are able get enough to eat.

Bread enough for each day - in a world where normally even those fortunate enough to have the strength to work are left standing in the unemployment line because of corporate downsizing, even banks like HSBC who has been making so much money are downsizing.

Bread enough for each day - in a world where even those who work hard and long in the heat of the day are often forced to agree to less than a day's wages because of an employer's desire to maximize his or her profit. Which is we have employers who are complaining of even having to give a minimum wage of HK$27 per hour (less than US$4 per hour).

Bread enough for each day for everyone who is willing to respond to the landlord's call to come and work, even though the landlord promises only what is fair for the labour they perform.

In God's Kingdom it is all grace - from those who are hired first and promised a day's wage for a day's work - to those hired last and promised only what is fair.

We who have been called by God

- we who have been called out of the unemployment line

- we who have been called out of bondage to those things that would destroy us

each one here today has been taught to pray and are urged to pray, as Jesus taught us: "give us this day our daily bread".

And we are given it.

We are given bread from heaven - day by day.

And more - as we follow where God would lead us, as we respond to his invitation to work in his vineyard for whatever may seem fair to Him, we are given freedom, we are given life. And we are led to the promised land.

Today - receive the bread from heaven that God has provided.

Come from your seats without worry about whether you deserve to receive it or not.

Come from your pews without thinking about whether you have earned more than your neighbours.

Come and receive the mercy, the love, the care, the hope, and the promise that God has provided.

Come and receive what you need and what God has given.


Come and share in God's grace and generosity with your brothers and sisters, the generous God who would not see one of us perish...

Praise be to God, day by day, day by day. Amen

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Genesis 50:15-21; Psalm 103; Matthew 18:21-35

O Lord, we pray, speak in the calming of our minds and in the longings of our hearts, by the words of my lips and in the thoughts that we form. Speak, O Lord, for your servants listen. Amen.

Our three readings today speak to us today of sin and of forgiveness.

Our first reading shows Joseph - being implored by his brothers, in the name of the God of their Father, to forgive them. And Joseph does - saying - as he does

"Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God. You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives..."

Joseph, you will recall, was sold into slavery by his brothers, who were jealous of the favour shown by their father towards him and resentful of the attitude that Joseph seemed to have towards them. They would have murdered him, but for their reluctance to actually have his blood on their hands, but the fate they condemned him too was little better than murder, for no slave is able to do as they wish - and the life of a slave could be +taken at the whim of his master.

Indeed it was only because of Joseph's favour in the eyes of God that Joseph was able to prosper in his slavery and, after many trials and tribulations, including more than two years in prison for an offense he did not commit, rise to the position of being at the right hand of Pharaoh, where he was charged with the task of keeping Egypt safe from seven years of drought and famine.

Joseph was most surely sinned against by his brothers. And yet, many years later, when hunger brought them into Egypt - he fed them; indeed he provided richly for both them and his father, saying even then, that God had a purpose in allowing them to sell him into slavery, for it made it possible for him to save them and all his people in their time of need.

Joseph was given the grace to see beyond the pain to the gain. The grace to see that while evil was done to him - God was able to use that evil for good.

Often for us that is a most difficult thing.

We can't see anything good coming out of the harm that others have done us.

We can't see any reason for mercy - for forgiveness - even if, in other areas of our life, we prosper.

We carry the wounds of the past with us, we remember the hurt done us,

We think of what might have been, rather than looking at our life as it is now and seeing in it the hand of God to do good for many, and from that point of view, forgiving the harm done to us by few.

The truth be told - even in the story of Joseph, sin remains sin, even though God brought good out it.

That is the simple fact that we do well not to lose track of.

No matter what God does with the sins that have been committed against us they remain sins.

The Psalm today speaks to us of what God does with our sins. Let me quote from the first eleven verses of

Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits - who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases.... The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us...

God removes our sins from us. Out of love for us, God forgives us our sins. God cancels them out. God makes the debt that in justice we owe to him - of no account. That is the great message of the cross - that God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whosoever believes in him might not perish, but have eternal life.

As you all know from your experience - sin is grievous.

Sin is always wrong.
It is always bad.
It always hurts someone.

But the incredible news is - while sin always hurts - it's power to hurt ends when forgiveness is applied to it.

We have been forgiven by God. Sin no longer has the power to harm our relationship with God, it has been washed away, it has been nailed to the cross, it has been buried, never to rise again, and in it's place new life has come forth, a life that we have but to reach for to receive.

That is what God does for us.
- Instead of punishing us for our sin
- Instead of keeping us at arm's length
- Instead of turning his face away from us as we deserve, God turns to us.

God turns to us, and in pain, and in tears, and finally in death itself, he forgives us and calls us - and empowers us - to live as ones who are able, like Joseph, to save many lives - as ones, who like Jesus, are able to bring the word of life to those who are in darkness, the word of love to those are perishing on account of their lack of it.

"God doesn't condone our sin, nor does he compromise his standard. He doesn't ignore our rebellion, nor does he relax his demands. Rather than dismiss our sin, he assumes our sin and, incredibly, incredibly sentences himself. God is still holy. Sin is still sin. And we are redeemed." (Max Lucado - "In The Grip of Grace")

We are redeemed. We have bought out of slavery to sin and death. God is good to us - even though some of our brothers and sisters have not been good to us - even though we have not been good to God.

And so we arrive at the Gospel Lesson today. And also at the title for our Sermon
"as we forgive those who trespass against us."

After listening to Jesus speak to him and the other disciples about how to treat a brother or sister who has sinned against them, and the procedure to be followed in trying to win them back to the way of God, those careful steps I dealt with last week, Peter comes to Jesus and asks him

"Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins gainst me? Up to seven times?"

And Jesus gives his famous answer - "I tell you not seven times, but seventy times seven times".

And then Jesus tells an alarming parable about how the Kingdom of Heaven is like a King who wanted to settle accounts with his servants - and how one of these servants - even though he is forgiven a massive debt by his master - fails to be equally forgiving of a fellow servant who owes him but a small debt.

"You wicked servant" says the master to the one he had forgiven so much, "I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?" And in anger his master turned him over to the jailors to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

Alarming is it not? And how much more so when you remember the punch line that Jesus offers.

"This", says Jesus, "is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

I call this parable alarming because most of us find it difficult to forgive.

And because, in some way or other, it seems that the forgiveness we finally receive depends on the forgiveness we give....

"This", says Jesus, "is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

And again, from earlier in the Gospel According To Matthew, when the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray.

This, says Jesus, is how you should pray, "forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us."

God loves and us forgives us - even before we even ask. His forgiveness is total and unconditional, and he calls to us to open our lives to him and to accept that love and forgiveness.

If you worried about being unable to forgive someone one time, let alone seventy times seven times, there is something you can do about it.

Or if you are worried that perhaps your prayer to God might be fulfilled before you are ready for it, and that God will end up forgiving you in the way you forgive others there is something you can do about it.

And that something is this: surrender your judgement to God, surrender your judgement to God and keep praying the prayer that Jesus taught, and pray it with deep earnestness.

From time to time try changing the words.

Change them from "And Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us" to "And, as You have forgiven us our trespasses, help us forgive those who trespass against us"

and change the words back again.

Pray the prayer of Christ and savour the grace of God of which our Psalm sings of today.

Remember that sin is sin - and that it all hurts - and yet God removes it from us as far as the east is from the west, he forgives us, he has compassion on us, like a father has for his children, like a mother has for her child.

Savour what that means for you, think of how God has shown love for you, forgiveness to you, even before you asked, even before you thought to ask.

Then you will be, as the Psalm One put its, "like a tree planted by streams of water"

You will be drawing upon the love of God - the story of God wonder and grace - the word of God - and you will be able to yield your fruit in season, and your leaves will not wither, your actions - and later even your feelings - will be good.

Yes, sin is sin, and we have a right to be angry about it. We should be angry about it.

But work to let go of your anger at those who sinned, work at it by not only remembering what God has done for you, but also by remembering who is in the end, the only one who has the right to render judgement.

Forgiveness means that we must forever surrender the idea that we are the judge.

And I so am happy about that. Because I know what a lousy judge I am. Because I know how my judgements of others have proven wrong, and I know how even when they have been "right", they have done nothing to improve the situation: for me. For those I am worried about. For the one that has done wrong.

Think on these things.

Think about how God's ways are greater than ours. And how God cares. And wants us to care.

Then pray again, "Lord, forgive my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me" and again, "Lord, as you have forgiven my trespasses, help me forgive those who trespass against me"

God will help you as you remember what is so near to God's own heart - and ask his help with it. God will help you even as you continue the prayer as Jesus taught us to pray.

Fear not that you have already lost - or will loose your salvation - your joy or peace.
Rather keep trying to forgive - for in trying to forgive forgiveness comes.

Fear not either your failures to forgive despite your resolve to be forgiving. The Lord who calls to us to forgive seventy times seven times has himself done the same - and indeed even more.

Your salvation is not lost by one act of malice, or even by a series of such acts. It can only be lost if you commit what the scriptures call the unforgivable sin, the sin against the Holy Spirit, the sin which we understand to be the denial of God and God's power, the denial of the Truth of God that seeks to leaven your life.

On this the day of the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 atrocities, let us remember that the truth of God is that God is forgiving.

The power of God is the power to help you to stand firm and to show that truth to others, through the love we give.

Praise the Lord, O my soul. All my inmost being, praise his holy name. Amen

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Romans 13:8-14 and Matthew 18:15-20

Lord, we would follow thee. We would be and do all that you have created us to be and do. Guide, O Lord, the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts - at this time - and indeed always. Amen

Hear this text again - from Romans 13:11 - the Contemporary English Version Paul writes:

"You know what sort of times we live in, and so you should live properly. It is time to wake up. You know that the day when we will be saved is nearer now than we first put our faith in the Lord. Night is almost over, and day will soon appear. We must stop behaving as people do in the dark an be ready to live in the light."

Live properly - be ready to live in the light.

I would like to start by sharing something I read some years ago with the heading:

"Holier, Happier, Healthier":

"Attending church regularly is not only good for your soul, it is also good for the rest of you, according to Time magazine. In a recent cover story about changing attitudes to health, the magazine cited several scientific studies which indicate people who are religious are markedly healthier than those who are not. Their blood pressure is lower, they have fewer heart problems, they're less prone to depression - they even recover faster and more completely from hip fractures."

Neat stuff -- Something that we all should think about - especially those of us who are not regular in the worship of God - and those who are thinking about giving up on church.

It is the stuff of biblical promises which have always said that if we follow God - if we love God and obey the Lord's commands that we will prosper... Let me share some

Moses - speaking to the people just before his death said:

(extracts from Deuteronomy 28:1-13) - "always obey the laws and the teachings of the Lord and the Lord will make your businesses and your farms successful - he will make you his own special people - he will make you successful in your daily work - he will open the storehouses of the skies where he keeps the rain and he will send rain on your land at just the right times - he will make you a leader among the nations and not a follower"

Jesus - in the Sermon on the Mount, speaking about anxiety and worry about what to wear, what to eat, how to get by says, as it is put in the hymn based on that same passage - and you better sing it with me so that it sounds right:

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and God's righteousness, then all these things shall be added unto you - Allelu - Alleluia" (Matthew 6:33)

Allelu, Alleluiah indeed!!...

Of course there is not a strict relationship between faith, between attending church regularly, between keeping the commandments of God and worldly success - THE CROSS should tell us that - the Book of Job tells us that the Spirit in our hearts tells us that but all in all - being with God, being in the family of God, and acting out - living out -your faith in a community, in a church, in worship with one another, is one of the best things you can do - in worldly terms - as well as spiritual.

But even as I say this - let me remind you - around the world Priests and missionaries - and people who gather for the worship of God - are killed simply because of the Gospel they believe in, because of the name that they bear.

Faith is not simply about attending church and prospering because of it.

It is about commitment.
About belief.
About courage.
About passion.
About love.

Love even when you don't want to love.
Love even when your brother or your sister hurts you.
Love even when it takes you to a cross instead of to a Rolls Royce.

Nevertheless I marvel my friends - and so perhaps ought you: I marvel at how so many people who do not believe miss what seems to be so obvious to those who do believe - that God's promises are sure and that the faithful are rewarded in this world by what Jesus calls, in tenth verse of the tenth chapter of the Gospel of John - "abundant life" or "life in its fullest" - and in the next by what we call "eternal life"

The abundant life is not a life of worldly riches - but rather a life full of spiritual treasures - a long life which commences now - and continues forever.

Think on it long and hard my friends: statistics suggest and the honest scientist can't rule out the idea that the claims of our faith are true - that loving God and obeying his commands, that attending church regularly and living properly, that living in the light - has real benefits.

So what does it mean to live properly - to live in the light???

Well, Paul suggests that it means several things - some of them very pedestrian, very simple, very common sense - very much like what good mothers and good fathers have told their children for centuries: (Verse 13)

- don't go to wild parties or get drunk or be vulgar or indecent
- and don't quarrel or be jealous.

There are obvious benefits to these things are there not???

- no bad reputation - no hang overs
- no having done things one would regret if only one could remember what it was one had done
- no people looking askance at you because of your vile mouth or avoiding you because of your inappropriate acts
- no senseless feuds brought about by insisting that your point is correct and someone else's is wrong
- no green tinge about your gills as you fume about how someone else has managed to get more than you have
- no more pain in the gut as you think about how little you have

Pretty obvious stuff with pretty obvious benefits.

But there is more to this living properly - living in the light - than what is obvious.

Paul goes on in verse 14 to say

"Let the Lord Jesus Christ be as near you as the clothes you wear. Then you won't try to satisfy your selfish desires."

To live properly, to live in the light, is to do more than simply follow a bunch of rules; it is more than the legalism of the scribes and pharisees and the doctrinaire approach to things of the rabidly orthodox and the politically correct.

To live properly, to live in the light, is to be close to the one who is the light. It is to be in intimate communion with, to be in touch with, the one who vanquishes darkness. It is to put on, to wear, to be indwelt by, the Spirit of the one who made the heavens and the earth and who knows from his own experience our every weakness.

And this my friends is above all a matter of attitude - a matter of desire - a matter of the Spirit which is in us.

The Christian life is not a matter of rules and regulations! It is a matter of wanting to be like the Lord Jesus and of believing in him - and of following him, of living by the love that he showed us when he went to that cross and died for us.

Listen to Paul again as God speaks through him -reading back in verses 9 and 10 of today's reading:

"In the law there are many commands, such as, 'be faithful in marriage. Do not murder. Do not steal. Do not want what belongs to others.' But all these are summed up in the command that says, 'love others as much you love yourself'.

Love is the basic stuff of living by faith and love is not a matter of the law - nor even is it a matter of what we feel - it is a matter of the will.

What do you will?? What do you want?? What do you desire?? What do you strive to bring about??

To return to a passage I quoted - or sang - a bit earlier. Matthew 6:33 - this time from the Contemporary English Version of the Bible:

"More than anything put God's work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well."

Live properly, live in the light. Let the Lord Jesus Christ be as near to you as the clothes you wear. More than anything, put God's work first and do what God wants....

Today we celebrate a special moment in our faith community - to every member of their family a special moment in the Kingdom of God.

We celebrate how the lost have been found.
How the dead have come to life
How the wounded have been healed.
How the blind have received sight.
How the crucified have risen.

That is what baptism and confirmation are all about. That is what the Lord's Supper is all about. That indeed is what the Kingdom of God is all about.

Living in the light is a marvellous thing my friends. But it has its deep and serious side.

The light asks us - and shows us - that we owe to one another the kind of love God has for us.

It calls us to take upon ourselves a solemn obligation - a solemn debt, the debt of gratitude and thanksgiving, the obligation of actually giving a hoot.

That means my friends - that we must be willing in our relationships with one another to go first.

- To be the first to reach out after a quarrel.
- To be the first to try to work things out after we have been sinned against.
- To be the first, when things can't be worked out, and even when they can, to trust God for results,
- to be first in seeking reconciliation - and the first to refuse to fret or grow anxious or bitter or hateful because of what has happened to us.

Living in the light is a wondrous thing to do, a hard thing to do - a glorious thing to do.

A thing that benefits us from now - to eternity.
A thing that transforms us - and which can transform our world.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, hear today - as we come to perform the sacrament of Holy Baptism and to confirm the presence of the Holy Spirit in the lives of Joseph and Mary and Robert, the words of Jesus. Hear and remember how before Jesus ascended into heaven he spoke to his followers, saying:

"All authority in heaven and on earth have been given me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.

I am with you always. even to the close of the age....

This is the promise of God for all - and all those who walk in the light know it and rejoice in it. Praise be to God.