PENTECOST
5: 9 JULY 2006
Mark 6:1-13... (Sermon 1: “Low
Expectations?”)
2 Corinthians 12:2-10... (Sermon 2: “Strong Weaklings”)
2 Samuel 5:1-5,9-10...
Psalm 48.
ENTRY INTO WORSHIP
The grace of the Lord of
love be with you.
And also with you.
Opportunity awaits us here;
this is the house of a God
who is the most generous Host.
Great is our God and greatly to be praised!
where God lives there is the loftiest beauty
and joy enough to fill the whole earth.
OR
Great is our God, and
greatly to be praised,
the joy of all the earth.
Beautiful is our God,
the joy of loving hearts.
We have contemplated your
faithful love, O God,
in the midst of your
temple.
God’s grace is sufficient for us,
Christ’s power is made perfect in our weakness.
Your right hand alone gives
us the victory.
Let the sons of God be glad!
Let the daughters of God rejoice,
PRAYER OF APPROACH
Let us pray.
O God our Maker, you
constantly renew the face of the earth.
We worship and adore you!
O God our Liberator, you
constantly renew our salvation.
We worship and adore you!
O God our Helper, you
constantly renew our sagging hopes and waning love.
We worship and adore you!
Most wonderful God, let us
bring our dearest joy to worship
and let our worship enlarge
our dearest joy.
For your love’s sake.
Amen!
CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE
During a few moments
silence, let us place ourselves within the light of Christ, examine our hearts
and minds, and recognise where we have lost our way and neglected our calling.
* Silent prayer
If we have been so busy
that we don’t notice the needs of others,
or have resented those who
do take time to be kind and generous,
or have disgraced our faith
by becoming self absorbed:
Forgive us, loving God,
and save us from ourselves.
If we have been too proud
to undertake humble tasks,
or too impatient to do
tasks that have no immediate reward,
or too stubborn to seek the
help of others.
Forgive us, loving God,
and save us from ourselves.
If we have magnified small
wrongs done to us,
or have allowed tiny
difficulties to frustrate us,
or have been thick-skinned,
inflexible or unteachable.
Forgive us, loving God,
and save us from ourselves.
* silent prayer
The Lord has mercy.
Christ has mercy.
The Lord has mercy.
FORGIVENESS
My fellow pilgrims on Christ’s
mountain road, take heart.
God does not have to be
persuaded to forgive us;
it is more likely our pride
that holds us back from accepting forgiveness.
Please, for Christ’s sake,
let down your guard, open
you mind and heart,
repent and accept the
Gospel of free grace.
In Christ there is grace.
In Christ there is peace.
In Christ there is love and joy.
Thanks be to God!
PRAYER FOR CHILDREN
(Isn’t
this just the carpenter? The son of
Mary and the brother of James,
Joses, Judas and Simon, and aren’t his
sisters here with us?)
Loving God,
it’s a funny thing, you
know,
but it is often hardest to
stay true to You
when we are among family
and friends?
They reckon they know all
about us,
but they don’t really
notices the changes
and the silent growing that
goes on inside us.
Like, in our soul?
Please, don't let their
opinion of us
discourage us.
With the help of our Lord
Jesus
help us to keep growing
in faith and love.
In his name we pray.
Amen!
PSALM 48
Note: Psalm 48 is centred on Jerusalem and its temple worship. I have taken
more liberties than usual to make it a helpful liturgical resource for
Christian worship.
.
Great is our God, and
greatly to be praised
in the streets of the
eternal city of light.
Loftier than the highest mountain
is God’s beauty, the joy of all the earth.
Each cathedral and chapel
is a suburb
of the city of the great
King of love.
Within the embracing arms of the church
we have found God keeping us secure.
We have delighted in your
love, O God,
in houses of prayer where
you are adored.
Just as your name is known everywhere,
so praise is sung to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand wins out
over evil;
let the whole church
celebrate!
Let the daughters of faith celebrate
your saving justice for all!
Visit around the many
churches,
look at the quiet strength
found there.
Think about the faith of ordinary folk,
see their fellowship and outreach.
Tell the next generation
what is happening,
that God is very much
alive.
Our God will be with us always,
our sure guide for ever more.
Ó B D Prewer 2002
AUTHORITY
Mark 6: 7-13
Not the wise, not the
skilled,
neither scholars, nor
saints;
mere ordinary folk,
warts-and-all characters,
and that Peter bloke;
caught up in the freedom of
Jesus.
Authority: called and
empowered
to release the bedevilled;
the diseased and the lame,
the crazy and the lost,
the soul filled with shame;
caught up in the love of
Jesus.
Not cluttered with
possessions,
free as the wind of heaven;
inviting the crowd,
anointing the sick,
rebuking the proud;
caught up in the spirit of
Jesus.
Ó B D Prewer 2000
A COLLECT FOR THIS DAY
We thank you, loving God,
for the surprises which you spring on us! You take the unlovely and cherish
them, the mediocre and make them gifted, the mere nobodies and ordain them your
apostles.
You entrust us with an
authority and ministry far beyond our own strength. We are reticent. Yet under
your patient care we discover that all things are possible to those who love
you.
Surprise us again, loving
Friend. Surprise us with the Christ who believes in us and the grace which is
made perfect in human weakness.
Through Jesus Christ, we
pray.
Amen!
ALTERNATIVE PRAYER
God our God, do not let us
be afraid of the hard questions
but rather let us fear the pre-cast answers with which this
world’s exploiters
would dearly enslave us.
Grant us the grace to be
unsettled by your Christ in his profound
simplicity; to travel with him, to see him at work, to watch
his face,
to hear his words and sometimes to tremble with awe.
When at last we have
sharpened our questions to the keenest point,
let these same questions pierce our ignorance and make room in
us for a creed,
deeper than words and higher than our aspirations. Through
Jesus our Christ.
Amen!
SERMON 1: LOW EXPECTATIONS?
“Is not this the carpenter,
the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are
not his sisters here with us?” And they took offence[scandalised] at him
.Mark
6:3
Or daring to put those
words in common street-talk:
“Isn’t this jumped-up nerd just the local
carpenter? Mary’s kid, the brother of Jim,
Joe, Jude and Si? And aren’t these ordinary chics among us his sisters?”
And they were pissed-off by him.”
First, I apologise to any
of you who find those words [pissed off] crude; an unfortunate choice.
Honestly, I could not find a more polite phrase in common use that carried the
same sense of derision and rejection. I poured over my thesaurus for half an hour
to no avail. Returned again to it later, again to no avail.
The formal translation is :
“They took offence.” I reckon “took offence” is too soft. “Scandalised” may be the most accurate
translation of the Greek skandalon, but most ordinary
Aussies at a barbecue would not use it. I reckon they would spontaneously use
my indelicate words.
His critics were determined
to put him down, both metaphorically and (as in Luke’s account of his
homecoming to Nazareth) quite literally. They were offended and angry and eager
to get violent with their home grown prophet.
-----LOW
EXPECTATIONS--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some say that familiarity
breeds contempt.
Often those who are
familiar with us over the years, take us for granted and don’t expect changes
in us. Some may package us up in opinions that were framed a long time ago, and
get annoyed should we try to break out of their frame of us. If we start to exhibit
gifts which they had never suspected, it annoys them. Should we take on positions
(say in local government) that seem, in their eyes, to be “above our status,”
they may become our harshest critics.
The low expectations from
within one’s locality, not only underrate the gifts and possibilities of a “local” but can also actively inhibit the
development of such gifts . Numerous people have been grossly restricted by the
low expectations of those around them. Many have to go elsewhere to be truly
themselves.
As I see it, fostering low expectations is one of the
devil’s most canny stratagems.
----JESUS AT
NAZARETH--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Jesus was subject to this
kind of ‘put down.’.
He had been conducting an
amazing ministry in other parts of Galilee. Crowds had been flocking to meet
him and hear him and see his healing deeds. He was big news everywhere. But
when he arrived back home and preached in his local synagogue, there were many
critics; citizens who already had set opinions about this man who had been
their local carpenter. They were offended [pissed-off] by his attempt to break
out of their low expectations.
The key to their attitude
is in their comments: “Isn’t this just
the carpenter? Mary’s kid, the brother of Jim and Joe, Ju and Si? And aren’t
these his sisters here among us?”
They underestimated him,
they put him in the cramped crate of their limited understanding, totally
defined by the status of his parents, and of his brothers and sisters, and of
his occupation: carpenter, or maybe ‘tradesman.’ That was their comfort zone,
and they did not want to venture outside it. Because of their low expectations,
these constrictions, they denied themselves the kind of dynamic encounter that
hundreds of others had been enjoying. They missed out.
Not only did his critics
miss out, but they inhibited Jesus and thereby denied healing grace to others.
Their closed minds prevented wonderful things happening. Please face this:
their selfishness which would not allow their own attitudes to be changed, and
their lack of faith in him (because he was “just a local carpenter”) prevented
others receiving help. Mark makes the
telling comment: “And Jesus could do no mighty work there.”
One early Christian
document has Jesus saying of his critics: “They are like a dogs sitting in
mangers. They neither eat the straw themselves nor allow anyone else eat it.”
-----SOME RESTRICTING
EXPECTATIONS---------------------------------------------------------
That’s how it goes, isn’t
it? I have talked about what happened
to Jesus, and in a general way of what can happen to others. But what about us.
Those of you who still live
where you were brought up, or have lived here a long time, or who have working
in the same position for many years, know what it to be restricted by the
expectations of those around you. Communities seem to have the power to cramp
and diminish possibilities. The wet blanket thrown by those who think they know
you, is crippling. Often who think they know you, may hardly know anything about the miracle that is really you!
Have folk tried to define
and confine you by putting you in their little boxes? In the box of occupation?
Or the “growing up” box? Or the family box?
Occupation:
Why do people on being
introduced ask “what do you do?” Meaning your occupation? Do they imagine they
can understand you by what you do for a living? Aren’t you just the carpenter?
Just the farmer? Secretary? Plumber? Manager? Teacher? Shop keeper?
Truck driver? Plumber? Computer programmer?
Nurse? Police officer? Accountant? Hair dresser? Engineer? Pilot?
Receptionist? Or those clangers- just a home-husband or house-wife, unemployed or
retired.
Family:
What’s more, why do they
think they understand you just because they can slot you into a particular
family? Aren’t you Mary’s son, and don’t
we know you brothers and sisters? Aren’t you Kathryn’s eldest daughter? Paul’s young brother? Shane’s young wife? Jane’s much older
husband? The pastor’s wife? Mandy’s cousin? One of the Elmhurst twins? The grandchildren
of Bill the butcher? The second husband
of Tricia? The son of Judie and Tim? The aunt of that politician convicted of
fraud?
Growing up experiences:
Why is it they presume to
know you by having lived next door to you, or gone to school and college with
you? Aren’t you the boy who used to play with our Peter, and who hit a ball
through our window? The girl who played tennis for the seconds? The student who was good at English but
hopeless at Maths? The schoolboy who was nervous of girls? The girl who got
pregnant? The kid with a new license who got caught speeding? The rebellious
child I taught in Sunday School? The plodder who had to repeat first year at
University? The teenager who dated our Bryce for a while until he met Cindy?
The leader of the debating team who had “the gift of the gab”? The kid with the
bad acne?
“Is not this the
carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with
us?”
Just as they classified
Jesus, so they try to classify us in little boxes. Such closed minds cannot see
the real you. Their low expectations can inhibit or constrict your enlarging
identity in Christ. They rarely notice your developing gifts, or give you
gracious affirmation in your accomplishments. Often we have to dare to be what
Christ wants to make of us in spite of these negative folk who erroneously
think they know us. Jesus had to move on without them. Maybe we need to also,
either physically or spiritually, or both.
------IN THE CHURCH?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sadly this also applies to
life in the church. It happened to Jesus in the synagogue. The very people
whose minds and hearts should have been open, were closed. Categorising is a
grave inhibiter of our growth and that of other Christians around us.
It goes like this: She came
over from the Baptists. He is one of those high church Anglicans. They are
Roman Catholic, of course. Our neighbours are charismatic, you know? I’m afraid
Ted is a fundamentalist. Deidre is one of those liberals.
Little boxes.
Constrictions.
As a member of our Uniting
Church in Australia, a denomination now more than twenty five years old, it
irks me when some members still try to classify people by their previous
denomination as either Congregational, Presbyterian or Methodist. I have heard
people say, “But of course, they were Presbyterian.” A box. I get suspicious
when someone asks me, “What were you before the union?”
I am not willing to be
pigeon holed. Neither should you allow yourself to be so boxed in, my friends.
----BE GENEROUS WITH
YOURSELF-----------------------------------------------------------------
Maybe most important of
all: don’t classify yourself. Sometimes we slip into the habit of placing
ourselves in those little boxes. We say to ourselves the equivalent of: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary
and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters
here with us?”
Move on with Jesus! Walk
away from your self imposed restrictions.
Each of us is not only more
than what our parents see in us, or our brothers and sisters, or our friends
and neighbours, or the folk within this congregation. We are even much more than we recognise in ourselves.
We are something very
special, on a journey with Christ where things do become transformed. Please do not underestimate your potential
nor down-play the small successes. Give thanks for the mini achievements. And if
you have a few major ones, rejoice but don’t brag, and stay patient with those
others who may be moving much slower.
This transformation does
not all happen in a flash. It is an ongoing process. For most of us it is not a smooth climb upwards. Often it is 2
steps forward and then 1 slip backwards or sideways. In our own eyes, the progress can feel frustratingly slow. Yet
all the while it is a journey planned by the love of God, initiated by the
grace of Christ, and nurtured by the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. The sky is
the limit!
Be lofty in your
expectations for yourselves and for other Christians, and be generous with
yourself and with them when you stumble. A stumble does not characterise your
true future, but Jesus Christ does.
SERMON 2: STRONG WEAKLINGS
2 Corinthians 12: 7-10
I don’t know about you, but
I am definitely a weakling; a weakling who can be surprisingly strong. I have
more than once surprised those who thought they thoroughly knew my weaknesses.
I have (I must admit) on numerous occasions surprised myself with unexpected
strengths.
When Paul wrote: “when I am weak, then I am strong” it might read to critics like another case of
religious pretension; perhaps the pious bragging of a man who never really knew
what it was to be a weakling. If that
were the case, then I would sympathise with the critics.
Among my pet distastes are
those overtly pious folk who brag about always being on top of the
circumstances. Many of these braggers have never actually endured poverty,
mental illness, hardship, suffering, or acute loss and grief. Yet they are big
on giving mouthfuls of slick advice to folk who are truly doing it tough.
Including the tawdry assertion that if the unfortunate folk really had genuine
faith, then all their troubles would evaporate.
If any person wants to give
me advice about how to cope with my weakness, let them not speak from the
comfort of an untested, armchair spirituality. Let them speak to me out of the
mud and muck of disappointments and deep loss, or out of the cauldron of suffering
and distress, or from the grief and the struggle to survive in a sea of
desolation.
That is why I really do
listen to St Paul. “When I am weak, then
I am strong.” He knew what he
was talking about. Nothing trite or
untested about his spirituality.
In the 12th Chapter of his
second letter to the Corinthians Paul frankly talks about some chronic ailment
that has plagued his life. He labels this ailment a “thorn in the flesh, to
harass me, a Satan’s messenger, to keep me from becoming over confident.”
Numerous people have made
guesses at what that ailment could be. Those guesses range from epilepsy to
facial disfigurement, from stuttering to being a hunchback, from a hair lip to
depressive illness. Maybe
there are many more possibilities I have not heard. The truth is we do not have
one incontrovertible clue as to what the “thorn in the flesh” really was. It is
enough to know that it caused Paul ongoing pain.
Paul tells us that three
times he begged God to be freed of this burden. But it seemed to him that God’s
answer was: “No. live with it, Paul. My
grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in human weakness.”
Paul races on then to this
additional affirmation: “For the sake of
Christ, I am now content with weaknesses, insults, hardship, persecutions and
calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong.”
Is this stuff believable?
My soul responds: “Yes. I believe you, Paul. You really did
have to “do it tough.” You speak from the depths. Nothing slick or self-serving
in your witness. This is the hard, deep down truth, forged on the anvils of
faith in the workshop of human suffering.”
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THREE ASPECTS OF THIS
STRENGTH
What does this mean for
us? Where is this strength that is
found when we are weak? This healing which happens although we are still
suffering? This leap forward when we endure ugly setbacks?
What does this mean in our
lives?
Here are some
possibilities.
1/ WE GAIN A CLEARER
INSIGHT
Times of weakness can open
our eyes to things worth living for. I use the words “can open our eyes.” It
does not automatically happen. We need to eject self pity and be willing to
grow (painfully) through our awareness of vulnerability and weakness.
In times of weakness,
physical or personal, or when crosses are thrust on our shoulders by adverse
circumstances or by cruel people, we have the opportunity to see through the
world’s superficial values and gloss to the realities which eternally matter.
The world’s nonsense
becomes stripped way. Trivial matters can be seen to be trivial. Mediocre
goals, no matter how glamorised by our culture, are seen to be mediocre. Even second level values are recognised as
secondary. When we are weak the primary things stand out, and we can become
much stronger characters.
It is in our weakness that
we are granted the opportunity to reassess and decide what we really want to
absorb our time and energy and money. A new maturation and drive can arise out
of the hardship, and we can focus our sights on the goals that will remain
shining even in the darkest nights of the soul.
When we are weak, then we are strong.
You and I have seen this
happen to some of those who have coped with a natural disaster or financial
ruin, those who have recovered from family tragedy or physical disease, those
who survive war or terrorist atrocity, those who may remain handicapped yet no
longer define themselves by their handicap. They become the strong ones, who
cut through falsity and superficiality. These brave souls inspire the rest of
us to take up our cross and get on with life.
2/ AWARENESS OF INNER
RESOURCES
The second strength that
can arise in times of weakness is the discovery of inner resources we did not
realise we possessed.
We find we are drawing on
silent depths.
Often it is these
newly-recognised strengths which enable us to hang on in times of crisis, like
as rock climber on a cliff face. At other times these inner strengths enable us
to walk on through rocky terrain, far beyond what we had thought was our limit.
We may even surprise and surpass ourselves by being able to encourage another
weak soul in the very hour when we ourselves were over stretched. Or we find
ourselves laughing in a situation where we had feared all humour had died.
When we are weak, then we are strong.
At this point you may wish
to remind me that Paul is not talking about our own inner strengths, but about
God’s strength given to us in our weakness.
You are partly right, of
course, and in a couple of minutes I will specifically deal with that truth.
However, the line between
human and Divine resources is not so clear as you might at first think. Our
very being is rooted in the ground of God. Without God sustaining the breath we
draw moment by moment, we would immediately cease to be. What I have called our
human inner strengths flow directly from our God. A friend can be the strength
of God to us. A kindly stranger can be the strength of God to us. Each of us
can be the strength of God to ourselves.
Down in the depths of our
being, I am not certain where the human ends and the Divine begins. My personal
resources are a part of something far more profound and far more holy. That is
a part of the paradox that enables us to say :When I am weak, then I am strong.
3/ THE GRACE OF CHRIST
Yet there is more, isn’t
there? In our weakness we come to appreciate that which is called the grace of
God, or “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” This is that supra-natural
gift-strength which certainly does not come from our human nature but from the
Divine.
Paul always brings us back
to this fact of amazing grace. Remember those words about Paul’s “thorn in the
flesh”, and how he begged God on three occasions to rid him of this painful affliction? For Paul is
seemed clear that the Lord was saying to him, “ forget the thorn, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power
is made perfect in human weakness.”
Many of us here today (I
hope maybe most of us) have experienced situations when we felt at our wits
end. At that point, bereft of options and floundering badly, something Holy
saved us. We were sustained by “Something Other” than own resources or those of
our caring neighbours or loved ones.
Maybe it happened quietly,
or maybe dramatically, but we were inundated with the sustaining warmth of the
loving Spirit of Christ Jesus. The Lord is always our saving grace; the
“Something Extra” that makes us much stronger than we deserve to be. The grace
of God is always pure bonus, “the bread which we break, and the cup which we
take” is truly “Something Other” or : “Something Extra.”
At such times we know for
certain that “when we are weak, then we
are strong.”
Paul got it right.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GOD USES OUR WEAKNESSES
One final comment on this
theme: Our God indulges in the delightful effrontery of taking our own
experience of weakness and then using it to strengthen others.
We may think that God can
only use our strengths and abilities. Wrong. God is also pleased to use our
weaknesses and our disabilities.
That was Paul’s story. And
it is certainly mine. Because of my weaknesses (and I certainly do have my own
thorn in the flesh) Christ has been able to use me both as a pastor and
preacher and writer in ways far beyond any calculated expectation.
In fact, God is not into
calculations. God is into grace. Grace.
More grace. Freely available.
As immeasurable of the love
of Jesus on the cross.
Great is our God, and
greatly to be praised,
the joy of all the earth.
Beautiful is our God,
the joy of loving hearts.
We have thought about your
faithful love, O God,
in the midst of your
temple.
God’s grace is sufficient
for us,
Christ’s power is made
perfect in our weakness.
Your right hand alone gives
us the victory.
Let the sons of God be
glad!
Let the daughters of God
rejoice,
PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING
* for
2 voices.
We thank you, gracious God,
for speaking to us through
all the common scenes of life,
and sowing hope in
unpromising places.
You are the lone shaft of
light that greets me on a cloudy morning.
The kindly darkness that swallows my sins and brings me to
rest.
You are the friend who waits for me when my weary
steps falter;
The
warmth that floods my being with a loved one’s hug.
You are the eagle that
draws my eyes towards the heavens;
The sea where tides recede yet always return to refresh.
You are the hope that rises after wintry grief, like
bush orchids in spring;
The kind
laugher that mocks me after I have been pompous.
You are the unfinished
rhapsody that sets my soul aching with joy;
The optimism that refuses to the flattened by the fist of fear.
You are the compassion that brings my charity out of
its hiding place;
The
birdsong that lifts my spirits after a cold spell.
You are the hope that
bursts green from the ashes of a bush fire;
The pond that reflects the beauty I have not noticed before.
You are the peace where my heart rests in the eye of
a storm;
The
star-cross in the sky when I must walk alone in the night.
We thank you, gracious God,
for meeting with us in all
the common scenes of life.
Please receive our
gratitude and praise,
help us to recognise you
more often
and cooperate with your
Spirit more readily.
Through Christ Jesus our
divine Brother.
Amen!
PRAYERS: “BE WITH
US: A LITANY”
See “Jesus our Future” page 92
Ó Open Book
Publishers email: enquiries@openbook.
com.au
SENDING OUT
In the name of Jesus of
Nazareth, take authority to exceed the expectations of
of those who would deny
your gifts and cramp your style!
Amen!
In the name of Jesus of
Nazareth, dare to exceed your natural gifts and virtues and begin to live by
the strength of grace.
Amen!
In the name of Jesus of
Nazareth, place your deficiencies and frailty in the hands of God and find the
strength which is made perfect your weakness.
Amen!
Grace, mercy and peace,
from God.............................