We have an advocate...

1 John 2:1-2(NRSV)

2 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; ² and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Looking around our lives, communities, nation and international relationships there is a fair question to be asked: ‘is there a truth that can bring unity and peace?’ From our internal lives to our global relationships conflict of interests seems to undermine our best efforts to live lives honouring each other. Having run out of options and trusted solutions we appear to have retreated behind a barrier of self-survival perhaps hoping that tomorrow or some other time will find people in a better place where we will be able to settle our differences peacefully and in mutual respect. Deep down we look forward to a time when our own short comings and those of others might be dealt with in humility and with understanding.  We have been meeting our needs our own way and we are caught in a compulsive cycle that needs a compassionate understanding and empowerment to change. If we were only given the chance to change we too could perhaps offer the same compassion and empowerment to others without judgement. We could begin to let go of our old values, attitudes and beliefs that drive us towards internal and external conflict and embrace a new identity of peacemaker both within ourselves and between each other.  The good news is this; there is a Truth that we can unite around. This Truth will instantaneously free us from condemnation of self and others. It’s not just mutual forgiveness that’s on offer but a way of life that empowers us to live lives of peace-making.  Peace will take time to grow but peace-making can begin immediately. In the cosmic courtroom the Righteous Judge (Heb 12:23) has two opposing testimonies being presented. On the one hand there is the accuser (Zech 3:1, Job 1:9-11), and the defence Advocate, Jesus in our passage above. Jesus has paid the price at the cross for all of us meeting our needs in a compulsive cycle of self-interest. There was enough blood spilt at the cross; there is no need or justification for spilling anymore.  We all stand accused by the powers that rage against peace but we are being given an opportunity to accept and to offer forgiveness and reconciliation. We have an opportunity we thought we would never have to learn a new way of life of peace-making. The Truth is, we can recover the humanity we were always meant live out but it begins by asking for forgiveness and offering forgiveness on the basis that Jesus has made the way of peace-making open to us all. The word disciple means learner; all of Jesus followers are learners but we are also practitioners. As disciples we must faithfully follow Jesus by learning peace-making and practicing peace-making. We cannot be acquitted from the accusers charge without making peace with God and with each other.   

This is the message we have heard from Him...

1 John 1:5-10 NRSV

⁵ This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say that we have fellowship with him while we are walking in darkness, we lie and do not do what is true; ⁷ but if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.

What kind of God allows suffering? Is God loving but powerless or perhaps God is all powerful but also spiteful? Or is there some other story to explain our lived reality of anxiety ridden lives of relativism and rejection of God because of the suffering we experience and witness. John is in no doubt about the nature of God that Jesus revealed in His life and teaching. God is light! In Him there is no darkness… The term ‘God is Light’ is explained by John in the prologue to His gospel.

‘1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴ in him was life,^[a] and the life was the light of all people. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. ⁶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸ He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹ The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.^’

Jesus (The Word) is identified as the Redeeming Creator God. This power to create is ‘life’ and ‘light’. God is light; God is life, the source of all life and the force of all that is good. There appears to be another source and force in the world. This is the source of darkness and misery but this force was not and is not strong enough to overcome the light of Jesus and the life He offers all of us.  The true light, which enlightens everyone, is Jesus, His teaching and the offering of Himself for us.

Darkness and human suffering is revealed by John to be simply meeting our needs our own way. You know what I mean. We have a tendency to go about meeting our physical, social, psychological and environmental needs our own way.  This approach to life is universal; we are all caught up in it; the bible refers to it as Sin; darkness; the force that rages against God. It’s hard to argue against meeting our needs our own way as the source of suffering. It’s all around us. Even our attempts at altruism and attempts to make things better seems like adding an ‘Elastoplast to a running sore’. Darkness needs to be overcome with Light. Death has to be overcome with Life; transformation in our life is the evidence that we are disciples of Jesus; that we accept Him as the Creator, Redeeming God who came into the world to bring us life. John is certain about the proof that Jesus is who He claims to be. The proof is that Jesus can transform our lives from darkness into light. John sums it up perfectly…

 ⁹ If we confess our sins (meeting our needs our own way), he who is faithful and just (Jesus) will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (Darkness). ¹⁰ If we say that we have not sinned (meeting our needs our own way), we make him a liar, and his word is not in us. (Therefore, the life of suspicion, doubt, anxiety and darkness will continue)

In John 1: 10-13 we read:

¹⁰ He(Jesus) was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹² But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

This passage reveals who we are created to be ‘children of God’. Today we have an opportunity to recover our true identity and begin celebrating that God is both ‘All Powerful and All Loving’. For this reason we have hope in the new life that Jesus brings and we can begin living lives full of light that will overcome all our darkness and suffering.

New Series: Truth and the life of Recovery

1 John 1: 1-4 NRSV

1 We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— ² this life was revealed, and we have seen it and testify to it, and declare to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us— ³ we declare to you what we have seen and heard so that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. ⁴ We are writing these things so that our^[a] joy may be complete.

Distrust seems to be a defining characteristic of our time. Who and what can be trusted? Not politics or its pundits, not the press, not banks, not even our spiritual leaders are above the ‘hermeneutic of suspicion’ and all due to past experience of unfaithfulness. Perhaps this is the core reason for the popularity of relativism and this ‘there is no such thing as absolute truth’ Age of ours. We have been promised so much by so many who have failed to keep their promises.  The disciple of Jesus, John, wrote a letter; in fact he wrote a series of letters counteracting the distrust of his age and time and the pessimism that distrust breeds. Distrust is an attempt to reduce anxiety and fear about our lives and place in the world that fails miserably. John’s letter exposes a life based on distrust as a fraud. Trust in the Truth is a positive, constructive and empowering approach to building an interdependent and mutually valuing community. John believes in Truth.  John wants to emphasise that he and the other disciples heard, seen and touched the Truth; Jesus. Jesus is no myth; the stories of His demise and the end of His influence are greatly exaggerated. Jesus is ‘The Word of Life’. It is faith and trust in Jesus and His story revealed in the bible that draws people into meaningful life, meaningful friendship, cooperation and happiness. Faith in Jesus is accepting the facts about Him as revealed in the bible, accepting them personally, trusting that the story of Jesus and His promise of liberation from all that would seek to harm us is the basis of building communities on trust and truth. In John 8:32 Jesus said ‘and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’  There is Truth and we will find it if we seek it. Let’s do it together. John 1: 14 sums it up perfectly; ‘And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,^[a] full of grace and truth.’ It's time to recover, have faith in and defend the Truth.

All dressed up with no story to tell?

Exodus 28: 1-43

The priest in the Mosaic covenant had to be dressed in a specific way, not only  symbolising his role as mediator, a representative of the people and his total dedication as the servant of the people before God but as a vehicle to actualise his role. He had to wear the robes of the office.  Today some of us still get dressed up before God and the community of disciples.  We gather together symbols that tell the story of the reconciliation of humanity with God and our true purpose of peace-making and prosperity sharing in Jesus.  As baptists (small b is deliberate) we generally go more for the simple approach but we should not devalue the multi-sensory process of storytelling. Many disciples tell the story of God revealed in Jesus through the use dramatic wardrobe, creation of sacred storytelling space, use of light shining through picturesque and coloured windows and the sound of silence, music and word not to mention the use of the  ‘olfactory worship’ of incense.  The important point is this.  Are we telling the Jesus story in a language that communicates with the people we live among? Or, does the story of Jesus get lost in the overwhelming noise of symbolism and ritual that most of us have long forgotten the meaning of?  Telling the story of Jesus and His reconciling, transformative and sacrificial love is too important in a world gone mad to allow it to be silenced by tokenism of any form. The lived life of the disciple remains the most powerful storytelling medium in our repertoire. Let us hear the words of Jesus and put them into practice and watch the dramatic change in ourselves and the communities we act out our faith among.

Mourning and Celebration

Exodus 23: 14-25:40

Mourning and Celebration are part of our lives.  Those of us in and out recovery know what it is like to mourn the devastating effect of life controlling issues and the powerlessness of a life of chaos.  In Recovery, we individually and as a gathered people celebrate our initial liberation from the life controlling cycle, we celebrate the first signs that we are indeed living a different life and we celebrate the character formation and revelation of who God has created us to be. Three celebrations: salvation from the penalty, power and perpetual practice of life controlling issues. This is indeed the living out the life of recovery.  The people of God in the Mosaic covenant celebrated their liberation and new life experiences using the three feasts described in our passage today.  It is characteristic of a recovered people to remember the devastation of life controlling problems, how God has set us free to be part of a His Kingdom and to celebrate new values, attitudes, beliefs and practices that develop over time.

Its time to get practical....

John 5:39


³⁹ “You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf.

 I think it was a Russian Bolshevik revolutionary who once wrote ‘all through life mind limps after reality’. It’s a phrase that has stuck with me all my adult life. A bit pessimistic perhaps but I think in essence he was right. Let’s face it polling organisations have recently taught us this entire lesson in the UK!  However, we need to have an understanding of why things are the way they are or alternatively we cynically turn our backs on the possibility of positive meaning and transformation in life. At the time Jesus spoke the words recorded in the scriptural passage above the people of Israel had a long and complex story to tell. It was story of origins, disaster, call, family politics, homelessness , wandering with only temporary homes, slavery,  liberation, establishing law and justice, journeying, establishing a home, war and conflict, unfaithfulness and betrayal,  exile, homecoming, occupation and much much more. It is a story of a journey towards a final place called home and the making of a home for all peoples no matter their background story.  By the time of Jesus, this story was being told in ways that actively wrote inclusiveness, redistribution of wealth, liberation for all and good news for poor people out the story. The story of progressive and inclusive life was replaced by a narrow and mean religious story of legalism and institutionalised oppression of the very people the story of scripture was meant to liberate. This sounds very similar to our own day and time. We have a distinct advantage in our generation in that we have the whole narrative of scripture while in the 1^st century the story of the ‘liberation society’ Jesus came to inaugurate was partially incomplete. Indeed Jesus came to fulfil the story that is to say, ‘fill out’ and bring to life the Hebrew Scriptures.  We can take the words and practices of Jesus and look to the story of scripture and see Him as the fulfilment of the promises to humanity for liberation and freedom under the Kingdom rules of love, compassion and mercy.  This approach of seeking the true story of Jesus in the Hebrew Scriptures is endorsed by Jesus Himself. In Luke 24 Jesus shares a journey and a meal with two disciples during which time He told them His own story contained in the scriptures:  Luke 24:27 states: ‘ ²⁷ Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures.’ All through the life of these disciples their minds were limping after reality but this day they got the opportunity run right into the story of Jesus and experience reality for the first time in their lives. This day they were shown how the story of Jesus is the story that answers the questions of: how did we get here, how did it all go wrong, are there ways of living together in peace and progress, who reveals this new way of being in the world, are there any examples of it working, what does the future hold and how can we all be a part of this liberation story? These two people recognised this was their story too! They were included in the narrative, given the right to have a voice and their needs addressed.  Jesus told the story of Moses and all the prophets in a particular way, as the prophecy about Jesus Himself.  The Gospels which follow then become His incarnate history, the Acts of the Apostles the history of His first followers and their life transforming communities, the letters go on to reveal the community advice to His inaugurated community and its leaders and the Revelation the promise of a future consummated Kingdom with a total end to violence, discrimination, exploitation and death.  The reason our minds as disciples of Jesus limp towards reality and never really get there is because we have no practical commitment to Jesus and putting into practice His teaching as revealed in whole of scripture as the love of God and our neighbours as ourselves.  The danger for all of us is simply believing in a personal Jesus of our own making like the two people in the Luke 24 story.  This will trap us in the apparent hopelessness and futility of life as opposed to responding personally, socially and that includes politically to the liberation story contained in Luke 4: 16-30 and fulfilled in the life of Jesus of the Nazareth Sermon.   

We need expalnations that are faithful to the truth...

2 Timothy 2:15 New Revised Standard Version, Anglicised (NRSVA

 

¹⁵ Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved by him, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth. 

Have you ever noticed when people get together they begin to exchange stories? Or when we have some time to sit and reflect we tell and retell stories to ourselves? It seems that it is how we are made.  Often we begin with a question or statement; ‘good to see you’, ‘how are you?’ or ‘alone at last!’  It’s the invitation to share a story, an invitation to bring ourselves or indeed each other into a mutual exchange of stories.  Even those people or events we don’t want in our story are invited to depart the narrative at some offered exit point. But at the same time, they remain for eternity part of our story.  We cannot escape the fact that they have in some way been part of our shaping; part of our history; part of the shaping of our identity, great or small. We tell stories about stories, we reflect, attribute roles and characters, offer evidence, attribute praise and blame and draw conclusions to form the meaning of our lives.  Some of the meanings of our life story actively hang around in our consciousness and bring us happiness or unhappiness when brought to mind.

 

Sometimes we are aware we are part of a story, that it has meaning for us, but we just can’t put a finger on why. These memories can pester us until we ‘place that face’ or ‘recall when we last felt a particular way’. Stories flood our senses with sounds, smells, tastes, touches, sights and feelings.  These become symbolised and are used by us to shape our values, attitudes and beliefs which in turn directs, defines and shapes our behaviour.  

 

It can all seem a bit overwhelming when we try and make sense of all this. That’s exactly why we turn to stories to explain stories.  Take for an example a sore head. ‘Why have I got a sore head and what can be done about it?’ The story maybe a story of lack of sleep, too much food, too much noise, too much alcohol or indeed all of the above and it’s the story of the office party! In this circumstance we would not expect to be referred by the GP for a brain scan; wrong story! We would perhaps learn the story of moderation? Perhaps not!  To make sense of the story of the ‘whole of life’ as well as its individual bits we use bigger stories called ‘Grand Narratives’  which are built up of a series of smaller stories related and interrelated with other stories circulating around us.  These larger more holistic stories that we use to explain our own story are based on values, attitudes, beliefs and practices that are called paradigms. Basically these are the fundamental principles used to build consistent meaning over time, providing the knowledge of ourselves and the worlds that we inhabit. When stories meet at common crossroads diverse and novel solutions to life questions arise. This facilitates for us the opportunity to creatively change our values, attitudes, beliefs and practices and allows us to build more congruent stories that make sense of our lived experiences and aspirations. 

The power of the story is the power to change life and our lived experience. For the disciples of Jesus of the Nazareth Sermon this story is basis of the re-examination and meaning making process of our lives.  Paul writing to a close friend Timothy urged him to work at using the story of scripture called the ‘Word of Truth’ to make sense of life and the world around him. This was the story and method that will rid his life of what the Greek word ‘anepaischuntos’ collectively puts under heading ‘shame and disgrace’. It’s a word that is only used once here in scripture. Reading the word more positively suggests that positive, progressive and transformative outcomes are achieved by accurately discerning, teaching and applying all the story of scripture. This is our task as disciples of Jesus of the Nazareth Sermon.