II Kings 4:42-44; Psalm 145; John 6:1-15

Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the thoughts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath your life into us that we may live in the manner you have appointed unto us and better love and serve you and one another. Amen Today's readings present us with the story of two different miracles: the story of Elisha, who in the midst of a famine feeds a hundred men with 20 loaves of barley bread, and the story of Jesus, who when faced with a great crowd of hungry people, over 5000 men, women, and children according to the other gospel accounts of this story, feeds them with five loaves and two fish. Both stories share certain things in common. Elisha's servant, on being told to feed the men with the offering brought by the man who came from Baal Shalishah, does not think it possible and complains to the prophet saying: "How can I set this before a hundred men?" And with Jesus too, as with Elisha, there is a servant, a disciple, who does not think it is possible to feed the people with what is available - the five loaves and two fish offered by the child that Peter's brother, Andrew, had found in the crowd. And in both stories - despite these small beginnings, the hungry are fed, and there are leftovers - indeed in the story involving Jesus there is an abundance of leftovers - there is more than when the feast first began. The feeding of the great crowd, as John calls it, is the only miracle that Jesus did that is described in all four gospels. For this reason, if no other, we need to pay close attention to it. We need to ask ourselves - why is this so? What is it about this miracle - unlike all the other miracles performed by Jesus - that so catches the attention of the gospel writers. I think it has to do with at least three separate things. The first is the fact that this story tells us that Jesus is used of God - that like Elisha he has God's favour and is able to feed the hungry - much as the people of Israel were fed by God in the wilderness with Manna. In fact John goes on after the telling of this story to speak of Jesus as the bread of heaven come down to earth - the one who is not only able to satisfy the physical hunger of his people - but their spiritual hunger as well. Jesus has, and is able to use, the power of God to feed the hungry. The second thing is that the story shows us not only God's power at work in Jesus, but also God's care. God reaches out through Jesus to meet the needs of those who are following him - much as God reached out through Elisha to meet the needs of the men who had followed him into the wilderness. Jesus cares for those who seek him out. He wants to meet their needs, and he wants to see their needs met. The third thing is that the story shows us is that Jesus is able to take what is offered to him and to multiply it - so that where there first seemed not enough ends up being more than enough. It is this latter point that I want to focus on for the remainder of the sermon. It has been talked about a lot, this miracle of feeding the great crowd of people, and perhaps more than any other miracle, people have tried to figure out how Jesus did it. Most people more readily accept the healing stories, they understand that the mind has a strong effect on health, that faith can in fact bring about healing. But multiplying loaves and fish? To many people this seems more incredible, more difficult, and so theories have arisen to explain how it was done. The most notable theory is that when the boy who had the loaves and fish shared them with others his example inspired others to bring out what they had brought with them and share as well. I can't say how it the loaves and the fish multiplied nor do I want to try. But I do want to stress to you the fact that they do, much as does the offering made to Elisha by the man from Baal Shalishah. I think that we really need to meditate on that fact. We really need to consider how too little becomes more than enough when it is offered to God. Recall once again the context of the stories we heard this morning. Think of the story about Elisha. A man comes to bring the prophet an offering during a famine in Gilgal - some bread made from the first ripe grain of the season. It was a faith offering, the type recommended by Moses in the Torah. And Elisha, after receiving the offering, says to his servant "give it to the people to eat" give it to the hungry ones here with me, eed them, for they need it. And what does he get in return - what is said to him? He is told that it is not possible, that there will not be enough to go around. Let us not doubt that assertion. There was not enough to go round. In the four gospel stories about the feeding of the great crowd we hear something very similar. Jesus is teaching on a hillside - there are over 5000 people there, and when evening approaches the disciples become concerned, they fear that the crowd will go hungry, and their solution is to ask Jesus to send the crowd away. But Jesus says to them - you feed them, and he asks Philip - who was from the region in which the story takes place, "where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?" Philip replies "eight months wages would not buy enough bread to for each one to have a single bite" Immediately afterwards Andrew, who has found a boy with 5 loaves and two fish among the crowd, pipes up about his discovery - and then adds - "BUT how far will they go among so many." How far indeed. The scene is set then for us and for our meditation upon it. There is a great need. And there are not enough resources to meet that need. It all sounds so familiar doesn't it? You can hear words like this just about anytime, especially when there are social or political problems that require an infusion of resources. - How can we help with what little we have? We don't even know how we will we make do ourselves. - How can we feed so many? How can we fund so many. We have so little and the need is so great. - What we can do is only a drop in a bucket. We don't have enough money to help out. We don't have what it takes. And we can also hear the same tune about our emotional and spiritual resources when confronted with problems of caring for those who are lost and alone, those caught up in guilt and despair, in doubt and confusion. The chorus goes something like this, doesn't it? We don't have enough time. We don't have enough energy. We aren't smart enough. We aren't wise enough. We haven't the training we require. We aren't professionals. There aren't enough of us to make a real difference, there aren't enough of us to get the job done. But Jesus, like Elisha, didn't listen to this from his disciples, rather, like the prophet, he took that which was offered to him in faith, blessed it, and handed it back to his disciples so that they might distribute it. Just as Elisha commanded his servant to give the twenty loaves of bread that he had received to the people anyway, saying, "They will eat and have some left over", so Jesus, after giving thanks to God, divided the five loaves and the two fish, and begins to feed the crowd. And there was enough to go around. And there were leftovers - so many that there was more than there was to start with. What voice do we listen to in these stories? The voices of the disciples - the servants - who say, when told to feed the crowd - there is not enough - it is impossible. Or the voice of the one who tells us "feed the people" and who takes what we have to offer and makes it enough? Mark, Matthew, and Luke all begin their account of the feeding of the great crowd by saying when Jesus saw the crowd he had compassion for them, that he cared for them. Jesus ask us to do the same - he asks us to care, to have compassion, and to go out into the world, and teach, and heal, and feed the people. That is part of the great commissioning found at the end of the gospel of Matthew - that portion we so often quote in our baptismal services which says "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 that is part of the commissioning Jesus imparts to Peter just before his ascension saying "Do you love me Peter?" and when Peter says "Yes Lord, you know that I love you.", he says to him "Feed my sheep". We are called to be like Jesus - - we are called to feed those in need, to feed them with both the bread of heaven and the bread worked upon by human hands. And we are not left alone in the doing of it. God's power is promised us in it. All we need to do is to do is bring what we have, as did the man of Baal Shalishah to Elisha and as did the boy on the hillside to Jesus. To bring it with thanksgiving - as Moses commanded. To bring it with joy - as the boy must surely have brought Jesus his meagre offering. To bring it - not with regard to what it might or might not be able to do - but with regard to the one to whom we present it, with regard to God and God's love. The story of the loaves and the fish show us that Jesus is used of God, that he has the power of God and it shows us too that God cares. It also shows us that what is small and insignificant in the face of this world's need can, when offered to God, be multiplied and provide for the world what is needed. Miracles all have beginnings, and almost always those beginnings are to be found within us. Many years ago I heard the story of a man named Paul. Paul had received a special pre-Christmas gift from his brother. It was a beautiful new car - fully loaded and ready to go. On Christmas Eve, when Paul came out of his office, a street kid was walking around the shiny new car, admiring it. "Is this your car, mister?", the kid asked. When he replied that it was., and that his brother had given it to him for Christmas, the boy said, "You mean your brother gave it to you, and it didn't cost you anything? Free? For Nothing? Gosh, I wish..." The boy hesitated, and Paul knew what he was about to say. He had heard it many times over the past few days. He was going to wish he had a brother like that. But what the boy said shocked Paul. "I wish", the boy said, "I wish I could be a brother like that." We can be a brother like that. Or a sister like that. All it takes is that we offer ourselves and what we have to God. All it takes is that we cease to worry about how little we have and begin instead to think about what it is that we can offer. Praise be to God who multiplies that which is given to him, day by day. Amen.

II Samuel 7:1-14a; Isaiah 60; Ephesians 2:11-22

Let us Pray - Bless, O God, the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts that they may be acceptable to thee, our rock and our redeemer. Amen There is an story that comes out of Poland from many years back - it was during the Second World War. It happened that in a particular village there was a man who was well known for his care and compassion for others and who was deeply loved because of it. He was not a particularly wealthy man, nor was he a native of the village, nor did he attend the village church. In fact he was not even baptised and showed little interest in rectifying that situation. But both before and during the War he was known for his good works within the village that he had adopted as his place to live and work. If a stranger came to the village and needed a place to stay, this man would offer a cot in his little home. If a village family ran out of food, he was among the first to offer a loaf of bread or some flour from his meagre supplies. If someone was in trouble with the authorities, who by and large oppressed the citizens of that nation, or if the Germans or, later the Russians, were performing a sweep of the village to collect up the young men for either imprisonment, or to force them into the army, or worse, he would help hide the would be victims in the woods outside town or in some other way. He was loved very much by the villagers on account of all these things and many more. Finally the man died from some cause or other - what it was the story doesn't say. The villagers prepared his body for burial and proceeded to the village church where they asked the Priest to perform the burial service and to bury the man in the church cemetery. The priest, who knew and loved the man as much as did the rest of the villagers agreed that he would conduct the funeral service - but he insisted, despite many pleas from the villagers, that he could not bury the man inside the church cemetery because he was not baptised. "I cannot bury him in our cemetery", the priest said, "It is hallowed ground. He must go where those who are not baptised are buried. Those are the rules of the church and I cannot change them." The villagers appealed even more earnestly to the priest, saying that the man was a good man and surely loved by God as much as any of the baptised, perhaps even more on account of all the good things that he had done. The priest agreed with them regarding the virtues of the man, but insisted that the rules of the faith were clear and could be not be broken. Finally he came up with a compromise that he hoped would satisfy everyone. "In recognition of your love for him - and his love for you and all of God's people in this village", he said, "I will bury him on church land, near to those who have gone before him - those whom he has loved, but it will have to be beyond the fence that surrounds the consecrated ground of our cemetery." And so it was. On the appointed day a grave was prepared just outside the fence that surrounded the church cemetery, and the body of the man was processed by all the villagers to the site where the priest conducted the ceremony - and then the grave was filled in and a stone placed before the night fell. During the night something very beautiful happened - something that became apparent when the priest went to the church next morning to conduct morning mass. The fence that surrounded the cemetery had been moved by some of the villagers - so that it now took in the grave in which the man had been buried.... I first heard that story some years ago now in a sermon at a church I was visiting. I don't recall who the preacher was - but it impressed me then - and it impresses me still to this day. For me it captures something of what Jesus was all about - something of what the good news is all about - namely inclusivity. As the villagers expanded the fence which enclosed hallowed ground to include the grave of the man whom they loved - so God, through Christ Jesus, expands the boundaries of the sacred to include both those whom the rules of our religion would exclude - and those that the ways of this world would exclude. Robert Frost once wrote, "Something there is that doesn't love a wall." That's good news for us because we live in a world of walls. Dividing walls are everywhere we look. Consider our every day language. How often we call others "those people", or use the term "they", and "their kind" in our conversations. We say, "Those people come over to Hong Kong and expect...." or, "They just don't appreciate hard work." or "Their kind always have their hand out" and so forth. "They" most often are the strangers in our midst, people from another country, with accents, a different shade of skin, different customs of religion and food, and different ways of being family. But often too they don't come from another land, but live in a different part of Hong Kong and attend other churches - or no church at all. Whoever "they" are, they are different than us. Perhaps they are gay. Or on welfare. Perhaps they are pro-government, or democrats, or Catholics, or fundamentalists. Maybe they are environmentalists or people who care nothing of the environment. Perhaps they are people who are body piercers or people who think casual is loosening one's tie when the weather is hot. The walls that we erect take many forms. Some related to our culture and to our way of life and of earning a living. Some related to what we believe to be true about God or about Jesus. It seems that we persist in building walls to keep away those who don't share our understanding - our way of doing things. That's one reason we have so many denominations. One reason why I believe that Christ cried out when he looked upon Jerusalem, saying, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!" We are all in need of the reconciliation spoken of by Paul in today's epistle. We are all in need of a fresh look at just who we are in the eyes of God - and where we fit in the family of God. What was read this morning contains the heart, the key message in the entire letter to the Ephesians. It comes from a section of the epistle that speaks of the benefits offered to both Gentiles ("the you that is found in the passage") and Jews ("the we") through the life, death and resurrection of Christ. The writer seems to be aware of a prophecy from Isaiah (57:18-19). The prophet says that God notices that his faithless people are suffering from their infidelities, that they are exhausted from their rebelliousness against him. God saw their ways (Is. 57:18) and withdrew from them, but not has mercy on them. "Peace, peace to the far off and the near." the Prophet proclaims. God, through the prophet, was addressing the Jews in exile (the "far off"), but the author of the epistle applies the image to Gentiles who have accepted the Gospel message. Just as blood sacrifice reconciled the Jewish community in covenant to God, so the blood of Christ has reconciled us to each other and to God - making of us one spiritual house wherein God may dwell. The rituals and regulations of the Law that were given by Moses that were meant to give the people of Israel as a way to respond to God's gracious initiative toward them are by no means cancelled for them - but the use to which they had been put in separating the chosen from the un-chosen is considered to be of no account. All are called in Christ Jesus to be one - both Jews and Gentiles - for through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. The barriers of hostility, the walls of division, are broken down. God has seen our human condition and come to our help in Christ, whom God has made "one new humanity in place of the two". A new creation has occurred, a new people of God has been made from people who formerly ere enemies. What saves us then, is not that some have kept all the rules and done the right things all their lives while others are or were oblivious to God and have no "track record" of Church attendance or observance of religious custom. What saves us, Paul reminds us, is that we all have access to God because we believe in Christ. Race, sex, culture, biblical knowledge, conservatism or liberalism, and heritage have no part in our salvation - for all are chosen by God and all are loved by him. God longs to gather all people together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings - and in Christ God has acted to do so. How far are we from God? Not far at all, the epistle reminds us, thanks to Christ. How far are those whom we label as different from us from God? Not far at all, the epistle reminds us, for in Christ the walls that divide are broken down. So, how goes our living response to the unity God has achieved for us? We need to look again at those we call "strangers". We need to see them not as different from us, but as essentially the same. Paul invites us to look at ourselves and others in a different light, a light created by God. We need to look at the barriers we have set up, or that are part of the local and larger world in which we live. Barriers are not to exist between us. We are called to consider how we contribute to those barriers, how we add bricks and mortar to their construction and to ask God to help us remove them and to build a new house in our world, one without walls. Think of the racial, economic and social barriers that mark the terrain of our daily lives and determine whom we see, touch and share our lives. These walls direct our footsteps, where we go and whose terrain we avoid. Think of the gender barriers between us, how we think and talk about each other; how we relate to one another at work and at home. Think of the way we classify each other at church; the liberals and conservatives, the "old timers" who built the church and the newcomers - and let go of these things and let God build in their place a new thing. When people are shunted aside because they are different, we need to offer them hospitality, some space of welcome in which they can be themselves. Hospitality means people don't have to conform to our ways, but that they can be themselves in our presence. It doesn't try to change people but enables them freedom and space to change at their own pace in their own way - as God leads them individually and collectively - just as God has done for us. David wanted to build a house for God says our first reading this morning. But God stated that he would build a house for David an everlasting kingdom - a place where God's chosen might dwell - and that one of his descendants would build a house for God's Name. That house is not just the one built by Solomon - and rebuilt later by Erza and Nehemiah - nor even is it just the last and by far the greatest house built by Herod - which was destroyed in 70 AD. Rather it is the house built by David's eternal Son - the one whose kingdom is truly everlasting, the one whom God calls over and over again, "my son". Listen again to what Paul says of this chosen one of God - and of the house - the temple - the church that he would build. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. (18} For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. {19} consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, {20} built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. {21} In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. {22} And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit. Gays and Straights, people from Mainland China and Welfare bums, Liberals and Conservatives, Catholics and Jews, are all called to be part of the house that God builds - and are all made part of that house by the Spirit of God. A house without walls in a kingdom without end. That is what we are supposed to be about. Let it be so. Let God do the judging. Let the Spirit of God do the convicting. Let us do the loving and so proclaim God's glory.

Exodus 34.1-10, Psalm 103, Ephesians 4.25-32, John 8.1-11

They said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. I remember a scene in a movie that I watched sometime ago. In the movie, one of the character said: “If you cannot say anything good about anybody, you just come right over here and sit next to me.” Do you know what a lot of people do when it comes to someone else’s sins? The way it works is actually very simple. I know of something wrong that you have done in the past, even in the very distant past. Now, whenever I look at you, I will see you through the lens of that particular mistake. I will forever hold you in your sin, because your sin is now the filter through I will forever relate to you. You are the young lady who once had an abortion when you were sixteen years of age, although you may be thirty years of age, however, that is what I will always remember you by. You are the man who was caught cheating on your examinations some forty years ago; you are the man who was caught cheating on your wife some three years ago. You are the person who once had a drinking problem. I just cannot let go of your past, your sin, your indiscretion, or your weakness. As a result of not forgetting your past, your sin, your indiscretion or your weakness I will hold you in your sin forever. Many people in public office do not always declare everything that has ever happened to them, this is not because they are trying to be dishonest. They simply know that what some people in this world or society of ours will do with some things. Even though debts may have already been paid in full. Even though mistakes have already been corrected a long time ago, to some people, it does not matter. What really matters to them is that once some people know something of your past mistakes, they will never let go of it. We often had to keep our sins hidden because we know that if they are not well hidden they will be held against us. We keep our sins well hidden because we know that if they are not well hidden they will be used against us someday or other. Skeletons are often kept in the closet because we know that some people will hang them up on the porch for us. People who hold public office don't always declare everything that has ever happened to them not necessarily because they are trying to be dishonest. They simply know what some people will do with some things. Even debts that have been paid. Even mistakes that have been corrected. It doesn't matter. What matters is that once some people know something about you they will never let go of it. We hide our sins because we know that if they are not hidden they will be held. Skeletons are kept in the closet because we know that some people will hang them on the porch. Then the only access to who we are will be through the dead bones of our mistakes. It is why many people move away from where they are known. People who do not know them cannot hold them in their sins. Negative gossip. It is hard to resist. "I heard that Jack once . . ." "Apparently, Marg used to . . ." It passes the time. It is flattering to the ego. At least you're better than that pathetic mess you've just put under the microscope of public scrutiny. Holding people in sin is the perfect accompaniment to lunch. Until it is you who are held. I'm not sure why the story contained in John 8.1-11 is not proscribed even once in the three year Lectionary cycle. I do know it is a mistake not to include it; for it is a story about all of us and a story for all of us. It is a portrait of Jesus at his best, the teacher with a difference, the man who puts words and actions together in a way that encounters people and invites them to change. It is also a highly symbolic, literary invention with layer upon layer of meaning. The scribes and Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught committing adultery; and making her stand before all of them . . . The scribes and Pharisees are doing what they do best: catching, surrounding, staring at, holding - the special gift of the self-righteous; and they are good at it. Sin sticks. Ask anybody who has been made to stand there. However, there are some people who hold people in their sin for a living. They think of nothing else; and they are single-minded about it. "How can I use this about her in order to get something on him. " Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say? They said this to test him. They have nothing on Jesus; but they are after something so that they can hold it against him. Jesus says nothing about Moses and the law. Instead, he performs a symbolic act. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. When they kept questioning him, he straightened up and said to them. "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground. It is not important what he wrote. What is important is that he wrote with his finger, that he wrote it on the earth and that he wrote twice. In the book of Exodus we are told that the ten commandments were written on stone tablets with the finger of God (Exodus 31.18) and that when Moses found the Israelites committing infidelity (adultery) with another god, he threw the stone tablets at them in fierce judgment. So God had to write the commandments a second time and told Moses to hide himself in a rock while he passed by so that Moses would see something he had missed the first time (34.6). "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the children's children, to the third and fourth generation." It is this revelation the scribes and Pharisees have forgotten: that God's glory is steadfast love and endless forgiveness. There is no judgment in God. There are no sinless ones, and, therefore, no one who can cast the first stone. Holding others in their sin while holding yourself innocent is delusionary and only perpetuates the cycle of sin for everyone. There is an alternative to the holding stare of the self-righteous and Jesus is trying to demonstrate it. He bends down and stands up, then bends down again. He does not stare. He refuses to hold the Pharisees in their sin. He is inviting them into a new way of being: the land of mercy. When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders . . . "Heard" does not mean Jesus spoke loud enough. It means they got it. Jesus' answer was so well-aimed that they had nothing left to say. The revelation to Moses was an invitation which they had forgotten - an invitation to be as God is: merciful and gracious. But they refused it and walked away, beginning with the oldest. How hard it is see yourself in a way that contradicts that well-polished image! How hard it is to let go of someone you have enjoyed holding in their sin! The longer we live in the land of judgment, the harder it gets to embrace the alternative. . . . and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him. Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?" She said, "No one, sir." And so the one who was caught-brought and made-to-stand-there is left only with one who honours her by calling her "Woman". The one who refuses to hold people in their sins reminds her of her dignity and life-giving power. Although this woman, known as "the woman caught in adultery" has only one line in the story, it is an important one. The circle of accusers has left; and it is to be hoped her "no one" includes herself. Judgment is nowhere to be found. Only mercy. "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again." In this season of spirit, we would do well to ask ourselves: what does it mean to live in Jesus' spirit? When we have his spirit what do we do that is distinctively him? In one of the Easter texts, Jesus tells us when he says to his disciples, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you hold people's sins, then they are held. If you let let them go, then they are released." (John 20.23) This is not a formula for ecclesiastical power. This is the condition that characterizes our communal life. We can hold each other in our mistakes or we can let each other go. We can be a prison to one another or a source of release. Any bets on which option Jesus prefers? The next time you come upon someone's failure and are tempted to bend over and pick up a stone, remember that you also have the power to let them go. And when you come upon someone else's failure and are again tempted to bend over and pick up another stone, remember that you also have the power to release them. And when you come upon someone else's failure . . . and feel like picking up another stone . . . Living in the land of mercy is not easy, is it? We gravitate easily to holding in sin. We have to work at letting go. Joining the human race is not as easy as it looks. Most of us do it only under duress. Thank God for the memory of the man who bent down and wrote twice.

Ezekiel 2:1-7; Psalm 48; II Corinthians 12:1-10; and Mark 6:1-6

Let us Pray - O God, light of the minds that know you, life of the souls that love you, and strength of the thoughts that seek you - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath your life into us that we may live in the manner you have appointed unto us and better love and serve you and one another. Amen The story of Jesus's rejection in his own town is a classic one - it is a story that most of us can identify with because it is a story that has happened to most of us: Often our families, our childhood companions, our husbands, or our wives, fail to listen to the wisdom and accept the words of grace and love and encouragement we offer - because they are too familiar with us. The people of our home town know us too well, and therefore they simply can not accept, at times anyway - that the boy who used to leave his dirty socks sitting on the dinner table - or the girl who used to skip school and go hanging around the mall can be for them God's appointed instrument, the agent of God's healing and saving grace for them. It is partly for this reason that the royal family of England strives very hard to prevent too much detail about the private lives of the royals from becoming public. They fear that the more that is known about them, the less effective they will be able to be as the representatives of the nations of the Commonwealth. Her Majesty calls the royal quest for privacy "not letting too much sunlight into the magic". Consider the grumbling of the people in Jesus' home town when he spoke to them "what is this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" And the scriptures go on to say that they took offense at him, and that as result Jesus was not able to do any miracles there, expect lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. Yes, Jesus was rejected by his own and all because his own thought that they knew him, and it is often for the same reason that we are rejected - too much sunlight has been let into the magic. But there is more to this story of rejection, for the story of Jesus' rejection by his villagers, is also a story about how we ignore and reject God. It is a story about our unwillingness to be helped by God, or by anybody else; an unwillingness which comes out of our own certainties, our own knowledge, our own strength. For the people who lived in Jesus' home town, their knowledge of him as a youth prevented them from seeing God's power in him as an adult. But for most others the grace of God is shut out, not because they know Christ so well, but because they think they know what is best for themselves, and because they refuse to accept that perhaps they need help, that perhaps their understanding, and their own strength is getting in their way. The road to spiritual wholeness is not travelled by exercising our own human powers, but rather by acknowledging our human weaknesses, and then, in that weakness, allowing God to exercise his power in us. Members of Alcoholics Anonymous probably understand the Gospel better than most theologians - and indeed than most regular church goers. They will tell you that the key to turning their lives around was admitting their weakness, admitting that they were, are, and always will be powerless, powerless over alcohol. Listen to the first three of the twelve steps of the AA program. -1 We admitted that we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable. -2 We came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity, -3 We made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood him. What we have here is ONE - A acknowledgement of weakness, of need. TWO - A belief that God, and only God, can help and THREE - the willingness to turn the whole matter, indeed ones's whole life, over to God and let God take control of the problem. As it is with Alcohol, so it is with all the rest of life. Until we admit our weakness, until we stop being afraid of it, until we stop denying it, we can't find the help we need. I went to seminary with a student by the name of Richard. Richard had great ability, but he could not get along with other people. Richard always wanted to control our discussions in class. He always was ready with an answer to the questions asked by the teachers and the rest of us. When there was silence - he felt he had to fill it. When there was confusion - he tried to bring order, and not just any order, but the order that he thought was best. He never showed any hesitation or weakness to us. He never shared his personal problems. And rarely left room for us to share ours in, and so as a result we hard a hard time liking him. One day Richard was confronted with this behaviour by a group of students who, with a professor, were supposed to give Richard his final marks for the school year. They asked Richard why he behaved like he did. He went away and a week later returned with a paper that explained it all: he claimed his father had never accepted him, that he had come from a broken home, that other people refused to look deeper into him, and that, yes, he was a little careless about sharing time with others and listening to them, but that he could get a grip on it if they gave him a chance. The group of students recognized the sincerity of his paper but they refused to accept it and they rejected his answers, calling them inadequate and self-deceiving. At first he was dumbfounded - he thought he had done a good piece of work - that he had come up with the reasons why he behaved like he did, and then, when he saw that the group wasn't buying it, he grew frantic and began to break down in front of them - he began to cry and to say "I don't know what to do..I'm scared! I'm confused! What do you want? What can I do? Please help me. I feel so out of control." At that point one of the students listening to him got up and went over to him and hugged him and said -- "Its OK - just cry. There is nothing wrong with being out of control - as a matter of fact it is good - for now there is room for God to control you - room for God to help you - and room for us to show you that we love you too." After that time a change came over Richard. He did not become perfect. But he did become a little more sensitive to the needs of others. He didn't try to run every situation, and you could see him actually listening to the viewpoints being expressed by others. We in turn began to come to know him as a feeling and caring human being, as a person like us - with joys and with pain, with hopes and with fears. Richard's confession of weakness became the occasion where God's grace, God's strength, finally could get a grip on his life. The Apostle Paul, like us all, knew weakness. He had what he called a thorn in the flesh - some believe that he had severe migraine headaches, and three times, as he tells us, he prayed that this weakness, this affliction might be removed, that he might be cured. On the third occasion when Paul prayed God answered him and said, "My grace is sufficient for you - for my power is made perfect in weakness." Paul's response to this statement is a most beautiful one. He said "Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses that Christ's power may rest on me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions and difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong." WHEN I AM WEAK - THEN I AM STRONG To the world this is nonsense. Power and strength are worshipped by most people, and weakness is despised above all things. The world teaches us to conceal our vulnerability, lest we be hurt, and it teaches us to hide our weakness, lest we be taken advantage of, The world teaches us to camouflage our inadequacies with self-confidence, self reliance and self assurance, so that we can build a heaven for ourselves here on earth. The world teaches us that we can help ourselves, that we can do what we need to do on our own, and that all the answers we need we can find in ourselves. This my friends is simply not true. It is the wisdom of the serpent who tempted Adam and Eve, it is not the wisdom of God. Every alcoholic still hitting the bottle tells us he can quit, and every dysfunctional person caught behaving in a way that is offensive to others tells us that they know better and that they are on the way to licking the situation. My friends - our weaknesses, our hardships, and our tribulations are not of themselves a blessing, they are real problems for us, and they can create problems for how we get along with others - BUT - when we acknowledge our weaknesses and our needs, and turn to God and ask for his help, instead of relying on our own skill and wisdom and strength to save us, then something profound happens - we discover that God's grace is sufficient for us, and that his power is made perfect in our weakness, and almost always in ways we do not expect. When I am weak, then I am strong. If the truth be known, we are weak in many many ways, ways that all too often we are afraid to admit, because we fear that we will be scorned, rejected, or taken advantage of somehow. But that is not what need happen, nor normally is it what happens. Rather what happens is that God's power comes to us and helps us in the way that we need help. Our weakness may remain, as Paul's thorn remained, but God's power inhabits it and turns it to strength for us; strength for us to do what we as human beings and as followers of Christ are meant to do and in fact need to do, if we are to inherit the joy, the love, and indeed the very life, that God wants to bestow upon us. The story is told about how one day a small boy was trying to lift a stone much too heavy for him. His father walked by and seeing his struggles said "Are you using all your strength?" The boy said that indeed he was. But the father replied "No son, you aren't, for you haven't asked me." How much haven't we asked God about? How much of our weakness do we keep locked up inside us, because we think that there is no help for us, or because we think that other things are more important? A part of our strength, the greater part, comes from our relationship to God - the God who is able and willing to help us. But first we realize our need for him, and then we must ask him to take control. Doing our best as Christians always includes asking God to help us do what we are striving to do. God makes his power perfect in weakness, for it is there that he is able to do for us what we, in our strength, do not let him do. I would like to conclude with a poem that sums up what I have being trying to say - it was written over a hundred years ago by a soldier: I asked for health that I might do greater things, I was given infirmity that I do might do better things... I asked for riches that I might be happy, I was given poverty that I might be wise... I asked for power that I might have the praise of men, I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.... I asked for all things that I might enjoy life, I was given life that I might enjoy all things... I got nothing that I asked for but everything that I hoped for. Almost despite myself my unspoken prayers were answered. I am among all men most richly blessed.

Matthew 13:44-52

The car was too small! - John needed a bigger car for a growing family. Beth, their latest addition to the family was newly born. Their five-seater was inadequate; they needed six seats and a bit! John realised the limitations. John had just broken his arm - ice-skating at Taikooshing! His wife Helen had to take over, driving him around the place and they were scrunched up all together in the car. They need something bigger. They almost found one. It was a van - perfect for their needs and wants. They bargained with the dealer, but the deal fell through. It would be some time, later in the future, before they can find something similar that would meet their needs and wants. It's like the fish that got away! Just when you think you've got it in the net, it snaps away. That's how John felt about the car. It's probably how we feel about many things in life. We wish we had a better car - for a good price, of course. Or a better apartment. Perhaps we wish to be well regarded by many. Maybe it's wanting a boat. Holiday home at the beach. The world's wealth is what we wish all the time to be at our doorstep. But then we find the hard way that wealth, or popularity, or having everything go our way is not necessarily the good life! We build our Kingdoms on earth where, Jesus warns, things rust, or robbers steal, where flowers fade and moths eat through. No, seek Ye first the Kingdom of God - and God's Goodness - God's Right Way..... and then the good life, the truly good life, will come your way. And it's not a life of having things go our way all the time. But having things going the right way. God's way. That's a hard lesson to learn. I want things to go perfectly - don't you? John was depressed about losing the sale, and people noticed it. They tried to cheer him up with goodly advice. One friend said: John, If it didn't happen, it just wasn't meant to be! Another said, Be patient, John, something better will come along. Another said, Now you know exactly what you want for the next time. Another said: Don't worry. Be happy. But what is happiness? Sometimes, I want to put my happiness in possessions. Perhaps you do, too. But happiness, true joy, is found in what cannot be possessed but only received. And that joy is what comes from above. The Kingdom of Heaven, said Jesus, is like a man who came across a treasure hidden in a field. He was so happy that he went and sold everything he had and bought that field. The field came at enormous cost, but the man knew what was beyond. Jesus told a story about a pearl buyer who found a special pearl. So he sold all his other pearls and bought the one perfect gem. Was that a good business proposition? I suppose not. But the man wanted what was the best - everything else paled in significance. Another parable about the Kingdom, Jesus told. The fishing boat went out on the lake. And all sorts of fish were caught; everything was pulled in. Both the good and the bad. They did the sorting out. And they kept the best. Here the issue seems to be about collecting valuable things. But some of the fish weren't valuable yet. They were too small. Or they were the wrong kind of fish. Perhaps at a later time, perhaps in another season, those fish returned to the sea would be valuable to catch again. Some things in life we want now! How often do you hear that term? - NOW. And it is appropriate for some things. But not everything. Older people, more so than us younger people, understand better what it means to have patience and wait. In due season. Let us remember the advice of St. Paul: All things come together for good for them that trust God. You probably don't come across treasures in fields, or collect pearls, or go out on a trawler fishing. Jesus' hearers were, perhaps, in better position to understand them. But the parables are simple truths about God and His Kingdom, about Christ and His Love. Perhaps in order to understand them we can hear this modern-day one: The Kingdom of heaven is like a boy who went fishing. He caught several nice fish and thought he had a good catch. Then he caught one big fish. So he threw all the small fish back in the lake and ran home to show everyone the one big fish. It's a good story with a good outcome. But don't forget that it started by saying "THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS LIKE ..." That story is like our being in the Kingdom of Heaven, because we, like the boy with the several small fish, have many nice things happen to us. We often complain and gripe about what we don't have. We forget what we've got. And we fail to appreciate our blessings. This small fish may be like the good car you've got already. Call it a blessing. This one is for your home. This one's for your family. This one's for your friends. This is your club or sporting interest. This is your well-earned holiday. This is your hobby. Perhaps you can think of many other good things that have happened to you. All of those good things make us happy. We like to talk about them. But something much greater has happened to us. God has sent His Son to be our Saviour. He's the big fish! God loves us so much that He asked Jesus to live with us and show us a new way to live. He makes it possible for us to live a new way by giving us His Holy Spirit - the power of God that comes with the new life. It is because Jesus is our Saviour, we can enjoy our life on earth. Even when we have pain and sorrow, we know He is with us. Even when things does not always go our way. We can forgive others because we are forgiven. We can help others because He has helped us. Even when we die, we know He will raise us from the dead and we will live with Him forever. Our faith in Jesus is like this one big fish. It makes us forget the other blessings in life. Or at least it lets us put them into their proper perspective. Knowing Jesus becomes the most important part of our life. We want to tell others about Him. We want to tell what He has done for us. Yes, the Kingdom of heaven is like this one big fish. And it's the fish that doesn't get away! All other things in life pale in significance when measured up to Jesus. And this is true joy! This is true living! This is the Kingdom! Well, the van finally showed up. It was even better than the one that was snatched up by another buyer in the car yard. As it turned out, there was a young couple who wanted to start a young family. They wanted the station wagon … wanted their van. Some cash was exchanged, but John cut out the middleman. They got what they wanted and John got the van! Isn't it marvellous how things can turn out better, once you put your worries and fears behind you and simply trust in the Lord? 'Seek Ye First the Kingdom' the words of Jesus ring truth in my ears time and time again 'Seek Ye First the Kingdom'! What is the chief end of man? The Shorter Catechism asked. Our chief end - isn't it simply this - To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever? When we learn this simple lesson of faith - this simple truth for life - it reduces the anxieties that we have, or the pains and ills that we experience. The other gifts in our life are good gifts, too. Let us not discount them. Because they also come from God. Whether it be that new car, or new flat, holiday or friend. But remember, the gift of Jesus Christ is the greatest gift of all. Knowing Him as our Saviour is the gift that will last forever! And that for me, is what the Kingdom is on about! That for me, is true living. That for me, is true joy!