0800 sermon HTC, 3 March 2019

1 Corinthians 13:1-13 and Luke 18:31-43

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

From next September, our daughter plans to spend her final undergraduate year studying Chemistry in Berlin. Obviously we will want to visit her. But we’ll enjoy the visit so much more if we make the effort to learn a little German in advance, and the right time to start doing that is now!

This connects with a helpful remark made by Tom Wright about our 1 Corinthians passage. He says, it teaches us that the language of Heaven is Love. Love never ends, and in the end it makes sense of everything else. So, the thought follows on, we’ll enjoy Heaven much more if we make the effort to learn a little of the language in advance, and the right time to start is now!

So what kind of heavenly language is the Love of which this passage speaks? And how do we learn it in advance?

Looking at the passage, the first thing that strikes me is that this Love is not the toned-down and limited version that is often spoken about in ordinary life. Love as described here is tremendously tough: it endures all things, it bears all things. This Love is about making things happen. And it is tough about the reasons for doing things as well as about what actually gets done: however magnificent the achievement, if it is not rooted in this Love then in the end it will be worthless.

On the other hand, the passage tells us that this Love is also extraordinarily kind: Love believes all things, hopes for all things. Love is ready to do whatever it takes, from the heart.

This makes me a bit ashamed. Last week, I was hard at work in my office, when a student burst in with a question. I wasn’t at my best: I suggested they should come back in one of my weekly office hours, but it wasn’t … convenient for them. So I ended up answering their question after all, but I really wasn’t in the least bit gracious about it. I was too focussed on the work that had been interrupted. I’ve a lot to learn about Love as the language of heaven. It doesn’t mean being a softie, it doesn’t necessarily mean giving everyone what they think they want, but I fell a long way short of Jesus’ Love in that encounter.

So what does real Love look like? Our Gospel passage gives two glimpses. First: Jesus telling his disciples that He has to go to Jerusalem even though it means he will be put to death by His enemies. Why? The clue is in His final remark: “and on the third day the Son of Man will rise again”. This is the only way to unlock the promise of resurrection for us all.

Jesus’ Love is very tough, and this remark is indeed supremely tough: enduring a terrible outcome up to and through death itself, knowing that this has to be done for the sake of the whole world. We need His Love to be very tough, so it is strong enough to help us through the dark times of life, and to be there for us when life comes to an end.

With such a difficult mission ahead of Him, we wouldn’t be surprised if Jesus focussed entirely and exclusively on what lay ahead. But no, we then see Him interrupting everything to talk to an insignificant blind beggar, drawing out what the man really wants, and then transforming the man’s life by giving him sight.

Jesus’ Love is not only very tough: it is also very kind. It is kind enough to deal with my failure to cope with my student. It is kind enough to deal with all our sins and failures, however serious. It is kind enough to wait for me to respond – though I shouldn’t delay too long!

How do I work this out in my own life? How’s this going to help me deal with the next careless student to come to my office? Let me share with you my three-point plan for continuing to learn the heavenly language in advance of my forthcoming trip: you may want to have a go too, for the same reasons.

Number 1: I will remind myself of what Jesus has done for me: take Communion to show myself that I am letting Him right inside my life.

Number 2: I need lots of help to learn this heavenly language of tough kind Love. I will ask God to fill me with His Holy Spirit, so that I can let the Holy Spirit of Jesus work his Love out in my life all through this coming week.

Number 3: I need to stay alert and remember I am always on duty as a follower of Jesus. Jesus’ Love is liable to lead me to quite unexpected places.

We need Jesus’ Love to be tough and kind. And, thankfully, Jesus’ Love is tougher and kinder than we can imagine.

Amen

0800 sermon HTC, 13 January 2019

Romans 12:1-5

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

Integrity – longed for by many people. The longing shows when people say, “I want to be truly me. I’m so tired of fitting into other peoples’ plans and expectations”; or, “I never get the chance to say what I am really thinking”; or, “I so much wish I could become the person I was truly made to be”.

It’s really hard to fulfil these longings. The world bears in on us with immense force, whether because we are trapped by the pressure of what other people need us to be, or distracted by a media barrage of insincere slogans and promises, or quite simply we never get a break, or indeed – it has to be said – our spirit is willing but our flesh is weak.

If this is true for you, then our Epistle reading offers a lifeline, a way out, a real chance. The way out is to take a long hard look at ourselves from a very different point of view: to present ourselves to God as living sacrifices, and to resist being ground down by the world. Instead we are to allow our basic points of view to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

It’s as much as to say, the pressure of the world is far too great for us to resist on our own. But we can, if we so choose, call on the far greater power of God. And then, instead of being ground down, we will be changed and strengthened to become the people that God truly made us to be.

Notice: this transformation project is not a one-off instant deal. We are to keep presenting ourselves as living sacrifices, to keep allowing our minds to be transformed, It’s a life-time project, not a quick fix,

What does this offer involve, practically speaking? It involves letting our minds be renewed: regular prayer, regular careful listening to the Bible, regularly thinking what the message means to us in practical day-to-day terms.

It involves presenting our bodies to God as a living sacrifice, which is to say, being ready to do the things we see need doing for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ – whether that is befriending a newcomer, refusing to speak ill of others, helping with a charity, or simply doing a job well to the best of our ability.

Or another example – I tried this once for Lent – secretly deciding for a period to agree to any reasonable request that anyone might make to me. That was the hardest Lent discipline ever, and it left a deep impression on me.

The offer also involves thinking of ourselves honestly and accurately, neither considering ourselves any better than others, nor concealing what we can do. We are all different, and we all belong to each other in Christ; indeed often the Lord uses others to push through this transformation project in our own lives.

And we've got a big promise in this passage. If we commit to this then, by the mercies of God (which is to say our Lord Jesus, whose saving death and resurrection we will now celebrate in Holy Communion), God in his mercy promises we will see His good, acceptable, perfect will worked out in our lives.

This passage urges us: if we want integrity in our lives,
we should ask God’s Spirit to transform us into whom we truly are.

Amen