Are we pretending to follow Jesus?

Amos 7: 7-17

Hold plumb line

This is a plumb line, have you seen one?

Used one?

Chat a bit about plumb line and use

Amos sees a vision, and in that vision the Lord is holding a plumb line to the nation of Israel.

And the result isn’t good for Israel.

Amos is a prophet, a reluctant prophet.

If you read through the book of Amos, you will hear the nations condemned. In chapter 2, the transgressions of Israel are:

 “They sell honest people for money,

and the needy are sold for the price of sandals.

They smear the poor in the dirt

and push aside those who are helpless.

My holy name is dishonoured,

because fathers and sons sleep with the same young women.

They lie down beside altars on clothes taken as security for loans.

And they drink wine in my temple,

wine bought with the money they received from fines.”

Amos 2:6-8 Contemporary English Version (CEV)

Contemporary English Version (CEV) Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society

God will no longer overlook the failures of the people of Israel, described primarily in the book of Amos as economic oppression (Amos 2:6-7; 5:10-12; 8:4-6). [Blake Couey, Working Preacher]

I wonder what it would look like if a plumb line was held up to our nation.

Amaziah, the priest at the national temple, is annoyed at Amos, he is making things uncomfortable. So he tries to send Amos away.

I wonder which voices we try and shut down.

We live in a nation, yet often we see ourselves as individuals, especially in matters of faith. In Amos the plumb line is being held against a nation, not an individual.

As a nation, what might God make of:

• our destruction of the earth
• our treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
• our lack of compassion for those fleeing persecution
• our lack of regard for working conditions for those who produce our clothing and food
• the number of people who are homeless
• children growing up in poverty
•  

Just as Amaziah, who stood for the status quo,

tried to shut down Amos, and

told Amos to leave,

the same happens today.

I know some will say to me:

Why should we worry about people seeking asylum, it isn’t pour problem?

Why should we recognise that aboriginal people lived here, and had their own culture, before white settlement?

Why should we increase the rate of social security payments?

I worked hard for my money, why should it go to someone who isn’t working?

Hold plumb line 

Luke 10: 25-37

We looked at this passage at the Friday evening worship time. Here is some of the work we did together.

Poster of heart

Posters: love God/love your neighbour/as you/love yourself

There are so many possibilities for discussing this passage that I will skim over a few of them.

Most people who hear this story today think of themselves as the Good Samaritan, as the one who helps. But the people who first heard this would have imagined themselves as the man lying by the side of the road.

They would understand why the Priest and Levite didn’t stop to help – touching a dead body would make them unclean and they would not be able to fulfil their duties. Also it may be a trick, the robbers may be hiding nearby and attack them.

But they would expect a good Jew to help the man.

Samaritans were the enemy, to be despised. A bit like the relationship between Israel and Palestine at present.

If you are the person who is hurting, bleeding, in pain, you don’t get any say in who helps.

It may just be that the person who comes to help you is your enemy.

…….

From Bruce Prewer:

The robbers, represent all those whose basic attitude is: Yours is mine if I can get it.

The Priest and Levite: They are self-protectors. The attitude is: Mine is my own if I can keep it. What I have I will hang on to.

The Samaritan, despised by righteous Jews. His attitude is: “Mine is yours if you need it.”

http://bruceprewer.com/DocC/C44sun15.htm

….

I wonder what a modern version of this story would be like.

A man was walking down Ocean Beach Road one night, and he was mugged and bashed and dragged behind the bus shelter near Umina Mall. And a shop keeper arrives for work early in the morning, notices the man and figures he is drunk, anyway they need to get to work so they can open in time.

A person on their way to church goes past, notices the man, and doesn’t want to be late for church – not my problem, and anyway I don’t know first aid.  

An aboriginal teenager comes past, sees the man, calls for help and stays with him until the ambulance arrives.

Who is my neighbour?

The lawyer is trying to trap Jesus, then wanting to justify himself. If a neighbour was only Jewish, or only male, or only someone living next door that would make loving them easier.

The lawyer knows what he must do, but doesn’t want to do it, and really does not want to hear that the worst of worse persons, in his mind, is the good neighbour, the one who showed mercy. [Rev Mindi]

We claim to be people who follow in the way of Jesus, people who are brought to life, loved and forgiven. Yet at times it is hard to follow in the way of Jesus.

It is hard to put the interest of another ahead of our own.

It is hard to see, really see, the pain of another, and act compassionately in response to their pain.

So often following the way of Jesus, goes against the status quo. Speaking for the least and the outcast

Caring for the unloved

Accepting help from the stranger.

We can try and justify:

• our treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders
• our lack of compassion for those fleeing persecution
• our lack of regard for working conditions for those who produce our clothing and food
• the number of people who are homeless
• children growing up in poverty

We can try and justify and explain away the inequality, racism, poverty and violence in our heart, our community, the nation and the world.

Or we can admit our failure to live in the way of Jesus.

We can stand with the oppressed

We can feed the hungry

We can see the beauty of each person

We can live out the generous, inclusive love of Jesus. 

A letter from Patty

Greetings from Patty, converted by the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

To the people of God on the Peninsula,

Grace to you and peace from the Triune God, who created, redeemed and purified us, and to whom all and honour be now and for ever. Amen.

Our salvation rests in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, who by his life and resurrection offers us new life. New life that reflects the love, mercy and grace of God.

Grace is a gift, freely given. We are saved, not by works or keeping rules, we are saved because that is the nature of God.

Salvation is not earned or merited, so watch out for false teachers who try and lead you astray, and no-one is to tell another that they are not good enough for God’s grace.

I know some of you find it hard to believe that you are loved by God. You don’t have to change for God to love you, for God to offer you new life.

“Most of us were taught that God would love us if and when we change. In fact, God loves you so that you can change. What empowers change, what makes you desirous of change is the experience of love. It is that inherent experience of love that becomes the engine of change.” ― Richard Rohr

It is by the life and love of Christ that you are transformed. You are not the agent of your own transformation, you may be able to make some changes in your own lives; but the change that comes from the love of God, the grace of Jesus, and the Holy Spirit who lives within you, is so much more than you can do yourselves. It is a complete makeover of heart and mind and soul.

And when you are changed by your relationship with God through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, then that will show in your lives. For freedom, Christ has set you free.  

You are free to live as the people of God, free from the burden of guilt and shame. But you are not to use your freedom to hurt, exploit or abuse other people.

The freedom you have is freedom to love,
You are free to be joyful,
You have freedom to be at peace and work for peace.
You have freedom to be patient,
you are free to be kind and generous,
you are free to be faithful and gentle,
you are free to control ourselves.
You are freed from the need to hate those who hate you.
You are freed from the need to respond with anger.
You are freed from the need to allow hate and greed to win.
You are free to love God, love each other and love the world for which Christ died.

If you have been made free by Christ, why do you allow yourselves to be enslaved again? You need no longer be slaves to public opinion, jealousy, anger, and quarrelling.

When you live by the Spirit, it will show by the way you live. You will no longer seek to outdo each other, or to be the most important person. Instead you will seek to serve as Jesus served those he met. You will work together as the body of Christ, always working for the kingdom of love and peace and grace.

Remember that your salvation is not something you earned, you don’t deserve salvation. Just as I don’t deserve salvation. But just as God has worked in my life, God also works in your life.  As many of you already know, I grew up not knowing God, not praying, not reading the Bible, not going to church. But I had a yearning for something that was missing in my life. And when I heard the gospel, a gospel of love and freedom and salvation. A gospel of the forgiveness of sins and new life, I had found what I had been missing. God had been there all along, but I had not recognised God in my life.

You are a new creation, and that is everything! And that will show in your life. You can’t expect to pick raspberries from a pumpkin vine, and you don’t expect to get apples from planting onions, so you get out of life what you put in.

When you live filled with the Holy Spirit, when you let the Spirit direct your life, then people will see that. You will be loving, kind and generous. You will be at peace, full of joy, and patient – with yourself and with others. You will be gentle and faithful and show self-restraint. Live by the Spirit, be guided by the Spirit.

You are all one in Christ. Because your salvation is not earned, but a gift of grace. You are all God’s children, sisters and brothers, all one in the Lord. So do not think of yourself more highly because of where you were born, or because of your gender, or your job. And do not think less of yourself because of where you were born, or because of your gender, or your job. You are all one in Christ.

Do not boast about your achievements, boast only in the cross of Christ. Through the cross the world no longer has power over you. You belong to Christ. And illness and pain and age doesn’t change that.
What in life could be more important than love and forgiveness and grace? What could be more important than salvation?

Remember:

You are loved.
You are a new creation.
You belong to Christ.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen

Difference: Diversity or Distinction

In the Luke passage we just heard, Jesus crosses into gentile country, where he meets a man in a cemetery. This is wrong on so many levels. For Jews, cemeteries were unclean places, gentile land was unclean, and pigs were unclean. Impurity heaped on impurity.

In the story I read earlier, people had stars and dots to put on other people. [You Are Special by Max Lucado] This man would have lots of grey dots – he is a gentile, he lives in a cemetery, he had demons in his life.

When asked his name, the man replies with the name of his demons.

I wonder how often we talk about people by their illness or disability.

The paraplegic, the blind woman, the alcoholic, the divorcee, the druggie, the dole bludger, the Muslim, the homosexual, the black man …..

And I wonder what demons we live with

Demons that keep us chained

Demons like fear, hate, and greed

Demons like racism, sexism, and homophobia

Demons that prevent us from living fully as the people God made us to be.

What demons do we live with?

Luke writes about demons and how Jesus healed the man, incorporated him back into society, and brought him back to full life after living amongst the dead.

And yet the villagers did not rejoice, they were afraid. Who was this man who could cast out demons, who could cause their herd of pigs to drown in the lake? What else might he do?

They urged Jesus to leave.

And the man who was healed?

He wanted to go with Jesus, but Jesus told him not to, rather “he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him”

Do we speak about what Jesus has done for us? Not only salvation through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Do we speak about our experience of Jesus, the way in which we have been changed, comforted, challenged by Jesus?

I was Dad’s girl. We had lots in common like colds and flu each winter. And Dad would read to me when I was sick – Henry Lawson short stories mainly. We are both sociable, more so than Mum and my brother. He was quick to tell me when I had done something wrong, and I felt like I never did anything right. Even after my dad died I was hoping to do something that would make him proud. In my head I could still hear him telling me how stupid and useless I was.

But one Easter that all changed. I let go of the striving to do something that would make my father proud, this was about 20 years after he died – so really how was I ever going to make him proud? J And after I let go of that sense of trying, there was a healing, and I don’t hear those words from him anymore.

We all have things from our past, and often our present, that hold us back, that stop us being the people God created us to be.

There is fear and anger and harsh words.

There is shame and guilt.

There are modern demons, demons that accentuate difference, not as diversity to be celebrated, but as distinction to be judged and ridiculed and wiped out.

Paul writes to the church in Galatia about unity in the midst of difference. While people are all different, Paul writes of Jews and Greek, men and women, slaves and free. Paul is reminding the people that those differences do not make us any more or less part of the body of Christ, we are all one in Christ.

Just as today, people are not all the same,
there are Christians, Muslims and Jews
Liberal voters and Labor voters
there are men and women
heterosexual and homosexual
Aboriginal and non-aboriginal
old and young
Korean, Tongan, Pakistani, Australians, …

Not all people are the same. In the news this week we heard about 50 people who died in a shooting in Orlando, and a British MP who was stabbed to death.  The young man who was responsible for the death and injury of so many in Orlando is also dead, so we will never know for sure what his motivation was, but it seems it may be something to do with his hatred of people who identify as LGBTQI or his concern that he may be gay that led to the shooting.

The killing of British MP Jo Cox, has shocked people in Britain. The police are still looking for a motive but in court, when asked for his name, the person replied: "Death to traitors, freedom for Britain," suggests a possible political motive.

“The Brexit vote is dividing Britain down the middle and has been whipping up emotions on both sides. But cold-blooded murder? We just don't know.

Instinctively, both campaigns, for and against Brexit, suspended all activities as the full horror of what happened was revealed.

It was as if they feared there may be a connection, and no-one wanted to be seen carrying on with those questions unanswered.”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-06-17/jo-cox-murder-shocks-britain-as-political-fault-lines-deepen/7519746

It appears at present that both these events were motivated by people who could not embrace diversity, but were threatened by difference.

I wonder how we feel about difference.

Do we fear people who look different to us?

Do we want to only be with people who agree with us?
act like us?
have the same dress and behaviour standards as we do?

Do we love people as we are loved in Christ? Or do we only love those who are like is, and think and act the same as we do?

From Galatians: “It is through faith that all of you are God's children in union with Christ Jesus. You were baptized into union with Christ, and now you are clothed, so to speak, with the life of Christ himself. So there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free people, between men and women; you are all one in union with Christ Jesus.”

What demons need releasing in your life?

Who do you need help loving as Christ loves you? 

I refuse to reject the grace of God.

Proclamation of the Word

The phrase that stood out to me in the Galatians passage this week is: I refuse to reject the grace of God.

I refuse to reject the grace of God.

That may sound a little strange – why would anyone reject the grace of God?

The grace of God is a gift, and like all gifts, we need to acknowledge, accept and use the gift.

This passage from Paul is focussing on the place of faith in salvation. It is easy for us to think of sin as something with grades. We talk about ‘a little sin’, or an ‘unforgivable sin’, but we know that sin is sin. We may say we are all sinners, but we act as if there is a ranking for sins, from minor to really serious.

“ … for Paul the tragedy of sin is not measured by infringements of the law but by rejecting Christ and by denying the meaning of his death as the saving act of God.” [i]

Paul writes about salvation, justification, being made right with God. The means of our salvation is faith in Christ or the faith of Christ.

While we genrally talk about faith in Christ, some scholars translate the Greek as the faith of Christ that saves us. We are justified through the faith of Jesus. [ii]

“Either we effect justification by believing in Jesus or Jesus effects justification by his own righteous obedience.” [iii]

This might all seem a bit complicated J and it is. The message Paul was trying to get across to the people of Galatia is that salvation is not about following a set of Jewish laws, but about our relationship with God through Jesus Christ. A free gift.

In the reading from Luke: Jesus said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

He said this to a woman who is named as a ’sinner’, one of those sinners, a ‘big’ sinner. But she is the one who is free. Have you ever met anyone who could be truly comfortable in their own skin, who acted as they wished because they had nothing to lose? This woman is looked down upon by the people in the community – or the people in the community who think they count. [iv]

“You cannot determine your worth to Jesus by a calculation of your sins. That is not how God works.

Because faith, you see, is also the belief that you are worthy of salvation. You are worthy to sit at the table. You are worthy of touching, and being touched by, God. You are worthy of belonging. You are worthy of being called a disciple.” [v]

Remember where I started: I refuse to reject the grace of God.

This woman is an example of someone who accepts the grace of God. She says no to those who would try and prevent her from seeing Jesus, she says no to those who try and make her shamed of her life and her actions. She says to herself and yes to Jesus.[vi]

I wonder in what ways we have rejected the grace of God.

I can remember times when I felt worthless and not good enough – as if I had to make a certain level of bible knowledge or trust or something before God’s grace would be available to me.

I have had people tell me that they are not good enough, or they have done something bad, as if we need some gold stars before God will love us.

I have had people tell me they can’t come to church because they don’t have the right clothes or they live in the wrong part of town. One place we lived a person who attended church each week told me she didn’t stay for morning tea, because if people knew she was divorced she wouldn’t be welcome. I doubt that the church involved would have cast her out, but that was a concern to this person.

Maybe it is because I am a Minister, but I find many people I speak with are ashamed about something in their life, or guilty about something they have done or not done. I understand that. But we are justified/ saved/ put right with God by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ – not by anything we do or don’t do. And with salvation comes peace and freedom.

We are then free to be ourselves, our true selves, the person God created us to be. That doesn’t mean we do whatever we want, it isn’t license to hurt or destroy people or creation.

[a box with ‘grace’ written on it, some tags attached]

See this box, for some people it has tags on it saying –
if you are good enough,
if you are bright enough,
if you pay enough money,
if you follow certain rules,
if you believe certain doctrinal statements…
[Remove tags]

The gospel, the good news, is that grace is gift from God - free of “if’s”

But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a consequence to this amazing gift, a consequence of accepting that we are fully known by God, fully and completely loved, that God’s love knows no boundaries – not even the boundaries we would like to place on God’s love and grace. This grace includes everyone. I can remember an article I read years ago, and the person writing it talked of the people of God as being like a family, and just as you don’t get to choose your family members, you don’t get to choose who else is in the family with you.

I wonder in what ways we have rejected the grace of God for ourselves or for someone else.

---

[i] Cousar, Charles B., Galatians, Interpretation,1982,  p 51

[ii] Cousar, p53

[iii] Jaime Clark-Soles, working preacher; Alicia Vargas, Working Preacher

[iv] Kathryn , U.C.C. SAMUEL

[v] Karoline Lewis, Working Preacher

[vi] Karoline Lewis

an introduction to Galatians

God called me through his grace. [Audrey West]

The letter from Paul to the churches in Galatia starts with Paul introducing himself. This was standard for letters at that time. You couldn’t send of an email, or a quick postcard. A letter would take time to be delivered. Often letters were written by skilled people, at times helping with phrasing of the letter as well as the physical writing of the letter. Paul would have dictated his letters to such a person, in chapter 6 we will read where Paul puts pen to paper himself.  

A letter would start with who the letter was from, and then who it was written to, Paul would usually include a greeting, such as:

May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace.

In many of Paul’s letters there is a prayer of thanksgiving, such as in Philippians 1:3

“I thank my God every time I remember you, constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, …..” [NRSV]

But no prayer of thanksgiving for the churches in Galatia, instead we get:

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ..” Gal 1:6

Paul is an interesting person in many ways. He was born in Tarsus, in what is now Turkey. Tarsus was what we might call a cosmopolitan city – there were philosophers and street preachers, mystery religious cults and it was a centre of Greek culture. [LTJ 261]

But Paul was also a Jew, with impressive credentials. His family followed the custom of circumcision on the 8^th day, and he was from the tribe of Benjamin.  As a young man he studied the Law with a school of Pharisees. [LTJ 261, 2]

And he was a Roman citizen, which means his family were likely to be socially prominent. [LTJ 261] being a Roman citizen had its advantages.

We first meet Paul in the book of Acts, he is the young man who looked after the coats of those who stoned Stephen, and Luke notes that Saul approved of the killing of Stephen. [Acts 7: 58, 8:1]

We read of his transformation on the road to Damascus in chapter 9 of Acts.  Paul would have known quite a bit about Jesus, from his time as a persecutor of the early church. [Loader]

But back to the place of letters and chapter one.

From this letter we see that Paul had met the people he was writing to, and as with other letters Paul wrote, he is responding to a particular situation. In this case it seems that someone has come after Paul has left, teaching a different ‘gospel’, though as Paul points out, there is only one gospel.

Paul is known as a missionary to the gentiles. There were many in Jerusalem who thought that to be a follower of Jesus, you needed to first become a Jew. The focus of the letter to the Galatian churches is that God acts in our lives and that the love and mercy of God are not dependent on our works, or our goodness, or our struggles, or our Jewishness, or culture, or anything else.

This letter shows Paul’s concern and anger that the people are moving away from the gospel of grace and freedom that he taught them, but as sending a letter is not a quick thing, he needs to be clear, and not hot headed, as the letter is written. He also needs to make sure he covers all the arguments that would have been made against him, such as not being one of the apostles and that he never met Jesus in the flesh.  

Paul is clear that it was God who called him, not any person; that Jesus was revealed to him so that Paul would proclaim the message to the Gentiles.

And the message he proclaims is that

“God is compassionate to all, offering a right relationship to all, Jew and Gentile, without discrimination. So Paul argues from the nature of God, from the heart of the gospel.” [Loader]

It can be hard to accept, that we are loved, that is the very nature of God, not our own doing.

“It is why we are so hard on ourselves, and insist we must keep rules: no one deserves to be given a love such as this.” [Andrew Prior]

I wonder how often we are pulled away from the gospel of grace.

It is easy to judge people, to judge ourselves.

I can remember thinking I wasn’t good enough for God, or anyone else, to love me. I thought my friends were just being nice to me because they were such good people – I mean who would want to spend time with me?

An encounter with Jesus changed that – I knew that I was a loved daughter of the living God. A person loved by God, not because I am good enough or bright enough or know enough of the bible. We are all loved by God because that is the nature of God.

Isn’t that awesome!

There are still some people who try to put limits and boundaries on God’s love and grace.  These days it isn’t about becoming a Jew before you can be a Christian, but I have been told that as a woman I shouldn’t be preaching or teaching, that this puts me outside God’s grace. At times I have heard of a whole lot of boxes that must be ticked to ensure our salvation:

• Going to church
• Not taking drugs or drinking alcohol
• Sexual purity
• Keeping the ten commandments
• And I am sure you can think of some more

Being held in God’s love and grace is about the nature of God, it isn’t about how good you are or how well you keep the rules. Paul could show what a wonderful Jew he had been, how diligent he had been at defending God.

There are signs of our freedom in Christ, but they are our response

• to being set free from shame and guilt
• to knowing, deep down, that we are loved by God

Our living is a response to God’s grace, not a pre-requisite.

Do you find it difficult to accept that you are loved by God?

Do you find it difficult to accept that all people are loved by God?

Notes:

LTJ: The Writings of the New Testament by Luke Timothy Johnson

Loader: http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/lectionaryindex.html

Audrey West: https://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=2883

Andrew Prior: https://onemansweb.org/theology/the-year-of-luke-2013/how-free-is-your-grace-galatians-1.html

Transformed into you

In thinking about Pentecost, and the coming of the Holy Spirit, I am aware that for many people this is a bit of a weird day. After all, we are not part of a Pentecostal church, generally we don’t raise our hands as we sing praises to God, we don’t speak in a special prayer language, and we rarely talk about the Spirit in our lives.

But here we are, the church decorated in red and many of you wearing red or orange. Even though we are not a Pentecostal church, we are a church that believes in the activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the world.

The reading from Acts is dramatic. I wonder in our technological world if we recognise how amazing this was to be part of, or even to hear about.  We see things on video and film and we are used to all sorts of special effects. But this was no special effects extravaganza from a Hollywood director. This was the outpouring of the Holy Spirit into people’s lives. An amazing, incredible, awe inspiring experience!

We have heard many passages about the disciples in the Gospels. How they left their jobs and communities to travel with Jesus;

how they took time with Jesus to learn from him;

how they understood – or didn't understand -  what Jesus did;

how they questioned some of his ideas.

We also have heard about the night Jesus was betrayed,

we have sensed the anxiety of the disciples as Jesus was brought to trial;

the fear when he was crucified,

the doubt and amazement of resurrection.

The joy and relief of seeing him again.

This morning we heard the passage from Acts that features each year on Pentecost Sunday.

The disciples and other followers of Jesus were together in a house, and the wind blew, and flames appeared to be on the head of each person.

For me, more important than the amazing way the Spirit came into the lives of the disciples – in wind and fire - was what happened next.

Just as after the resurrection, the faith of the disciples was renewed, so with the coming of the Spirit, the disciples have been transformed.

Not only did they praise God, but people from various parts of the known world heard the disciples speaking in a language they could understand.

It could be translated today as:

Filipinos, Chinese, Czech, and residents of Fiji, Samoa and Tonga, France and Germany, Russia and Brazil, Egypt and Africa and South America, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Europeans and Arabs - in our own languages we hear them speaking about God's deeds of power.

The movement of the Spirit in the lives of the disciples that day, was not only for the disciples, but for the world.

Just like the popcorn earlier this morning, and the lives of the disciples, our lives are also transformed by the Holy Spirit.

I wonder what that transformation looks like.

Paul, writing to the church in Rome:

All those who dance to the Spirit’s tune are God’s beloved children. We were not sold into slavery where we would grovel timidly in the dust, afraid to put a foot wrong. Rather we were adopted into a family full of love and joy. Like eager children crying, “Daddy! Mummy!” we come running to God, and with loving arms, God’s Spirit gathers us up, demonstrating clearly to whom we belong.

©2000 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Just as the disciples moved from fear to faith after the resurrection, Paul is reminding the church in Rome that the spirit has not returned us to slavery, but we are children of the living God.

John records that Jesus told the disciples that the Spirit would come.

“When I'm gone, your new defence counsel — the Holy Spirit who the Father will send on my behalf — will take over, teaching you everything and keeping all I've said fresh in your minds. The gift I'm leaving with you is peace; my kind of peace, not the mere easing of hostilities that the rest of the world offers. So don’t go dropping your bundle or getting all fearful.”  ©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

It is easy for us to live in fear, to be enslaved by fear. The more we watch the news, the more we listen to popular commentators, the more we hear about fear:

Fear of young people

Fear of Muslims

Fear of people with lots of money

Fear of poor people

Fear of what will happen if this or that political party gets elected.

It seems that keeping people in a state of fear helps politicians and companies – when we fear a possible terrorist attack, we don’t ask about the erosion of civil liberties

When we fear a takeover by foreign companies we don’t look at the behaviour of local companies.

Fear is easy.

But remember what Paul wrote, we are not given a spirit of slavery and fear, rather “God’s Spirit touches our spirits and confirms who we really are.” [Romans 8 the Message]

The Spirit of God, flowing through us; sometimes in a surprising rush, and sometimes like a gentle breeze; confirms who we really are – children of God. Each one amazing and unique. Each one with something special and individual to bring to the community of faith and all of God’s wonderful creation.

This [a wooden whistle] looks like a stick, well it is a stick with a hole in one side, and part of one end blocked off. What might it be used for? I could burn it, or throw it for a dog to fetch – but is that its true role in life?

No, it is a whistle.

And just as it needs breath blowing through it to be what it was created to be, so we need the Holy Spirit blowing in our lives to be who we were created to be.  

We are transformed from fear to joy and confidence, to be who we are – children of God.

Where have you felt the transforming action of the Spirit in your life?  

expectations and freedom

Paul gets into trouble with the authorities in many places. This time Silas and Paul are put in prison for ‘disturbing the city’, that is for not acting like a Roman, even though Paul is a citizen of Rome.

Even though they are shackled and locked up, Paul and Silas are singing hymns and praying. I wonder what hymns you would sing when in prison after being flogged.

After the earthquake, seeing that the chains and doors were unlocked, the jailer ‘was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped’. And Paul says wait!

There is a lot going on in this passage.

Even though the reason given for Paul being in prison was because he was disturbing the city, the people who complained about Silas and Paul, were concerned because the slave girl was worth more with a spirit in her, and Paul had cast out the spirit.

Her ‘owners’ were concerned about the loss of trade, not the welfare of the girl and not the peace of the city.

We might think slavery is a thing of the past, but there are many people bought and sold in the world today. There are people who harvest chocolate and tea, people who make clothes, people trafficked for the sex trade. Some are kidnapped, but many are lured by false promises of good jobs, and parents often send a child with a kindly ‘uncle’ from their village, who has promised funds and a good education or a job for the child.

Exploitation, oppression and slavery still exist. If you want to know more about this look at a website of an organisation called STOP THE TRAFFIK. It suggests ways of reducing your involvement by looking at what you wear and what you drink. For example look for Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance or UTZ certified products.

The theme that has kept coming to me this week is that of expectations and burdens.

• The owners of the slave girl expected her to make money for them.
• The people expected Paul and Silas to act in certain ways
• The jailer is so concerned that he will be in trouble that he sets out to kill himself.

And I wondered what expectations people in our community feel burdened by.

• Dressing a certain way
• Owning a house
• Getting married
• Having children
• How our children will behave
• Having a car
• A certain level of education
• Not failing
• I am sure you can think of many other things

Here are a few examples from my life:

A few years out of school, and some people queried me when I started to study engineering – was I becoming a male?

At times I was asked when Ian and I were planning on having children, and I usually managed to deflect the conversation. I wasn’t sure how to say ‘we are doing our best!’ 

When we were leaving Dubbo to move to Sydney so I could start training to be a Minister, some people who were not associated with a church, questioned how I could be training for ministry, as women can’t be ministers.  

There is still an expectation on young people to get married and have children; and on a day like Mother’s Day, the expectation of family to do ‘something special’.

People have a mental image of what a woman is, or a man is, or what constitutes a family, or a successful life.

And for people who are outside that expectation, life can be very difficult. I can still remember comments about what some of the immigrant children had on their lunch; or comments about men who did hairdressing or ballet or infants teaching.

And unfortunately for some people the burden of being different, of living into the expectation of others leads to health problems, and at times suicide.

Fear,
the fear of failure,
the fear of losing face,
the fear of ridicule,
the fear of exclusion.
The fear of the jailer almost led to death. All too often these fears do lead to death. Physical death, or emotional or spiritual death. In 2009 2,132 deaths by suicide were recorded in Australia, at the same time there were 1417deaths from road accidents.  [http://www.livingisforeveryone.com.au/uploads/docs/LIFE-Fact%20sheet%203.pdf]

The fears, the burden of expectations can weigh heavily on us, and we hide our true selves in the hope of not being found out.

Where is the good news in all this?

The jailer asks: "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

They answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household."

Last week we heard about Lydia, a woman who heard about Jesus, invited Paul and Silas into her home, and her whole household was saved. Today we hear about another household. Again the household was baptised. Again the response is hospitality, welcoming Paul and Silas into the family home, feeding and washing their wounds.

How are we saved from the burdens people place on us?

What burdens do we place on other people?

This isn’t just a story from the early church, it is a story about today. We are in the long line of women and men who have heard the good news, and responded. Responded to God’s love and mercy with hospitality and generosity. And we are also people who tell of the good news. We are in the long line of witnesses to saving grace of Jesus Christ.

While expectations, burdens and fears can hold us back from being who God calls us to be; the freedom we have in Jesus Christ enables us to live in freedom.

What burdens or fears have you been freed from?

How have you responded to God’s grace?