Someone who didn’t attend church once said to me, “ The people who go to church aren’t so good. In fact, “he said, “ I know  people who don’t attend church who are more loving and caring than most of those who do.” 

He might be right, I don’t know.   But as I told him, church is for bad people. If everybody were good it wouldn’t be needed.

Church is there to help bad people become good people.

And there is no other institution that has that as its goal.

The parable that Jesus told about the fisherman with his net, catching all sorts of fish,  tells us that the church, if it is doing its job, is reaching out to and bringing in all sorts of people.

In one big net, without discrimination.

Not only that but we are also told elsewhere in the Gospel of Matthew that we should not judge – any of those people –  lest we be judged.

So opening the doors of the church to all and sundry is what we should be doing.

I went to Niagara on the Lake once, with our daughter Alison, just for a short time and I was pleasantly surprised to see that the church there was open to all and sundry – people who might be serious about its history, or need a quiet place to pause for a moment, maybe to meditate, or even, can we say it? To pray?

It was very different to a church that Susan and I visited some years ago in Cropthorne, in the British Midlands.

The church was locked and we were just looking around the outside, and after a few minutes I saw this figure come screaming up the driveway on a bike.

It was  a gentleman wanting to know what we were doing. And he wasn’t a friendly welcomer either.

It was symptomatic, perhaps of a major problem that threatens to divide the church today , and is being struggled with at Lambeth where some people want to close the doors of the church to some, different,  people.

When the church should be uniting to reach out to AIDS victims, victims of war, the internet being used to make a spectacle of children being abused , and any number of other urgent causes, we are wasting our time  jawing about whom we should admit to the church, and incredibly, in this twenty first century whether women are good enough to become priests and bishops – can you believe that?

But do you know where I think the bad attitudes, and contentiousness come from?

I think it is because many Christians have lost sight of Jesus and what he means to us, and how he wants us to live, and to be, and to be with.

“Again,’ Jesus said, “ the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant who was seeking goodly pearls. When he had found one of great value,  he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”

How many of us value the kingdom of heaven that we would sell everything to have it?

I admit, I can’t include myself in that holy company.

I did give up a lot when I went into seminary. Much of what I had, but not everything

But I don’t think it quite means that you have to impoverish yourself. I think it means that we have to realise  the great value in being in the kingdom, and cherish  it, and want it, and be joyful that we are in it.

You know I retired a year some years ago, and have been in a  number of churches since then, and I can tell you I have found few where there was a real sense of joy at being in the Kingdom. At being Christian.

Imagine. If you offered any other reason for thousands of people to gather once a week, and there wasn’t a moment of joy in it, how many would come back?

And if the kingdom is such a great thing to have – and it is – then how come we are not joyous. Not smiling all the time?

Could it be that we are inwardly gleeful, but trying to avoid smiling –  like, it was once said,  a funeral director at a $25,000 funeral?

Here’s a thought from a man who gave up everything, the Apostle Paul.  “And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are – get this – are  fitting into His plans.”

In other words, if we are in the Kingdom, and are living according to God’s plans for His people – and for us – then everything will work for our good.

I have a lot of great verses underlined in my Bible. I don’t know how I missed that gem.   When I read it this week, my goodness, it resonated with me. Because I am a type A person.  I have  to have everything planned out, and predictable. And if it isn’t then I find my well of patience running dry.

But  Paul is telling me that if I am working according to God’s plan for me, then I can let go of  that need to have everything in my life shipshape.

And so can you.

And Paul goes further and strengthens our faith which may be weakened when things don’t seem to be going just right – something else I needed to hear right now – he says,  “When we have trouble or calamity, when we are hunted down or destroyed, is it because He doesn’t love us any more? And if we are hungry, or penniless or in danger, or threatened with death, has God deserted us?

“No,” he says,” for the scriptures tell us that we must be ready to face death at any moment of the day – and he goes on  -“  I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love.  Death can’t. Life can’t. The angels won’t and all the powers of hell itself cannot keep God’s love away.

“ Our fears for today, our worries  about tomorrow, or where we are – high above the sky or in the deepest ocean – nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ when he died for us.”

So what are we worried about?  Why do we have long faces when we come to church. Why do we let small things occupy our minds rather than focusing on God, and trusting?

I don’t know.

Human nature I guess.

But I will tell you something.

Whenever I officiated at a wedding and led the couple through the words of the service, and the vows, I went home to my wife with my commitment to my marriage and to her reinforced.

I needed to be reminded what marriage is.

It isn’t about who makes supper, or who washes the dishes, or whether you should pay some extra money off the mortgage, or take a vacation, or arguing about what to watch on TV, or whose turn is it to put the kids to bed.

As important as those things seem to be.

No, it’s about two people who have committed themselves to be with each other for life. And I mean life. Not a slow death.

It means that two people have covenanted to support each other, to weep with each other, to laugh with each other, to raise a family with each other.

And be happy with each other.

Don’t ever forget that.

Similarly, being a Christian – being in the kingdom –  isn’t about  ritual; who walks down the aisle first in the clergy procession; who lights which candles in which order; who raises money, makes the coffee, teaches in Sunday School, does the flowers, send money off to the Third World  – those things all come automatically when we live in the Kingdom.

But  being a Christian is about a covenant made with Jesus Christ. To follow Him. To put him first. To live within the precepts he has given us; to value him and his sacrifice,  (if you saw The Passion of Christ you would value that sacrifice anew) to  take the forgiveness that he bought, and accept it and let go of guilt and live happily in Him.

And just as listening to the marriage vows again strengthened my commitment to my marriage, hearing Jesus’s parables again, hearing Paul’s words again, strengthen my commitment to Christ.

And remind me that I really don’t have anything to worry about.

As long as I love God and fit into his plans for me.

And if you don’t have anything to worry about, then you can smile when you come to church. You can smile when you go to work.

And you know what happens then? 

Someone may ask, “ How is it that Bob is always so happy?  Even when we are under pressure here? ” or “How is it that when you go to ask Mary something, she always has time for you?”

And someone else may say, ‘It’s because Bob is a Christian.’ Or ‘Because Mary is a Christian.’

People get to like us. People want to be like us.

To be with us.

They might even ask about coming to church for Pete’s sake!

And since we are secure in God’s love, we don’t have to be protective about church – whether someone will fit in – or whether they will like it here –  hey, get that big net out there – and bring them all in. Willy nilly!

Didn’t I say that the church is for bad people –  and since God accepted us without judging us too severely – then we accept them.

But it all starts with us revisiting our Christian promises to Jesus.

Or if we have never made any, doing it today.

Remembering what He means to us, and us to Him, and reveling in it, enjoying it, being joyful in it,  living the life of a Christian and loving it.

Unfortunately, McDonald’s got there first.  But imagine what a  banner posted outside of every church with the words, “We are loving it,”  might do.

Amen.

                                    All Saints Day

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matt: 5:1-12

                               _______________

I think you may have heard this story, but it is one that I use to illustrate one particular kind of saintliness.

A major oil well caught fire. The experts were called in to put out the blaze.  The heat was so intense, however, that the company’s fire fighters could not get within a  thousand feet of the rig. The management, in desperation, called the local volunteer fire department to help in any way they could.

Half an hour later a decrepit-looking fire truck rolled down the road and came to a screeching halt just fifty feet from the massive wall of flames.  The men  jumped out of the truck, sprayed one another with water and then went on to put the fire out.

The oil company management were so grateful that they held a ceremony some days later to commend the courage of the local firemen – courage which had gone way beyond the call of duty.   –  and then an enormous cheque was presented to the chief of the department. 

When he was asked by reporters what he planned to do with the cheque, the chief replied: “Well, the first thing I’m going to do is get the brakes fixed on that darn fire engine.” 

Those firemen were what you might call unlikely heroes. 

Today is the day when we remember the saints. Many of whom also were unlikely heroes.

When we think of saints, we think of people like Paul, or John or James, and the other apostles; or St. Francis, St. Teresa, St. Catherine, St. Bernadette, or St. Ignatius of Loyola.  Ignatius is a good example of the kind of saint people most often think about when they think of saints.

Most of them became saints almost by accident. Ignatius took a different route.

He was born about the time Columbus came to America. As a teenager he lost both of his parents.  He went to work as a page in the court of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella and, when he was 20, he became a soldier. He and his friends did some terrible things, in pranks. He was a wild man. 

His regiment  was called to war, in the course of which, both  his legs were severely injured by cannon fire. Lying there, as he underwent a long and painful recovery, he looked back on his past, on the things he had done, and was deeply ashamed. 

But he had a vision in which he felt that God forgave him, and he subsequently underwent a profound religious conversion.

After his recovery Ignatius set out an a pilgrimage.  He came across a beggar one night, and immediately stripped off his nobleman’s clothes and  exchanged them for the beggar’s filthy rags. 

Eventually Ignatius took up residence in a hillside cave, spending long hours in prayer and penance.  It was out of this experience that he was inspired to found a religious order – an order of men dedicated to Jesus in much the same way the 12 apostles dedicated hemselves to Jesus.  Ignatius called his order THE COMPANY OF JESUS – or the Jesuits. 

Today the order numbers over 20,000 men world-wide.  It operates over 50 high schools and nearly 30 universities in the United States alone.  For centuries the Jesuits have provided the world with  one of the best education systems it has ever seen and increased  the goodness in the world by their service to God and to the  world.

The spirit of St. Ignatius is summed up in his prayer for generosity:

“Lord, teach me to be generous.  Teach me to serve as you deserve; to give and not count the cost; to fight and not heed the wounds; to toil and not to seek for rest; to labour and not to ask for reward – except to know that I am doing your will.”

In this prayer we also catch the spirit of St. Francis who taught his followers to pray like this:

Master, grant that I may never seek so much to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love with all my soul.”

It is saints like Francis and Ignatius that the church honours today but you know, remembering the exploits of saints like Ignatius and Francis can get in the way of what a saint really is and blind us to the fact that today’s believers,  people  like you and me,  are today’s saints.

Believe it.

You see, a saint is simply someone who has opened himself or herself to God’s grace; who has recognized their need for God and decided to rely on and trust in God no matter what.

The word SAINT comes from the Latin world SANCTUS which means  HOLY – so literally the word saint means HOLY ONE.  God commanded the Israelites  “Keep yourselves holy, for  I am holy.”

In the early church, St. Paul  and others called one another the “holy  ones” or saints.   It applies  to the church as a whole, to those who believe in Jesus Christ 

Over the years, however, it has come to be used almost exclusively, for those Christians who were martyred, or who lived lives of remarkable holiness.  

That’s alright, I suppose, but it tends to divert our attention from the everyday saints who are still among us and still living lives that epitomise Christ. 

Saints are people who differ from other people in the world not because they work harder, or accomplish more – but because their lives show more love.

People in the world love their friends,

Saints do their best to love their enemies.

People in the world do good to those who do good to them,

Saints do their best to do good to everyone.

People in the world lend to those who have good credit ratings

Saints lend to bad risks

Saints are different because they work differently to the way the world works.  They believe differently to the way the world believes. They see things differently to the way the world sees.

They believe in the work of Jesus:

– the Jesus who says blessed are the hungry  and the poor – for they shall be filled.

They believe in the way of Jesus 

– the Jesus who says blessed are those who weep now, for they shall laugh.

They see in the perspective of Jesus  

– the Jesus who says blessed are those who are rejected and reviled on account of me – for their reward shall be great in heaven.

A saint is someone who allows God to use them as an instrument of His love.  

A saint is someone who doesn’t live for worldly honours, but quietly goes about the work that God has given them to do, however humble  that task may be.

I’ll tell you what I mean:

A family of five was enjoying a day at the beach.  The children were paddling in the water, and making castles in the sand,  when a little old lady appeared.  Her gray hair was blowing in the wind and her clothes were dirty and ragged.  She was muttering something to herself as she picked up things from the beach and put them into a bag.

The parents called the children over and told them to stay away from that strange old lady.  As she passed by where they were sitting, she stooped down  every now and then to pick up something, and she smiled at them.

They didn’t smile back. 

Some weeks later, when the father complained to a local official about the “weirdos” to be seen on the beaches, he was told that the little old lady they had found so strange had made it her lifelong crusade to pick up bits of glass from the beach so children wouldn’t cut their feet.

Saints pick up the glass that others toss down; they believe in people no one else believes in;  they help those that no one cares for.   

They share in the Spirit of the One who died for all sinners, and who rose from the dead to give life and forgiveness to all who believe in His Name.

At times like this I remember the story of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, who were thought to have drowned. They were hiding in the church and listening to their own funeral service. They were so moved at all the  wonderful things said about themselves that they cried – at their own funeral.

Today, we think of all those who have died and whose lives and deaths connected them to this church and this community. I remember eulogies that told of the love in their lives.

How I wish they could have heard what was said about them.

So we remember  those who have gone on. We  remember with thanks the way they were.  And we also acknowledge the saints among us, today, now.  

For those who try to follow Christ, in how they love and live in their lives, are the saints of today.

You may have someone in mind.

Keep their names in your heart, and during our prayers today, whisper them, or say them out loud, for all to hear.  For that’s what this Sunday is all about.   It’s about those who helped the helpless, clothed the naked, fed the hungry, comforted the bereaving, healed the sick with their prayers, visited the lonely,  and were present to the dying.

It’s about you and me.

And we give thanks to God for graciously calling us to serve Him, enabling us to glorify His name, and equipping us in His service.

We give thanks to God for His goodness – goodness that can only be shown through those who follow Jesus.

We give thanks to God for all the saints who have served Him in the past and who continue to serve today. 

And we give thanks to God for the gift of His Son Jesus the Christ, in whose name we serve. 

Amen.

A Reading from the Gospel of Matthew

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” He said to him, “’You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question: “What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,

‘The Lord said to my Lord,
“Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet”’?

If David thus calls him Lord, how can he be his son?” No one was able to give him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask him any more questions.  ( Mt 22: 34-46)

                                   ________________________

In our Old Testament reading today, it’s the end.   Moses has brought his people to their new home, and now he is to die.

Moses is  revered by Jews everywhere. No wonder. He brought them out of slavery in Egypt. He gave them The Law. He led them through the wilderness, and finally into their new home – the land promised to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob…. Even though he himself would not set foot there.

And to top it all, as everyone knows, he had the looks of a movie star ……………… he looked just like Charlton Heston . 

Moses hadn’t always been a righteous man. He was a murderer. If you remember, he saw an Egyptian beating an Israelite unmercifully, and in his anger at the Egyptian, he struck him and killed him.

But God forgave him and decided to bring out in Moses, the leadership skills that were needed to rescue His people from slavery.

And Moses needed all his skills to deal with such a stubborn and stiff-necked people.    They complained  mightily, and often, to the degree that Moses was ready to give up on them on more than one occasion.

But he loved his God, and he loved his people. And he persevered. For forty long, hard years.

There’s a story which has been going around for awhile. It seems that George Bush died and went to heaven. He was having a great time. Everybody welcomed him and spoke to him, except for one white-haired, bearded old man. Bush couldn’t understand it. Every time he walked into a room, this guy would get up and leave. He couldn’t figure out what he had done wrong.

But Bush was determined to find out. And finally he found the opportunity. He snuck up behind him the old man one day, tapped him on the shoulder and asked, “ How come, every time I walk into a room, you leave? Why are you avoiding me?”

And Moses said, ” Hey, look at all the trouble I got into the last time I talked to a bush.”

Moses must often have wondered how he got into the business of leading people. 

Just as Paul must have wondered how he got into the evangelism business.

As we can see in his letter to the Thessalonians, a portion of which we heard read today, he had to defend himself from people who had begun to attack him in his absence. 

Some people had been saying that Paul preached in a way to curry favour with certain people. He says, “ We didn’t speak to please people, but to please God who knows our motives. “

We heard last week how the Pharisees put Jesus under attack. Now they are at it again, with a question about the law.  As usual, he disarms them with his wisdom.

We all find ourselves under attack, at times, don’t we?  And we don’t have the wisdom of Jesus to help us handle it.

It can come about just because you happen to be in the way of  someone needing to vent their spleen. Those unfortunate people killed or injured in the last few weeks, just happened to be in the sights of a sniper’s rifle. 

And when we feel under attack, and can’t do much about it, it’s frustrating, and we get angry, don’t we?

Some years ago, some enterprising person, recognizing a real need among drivers who  felt abused by other drivers, came out with a button, labeled ‘Missile launcher. ’ You  stuck this to your dash, and when some driver offended you, you just  pressed that button.

I suppose it made some people feel better, even if it only was to smile at the foolishness of it all.

But it’s not  funny when someone is doing it for real –  shooting, that is.  

It’s not  funny when we think of hostages taken, of suicide bombings,  all done in the name of addressing some real or imagined grievance. 

Jean Chretien said something after the September 11^th attack. I can’t quote him exactly, but it was to the effect that past policies, and the Western world’s having so much more than the rest of the world, had  something to do with the rise of terrorism.  

He was attacked for saying that, and it was pointed out that some of the 9/11 attackers were from affluent homes in Saudi Arabia. The fact is though, that Western economic policies over the last half century have alienated a large number of the people living in the Third World.  Which is a real tragedy.

And that tragedy is compounded for us, when we realise there is nothing we can do to change the way things are. The problems are just too big and too complicated. 

But we can change our world – the world around us, the world in which we live.

And I hate to tell you this, but the only way to change your world, is to love your neighbour as yourself.

Love the driver who cuts across you and then gives you the finger.

Love the Customer Service person on the other end of the phone who angers you with his or her unwillingness to listen to reason.

Love the surgeon who made a deadly mistake.  

Love the sniper who shot and killed an innocent young woman as she loaded her shopping into her car.

Impossible!

Again, I hate to tell you, but they are your neighbors.

How do we turn hatred of neighbour into love of neighbour?  Is it possible?

Jesus  basically answered this question, when he said that the first and great commandment was to love God and the second,  to love your neighbour as yourself.

He placed them in that order, because you will never be able to love your neighbour unless and until, you love God  – with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.

There are some of us here today who have wondered how God can love us with our history, our weaknesses, our wickedness.  

And we  wonder how God can love those we think are so much worse than us. We sure can’t!

But He can, because he sees a poor soul, wounded by life’s hardships, twisted by life’s lies, fooled by life’s false promises.

He sees a child, born into this world with all the hope that brings, and somehow, a beautiful baby grows up to be a liar, or a thief, or a cruel manipulator, or an addict, or just someone who can’t make it in life.  

And he cries for what might have been  –  happiness, achievement, self-esteem, a thankfulness for God’s  gifts.

And he cries for what is: – sadness, failure, self-hatred, and so on. Nothing to give thanks for at all.  

And he cries for that lost soul.

And he suffers for that lost soul.

And he offers his love to that lost soul, and wants to forgive and heal, and nurture  that soul  back to health.

And He dies on the cross for that lost soul

You can’t help but love  a God like that, can you?

You can’t help but love Jesus, the human face of a God like that. 

But love Him with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength, and you will find that you can also love your neighbour.

It’s the only way. 

John F. Kennedy is credited with saying, “Don’t get mad, get even.”

Jesus tells us, “Don’t get mad – forgive!”

Oh, you might say, “I am not big enough”.

But you can be.

You might say, “I don’t have that depth of compassion in me.”

But you could have.

You see, the problem is, that we begin with the second great commandment; we are distracted by the command to love our neighbour – our enemy – rather than beginning at the beginning and focusing on  loving God.

Because we can’t really love anyone until we first love God.   If we can manage that, then the rest will surely follow.

During the Korean War, a South Korean civilian was arrested by the Communists and ordered shot. But when the young Communist leader learned that the prisoner was in charge of an orphanage, caring for small children, he decided to spare him and kill his son instead.

So the nineteen year-old son was taken and shot, right there in front of his Christian father.

Later as the fortunes of war changed, that same Communist leader was captured by UN Forces, tried, and condemned to death.

Before the sentence could be carried out, however,  the father  whose son had been shot came and pleaded for the life of the killer. He said that this Communist was too young and hadn’t  really known what he was doing. This Christian said, ‘Give him to me and I will train him.”

His wish was granted, and the father took the murderer of his son into his own home and cared for him.

That father began not by loving his enemy, but by loving God, and doing so, he found the power of forgiving love. 

Today, that young man, formerly a Communist is a Christian pastor, serving Christ.

It comes first from loving God, as we see Him in His Son Jesus.

It’s the beginning.

Amen.

The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew.

The Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Jesus in what he said. So they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why are you putting me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the coin used for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. Then he said to them, “Whose head is this, and whose title?” They answered, “The emperor’s.” Then he said to them, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left him and went away.( Mt 22:15-22

                                                                                                                                                                    — ————————————                                                      

I think maybe it’s time to talk about the church.

Because Paul’s enthusiasm for the church he founded in the city of Thessaloniki, as recorded in 1 Thess 1:1-10 is so encouraging.

Like him, I too am enthusiastic about the church .

Paul tells the people there, “You became an example for all the Lord’s followers in Macedonia and Achaia, and because of you, the Lord’s message has spread everywhere in these regions.”

As Dr. Barclay has it: This is Paul at his most winsome. He is complimenting the church on its real qualities, but he will also, later in this letter, issue a gentle rebuke. 

But that’s OK, we all need to be set back on the right track sometime.

Barclay says that with Paul,  even when he rebuked, he never wanted to discourage,  but always to uplift.

In every person there is something fine, and often the best way to get rid of the lower things is to praise the higher things. The best way to eradicate faults is to praise virtues  – so they will flower all the more.

Everyone reacts better to encouragement than to rebuke

And so,  because they come from a loving heart, Paul’s joyful comments to the people in the church in Thessaloniki, bring us joy too. 

I would like to think that someone who had left this church for parts afar, would remember us, and write to us in such a heartwarming way.

I imagine so.

Don’t you?

I hope so, because that is the only sort of church that can do God’s work here in earth.

By God’s work, I mean all the things we do here, and out there, that bring us to the notice of other people. The things we do and say that will have people asking, “What church do you belong to?” 

How do you do it? 

And then we can tell them.

Paul says that that church – and he means the people, not the building – they may not even have a building as yet – they serve God while waiting on the coming of Christ.

They live in the world doing God’s work, but are conscious that at any time, God may decide to call us all home.

This sort of church,   is one that can only be what it is,  by being, as Barclay has it, ‘In God.’

He says that just as the air is in us,  and we are in the air, and cannot live without air, so the true church is in God and God is in the true church, and the church can’t live without God.    

And, since that same God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we need not shiver in fear of a God who is a tyrant, but instead, bask, in the sunshine of a God who is love.

They couldn’t be the sort of church they are, unless they are ‘in God.’

They couldn’t be the church they are unless God guides them, and governs them, and is ‘in them.’

That’s the only way it can work, but, you know,  sometimes it is just all too much for some people. Serving God is just too much for them. 

Emerson Colaw tells about doing some work with his church’s membership list. He was writing to those who hadn’t been in church for a long time.

He wrote to one family that had been very active in the church, and he got a letter back that said:  “Mr. Colaw, we now live near a university campus and we go every Sunday to the chapel service there. They have unusually fine music ….they have nationally known preachers every Sunday morning,” and here she added a note that he didn’t think  was really necessary,    she said, “We had never heard such preaching as that before. The children are being taught in Sunday School by seminary students,”

And then she ended, “ But the best of all is there is no membership, no pledging, and no women’s committee asking me to work. So if you don’t mind, we’ll just discontinue our membership at your church and continue to enjoy what we have here.”

No involvement, no bother, no crosses.

This family went to a church where they didn’t have to serve God, and that’s how they wanted it.

What sort of church was that? Would Paul say about that church, “You became an example for all the Lord’s followers?”

Not!

The church exists to serve God, to glorify God, and so do we – the bricks of our church.

Without God there will be nothing accomplished, nothing gained, and come that great day when we are called to account for how we used the gifts that God gave us – we will have nothing to report! 

Even the children of Israel, as wayward as they often were, had to  acknowledge that they needed God to be with them every single day.  

In Exodus we read, Moses saying that  they will not move unless God goes with them.

“If you aren’t going with us,” he says, “ Then please don’t  make us leave this place.”

That’s like you or I saying, “ God, I am not going to take another step in my life without you to guide me.”

And I mean that. I can tell you, that I got lost when I set out without Him.

In our Gospel reading today, we see a Jesus who is ‘in God,’ and God  ‘in him.’  Over the last few weeks, we have heard him challenge  the religious leaders over the way they were living their lives  – they thought they were doing very well, until Jesus put them straight.   

If you remember he has compared them, in the story of the two sons, to the son who wouldn’t do his father’s will.  In the story of the wicked tenants, they are the wicked tenants. In the parable of the king’s feast, they are the condemned guests.   He has been giving them ‘ what for.’

And now, this week, we see them going onto the attack.

The Pharisees have joined with some from the party of the Herodians, two parties who hated each other, but came together to attack Jesus.

They have dreamed up a way to damage the credibility of Jesus in front of a crowd of people.

Now  I understand that  everyone hates paying taxes – there may be some people here this morning who actually like paying taxes – but I think I am safe in saying that most people hate them.

It was no different in those days. There was a tax on what the farmer harvested. There was income tax and there was a head tax, or poll tax. This was the one that was being used to challenge Jesus.  The amount of the poll tax was one denarius per adult. One denarius was slightly more than a man could earn in a day.

The questioners knew how people hated paying taxes. They hated them for purely economic reasons –  obviously – and they  hated them from a religious point of view. The emperor’s head was on that coin, the emperor who called himself as a god.

There is only one God, of course. So for a Jew, even using  money on which there is such an image could be a blasphemous act.

So, the religious and political leaders came up with their big question, their plan to catch out, Jesus. “Should we pay taxes to the Emperor or not?”

You can just see them watching  Jesus, as the one chosen to ask the question spoke up, and  smiling a little as he asked it.  This time, they think they have him.  

“What’s your answer to that? Huh?”

But as we read, Jesus turned the tables on them. He asked them whose face was represented on the coin, and when they answered, “Caesar’s,” he simply said, “Well, give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and give to God what is God’s.”

Pretty smart eh?

He was on the ball, wasn’t he? Well, Jesus had an advantage over them, he knew whom he served.  He served –  God his Father.  Those who know what they are doing will always win out over those who don’t. 

I am reminded of a story about two clergymen who were arguing over some fine doctrinal point.

They had argued for some time, when eventually, one minister said to the other, “Look, what are we fighting over? We are both striving to do the Lord’s work. You do it your way and  ……….I’ll do it His way.”

Doing things His way is what we should be about, isn’t it?

We all need to be reminded now and again for whom we work. .

But more than that, we should remember that we can’t do anything meaningful if He  is not in and of our  church. 

And we will never do anything meaningful, if he is not in and of, our life – if  He isn’t with us!

Moses said to God, “If you go  with us, everyone will know that you are pleased with your people. That way, we will be different from the rest of the people on earth.”

Isn’t that what the church – that’s us – should also be saying? Be with us Lord, and make us different?

Amen