The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew

 Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. ³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without ashepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. ³⁸ Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”

 Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John; ³ Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; ⁴ Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: “Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. ⁶ Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel. ⁷ As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ ⁸ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy,^[a] drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give .(Mt. 9:3-10:23)          

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Do you remember the upheaval caused by the murder of a black man, George Floyd, and others, killed  in police actions because  of their colour, their ethnicity, their lowly place in society, the world was  forced to see the injustice, and trapped feelings of a suffering people – something it had been blind to until then, and to act. 

What will it take to change the way things are in the world?

When I was a little boy, I went to visit my uncle Bob. He had a fine henhouse, and a flock of chickens roosting in it.  And this day he showed me a chicken  that he had just bought and was going to place in the hen house with the others.

I went with him and watched as he opened up the hatch, and revealed the chickens sitting on the perch, in a row, next to each other.

He leaned in and moved some of the chickens along the perch and then took the new arrival and placed it  between two others on the perch. Or I should say he tried. 

The birds closed rank and the new bird was squeezed out, and it happened again and again, no chicken was willing to give up its position  – its rank ifyou like – signified by its place on that perch. and he finally put the new bird right at the far end of the perch. The not so nice section?

The perch was plenty long enough for many hens, but those stubborn chickens didn’t want to give up their little piece of real estate.

Keep that story in mind for a minute:

My first job in Canada in 1967 was with an encyclopedia company as the office manager.  My boss was an American from St. Louis Missouri, a nice guy, big and bluff, and good natured. He went by ‘Woody.’

The subject of race came up and he told me that on one occasion, the blacks from the poor part of town in St. Louis began to march toward the white part of town, and had to cross a bridge.   He said, ” We weren’t going to allow them to cross that bridge so we got our weapons and went to stop them.

” Were they violent?” I asked.

“No,” he said, ” But we weren’t going to give them the chance.”

” Then what was the problem with them demonstrating?’

“They wanted my job!, ” he said, vehemently.

I said, ” They didn’t want your job, they just wanted an equal chance at getting a job.”

He laughed at my naivety. He didn’t see that point of view at all.

I was getting paid a hundred dollars a week, and he was getting five hundred dollars a week and in 1967 that was a lot of money. So you might think he would be a smart guy.

But when it came to race he was about as smart as uncle Bob’s chickens.

In our  contemporary version of the Gospel, we read that Jesus looked at the crowd and was moved with compassion for them. He was moved to the very depth of his being.

He was moved to compassion by  the world’s pain. He was moved to compassion for the sick. He was moved to compassion for those with no hope. 

The common people were desperately longing for God – why else wouldthey follow Jesus in such great numbers? – And the pillars of orthodox religion  of his day had nothing to offer them.

People were ruled and exploited  by the Romans.   And exploited by the religious rulers.

They were at the bottom of the rung in that society. And no hope of any relief.

They were at the end of the perch, you might say.

Does it remind you of the situation in our society today?  Of those who are at the bottom of the pecking order and are exploited, or worse still ignored, by those above?  

And are so because of their colour, their education or lack of it. Their religious dress. Their difficulty with the language.  Their uncultured accent?? Their address?

There have been conferences over the years, where national and international leaders have gotten together to try and solve the problems that exist because of  prejudice, and the realisation that having so many disenfranchised people could be dangerous for society.

I remember a promise to eradicate world poverty by –  was it 2010?  It required, among other things, massive donations of money, lifting of tariffs, help and encouragement to improve weak  economies.

The Secretary General of the UN has asked where is that help that was so generously promised? 

Precious little has been forthcoming.

Why? Because helping others means that we have to sacrifice a little of what we have. And our leaders think we can’t handle that: that we don’t want to be moved along the perch.

We feel sorry for disadvantaged people . We pray for them of course.

And prayer is good. It indicates our concern.

But you know, prayer without good works is dead.

Martin Luther had a friend who was in the same mind about Christian faith as he was. His friend was also a monk. They came to an agreement. Luther would go into the world and battle for Reformation, while the friend would stay in the monastery and uphold Luther with prayer.  So that’s what they did.

But one night, the friend had a dream. He saw a huge field of corn, as big as the world, and one solitary man was trying to reap all that corn. He saw  the reaper’s face. It was Luther.  Luther’s friend saw the truth in a flash. He was meant to be down there with him, labouring in the harvest.

As we heard in today’s Gospel, this was something that  Jesus’s disciples had to do.  Jesus was sending them out to bring in the harvest.  

The harvest was – and is –  all those untold numbers of people who needed God in their lives;  who needed healing;  who were like lost sheep.  

There are some who can do nothing else but pray, for life may have rendered them physically or financially helpless. But for most of us, prayer is not enough. 

The men chosen by Jesus to go out into the countryside, telling of the coming of the kingdom of God, were ordinary men. They had no wealth, no position, no academic background, no social advantages.

You see, Jesus isn’t looking for extra-ordinary people. He is looking for ordinary people who are willing to be used to do extra-ordinary things.

God is always looking for hands to use. God is always saying. “Whom shall I send?”

Jesus had called these twelve men to go into the world as his apostles.  They would not be representing themselves. They would  represent him.  Nor would they be bringing their own messages. Representing Jesus they  would bring his message.

I often hear people talking about their faith in a way which tells you more about them than about the Jesus they are supposed to represent.

There are religious people who will  tell you they are for or against birth control, or abortion, or gay rights, or women priests, or dancing, or kneeling, or standing for prayer, or waving their hands while they sing hymns, or long sermons, or church ritual – all the things that they like or dislike and which define them and their ‘faith’  –  but who have somehow forgotten the compassion, caring,  and loving, that is expected from apostles.  

And that’s us. Because we  are –  his apostles.  

Believe it.

As an apostle we don’t do what we want to do, we try to do  what he would do.

Like we need to be fascinated with Jesus rather than with ourselves.

God is looking out for us, so we can take our eye off that particular ball and look out for someone else, can’t we?

Several years ago, conductor Eugene Ormandy was leading the Philadelphia Orchestra.  It doesn’t matter what they were playing. Certainly not Mozart, perhaps Stravinsky. But at  any rate, he was giving all of himself to it.  He was putting energy  into it. To the degree that he dislocated his shoulder! 

Conducting!!

He dislocated his shoulder conducting an orchestra??

Gerrouttahere!

I read that and asked myself the question: Have I ever dislocated anything by working so hard for Jesus? 

He gave his life, working for me?

You know what I mean? .

I wonder what it takes.

I wonder how we get that fire of the Holy Spirit inside of us so that we just can’t stop doing stuff for our Lord;  just full of energy  trying to be like him.  

Dislocating something.

It’s got to be about motivation, do you think?  .

Fear motivates people. Some people, anyway.

I heard a story about a young man who took a shortcut through a cemetery one dark night, and fell into an open grave.

He tried to climb out, scrabbling at the sides with his hands, but couldn’t make it., He tried shouting, but no-one heard him. He decided to sit down in a corner and wait for daylight.

A little while later another person cut through the graveyard and fell into the same open grave. This man, like the first, tried to climb out, using his fingernails and toes, to try and get a grip in the soil, but slipping back.  

The first man, sitting there in the dark, heard the newcomer trying to get out, as he had, and said, “You’ll never get out of here.”

But he did!

Fear was a real motivator, there, wasn’t it/?

But fear doesn’t always work, it seems.  

Think about it: We have been threatened with Hell for centuries: devils with pitchforks, pushing us into a lake of fire ,for ever and ever. But it doesn’t seem to have made much difference to the way people live. Does it? 

People just don’t seem to fear the hereafter, as horrible as it sounds.

So we can  forget fear .

So what can motivate us?

What about compassion? 

Jesus’ heart wept for the people  who followed him.

I think when I first saw a picture of a starving child, in Biafra, decades ago,  my heart wept. I think the first time I read about women and children being deliberately killed in war, my heart wept. I think the first time I  read about families being headed by nine year-old children in Africa, because both parents had died from AIDS, my heart wept.

But there is so much of it, pictures in the papers, on television, news stories of millions threatened by starvation – the sheer numbers boggle the mind, that my heart can’t weep any more.

We can’t take it any more, and we pass by on the other side.

What is needed is a new motivation. Not the pictures of starving children used in TV ads,  but a heartfelt compassion, and a love, and a desire to bring healing.  

We need a vision of that vast harvest, and Jesus out there doing it all by himself, and a realisation that he needs each and everyone ofus out there with him.

We have received freely. We are called to give freely.

And every time we do that, we move this world closer to the day when the kingdom of God will come on earth  –  the time when His will is done here, as it is in Heaven.

Where there will be no hatred, no fear, no discrimination, just love!

Amen.

 Ficus Christians                            

I once  read that 63% of all Canadians are taking some sort of supplement. Most take vitamins; but herbs, and other medications are being taken by people who want to be healthy, have younger-looking skin, maintain their youth, do away with aches and pains and so on.

Some of these supplements are beneficial, and some may not be, and we should check with our  physician before taking them. 

But what does it profit a person to be physically fit if they are spiritually sick?

Some physically fit people commit suicide. Not too many sick people do. They know the value of life.

Plenty of  physically fit people live unhappy lives.

Many physically fit people get into trouble. (You don’t see too many people in wheelchairs being wheeled into court.) 

Being physically fit is fine, but it’s more important to be spiritually fit.

To keep ourselves spiritually fit, we need to stay connected to Christ through attending church regularly, daily prayer, bible reading, meditation, self-examination, Christian fellowship and so on.

It’s called  ‘abiding in Christ.’  

The evangelist John tells us that  when we abide in Christ  we find ourselves loving God and loving others. Others that we might not have loved normally.   

In fact he says, “ Those who say they love God and yet hate their brothers or sisters are liars. If you can’t love those whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you have not seen?’”

The only way to become a loving person is by abiding in Him and being fed by Him. 

I have had a ficus plant for a long time. It has been there.  Barely. Although I dutifully watered it, and turned the pot around weekly, it never grew. It looked the same after fifteen years as the day I bought it.  Then I saw my wife using a product on her outdoor plants, called Miracle Grow. I tried feeding my ficus plant with it, and all of a sudden it began to grow like Topsy. We had to cut it back using garden clippers. It looked like it might take over the house.   

All the time I was just watering it, it was starving.  But once it was fed, there was no holding it back.

It’s easy to be a ficus kind of Christian, isn’t it?   Just kind of ‘there.’ Doing nothing. Just ‘there.’

I know Christians like that, as I am sure you do.

We all need to be fed don’t we?  

Because the truth is that God doesn’t need ‘ficus Christians’. He needs Christians who want to grow, and he offers to feed us with the spiritual food that will enable us to grow, and be fruitful.   

And that, my brothers and sisters, is the meaning of life. Christian life, that is. 

Amen.

The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ According to John

Philip said to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, `Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

[“I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”] (John 14:8-17, (25-27)

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How would you like to go to someone else’s birthday party and you get the gifts?  That would be something wouldn’t it?   Usually, you sit around while the  birthday boy or girl open their presents and oooh and ahhh as they do it, not really interested, until they come to yours, and you watch their face to see if their delight is real or feigned.

But to be the one who got the gift. That would be some birthday party.

Well, in the church, that’s what happens. On the church’s birthday, we get the gifts!

The way it began,  on the first Pentecost Day, two thousand or so years ago, the disciples were in that upper room. They had been meeting there to pray and sing hymns, waiting for………well they were not quite sure what they were waiting for ….when……… Crash, Bang. Alcazam!!  the Holy Spirit burst into the room with the sound of a mighty wind, with tongues of flame racing around until those tongues of fire settled, one on the head of each person there.

So far as I can see, no-one came forward to blow out the flames and sing Happy Birthday.

But that’s how the first gifts, on the birthday of the church were delivered.

The disciples were so excited with the gifts they received, that they rushed outside, and began to prophecy – to tell everyone about God. And His Son Jesus. And about his glorious resurrection.

And using one of the gifts they had received – the gift of tongues, we are told that  they excitedly told about Jesus, and his saving power, in the languages of everyone there.

What pandemonium there must have been.  People thought they were drunk – they were so excited – and so uninhibited.

I wonder if anyone during a service, has thought, at any time, “Oh I just wish I could go up there to that lectern and tell people how good I feel about having Jesus as my friend and Saviour,”  but was too inhibited to do it.

I wonder if anyone has been so excited about their life in Christ that they have wanted to just grab a stranger and tell them, “Guess what?  I am so happy in Christ, I just have to tell someone!!”  

Well, those people who followed Jesus had similar inhibitions, but they lost them once the Spirit entered into them, and they just couldn’t keep themselves still, or quiet. They just had to get up and do their thing. And let people know!

And this wasn’t something entirely new.  It had been going on for a long time.    The Old Testament has stories that tell us about God placing His Spirit and the gifts that went along with it into the hearts of many people over the centuries.

For example, some time after leaving Egypt, the people of Israel have left Sinai, and they are out in the desert.  Some people are complaining to Moses about the diet.  Manna may be heavenly food, but it can get monotonous. They remember  the meat, fish and vegetables they enjoyed in Egypt.   They crave meat.  This grumbling begins to spread, and Moses, feeling like the foster-father of these burdensome people tells God about it.

He asks: “Where am I to get meat to give to all this people?  And “ I can’t handle all this  alone.” He complains, “ The burden is too heavy.  I would rather die than continue in this misery.”

God tells him to delegate.  He tells Moses to gather seventy of the elders together, and  God will take “some of the spirit that is on Moses and put it on them. ”  They will share the burden, and the authority with Moses.

Moses gathers the seventy, and God sends His Spirit upon the “seventy” and they   are so blown away with the gift of the Spirit that they begin to prophesy.

They are excited as we hear today, that Peter and the others were, and they just can’t help but tell everyone about God’s love for them.

For the record, a flock of quail soon lands in the camp and the people find plenty of meat to eat.

There are other accounts of people receiving the Spirit of God, in the centuries after that episode, but after a time, that sort of spiritual fervor just seems to fade away as people become more wrapped up in their own lives, and everyday battles.  Temple worship becomes routine. People pay lip service to the law, sacrificing as they should, but living sinfully the rest of the time.

Does that ring a bell?

And the time came when the voice of the Lord wasn’t heard in Israel any more.

Until  Jesus.

Jesus showed how people could be close to God once again; how the  barriers erected by sin and hypocrisy  would be broken down    –  by his death on the cross.

And as we read in John’s Gospel, Jesus, wanting the whole world to know God anew,  breathed his spirit into the disciples and sent them out to tell about it. 

And so, we are now celebrating that triumphant day when the Spirit came down in majestic power onto those followers and they received the gifts reserved for them.

You know, we all have gifts, given by the Spirit.  We all have great potential just waiting to be tapped.     There is greatness in every one of us.

Don’t believe me?

There was a thirty-eight year old who made her living scrubbing floors. She  would go to the movies and sigh, as she watched a beautiful actress, “If only I had her looks.” She would listen to a singer and moan, “If only I had her voice.” Then one day someone gave her a copy of the book The Magic of  Believing

She stopped comparing herself with actresses and singers. She stopped crying about what she didn’t have, and started to concentrate on the gift she did have – she remembered that in high school she had the reputation of being the funniest girl around. She began to turn her liabilities – her looks, her scratchy voice, her untamed hair – into assets, and within a few years Phyllis Diller was making a million dollars a year.

Now I am not suggesting that model is one we could all follow. I use the example of Phyllis Diller to show what can be done when we are freed from the things that inhibit us, and prevent us from reaching our full potential as Christians.

Today is the birthday of the church, and each birthday we are reminded that at this birthday party it is us who get the gifts, the gifts that contain such promise for our lives. 

What are they? 

Well there are many gifts that have been identified as coming from God, but here are some of them:

                  the gift of teaching,

   - the gift of discernment,

   - the gift of exhortation

   - the gift of hospitality

   - the gift of intercession

   - the gift of the word of wisdom

   - the gift of prophecy

   - the gift of faith

   - the gift of administration

   - the gift of helping

-         and the gift of mercy.

You can probably name others. The gift of tongues, the gift of healing, and so on.           That’s the list, but where are they?   Have you got any one of them?   Have you? 

You know, when I was just a kid, along with a bunch of other kids I went to a birthday party for  one of our little friends.  We all took gifts of course. This was wartime, so the gifts were not expensive. Nothing like the gifts you would see at a child’s birthday today. But the big surprise was that my pal’s mother had prepared a little gift for each of us, his friends. That was unusual at the time.

 
We ate our sandwiches, and our Jell-O, and sang Happy Birthday as he blew out the candles, and watched as he opened his gifts, and then we got to get ours.

 
The only trouble was, I was at the end of the line, and the gifts ran out before I got mine. 

 

They were not much really. My pal’s mother couldn’t afford to spend more than a few pennies on each one, but I was truly disappointed. 

It wasn’t the gift. It was the feeling of being left out, that hurt. 

I don’t want you to be left out. I know what it feels like. I want you to get everything that’s coming to you. 

I want you to have whatever gift God has wrapped up for you. 

But first, what have we done with the gifts we have already been given?   

We might have a great voice. We might have the sort of nature that can brighten the darkest day. We might have a gift for crafts, or sewing, or fixing things. Or for teaching.

How have we used the gifts we have been given already?

Have we used our voice to sing in the choir? Taken time to be with people who need cheering up? Offered our services when something needed making, or fixing?  Taught in Sunday School?

And have we acknowledged that such gifts come from  God? 

I read just the other day about a man who had a gift for finance. You know those people, don’t you? They can run down a list of figures and add them so easily, without need of a calculator. They can look at a set of financial statements and know what the health of the company is. Well, this man had that gift. 

Did he think it came from God? Of course not.  Did he use it to help people? No of course not. 

He used it to help himself – to other people’s money. 

 

He is now in jail. 

You have been given gifts. Accept them. Give thanks for them. Use them properly, and acknowledge where they came from, and God will bless you with more. 

You know, there is a saying about gifts. A gift is nothing unless it contains something of the giver. 

If the giver is not in the gift it isn’t a real gift. 

Jesus was a gift from God, and I think we all agree that God was in His Son in a remarkable way.   That’s why the gift of Jesus has made such a difference in this world. 

And we too can make a difference, because the gifts we receive are multiplied a hundred fold when they are used to make a difference in the lives of others. 

I wonder if after a sermon has  ended, [and the organist is playing a few moments of music,] I wonder if you would take those few moments to reflect on the gifts you have been already given. 

And I wonder if you would reflect also on whether you have used those gifts for His glory? Which really means to help others. 

I wonder if you might then open your heart to receiving more of the gifts of the Spirit, so you can serve him even better? 

And I know that when your heart is ready, He will just fill it up. 

And when you empty it serving others, He’ll just fill it up again. And again. 

That’s what is meant by the gift that keeps on giving.

Thank you Lord.

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to John

Jesus prayed for his disciples, and then he said. “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

“Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:20-26

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How would you feel if God spoke to you and told you that you were going to do great things in Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, or maybe somewhere else in the world?

I guess you would panic a bit, wouldn’t you?  I mean, what about your job, and who’s going to look after the kids, and what about your bridge group next Wednesday?

It would be a bit scary.

I had a similar experience, you might say. Kind of.

I was in my final year in seminary, and I was staying on campus during the summer. There was a man, another Yorkshireman, originally from Doncaster, fifteen miles from my home town, and he was visiting from the Arctic. He  was a priest, recruited in Britain by the Bishop of the Arctic, and he had ministered in the far North for, I think, seven years.

He was asked to speak at one of our morning prayer services. Which he did.

He spoke eloquently about serving the church in the North. He told about the great challenges, and the way they were being met. He talked about the great joy and satisfaction he got out of his ministry. He talked about the gratitude shown by the native population for the mission work that he did.  And he talked about the great need for priests to work in the North.

I felt he was talking directly to me.

In fact I was sure he was talking directly to me.

And I began to panic.

Is this God’s way of calling me for service in the North, I wondered?  I hope not. I can hardly stand the winters here in Southern Ontario.

Well, as you know, I found myself in the wilds of Grimsby, so you know I didn’t go.

When I thought about it, I decided that maybe God wasn’t calling me to go North, after all. 

But I still wonder, sometimes.

Did I go against what God had planned for me?

Jesus, just before his Ascension into Heaven, told his disciples, “ The Holy Spirit will come upon you with power, then you will tell everyone about me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria, and everywhere in the world.”

Everywhere in the world?  The whole world?  Wait a minute!!

“ I can’t go out into the world. I am not prepared. I have never traveled more than a day’s journey from my home before. How can I go into the whole world?” One of them might have asked.

“I just told you that the Holy Spirit will come upon you with power. That is how you will go, and how you will glorify me.” Jesus assured them.

If God is helping you, then surely everything is possible.

We read in the Acts of the Apostles today, that  Paul and Silas, are doing what Jesus has commanded, and as a result, find themselves in prison, but they are miraculously released.

And they are able to continue to go on their way spreading the gospel, and convincing people about the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus, and how he died that we may be free of our sin.

Paul and Silas, are fulfilling what Jesus asked for his disciples as he prayed in that upper room.

And as we heard, in our Gospel reading, Jesus in that prayer for his  disciples,  prays,  ” I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word.” In other words, the blessing, and the challenge  he asks for his friends, will be passed on to those who come to believe after listening to them.

Like us!

He has earlier prayed “Father, the time has come for you to bring glory to your Son, in order that he may bring glory to you.”

The glory that Jesus is talking about is the glory of the cross.  Jesus glorified his father by obeying him in all things.  Even to dying on the cross. 

As it says, “In all things he did his Father’s will.”

That’s another way of  saying that this man Jesus, lived for the Father. And he had such faith in the Father, and was so empowered by the Holy Spirit, that everything that he did, especially his death, did in fact, glorify God.

You know, we do a lot of self -glorifying, don’t we?

You may not think you do, but it’s a common human trait.

We seem to need to build ourselves up.  The way we dress. The way we talk, carry ourselves, the people we mix with, the car we drive, the house in which we live, the schools we went to, the level of education we reached, all helping to elevate us in the eyes of other people – we hope.

It’s worse in America.  It is never too long into a conversation, down there, before someone asks you what job you do. And if it isn’t something impressive, then you are going to be talking to yourself pretty soon.  

I remember as a teenager, I had a particular friend who used to tell girls that he was a nuclear physicist.

So when we spied him spinning this yarn to a girl he was dancing with, if we could get close enough we would say something like, ‘ Hey Dave.  How’s the job on the bins?” or, “How are the wife and kids?”

Of course those were the days when you could hear yourself speak on the dance floor. And you danced close to your partner.

What a relief it would be to be free of that eh?  Not to care. Just to live as someone who is so at ease with oneself that we don’t care what the world thinks.

Jesus was so at ease with who he was, wasn’t he?  He spoke in the synagogue before  learned people; he gathered a group of followers around him and taught them as a rabbi would,  this man, this son of a carpenter.

He stood up to those in authority, he reached out to those who were scorned by society.

And finally, he went to his death on the cross, in supreme obedience to His Father’s will.

He needn’t have, you know.  He could have said, “No.”   He could have stayed away from Jerusalem. Avoided it.

As I avoided the Arctic??

But if he had done so, then God’s plan would have been thwarted.

His death would show us  the length to which God would go, in his great love for us, and in his wish to save us.

And now we see Jesus  sending his disciples out into the world – the whole world – to face dangers  similar to the dangers he himself had faced. They would be hated.   They would challenge the evil powers of this world, and put their lives at risk.

And how are these men, who haven’t shown signs of great bravery yet,  going to do this?

How are they to handle all the stuff that’s going to come their way?

Because make no mistake about it, they will face danger. Their lives will be forfeit, some of them.  Some  will be thrown into prison, as we have heard today,  others brought before tribunals, some flogged, thrown out of town.

Some would be killed.

How will they handle this?

Shouldn’t God protect them?  Keep all harm away from them? 

Note that when  Jesus prayed for his disciples, and this is important, he prayed, not that they should be  taken out of this world, not that they may find escape, he prayed that they may find victory.

Christianity was never meant to have us withdraw from life,  but to equip us better for it;  never meant to release us from problems, but a way to solve them;  never meant to offer us an easy peace, but to be triumphant in warfare against evil;  never meant to offer us a life in which we escape our troubles,  but a life in which troubles are faced and conquered.

Linus and Charlie Brown were walking along one day, and chatting with each other. Linus said, “ I don’t like to face problems head on. I think the best way to solve problems is to avoid them. In fact, this is a distinct philosophy of mine. No problem is so big or so complicated that it can’t be run away from.”

If you had run away from every problem that came along  in your life, where would you be today?  Back in the womb!  

See how your mother would like that. 

God doesn’t promise no problems.  He promises us the courage to face them, and the ability to overcome them.

As Christians we are not supposed to be of this world, but we do have to live in it – and the world is where we meet those problems, it’s where Christianity must be lived out.

God has chosen us and dedicated us in his service. He doesn’t expect us to  carry out that great task out of our own strength, however. In fact, he graciously fits us for whatever task faces us, if we can just place our lives in his hands.

I was speaking to a young mother once. I remember her saying then, that having two young children to look after was very hard. And she looked tired.

She said she didn’t have any family nearby who would take the children off her hands for just a little while.

Then some time later, I saw her again, and we chatted for a few minutes.   She told me again how busy she was. She worked week-ends, and had a part-time job she did from home, and then of course she had the two babies  to care for. And she did housework, and meals, and so on.  And she couldn’t talk for long, as she had the laundry in.

I bet that if you had told that young woman  how much she would accomplish, once she became a wife and mother, she would have laughed in your face.

Don’t tell me that God doesn’t  equip people when he gives them big jobs. And one of the biggest job is that of mother, isn’t it? That’s why today we remember to give thanks for them.

And we do. And I do – give thanks for mothers. 

Mothers who put the welfare of their kids ahead of their own needs.

God equips us to handle sorrow, and suffering, and all sorts of hardship. I can tell you from my own observations that I have seen people face great challenges, such that  I thought they would never be able to handle,  and yet, by the grace of God, they did.    

He is there in our life struggles.  He is  right there in the dirt with us,  guiding us, helping us to make it through life.

We have just got to let Him in. 

Life isn’t fair, you know. 

Ask those who went to Fort McMurray to work for a better life.

Ask that Syrian family which endured years in a refugee camp.

Whether we are engaged in some grand design, telling the world about our Saviour, and his love or whether we are just trying to make it through life’s  trouble and turmoil, we can reach out to him.

That’s why God had Jesus Christ choose us to share in his eternal glory. Chose us – you and me. We didn’t choose him. He chose us.

We will suffer for a while, but God will make us complete,  steady, strong, and firm.’

If we hang in with Him.

And hanging in with Him we will bear witness to His everlasting love and care, evidenced in the life and death and resurrection of His Son Jesus.

Witnessing to Christ – serving him in some specific endeavor – or just making it through a difficult time, day by day.

But always with His help.

I don’t know about you but I couldn’t make it without.

Amen.