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 a shepherd. 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. (Mt. 9:3-10:23)

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 You will remember, I am sure,  in 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 is being forced to see the injustice, and trapped feelings of a suffering people – something it has been blind to until now, 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 if you like – signified by its place on that perch. and he finally put the new bird right at the far end of the perch.

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 would they 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.

But 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.  

That’s us. Because we  are – 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 working for Jesus? 

He gave his life, working for us.

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 all about motivation, I 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!

But fear doesn’t always work, does it? 

Think about it: We have been threatened with Hell for centuries, but it doesn’t seem to have made much difference to the way we live. 

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

So we can  forget fear .

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, 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 of us 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.

   The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew

As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.”

And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples.

When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”

While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples.

Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well.

When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And the report of this spread throughout that district. (Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26)

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I once nearly took a job as general manager of a telemarketing company. I didn’t think at the time that telemarketing was such a nuisance. I would imagine that nowadays, people in that line of business might not want to tell anyone what they did..     But, if , as someone receiving a call you allow for the fact that your life is getting interrupted –often inconveniently – there is nothing really wrong with telemarketing. Someone is merely finding a way to get information to you so you can make a decision about buying their product or service.

Over and over again!

Another job that used to have a negative connotation was that of insurance salesman. You didn’t want to become friends with an insurance representative because it was said that sooner or later they would hit on you to buy insurance.

I should say that I know three insurance salesmen and not one has hit on me for insurance.  And what’s wrong with them wanting to help out a friend, anyway?

But what about occupations that are really down there in terms of status? Drug pusher comes to mind. Illegal gun salesman could qualify I suppose. Pimp – now there is a job that has no status at all.

You wouldn’t want your son or daughter to say they were thinking of going into any of those jobs would you?

Those occupations – they are not really jobs –  involve doing things that exploit other human beings. They are occupations that require a person to be ruthless, heartless, conscience-less. They require someone who is dead to the normal emotions and feelings that you and I have.

They require someone whose life has become forfeit to all the wrong things. Someone who doesn’t care any more. Someone who has been lost to God.

In the time when Jesus walked the earth, tax collectors were seen like that. They had sold their souls to the Roman occupying force, existed on what they could extort from people above and beyond what was actually owed in taxes, and were outcasts from society. As far as society was concerned, they were dead, and, religious people thought – dead to God also. 

There were other people who were considered dead to society, and to God, not because they had done anything wrong, but because something had happened to them beyond their control. Lepers for example were non- persons. They wandered around like lost souls.  They owned nothing, had been driven from their homes and villages, and were to all intents and purposes dead to their families and to society.

The woman mentioned in today’s Gospel, the woman who touched the hem of the garment Jesus wore, had bled for twelve years. Since menstrual blood was considered unclean, a menstruating woman was therefore unclean, and as someone who had been unclean for twelve years she was denied her place in that society. She wouldn’t be able to attend the temple. People wouldn’t want to be seen with her. She was, to some extent a dead woman.

Tax collectors, lepers, prostitutes, those who were ritually unclean, these were the people the Pharisees called sinners.  These were those who were cast out from society.  And if you didn’t belong,  you might as well be dead. 

And being rejected by society is not something that only happened in Jesus’s time.

Some years ago there was a British movie, based on fact, called  I’m Alright Jack  which told the story of a factory worker who refused to obey his union when a strike was called. He worked through the strike, enduring all sorts of insults and taunts, and threats,  and when the strike was over his workmates punished him by a process called, sending to Coventry. 

That meant that was far as everyone else in the factory was concerned, he didn’t exist. No-one would talk to him, associate with him, assist him, or even acknowledge that he was there. To the other factory employees, he was, to all intents and purposes,  a dead man.

Jesus came to bring new life to people who were shut out, ignored, isolated – dead. 

And this comes about for those who have faith in him.  Who believe that he can do it.    People who realise their need to be transformed.

I don’t know about you, but when I hear of someone who has been sent  to prison for something horrendous,  and then a few years later claiming to be  born-again Christians, and asking to be allowed out on parole, I am always suspicious.

It sounds too easy.

And there may well be phonies among them, but the fact is, Jesus does save, and Jesus does heal – even the most hardened criminals. 

There has to be real faith, though.  People who have settled into a routine existence, doing whatever it is they do – legal or not – as wicked as it may be, and as sinful as it may be, will need a lot of faith to take on a new life, away from the familiar things, familiar associates, familiar ways – as self destructive as those ways may be.

A person addicted to drugs needs a lot of faith to face the future without drugs.

A person used to having power over others needs a lot of faith to face life as a helpless follower of Christ.

Just as a  person who has it all – someone from the right side of the tracks – will also need a lot of faith –  to turn their back on the things they have relied upon and to rely instead on Jesus.

You don’t think of people who have everything as being  in need do you? 

I read about a big pop star, who when he wasn’t performing, had no life at all.  He was almost a non-entity. He only came alive when he was on stage.

What happens to that person when no one wants to see him perform any more?  If he is only alive when performing, then when he’s not, he might as well be dead.

In 1929 they say, when the market crashed, men who had lost their fortunes jumped out of skyscraper windows.   

For them, no money meant no life.

But what they had always needed was for someone to give them real life.

There’s a story about a man who was driving his car down a country road one April and suddenly an animal ran out in front of his car. He braked but couldn’t help hitting it. 

He got out and saw a rabbit lying there. It was obviously dead. Then he noticed a large basket full of eggs, and he realized he had run over the Easter Bunny. He really began to panic now.

But just then another car stopped and a woman got out. “What’s happened?” she asked, and he told her. “I think I killed the Easter Bunny. What do I do?” 

“Don’t worry,” she told him, and took a canister out of her purse. She took off the cap and sprayed the rabbit. 

Suddenly, the rabbit’s eyes opened. It jumped up, picked up the basket and hopped away, all the time waving, waving its paws. as it hopped down the road. 

“Wow,” the man went, “Let me see that.”

The woman passed the canister to him. He looked at the label, and read,

“Acme hair Spray. Gives new life to dead hair and permanent wave.”

Well it’s not quite like that when Jesus brings new life.

It’s a process, isn’t it?

It comes about when we realise that there is more to life than the things we have been using to distract ourselves.  

And having faith enough to ask for it.

Paul had it. Matthew the tax collector had it. The woman who had suffered for twelve years had it. The official who wanted Jesus to  restore his daughter had it.

There was something they saw in this man Jesus that pointed them to God, and new life. There was something in this man that said, “Come home. Don’t be afraid. You are loved. Come to me.”

And they did.

I think that most of us have answered that call. Most of us here have heard the voice of Jesus, and committed our lives to him.

And it is not easy, is it?    It means new life, yes, but it also means a different life.

Deciding to put Jesus before drugs, drink, a low life, seems to us to be an easy decision, but putting him before a good life, before a loving family, before a great job, a great reputation, and so on – has to be really hard, doesn’t it?

But with all that we have, if we don’t have him, then we don’t really have life.

Because as we all know, those things –  great job, great reputation, great friends, even great family – have been known to fail at that crucial moment when they are needed.

But he never fails.

Believing that ……… knowing that….. having faith in that …….. is exactly what we must have, to know Him intimately.

And to be able to serve Him in ways that are just as important today as they ever were.

For this world will never be safe or at peace until Jesus reigns again.

Amen. 

The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew.

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.

When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

“and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Mt.28: 16-20)

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What is God to you?

Or who, is God to you?

Is God some larger-than-life figure, powerful and mighty, sitting on a throne in Heaven, and looking down – sometimes approvingly, sometimes critically – on His creation?

Or is God for you, a person who walks with you; someone who knows your doubts and worries, and shares them with you?  …..the person who experienced life here on earth at its nastiest,   but who did not flinch, and who finally was tortured, and put to death – not for anything he had done wrong, but for the things he had done right?

Or is God what animates you? Is God, someone who sees your powerlessness, your life in a rut, and who somehow infuses you with the spirit, the energy, the need to get out of the rut, and go on a great adventure?

I suppose the answer to that question could be different depending on the state of your life at the time of asking.

I guess we have experienced God in all of His three persons, during our lives haven’t we?

There are times when I take a walk down to the beach, and just sit there, on that rocky jetty, and listen to the lapping of the water, and feel the wind against my face, and look out across that great expanse, and I just know that a Creator God is responsible for it all.

And I feel a peace, and an affinity with the earth, and all that God has made, and I know Him as God, Creator God, Loving God.

And when I feel like that, the cares of everyday living and loving fall away, almost as if He or She has taken them from me and a great sense of freedom ensues.

Reluctantly I pull yourself away, and head back to the everyday world.

In that everyday world, unfortunately, when  I read the newspaper, and watch the television news,  I hear about the latest suicide bomber; new statistics on how many children are working in slave-like conditions; fresh evidence of climate change we are told has come about because of our misuse of creation; new statistics that tell us how we are poisoning the very air we breathe, and a ghastly litany of humanity’s lack of humanity.

And I despair.

Then I remember a baby, born into a working class family, placed in an animal’s eating trough for a crib, in a shed, in a place called Bethlehem – a place right in the center of a part of the world that is experiencing war, and terror right now, – the Middle East –  and how that baby grew to become a man who took on the immense task, not of changing the world, but of changing people – so that people could change the world.

And I recall how this man gathered around him twelve people, and inculcated them with his love of people, and his belief in our ability to change, and how somehow, his death, which many thought would shut them all up, did the opposite, and that young man’s message of  salvation – did in fact change the lives of many for the better, and still does.

And perhaps more important than the message, if that is possible,  is that this young man died specifically for my salvation – so that I could change – and not be punished for the way I have been…………

………….that his whole reason for being was to call us back from selfishness, and wickedness, and being stuck in sin, and open to us the possibility of real life, life that gives, and is fulfilled; life that is involved, life that will go on for ever.

And  remembering all this about that young man called Jesus, I experience hope. I know that everyone who suffers has a loving brother – someone who himself suffered – to be with them, and to travel with them, even in the midst of the filth of this world – and to bring them to a knowledge of that God who created us to love him, and to love each other.

Not to abuse; not to use; not to manipulate; not to hurt; not to degrade; but to love and uplift, and to encourage, and to help, and to care for each other.

And that sounds such a wonderful place to be, such a wonderful goal to which to aspire, but alas, something that could be too tough, too difficult, just too hard to manage by myself.

But then I remember how those men and women who followed this man Jesus, how they too must have felt inadequate, and ill-equipped, and just not up to it, and yet they did in fact make a difference.

And I remember that they didn’t do it by themselves. Yes they had Jesus’ teachings to guide them – but so do we. They had more than that. They had a life-changing encounter with another person of the God we love. They  had an encounter with the Holy Spirit.

And remembering this, I rest assured, that whatever I try  to do in His name, His Spirit will be there to give me the strength, the courage, the wherewithal, to do it.

You might be thinking, “How can that be?   It’s ok to say that, but how can people be changed so profoundly? “

About ninety years ago, a man by the name of Adolph Hitler, took control of a nation and by his  rhetoric, by his evil will, he turned thousands of good people into monsters who could torture and kill in his name, without compunction.

Beginning a little time before that, a man named Stalin took an ideology of materialism, of an economic system,  and using that ideology, turned thousands of  formally good people into torturers, killers, informers, oppressors – guards of the gulag.

So don’t tell me that the Creator of the universe  – the God above all gods, the one who placed the stars and the planets in their courses – that this God  can’t take  ordinary good people – like you and me – and do miracles through us.

Because he is greater than evil. He is stronger than ideology. He is more powerful  than rhetoric, than spin doctoring, than advertising.

Than advertising?

Do you know that the average child is exposed to more than a thousand hours of advertising during it’s formative years?

And do you know what advertising tells us? It tells  us that we bring happiness into our lives by the shampoo we use, the clothes we wear, the jewelry we buy, the car we drive. 

A thousand hours of  propaganda.

God can even counteract that.

It seems that there is a movement among young people these days to search for something beyond themselves, beyond the facile messages of advertising jingles.

There is a need.

For a Creator God, and a Saving God and an Enabling God.

A Trinity.

There is an emptiness that needs filling, a hunger for something more than the pap that is fed to them twenty four hours a day on the internet

And we have that.

Don’t we?

We have a God who delivers.

We have a God who saves.

We have a God who is willing to give power to those open to it.

It’s about time that we started telling people what we have. And how to get it. If we are going to do one tiny bit of what those first disciples accomplished.

I don’t know about you, but I want this world to be a little bit better than it was when I came into it.

Else what’s the point?

And people are doing it you know.  People are leaving this place a little better  than when they came.

I see it all the time.  In the legacy of care and love that people leave behind them. In the monuments to their care for the kingdom that they leave behind.

You know what I am talking about.

I don’t have to tell you.

So why am I – telling you?

Because I want others outside of here – others who have never darkened the door of a church, who have never  known salvific love, others who have a need and a hunger, and a desire to be better, and do better, and leave their portion of this place better – I want them  to know what we know.

But they won’t know if we keep our joy to ourselves.

Let’s bring this God of ours out and share with everyone else.

This God of ours being God the Holy Trinity. The God who created all that we have and all that we are. The God who sacrificed Himself to save us. The God who everyday fills with power, those who want to bring about change.

Created. Saved. Empowered.

United in God, and in the Church, and determined to make this world a much, much better place.

Amen.

            The Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to Matthew.

When he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”

Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one question; if you tell me the answer, then I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin?”

And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘Of human origin,’ we are afraid of the crowd; for all regard John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.

“What do you think? A man had two sons; he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ He answered, ‘I will not’; but later he changed his mind and went. The father went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir’; but he did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them,

“Truly I tell you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are going into the kingdom of God ahead of you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him; and even after you saw it, you did not change your minds and believe him. ( (Matthew 21:23-32):

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The preacher went on and on, and some of the people began to wonder when he was going to finish. It wasn’t that what he said wasn’t interesting, but rather, most of those there were long time church members and they didn’t think they needed to listen too closely.

And it was a hot day and even though the windows were open, it was stuffy in the church, and most people there wanted to get home for lunch, and hopefully, a cool drink. So they looked at their watches, and sat this way and that, and looked around, and counted the tiles in the ceiling, and eventually the sermon was over and the rest of the service would soon go by, and they could leave.

The parson shook hands with each member of the congregation as they exited, and then he turned to go back inside, to tidy up before he left. But he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye.

He turned and saw an older man, dressed in old and shabby clothes brushing grass from his pants. The man saw the parson and smiled, “Can I talk with you sir?”

“Well, er, I was just going. But come inside. Would you like a glass of water?

 “Thanks, but no. I just walked into town an hour ago, and was tired, so I sat against the church wall in the shade, and I heard what you said. I meant to be on my way, but something you said stopped me.”

“What was that?”

“You said that because of what Jesus did we are forgiven whatever bad we have done and can be back on good terms with God again. Is that right?”

“That’s basically what I said, “ nodded the preacher.

“Does that apply to me too?”

“It applies to everybody.”

“And what do I have to do?”

The parson took this man by the arm, and led him to the altar rail. “Just kneel here and ask God to forgive you for your sins, and if you are truly sorry, then He will and you will be free.”

 The man did that. He prayed aloud,” God, you know I have been a bad person. You know I have stole stuff, and hurt people. And I am sorry. I am tired of being on the outside. Can you please forgive me. Can you please let me in?”

 Something seemed to change in that old man. He stood up. His eyes were wet but his shoulders seemed to be set a little straighter. His face didn’t seem so lined.

“I’ll go now,” he said to the parson who was also crying, and he walked out the door.

The minister sat there for a long time. Nothing like this had ever happened to him before. He had preached each week at this church for seven years, and although he knew some of his flock needed to repent of the way they lived, none had ever indicated they would.

Oh, the people at his church seemed like such good people, There was the odd person you had to tread lightly with. There were people who partied a bit. One couple seemed too strict with their children, and he worried about them. But they attended regularly.

They all seemed to listen to what he preached, and seemed to want to follow what he said, but he knew they didn’t.

But this man?

Here was a man who had rejected God, had lived his life outside of God’s grace. had refused God, and yet he had finally realised his mistake and had come back to his Father.

Matthew tells us that Jesus is talking to those who show their love of God by how they played by the rules, by the law – in other words, how they showed it. They seem to be saying they serve the Lord but often they don’t. The law gives them latitude to look good but not necessarily to be good or to do good.,

And he gives them the story of the two sons, to illustrate what he means. One rejects his father’s order but later changes his mind and does it. The other says OK, but then doesn’t. He is telling the Pharisees something here, but they probably won’t hear what he is saying. Their lives are so organized around the law that they can’t imagine how they could be wrong.

 I am going to tell you another true story of two brothers. One was eight and the other four years old. Someone had given them a budgie in a cage, which they loved, but often forgot to look after. It was their responsibility and mostly they did what they had to do, but being young children they often forgot.

Then one day the cage was silent, and their mother checking it saw the bird was dead Its food box was empty and the water container, was dry. Then she remembered that in the last day or day or so, she had kinda heard, and kinda saw, it do something weird. It would jump down from its perch, head toward the seed bowl and do a sort of strange dance around it before going back to the perch. She had no idea what it was doing, and had been too busy to really check it out..

I remember when she told me about this, about thirty years ago, but it was only the other day that I understood what had happened. I am a really slow learner.

 Birds aren’t so dumb as you might think. They can be trained to do tricks, and they can learn.( Some day I will tell you the story of the chicken that played the piano.)

 This budgie had probably seen that when it did that little dance – made a noise, and jumped around, that it would not be long before food and water arrived. And here it was doing that and expecting the same thing to happen.

This time there were no little boys around, but the bird performed that same ritual, which had been answered in the past, hoping food would appear.

 Like from God?

 We read in the Old Testament, and in other historical accounts that people would have gods whose purpose was to help humans. A god who provided rain, another who provided fire, another who brought good luck and so on.

It seems that humans have always had a real sense that there is a God, and have sought ways to influence God. To win his favour. But how to please this God? How to ensure that he would continue to favour his people? The answer appeared to be that sacrifices would have to be made.

The sacrifice would have to be something precious. God wouldn’t want a worthless sacrifice, would he? So sometimes a child was sacrificed.

The Old Testament refers to this, and we know from archeological research that it took place in South America. You will remember the story of Abraham being prepared to sacrifice his only son, Isaac but being restrained by an angel. Sacrifice has always been a part of worship, it seems.

We especially remember the sacrifice that Jesus made, for us – his own life, And we remember it in the Eucharist, don’t we?

We relive that last night when Jesus was with his disciples when we participate in the Eucharist.

Such rituals help us to remember and to commemorate, and to make a connection, with our God. And are very valuable as a part of our faith. They help us to come close to God. To feel a nearness with God and with each other. And we do them to persuade God to be near us.

But these rituals are for us, not for God. He doesn’t need ritual, he doesn’t need praise, He needs nothing. He created everything there is. Why would he need anything?

Psalm 50, says it well,” I will not accept a bull from your house, or goats from your folds. 10 For every wild animal of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know all the birds of the air,[a] and all that moves in the field is mine. 12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and all that is in it is mine

 If God is so great, and so powerful, then he doesn’t really need anything, does he? Even praise?

 That’s something we need to do. We need to, as I said, to help us feel close to God. I remember the first time I knelt at the altar rail and took communion. I was blown away by the feeling, the blessing, the closeness to God I felt and still do. But really, it’s not what we do in here, in our beautiful old church, that is important. It is what we do out there.

What we do here is to help us to do the important stuff out there. And what we do for others. What we do to others. How we help others. How we Love others.

That’s what He wants from us.

And when we finally do see Him, He is going to ask, ” What did you do? ” Not how much did you worship? Or how many times did you go to church?

 Like he would ask those Pharisees, what did you do for others? And they would say, “We obeyed all your laws.” But he would ask, again, ” What did you do for others?

And He will ask the same thing of us. Not did you jump off your perch and do a dance to please me, but what did you do for others?

You might say, ” Well, I played a good round of golf every week, or I worked hard and built a nice home. Or I attended church every Sunday and sat through hundreds of sermons. And He will ask again, ” But what did you do?” “

And He will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”… And the goats on the left…….?.

For over a hundred and eighty years people have needed the church I attend as a place of praise, of prayer , of ritual, of community, and friendship, all of which have helped our forebears, and help us, to know what it is we should be doing out there, and to encourage us to do it.

So we should be able to answer the question, ‘ What did you do?” with confidence.

The man I mentioned at the start of this story, had done nothing good, it seems. In fact he confessed to doing a lot of bad. But when the  minister sat outside that church, for a moment after the service, he thought of people  who attended regularly. Some there would be, the preacher knew,  who didn’t actually follow what he tried to tell them in his sermons.  That old man who had wondered by, not a church attendee, had found something that urged him to move from his old life into a new one.

 He didn’t jump off his perch and do a dance, nor did he make any great sacrifice, all he did was acknowledge his need to be right with God.

I have loved my church. I have loved all who attend faithfully,. I have loved doing worship there,. but I oft need reminding, and maybe you do too, of all we need to do to be right with God. .

It’s not so much is it?