God of our glory
Our readings today concentrate on lifestyles – a subject that has been hotly debated both inside and outside the church in recent years. Questions remain over what is a good lifestyle…
The Book of Proverbs is full of wisdom about how we can deal with life and with people, and in the section we heard (9:1-6) we are told that wisdom has built her house – in other words wisdom is established and is calling out to people to follow the way of wisdom. In the letter to the Ephesians Paul writes (5:15-20) offering advice to a church, not just the Ephesian church it would seem, but to all of the churches that Paul had been involved in.
The letter to the Ephesians is split into two parts – the doctrinal part, looking at things such as the unity of the church and the work of Christ in reconciliation as well as the mystery of the gospel message, and the practical part which concentrates on the lives of the followers of Jesus.
And actually both of those things are important for our faith today – we need to have some sort of understanding, however basic of what it is God means to us – what God has done for us, and how God cares for us; but also what practical things we should be doing in response…
And perhaps the most important thing we realise as we look at Jesus’ teaching is that he didn’t make a long list of things that people should and shouldn’t do – he certainly had expectations and hopes that people’s lives would be changed, but the most important thing of all was to recognise that people should see the greatest form of wisdom there is – that God is our strength and our hope in all things and at all times. For the third week running here its perhaps worth repeating the wisdom of the theologian Karl Barth who said when asked the greatest information he has learnt from his studies, ‘Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.’
When my nephew was young at a Sunday School party they had a game where they had to find cards with words on and this is a true story ! When the food was ready and Jack was called, he shouted back, ‘I can’t come yet, I’m looking for God’.
It is of course the perfect illustration because it is where so many people find themselves day by day in their lives. In our collect today, we prayed to ‘God of our glory, the end of our searching’… And that phrase alone challenges us on a number of levels because it is making the assumption and as we pray it the proclamation, that God is our glory and that we see him as the end of our searching, in other words, the answer to our needs, the strength of our lives…
And as those lives are lived out we must recognise that we need to focus on God at all times – there will be times of mountain top experiences where God is very clear to us, but also probably times where God doesn’t seem so clear… At the tougher times we must keep in mind the fact that God is the end of our searching – in our lives as we look for a clearer picture of the way forward, as we look for vision and maybe even for wisdom, we must see God as the answer.
And we see God in the ways that Paul wrote to the Ephesians, both as doctrinal and practical… Going back to what I said earlier, doctrinally, (not a word I use too often !), we have to see a picture of God that we begin to understand; we have to see what God has done for us, particularly in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. In his life Jesus showed us what God is like – and practically we can follow him as the example of living…
That is what the early followers sought to do – but we are drawn back to the collect at this point because it goes on to say, ‘help us to lay aside all that prevents us from seeking your kingdom’… The early disciples of Jesus had seen his glory first hand, they had witnessed the miracles, they had seen his love, witnessed his power, and yet, when they saw Jesus on the cross they ran and hid…
In spite of all the experiences they’d enjoyed with Jesus, they still allowed their fears to get in the way of all that they’d seen and heard. And as we proclaim God as the end of our searching, we too must examine the kind of things that get in the way of our relationship with God, and there can be so many.
Maybe it is not making the time to look at the bible and to pray, maybe its being so busy that we fail to really enjoy fellowship with people that are put in our lives, maybe its concentrating so much on the way things are done that we forget to include God in our thoughts, well intentioned though we may have been at first… there are many other possibilities we could all think of…
This week in Church we are thinking very much about the work of Charles Dickens… One phrase from his books which we all know is the immortal line of Oliver Twist who said, ‘Please Sir, I want some more…’
And maybe this isn’t a bad prayer for us all either – as I said earlier Jesus didn’t come with a long list of do’s and don’ts but he did come with an appeal to seek him for answers in life, he did come with an appeal to accept his love and forgiveness and grace, and whilst so many of us get caught up in the work and the tradition and the experience of simply being church, we can all too easily forget that those are the things to concentrate on… those are the things that actually bring us closer to God – those are things that can break down the distractions that separate us from God.
So often we have built up a gospel which does concentrate on do’s and don’ts and neglected that quality of love – love which conquers everything, love which is patient and kind, love which doesn’t judge others, but seeks to embrace all into one family… love which literally knows no limits….
And mercy which recognises that by ourselves we are a huge distance apart from God – and yet he says just come to me, and I will not just ignore all the things you’ve done wrong, but I will wipe them from my memory completely… And grace – the grace which says, I know you’ve done wrong and that you’ll even do wrong again, but I love you regardless, and I will still be opening my arms ready to welcome you back to me…
There’s a true story about Charles Spurgeon and Joseph Parker who both had churches in London in the 19th century. On one occasion, Parker commented on the poor condition of children admitted to Spurgeon's orphanage. It was reported to Spurgeon however, that Parker had criticized the orphanage itself. Spurgeon blasted Parker the next week from the pulpit. The attack was printed in the newspapers and became the talk of the town.
People flocked to Parker's church the next Sunday to hear his rebuttal. "I understand Dr. Spurgeon is not in his pulpit today, and this is the Sunday they use to take an offering for the orphanage. I suggest we take a love offering here instead." The crowd was delighted. The ushers had to empty the collection plates 3 times. Later that week there was a knock at Parker's study. It was Spurgeon. "You know Parker, you have practiced grace on me. You have given me not what I deserved, you have given me what I needed.
God does not give us what we deserve, which is a relief at times, rather He gives us all that we need. When we look for God, we can find Him but not always in the places we expected most. God is present with us always, our task is simply to search for him, to seek Him out knowing that He is never far away from us – it is us that sometimes moves far away from him...
In our searching we will draw closer to God and this closeness will make us more like Him. This is what we truly strive for - a lifestyle not of do’s and don’ts but of receiving God’s incredible unceasing love for us and offering a hope and a longing to reveal that love to all those around by what we do and say. AMEN
The Book of Proverbs is full of wisdom about how we can deal with life and with people, and in the section we heard (9:1-6) we are told that wisdom has built her house – in other words wisdom is established and is calling out to people to follow the way of wisdom. In the letter to the Ephesians Paul writes (5:15-20) offering advice to a church, not just the Ephesian church it would seem, but to all of the churches that Paul had been involved in.
The letter to the Ephesians is split into two parts – the doctrinal part, looking at things such as the unity of the church and the work of Christ in reconciliation as well as the mystery of the gospel message, and the practical part which concentrates on the lives of the followers of Jesus.
And actually both of those things are important for our faith today – we need to have some sort of understanding, however basic of what it is God means to us – what God has done for us, and how God cares for us; but also what practical things we should be doing in response…
And perhaps the most important thing we realise as we look at Jesus’ teaching is that he didn’t make a long list of things that people should and shouldn’t do – he certainly had expectations and hopes that people’s lives would be changed, but the most important thing of all was to recognise that people should see the greatest form of wisdom there is – that God is our strength and our hope in all things and at all times. For the third week running here its perhaps worth repeating the wisdom of the theologian Karl Barth who said when asked the greatest information he has learnt from his studies, ‘Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.’
When my nephew was young at a Sunday School party they had a game where they had to find cards with words on and this is a true story ! When the food was ready and Jack was called, he shouted back, ‘I can’t come yet, I’m looking for God’.
It is of course the perfect illustration because it is where so many people find themselves day by day in their lives. In our collect today, we prayed to ‘God of our glory, the end of our searching’… And that phrase alone challenges us on a number of levels because it is making the assumption and as we pray it the proclamation, that God is our glory and that we see him as the end of our searching, in other words, the answer to our needs, the strength of our lives…
And as those lives are lived out we must recognise that we need to focus on God at all times – there will be times of mountain top experiences where God is very clear to us, but also probably times where God doesn’t seem so clear… At the tougher times we must keep in mind the fact that God is the end of our searching – in our lives as we look for a clearer picture of the way forward, as we look for vision and maybe even for wisdom, we must see God as the answer.
And we see God in the ways that Paul wrote to the Ephesians, both as doctrinal and practical… Going back to what I said earlier, doctrinally, (not a word I use too often !), we have to see a picture of God that we begin to understand; we have to see what God has done for us, particularly in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. In his life Jesus showed us what God is like – and practically we can follow him as the example of living…
That is what the early followers sought to do – but we are drawn back to the collect at this point because it goes on to say, ‘help us to lay aside all that prevents us from seeking your kingdom’… The early disciples of Jesus had seen his glory first hand, they had witnessed the miracles, they had seen his love, witnessed his power, and yet, when they saw Jesus on the cross they ran and hid…
In spite of all the experiences they’d enjoyed with Jesus, they still allowed their fears to get in the way of all that they’d seen and heard. And as we proclaim God as the end of our searching, we too must examine the kind of things that get in the way of our relationship with God, and there can be so many.
Maybe it is not making the time to look at the bible and to pray, maybe its being so busy that we fail to really enjoy fellowship with people that are put in our lives, maybe its concentrating so much on the way things are done that we forget to include God in our thoughts, well intentioned though we may have been at first… there are many other possibilities we could all think of…
This week in Church we are thinking very much about the work of Charles Dickens… One phrase from his books which we all know is the immortal line of Oliver Twist who said, ‘Please Sir, I want some more…’
And maybe this isn’t a bad prayer for us all either – as I said earlier Jesus didn’t come with a long list of do’s and don’ts but he did come with an appeal to seek him for answers in life, he did come with an appeal to accept his love and forgiveness and grace, and whilst so many of us get caught up in the work and the tradition and the experience of simply being church, we can all too easily forget that those are the things to concentrate on… those are the things that actually bring us closer to God – those are things that can break down the distractions that separate us from God.
So often we have built up a gospel which does concentrate on do’s and don’ts and neglected that quality of love – love which conquers everything, love which is patient and kind, love which doesn’t judge others, but seeks to embrace all into one family… love which literally knows no limits….
And mercy which recognises that by ourselves we are a huge distance apart from God – and yet he says just come to me, and I will not just ignore all the things you’ve done wrong, but I will wipe them from my memory completely… And grace – the grace which says, I know you’ve done wrong and that you’ll even do wrong again, but I love you regardless, and I will still be opening my arms ready to welcome you back to me…
There’s a true story about Charles Spurgeon and Joseph Parker who both had churches in London in the 19th century. On one occasion, Parker commented on the poor condition of children admitted to Spurgeon's orphanage. It was reported to Spurgeon however, that Parker had criticized the orphanage itself. Spurgeon blasted Parker the next week from the pulpit. The attack was printed in the newspapers and became the talk of the town.
People flocked to Parker's church the next Sunday to hear his rebuttal. "I understand Dr. Spurgeon is not in his pulpit today, and this is the Sunday they use to take an offering for the orphanage. I suggest we take a love offering here instead." The crowd was delighted. The ushers had to empty the collection plates 3 times. Later that week there was a knock at Parker's study. It was Spurgeon. "You know Parker, you have practiced grace on me. You have given me not what I deserved, you have given me what I needed.
God does not give us what we deserve, which is a relief at times, rather He gives us all that we need. When we look for God, we can find Him but not always in the places we expected most. God is present with us always, our task is simply to search for him, to seek Him out knowing that He is never far away from us – it is us that sometimes moves far away from him...
In our searching we will draw closer to God and this closeness will make us more like Him. This is what we truly strive for - a lifestyle not of do’s and don’ts but of receiving God’s incredible unceasing love for us and offering a hope and a longing to reveal that love to all those around by what we do and say. AMEN
Comments