Where there is division...
At a church meeting a very wealthy man rose to give his testimony.
"I'm a millionaire," he said, "and I attribute it all to the rich blessings of God in my life. I can still remember the turning point in my faith, like it was yesterday:
I had just earned my first pound and I went to a church meeting that night. The speaker was a missionary who told about his work. I knew that I only had a pound and had to either give it all to God's work or nothing at all. So at that moment I decided to give all the money I had in the world to God. I believe that God blessed that decision, and that is why I am a rich man today."
As he finished it was clear that everyone had been moved by this man's story. But, as he took his seat, a little old lady sitting in the same pew leaned over and said: "Wonderful story! I dare you to do it again!"
It’s very easy to risk everything when we have little to lose – time and time again history has shown us that it is the people living under most oppression, the people who are suffering the most, who are willing to risk everything to try and make things better. The Christian Church is a great example of this in recent history with growth coming fastest in areas where people are suffering, where people are actually willing to lay everything before God and allow him to transform their lives…
And today in both of our New Testament readings (Galatians 3:23-29 & Luke 8:26-39), we are challenged to allow God to transform us and our Church – reading these passages in the relative tranquillity of our Churches, it’s not easy to recognise that actually these readings are incredibly powerful and even revolutionary…
Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, spoke of freedom – he was well aware that in pure worldly terms freedom was something he was never going to achieve - As long as he went about preaching the gospel, there would always be people who were ready to attack him.
But Paul wrote of a freedom which he knew would never be taken away by any worldly authority or power. The freedom of knowing God is in control, and knowing that we live in a world inhabited by brothers and sisters everywhere – some may look different, some may sound different, some may actually be very different, but Paul made it clear, that we are all one – united by the God we can call ‘Father’…
And then in the gospel reading from Luke we have the account of Jesus approaching ‘Legion’ – a man, we are told, who was filled with many demons – but Jesus approached him and ordered the demons to be cast out into a large herd of pigs… Nobody could understand what had happened, and people were terrified and asked Jesus to leave…
But these two readings are linked by one important principle – the principle that all are one, however different they may seem… And that principle is an incredibly hard one to live out for us, because every one of us is conditioned in some way to see people as normal or otherwise !
God sees no differences, and he challenges us to do the same… to live not by a rule book, but by faith – to live, not by tradition but by the Spirit of God, to live not in comfort, but challenging ourselves to live as God commands…
And whilst there may be many different commands in the Bible, the one that covers them all is the words of Jesus, ‘love the Lord your God with all of your heart and soul and mind, and love your neighbour as yourself…’
Loving is the great non-negotiable command of our faith – and loving can be painful and difficult ! We don’t know what the demons were in that man in the gospel reading – it may well have been a mental illness, but perhaps there are times when we need to consider our demons – it may not be a mental illness, but what are the demons that prevent us from getting closer to one another and to God –
is it busyness ? Is it an unwillingness to truly seek and to follow the will of God ? is it a desire to always be in control ? Is it a failure to want to get closer to the person who might seem different ? Is it making judgements of someone else – judgements that are best left to God or is it perhaps a fear of the unknown.
This week our news has been really dominated by two tragic events. The first was just over a week ago with the murders in Orlando and the second was the murder of the MP in the north of England.
In a world of so much senseless violence, in a world where so many are filled with fear or sometimes hatred, surely nobody can doubt that the gospel message of love and peace and hope is desperately needed… As Christians we must seek to lead the way in being Christlike – in trying to be like Jesus, in displaying the fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control…
And as I said, these are non negotiables for Christians – we’ll get it wrong at times certainly, but that must never stop us from trying – from loving the person we find it difficult to like, from not judging others, from being the sort of people that Christ wants us to be…
It’s not easy at all – but what a transformation our Churches might see if we truly welcomed everyone into our congregations… what a transformation if the drunken homeless person actually felt that they would receive a great welcome if they just came through the Church door, or what about any other sort of person that we find it just a little difficult to get to know…
Opening our lives to God must mean opening our hearts to other people – and we can’t choose those people… When Jesus approached the man filled with demons he was doing something others wouldn’t – and he did it as an example for us…
The horror witnessed in Orlando and in the murder of the MP Jo Cox this week highlights our need to display Christ in all that we do and say… This world has hope because Jesus came and lived and died and rose again for the world, but he trusts us too to be part of his plan of reconciliation… We must point people to that hope, to that peace, to that joy, that love…
When we judge others we try and put ourselves in the position of God; when we fail to love as Jesus loves we are ignoring his command to do just that…
Paul’s letter to the Galatians is a bit of a rant – he’s angry that people in the church there are making rules that have no basis – and so he tells his story about persecuting the church, and about his conversion and about people living by faith and he says there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, slave and free, male and female – all are one in Jesus Christ – we are all children of God and Jesus has set us free to live by the power of the Spirit…
I wonder today what words Paul would write for the church – where are the divisions today and where is the movement of the Holy Spirit ?
Where there is division, where there is judgement, where there is a quest for power, where we maintain church as a club for members rather than as the former Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple suggested, ‘the only organisation that exists for the benefit of its non members’ then we do the church and more importantly God a massive disservice….
In a world of so much hurt and pain, may we be people of good news, may we be a blessing both within and outside our church, may we seek to bless all people with the love of God….
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