You guys will know I’m a footy fan, AFL footy in particular, and obviously there was an important game last weekend and the Lions achieved an incredible ‘three-peat,’ winning 3 grand finals in a row. I have not known a team other than the Brisbane Lions to win a grand final since I’ve been here with you, not a bad stat!

But of course on the other side of that incredible achievement there’s always a losing team, while one team enjoys euphoric celebration the losing team is of course experiencing more the opposite, wondering what could have been and even shedding a tear or two – a rare time you see grown men shedding tears, in the aftermath of a grand final! 

The Fremantle Dockers were that team last weekend of course – we were staying with family for my Dad’s 60^th at a caravan park in Adelaide and the crowd was largely sympathetic to poor old Freo, it was a bit flat after the game as you can imagine! I saw on TV as well some contrasting images, one of jubilant celebration at Felons Brewery in Brisbane city there and one of the main street of Fremantle, town painted purple but hundreds of people just standing still, not sure what to do with themselves – a hard watch!

So in the midst of those contrasting emotions, what do we make of all that?

We see both jubilant celebration and stunned silence, what do we make of that as Christian people looking out at the world around us, observing what goes on, seeing how supporting a footy team can mean so much to so many people. Maybe you noticed some of that, maybe it hasn’t even ‘come across your desk’ so to speak. A really interesting snapshot of the human experience, all tied to a game of footy! 

Our experience, as Christian people, is tied to something else. 

Our identity is tied to something else isn’t it, even if we happen to be footy fans as well. 

Our experience, our identity is tied to Jesus, to faith in him. 

This is why I find it so interesting to compare footy and faith > for some people it looks like their faith is in their footy team, there’s actually almost a spiritual element going on there, people are that invested in it! And with that comes the riding of highs and lows, the highs if you’re a Lions supporter and the lows if you’re on the Freo end of the spectrum.

So there’s some comparison, some imagery to get us thinking this morning > now we turn to see what Paul says about faith, what he says about ‘pressing on towards the goal to win the prize,’ what he says about how faith really works.

What is Paul saying to us this morning as we hear these words from Philippians? 

He talks about ‘having confidence in the flesh,’ as in having confidence in ourselves and our own goodness, effort, status or achievement. 

And he says if there’s anyone who can have confidence in the flesh, it’s him! He lists off some of his reasons based on the law, the customs of his people in his time. 

But then it turns, there’s a major shift: clearly Paul is NOT saying that we should have confidence in the flesh, but actually it’s quite the opposite. 

‘Whatever were gains to me’ he says, ‘I now consider loss for the sake of Christ.’ That right there is how faith works. We can unpack that bit more, but that is how it works. 

Paul is teaching us it’s NOT about faith in what we have or what we do, but faith in what GOD HAS and what GOD DOES.

And then he goes further, taking those ‘gains’ he mentioned earlier and calling them ‘garbage.’ That’s a pretty big leap isn’t it?! Is that like taking the premiership cup the Lions have just won and throwing it in the bin?? Not quite, it’s all well and good to celebrate hard-earned achievements in life, we should all do that it is a good thing to do! 

But what Paul is saying is relating to who we are before God > we know we can’t earn anything before him, we can only have faith in him, faith in what HE HAS and what HE DOES. 

So it’s not that ‘winners go to heaven and losers go to hell,’ that would be a horrible, judgmental framework to live by > how God sees us and how he values us are NOT tied to our worldly success, they’re tied to HIS ETERNAL VICTORY as we know, what he has already earned and freely given for us. That’s what Paul means by ‘righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.’ 

NOT the basis of my achievement, the basis of FAITH in what God has already done for me. That’s how faith really works. 

Then comes this incredible line from Paul > ‘I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.’ Amazing line there. 

What does that mean? How could we unpack this, what image could we use to help us understand this better > 

We can use the image of the vine, the way God works through us. 

The way he keeps us connected to him, the way we are connected to each other. 

The way we are continually renewed and restored through hearing and learning God’s word, through receiving his good gifts together in community. 

We’re NOT simply pressing on towards a goal, some target that we’ve set for ourselves that we think is important. It is very useful to know what’s important to us, and to set goals to work towards absolutely – but as we know there’s more to this life God’s given us than achieving or seeking to achieve goals. 

We are part of the vine, which means we are connected. 

We are part of God’s church, of God’s good work in the world – and there is work to be done isn’t there! We need to be renewed in our faith, we are called to share our faith with those who haven’t heard it or who aren’t already here with us on a Sunday morning. 

This is a vine that GROWS, it MOVES, it is NOT stagnant. 

Here my mind goes to being back in South Australia last week, where there are many literal vines growing and producing fruit. The significant wine industry there, a significant export and livelihood for many people. 

But what if a vine stops growing, it stops producing fruit? Unfortunately there are people tearing up their vines down there at the moment, even considering growing different fruit altogether – not so much because of the vines themselves but more because of other financial factors impacting the region and the industry.

What if the product no longer fits the market, what if it seems people are no longer interested in what the vine has to offer? Challenging questions there, many responses to questions like that out there and suggested methods to deal with them, to provide solutions too. 

Back to the vine that we’re part of > the product of this vine is what? 

We can say the product of the church is meant to be the fruits of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit at work in the church and in the world. Those are products that ALWAYS fit the market, whether the market seems interested in them or not! 

But the argument could be made that it’s hard to see these fruits, people ‘out there’ don’t know what’s going on in here. They don’t know what’s good about it, they don’t know why it matters, they have only seen a limited perspective of what being part of the vine is all about, and sadly people might not see a place for them within it, as part of that vine. I wonder if you know people who might identity with any of that, difficult things there. 

So if that’s the case, then that means a few things for us: 

If people ‘don’t know what’s good about church,’ what should we do?

Should we try to convince them that it is good, that they should be here, telling them what’s good about it until they finally get it?

Or… Could we make sure first and foremost that WE KNOW WHAT’S GOOD ABOUT IT. That WE KNOW WHY IT MATTERS.

If anyone else is going to know what’s good about church, the people already in the church have to know what’s good about it themselves. And part of ‘knowing what’s good’ about something is also having a view to knowing what’s not so good, even what could be seen as worse than not so good about it too. Being aware, being grounded in reality important parts of that of course.

What else does it mean, if people don’t even know about the fruits of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, the incredible life-changing work of Jesus that means you and me can be called children of a loving, forgiving, generous, all-powerful God through all the joys and challenges life throws at us?

It means we have a responsibility, a calling, a vocation even to make sure WE DO KNOW. 

That we know what the fruits of the Spirit are, how God works in us and in the world. We need to be aware of our own gifts, the gifts of the Spirit God has given to us, the people and opportunities he has put around us and called us to step into holding firm to our faith.

If we’re going to ‘press on toward the goal to win the prize’ as Paul says, we have to know first the part about ‘that which Christ Jesus took hold of me.’ 

He has done that first, he has taken hold of us, he has called us and made us his children by Jesus’ death and resurrection for us, that part has been done. 

We receive that, we continue to receive and live in that good news, we share it with others. That’s the ‘pressing on’ part that we do. We receive and we respond, empowered and equipped by the Holy Spirit. Supported within a community of faith, here and across the networks we know and have been part of and stepping out in faith towards new people, people that were here before, people that have not been here yet. It’s in our DNA to do this work, for the vine we’re apart of to be MOVING and GROWING, to know and to own our own experience, to know intimately what our identity is tied to, what our faith is anchored in > the good news of Jesus Christ, the work of the Holy Spirit who gives us strength and carries us through. 

Lord we thank you for your good gifts, for the ultimate prize of being your child that you have already won for us and for those you put around us. Help us if we feel we don’t know enough, if we feel hurt or pain around our experiences and relationships. Remind us that faith depends not on us but on you, and you are right there with us. What you have done for us is what you have for us to live in, to share in and to grow in together. All these things we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

//

Think of a time when someone you know was generous > you might have been on the receiving end, maybe it was someone else, supporting a good cause, giving to someone in need.

If someone is generous to you, how does it feel? It feels pretty good doesn’t it! 

When someone gives you something you need, maybe they give you something you didn’t need but it was very nice to receive anyway. 

When gifts are given for the sake of giving the gift, not to earn favour or complete a task or doing it because you’re obligated to or you feel you have to. Cheerful giving we might call that, as we know from 2 Corinthians 9:7 – ‘give… not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.’

We could say that’s true generosity, when a gift is given without thought or intention of getting anything back in return. 

This is the sort of generosity we know a bit about as Christan people, as followers of Jesus. 

We’ve heard about this generosity, we’ve received the generosity God offers his people > the forgiveness of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit working in and through us, the pretty generous gift of his son given to us to redeem us and make us God’s own children. Few important things there, ways God has been generous to us.

And we can make this even more specific to our own lives > the generous gifts God has given us through the people we love and who love us, all the things we have, the relatively comfortable lives we get to live in comparison with the majority of the world. Plenty of good gifts there, plenty to be thankful for.

And what about us? What about the generosity we show?

Are we cheerful givers, do we give of what we have to serve others, to help people in need?

And what do we give of? Our finances, our stuff, our time, our energy, our thoughts and prayers? ‘All of the above’ are part of our walk as Christian people, people called to be generous to others as our God has first been generous to us.

That’s what we’re thinking about this morning as we step into this parable from Jesus, this parable of the workers in the vineyard. 

The generosity of our God, a God who offers to all what isn’t deserved, out of his own generous love.

Let’s have a look at what goes on here in this passage > The closer we look the more indicators there are here of the type of God we have!

Here are some indicators in Jesus’ words:

Verse 1 – ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out… to hire workers for his vineyard.’

This already tells us something about how God works!

We’re talking about a God – who is the king of the kingdom of heaven by the way – who like this landowner in the story goes out to find workers, he goes out to find his people. 

Notice it’s not ‘the landowner calls people in to come and see him,’ it’s ‘the landowner goes to find them.’ 

I don’t think this is incidental, this is intentional > the way Jesus says things matters. Not only what he says but how he says it – that’s why we have to pay close attention not only to what he says in a particular verse or passage, but what he says across his earthly ministry and the ways he is present with us here and now through the Holy Spirit. It’s all connected, these are not isolated incidents! This is one big connected story, personified for us by and in Jesus. Need to remember that.

So we can understand that our God is a God who comes to meet us, where we are. 

A generous characteristic for God to have there isn’t it!

Not a God who just says ‘come over here and do what I say because I want you to obey me,’ a God who says ‘I’m coming over to you because I care about you.’

That was verse 1, what else goes on here?

The landowner goes out 4 more times through the same day, to find more workers > another indication of the kind of God we have!

A God who doesn’t just go to his people once and that’s it, he keeps on going. 

Our God is persistently generous, he keeps showing up, he keeps going out > this is starting to sound a lot like a God who wants a relationship with his people, he keeps going to meet them because he cares for them. That’s what happens in a good relationship isn’t it, those ones with people we love and who love us, those important relationships in our lives that are generous gifts from God. 

And then we come to the issue of the landowners’ payment to his workers at the end of the day > pay that is accused of being unfair to the ones who had been working all day. 

And the landowner has a brilliant response to that complaint: ‘Are you envious because I am generous?’ he says in verse 15. 

That would have stopped them in their tracks, they wouldn’t want to admit to being envious – and the landowner is reminding them they should be thankful.

And the added layer to that thankfulness has to do with us too > 

Here’s a question for us:

If a person knows Jesus their whole life, is baptised as a baby and goes to church their whole life, does that make them deserving of more love from God than someone who just walked in for the first time today?

What’s the answer? 

Absolutely not, and this parable tells us exactly that >

This parable tells us that God has the same love for all of his people, whether they showed up first thing or are just walking in the door. 

God’s love doesn’t change, it is not measured out in different amounts to different people, it can’t be earned or achieved by human effort. 

God’s love is all-encompassing, sin-removing, life-transforming. We can do nothing to ‘increase our portion’ in God’s eyes, because we already have it all! We can’t get any more of something we already have to fullest extent.

Here’s line from the psalms that shows us this, Psalm 23 talks about a ‘cup that overflows.’

Not a half-full or half-empty cup, not a full cup to some and leftovers for others, we all get an overflowing cup – you can’t measure that!

Two more things to touch on in this parable, there is so much in this!

We can also see here how what we receive is not based on what we’ve earned, it’s based on who God is and how generous he is. 

The workers in this story are not paid by how many hours they’ve worked, they’re paid by what they agreed to work for when they were first hired. Smart management there isn’t it, the contract is signed and the workers can’t deny that they do get paid what was agreed.

The purpose of this is to show how God is a generous God > the landowner gives as much of his own money as he chooses to whoever he chooses to give it to, whether they worked all day or just the last hour. Just like that God gives of his own love to those he calls his own children, not something they earn by good works but something that is given to them freely because God says so. Powerful image isn’t it. 

And finally we can see the posture we should be taking up in our own lives as followers of Jesus > not being envious of others or complaining about them, but rejoicing when others are welcomed into the fold, when more people come to know the love of Jesus.

Seriously that should be exciting us, more people coming to know Jesus – at whatever stage they’ve showed up along the journey – we should be rejoicing about that, jumping for joy at the opportunity to play the role in peoples’ lives that God has given us. If that doesn’t excite you then I’m not sure what will! 

And we all have the opportunity – we know there is no shortage of people out there yet to know the love of Jesus – we need to get serious about sharing that love, living it out, remembering our God is generous, remembering that he calls us to receive his generosity and to share it with others.

As Jesus says in the final line of this passage today, we need to be aware of how God’s love works.

‘The last will be first, and the first will be last,’ Jesus says.

This is not about cutting down those who have worked hard or been around longer and giving out freebies to people who haven’t earned it or anything like that – those would be some pretty cynical, surface level perceptions of what Jesus is on about here.

This is about reframing how we think about God’s love, to align what we’re doing with what God’s already doing. Receiving his direction and his guidance, not coming up with our own. We’re all on that receiving end together > and God might just want to use you to reach someone else!

God’s generous love leads us to seek to serve others, not only ourselves and what we want or need – if we are lifelong Christians we already know all about God’s love! 

I’m preaching to the converted here, but how are we reaching those who don’t know Jesus yet?

That’s a really important question for us and our church, whatever age we are or life stage we’re in. 

The people who haven’t been around as long or are not here yet are the ones who really need to hear this aren’t they, and they might be in need of a few of us thinking about them, praying for them, not expecting them to come to us but going to meet them where they are. 

We’re like little landowners, called to go out and find new workers! We’re ambassadors of Christ, called to go to people and share the good news with them.

Let’s pray, asking our generous God for his help to know him more ourselves, so we can share the same love he has for us with others as he calls us to do.

Lord you are a generous God, a God who givse your love to us who can do nothing to earn it. Help us when we take the easy road of being happy or content with ourselves, and instead make your call on our hearts known to us that we are here to receive your love and share it with others. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

//

[Read Psalm 103]

A question for us coming out of this psalm today (103:4): 

What are YOU ‘crowned’ with? What is YOUR LIFE ‘crowned’ with?

Before we get to that what does it mean to be ‘crowned’ with something?

Because we’re in the Psalms today we’re going to do some word studies > as we know sometimes the words we use today have different meanings or intentions to the original language and wording of scripture, so we need to uncover some of that as we let the words of this psalm wash over us this morning.

Focusing in on the second part of verse 4, we’ve got some important words that come up:

Being ‘crowned’ is one.

‘Love’ is another one. 

And ‘compassion’ is the third one. 

Put it all together > being ‘crowned with love and compassion.’

What does that mean for us, how are we understanding what that actually means?

Word number one, CROWNED.

To be crowned here means to ‘encircle,’ to ‘surround.’

Examples of being crowned? When a king or a queen is crowned what does that mean? A crown can symbolize authority, honour, victory, a divine right to rule even. We don’t usually have a king or a queen without some notion of divine right going on – a king or a queen usually has to be blessed by the religious authorities of the land they are set to rule over. And the crown stays in the family doesn’t it, it is passed down the generations, a birthright is the most basic qualification for being crowned. 

Has anyone ever been to see the crown jewels in the Tower of London? I’ve been there, I’ve seen these historic elements, special symbols of authority and influence not only within the United Kingdom, but across the commonwealth of nations that we’re still part of today.

So we might think of being ‘crowned’ as only for certain people, only for royalty, for the royal family. Not for everyone else, because they wear that crown on behalf of the people, those are some of the ideas behind it anyway.

Next word, LOVE.

The word used here means loving kindness, mercy, steadfast love, loyalty, faithfulness, goodness. Can mean all of those things! ‘Kindness’ is the most common translation throughout the OT, ‘loving kindness’ is the most common expression of this.

We know what love is, what kindness is. Also mercy, steadfast love, loyalty, faithfulness. Good things, all things God is about and things he helps us with.

Third word is COMPASSION.

Also translated as ‘tender mercy’

There’s also a connection to a parental instinct in this word, the affection a parent gives to their own child. There is life-giving protection and nurture going on here, we can understand compassion from God as life-giving protection and nurture.

Tender, intimate, personalized, knowing and loving. Also safety and security in our most vulnerable points. 

God goes deeper than the surface doesn’t he! 

He didn’t just make us on the outside, what everyone else sees > he made us on the inside too, the parts of no one else sees, even the part of us we don’t see ourselves. 

So now we’ve got a fuller understanding of this verse > we could do this for each and every verse of this psalm, but we would be here all day so we won’t do that! Always an interesting one to explore.

Here’s our fuller understanding of this part of this verse:

Surrounded by God’s loving kindness and tender mercy. 

To be CROWNED with LOVE and COMPASSION is to be surrounded by God’s loving kindness and tender mercy. 

We have a God who would crown us, surround us > not surrounding us with fear or anxiety or stress but with love, loving kindness, compassion, tender mercy. 

That’s our God right there, that’s what he does > and that’s only half of this one verse in Psalm 103, half of one of this psalm’s 22 verses in total, we get to know who our God and what he does for us in the space of only a few words. Powerful stuff there.

So back to our original question > we know what we’re CROWNED with, what our lives are CROWNED with > love and compassion, loving kindness and tender mercy. Good things.

But what was Jesus crowned with?

Was he crowned with the crown jewels, rolled out and bestowed upon him so he could take up his rightful place as King Jesus, as our ruler, as our Lord and Saviour? Was this a wonderful occasion of celebration?

We know the answer to that one.

Nope. Jesus wasn’t crowned with a crown made of gold and precious jewels.

Jesus was crowned with thorns.

The worst idea of a crown you could have, yet given to the best idea, the best personification of humanity who’s ever lived, the Son of God himself. 

The title given to him was a joke, the ‘King of the Jews’ who was made to suffer a criminal’s death.

This wasn’t a celebration, this was a nightmare, a horror show. 

He was welcomed into the city as we know, but not to sit on the throne and rule in peace and prosperity like Israel’s kings of old.

He was welcomed in to be put to death, to suffer and die, as we know in our place. Dying the death we deserved. 

He wasn’t surrounded with love and compassion, with loving kindness and tender mercy was he. Quite the opposite.

So that’s what happened for Jesus, compared with what we get as we hear and consider the words of this psalm today. 

Why did Jesus do that, why did he go through that, why did the perfect human being and the Son of God cop the worst of human treatment?

We know the answer to this too: 

He did all that, so we didn’t have to. 

He was crowned with thorns, so we could be crowned with love and compassion, with loving kindness, with tender mercy. 

His crowning was our crowning, but we receive the direct opposite of what Jesus did, the direct opposite of what we deserve. 

Jesus did act on behalf of his people, like a king does, but not gaining anything for himself > actually giving it all up. 

And Jesus changed the game here > by his death and sacrifice for us, we are made children of God. He changed the game, he even changes our birthrights doesn’t he as we are welcomed into his family by water and the Spirit.

We’re talking about a king who would make the people his own family, not by making them do what he says but by giving himself to them, giving himself for them.

Now everyone can be crowned, but not with thorns > because Jesus has already taken care of that.

Not with thorns but with > love and compassion, loving kindness and tender mercy. And all this coming a little verse in the psalms, written many years before any of this took place. God’s time and God’s work right there. 

So where to from here, what does this mean in our daily lives, that we are crowned, we are surrounded by God’s love and compassion, by his loving kindness and tender mercy, we get the love of our heavenly Father simply because we are his children. 

It goes with us. We don’t hear this stuff on Sunday then forget it by Monday. We load up on it here and now so we can take it out there as we go today. 

LOVE and COMPASSION is not optional for us! 

It has been given to us, it has been won for us on the cross and the Holy Spirit brings it to life in and through us. Loving others, having compassion on others is not optional > if we’ve got this love and compassion given to us, that’s what we have to give others! It will be happening, God will do that good work in and through us. 

So we respond to others in love and in compassion. We are ‘crowned’ with these things that go before us, they surround us, encircle us, protect and empower us. And even if we don’t feel that love or that compassion for other people, God can make it happen anyway > he’s bigger than our feelings or our circumstances. 

So our heads are crowned, we could say our lives are marked, by love and compassion. 

The love and compassion Jesus has given and won for us, the love and compassion we live by here in church, out there in the world, in our conversations with others on and in our own thoughts > we remember God didn’t just make us on the outside, what everyone else sees > he made us on the inside too, the parts of no one else sees, even the part of us we don’t see ourselves. 

He sees us, he knows us, he is with us. His love and compassion, his loving kindness and tender mercy are with and for his people. 

So in the words of Psalm 103, verse 1: 

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

Lord we thank you for your love and compassion, your loving kindness and tender mercy that surrounds us, that is with us and for us. Help us to share what we’ve been given with others, that our heads would be crowned, our lives would be marked by your marks of love and compassion that doesn’t run out. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

//

Today we’ve got the concept of ‘our time & GOD’S TIME’ >

Couple of important notes about these two things, about ‘our time & GOD’S TIME’ > We don’t want to set up these two things as opposites, as if it’s either our time or God’s time, or our time versusGod’s time > they both coexist, they both occur together, that’s an important starting point for us as we think about this

We work in our time, but God works in both our time and HIS time. He has the bigger picture, the better understanding, all the angles that we cannot get ourselves.

We can also sub-in the word ‘perspective’ here, so it can be our perspective & GOD’S perspective where he sees things differently and more fully than we do. So to lead us into this space where we’re considering our time & GOD’S TIME, we’ve got our gospel reading today to take us there:

What’s going on here?

(Read Matthew 18:15-20)

Thinking about the process for conflict management or resolution that Jesus describes there – is that something you’ve ever used yourself? 

Have you ever used that exact method of dealing with an issue, a problem or a conflict? Please come and chat to me after if you have, I would love to know how it went!

We’re probably more likely to use different methods to the one Jesus describes here, and the most likely reason for that is because this is hard. This is not easy, this is a really hard method to follow isn’t it.

There are many easier options than dealing with an issue head-on in this way, where difficult conversations are had, witnesses are involved and even the church serves here in working towards a resolution. 

We might even say that as church we’re not very good at this method – how can we be good at it if we don’t use it! We would need to practice this method if we were going to be good at using it, maybe something there we can reflect on and ask for God’s help with.

Conflict management or resolution is a key part of this passage of course, dealing with sin, but there’s also a few other things that are really important for us to notice in what Jesus says here:

If we were going to summarise this passage we could say this:

Acknowledging that there are issues/concerns/problems is the first step, acknowledging what’s happened and that there might be a need for some sin management, some conflict management and/or resolution, reconciliation we might say too. 

Very helpful to have trustworthy witnesses and the role of the church in support of managing the issue and working towards finding a resolution.

And then we get some other bits from Jesus, less about conflict management and more about heaven and earth and his presence with us:

He brings in heaven and earth to the conversation here, there’s a bit of a hint at differences or distinctions between ‘our time & GOD’S TIME’

And finally this passage signs off with some really beautiful, comforting words doesn’t it: ‘For where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them.’

Jesus brings in some heavy content early for us today, but finishes with the ultimate comfort of his presence with us – thank you Jesus for reminding us about that part! 

How good to know Jesus is right there with us as we deal with issues, problems or concerns that come up in life between us and other people, whatever they may be.

Even more to place our worries, our concerns, challenges and struggles we might be facing at the moment, into his hands. Not holding or clinging onto them in our own hands, but releasing them into his hands where he can take care of them, he can give us his good gifts, we are not left alone to figure it out by ourselves.

So what are some ways that we can get caught up in what’s happening in ‘our time,’ as in our time on this earth, what’s happening for us and in our own lives?

There are a few ways we can go here > we can be focused on the past, we can be focused on the present, we can be focused on the future. I wonder which one you would say you lean towards! Past, present or future…

I came across some really interesting psychology recently, a thing called ‘time perspectives.’ This is a concept designed to help us better understand the ways we see ‘our time,’ the things we focus on, the things we are drawn to – and it can be very different for different people.

I want to share with you the five types of time perspectives we can operate in – I wonder if you identify with any of these, of you see signs of these at work in the people or the world around you:

Past-positive: You look back at your history with warmth, happy memories, and nostalgia.

Past-negative: You focus on old pains, regrets, or bad things that happened before.

Present-hedonistic: You live strictly for immediate fun, pleasure, and excitement without worrying about tomorrow.

Present-fatalistic: You feel your life is controlled by outside forces or fate, so planning feels useless.

Future-oriented: You delay instant rewards, set long-term goals, and plan hard for what comes next

[Source: Philip Zimbardo]

Interesting list of things there, maybe some of them are actually a bit hard to hear, a bit confronting, maybe you think this is all a load of rubbish! 

Good to have those thoughts, good to wrestle with and question these things, especially as church doing that together with a tone of respect and compassion for different perspectives of other people. 

If we give this research the benefit of the doubt and come at with a bit of curiosity, which one do you lean towards? Maybe you move between these different perspectives, depending on the day and the situation you’re in. Maybe you think about your own life in one way, and you think about your church life in another way. 

We could also apply these perspectives to our own church community as a whole couldn’t we, which one of these would you say our church is in right now or has leant towards in your time here with us? Interesting, maybe some points for good discussion there.

All of this is about ‘our time,’ how we see things, what we focus on. 

But what about God? 

How does God see things, what does he focus on, what does he lead us to focus on as we do life together as church??

Remember from earlier how we work in ‘our time,’ but God works in both our time and HIS time. He sees it all, he knows it all. 

In this tricky part about binding and loosing we hear today, which historically means what is forbidden and what is permitted, we can understand as Jesus connecting heaven’s work with our work here on earth. 

After all the church is meant to be the expression of the kingdom of heaven here on earth in our time, God’s work in the world is revealed by the Spirit through his people. His known, loved, chosen people, aka you and me.

Jesus gives authority to the church – not to be taken lightly – to forgive sins, to build community, to be ambassadors and representatives of Christ in the places we find ourselves and with the people we find ourselves alongside. 

And REALLY IMPORTANTLY, Jesus does not say ‘you have the authority now, leave me out of it!’ That is not what he says, we must remember that part whenever challenges or issues come up. Lean not on our own understanding, lean on his as we know.

What DOES he say? We’ve already heard it: ‘For where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them.’

He remains, he doesn’t go anywhere. He stays with us, he stays in the thick of the challenge with us helping us through, reminding us of his good gifts, his provisions, his life-giving presence with us all the way through this journey of ‘our time’ on this earth.

And we can never understand – in our time – the fullness of presence Jesus has with us and with all who know him > at last count that’s about 2.5 billion living people around the world right now, Jesus has a serious workload we could say! A pretty serious unifying thought there, the way God is God for you, for me, for every single person who knows him. Amazing.

So we cannot understand GOD’S TIME – all we have is the work he does in our time, and trusting in the work he is doing in HIS time. Putting it in his hands, trusting him with our lives, receiving the gifts he has to give us, sharing them in community. That’s the dynamic, the rhythm for us to follow along together. We need some help on that journey don’t we, let’s bring that to our God in prayer:

Lord we thank you for the time you have granted us, and the way you work in and through us as your known, loved and chosen people. Help us when we get stuck Lord, when we miss or forget that you are always at work in your time. Help us to trust in you, to go to you in times of need, to be led not by who we think we are but by who you are, what you have done for us and who you say we are. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

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What does it mean to PROCLAIM HIS NAME, to proclaim the name of Jesus?

Here’s Psalm 105 verses 1-6 for us, where these words come from today:

Give praise to the Lord, proclaim his name; make known among the nations what he has done.

Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wonderful acts.

Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.

Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.

Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced, you his servants, the descendants of Abraham, his chosen ones, the children of Jacob.

‘Give praise to the Lord, make known among the nations what he has done.’ Words to guide us, to remind us what our purpose is, what God has done for us and what he calls us to be part of.

So to understand what it is to PROCLAIM HIS NAME – the name of our good and gracious heavenly Father, the name of his son Jesus who died and rose again for us, the name of the Holy Spirit who is always with us and works faith in our hearts – we’re going to consider three other words we just heard from Romans (12:9-21) > LOVE, BLESS and REJOICE.

What do the words LOVE, BLESS and REJOICE have to do with PROCLAIMING HIS NAME?

First of all let’s look at what the word PROCLAIM means:

We understand PROCLAIM as to ‘announce, declare, or make something known publicly and clearly’ (dictionary definition). 

What are some ways we might see a proclamation, a declaration, an announcement? In wedding vows, in a court of law, official statements from governments, things like that. All very official and public!

But here in the OT text the concept of PROCLAIMING here can be to ‘call upon,’ not only to tell other people about it, but to call upon the same name ourselves…

To PROCLAIM HIS NAME is to CALL UPON his name, to say who God is is connected to believing who he is. Something deep and rich going on there.

So we can think of PROCLAIMING HIS NAME as telling others about him yes, but also declaring our own faith in him, our belief in him, our trust and hope in who he is for us and for others. It goes both ways doesn’t it! What we say about God is not only for others to hear, but for us to hear ourselves. We need to hear, to listen to the words we’re saying ourselves.

So that’s PROCLAIM, now what about those other three words from Romans – LOVE, BLESS, and REJOICE. 

You might be able to put it together – PROCLAIMING HIS NAME is the ‘what,’ and LOVE, BLESS and REJOICE are the ‘how.’ The what and the how of calling upon his name, bearing witness to our good and gracious God, telling others about him as we receive what he has done for us. 

PROCLAIMING is not simply telling, standing up here and talking about God. Not simply hearing words from the bible being read out to us.

What we hear from God is not a news report, that’s what our announcements after church are for! Hearing from God is not only hearing information, hearing what’s what, but as it comes to life in us by the work of the Spirit we can live it out, it takes hold of us, it goes with us wherever we go and whatever we do – and not only for our benefit but for the benefit of our church community, our loved ones, the people we interact with in our everyday lives. 

To LOVE is to PROCLAIM HIS NAME >

When God loves us, when we love others.

We have to understand this dynamic, it is so important for us!

God loves us yes, but it doesn’t stop there – he loves us so we can love others! His love flows through us for our own benefit and the benefit of those around us.

What does Romans say about LOVE today?

‘LOVE must be sincere. Be devoted to one another in LOVE.’

That’s what LOVE is, that’s what LOVE does. 

The words ‘sincere’ and ‘devotion’ there – gives us a hint this is not a minor, small thing. This is serious, this is important, this really matters. We need to pay attention to what LOVE is and what LOVE does > not only for our own work and our own relationships with other people, but because we need to know how God LOVES us. 

Our God is absolutely ‘sincere,’ he’s absolutely ‘devoted.’ Good to know we’ve got a God like that, we can trust him to continue to show up and continue to be there for us.

So that’s LOVE, what about BLESS > 

To BLESS is to PROCLAIM HIS NAME >

When God blesses us, when we bless others.

The word BLESS in this passage has the original meaning of ‘praising,’ of ‘speaking well’ of others.

Interesting way to think about it > have you ever thought of blessing as ‘speaking well’ of someone else? That’s what we do when we PROCLAIM HIS NAME, we call upon his name, we sing, we pray, we tell others about God. 

This passage says to bless, even to ‘speak well’ of those how persecute you, and do not curse them. How do we do that??

Let’s think about God’s blessing for us > Have you ever thought about it like this, that God would ‘speak well’ of you?

We usually think yes God has blessed me by giving me all the things I have, this life to life, the people around me all that sort of stuff. But what if your God blessed you by ‘speaking well’ of you, how does it feel to know your God ‘speaks well’ of you, says you are good – not only for you to hear but others to hear it too – because he made you, you are his, your good works are his good works in the world. That’s pretty encouraging isn’t it!

Like God seeing you, looking at you and saying ‘yes this is my child, I love them, I’m backing them in, they’ve got what it takes because I’ve got what it takes.’ The love of our heavenly Father going on there. 

God does that for us, we can do that for others. 

To LOVE is to PROCLAIM HIS NAME, to BLESS is another way to PROCLAIM HIS NAME.

And lastly we come to REJOICING > 

To REJOICE is to PROCLAIM HIS NAME >

When God rejoices in and with us, when we rejoice with others.

‘Rejoice with those who rejoice’ we read in Romans, join in the celebrations we could say! Get around it, be excited for others who are excited, share in the joy. 

We know we always have joy in our God-given status as his own children, but those moments in life where joy comes along for us and the people around us are really worth enjoying aren’t they, worth acknowledging, worth celebrating. 

Our rejoicing about the good things in life – the little ways God reveals himself like a beautiful day or a rainbow or a nice view, and the big ways like a community celebration or a birth of a child or someone achieving a goal they had set for themselves – all this rejoicing is a way God’s work and his presence are made known and pointed back to, ways his name is proclaimed among us and for others.

God gives us things to be thankful for, to be grateful for, to REJOICE about > even as things come along that are afflicting, challenging and even lead to mourning as we read in this passage. We see how God meets those needs, he brings himself into our afflictions, our challenges, our times of mourning with his presence, his peace and his love. 

So to REJOICE is to PROCLAIM HIS NAME.

So we can avoid getting stuck thinking that PROCLAIMING is simply to say or to tell, that it’s just for people who do the saying and the telling – it’s really through our whole lives that God’s word is PROCLAIMED, that what he has done is ‘made known among the nations,’ wherever we go and whatever we do!

That he is praised, that his wonderful acts are seen and known.

When we PROCLAIM HIS NAME our hearts rejoice, what a beautiful thing that is, rejoicing hearts! 

May your hearts be rejoicing as you go out and PROCLAIM HIS NAME through love, blessing and rejoicing in your week ahead!

We have reason to rejoice don’t we – we get to seek his face as his chosen ones – we get to seek his face, we get to be his chosen ones. Selected by Jesus himself to be part of his family. 

Receive that PROCLAMATION in your life today, receive that LOVE, that BLESSING, that reason to REJOICE. 

Let’s pray.

Lord we thank you for the many reasons we have to rejoice in you, in what you have done for us and what you have given us. Help us when afflictions, challenges and even times of mourning come our way, remind us you are always with us and always working in our lives even if we can’t see it. Help us to proclaim your name Lord as we love, bless and rejoice as you have loved us, blessed us and rejoiced over us. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

//

Maybe a provocative question for us there today, maybe an uncomfortable one to sit with – 

What have you got to give?

How do you answer that… We hear about being LIVING SACRIFICES today from Paul in our second reading from Romans – what is a living sacrifice? What is it to be living and what is it to sacrifice, ways we might break that down.

And we also heard in our gospel reading today how Jesus asks another question – pretty much the same question we thought about last week if you remember back – Jesus asks ‘who do you say I am?’

Last week we had the question ‘Who is Jesus to you?’ 

This is pretty much the same question, except today it’s coming from Jesus himself!! Maybe the stakes are a bit higher if its Jesus asking the question!

So first let’s look at what it is to be living, and what it is to sacrifice…

LIVING >

Being alive, pretty simple! 

But not only ‘existing,’ not only ‘occupying space’ or ‘making up the numbers’ – none of us are any of those things in God’s eyes. 

In God’s eyes we are his own creation, unique people he has made himself, with a purpose to do ‘good works he has prepared in advance for us to do’ as we know from Ephesians 2. 

To be living in God’s eyes is to have purpose, to have a function, whatever stage of life we’re in > and the simplest and most important purpose or function we have? Being a child of God. Knowing he is our father and we are loved by him. All else flows in and out of that.

What about SACRIFICE >

Might be a bit trickier this one, what is this all about?

We know the Old Testament image of giving a literal sacrifice to God, an ‘offering’ made to him that we still continue today as we give, we offer out of our own pockets what we have first been given in financial terms. Our freewill offering is probably the most obvious link we have in our worship to what was done in Old Testamant times, but of course there’s been an ultimate sacrifice between then and now, and our offering is not just about giving money to a good cause…

So that’s a bit on LIVING and SACRIFICE, what about the question we started off with today: 

What have you got to give?

Let’s take this question in 2 parts, starting with ‘What have you got?’

So what have you got?

I wonder how you would answer this… What things come to mind when you think of what you have?

Start small… We’ve got the clothes on our back, some of us have hair on our heads and some of us don’t, we each have a seat to take up in our church building here today. 

We have the opportunity to hear from God’s word, to hear from him and to speak with him alongside brothers and sisters in Christ. 

What else do you have? Maybe a car parked outside, a home to go back to after church, people to catch up with, obligations and responsibilities to carry out, bills to pay maybe mouths to feed all that sort of stuff. We can start building a pretty long list of things we have can’t we.

As we know there are people who don’t have these things, who don’t have things that we do have – we might even have an abundance of things that other people having nothing of at all.

So we can say, actually we’ve got quite a bit! We have a lot of good things, a lot to the thankful for, to be grateful for.

If we add on the ‘to give’ part of this question, so it goes from ‘what have you got’ to ‘what have you got to give,’ what do end up with there…

We’ve got a few things to give don’t we. All of what we have, all of which is a bonus on top of the most important thing I mentioned before: being a child of God. 

If you’ve got a house and a car and money in the bank, you’ve got something to give.

And if you don’t have any of those things, you’ve still got something to give, something that’s been given to you.

Because God says so. To be a child of God is to have something to give, not only something but more like everything.

As children of God, what are some of the things we have to give?

I’ll pull out 3 things from what Paul says, 3 gifts according to the grace given to each of us:

Serving, encouraging, giving. We can all do those things. 

We can all SERVE.

We are called not to be served but to serve, just as Jesus did. He has served us with his life no less, we are called to serve others with ours. 

It doesn’t stop with us > if we know Jesus, if we’ve received what he has to give us, it can’t stop there! It flows out of us in what we do next, good works are produced in and through God’s children by the work of the Spirit. Good works like serving, encouraging and giving.

We can all ENCOURAGE.

Encouragement is probably one of the most underrated of God’s gifts! 

When the checkout operator at the shops says to ‘have a good day!’ When a friend gets in touch with you to see how life’s going. When you hear a thank you from someone who you’ve just served, all examples of little encouragements that can actually make a big difference.

And the last one, even if we don’t think we have much, we can all GIVE.

We can give our money, we can offer our homes and our possessions in hospitality to others, we can support good causes like the work of our local church, we can raise money, we can keep the doors open and the lights on. All good things, but not actually the main things.

There’s more to it: If we think, ‘ok I’ve given my donation, and now my giving is done,’ that is not it. 

It’s more like, ‘now my giving can begin!’ Giving is about what we do with our lives, not just our stuff. It’s about what God does with our lives, not just what we do. Giving takes many forms, and those forms might look different depending on who you ask/if you have the receiver in mind.

This makes me think of the petrol station analogy I think I’ve used a few times > we go to the petrol station to get fuel, we pay to fill up, and then does it stop there? Of course not! 

From there we go and actually use the fuel we’ve just loaded up on > 

That’s what going to church really is, not the extent of our giving but the filling up on what we have to give into our church community, into the lives of our loved ones, and out there in the world around us. All of us are givers > not measured by how much we put in the offering bowl, but by how much our God has given to us. 

So if we put that altogether, serving, encouraging and giving as children of the living God, we can understand being a LIVING SACRIFICE not as an abstract concept but as real thing we get to do everyday.

We get to be LIVING SERVERS.

We get to be LIVING ENCOURAGERS.

We get to be LIVING GIVERS. 

How does that sound to you, does that make sense?

You are a living server, a living encourager, a living giver. We all get to be that because we all get to be God’s children. What a life that is, what purpose, what function what meaning and also what joy and hope there is in all that!

Anything we have to give is only what was first given to us.

The Son of the living God as Peter calls him, as we call him, has served us. He has encouraged and continues to encourage us on the journey. He has given us not only a portion, not only a percentage but his whole entire life, for us. 

What have we got to give? Thanks to Jesus, we’ve got everything //

A question for you today, a question to help us think about who God is and what he has to give us as we spend time in his word and in his house together today:

Who is Jesus to you??

Who is this guy, to you?

What do you know about him, what do you believe about him, how is he present in your life, how has he shown up for you over the journey?

Here are some different ways we might think about Jesus, if we had to give an answer off the top of our heads:

He’s a good bloke, he’s a man who lived over 2000 years ago in Israel. He was Jewish, he was brought up in a Jewish household and culture around him. He claimed to be the Son of God, and that one really got him in trouble with the authorities at the time…

This is an evidence-based, factual perspective isn’t it, stating the mostly-accepted facts about this guy Jesus actually existing many years ago.  What someone might say when asked ‘what do you know about Jesus?’

But what about someone who BELIEVES in him, who believes he actually is who he says he is? 

What would someone who believes in Jesus say about who he is?

He is the Saviour of the world, who gave his life for me so I could be called a forgiven and loved child of God. 

In the words of a band called ‘The Lads’ Jesus is the creator of the universe, and he’s also my best friend. Imagine that, getting to be best friends with the creator of the universe…

What would you say, what would you add to those answers? 

Who is Jesus to you, today, here and now?? 

Have a good think about that today, maybe even let it sit with you through the week and see what comes up to the surface for you.

This line of questioning leads us into our first reading today, from the book of Genesis, an excerpt from the story of Joseph I was just sharing with the kids.

How does asking about who Jesus is relate to the story of Joseph you might ask? 

Well the story of Joseph – as with many major biblical stories and characters – actually reveals a whole lot about who Jesus is, if we take the opportunity to look closely enough.

Let’s have a look through this passage to see what we can learn first about what goes on for Joseph in his story, and then how his story can help us see who Jesus is.

What are the ways Joseph expresses himself here, what emotions or feelings go on here between him and his brothers, how does he communicate with them – don’t forget his own brothers had sold him off as a slave and probably thought he was dead!

What does Joseph do? 

Joseph ‘weeps.’ We read he ‘wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it.’

What do his brothers do? 

They are ‘terrified at his presence.’ They cannot answer him when he asks if his father is still alive because they are terrified in his presence, they are stopped in their tracks.

What does Joseph do next?

He says ‘come close to me.’ Come close, not ‘bow down in fear and trembling,’ not a command for his servants to take his brothers away and punish them, get revenge on them for what they had done many years earlier. He says ‘come close to me.’

And then he explains – in a bit of a matter-of-fact way as someone we know often does in the New Testament – who he is to them, acknowledging the wrong they had done to him, but also explaining the purpose underneath all this, the plans God had for him and his brothers. 

He says ‘do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.’

Who does that sound like to you as you hear it again this morning!

Some more things play out from there in the passage, where Joseph makes sure his family and his people are provided for ahead of the years of famine to come, but I want to draw your attention to one subtle line at the end of the passage, which says this – ‘afterwards his brothers talked with him.’

So let’s put it together, let’s see how what happens here can teach us about who Jesus is, how God reveals himself to us through his word > and that’s always the whole point isn’t it, that’s always the question, always what’s going on here in church! How God reveals himself to his people.

Joseph ‘weeps’ >

Joseph is now in a position of leadership in his community, he’s second only to Pharoah, he has a status and responsibility and reputation. 

And we know his own brothers had disowned him – how would you be feeling and responding if you were in Joseph’s shoes?! Would you have been angry, hurt, out for revenge? Most of us would have a bit of that going on, but not Joseph here > he has a different response, a response that reveals much more than what we might get at first glance.

He weeps, he cries. Over his brothers, out of love and compassion for them. One of the most profound expressions of forgiveness happening between people in the entire bible isn’t it. He has every right to hate them – as they hated him – and is also in a position to deal with them in a very serious way, but that’s not what happens is it. This is not Game of Thrones, this is the word of God.

How is Jesus revealed to us in this moment?

By most measurements we would say Joseph’s brothers deserve punishment, they deserve to pay for what they have done – that might explain some of the ‘being terrified’ that we’ll get to in a moment. Like us, we know we deserve punishment for our sin. For what we have thought, said and done, and what we have failed to do. 

But that’s not what Joseph’s brothers get, that’s not what we get is it. 

Instead they are forgiven, they are loved, they are provided for in their time of need. What grace, what compassion on display here.

And for us, in the person of Jesus and what he did for us on the cross, we are forgiven, we are loved, and we are provided for in our time of need. Exactly the same dynamic going on here. Joseph’s love for his brothers points to the ultimate love Jesus has for us.

Joseph’s brothers are ‘terrified at his presence’ >

Joseph’s brothers are terrified because they’ve been found out, they are in serious trouble here in their eyes, they can’t even answer questions directed to them. 

How is Jesus revealed to us in this moment?

This is an interesting one… I wonder if you’ve ever been ‘terrified’ at the presence of God? Maybe you’ve been in awe, maybe amazed at his goodness, his big-ness, his divine-ness? Hard to say in the moment, but we can probably look back over our lives and see a few moments of being in awe of God and his presence with us.

The truth here is that we should be terrified in God’s presence. We are sinners, we have nothing to offer him, we come to him as weary beggars. We have no power, no control, no standing in front of our God. 

But as we know that’s exactly where Jesus meets us > he meets those who have been found out, who cannot answer him with love, with mercy, with grace. He has love for sinners, beggars and the powerless as we well know. And that’s not ‘other people out there’ as the Pharisees would say, that’s you and me. We are beggars, we are sinners, we are powerless. But our God is gracious, loving, compassionate and he reveals himself to us. 

Joseph says to his brothers not go away but ‘come close to me,’ and he reveals how God has been at work all this time >

As we’ve seen Joseph could have done all manner of things to exact vengeance or justice on his brothers, but he does none of that > he instead reveals the deep love he feels for them, he shows them forgiveness and love just as Jesus shows those same things to us.

How is Jesus revealed to us in these moments?

Joseph says ‘come close to me’ > sounding a lot like the one to come who says to little children come to me, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to these. 

We are at God’s mercy, and he shows us mercy > and he also is merciful enough to let us in on the purpose and meaning behind all this! 

As Joseph points to the purpose and meaning behind what has happened in his life, our God has much to say to us about the purpose and meaning of our lives > all we need is ears to listen. We listen to his word, and his word begins to work in us, that’s how it works.

And finally there’s that little line at the end, we read ‘afterwards his brothers talked with him.’

Why could that line be in there? Maybe to reveal to us what we get to do with God after he has forgiven and loved us > we get to talk with our maker, with our forgiver, with the one who loves us, and from there that love and forgiveness takes hold of us and can flow out of us for others as well.

So we come back to that initial question today: who is Jesus to you??

As we continue to think about that, to pray to our God asking him to reveal himself to us in the everyday things of life, we have this to go on:

Jesus is someone who doesn’t give us what we deserve, instead he gives us forgiveness, love and hope.

Jesus is God’s grace and compassion in human form, personified and made real for you and for me. 

Jesus is someone we can talk with, anytime anyplace as we go along the journey, doing life with him.

And Jesus has much to say to us – not only through words attributed to him in the gospels but all through God’s word, in more ways than we ever fully reach or understand in this life.

We just need ears to listen.

Let’s pray.

Heavenly Father we thank you for your presence among us. We thank you for the many ways you reveal yourself to us through your word and the stories of your people. Help us when we have been found out, to know we can come to you – our good and gracious God who hears our prayers. Help us to hear you, to hear and to receive what you have for us. All this we pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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