Ezekiel 37:1-14; Psalm 130; Romans 8:6-11; John 11:1-45

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

It would be interesting to poll this congregation and ask - what do you think is the hardest problem to handle in the Christian life???

Your answer might be different than mine.

For me, the hardest problem I have to handle as a Christian is what to do when God does not do what I have been taught to expect him to do; when God gets out of line and does not act the way I think he ought.

We have an occasion like that in the story of the raising of Lazarus from the dead.

John introduces this last of the great miracles of Jesus in chapter 11 in these words:

Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying "Lord, he whom you love is ill."

When the message reached Jesus, this was his remarkable response:

"This illness is not unto death, but it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by means of it."

The remarkable thing about that is, if you carefully check out the schedule of timing of this event, Lazarus was already dead when the message reached Jesus. It took two days for the messenger to get to the Jordan, so when Jesus returned to Bethany, Lazarus had been dead four days.

It is difficult for us to believe that Jesus did not know that because of the insight that the Spirit of God had given him on numerous occasions. But he sees this as a signal from the Father that something tremendous is going to happen in connection with it, thus he sent back this remarkable word: "This illness is not unto death."

In verses 5 and 6 we get the real shocker here, however when we read:

Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. So when he heard that Lazarus was ill... he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

That is incredible to us. That is the part of the story which is hard to handle.

Martha loved Jesus; Mary loved Jesus; Lazarus loved Jesus; and Jesus loved them. From the record of scripture we know that their home was filled with love and that it was one of the most welcome havens for our Lord during his three years of ministry.

But when Jesus hears that Lazarus is sick - what does he do?? He waits.

It is a tough thing to believe that Jesus deliberately waited. We are so used to critical illness being a signal for immediate action - wailing sirens, flashing red lights, frantic phone calls - get right down to the hospital, that it seems incredible that Jesus, knowing that his friend was ill, or in this case dead, he nevertheless stayed right where he was for two more days.

Somebody may well say,

"If he knew Lazarus was dead why would he hurry? There was nothing he could do."

But remember Mary and Martha's hearts were breaking. This was a dearly loved brother, and his death would be a grievous loss to them. Jesus' presence with them would have been a tremendous comfort even though he never did a thing about raising Lazarus from the dead.

Yet, knowing that they needed him there to comfort them, knowing that they longed to have him there to the point that they sent a messenger to let him know the situation, he deliberately remained two days longer at the place where he was.

Why?
That is the question we all ask.
Why?

When you have gone to God for help which you feel you desperately need and nothing happens, when your heart is breaking over something and you need God to intervene, but the heavens are silent, it is tough to understand, tough to accept, tough to get any kind of grip on.

But what this passage is telling us is that a delay in answer like that is not a sign of God's indifference or his failure to hear. It is a sign of his love. The delay will help us. It is for our sake. And it is so that Christ may be glorified through it.

Jesus deliberately delayed going to Mary and Martha because he loved them and knew this would strengthen their faith as they learned the ultimate outcome which God would work through Him.

That is a hard lesson to accept. I have struggled over this many times myself. But it works - something we expect and long for does not occur and then - bingo - sometime after we think that everything is lost and that there is no hope, God does something remarkable that totally reverses our view.

Think of the reaction in Bethany as the messenger returned with the news that when he told Jesus that Lazarus was ill, Jesus had said, "This illness is not unto death." Yet when the messenger got back with that message Lazarus had already been dead for two days.

What do you think the reaction of his sisters was? How do you think they felt?

According to the account, two days later Jesus acts. He says to his disciples

"Let us go back Judea... Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up."

The disciples, who had every reason to believe that if they returned to Judea that Jesus would be stoned to death, protest, saying:

"Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover."

To which Jesus replies

"Lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe"

Notice that Jesus says he was glad he was not there when Lazarus died, "for the sake of the disciples."

Just as Jesus delayed his going for Mary and Martha's sake in order that their faith might be strengthened by that delay, so that they might see His glory in it what will happen because of it. So he delayed as well for the sake of his disciples that they might believe.

I want to tell you there have been times when I have cried out to God for help and said, "Things are so bad it can't get any worse. Lord, do something. Help us." But no answer came. That is hard. It is hard to believe. It is hard to wait.

But I am gradually learning that this is never the end of the story, gradually learning what God said so clearly through the prophet Isaiah, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways."

That is what is so difficult. God is sovereign. God is not a mortal that he should act like we act. There are dimensions of the problems which he sees that we do not remotely imagine. There are possibilities and opportunities in every situation that we cannot conceive of.

So we must wait and quietly trust, knowing that he is working out something.

"Lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe"

As we go in the story, as Jesus arrives at the outskirts of Bethany - we see that Martha greets Jesus with a phrase that must have been frequently on all of their lips when Lazarus was sick.

How many times must they have said, "Oh, if Jesus were only here." They had said it so many times that it comes automatically to Martha's lips when she meets him: "Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died."

I do not believe this is a word of reproach.

Martha is not saying, "Lord, why didn't you come sooner? We sent for you. If you had responded we wouldn't be in this pickle." It is clear from the account, that she realizes that the message did not reach him until Lazarus was dead. Martha's word rather is one of regret: "Lord, I wish you could have been here, because if you had, my brother would not have died."

Then she goes on to say, "But even now, even now, whatever you ask of God, he will give it to you."

Many ask at this point, "What does she expect? What is it that she wants from him?" Some commentators say that she really did expect Jesus to raise Lazarus from the dead, pointing to her words, "Even now."

These commentators miss the point because, of course, the very next word of Jesus is, "Your brother will rise again."

If Martha had any idea that would happen then, she would have said, "How wonderful, Lord! That is exactly what I expected you to do now that you have come."

But she does not say that. What she says is, "Yes, I know. He will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."

Clearly Martha is not looking for the immediate resurrection of her brother. What, then, is she looking for from Jesus? What does she mean by the words, "Even now, whatever you ask of God, God will give it to you?"

We have to conclude that she is looking for his comfort, for the release that God can give to a heart that is burdened and saddened, torn with grief, anticipating the loneliness and emptiness of the days ahead. God can give marvellous inward peace. Many have testified to that. This is what Martha is asking for, "Even now, Lord, even though he is gone..."

There is so much God can give us at a time like this. As we listen to the story we can see that Martha's faith is like the faith we so often have. She believes in what she thinks will happen now and then later, rather than in what God might make happen whenever God decides to make it happen.

How many times have you said to yourself, "I know God has worked in the past, and I know that he will work again in the future, but today, well, this is not the day of miracles..."

This is Martha's faith: in the future, at the resurrection of the last day, yes, the program of God is certain. But for today - well - that is a different matter.

The same thing can be said of Mary - who greets Jesus with the same words that Martha used: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.".

Neither Martha, nor Mary, nor any of those who accompany her to the grave side - nor the disciples expect what happens next. They do not even hope for it.

How often are we in the same position with regard to the Lord's work in our lives?

In our brokenness - in our experience of grief - in our despair- we weep, as Mary wept - we weep and we expect nothing - nothing but heartache for today and for as long as we live and breath..

Jesus wept too - It says that Jesus asked where they had laid Lazarus, and as he started out to the tomb, that "he wept".

He weeps not because he loves Lazarus - not because Lazarus has died - for he knows what he is about to do - he weeps because Mary weeps. He weeps because he is sharing the heartache of the sisters - because he sympathizes with them in their pain..

I read once of a little girl who hurt her finger, and she ran to her daddy, who was busy studying for an exam in his den. She showed him her finger, but he was so caught up in what he was doing he just looked at it and said, "Oh, that will be all right," and sent her on out. She ran to her mother, weeping and crying, and her mother said, "Oh, dear, does it hurt so much?" The little girl said, "No, mummy, it's just that daddy didn't even say, 'Oh.'" That is what she wanted, somebody to say "Oh" with her.

In Romans 12, Paul tells us to "weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice." Here our Lord himself sets the example of this. Knowing that he is going to turn it all around, he yet feels the sorrow of their hearts and weeps.

Now we come to the actual miracle.

Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb; It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, "Lord, by this time there will be an odour, for he has been dead four days." Jesus said to her, "Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?" So they took away the stone."

Notice how he answers. He does not rebuke her, he encourages her in the words, "Remember what I said." "Did I not say to you that 'if you would believe you would see the glory of God?"

Then Jesus turns to do the great deed. He begins with a simple prayer.

And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, "Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me."

Notice the many times in this account that what Jesus did he did for the sake of the ones involved.

Earlier he said to the disciples, "I am glad I was not there for your sake. He stayed two days where he was when the message reached him "because he loved Mary and Martha." Now he prays out loud for the sake of the people there.

When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, "Lazarus, come out." The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. And Jesus said to them, "Unbind him, and let him go."

What does this miracle say to us this morning?

One answer to that is given by the apostle Paul in his Second Letter to Timothy. Timothy was a young man who was left in the pagan city of Ephesus. He had to struggle to live as a Christian in that polluted, pagan environment, just as we have to today in our society here in Hong Kong,where Christians are a minority. He was sometimes discouraged, sometimes defeated, facing many problems. He was a little afraid. He was frail of health.

What were Paul's words to him?

"Remember Jesus Christ risen from the dead. Remember Jesus right where you are. Remember he is with you."

This is his word. He is with you. He knows how to handle the situation you are in. He knows how to lead you through it, he can - and in fact will even raise the dead. He can do anything.

Focus your faith on him, not on the solution to the problem or the eventual working out of it.

Trust in him, despite the delays - turn to him, knowing that he is able - and knowing that whatever illness may strike, with him it is never an illness unto death - rather it may well be the pathway to new life.

Blessed be God, day by day. Amen.

Ephesians 5:8-14; Psalm 23; John 9:1-41

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

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.

Thus began this morning's Gospel Reading.

The entire passage that Ricky read today deals with blindness - but strangely enough it is not the blindness of the man who was born blind that is central to the passage - despite how this man is mentioned throughout it, rather it is the blindness of those around him and most especially the blindness of the religious teachers and authorities that is central to the passage - their blindness and their sin.

And this is so much so that the closing words of the story about the Man Born Blind - which come after the man born blind has been questioned, his parents questioned, and he has been questioned again and then thrown out of the synagogue by the priests and teachers of the law and has then been found by Jesus and has professed his faith in him and worshipped him are these:

"For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind."

And then we hear that some Pharisees who were with Jesus heard him say this and asked,

"What? Are we blind too?"

And Jesus replies

"If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.

What are we to make of the story of the man born blind? Well, it is a very rich passage - and today I have time only to touch on a couple of things.

The first thing I would like you to grasp is this - while all people sin and fall short of the glory of God, not all afflictions, perhaps not even most afflictions, can be blamed on the sin of the person who must bear that affliction, or - as in the case of a genetic defect or a birth accident like that the man born blind must have had - upon the sin of the parents.

God doesn't work that way.

While some afflictions obviously are the result of one kind of sin or another - for example someone driving drunk may have an accident in which they are crippled for life or in which they cripple someone else for life - for the most part many other afflictions can't be blamed on someone, nor should we try to blame them on someone.

Rather we should try to bring healing to those who are afflicted

Which is the second point I want to make.

Jesus answers the question about who sinned that the man was born blind by saying:

"Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life. "

And he healed him with mud and spit and the touch of his own precious hand.

This is how God operates. This is what Jesus is about. He has come to give us relief from those things which afflict us - to give sight to the blind and to heal the lame - and to set free those who are oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord to those who are poor.

Indeed - even if - and this is a big if - even if the particular affliction or tribulation that rests upon a person is the result of a direct sin for example that drunken driver who has wounded himself or some one else - even if this is the case - Jesus still wants them to be whole. He still wants to make the work of God manifest in their lives.

That is what the cross is ultimately all about - bringing forgiveness and salvation to sinners, and showing the love of God to those who, by any other standard, are unlovable.

But some will not accept this. They didn't in the past. And they don't now.

As with some of the Pharisees and Scribes of old, they will persist in denying that there is anything good that could come out of Nazareth. They will deny the good that they see done around them is being done by a servant of God. And they, despite their love for God, will attempt to stop the one doing good from doing good.

There are many modern day self-righteous ones, both in the church and outside of it. They don't want the boat to be rocked - they don't want to have to change their comfortable accommodation with the status quo, they don't want to change the way they see the world.

And like some of the Pharisees and Scribes of old they will continue to seek to blame the condition of the poor upon the poor; and of the sick upon the sick; and the oppression of the oppressed upon the oppressed.

It is safer that way isn't it?

It means that they - or is it we - don't have to do anything - we don't have to change.

We can give tax breaks to the rich while we close down hospital wards by not giving enough budget to medical care, can you believe that in a rich place like Hong Kong, our Financial Secretary only increase the medical budget by 8%! We can ignore the hunger in the third world while spend massive amounts on ski trips and vacations. Or we can call those who seek to help the street people and defend the abused women in our society unrealistic idealists who don't fully understand that those people are responsible for their own condition - and cheer as the welfare rolls are reduced and funding for shelters and for counselling programs cut.

There is none so blind as those who will not see.

There is none so blind as those who will not accept the call of our Lord: the call to allow the work of God to be displayed in their lives - the call of God to bring healing and salvation to those around us who really need it - regardless of what sin those who need healing may have or may not have committed.

I don't know if you noticed, but all the hymns this morning except "Give To Us Laughter" and the "23rd Psalm were written by the same person.

"All the Way My Saviour Leads Me", "Jesus, Keep Me Near The Cross", "Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine" and "Pass Me Not Gentle Saviour" were written by a lady by the name of Fanny Crosby.

I chose hymns by her today because Fanny Crosby could not see.

When Fanny was six weeks old, she had an eye infection. Her regular doctor was out of town, and a man posing as a doctor gave her the wrong treatment. Within a few days, she was totally blind.

If that happened to some people, I am afraid they would be very bitter and would probably spend a lifetime feeling sorry for themselves. Fanny was never bitter and she never felt sorry for herself. When she was only eight years old, she wrote this poem:

Oh, what a happy child I am,
Although I can not see.
I am resolved that in this world,
Contented I will be.
How many blessings I enjoy
That other people don't.
To weep and sigh
Because I'm blind,
I cannot and I won't!

Instead of being bitter and feeling sorry for herself, instead of blaming the doctor for his "sin" against her and dwelling in darkness all her days, Fanny used the gifts that God had given her to write over 8,000 hymns and poems to praise and glorify God.

We might know who caused her blindness - but to Fanny knowing who caused her blindness didn't matter. Nor did it matter to her that she was blind - because in her mind - and in mine - she could see.

As a Australian preacher by the name of Bruce Prewer put it this way in a discussion of the story of the Man Born Blind some years ago:

"Some people have excellent eyesight but do not see further than their noses. Some have good vision yet choose to see only a little of the way, the truth and the life. And some have no physical sight yet who see brilliantly along the path of Christ"

Christ didn't heal the physical blindness of Fanny Crosby as he healed the sight of the man born blind, but like that man at the end of today's Gospel reading - when he knelt at Jesus' feet and worshipped him, she saw more than we can imagine - she saw more - and felt more blessed - than millions about her with eyes to see, but no will to look past themselves and their own vision of what is and what should be..

The next time we you someone who is afflicted - in body, mind, or spirit - remember what Jesus said about the man born blind - remember how Jesus said that his affliction happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life and then healed him .

And the next time you see someone else engaged in disputes about who is doing the right thing and who is doing what is wrong - quietly remember what Jesus said to those who were confident of their rightness and all to ready to judge him and most others as less worthy of God's love than themselves.

Remember how Jesus said "For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind." And remember too how he added when they asked him if they were blind too, "If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains."

Remember too - all of you are blessed - you are blessed to be a blessing.

Amen.

Exodus 17:1-7 and John 4:5-42

"Gracious God - bless now the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts. Breath your Spirit into us and grant that we may hear and in hearing be led in the way you want us to go. Amen.

I once read an article that I would like to share with you. It was titled: "In Times of Stress, Just Call on Fred". It goes like this:

When it comes to times of stress, the most reassuring companion is not your sweetheart - it's your schnauzer.

A study has found that people who were under stress showed the least amount of tension when accompanied by their dog. The stress levels were highest when the people were with their husbands or wives.

"I think that dogs are non-evaluative, and they love us", said Karen Allen, a research scientist.

This item caught my attention, not because of what it says about stress and our spouses - I don't happen to find its assertion in this regard to be true in my experience the years in which I have been married to Carmel. NO, it caught my attention because of what asserts about how dogs love us - and of the benefits that kind of love has.

There is something very biblical in the assertion made by Ms. Allen that non-evaluative love, non-judgmental love, reduces tension.

In fact the scriptures testify that this kind of love does far more than reduce tension - it in fact gives life - it gives hope - it gives assurance - to all who receive it.

Non-judgmental - accepting - all embracing love is the essence of the gospel message: it lies behind such statements as: "Do not judge others lest you be judged - for the judgement you give will be the judgement you receive" and it is at the root of what has happened whenever we find Jesus being criticized by the scribes and pharisees for the company that he keeps.

Jesus accepts and embraces those whom others find wanting. He loves those who seem unlovable - to others - and to themselves.

I'm not much of gardener (if you look at the plants I kept you will be in total agreement that I am not much of a gardener, but one thing I do know is that every plant needs water to grow.

And I know this as well - the plants that are in the driest soil: - the ones that are struggling the hardest and beginning to wither - the ones whose leaves are beginning to curl and which look worse than the rest need more water than those who are in damp ground and whose leaves are rich and full of moisture.

And I know too that dry plants respond better to water than they do to added heat - that they thrust down their roots to where they can find it or turn their leaves over so that they better receive it - and receiving it - they change - they begin to look better - they begin to grow - and at length - they produce the fruit that they have been designed to produce.

We are the plants in God's garden - placed here for a reason and a purpose - and some of us are awfully dry - and some of us aren't.

But each one of us, whether we be dry or moist at this very moment, needs the living water that Jesus says he has come to give: - that water which wells up to eternal life, - that water which overflows and brings life to other plants near to it.

I give thanks to God today for his love - for that love shown by Christ - that love which was poured out me when I was withering and perishing as a young man - alone in a large city and which even now is poured out upon me -even though I am far from perfect.

I give thanks for his love which has given me hope that I never had, a peace that at one time I could only long for, and an assurance that I thought I would never see at work in my life.

In giving thanks before you today I do what thousands, indeed millions of people have done before me, I do what the woman at the well did after first encountering Jesus: I point to the one who is the Saviour promised from long ago, I point to the one who has accepted me - the one who calls me brother and does not hold my human failings against me - the one who encourages me and challenges me and never - even when I argue with him - rejects or condemns me.

That is what Jesus did with the woman at the well. He accepted her.

He accepted her though she was a Samaritan and an enemy to his people.

He spoke to her of God though she was a woman and not thought worthy of such conversation.

He offered her his blessing - even though she debated with him and questioned his statements.

He regards her as a dear sister - and gives her the same title of endearment he gave Mary when he calls her woman in verse 21 and asks her to believe his words concerning how the time is coming when true worshippers will worship Father in Spirit and in Truth.

And that is why she sang his praises in her village. Because of his acceptance - because of his love.

It was not just because he knew her past. It was not just because he could tell her things that no stranger should know that she spoke of him to her friends and neighbours.

It was because in knowing her - in knowing her nationality, her gender, her religious attitudes, and the mixed history of her marriages he none-the-less treats her as if she was an equal, as if she was a person worthy of respect, worthy of affection - worthy of love.

And that is where it is at.

When we treat others as we ourselves would like to be treated - when we can talk to kings and to beggars and not show any preferences to the one and not the other, when we can debate with sinners and with saints - and have both feel that you respect them - when we can open our homes to both friends and strangers - and have both feel welcomed - when we can encounter people and not judge them - not put them down - not patronize them - then we know something of God's love, then we show something of God's love.

Blessed be God, day by day. Amen.

Genesis 17:1-7,15-16; Psalm 22:23-31; Romans 4:13-25; Mark 8:31-38

Let us Pray - Lord God, Creator and Maker of us all, 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.

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.... (And) -- He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

A Pastor wrote to an on-line study group with this message:

"I'm having difficulty with the Gospel this week; what is this cross that I am to take up, and what am I to deny in following Jesus?"

A seminary student once wrote:

"I find this a hard gospel text because it talks about suffering rather than joy"

The cross has always caused problems to people. Brutal and barbaric - the cross was a tool of political power for the Romans. They maintained their power because of the fear of death on the cross.

When one was condemned by the state, the condemned literally had to "take up his cross" and carry it to the public place where he was to be crucified. It was part of the humiliation process, the mechanism of social control for which crucifixion was invented.

The cross was an instrument of suffering and shame - and no more so than among the Children of Israel - where the scriptures themselves declare: "cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree".

To die on a cross was a sign that one died cut off from God, and cut off from the people of God - a sign that the person was rejected. And of course in the case of Jesus this was very true.

Jesus went to cross as one who was rejected and abandoned. Rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and abandoned almost completely by his disciples too. Jesus didn't die as a hero or a martyr. He died as a blasphemer.

The cross was the worst form of execution - for the people of Israel and for the Roman Empire as a whole. Indeed it was a social faux pax to mention crosses or crucifixion in the presence of women and children of high social standing.

Yet Christianity in contrast to many of the other religions of the day, which celebrated the search for beauty, truth, and the good, had, and still has, at its centre this most awful symbol of death and disgrace.

This must be dealt with - and understood correctly.

I say this because with our gold and silver crosses adorning our altars, and worn as jewellery around our necks, and with so much wrong-headed preaching on cross-bearing, preaching which reduces bearing the cross to little more than performing acts of kindness toward other people, or putting up with difficult situations we risk transforming our faith into just another religion - a religion that celebrates many good things - but which avoids the difficult truths about life and about faithfulness to God.

Jesus is clear. To be his disciples, to enter the Kingdom of God, we must deny our selves and pick up our crosses - and follow him.

So what is the cross we are called to bear?

FIRST, what the cross is not.

The seminary student I quoted at the beginning of the sermon, as part of his work towards his degree meets with a study group that looks at the gospel passage for the coming Sunday. After telling them that he found today's gospel reading a hard passage because it talks about suffering rather than joy, the group discussed the passage.

He reported that for the next 90 minutes he listened to the most amazing series of stories of survival. The members of the group talked about the death of a husband, the death of an infant son, the near-death of a teen-aged child, divorce, chemotherapy, bankruptcy - and how they look back now and know they weren't alone - that in all these events God went with them - supporting them - wiping the tears from their eyes - and bringing new hope and new life out of tragedy. Praise God for that!

He ended his report by saying that the members of the study group thought they were talking about picking up their crosses and that he was very much inspired by their talk.

But my friends - while I praise God for the testimony of the members of his study group about how God went with them in their suffering and affliction - they were not necessarily talking about either the cross of Jesus or the cross that he calls us to bear.

I say that because most people make a fundamental mistake when talking about the crosses they bear. They confused the suffering that is inflicted upon them by the world - a suffering that comes without their choice or decision - with that which comes because we have chosen to be faithful.

Think about it for a moment. Think about the cross of Christ. Think about how he could have avoided it, how he could have called legions of angels to his rescue, how he could have turned away from the confrontation in Jerusalem and ministered quietly in Galilee.

A cross is something we pick up because we desire to follow Jesus. It is not something falls upon us because we are made of mortal flesh and live in a decaying world, though how we react to those things may, in fact, turn them from an affliction that we bear to a cross we bear.

I think of the aging husband or wife who faithfully tends for and cares for their spouse even when that spouse can no longer recognize them or communicate with them. They have made a decision to be faithful - and the burden they bear is indeed a cross and simply an affliction.

SECOND - the cross we are called to bear is not exactly the same as Christ's cross. Our crosses are our own - they are shaped specially for us by our own life issues and by the call of God upon our lives.

There is a true story in a wonderful book called "A Cloud of Witnesses", by Douglas Weaver. He writes:

There were 40 soldiers of the Twelfth Legion of Rome's imperial army who were Christians. Their captain announced one day that Emperor Licinius had issued an edit requiring all soldiers to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods.

The forty soldiers replied, "You can have our armour and even our bodies, but the allegiance of our heart belongs to Jesus Christ."

It was mid-winter, AD 320. The captain had the men march out to a frozen lake. Their clothes were stripped off of their backs, and they were told either to renounce Christ or to die. Baths of hot water waited on shore as a temptation to deny their faith.

Throughout the night, the men huddled together and sang, "forty martyrs for Christ, forty martyrs for Christ..." One by one, the soldiers fell in death.

Finally, only one soldier was left. His courage failed; he stumbled to shore, renouncing his faith in Christ. But the officer of the guard who had been watching the drama had secretly come to believe in Christ. When he saw the fortieth soldier come to the shore, the officer walked out onto the frozen lake, disrobed, and confessed his faith. As dawn broke the next morning, there were forty bodies on the ice.

As commentary, the book goes on to quote Tertullian, the great North African defender of the faith: "We multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is seed.

Many people assume that the cross we are called to carry is like this - like Christ's - that it is a literal willingness to die for the sake of the gospel.

Naturally, they can't relate to that very well, because these days, in the Western World at least, we are not placed in such situations - where our physical death can result from witnessing to Christ.

But there is more than one kind of death, more than one kind of martyrdom, more than one kind of witness. And that brings me to say what the Cross IS for us - and how it is like Christ's.

Our Cross is like Christ's in the sense that it involves offering ourselves to God and our neighbours in complete and total love and obedience to God, no matter where that love and obedience may take us.

It may involve us in less than physically dying for Christ (depending on what part of the world you live in), but it will involve us in far more than simply performing acts of kindness toward other people, or putting up with difficult situations.

Our cross will involve us in the denial of self so that we may live to God, much as the faithful husband or wife in dealing with the sick partner deny their own needs, their own pleasures, and live for their mate.

Our motives for doing things will not be - how will this help me - but instead how will it serve Christ? How will it serve God?

I am struck by verse 35 in today's gospel reading. Those words that say:

"Those who save their life will lose it, those who lose their life for Christ's sake, and for the sake of good news, will save it."

Too many Christian folk are concerned about whether or not they are saved. They worry about whether or not they am going to heaven.

If that is our focus then Jesus is very clear that we have missed the boat. Our attempts to save our own lives won't do it.

If however I lose my life, that is, if I give it away to others in service to Christ and Christ's good news, then and only then have will I save it.

Giving my life is my only hope. Giving my life away in service to God - for God's sake - for the sake of Christ - is where it is at. Loving others with the love of God is where it is at. Otherwise all we are doing is trying to work our way into heaven.

There's a message here for the church.

Focus on the health of the church, or the denomination it belongs to, spend your energy on the latest church growth gimmick, look for money to simply keep the doors open and we will die.

But if the church gives its life away, if it focuses on the mission that God calls it to, if it seeks to obey and serve God, if it spends itself on proclaiming the good news and invites others to support its vital work of life saving it will, inadvertently as it were, saves its own life.

I would like to conclude this sermon by saying three things about what "denying oneself" means. There is much more than what I will hold up for you, but there is not much more in the way of time this morning.

First, denying oneself means refusing to judge others or oneself, but rather leaving all judgement in the hands of God.

One of the things we struggle with most often is our sense of our own worthlessness; it is so easy for us to listen to the condemning voices in my head telling me that I am a failure, a fraud.

Jesus invites us to deny our own evaluation of ourselves (and others), to give up making judgements about ourselves and to accept the grace, the special relationship we have with God through Christ at face value, to accept God's evaluation of us.

That is denial indeed. No more can I say, "He's such a nice fellow!" or "She's horrible!", but rather I must say, "this person is a child of God, one for whom Christ has given his life". And what I say about others, I must also say about myself. God finds me worthwhile. I am acceptable - and God will help me to grow in his grace as I yield more and more to his will for me.

This sort of denial would eliminate the boundaries we erect around the gospel - around God. There would be no more insiders and no more outsiders. All of us are out (there is none righteous, no not one) and all of us are in - since Jesus has taken away the sins of the whole world...

Would that ever make for a different Church, and a different world, if I and the people ever came to believe it!

Second - denial of self means the refusal to feel ashamed about the gospel.

Shame or embarrassment is a self centred feeling. Every time we hesitate to share the faith because we will be thought foolish or a religious fanatic - we are thinking more about ourselves than about the good of others...

Jesus is clear - if we are ashamed of him he will be ashamed of us.

Part of our denial of self is to put off feelings we may have about speaking about our faith and to share the good news we believe in with others even when we think that maybe they will not appreciate it.

This doesn't mean that we must go about knocking on doors and making a nuisance of ourselves - but does mean that we must be a little less afraid to rock the boat - to be a little less afraid of standing out in the crowd, a little less afraid of "being different"

If we truly believe that God alone makes the difference to human life and that faith in Christ sets one free, then how can we not share that?

Again - it is not about us and what we do or don't do; it is about God and what God can do and will do - if we let him, if we get ourselves out of the way.

And third, self denial means be willing to take risks, to let go of the familiar things, the familiar thoughts and to let God lead us - much as he led Abram and Sari into a new land, a land they did not know, and there gave them new names and a new life.

Christ calls us beyond our known borders. He says, "join me, follow me"

Christ is always well beyond us in vision, but he also beside us to help us walk with him into the new land, the promised land.

Like Abraham and Sarah, and indeed like the people of Israel in the wilderness, we are not worry about how we eat, what we will wear, or where we will lay down our heads - but to trust that if God is calling us - then God will make the way ready for us....

Most of us spend our lives working for tomorrow - for our children's education - for our future when the children leave home - for retirement - even for our pre-arranged funerals - and so we miss the riches of today, we miss discovering what it is that God is doing amongst us.

"If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.

Yes - it is difficult stuff, this stuff about the cross, this stuff about denying ourselves - but it is made easier by the fact that when we begin to do so some marvellous things being happen - we begin to see with the eyes of God and we begin to experience a portion of what God has promised that we will experience when we live by faith, an experience that not only includes the cross, but the resurrection.

Praise be to Christ - the Lord of the living and the dead. And praise be to God the Father - who raised him up from the grave. Amen.

Genesis 9:8-17; I Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:9-15

Bless, O Lord, the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts that they be of profit to us and acceptable to you, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen

A old children's story goes like this: One child asks another:

Would you forget me in an hour? No.
Would you forget me in a day? No.
Would you forget me in a month? No.
Knock knock. Who's there?
I thought you said you wouldn't forget me.

Today we heard the story of the covenant God made with Noah. It is a covenant where God promises that He will never forget us, nor any of the creatures that he made.

It is a covenant that promises that God will never again destroy the earth because of the sinfulness of man, and as a sign of this covenant - this promise - God creates the rainbow so that whenever it raining God and all of us here who see it will remember that promise.

The beautiful thing about this covenant, this agreement that God made is that is has no conditions upon it.

It is a covenant without any "if" clauses, csuch as "if you love me" or "if you obey me" or "if you worship me" or if you brush your teeth or help old ladies across the street - then I will be good to you!

No - the covenant God made Noah is an unconditional covenant. It is a covenant of love wherein God promises to remember us even if we forget him.

That is what God's love is like. He remembers us even when we forget him.

No matter what we have done - when we stand at the door and knock, God won't ask "who's there" he will instead open the door and welcome us in.

God can be grieved by us. We can make God sad and we can make God angry, but God swore to Noah that he would never be so angry that he would destroy the people and the world that he made.

Despite our sinfulness, despite all that we do to hurt each other and to hurt ourselves, God has promised not to abandon us, to not to forget us and seek our destruction, but rather to remember us and his love for us.

Indeed - God does remember us - and God seeks us out. He calls us to love him as he loves us.

No matter what we have done, God calls to us like a parent calls to his child, God calls us to turn around and try once more to be the person that we were born to be, and God reaches out his hand and tries to deliver us from the judgements that we set ourselves up for with our foolishness and our pride.

God wants to help us, not destroy us.

This is the meaning of the covenant sealed with a rainbow, and this is the meaning of all God's covenants with us.

Abraham was chosen by God to raise up a great nation, so that the world would be blessed by a Holy People. David's children were chosen by God to be Kings over Israel, so that one day the world might be saved by a Messiah. And Jeremiah was chosen to announce a new covenant, where God would place the Law in each person's heart and where each person might personally come to know God and his salvation.

That last covenant, the once announcement by Jeremiah, has been fulfilled, and each of us here is now privileged, if we so choose, to be a part of that covenant, a covenant that is signed by the cross of Jesus and sealed by our baptism into his death and resurrection.

God remembered the promise he made to Noah, and even though we have provoked God in a manner worse even than that of the people who lived before the flood, God has kept his promise.

God sent his Son instead of a flood to deal with our sin, and he died for our sin - the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring us to God and to allow us to live well both now and forever.

Through Jesus - God remembers us. In fact through Jesus, God stands at our door and knocks, and he tells us

"Here I am. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."

What then shall we say to this love of God, what shall we say about the signs of his love? The cross and the rainbow? The Bread and the Wine? What shall we about his knocking at our door what shall we say about his invitation to come and dine?

God wants us to say "Yes" to his love; He wants us to see the signs and wonders He has left for us; He wants us to open the door to our lives and let Him come in and do his work

- a work in which he makes us more and more like his son Jesus,
- a work in which he makes us holy, and saves us from our own sin, our own foolishness.

Recall today, as we begin Lent, my friends, the story of Jesus, and how after he was baptized he spent 40 days in the wilderness being tempted, and how, he then went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God saying:

"The Kingdom of God is near, repent and believe in the good news."

God wants us to try our best to be like Jesus, He wants us to believe in His love, He wants us to know that He is near to us and ready to help us, He wants us to turn to Him in faith, and strive to lead a new life with Christ.

The word of the gospel, the good news, is that God forgives us our sin, that he remembers his love for us, and extends his saving hand towards us.

God's love for us is a marvel and a grace. But, as we begin Lent, let us remember that our forgiveness comes at a cost, that a price is paid for our sin, a price in pain and suffering, and that, as long as we yield to sin, as long as we yield to temptation, not only do we hurt ourselves and others - we hurt God.

What we can do as people who have heard Christ and accepted his invitation to believe in Him, in the saving love of God the Father, is to repent of our sinful ways and to struggle as best as we can - as did Jesus in the wilderness - to live a sin free life.

If the truth be told I think that everyone here has not struggled quite hard enough with sin, that we have sometimes given in too easily to temptation, especially in the simple things - the things like the temptation to gossip, or the desire to get just a little bit of revenge, or the desire to kid ourselves about our lifestyle and tell ourselves that it is really OK.

There is a story told about a man called Sam.

Sam wasn't make much headway with his diet. He was one of those folks who could resist everything but temptation. One day he came into the office with a whole box of freshly baked Danish.

When his friends questioned him about his diet he explained that really wouldn't have gotten the Danish if it hadn't been for God.

"What do you mean"? one of his friends asked.

"Well", he said, "as I was about to pass the bakery I prayed that if it were God's will for me to have these Danish today I would be able to find a parking place in front of the building. Sure enough I found a space right in front on the eighth time around the block"

Most of us have a tougher time with temptation than we like to think.

We try to tell ourselves that the things that we do, the little things that hurt others or ourselves, aren't really all that important or all that harmful, or that someone else is really to blame for them.

When we get angry, or feel terribly anxious or upset, and then yell at our husbands or our wives, or rebuke our children and slight our friends, we often tell ourselves that it is because of something that they did - that it is justified by the circumstances.

We do not like to think that maybe, just maybe, even when we have been provoked, that while our reaction is justifiable, maybe our behaviour is not.

We forget the lesson of the rainbow and of the cross, the lesson that tells us that even though we anger God, even though we do things that God cannot approve of, God still loves us, and while He calls us to live a better life, He does not push us away, He does not reject us, He does not condemn us.

It is a good thing I think, to cultivate the sense that we do not resist sin enough. I believe that this kind of humility, this kind of realism about ourselves, can only be pleasing to God.

Acknowledging our weakness in the face of temptation gives us a foundation upon which we can build a new life, for it is only as when we recognize our need, that we can be open enough to have our needs met.

Our sins arise primarily because we do not readily recognize the need we have to struggle with ourselves.

Most of the things we do that are harmful do not come out of some great issue which we must decide about, rather they arise out of the habits we have, habits that are comfortable and whose correction requires some effort.

A lot of what we do is like what we do with our old sweaters.

Old sweaters, even though they may be natty, even though they may be losing their shape and have the odd tear or run, are very comfortable, and we often wear them, even though there is new one is in our cupboard.

We say bad things about some people because it makes us feel good, because it makes us feel just a bit better than they are, and because it is easier to say what we say than to look for the good that may be in the person, and because it is easier to condemn them than to forgive.

We throw junk out our car window and add to the pollution of our world because it is easier to do so than to have to pack around garbage bags.

We use more of the world's resources than we have to because recycling requires just a bit more effort than we like to make.

We give into temptation, we hang onto our sinful ways, because no matter what we might say, we are comfortable with them.

The good news that Jesus announced is that God does not forget us, that His kingdom is at hand and we can enter if we desire to do so.

God loves us, God forgives us, and God calls us to his side and offers to us a new beginning in Jesus, a new life in Christ.

God calls us to be like Jesus, to struggle with temptation, and to hold firmly onto His word, this so that we might experience the blessings of a good life, and so that our world will not suffer so much needless pain and suffering.

This Lent I call you to examine your life, to look at all that you do, how you treat your family, and how you act at work or at school and ask yourself if you are taking the easy way, or if there is something you can do to be a more loving and caring person.

I call you to examine how you live. Do you do your best to be aware of the environment? Do you really struggle with what you use and what you waste?

And I call you to examine how you treat yourself. Do anger and fear constantly sweep over you? Does your daily walk take you constantly to extremes? Do you love yourself as well as God loves you?

God, my friends, has something better in mind for us all than that which we now do and experience.

God created this world to be good, and he placed us in a magnificent garden and gave us company and asked us to take care of that garden and each other.

God made us to keep company with Him, and despite all that we do to reject Him, and all that we do to harm each other and ourselves,

God reaches out to us and calls to us to come to his side and to love and enjoy the world that he has made.

No matter what we have done - when we stand at the door and knock, God won't ask "who's there" he will instead open the door and welcome us in.

Trust God to help you struggle with temptation and with yourself, and ask God for His continual forgiveness and eternal blessings to be upon you and the world that His son Jesus Christ died for.

The promises that God have made, the promises we see in signs like the rainbow and the cross, are forever; they have not been and will not be broken.

Accept those promises for yourself. Struggle with sin, and thank God for all his mercies. Amen

I Kings 2:1-12; Mark 9:2-9

Let us Pray - O Lord, in the light of your presence we turn our attention to your teaching, seeking what you want to say to us. May the light of your gospel so illuminate us that we may receive a double portion of your Spirit and the assurance that we are indeed your beloved servants. For Christ's sake we ask it. Amen.

I was at a meeting the other day when the treasurer handed the secretary an envelop. A bit later in the meeting the chairperson asked the secretary for some information - but the secretary replied that she didn't have that information. At the point the treasurer rose and said "yes - you do - it is was on the envelop I gave you."

The secretary replied, "Oh, I didn't know what that was - so I threw it away "

Everyone laughed - including me - but I was struck at the time by just how normal the secretary's actions had been.

Often when we encounter something which we do not know or understand we throw it away; or at the very least - we ignore it - we put it on hold - we neglect it.

So it is with stories like those we heard today from the scriptures. Many of us hear about visions of chariots of fire, of water being parted to reveal a path across a river, and of a man being taken up into heaven - and mentally shrug our shoulders and dismiss the matter as an idle tale.

Others hear about how Jesus was transformed upon a mountaintop, so that he shone as bright as the sun, and about how he is visited by two men - long dead, and say to themselves - that's all very nice, but what does it have to do with me - and then they go on about their lives as if these things had never happened,as if they never can or will happen.

Most sermons I have had heard on today's gospel reading ignore the experience that the disciples witnessed Jesus undergo.

Very little is said in them about the overwhelming brightness of Jesus' appearance, very little is made of the fact that Peter, James, and John saw Moses and Elijah talking with Christ and heard a voice from heaven.

Most of these sermons have in fact quickly passed over the wonder of the experience and go on to stress how Christians are called to come down off the mountain and serve in the valley below.

I find that to be a great shame.

I find it to be a great shame as well how so many of us ignore, neglect, devalue, or scorn the prophet's ecstasy, the dreamer's vision, and the worshipper's conviction that he or she has heard God speak.

Most of us are convinced that our faith is about doing good things, about showing love and care for one another, and it is so - this is what our faith is about.

But our faith is also about the yearning to see God and experience his power, it is about being touched by the Spirit and being moved by the voice of the Lord whispering in our ears.

Our faith is so rich - our God so good - that it makes no sense at all to limit what is possible for us to the dry bones of what we should or should not do each day.

Our faith is about entertaining angels, every bit as much as it is about seeking to comfort the afflicted and to heal the sick. It is about seeing visions of a new heaven and a new earth, every bit as much as it is about seeking justice and resisting evil.

It is about being refreshed by God, as much as it is about refreshing others in God's name.

A little boy, around the turn of the century, lived far back in the New Territories. He had reached the age of 12 and had never, in all his life, seen a circus.

You can imagine his excitement when a poster went up at school that on the next Saturday a travelling circus was coming to Hong Kong. He ran home with the glad news, and then came the question - "Dad, Mom, can I go?"

The family was poor, but the father sensed how important this was to the boy, so he said, "If you do your chores ahead of time, I'll see to it that you have the money to go."

Come Saturday morning the chores were done and the boy stood ready in best clothes by the breakfast table. His father reached down into his overalls and pulled out some money - the most money the boy had ever had at one time - and gave it to him. After the usual cautions about being careful the boy was sent on his way.

The boys was so excited that his feet barely touched the ground all the way to the town. When he got there, he noticed people were lining the streets and he worked his way through the crowd until he could see what was going on. There in the distance approached the spectacle of a circus parade. It was the grandest thing that the boy had ever seen. There were exotic animals in cages and bands and midgets, acrobats, and all that goes to make up a great circus.

After everything had passed by where he was standing, a circus clown, with floppy shoes and baggy paints and brightly painted face, came by bringing up the rear. As the clown passed by where he was standing, the boy reached into his pocket and got out the precious he was given that morning. Handing the money to the clown, the boy then turned around and went home.

The mistake that the boy made - is the same mistake we can make in our spiritual lives - we can end up settling for less than the real thing, for a portion - instead of for the whole, and all because we either do not believe in what God can do, or because we do not look at or understand what we have been given.

I did not know what it was, so I threw it away.

I believe the most common problem faced by members of most churches is not the fact that they spend too much time seeking spiritual visions and revelations - thereby neglecting the important truths and duties of everyday life in Christ, rather it is the fact that they do not believe in and thus are not open to the special moments, the special touches, that only God can give.

Some of the faithful say that people have no energy for living the Christian life because they do not get fed by the church - I say - some people are out of energy because they fail to recognize the food that is before them - because they fail to take and eat what God seeks to give them.

When I lived in England there was a weekly prayer meeting held at our church. Of the hundred or so adults that attended church every week, only about 15 or so attended this meeting.

There they sought spiritual food for their daily journey in the Lord. There they found it.

I remember one time when a guest preacher was present at the meeting.

We prayed for one another with the laying on of hands, we prayed for healings - for people to have the power to overcome some grief or suffering in their lives - for others to discover what God wanted them to do about a particular situation.

Finally my turn came to be prayed for - and I asked that all might pray that God would fill me with his Spirit - that he might make my faith come even more alive.

When the hands came down on my head and shoulders and the people gathered around me began to pray - I felt a energy go through my body like electricity, and I shook in my chair as the words of prayer washed over me, and then, in a moment of sudden silence, one word came strongly from the guest - a word came strongly from God - "You shall be used to do great things in my service."

To this day those words have stayed with me and shaped my thoughts - making me wonder what the greatness is - making me wonder - is it the power and glory like that of great evangelist or theologian, - or is it the greatness that was revealed by Christ as he went about as the servant of all, stooping down even to wash his own disciple's feet?

It was a moment that fed me and still feeds me - a profoundly spiritual moment.

My friends - I can't explain out to you what a holy moment is; nor can I tell you just how special and sacred events come to pass, nor can I even promise you that you will have such a moment if you only do this or that, but I can tell, and I do now tell you, that these moments are real, and that they come to us most often when we put ourselves in the way of them.

As another preacher put it one time You can't have a mountain top experience if you don't climb the mountain.

Elisha followed his teacher Elijah around the country despite Elijah telling him not to when he had his experience; he actively sought a double portion of the spirit that filled Elijah and was patient to receive it.

Peter, James, and John were obeying Jesus when they witnessed his transfiguration, they had climbed the mountain with him as he went to pray.

The sacred experiences that are recounted in the bible, the experiences of the divine that are recorded there, are still needed today - and they still occur today.

Some catch sight of God in the beauty around them, some glimpse him during a close encounter with death, some meet him in a special way during a period of suffering, others while they are praying at special gatherings or at worship.

Don't throw away those strange and mysterious experiences that have happened in your lives. Don't let go of those things that you do not understand or cannot explain. Rather meditate on them, delight in them, and use them as a source of strength for your time of service in the valleys below.

Oh how lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of Hosts! My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the Living God. Amen

Deuteronomy 30:15-20 and Matthew 5:21-37

Bless thou, the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts that they be of profit to us and acceptable to thee, oh our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

One day Abraham invited a beggar to his tent for a meal.

When grace was being said, the man began to curse God, declaring that he could not bear to hear his name.

Seized with indignation, Abraham drove the blasphemer away.

When Abraham was at his prayers that night, God said to him, "This man has cursed and reviled me for fifty years, and yet I have given him food to eat every day. Could you not put up with him for a single meal?"

On this Sunday just two days before St. Valentine's Day I want to tell you simply this - love each other.

Love each other - not with the love that depends on chemistry, mood, and feelings - nor even with the love that depends on the behaviour of others, but love each other with the kind of love that Christ refers to in today's reading from the Sermon on the Mount.

You know the kind of love I mean - it is the love that goes beyond what seems right according to the letter of the law, and enters into the Spirit of what God wants for us, the love that enters into feeding others, into healing others, into showing grace to others, into giving peace to others, the love that values others, regardless of who they are or what they have or have not done.
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Someone once caught WC Fields reading the Bible.
"What are you doing?" asked the person.
"Looking for loopholes.", growled Fields.

With love - my friends - there is no loophole, no escape hatch, no clauses that say the deal can be revoked if this or that condition is not met.

Love is total - it is unconditional - or it is not love at all.

Think of the words of Jesus we heard read a few minutes ago. They were words addressed to a people used to compromising - to altering love's demands as they are found in the law of God so that those demands would be easier to fulfil.

You have heard it was said you shall not murder - but I say to you that if you are angry with your brother or sister - you will be liable to judgement."

"You have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery, but I tell you that everyone who looks with lust at another has already committed adultery..."

"You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbours, but I say to you, love your enemies. and pray for those who persecute you..."

There are no loopholes to found in Jesus' words.
No compromises.
No deals.
No escape hatches.

What Jesus does is crystallize the issues involved in loving God and our neighbours so that we can know - without doubt - just where we stand, and exactly what we need to aim for.

Think about where you stand for a minute - Think about how you love others and ask yourself - is my love up to the standards set by Christ?

If you haven't killed someone - who have you called a fool? What emotion did you pour out upon him or her when you became angry with them? If you haven't committed adultery - and felt good about this - consider what you have wanted to do.......Or consider who holds a grudge against you because of something you did - something for which you have not apologized? Or again - what promises and vows have you broken and then justified yourself in doing so? When was the last time you criticized Chinese people from China for buying up all the baby milk powder, or expressed your dislike for the person who took the promotion that belonged to you?

Perhaps these are poor examples - but most of us you know love only our friends and our family - and we are not sure about our family at times....

We greet those who greet us.
We do good to those who do good to us.
We lend to those who will pay back.
We welcome those who welcome us.

As for everyone else - well - if asked, most of us have a reason for what we do, and an excuse for what we do not do.

What we aim for as Christians - is to break through the limitations of our excuses, we aim to destroy all reasons that we might offer to treat one person as less than another and to enter into relationships with each other that are based upon our equality before God.

An old pilgrim was making his way to the Himalayan Mountains in the bitter cold of winter when it began to rain.

An inn keeper said to him, "How will you ever get there in this kind of weather my good man?"

The old man answered cheerfully, "My heart got there first, so it's easy for the rest of me to follow."

The gospel of Jesus Christ teaches that we can meet all the demands of love that are expressed in the law in one way - and only in one way - we can do so if we our hearts go there first.

Today I urge you - let your hearts go - love God and love each other as deeply as you can.

When you do - you will find, no matter how many mistakes you may make on the way, that goodness and blessedness will blossom along your path, and all that God has planned will come to pass. Amen.

Isaiah 40:21-31; Psalm 147:1-11; Mark 1:29-39

Let us Pray - Lord God, Creator and Maker of us all, 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.

The story is told about how Satan called a worldwide convention of demons.

In his opening address he said, "We can't keep Christians from going to church. We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth. We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their saviour. Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken."

So let them go to their churches; let them have their Pot Luck Suppers and fellowship events, but steal their time so they don't have time to develop a relationship with Jesus."

"This is what I want you to do", said the devil.; "Distract them from gaining hold of their Saviour and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"

"How shall we do this?" his demons shouted.

"Keep them busy in the nonessentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered. "Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow. Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles. Keep them from spending time with their children. As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work!"

"Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice trying to talk to them. Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive; to keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their home; and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays music constantly. This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ."

"Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers. Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day. Invade their driving moments with billboards. Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogues, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes."

"Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and TV so their husbands will believe that outward beauty is what's important and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives. Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night. Give them headaches too! Make them dissatisfied with one another so they begin to look elsewhere. That will fragment their families quickly!"

"Give them Santa Claus to distract them from teaching their children the real meaning of Christmas. Give them an Easter bunny so they won't talk about his resurrection and his power over sin and death."

"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive! Have them return from their recreation exhausted. Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God's creation. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts, and movies instead. And when they do go out on the mountains or to the shoreline - get them do it on their day of worship - and make them so active in what they do there that they don't have time to pray, time to think, time to remember their God or thank him for his goodness.

"Keep them busy, busy, busy!"

"And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, leave them with troubled consciences. Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus. It they must talk to God, make sure that they don't take time to listen to God. Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause."

"Do this and it will work!", Satan concluded.

"It will work!" His demons replied.

So they the convention ended. The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to have little time for their God or their families. Having no time to tell others about the power of Jesus to change lives and to meet their real needs.

I guess the question is, has the devil been successful at his scheme?

You be the judge!

Are you being drained? Are you failing to see what the point of it all is. Are you losing hope? Is joy harder and harder to find? Are you finding it harder and harder to remember the goals and the dreams that God has placed in your hearts? Are you feeling besieged from all sides and unable to get it together?

In today's Gospel reading we see Jesus on the Sabbath doing many things - he has already, as we can see from earlier paragraphs of the same chapter, attended worship at the Synagogue and there, during worship, cast an unclean spirit out of man and brought him healing. Then he went with his disciples to Peter and Andrew's home - and there he brought healing to Peter's mother-in-law. Later, in the evening. a huge crowd gathered at the door and Jesus healed many of the sick - many of the possessed. It was a full day. Very full. Very busy.

The next morning, very early in the morning - while it was still dark, we hear that Jesus got up, left the house and went to a solitary place, a quiet place, where he prayed. It must have been for quite a while, because we discover in the passage that Simon Peter and his companions go looking for him - and when they find him - they tell him that everyone is looking for him back in Capernaum - people with needs, people who want healing, people who want his touch, his word, his hope.

The passage concludes with Jesus telling his disciples - "Let us go somewhere else - to the nearby villages - so I can preach there also. That is why I have come." And so he does.

He travels through Galilee, preaching and healing and driving out demons - spreading by word and deed the good news of God's Kingdom - the news that God is near at hand, the news that God is coming to deliver his people, the news that God is forgiving, that news that God will raise up all who wait upon him, the news that God will give strength to those who turn to him; the news that God loves all people and wants everyone to draw near to him, everyone to repent and to believe in him, everyone to trust, to know, and to follow him so that he may shower them with the blessings that last forever, so that they may have peace in their hearts and live in peace with one another and with God..

And always - always, we find as we read the Gospel accounts - we see Jesus drawing aside from the crowds that gather to hear him and to be healed by him to go and to pray. Always we find Jesus leaving his disciples for a time and going to a quiet place by himself for a talk with God, for a time of waiting upon the Lord, for a time of developing his relationship - and maintaining his relationship with God - for a time of strengthening - a time of remembering - a time of being "re-attached" to the Father.

How about us? Do we remember why we are here in the first place? Do we recall the simplicity of what God wants of us? Do we recall the glory of what God has promised us? Do we recall how God has helped us in the past?

Do we remember where there is fuel for our tanks, food for our journey, supplies for our task, recovery for our soul, hope for hearts, and direction for our days?

Do we turn aside from the hustle and bustle - the fret and the worry - and allow God to inhabit us - to fill us - to restore us - to guide us so that we can do with those days what God wants us to do? So that we can be what God wants us to be? What God has made us to be?

The message of God for us today in the prophet Isaiah is precisely this.

It is a call to a people who are living in exile - in bondage - to take heart.

It is a call to them to remember who God is and how God has helped them in the past.

It is a call to them to come to God so that everything can be put into perspective.

It is a call to them to wait upon God, to listen to God - as well as to speak to God, so God can raise them up, so God can restore them to health, so God can unfold his plan for them, a plan in which their freedom is to be restored, their nation rebuilt, and their cup of suffering replaced with the cup of eternal joy.

In his address to the nation on the day of the Shuttle Disaster President George Bush quoted from this section of Isaiah as he sought to bring comfort to the nation.

As he spoke of the 7 men and woman who died in their quest to help bring people to get closer to the stars, he called everyone to remember the big picture - and how God cares for each one within it.

Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens. Who created all these? Remember that God brings out the starry host one by one, that He calls them each by name, that because of his great power and mighty strength not one of them is missing.

Not one of them is missing.....God knows each star by name. He knows us by name.

Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the Lord; my cause is disregarded by my God"?

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.

Remember what God has done - who God is - what God's purpose is.

He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Why did Jesus go the synagogue on the Sabbath Day? Week in and week out?

Why did he worship at the temple with God's people as well as keep the Law of God?

Why did he continually turn aside during his busy days of doing God's work, of preaching, and go to a quiet place and pray?

Why did he withdraw from his disciples and from the crowds to go up on the mountainsides - or into garden groves to wait upon God?

Might I suggest to you that he did this because that is what helped him keep on track? Might I suggest to you that he did this because that is what gave him strength? Might I suggest to you that he did this because without doing it - he could not have done all he did?

God has a purpose for us.
God will redeem us.
God will raise us up.

And when we hope in that. When we feed ourselves with God's word. When we allow God to speak to us - instead just us talking to him all the time. When we take time aside - when we take time to be holy - God moves in us to do what we cannot do on our own. God moves in us to give us the strength and the peace that lasts.

Recall with me the first verse and chorus of Psalm 91 again and think of what it says.

You who dwell in the shelter of our God, who abide in this shadow for life; say to the Lord, "my refuge, my Rock in whom I trust"

And I will raise you up on eagle's wings, bear you on the breath of dawn, make you to shine like the sun, and hold you in the palm of my hand.

Praise be to God who raises us up. May his Word - his Gospel - his promises - his direction be heard by you, be loved by you, be clung to by you, day by day. Amen

I Corinthians 1:18-31 and Matthew 5:1-12

Bless thou, the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts that they be of profit to us and acceptable to thee, oh our rock and our redeemer. Amen

Today I want to talk about where we meet God and where God meets us.

I think all of us are familiar with the idea that God is best met in special times, times in which we go to special places, most often by ourselves, and dwell in silence.

Most of us have felt specially blessed when we have been able to spend time away from the bustle and hustle of daily life and to actually go up on a mountain side and look around and see nothing for miles and miles but clouds passing by and hills and valleys receding into the distance.

The scriptures tell us that this is what Jesus did.

Others have the same feeling when they go deep into the woods where they can hear nothing but birds singing in the trees and the sound of their own breathing, still others contemplate by a river with the eddies of water swirling by, carrying leaves and bits of wood to a destination hundreds of miles from where they sit.

For some - it is the beach - an ocean beach where the waves roll in one after another, pushing and pulling the gravel and sand and making whispering rattling sounds punctuated by the noise of the waves crashing and breaking on the shore.

I like going out at late at night and staring up at the stars and the moon and the planets.

All of us have our places of refuge, our places where we go to meet God and to allow him to minister to us in the midst of the beauty, and the quiet, and the loneliness.

We have a great sense of peace in these places, we can think - or even better - we can let go of thinking, and just sense the wonder and beauty of the moment, and then, sometime later, we return to our normal world, feeling more refreshed and stronger than we were than we left it.

This kind of retreat is marvellous - it is one of the ways - one of the important ways, in which we meet God.

Others ways exist of course - ways which involve other people - ways which are not quite as quiet - but which bring us into God's presence none-the-less.

Anyone who has ever seriously prayed with a group of fellow believers about matters that are of deep concern to them or those that they are with - anyone who has sat in a chair and had his brothers and sisters in the faith lay their hands on his head and shoulders and intercede for him - anyone who has gone to church for a number of years and kept her ears and eyes and heart open during the hymns and sermons and readings - anyone who has ever heard the scriptures read and then interpreted by a close friend has - as is promised to those who do these things - met God.

The interesting thing about all these encounters with God is that we are often seeking them...

We do something special.
We expend effort.
We set aside time.
We go somewhere that is different or out of the ordinary.
We seek out privacy - or the company of certain people.
We - as the old hymn goes - take time to be holy.

And that time makes us holy. Whether we feel it or not. Whether we are immediately aware of it or not. Whether we have a fantastic emotional experience or simply come away feeling that we have done "the right thing", we have sought God and we have received from God. We have met God.

But - what about where God meets us?

If we search for God - and I believe we all do at one time or another. If we search for God in special times and places. Where does God search for us? Where does God meet us?

A lot of us you know - do not think we have met God unless we FEEL that we have met him.

We gauge the success of our search for God, our meeting God, by whether or not we feel certain things.

We judge whether or not we have met the Lord, by whether or not we gain a sense of peace, by whether or not we have an emotional high - an emotional rush, by whether or not we have the Spirit send those marvellous chills and tingles up and down our backs.

And by those criteria - most of the time - even in those times when we seek God out in the special places and in the special ways we know about - we fail to meet him.

Life is not, after all, full of special times, full of special moments. Life is full of other stuff, it is full of routines, of ordinary things: we work, we eat, we sleep, we play and relax, we suffer and feel pain, we sorrow and grieve, we are insulted and injured, we struggle and fight against trials and tribulations.

In these ordinary times we are as well in ordinary places, at home, at work, in hospital, visiting with a friend, driving in our cars, standing in elevators, or sitting in a lobby or a meeting room.

What about these ordinary times, and these ordinary places, these times when we are not taking time to be holy, and those places where we do not expect to meet God but are actually getting on - or trying to get on - with living our lives?

Well - those are the times and the places where God meets us...

There was a TV commercial that played a fair bit a few years ago that I really enjoyed.

A fellow is setting up a blind date with a young woman over the telephone. They agree to meet at a certain street corner at a certain time and then she asks him "How will I know you". He replies "I'll be driving a Volkswagon". The next scene is at the street corner. He is standing by this sleek looking car and she comes wandering along looking for him - and goes right by him because parked just around the corner from him is a classic BEETLE or BUG.

Do any of you remember that Ad?

I remember it because that is kind of like us when it comes to God - we expect to meet God in a certain way - and we often end up missing His presence in our lives BECAUSE HE HAS COME TO MEET US - but he has done so, he has come to meet us, in a slightly different way - in a slightly different form or place - than that which we expect.

Blessed are the poor in Spirit - for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn - for they shall be comforted.
Blessed are the meek - for they shall inherit the earth.
Blessed are the those who hunger and thirst for righteousness - for they shall be satisfied.
Blessed are the merciful - for they shall obtain mercy...
Blessed are the pure in heart...
Blessed are the peacemakers ...
Blessed are those who are persecuted falsely...

What these words mean is quite simply this:
Those who are living out their lives in faith; those who go about - seeking to do what is right; those who are able to feel their pain and express it; those who are trying to show mercy; those who are willing to accept insult and injury for the sake of doing what is right; those who seek to make peace; those who are walking humbly before God - are met by God.

God encounters them.
God inhabits them.
God strengthens them.
God rewards them.

They did not have reach out to God in some special manner, though that is what all of us are called to God, so that they might meet God. God comes to them, and meets them - where they are.

Some years back I knew a woman who was dying of cancer. She had struggled with the disease for quite some time. She went through radiation and chemotherapy and all the ills associated with both the disease and its treatment.

I asked her about how she felt about the whole ordeal and where it was surely leading her. She said that it was very difficult at times, she knew she was dying, but even so she felt an astonishing amount of peace and joy. When I asked her if she was scared of what was coming she replied "Why should I be afraid? I believe in God. I know where I came from and where I am going."

She was blessed and she felt it - and others knew it - even when they could not accept what she was suffering.... Blessed are the pure in heart.

I met a woman not so long ago who was the victim of child abuse. She had no real anger left, she understood what had happened - she did not like it - but she prayed for her father that he might prosper, that he might learn, that he might love better. At the time I met her she was helping her brother work on his relationship with her father - and she was helping.

She was a peace maker.- and she was blessed. God was with her. God met her in what she suffered and gave her a vision of himself..

I meet a lot of people who have lost someone - a lot of people who mourn.

The ones who do the worst - are the brave ones - the ones who refuse to let it get them down, the ones who "carry on" with a stiff upper lip - never seeking help, never seeking to understand what is really going on in their hearts..

The ones who do best - are the ones who feel their loss and express it, the ones who cry and get angry, the ones who really sense their loss and can talk about it. Always they are comforted, always - after the days in the tomb - they find new hope and new life

Blessed are they that mourn.

Similar things can be said about all the beatitudes. Similar stories can be told.

God meets us in ways we do not expect, at least those of us who think in the way of the world, rather in the way of God.

He meets us in our weakness, in our grief, in our hunger for salvation, in our attempt to do what is right, in our pain and suffering when we are persecuted.

He meets us in the cross that we share with Jesus.

Paul writes: about this in his letter to the Corinthians - he reminds us that God has chosen the way of foolishness - because in wisdom the world does not acknowledge God that he has chosen the way of weakness, because in strength the world does not accept God.

The proof that God meets us ultimately is found in us -

That proof is not found in our great visions and great moments of religious ecstasy, though these are wonderful things. It is found

in our growth in understanding,
in our increase in love,
in our acceptance and faith in the midst of continual tribulation,
in our doing of justice,
in our love of kindness,
in our humble walking,

Peace I give you, said Jesus - not as the world gives it do I give to it you.

We can go to meet God in many special ways and places and that is good - but know and celebrate this - God comes to meet us - in all ways and in all places. And all he asks us of us as he comes is that we trust and believe in his name. Praise be to him, now and forevermore. AMEN

II Corinthians 5:16-21, Psalm 62, Mark 1:14-20

Let us Pray - Creator and maker of us all - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts - grow thou in us and show us your ways and inspire us to live by your truth. Amen

The very first words of Jesus when he met Simon Peter and his brother Andrew on the shores of the Sea of Galilee were "Follow me, and I will make you a fisher of men."

Most of you knew that before - and if you didn't - you heard them read today from the first chapter of the Gospel According to Mark.

But how many of you know what the last words of Jesus to Simon Peter were? Words also spoken down by the waters of the sea of Galilee - just before Jesus was taken up into heaven?

Yes - this is a bible test... something for you to think about - but to have mercy - I will give you the answer.

His very last words to Peter, words spoken just before he was taken up into heaven, words spoken after Peter and the others had been his daily companions for three years, were virtually the same as the first: "Feed my sheep, Follow me."

Our calling - the calling of every single person here - and the call that is extended to all of God's children is the same as that of Peter.

Follow me and I will make you fishers of men.
Follow me and feed my sheep.

We have a twofold calling - you and I.

We are called to be disciples - to be ones who walk with Jesus and who learn from him and we are called to be apostles - to be ones who go forth, and in the particular way that God gifts us for, act as Christ's ambassadors in the world

- to be ones who allow Jesus to speak through us.
- to be ones who minister God's reconciling love to the world,
- to be one's who bring God's word of forgiveness and of hope, God's life giving word to all who need it.

A twofold calling.

The first aspect of our calling is to enter into a relationship with Jesus, that is one of complete and utter trust. To come to him as he asks us to come - and to give to him our weariness, our burdens, our anxieties - and to receive from him those things he wants to give us - peace, hope, joy, truth, love, strength, wisdom....To come to him - and to follow him - where-ever he leads - even if it be to a cross. To come to him and to learn from him. To come to him and to live in him - and have him live in us. To come to him and to be made new by him and in him.

This is not easy.

It is not easy

- not because Christ is unable to bear our burdens and to give us rest,
- nor because Jesus does not have the power to make us new and turn us into the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

It is not easy because it demands of us more than most people are willing to give.

It demands discipline, single-mindedness, a determination to indeed make Christ the centre of our lives.

It demands of us the resolve to do those things that our Lord asks us to do, to go where-ever our Lord leads us - even if that involves leaving behind things precious and dear to us - even if that involves doing things we think we can't do - or wish that we would not have to do.

In certain church circles there is a story told about Dr. George Darby who
served as a missionary Doctor for over 45 years.

"I hope that no one will ever say to me that I stuck it out here", Darby said at a retirement party way back in 1959. "It was a privilege, and I thank you."

When Doctor Darby graduated from Medical School in 1914 his professors recognized in him a great deal of surgical skill and tried to persuade him to take up a lucrative practice in the city, but he was determined to minister in Christ's name and out of his love for a people who needed someone to care.

And he did - in tiny fishing and logging camps and Indian villages, and under conditions that were frequently harsh and almost always uncomfortable.

Compare that to the choices some people make.

Compare it to those folk who can't even spend a hour or so a week at worship or three or four hours a week helping children or youth learn about or experience the love of God because these activities take place at the same time as mahjong games or might interfere with a favourite TV show, or some money making activities.

The benefits, my friends, of the Christian life, can only come if we actually live the Christian life, if we actually follow Christ where he went and learn and do what Christ taught and did.

Christ prayed every day - indeed he prayed continually. Christ went to the synagogue to worship and to learn every week. And Christ allowed his meals to be interrupted and his time of relaxation to be interfered with by the hungry, the crippled, and the needy.

Does this few, relatively little things I have lifted up, describe our lives? In whole? Or even in part.

Discipleship involves discipline.

No one, as Paul puts it in another place in his letter to the Corinthians can win the prize if he doesn't run the race. No one can receive the crown of victory - if he doesn't persevere to the end of the course.

Or as Jesus said - "No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other."

Jesus spoke those words about choosing between God and Money. But they apply to every area of our lives. We either serve God - we either follow Christ - or we follow after the desires of our own hearts.

Our call to be disciples and our life as disciples is perhaps best described as a choice - a choice between living like everybody else, or living in the way Christ shows how to live: living in the way of the cross - knowing that the this will lead us as well to the resurrection.

Peter and Andrew, James and John and all the rest were told over and over again by Jesus that they must chose and that all who would follow him must choose: that they must chose between seeking to save their lives - between pursuing their own desires and wants - and the cross, his cross.

We sang about that choice a few minutes ago:

Jesus calls us from the worship of the vain world's golden store from each idol that would keep us, "saying Christian, love me more". In our joys and in our sorrows, days of toil and hours of ease, still he calls, in cares and pleasures, "Christian love me more than these"

Our Apostleship flows forth from our discipleship.

Those who are called to follow are also sent forth, they are given a ministry - what Paul calls the ministry of reconciliation, and told variously to feed Christ's sheep, to fish for men, to be Christ's Ambassadors, to allow God to make his appeal to all humankind through us.

This is not a hard thing - though it may involve hardships. This is not a difficult thing - though it may involve difficulties.

It - as I said - flows forth from our discipleship; it flows forth from the fact that as we follow Jesus we are made new in him, - by his power we are equipped and made ready to do all that we are called to do, - we are made to be, as Paul puts it in our epistle reading today, "the righteousness of God" - we are made to be people who embody the saving love of God - and who share it.

When we join God's team - when we follow Christ day by day, God equips us, God empowers us, God uses us, God supports us, God helps us.

We are all called to the ministry of reconciliation. And we are all equipped to discharge that ministry.

We are made, by the power of Christ within us, to be the salt of the earth. We are made, by our daily choosing to follow Christ, the light of the world.

All of us are called - each in our own way - to follow and to serve. All of us are called - each in our own way - to be made new in Christ - and to allow Christ to speak through us, to allow God to act within us and to reach out and touch others using our hands - our hearts - our words.

When we follow Christ, when we learn from him and obey him, when we allow him to come in and live in us and then go out and carry him to the world, great things happen - no matter who we think we are - or who others might think us to be.

Rick Warren, in the book "The Purpose Driven Church" writes:

Small ministries often make the greatest difference. The most important light in my home is not the large chandelier in our dining room, but the little nightlight that keeps me from stubbing my toe when I get up to use the bathroom at night. It's small, but it's more useful to me than the show-off light."

In the dark night of the soul that our friends, our neighbours, our co-workers, might be experiencing, the light we have because we are disciples of Christ - because we are followers in his way - might be the most important thing in their lives.

We are called to let it shine.

Our Christian life revolves around two poles

- discipleship - following Christ
- and apostleship - carrying Christ into the world.

May you indeed be fully resolved to follow him and live up to your calling as fishers of men, as ones who feed his sheep.

May His Name be praised day by day. Amen.