Sunday, 1 March 2015

Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed


HTC 0930 / 1100, 1 March 2015

Mark 8:31–end, also Romans 4:13–end.

Our passages today are about the big picture of being a follower of Jesus Christ.

Life is very busy and complicated, and it's easy for me to get caught up in the details and lose the big picture. Now it's good to attend carefully to details, to be the servant who is true in a small thing1. But often I am so absorbed in the details that I miss the wood for the trees – and that's when I make some of my most embarrassing mistakes! Today, may our passages help us to take stock, and to remember what our common Christian life is all about.

To begin with, a prayer from Common Worship:
As we rejoice in the gift of this new day,
so may the light of your presence, O God,
set our hearts on fire with love for you;
now and for ever. Amen

Our passages point us to some really big truths about following Jesus. Here are four, two picked from Mark 8:31–end and two from Romans 4:13–end. What is following Jesus Christ all about?
  • It's not about Success;
  • It's not about Security;
  • It's not about Struggling;
  • But it's all about being Saved.
Let's start with the Mark passage, and turn to the first of these four.

1: Following Jesus is not about Success and Approval

This is definitely a message for me! My friends at work tell me I'm intensely competitive, and fanatical about getting things right. Useful in its place, this is absolutely horrendous if it dominates all one's life. For a complete contrast, look at Mark 8:31: Jesus began to teach them that the Son of Man (Jesus' way of referring to himself) must suffer many things and be rejected … and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. Just before, Jesus has been meeting with remarkable success in teaching, healing, feeding his people, all the approved signs of a King come to take back his own. Immediately before, his closest disciples have finally openly admitted that Jesus is the Chosen One, the one who will come to rule in splendour. So what does Jesus do next? He starts teaching them that there will follow deadly rejection and disgrace, coming from the very people whom one might have expected to be won over by all these signs of God's favour.
We follow a man whose wonderful life led to utter disaster. What an example when we do mess up! Catherine Fox, in her delightful novels2, writes about people who fail in huge and comprehensive ways. And she often brings these characters to the point of being told, now you have made such huge mistakes, you are finally free to find out what God really wants of you and your life.
In the end, success and approval, whether in the world or in the church, is Vanity of Vanities3. One day “we gotta to walk that lonesome valley”4, and in the end what will matter is not success, not approval, but whether our names are written in the Book of Life5. Our discipleship is not a matter of seeking success and approval, and I need to get used to this. Following Jesus is not about Success.

2: Following Jesus is not about Security and Safety

After Jesus has dashed his disciples' hopes about being the new King's right-hand men, naturally they push back a little. And Jesus responds by raising the stakes even higher. He turns to all the people following him – not just the keen ones, the disciples, but also those sitting at the back of the crowd, those on the sidelines hoping to see some interesting action, and he says (Mark 8:34), “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me”. Not only will there be no nice civil service jobs-for-life in a new Messianic administration, but Jesus calls on his followers to join him on an execution walk from death row to the gallows. A very hard message!
But, sadly, also right up-to-date. Google “the 21 Coptic Martyrs”6. There's no entitlement in discipleship. There are no exclusion clauses. Mind you, Jesus is not saying: if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and do whatever Wilfrid Kendall says, do whatever the vicar says, do whatever the home group leader says. Not at all! if the Son shall make you free then you shall be free indeed7. But being a Christian is no game, no part-time activity; rather it's a matter of life and death. When I walk out of this church this morning, well, “It's a dangerous business … going out your door. You step onto the road, and … there's no knowing where you might be swept off to”8.
Truth is, as a distinguished Church Warden of Holy Trinity used to say, real life is not a dress rehearsal9. Like it or not, our fancied safety and security is not absolute. Our only real security lies in being known and loved by God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; “all else is shifting sand”10. It seems to me, if I learned this truth better then I would be able to be more creatively adventurous for the Kingdom. Following Jesus is not about Security.

3: Following Jesus is not about Struggling and Trying Harder.

When I was a young 20-year-old, back in the day, I used to row competitively. It is hard to imagine now – it was hard to imagine then! Frankly, my college was small and needed extras who could sit in the racing eight and not slow it down too much. (Our stroke was an Olympic oarsman, so I often enjoyed the novel and wonderful experience of winning races!) The downside was that we had to practice very early in the morning, in the early spring, when the river was fast and cold. One unforgettable day, we were all at the boat by the landing stage, the cox was seated and ready to start, and he ordered us to get in before the oars were laid out to balance the boat.
We tipped over immediately and I was in the water.
I was a practised swimmer, but the shock of the cold water drove everything out of my head. All I could do was to cling to the boat and wait for others to rush up and pull me out. I could do nothing at all. All I could do was to wait helplessly to be saved.
In our Romans passage, Paul is writing to Christians who think somehow they can save themselves. People who think they can take the Jewish Law, originally intended as a way to bring flourishing life, and use it to earn their salvation. The Law is being used to provide a splendid religious apparatus, claimed to get people to heaven. And Paul points out the elephant in the room11: the person who started this whole apparatus off, Abraham, obviously didn't have this apparatus to help him. Romans 4:13: “It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith”.
Today, we easily slip into the same trap as these 1st–century Roman Christians. We trick ourselves into believing that if we pray every day then we are fine, or if we take communion regularly, or if we treat our neighbours well, or if we help with Coffee Tots or some other venture, or if we sing as well as we can in the choir. And of course all these things are good things, and well worth doing, just as the Jewish Law is good. But if we trick ourselves into believing these things are enough, then the next step is that we worry whether we are doing enough of them. Perhaps we then rebel – these things can't really matter that much so I'll just get on with my life and hope it works out alright – or perhaps we then lose confidence – I think I am saved, we say, if I work hard and pray hard and don't do bad things (but then, how hard is hard enough? There's no peace, no assurance).
It's a desperate way to lead one's life, and it's not the way of Christ. Paul talks about “the righteousness that comes by faith”, and (Romans 4:24) “... us, to whom God will credit righteousness, – for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our lord from the dead”. Nothing to do with our efforts, not depending on how hard we try to be holy, simply “credited with righteousness”.
I speak from experience: it's a desperate way to lead one's life, always struggling to gain God's approval, never sure whether one has struggled enough. And Paul tells us, and Jesus tells us12, we don't have to struggle. Indeed our own struggles won't help one bit; we have to be rescued by another, just like I had to be rescued as I clung to the over-turned boat, shivering in the freezing water. The good news we celebrate today and every Sunday and every day is that God has indeed rescued us through Jesus Christ – read the end of our Romans passage (Romans 4:25: “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification”). This really is life-transforming: it brings peace and wholeness. God saves us through Jesus, it's not up to us at all. Our part is simply to cling to the boat and be saved. Following Jesus is not about Struggling.

4: Following Jesus is all about being Saved

In the Romans passage, Paul uses Abraham as our father in faith, our example. We looked at Abraham's life in HTC last year; successful businessman, travelling agricultural merchant, rich and wealthy but with a deep deep sorrow. He encounters the one Holy God as a Voice, and hears an extraordinary call to Go, to Travel. In repeated encounters, over a long life, Abraham realizes God is promising to deal with his deepest sorrow, even though Abraham cannot possibly imagine how.
Abraham is a businessman. He understands the business of setting out on a big venture when you can't be sure of the outcome. He lives and makes his money by what you might call acts of faith and hope; herding his flocks of sheep over long distances in the trust that he can find a good price. So when Paul says (Romans 4:18) “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed ...”, Abraham is not acting out of piety, he's not hoping in a fake-religious its-not-really-true-but-let's-pretend-it-is sort of way. He has a businessman's faith, a businessman's hope, based on repeated encounters and a huge promise. Abraham has come to trust that this transcendent Holy One will fulfil the astounding promise that has been made; that's where Abraham's faith starts, that's what it is made of.
And that's where our faith begins too, what our own faith is made of. What's my deepest fear? What's my deepest sorrow? Abraham's transcendent Holy One used Abraham's business faith to start a story which is fulfilled in Jesus, who saves me when I can't help myself. Who takes on my deepest fear, who takes on my deepest sorrow, and says there will come a time when he will wipe every tear from my eyes13.
Following Jesus is not about success. It's not about security. It's not about struggling. It's all about being saved; adopting this persistent business-like faith of Abraham's, based on a trust that somehow, sometime, this God of Abraham who has met us too through Jesus Christ, this God will save us, will deal with our deepest fears, our deepest sorrows, and wipe every tear from our eyes.
I need, and perhaps you would appreciate the opportunity, to spend a short time thinking about this, and bringing again my deepest fears and sorrows to the Lord who loves me. So let's pause silently for a minute and let Him speak to us.
Loving Father, we bring ourselves to you just as we are. Through our saviour Jesus Christ we ask for your blessing, your love, and your strength to live our lives the way you made us to be. Amen.
2See <www.amazon.co.uk/Catherine-Fox/e/B001KD8HII> especially “Acts and Omissions”.
9Mike Johnson, HTC churchwarden, 1977–2000. In those days churchwardens had real staying powers.
10Hymn: “My hope is built on nothing less”. <www.hymnal.net/en/hymn/h/298>,
hear it at <www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkMapZB8qMk>
12So many places in the Gospels where Jesus does this! For example, a favourite HTC passage: Matthew 11:30.
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