Sermon transcript, 8 March 2015

Don’t quit – press on by Fr. Dana

Exodus 20:1-17, Psalm 19, Romans 7:13-25, John 2:13-25

Recording:  http://1drv.ms/1Oy81qB

Last week we talked about Satan’s war of attrition: he tries to wear down our resistance, faith and good walks.  He tries to do this in many ways: through relational conflicts, the pressure of life, and sin…  But this was a sub-topic under the general heading: “Satan cannot win.”  He’s already defeated; all he can do is convince us to quit – and sometimes he’s successful.

But there are other ways in which Satan tries to convince us to quit.  One of them is discouragement: he tries to make the goal of our high calling look so far away and so high and so unattainable that we are convinced that we can’t reach it; and if we can’t reach it, why even try?   In today’s Old Testament lesson we heard the complete reading of the Ten Commandments, including some of God’s commentary on them.  That’s only a piece of what he has for us, and when you put that together with all the corollaries, statutes, explanations, and everything else you find in the Bible, it sometimes seem to be too much, too far beyond our reach.

The attributes of God’s proclamations

The Psalm today has some things to say about God’s proclamations:

• “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul” (Psalm 19:7a).  The Law of the Lord is His design upon which all creation operates, like the Law of gravity.  If I hold something up and I drop it, it falls.  The Law that God gives us is not “Thou shallt not have any fun”, but, “This is the way the world is designed to operate; and if you want to be all that I have called you to be, you need to operate by these Laws.”  That Law converts the soul.  The Law is a mirror (see James 1:23-25): we look at the Law and look at ourselves and say, “Ugh! That doesn’t look very pretty!”  Galatians 3:24 says that the Law doesn’t save us, but it brings us to Christ: it’s our teacher.  It says, “Here’s the right answer; now you try.  No, that‘s the wrong answer – here’s the right answer.”  It is a perfect tutor; if we follow it, we will learn from it.  And we can learn from our mistakes when we don’t follow it.
• “The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple” (Psalm 19:7b).  If you are called into court to give a testimony, you are declaring what you have seen to be true.  You are saying, “I was there; I saw this; this is what happened; and I swear it’s true”.  Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not a man, that He should lie”: He will not tell you something that is not true, to get you to do something.  If God says it, it’s true.  If we’ll simply accept His testimony, rather than trying to re-interpret it so that we don’t have to, we will gain wisdom.
• “The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart (Psalm 19:8a).  Statutes are the written enactment of a law: a governmental authority passes a law, and then they write statutes that define how we will enforce that law.  The statutes of the Lord are the written enactments of His Law: they tell us how to live in His love.
• “The commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes” (Psalm 19:8b).  If I go to my boss and he says, “I want you to do this”, I do it – as long as it is not immoral; but my Bishop won’t do that, so I don’t have to worry about that.  A commandment is an instruction to do something, a direct order: nothing hidden, very straight, no hidden agenda, just “do it”.  Those commandments help us understand how the world works.
• “The fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever” (Psalm 19:9a).  “Fear” has a lot of definitions.  Some people truly are afraid of the Lord: they don’t want to see Him, hear Him, touch Him or think about Him, because it is too terrifying; and that’s really because they don’t know Him that well.  But there is a healthy fear of the Lord: the Lord holds us in the palm of His hand, He has our eternal destiny in His hand; and so to have a healthy respect for Him and His authority and His power is a good thing.  It’s not dirtied by Him being selfish: He’s not holding you by the neck and saying, “If you don’t do that”, and squeezing…  He holds our temporal and eternal future; and that would be a scary thing if it were not for the fact that his desire for us is purely for our good.  Read II Peter 3:9: that’s His heart.  If not everybody comes to repentance, it isn’t His fault, because He gave us free will.  If everyone did what he wanted, everyone would be saved.
• “The judgments of the LORD are true and righteous altogether.” (Psalm 19:9b)  A judgment is a judge’s decision: “Here’s the law; here’s how it applies in your case; and therefore you are guilty” / innocent / whatever…  As one who cannot lie, we can trust his decisions to be right in every situation.  If you give your whole salary this month to the Lord and say, “If I give You this, I want this job”, or an Audi, or whatever, it will not sway Him.  He cannot be bribed or coerced.

This is the end of the list of the attributes of God’s pronouncements, but then the Psalmist has a few more things to say about all of these things:

• In Psalm 19:10 he is saying, “All these things that I just told you are really awesome are more desirable than gold.”  People want gold, because with it they can get what they want do what they want, and look better than other people.  God says “What I have is even more valuable than that; not for selfish reasons, but they are more valuable to you and for your future and your destiny than all the gold and the world is for your desires.”

And they are sweet; it is not as if when you acquire these things you’ll have a miserable life.  You read them and say “Oh my God, how can I ever do that?  I can’t follow all of that!”  But He says as you do, you’ll find that it’s sweet.

Sometimes God tells us to do something, and we say, “No way!”  There was this guy named Jonah:  “I want you to go to Nineveh, Jonah.”  That was a commandment; and Jonah said “No!” and headed off to Tarshish, and you know how well that went: the ship was in a storm, they tossed him overboard and he was swallowed by a fish.  Then he went and did what God told him to do: “Tell them that if they don’t repent, I’m going to destroy their city”.  Guess what: they listened to him and they did it; and Jonah was angry!  He gave lip service to God: “I know what You’re going to do: You’re going to look stupid.  I’m going to tell them that all these bad things will happen to them, and they’ll repent, and You’ll forgive them, and I’ll be standing there with egg on my face as if I lied.”  If he’d got with the programme, with why God sent him to Nineveh…  In fact at the end God tells him what was going on, but unfortunately we don’t get Jonah’s response, so we don’t know if it convinces him (see Jonah 4:11).

It’s sweet if you do what God asks you to do.  When I get to heaven, I want to be there when Jonah talks to the people of Nineveh and they hug him and they thank him for saving their lives and their souls: I think he’ll have a different opinion.

• Read Psalm 19:11.   A warning is like a sign that says, “Don’t keep going: it won’t be good!  Don’t do that!”  They keep us from going astray – if we heed them.  All the flashing billboards in the world won’t stop us if we don’t heed them.  But again we can learn by our mistakes.  If we heed them and keep them, we will then receive the greatest reward of all: not just an awesome, sweet life here – not by the world’s standards: I’m not talking about money – but also an awesome eternity with Him.

We can’t do it, but…

OK, you’ve convinced me: these things are wonderful – but I still haven’t got a chance in Hades’ hotspots of keeping them all; I can’t do it.  Impossible; forget it.  Satan says, “You know you can’t do it: you can’t even get up out of bed, go downstairs and eat breakfast for ten minutes without bad thoughts, cursing the toothpaste, cursing your boss…”  It doesn’t take long before we fall.  So how do we do this?  And that’s just the Old Testament; in the New Testament, Jesus piles it on…  Paul says of God that those “whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Romans 8:29)… Wait a minute!  This is the Son who went to Jerusalem, was arrested, was spit on, was whipped, wore the crown of thorns, and was crucified – I’m supposed to be conformed to… What, are you joking?  And I thought the commandments were bad!  No way!  That’s impossible!”  That’s exactly what Satan wants you to think: “That’s impossible!  Give it up; forget it.  ‘Eat, drink and be merry, because tomorrow we die.’ (I Corinthians 15:32)…”

But Jesus has the last word: read Matthew 18:2-3.  It’s impossible the way you are: you can’t keep the Law, you can’t be conformed to the image of Christ; you can’t do it.  Read Matthew 18:4.  How does that help?  We are to become like little children.  Here is a trick question:  What do children spend most of their waking time doing?  Whatever they are doing, when they are playing games, watching TV, talking to you, or reading, they are gaining information: they are learning.   Read Galatians 3:24-25: we learn from our mistakes, we learn from the Law, we keep getting input; and as long as we keep on getting up every time we fall, we are making progress: we only stop making progress when we don’t get up.  We don’t lose until we quit; if we don’t quit, we don’t lose.

But what’s this about becoming like a little child, and we’re no longer under a tutor?  Under the Old Testament, they only had the Law: all they could do was try to do the right thing, stumble, get up, learn from your mistake, and go on.  God the Father knew that was not enough: you can’t learn enough even to do it right most of the time, much less all the time.  So He sent His Son Jesus Christ in the flesh to become one of us…

1. To show us the way: This is how you do it.  That’s fine, but I still can’t.  I have a much clearer picture now, because I have Jesus’ life.  Even the disciples who walked with Him for three years still couldn’t do it right.  Peter – “I don’t know the man!” – Peter, how can you deny Him?  You’ve been one of His best friends for three years and you said you would die for Him, and now this servant girl says, “Do you know Him?” – “Who? I’ve never seen Him before in my life!”  Way to go, Peter, man of faith and power!  Living with Jesus for three years didn’t make Peter able to do it.
2. But Jesus didn’t come just to show the way: He came to pay the price for all the mistakes, all the sins that we’d committed, to erase the slate every time we fall down and get back up – every time.
3. Not only that, but then when He ascended to the Father, He said, “I will ask the Father and He will send you the Comforter, the Holy Spirit.  You won’t have Me walking beside you any more, but you’re getting a great deal: God the Holy Spirit will be living inside you, showing you the way from inside, and making it possible for you to do all that I’ve asked – even to be conformed to My image.”

And it works.  You don’t believe it?  Look up to the video of the 21 Coptic Christians who were beheaded a week or so ago.  What were their last words?  ISIS thinks that showing you that video will intimidate the hell out of you; but it will inspire you.  It’s possible to be conformed to the image of Jesus if we let the Holy Spirit take over.  If we keep Him in the back seat and just listen to His instructions and sometimes do them and sometimes not, that won’t get us there; but if we humble ourselves – “OK, I’m getting out of the driver’s seat.”  God is not my Co-pilot – God is my Driver.  God is in the driving seat, and He’s driving: “Wherever You want to go, just do it.  And just hang onto me, because I may try to leap out; hang onto me, keep me in” – the Holy Spirit gives us the ability to do.

Confess

We’ve received the Holy Spirit; does that mean that from now on I’m perfect?  Definitely not: I still make mistakes; I still sin.  Sometimes I don’t have the strength to get up, but I have the Holy Spirit and He picks me up and dusts me off.  I go to Confession and the blood of Jesus washes me and I’m white again.  The Holy Spirit says, “OK, back to the car, let’s go”; and we keep going.  You can do that too.

Paul confirms this in Philippians 3:12-14; he’s talking about doing the right thing.  (“I haven’t apprehended it” means “I haven’t grabbed it, I don’t have my hands on it yet”.)  The key to this is Jesus’ instruction on becoming like a little child.  As soon as I say, “That was just a little sin; I don’t need to worry about that”, the next one is a little bigger, but I don’t need to worry about either; and pretty soon I’m carrying this whole chain of sins behind me that I’m ignoring.  That is not what Paul is talking about when he says “I forget the things that are behind”.  The only way you can forget those is to bring them out of the dark, put them on the altar, and say, “I did that, and I’m sorry I did that, and I don’t want to do it again.  Help me!”  He forgives me, and now they’re forgotten.  They’re not just forgotten by me: God says, “I’ve put them as far away from you as the east is from the west” (How far is that?  Head east, and tell me when you get to the west – you’ll never get there), putting our sins in a place where our sins cannot torment us, where they cannot drag us down.  Satan cannot use them to tell us, “You can’t do it.  There’s no way. Just look at yesterday. Yesterday proved that you can’t do it.”  There’s nothing there from yesterday: they’re as far as the east is from the west; this is a new day.

There is only one place like that, and that’s the mercy seat of Christ, covered by His blood; and there’s only one way to get them there: read James 4:6-10 (verse 8 speaks of confession).  He will lift you up – not you, not me.  That’s what Lent, this purple season, is all about: saying, “You’re right: I can’t do it, no way, unless You help me, unless You live in me.”  Psalm 119:35 says, “Make me go in the way of Your commandments, because that is my delight.”  “God, there will be times when I do not want to go Your way, but I’m taking this opportunity right now that when that situation comes up and I tell You I don’t want to do that, don’t listen to Me – I’m lying.  My real heart is to follow You, and it’s just the situation that makes me want to run.  Make me stand.  I give You permission to overrule my will, because my real will is to follow You.  Do it, please!”  And He will lift you up.

Conclusion

In this Lent, as the world is trying to drive you down the motorway at 110 miles per hour and there’s traffic all around you (and I’m talking spiritually, not physically on the highway), slow down, get out of the fast lane, pull into the lay by, turn off the engine, get out of the car, walk out into the meadow, sit down and listen to God.  Spend time with the one Being in all the universe who knows you most and loves you best.  Confess, rend your hearts and not your garments, confess the things you know, confess…  “God, I know that there are a lot of things that I don’t even notice, or that I do notice and my mind suppresses because I can’t handle thinking about them.  I confess those things too; cleanse me of those.”  And let Him wash you clean, pick you up, and set you back on the path.  Because His heart for us is to succeed – not the world’s success; His success, according to His judgments and His precepts and His commandments and His Law – and there is nothing that’s sweeter than that, I guarantee it.

Let not your heart be troubled: go to Him, be with Him, confess to Him, and receive from Him; and rise up; and Easter will be different than it’s ever been for you before.

Sermon transcript, 1 March 2015

Don’t lose the war by Fr. Dana

Genesis 22:1-14, Psalm 16:5-11, Romans 8:31-38, Mark 8:31-38

Recording:  http://1drv.ms/1KyXUhF

Read Revelation 12:7-12.  The Church is at war; it has always been at war, whether the world is at peace or not.  Our enemy is Satan, the accuser, the father of lies (John 8:44), the one who comes only to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10).  The good news is, he cannot win: he is already defeated; therefore the only thing that he can do is to convince us to give up the fight.

You don’t lose until you quit

You don’t lose until you quit.  Satan fights a war of attrition.  Attrition is a wearing down by friction, a reducing in number, size or strength.  In today’s Gospel (Mark 8:31-38), Satan tries it against Jesus.  Jesus was telling His disciples that He “must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” (Mark 8:31)  That did not meet Peter’s idea of victory, so he took Jesus aside: “Jesus, what are you saying?  That’s crazy, that’s not God!”  Jesus returns the rebuke: “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.” (Mark 8:33)  Satan was tempting Jesus through Peter to do it His own way.

Fortunately it didn’t work.  It didn’t work when Satan tempted Jesus in the desert; it didn’t work in the Old Testament with Abraham.  There are some famous Christian scholars who get everything else right but get this story wrong.  They say, “Abraham’s so stupid; he should have known God’s not like that – God would never ask that!”  Wrong – God asked that of Himself.  “You were willing to give up your firstborn and only son, the son of the promise, the son that you didn’t believe I could give you, but I did, and I promised I’d make you the father of many nations, and now I asked you to kill him, to sacrifice him on the altar, and you were willing to do that.”  Abraham was not fatalistic.  I can’t imagine as a father doing what Abraham did.  Isaac said, “Dad, there’s the wood, there’s the fire – where’s the lamb?”  “Son, you’re the lamb.”  No – he says, “God will provide for Himself the lamb…” (Genesis 22:8).  He didn’t know how God was going to do it – maybe he would sacrifice Isaac and God would raise him up – he didn’t know; he just knew God was going to do it.  And so Satan’s lie to try to get Abraham to quit didn’t work. 

When Satan wears us down

There are times when Satan’s lie does work.  Samson fell in love with Delilah, a Philistine, and her friends said, “Find out the secret of his strength”, and so three times she asks him.  The first time he says, “If you bind me with seven fresh bowstrings…”  She tries and it doesn’t work.  “If you bind me with new ropes…”  It doesn’t work.  Samson is denser than granite.  She asks him again – “if you bind seven locks of my hair together…”  She does it, and it doesn’t work.  Samson is so blinded – or maybe it was just God’s purpose…  She asks him again, and he tells her.  Guess what happened – she did it, and he was as weak as a kitten!  Satan wore him down, through a woman.  Do not take this as a permanent pattern – it goes both ways: men are not immune to being used this way, and women are not immune to believing them.  The point is, Satan works that way, and sometimes he succeeds.  Fortunately with Samson, God got revenge in the end. (Judges 16:4-30)

My previous Bishop, Mike Davidson, describes this dream (I don’t remember whose dream it was): “I was being harassed by an ugly old man of very small stature. I grabbed him and began to throw him around with very little effort.  Then I wanted to see what his facial features were, and was shocked to realise he was wearing many layers of masks. I removed one after another, never exhausting the supply. It seemed I was literally well able to manhandle this little guy, but after some time I began to tire and only realised the object of this little altercation was to wear me out and to use up my time and take my focus from more important issues facing me.”  Ask yourself, “How much time do I spend wrestling this little guy and trying to take masks off?  How much time in my life do I waste battling ineffectively with the enemy over something that’s not important?”  This never-ending battle will wear us out, just as it wore down Samson.

Satan wears us down in many ways – hopefully not through a “significant other”, but in many ways.  He can wear us down through relational conflicts: conflicts with people, with our children, with other church members… Oh!  That never happens, does it?  We never get upset with other church members, do we?  …people at work, other drivers (have I hit a nerve yet?)  He wears us down through the stress and pressure of life – remember last week all those little oatmeal flakes, all those things that come after us and stay after us and won’t let us go…  And he wears us down through sin.  How mighty and full of faith are you after doing something that you knew was wrong?

Live the Word of God

How do we fight?  We fight the way Jesus did while He was in the desert for forty days.  You might say that was basic training.  What did He do?  He used the Word of God: He didn’t just quote it – it’s not that if you just quote the Scripture, Satan will leave: Satan quoted Scripture to Him! – that’s a good start, but it’s not enough; you have to live it.

• For example, in relational conflicts, how do we fight that?  Matthew 18:15-17: “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone.”  No – wait a minute!  I’m sure it says, “Go and tell everybody you know what he did to you.”  That’s not fighting – that’s giving in; that’s making the fight bigger than it is, and a whole lot harder to resolve.  “Go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.”  This is the first step every time.  It tells you what to do if that doesn’t work; but that’s the start.
• What about fighting against stress and pressure?  Matthew 11:28-29:  Buck up, dude!  Deal with it, get over it!  No – Jesus says, “Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”  Rest is not laziness, because the next sentence is, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”  There are other places where Jesus talks about yoke; it’s a wooden beam with usually two harnesses and, in this context, two oxen.  If you had a new ox you always put the new, young ox in with the oldest and wisest.  The oldest ox is slow, but he’s methodical, and he’s stronger, and he never quits; the youngest ox has all the energy but no focus.  Jesus says, “Get in the yoke with Me: I’ll calm you down, and we’ll learn to pull together.”  That’s where the peace is; there may be a time of sleep, but it doesn’t last forever.
• How do we fight sin?  Matthew 5:23-24.  This is the converse of Matthew 18:15-17: your brother didn’t do anything to you – you did something to him.  We do this in some sense in Confession before the Eucharist: we give an opportunity to confess our sins.  It’s not quite going and dealing with it, but hopefully the Holy Spirit will prick your heart to go and deal with it.  Confess before offering and before receiving the Eucharist.  In that confession, in order to be reconciled to your brother, repentance must be real.  If you say “I’m sorry” but you don’t change your behaviour, it doesn’t mean anything – and they know it.  That’s why when John the Baptist saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for Baptism, he said, “Welcome; God bless you.”  No – he said, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance…” (Matthew 3:7-8)  If you repent, do something different – don’t repeat.  That doesn’t mean that if you commit the same sin twice you’re going to hell; with all of us it’s a process.  If we’re yoked with Christ, God is pulling us along, and we learn, and sometimes we make the same mistake twice, but we don’t say we’re sorry and have no intention of changing.

You must take the offensive

Notice something in common with all these actions: they’re all something that you need to do.  They’re not, “God, fix me; I’m waiting here until You do.”  The reason is that no one can win a war, a football game or even a cricket match, by playing only defence – you can’t: you must take the offensive.  If you play only defence, you are Samson: you are ripe for picking, because Satan will keep hammering at you and wearing you down until you quit or you lose.  I say again, Satan cannot win; and yet will all know people who are losing the fight every day.  Satan can’t win, but we can lose.  They aren’t losing their salvation necessarily, but they are becoming casualties of war: their injuries make them give up.  Even though God has already won the war, still there are thousands and thousands of casualties: through sin, through selfishness, through unwillingness to admit that they need help…

Now there’s a “guy thing”: “I’m strong, I’m a man of God, I don’t need anybody, I’ve got it all together.  Now would you like some help?  No, I don’t have an answer for that; I can’t help you.”  That’s false: if we can’t admit that we need help, we’re already losing.  Read Isaiah 5:13-15.  Hell is bigger than it really is, the mouth of hell is huge – but it’s not: it’s Satan trying to convince you.  Pomp is pride: “I’m clean, I’m good: see these nice garments?”  If you’re proud of who you are, and you don’t need anything else, you’re heading towards the mouth of hell.  That’s not meant to scare you – it’s a warning: don’t do that!  Each one who is proud will be humbled: you’ll find out what your state really is.

Satan is literally trying to wear out the people of God: he’s putting some to sleep with a lack of love; he’s making some comatose with a lack of concern for the lost and the broken; he’s infecting some with selfishness and greed: looking out for their own pleasure rather than God’s will and plan… and the problem is, they’re fighting Satan’s war.  When you fight an enemy, don’t let them choose the time and the place: they will set up an ambush; they will set up the battlefield to their advantage.  Satan does this: don’t sit and wait for him to attack.  He will: you won’t have to wait long; but don’t do that, because you give him the advantage.  Don’t fight Satan’s war – fight God’s war.  Don’t fight defence all the time – take the fight to him: through prayer and fasting.  That’s what Lent’s about: have I been lax, have I been sitting around letting life go as it flows?  It’s a time to look: maybe I’m not fighting.  Take the fight to him through prayer and fasting: for yourself, for your spouse, for your children, for your parents, for your family, for your church, for your nation…

Pray

 You’ve probably heard many times the admonition, “Put on the whole armour of God” (Ephesians 6:11), and that’s right: “the belt of truth… the breastplate of righteousness… the shoes of the preparation of the Gospel of peace… the shield of faith… the helmet of salvation… and the sword of the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:14-17) – and that’s all you’re quoted.  What’s the next verse?  “…praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit…” (Ephesians 6:18) Once you’ve got all the armour on, OK, you’re dressed, but you’re not fighting yet.  You don’t fight until you start praying: actively praying against the enemy, not waiting for him to attack and then, “O God, save me!  O God, help me!” – you’re playing defence.  You do have to play defence, because he will swing at you anyway; but if that’s all you do, you will lose, you will become tired: “I’ve been hit a thousand times!”  Maybe you’ve heard the old Chinese saying, “Death by a thousand cuts”; it doesn’t take a stab through the heart.  Have you ever had a paper cut?  It hurts: for three days, because at the end of your finger it takes a long time to heal.

Pray always; take the battle to him.  “God, show me what Satan is doing in my life.  Where has he invaded Your territory, that I haven’t noticed?  Show me how to fight him, show me what I need to do.”  Maybe it’s fasting, maybe it’s doing something different, maybe it’s not watching this, maybe it’s not turning on that channel, maybe it’s not drinking this, maybe it’s not going to these places… whatever it is.  “Show me how to fight; help me take the battle to him.”  Then we’ll start making him tired; he won’t be able to call all the shots.  He’s a little more powerful than we are, but he’s not more powerful than He is.  If we fight in our own strength, we’ll lose; but if we fight in His strength – if we’re yoked with Him: wherever He goes, I go, whatever He does, I do – we won’t lose – we will win.  And that’s important to know when you look outside, and you look in the newspapers, and you look on the internet, and you think, “What the hell is going on in this world?  What are people thinking?  Why isn’t anyone doing anything?”  They don’t know what to do.  This is how you take the battle to Satan: prayer.

Prayer is not just talking to God.  Being yoked to Jesus is not, “Faster, faster, shall we go over here?”  That’s not prayer: prayer is listening as well as talking; it’s obeying as well as requesting; it’s receiving forgiveness and comfort from Him for our wounds, for our sins; it’s receiving encouragement and strength from Him, that we can go on, that we don’t have to quit, that there is a future; receiving instructions and counsel from Him.  That is fighting the battle.

Know the Scripture, be able to quote it, or otherwise know where to find it – that’s great; but live it.  If you only know it and you don’t live it, you’re not fighting.  May it not be so of us.

Sermon transcript, 22 February 2015

“Lent is not a haircut – Lent is pruning” by Fr. Dana

Recording:  http://1drv.ms/1KyZAYr

The Lord spoke to me this week and told me, “Lent is not a haircut – Lent is pruning.”  If I go to the barber and he cuts my hair, it doesn’t matter how short he cuts it – he could cut it all off and shave it bald – but in a few weeks or months it would look just as it does now.  There would be a temporary change, but then it would be back to where it was.  If that’s all Lent is, why do we do it?

But that‘s not what Lent is – it’s a pruning.  Suppose you have a tree that starts growing would look balanced and even.  You prune the tree to change its shape and direction.

In Lent we can give up something – not so that we can go around saying “I can’t have that – I gave up chocolate for Lent” and people can think “Wow!  S/he’s really strong!”  Jesus says when you fast, don’t have a sad face, but wash, smile and be happy, because if you go around with a long face and people say, “Oh, he’s such a spiritual man: he must be in deep sorrow”, that’s your reward. (Matthew 6:16-17)  That’s not God’s idea of giving something up: His idea is to remove things that cause us to grow crooked.  That could be lots of things; certainly it’s sin – hopefully you don’t wait till Lent to give up sin – but it could also be things that aren’t necessarily bad: food, certain foods, TV, Facebook (now I hit a nerve!)… things that we become dependent on instead of depending upon God.

Lent is also a time to take on some things.  If you give up something, it makes room.  If I give up something, it takes time, so now I have more time.  Good – I can do whatever I want: I can sleep longer…  No – that’s not the purpose.  I’m called to take on something, not so that people will see, but if I drink a Starbucks coffee every day – triple latte, over the rainbow – I now have a lot more money to spend – on myself?  No – doing the Lord’s work.  But I know I’m not to go around saying “Look at me…” because Jesus also said when you give – when you do good – don’t make a show of it, but do it in secret; because if people say “Yes – you’re the man!”, that’s your reward.  He says do it in secret and I will reward you. (Matthew 6:1-4)

But it’s not just for the period of Lent.  Remember, we’re pruning.  We change our behaviour during Lent, and we learn some things: God speaks to us, He deals with us…  And at the end of Lent, if we say, “That was great; now it’s Easter and I’m going back to the way it was”, then we only had a haircut.  In a week or a month we’ll look just as we did before.  That’s not Lent.  If at the end of Lent we look just as we did before Lent began, Lent had no purpose – at least, not the purpose that God intended.  Perhaps we continue doing without some things: perhaps we gave up TV, and we go back to watching TV, but not near as much as before; we found out that we could live without it.  Perhaps we spent ten more minutes in prayer (it doesn’t have to be a long time: God rewards a little bit) and we can keep those ten minutes: don’t give them back.  Now Lent is starting to have a purpose and an effect in our lives.

Re-ordering our priorities

Lent is designed to re-order our priorities, from doing what we want to do, to listening more and doing more of what He wants us to do.  Read Psalm 25:4-5: “Replace my patterns with Your patterns; make me more like Jesus”.

Do you know what I mean by priorities?

I have a jar, a potato, an orange, a kiwi, and oatmeal.  Suppose this jar is your life, and you can fill your life with all kinds of things.  For example, God can be in your life (I’m not saying that God is a potato); the potato can represent God in your life: He’s big and touches all the areas that are important.  The orange represents your family: you may be married; you may have children… people who are important to you.  The kiwi is your role: if you’re working it may be your career; if you’re not working, you may be a mother or a caregiver.  The oatmeal represents everything else in your life; these things usually scream a lot louder than the others: they demand attention.  “Help, I need you!  Come, fix this!”  In America we call this “the tyranny of the urgent”: you’re doing something important, then something little comes along and hounds you until you stop and address it.

You have a life; your life has a certain capacity.  How do you fill your life?  [Fill the jar with oatmeal.]  Well, these things are urgent; we’ve got to get them out of our hair, right?  These are all of those annoying, nagging things in life that have to be dealt with.  And so we fill our any more.  So that’s fixed.  Let’s see now – I’ve got a job, I’ve got to go to work; if I don’t go to work, I don’t get paid; if I don’t get paid, I don’t support the family.  [Place the kiwi in the jar on top of the oatmeal.]  Oh yes, the family – the ones I’m working for.  [Place the orange in the jar on top of the kiwi; it doesn’t completely fit.]  Wait a minute – I don’t even have room for all the family.  We can’t go to the park on Saturday – I’ve got to work… sorry…  [Notice that there is no space left for the potato.]  Oh, God – sorry, God; I’ll give you 30 seconds while I’m in the shower; I can do two things at once…

If that’s how we fill our life, based on how loudly they clamour for our attention, we’ve got problems.  What if we take a different approach?  [Empty the contents of the jar.]

Let’s go by importance.  What’s most important?  If I love my family, God had better be first.  He gets first place, first time, first finances, first consideration, first devotion. [Place the potato into the empty jar.]  Then family: love your wife; honour your husband; love your children: they’re next.  [Place the orange on top of the potato.]  That role has to go in there too: I have to do something with my life.  [Place the kiwi on top of the orange.]  The three important things are in there; what about all the annoying stuff, the things that have to be done?  Stop and pray – You and me, God, let’s address these things… pray some more… [Pour the oatmeal into the jar, shaking it at times so that it fills the empty gaps around the other contents.  It all fits.]  It all fits – if you put God first, look what happens: amazing!  That’s how God wants us to live our life; He’ll help us to deal with all those annoying things.

Think about your life: which method do you use to fill your life?  If it isn’t this way, are you really surprised that you go crazy, that you don’t have time, that you don’t have finances, that you don’t have energy, or that you don’t have the emotional fortitude to deal with all the people, events and stuff in your life?   Can we learn something from this?  The great thing is that this applies to every area of our life.

• If we give God first in our time, He will add hours to the day.  He won’t make the day longer than 24 hours, but He will help us to go through the day doing the things that are important, addressing those things that need to be addressed and letting go of those things that don’t need to be addressed.
• It’s true of our emotional energy: if we worship the Lord – that doesn’t mean that every morning you have to get out the keyboard and sing: that isn’t the only way you worship; prayer is worship; talking and listening to God is worship – He restores our soul.  He gives us what we need for the day, including emotional supply.
• It’s also true in our finances: if we give God first, He will provide what we need.

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also

In fact, according to Scripture, our priorities are a measure of our heart (Matthew 6:21).  Where do you spend your time?  That’s where your heart is.  Where do you spend your money?  That’s where your heart is.  Where do you spend all your emotional energy?  That’s where your heart is.  If you spend the greatest amount of time and effort making money, that’s where your heart is.  If you spend the greatest amount of your money accumulating things for yourself, that’s where your heart is.  Wherever you apply your energy, your money and your time, that’s where your heart is; and He says give Him first place (Matthew 6:31-33).  You don’t need a £200 dress.  Put the potato in first.  Give God first: time, talent, treasure, emotions, all of it.

Read Malachi 3:10.  A tithe is not what guys wear around their neck; it is the first 10 percent of your earnings.  In the OT since it was mostly a bartering economy it was mostly crops, animals and food; that’s why it says bring them into the storehouse, that there may be food in My house.  That’s where the Priests’ food supply came from; people’s tithes went to support those who worked in the temple.  We know that He wants the first 10% because it’s reflected in what He says about the sacrifices that people were to bring: He says bring a perfect, unblemished animal – not the scruffy leftovers after you’ve sold all the good ones, the lame ones, the one that’s a funny colour, the one that only has one eye… (Malachi 1:8, 13)  God asks for our best – our first 10%.  Only 10% – look at your tax bill: when was the last time the government only took 10%?  What is the VAT rate?  Why does the State deserve more than God does?  Yet He only asks for 10%.

But He is saying: “Give it to Me first, and I will provide for you: I will bless you with all these things.”  This is not bribery even though some people preach that.  It is a promise to you, so that you can trust in His Word and His provision, instead of thinking “If I let go of this I will starve”.  He says, “I will provide; I will give you a harvest”; He doesn’t want us to give grudgingly – “All right, You asked for it, here it is, that’s gone – now I’ll see if I can live on the other 90%.”  Read II Corinthians 9:6-7.  If a farmer plants seed only in one little garden spot, it will only bear grain in one spot; if he plants seventeen fields with it, seventeen fields will be full of a crop.  But that’s not the point: “God, I don’t know how You’re going to provide, because I really need this, but I’m going to trust You.”

Some will preach “Give in order to get”: “If you send in this much, I guarantee that sometime this month someone will give you ten times that much.”  God never does that: He never, ever, ever appeals to your greed in order to get you to do the right thing (“Don’t have sex before marriage: I’ll make you rich”) – He tells you what’s right.  He’s not trying to manipulate you – He’s trying to teach you how He works.  Jesus said, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15); He doesn’t say, “If you want to get rich, keep My commandments”.

The tithe is a good example; because where your treasure is, there your heart is also.  Edye and I have tithed through good times, bad times and unemployed times.  I was unemployed for over a year in one stretch, and He still provided.  If I received $10,000 a month, we tithed that; if I received $122 a month, we tithed that: He doesn’t ask for more.  That doesn’t mean He isn’t pleased if we give more.  Remember the widow who put the two mites in the temple: she didn’t give 10%; she gave 100%, and Jesus commended her for it.  The point is that God has always been faithful to provide – not always exactly what we wanted (“I’m believing for this house” – “I’ll give you this one”.  “I’m believing for this great job” – “We’ll give you this one, and you have to move 3,000 miles away.”), but He’s always given us what we needed, because He knows what we need, better than we know ourselves.  We still tithe: we receive a salary from the church; 10% of that goes to the Diocese.  Bp. Elmer tithes: 10% of what he receives goes to the Province; and the Province tithes: 10% goes to the Patriarch.  That’s what frees people up to do the ministry, and helps us (like Foundation Day) to plant new churches, to loan money to churches to have their own building; that’s what helps us to send money to poorer countries to help them out, so we can do the work of the Church, the work of Christ; that’s how the work of the Church gets done.

God starts with us where we are; He’s not asking us to do what we can’t do, but He’s asking us to do what we can; He’s asking us to put the potato first.  Finances is an example; you can do the same thing with time: “I have to get up early in the morning; I have to rush to catch the tube; I have to go to work, and it’s crazy and they don’t give me a lunch hour; and I don’t get home until 9, and I have to eat, and then there’s that show that only lasts 30 minutes but I’ve got to see it every night; and then I’m so worn out that I’ve got to go to bed, and then I’ve got to get up and do the same thing again.  Sorry, God – ain’t no room for the potato.” God says, “Change – give Me a chance.”  That’s what Lent is about: give God a chance.  For the six weeks of Lent, give up that 30-minute show; take a break at work and pray, sitting at your desk in the office; or whatever the Lord leads you to do.

We have a choice

When we fill our lives, we have to make choices.  We have a choice.  “Oh, but my job is this, and I have to do that…”  Is that the only job you could have, that it has to take 16 hours a day?  I’m not condemning you, or saying that’s the case; but there are always options to change what you’re doing, to change your priorities: to change our priorities to match His priorities; and that’s what Lent is for, so that when we come out of Lent we look different, we walk differently, we act differently, our heart is different.  Our heart will be more aligned to God’s priorities and the ministries that he wants to do through the church, through you individually – You have a ministry: I don’t care what you do for a living, whether you’re married or not, whether you’re 12 years old or 112 – God has a ministry for you, but you have to be sensitive to Him and sensitive to your surroundings for Him to do that.  But that’s His heart, for those ministries to happen.

And so I ask that you would seek God and ask, “What is it that You want me to do for Lent?  What do I need to do to start looking at my priorities (even if I’m not ready to change yet)?  What do I need to look at?  What are You telling me?”  And I pray that you will pray for all of us – for each of us individually, for the church, for the Rector’s Council, for the Bishop and the Bishop’s Council, the Patriarch and the Patriarch’s Council – that we will all do that same thing.  What are we doing that we shouldn’t be doing?  What’s not right in our heart?  What priorities need to change?  And then if we’re sensitive and we obey and we start walking the way He says – yes, we’ll still stumble and make mistakes, but He’ll change us, and through us He will change the world.  That’s what He did with the early Church: the Bible says they turned the world upside down (Acts 17:6).  That’s my challenge for Lent.  Don’t let Lent be a haircut – let Lent be a pruning that changes you and changes me forever.

Sermon transcript, 15 February 2015

Responding to God’s voice: for the restoration of all creation by Bp. Elmer

Joshua 1:7-9, Psalm 143, Romans 12:1-18, John 15:9-16

Recording:  http://1drv.ms/1KU0EY8

What I intend to share with you this morning is a combination of the season we are in, and what we are celebrating and doing today.  We have come to the conclusion of the season of Epiphany, which ends the theme of manifestation.  There should be no shadow of doubt in our hearts by this time that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of the Living God – no doubt, no question in our hearts.  Many of us have experienced one way or another at some time God’s manifestation – whether healing, personal encounter or restoration…

Hearing God’s voice

The regular readings today are about the Transfiguration, which is the time when God Himself out of heaven uttered the words that the disciples heard: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (II Peter 1:17)  The same set of readings talks about the Transfiguration of Jesus, in which He was summoned up the mountain (Mark 9:2), led and prompted by the Holy Spirit, for the reason that we should hear God’s voice, and to make present the restoration and the hope of creation.  When you tell people that you have heard the voice of God, it is as if they ask, “What is His number?  What is His area code?  Or what is His email address? So that I can hear what God is saying too.”  Some people are surprised that God speaks, He has a voice.  People often say, “I’ve heard about, but I‘ve never heard God’s voice.”  It’s common sense: it’s hard to talk to someone who talks all the time so that you don’t have an opportunity to say something.  Some people would be wise enough to say, “God may like to speak something, so I will keep my mouth shut.”  It’s amazing that when you do that, God enables you to hear Him speak.  This is what sometimes we call His still, small voice; there are occasions when we hear Him speak in many different ways, but sometimes we hear His still, small voice.

There was a time when I sent someone to Canada; I was fasting and praying and I had two people in my mind, and I said, “God, I’m not going to leave this time until You tell me the name of the person whom I am to send.”  As you know as a Bishop it is not easy for those people around you, because they have families and children, and I have a Priest in Berlin who has ten children, so you know how difficult it would be…  At the same time I was taking the opportunity to study, and all of a sudden something said to me, “Go to the book”, and in one of the books that I had with me the name at the top of the page was Arthur A. Just; and He said, “That is the person who is going to Canada”.  So I turned to Fr. Arthur and said, “You are going to Canada”, and he said, “I’m available” – because I heard God’s voice.

When we chose Fr. Dana to be the Rector of the church here… the story goes back to 1996 when Fr. Dana, former Archbishop Sly and I were heading somewhere in London, and Fr. Dana said to me that he had a heart to minister here.  When we were praying for the person who would be the Rector here, God reminded me of that incident, almost twenty years ago.  As clearly as I can see Fr. Dana, there is no question in my heart and mind that he is the one who is supposed to be the Rector here.  You are obeying God’s will.  There is no question in my heart that we are doing what God wants us to do.

Sacrifice

Fr. Dana, Edye and the children might say “This is quite a lot of sacrifice.”  Everything that we do for God has to be a sacrifice: if it is not a sacrifice, it is not acceptable.  Today we sang the wonderful hymn “Trust and obey…”  Quite often when we sing this, we have Abraham in mind: he was able to offer Isaac on the altar without any hesitation.  In the evangelical world, Abraham is the father of faith.  People say, “I want to follow Abraham; I want to emulate his example; so I’m going to offer everything on the altar.”  The difference between many of us and Abraham is that when we offer something on altar, we play with ourselves: “I’m offering my life”; while Abraham brought a real knife, some of us bring a rubber knife.  Abraham was so determined to obey what God said – although it was nonsensical – that God had to tell him and call him twice, “Abraham, Abraham, don’t do that!”  Abraham was truly determined to do what God told him, regardless of the cost.  If we want to have faith, that is what we have to follow.  But many times we bring a rubber knife with us, because we’re not really willing to move all the way.  Obedience takes a lifetime; it is not a one-time event: it is really one day at a time.  We need to hear the voice of God in the midst of the many voices we hear today.

Beyond nationality

I have several things on my mind and heart, but I would particularly like to say this: Fr. Dana and Edye might think we are doing them a lot of favour because he has wanted to be in England – not because he wanted but because God wanted him to be here – but actually the opposite is true.  We started the ministry in Europe 31 years ago and we have grown to become several churches; but Abp. Craig, having seen the Korean and Chinese communities in New York, said in one of our Convocations, “Ethnic churches don’t last for more than two generations; if you continue to become a purely Filipino church, in two generations your ministry will die.”  That shook me.  I said, “I don’t want to have devoted my life to something and after two generations it will die.”  I am convinced that this was God’s voice, and the Word of the Lord to me and to our Diocese.  We realise that it is no longer a purely Filipino culture; although it was started by Filipinos, this is not a purely Filipino church.  We want to build churches among the Europeans as well; and we have a ministry to bring the Gospel to the least, the lost and the lonely, regardless of their nationality.  The fact that we have several Priests who are not Filipinos is really a great blessing.

Fr. Dana might think we are doing him a favour, but it is the other way around.  I know that he and his family have sacrificed greatly; but I want you to see that this ministry will continue after these two generations. What we are doing today could have an impact several generations from now.  One day when I come there will be a mixture of several nationalities, and when we come into God’s Kingdom we go beyond and transcend nationalities and colours; because God puts in our heart – and I believe that our hearts are the same shape and the same colour – God puts that in the very heart of man.

So your presence here in one way is truly monumental.  Several generations from now all those sacrifices will be mentioned; one was Fr. Dana Jackson, who accepted being a Priest among these Filipinos – “I can’t understand what they’re saying…” But you know that sacrifice is part of what God is doing; because for us to get saved and for us to have a restoration – “The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord gives sight to the blind; the Lord raises up those who are bowed down; the Lord loves the righteous” (Psalm 146:7-8) – Jesus came to sacrifice.  For many of us, what God told Abraham was truly nonsensical: we can only understand through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, because Isaac was a symbol of Jesus; Abraham was a symbol of God who offered His Son on the cross; and because of that, we become God’s children.

The healing of the relationship between God and man

Today as we come for the Eucharist, we understand that in some Christian traditions Isaiah 35:5-6 which says, “the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the Gospel preached to them” (Matthew 11:5), these are the Messianic signs that God worked through Jesus Christ.  Each of the healings that happen in the season of Epiphany, and the changing of water into wine, are all Messianic signs prophesied by Isaiah.  I hope for the day when everyone who comes sick will leave healed; because every single one of us in coming to church in one way or another needs God in our lives.  I came to church today not because I am a Bishop, but because I need more of Jesus; that’s the reason why I am here, because God is not finished yet with my life.  Jesus fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: one point that we find is that His healings are the revelation of God’s presence in the least of humanity; the second is that these miraculous signs that Jesus did in certain lives were signs of our redemption and the true healing of our fractured and broken world that we live in.

As we come before the Eucharist today, we are now so much changed by seeing the lame walk and the deaf hear… and it goes on and on and on… but ultimately it’s the healing of the relationship of God and man, that had to be healed, and that was healed on the cross.  So when we come today, being summoned, or rather gathered, in the Eucharist, and we come to the Eucharist, we don’t come because it is a duty for us or a superstition; but there is something that happens in the Eucharist that is miraculous, that leads us to something that is beyond who we are and what we are.  Often when we live in this world we get lost in our understanding, and when we come to church it brings us back to the reality and the meaning of existence.  The problem is that when you have lost that relationship with God, eventually there is nothing there to remind you any more.

Many people question why Jesus died on the cross.  Well, if that’s what God did, that means we really need it.  And perhaps we don’t realise that it is setting a stage, if we think, for our children; and our children have to understand one day, and one day they will.  It brings us back to the gathering together in the presence of God, because life is sacred.  That’s the reason why from the time we are born until the day we die the Sacraments are always involved in our lives, because God doesn’t want us to forget that life is sacred.  We see each other, but beyond that there is a sacredness, because God created us in His image and His likeness.

Entering the life of Christ

I encourage you to read Alexander Schmemann, who in his book “For the life of world” has a wonderful explanation of what the Eucharist is all about:

“The liturgy of the Eucharist is best understood as a journey or procession. It is the journey of the Church into the dimension of the Kingdom. We use the word ‘dimension’ because it seems the best way to indicate the manner of our sacramental entrance into the risen life of Christ.  Colour transparencies ‘come alive’ when viewed in three dimensions instead of two. The presence of the added dimension allows us to see much better the actual reality of what has been photographed. In very much the same way, though of course any analogy is condemned to fail, our entrance into the presence of Christ is an entrance into a fourth dimension which allows us to see the ultimate reality of life. It is not an escape from the world, rather it is the arrival at a vantage point from which we can see more deeply into the reality of the world.” 

That is the reason why, my brothers and sisters, the only way to understand yourself is to keep your life in Jesus Christ.  The Patriarch said that many preachers today say, “We will teach you how to become a better you, and we will tell you how to become a better person”; but when people come to church we should tell them how to become a better Jesus, not a better you – because at the end of the day, God wants us to become what Christ is; that’s how we become a child of the Kingdom.

We come today not because it is a tradition or a duty, but because there is something that God wants to speak to us that is beyond our understanding, that is beyond who we are: that in a world where there is injustice, where there are killings, where there is terrorism, and where there are people dying and being bored, beyond all those things, God is a good God; God is a God of hope; God really wants us to taste that there is something greater that He can give us, and it was through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.  If God was willing to give His best from heaven, there had better be something good coming – otherwise God is no God.  But if He was willing to sacrifice His Son on the cross, there might be something that I don’t understand yet, but I know that one thing: God is good all the time.

In our evangelical background, sometimes we think that the church is ours.  We don’t own the church.  If you are a pastor or a Bishop and you think that you own the church, that’s when you have lost it.   You don’t own this: we are part of a bigger work that God is doing.   As Archbishop Adler said, we have an unwitting place in the plan of God.  A Bishop is the shepherd’s heart of God; a Priest is the priestly ministry of Jesus; a Deacon is the servant’s heart of God; and the people are the love of God that brought us into His Kingdom.  That’s the totality of what the Church is.  Today we are celebrating not the work of man but truly a work of God.  It’s wonderful to be a Christian.  Some humanists say, “This is the only world we’ll live in: make the most out of it”; but that is not what my Jesus says.  There is eternal life; this is only a foretaste, an appetizer…