Are You Leaving Me Too?

Are you leaving me too?

On December 7^th 1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt addressed the people of the United States and referred to the previous day as “A Date Which Will Live in Infamy”.  Most of you know what he was referring to, on December 6^th Japan had attacked Pearl Harbour. 

There are other days that people remember, and most are generational.  Can you remember where you were when JFK was assassinated, or when John Lennon was shot, I remember where I was and what I was doing when the Challenger went down in 1986 and when I heard about the Twin Towers falling in 2001. 

Each of those events was a pivotal point in history.  Most of us have pivotal points that we can remember in our personal histories.  Times when things changed, when they suddenly became different than what they had been.   The birth of a child, the death of a parent, losing a job or ending a relationship.

If you have been a part of Cornerstone forever then you might recall the “Spring of Tuesdays”.  Which technically it wasn’t all spring and it wasn’t always on Tuesdays but it was close enough and it was catchy. 

And there aren’t many here today who know what I am talking about.  Ian and Sylvia Richardson, Karen Wickwire, Mike and Sajonna Kneebone, Heather Stubbert and Paul Caza were there, and Angela and I of course.

So here is the background, Angela and I moved to Bedford in 1994, 19 years ago this month to begin what was called a “parachute plant” or a “catalytic church plant”.  Which meant that we were it.  You’ve all heard us joke that when we started there was Angela and I, our two kids, the cat and a hamster and then the hamster died.   Cornerstone began worshipping together as Bedford Community Church on April 9^th 1995.  And by then we had a core of around 50 people who would consider Cornerstone their church home, that meant that on an average Sunday we had about 35 men, women and children present.  Through the course of the first year and a half we saw that number grow to about 100 who called us home and were averaging about 75 or so in our services. 

There had been a number of changes, we had brought a second staff member on, we had moved from the LeBrun centre in Bedford to the Empire Theatre in Bedford.  For those of you with a blank stare there used to be a six cinema complex where the Lawton’s is now in the Mill Cove Plaza.

And life was good, the church was growing, lives were being changed and the world was our oyster so to speak.

On Christmas Eve 1996 we had our service in theatre three, it was really cool because there were movies being shown in the other five cinemas and we were celebrating the birth of  Jesus in the theatre we called home.  And that was when it started.  Greg Hanson, who was our worship pastor had put together a teen band who performed a very rocky rendition of  “We Three Kings”.  And as they rocked the house I looked up and caught the eyes of a family who had been with us for about a year and I thought “they are not happy.” 

A week later on Tuesday December 31^st I received a phone call from the family letting me know that they felt God was leading them to another church.  And thus began the spring of Tuesdays.

Between January 1^st and the first of May our average attendance fell from82 to 43.  In that five month period 12 families who had called our church their church home moved on to other churches, and those who contacted us about leaving always called on Tuesdays.

And they took their money with them, what’s with that.  Our offerings fell by forty percent.  The small salary we were giving our assistant got cut, we moved out of the office we were renting on the Bedford Highway, Angela and I were in the process of building a home in Kingswood and weren’t even sure we would be able to afford to make the mortgage payments because the church couldn’t afford to pay my salary and so I began looking for outside work.  And I had no idea what had happened or how to stop it.  At times I compared it to a snowball rolling down a hill.  Or on my more carnal days like rats leaving a sinking ship. 

And when I talked to the people who left they all seemed to have good reasons for leaving, at least they seemed to be.  And when they couldn’t find a good reason they used the trump card, “God is calling us to another church.”  It’s kind of hard to argue with that.  But most of them told me to not take it personally.  But that was kind of tough.

In April of that year I was helping out with Keswick a group that hosted special church services each spring, they still do.  Our guest speaker that year was a preacher by the name of David Mains.  No, not that David Maines the other David Mains.  Most of you are thinking that I’m talking about the Host of 100 Huntley Street, but I’m talking about the David Mains from Chicago who was the host of “Chapel of the Air”.

And I was asked to take David and his wife Karen out to lunch.  And as we are driving along David asked me how life was going and how the church was doing.  And I said “fine”, and he told me to stop lying to him.  He said he had been a church planter and knew some of the struggles and invited me to unload on him because he was going back to Chicago the next day and I would never see him again. 

And I did.  As we drove along I told him of people leaving, of the personal impact it was having on me and my family, the impact that it was having on the church, some of my doubts about what I was doing.  Not sure if that’s what he expected but he smiled and nodded and said sympathetic things.  And then my phone rang and I answered it, that was when you were still allowed to talk on your phone while driving.  When I hung up I told David about the conversation, it was a lady calling to tell me that she felt that her family needed to find another church.  Did I mention it was Tuesday?

And David looked at me and said “You must feel a lot like Jesus.”  And that kind of confused me because I definitely wasn’t feeling very messianic right then. And I must of looked confused because he added, “You know, when he said in John 6:67 “are you leaving me too?”

Well, we survived the Spring of Tuesdays, and in the 16 years since people have still decided to move on from time to time, but I realized that we weren’t alone, that it happens in all churches.  A few years after that I heard a pastor by the name of Antony Graham preaching and he said “Pastoring a church is like driving a bus, people get on and people get off.”    But it doesn’t seem to get easier. 

And of course it’s not restricted to churches, I was getting my hair cut one day and my stylist was telling me about someone who had stopped coming and started going to another stylist, no explanation, she didn’t know if she had done something wrong or said something.  And it hurt.  And she took it personally. 

Last week I was speaking to a business owner who had just lost two contracts and the impact that would have not only on their business but on them personally.  And then there are those who have lost friends and spouses.

This is week 3 of our Red Letter Summer series, and we are focusing on those words that are printed in many of our Bibles in red, the words of Christ.  And so this week we find ourselves in the book of John.

From the early part of John’s Gospel we read about the crowds that were flocking  to Jesus in order to hear his message.  John 2:23 Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in him., John 4:1 Jesus knew the Pharisees had heard that he was baptizing and making more disciples than John¸ John 6:2 A huge crowd kept following him wherever he went, because they saw his miraculous signs as he healed the sick.

 And it was an awesome message.   Jesus spoke about the grace of God, his love and his forgiveness.  And people embraced the message.  But then Jesus began to speak about obedience to God, about extending grace and forgiveness to others, about loving your enemies and doing good to those who do bad to you. 

And we pick up the scripture that was read for us in John 6:60 Many of his disciples said, “This is very hard to understand. How can anyone accept it?”   And Jesus goes on to tell them just how hard his teaching could be and apparently there were those who couldn’t accept it because by the end of the conversation we pick up the story in John 6:66-67 At this point many of his disciples turned away and deserted him. Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?”

We can understand people leaving a church, or not going back to their hair stylist or changing their service providers, but it’s hard to understand people leaving Jesus, he is Jesus.  And I’m sure that each of those folks who left Jesus all had good excuses for leaving. And they probably told him to not take it personally. 

So what happens when people leave?  We’ve been worshipping together as a church for 18 years and there are times that people still decide to move on, for all kinds of reasons, most of them valid. 

People will still find other hair stylists to go to; other people to design their websites, other mechanics to fix their cars and people who they prefer to hang around with.  

Probably the first question and maybe the toughest one to ask is:  Is It Me?  Now to be truthful I think most people in ministry are a little insecure because the first thing that crosses your mind when someone decides to leave the church is: “Was it something I said or did?”  And sometimes it is.  There are times that I have unknowingly hurt someone, it might have been something I said.  I can be a jerk sometimes, not intentionally, well sometimes intentionally but mostly not.  I heard someone say one time “If Denn hasn’t offended you yet, you just haven’t been coming long enough.”     Once I heard through the grape vine that someone had stopped coming because I had snubbed them in the lobby one Sunday.  And maybe I did but I can assure that it was done because my mind was somewhere else.

The truth is sometimes I blow it as a pastor and sometimes Cornerstone blows it as a church.  But we don’t do it intentionally to drive people away, we do it because we are people.   And sometimes expectations are too high, we had a couple who left and they told me they were disappointed because I didn’t do more to keep their teenage son from getting in with a bad crowd and leaving the church. 

Sometimes we just aren’t what the person is looking for.  Back during the spring of Tuesday we had a couple of those comments, someone said they were looking for a church with more traditional music and another couple said they weren’t in agreement with what we believed as Wesleyans.  We had people leave because our service only goes an hour and I don’t preach long enough. 

How many folks here have ever sold a house?  Before we moved into the house we live in now we owned a two story salt box further into Kingswood.  It was a two story with three bedrooms, two and a half baths and no garage.    And sometimes after it was shown the people would tell their agent, “Oh we were looking for something with a garage.”  Or “We are really interested in a bungalow” or “We need at least five bedrooms, and a pool, on city water with sidewalks.”  Really?   If you check out our website or read our promotional material it is very clear who we are, and who we aren’t.

Maybe as a company you have priced yourself out of the market or you haven’t kept up with technology.  Perhaps you are no longer offering what that customer needs.  Maybe you’ve outgrown them.   

When I had to go to work outside the church in 1997 I went back to Tip Top Tailors and they had just done a dramatic shift in who they were and the product they offered.  And as a result they lost some customers.    It wasn’t a bad shift, as a matter of fact many people felt like it was a positive shift, but not everyone agreed.

And if you look at yourself and discover that maybe you are at fault then you need to correct those things. 

Part of what we did in 1997 was to examine our service style and I had felt really good about what we were doing, but it wasn’t working and we had to make some midcourse corrections.  Sometimes the church will overload a willing volunteer and they feel overwhelmed yet they feel they will let the church down if they ask for less to do, so it’s easier to go somewhere else.  And we need to be careful of that.  If you find yourself in that situation please talk to us before you make any decisions.  I think everyone should serve somewhere in the local church but you don’t have to serve everywhere. 

Sometimes it is what it is.  There were some things that we were committed to as a church and we truly felt that was what God was calling us to do and who God was calling us to be.  We couldn’t stop being Wesleyans, we were committed to keeping our music fresh and new, Denn was the pastor.  

Sometimes you lose friends because of  your behaviour,  something you said or did and it doesn’t have to be negative, often when you become a Christ Follower you lose friends, because you no longer share a similar life style and interests, and that’s fine.  It was something you did, but it’s not something you should undo.

Now in one sense Jesus didn’t do anything that would have justified people leaving, after all he was Jesus.  He was offering them eternal life.  Like who wouldn’t want that?  But he was also asking them to give up some of their behaviours, he was telling them they would be persecuted, he wanted them to forgive people who hurt them. 

And maybe it’s not you, so then you have to ask,  Is it Them?  This one is easier, or at least it’s where we’d like to go most of the time.  It’s not me it’s them.  Kind of like that book I wanted to write as a follow up to “I’m ok, You’re ok.”  My book was going to be “I’m ok, you’re a jerk.”  And sometime it’s not us, sometimes it is them.

In the scripture that we read that was the case.  People decided that they weren’t ready to make the sacrifices that Jesus was asking of them.    Maybe they didn’t understand what Jesus was calling them to and when they discovered the reality they decided it wasn’t for them, or maybe they thought they were willing but when push came to shove they decided that it was just too much for them to take on.  And that is valid. 

We are told that at that time in history there were others who claimed to be the Messiah so maybe some of those who left Jesus found someone else who was more exciting or who wasn’t asking them to give us so much. 

Some folks who left Cornerstone through the years left because we weren’t growing fast enough, and then some left because we were growing too fast.  Some decided that the church down the road could do for them what we couldn’t.  And there were some who didn’t like being challenged about their behaviour.  And some who didn’t like Denn.    And I discovered a long time ago that you can’t please everyone.  We’ve had this discussion before, people sometimes ask if there is anything God can’t do?  And that answer is yes; He can’t make everyone happy.  

And for some people we were just a way point.  They had attended five churches before they got to Cornerstone and five after they left.  And that might not be healthy but it doesn’t make a person a bad person, but if they keep blaming the churches they might want to look a little deeper. 

John Maxwell teaches the Bob Principle which says “When Bob has a problem with everyone, Bob is usually the problem.”  Sometimes I will meet with folks and they will tell me about the abuse that they suffered at their previous churches, not church but churches.  If you go to a church and you have problems it’s a tragedy, if you go to two churches and you have problems it’s a coincidence, if you go to three churches and you have problems it’s either a conspiracy or you are the problem.  And I really don’t believe in conspiracies, except that entire moon landing thing.  And the problem might simply be that you are picking churches that just aren’t a fit for you. 

And some people were simply moving on because they were moving.  We discovered early on in our adventure that new churches attract people who are new to the community, and many of those folks have jobs that brought them to our community and jobs that took them away from our community. 

In our personal lives when a relationship ends it isn’t always about something you did, or who you are.  Other times it rests with the other person, maybe you’ve outgrown them, or maybe they’ve outgrown you.  Through the years we have had friends that aren’t a part of our lives now.   When we were single most of our friends were single, and we noticed that as our friends started having kids we didn’t share a lot in common with them anymore.  They wanted to talk about their kids and how little sleep they were getting and what they were finding in diapers and we drifted apart. 

Sometimes it’s work you have in common or church and when things change the relationship changes.  It’s not bad, it simply life.

In business it sometimes the same, the customer’s needs have changed and you can no longer provide them with what they want.  Or they feel that another company can do a better job or provide a better price or maybe they simply got wooed away by the other company.  

Sometimes it’s as simple as they don’t feel any loyalty to you.  I am horrible when it comes to who provides my phone and internet services, no loyalty at all, I hope that doesn’t make me a bad person. 

So what happens when someone leaves our church family, or leaves your business or stops being your friend?  I mean after you’ve asked yourself if it was you or them and if it was you corrected the problems?

This might sound simplistic and cold but We Need to Get Over It  And it’s tough.  It hurts when you feel either right or wrong that you’ve been rejected.  Even if they tell you that it’s nothing personal.   But you can’t stay there forever.  Because the more you think about it and dwell on it the more it hurts.  If you feel that you’ve been hurt or done wrong then you need to forgive the person that you feel hurt you, or did you wrong.  Jesus taught that over and over again.

And the toughest thing for me to come to grips with was the acknowledgement that the trump card I mentioned before, “We feel that God is calling us to another church” is valid.  A believer might be needed somewhere else.   When we left Truro and moved to Australia it was because we felt that’s were God was leading us, and when we left Australia 19 years ago to come and start a new church in Bedford we did it because we felt this was where God was leading us.  

And we can understand God calling people to Cornerstone, we just can’t understand him calling them away.   

If we continue to focus on yesterday then we will miss out on what God has for us today and tomorrow.  

At the end of the Spring of Tuesdays the core group of our church met together to evaluate what had happened, and we determined that regardless of what had happened in the past that God had a great future for us and that we would pursue that without casting blame on those who left.  It wasn’t easy and I didn’t always get it right but we did move on. 

When Jesus asked the question in John 6:67 Then Jesus turned to the Twelve and asked, “Are you also going to leave?”   Listen to Peter’s response John 6:68-69 Simon Peter replied, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. We believe, and we know you are the Holy One of God.”

The HRM is full of great churches, churches where the truth is taught.  And when someone leaves our church or any church to go to another church, it changes relationships and often leaves a gap in the church family but life will go on.  But when someone leaves Jesus it is a tragedy because he truly is the Holy One of God.  

           

Talking to the Father

Last Sunday was Father’s Day and I would imagine the phone lines were burning up as people were calling their dads. I phoned my dad and I got one phone call and a text from my kids.  And for those whose fathers are no longer with them they probably thought about conversations that they have had with their Dads through the years.

If you are like me, there are probably certain talks, or conversations that you have had with your father that stick in your mind.  A friend of mine said he had “The talk” with his eleven year old son the other day, for now I’m sure that is memorable, for whom I’m not sure. 

I am fortunate that through the years I have had a really good relationship with Dad, probably didn’t realize it at the time but there are several conversations that I can almost think of verbatim, even remembering where we were when we had those conversations.  Not all of them would be appropriate in this context. 

This is week two of our Red Letter Summer series and for the next couple of months we will be focusing on those words in the New Testament that are printed in Red.  These are the words of Jesus.  Red Letters are found primarily in the four gospels but there is a small segment in the book of Acts, in Chapter 9 and again in the book of Revelation.

In the scripture that was read earlier we are eavesdropping on a conversation that Jesus is having with his Father.  Last week we looked at how Jesus viewed his Father, that he 1) Jesus Knew the Love of the Father, that 2) Jesus Knew the Affirmation of the Father. And finally 3) Jesus Knew the Protection of the Father

And the fact that he had that type of relationship with his father would explain why he was able to have this conversation with his Father,  Mark 14:35-36 He went on a little farther and fell to the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. “Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

And so it had come to this.  For three years he had taught for three years he had healed.  For three years he had tried to make a difference in his world and to direct people to his father and now it had come down to this.  One of his followers had already cut a deal with his enemies and he knew deep within his heart that this was already the beginning of the end.

Others might guess what was going to happen, he knew. From the very beginning he knew that the people would reject him and his message and they would reject his call to draw near to God.  He knew that he would have to die and would have to surrender his life.  He knew all this because he was God.  But he also knew that he had to make the offer, he had to walk among the people and offer them the chance to embrace him, even knowing they would reject him, but he had to make the offer.

And so it had come to this.  And the worst part was the anticipation.  You know how you felt the last time you had to go to the dentist to have a filling, or a tooth pulled?  You sat in the waiting room imagining how much it was going to hurt, you could almost feel the prick of the needle as they froze your gums, and as you heard the sound of the drill coming from the office it was almost as if it was in your mouth.  Your blood pressure went up, your palms got sweaty your pulse increased. Sorry, I was gone but I’m back now.

Jesus knew that before the day was done that he would die, and not just die but die a very painful death.  Oh sure he was God he could make it so it wouldn’t hurt, but that wasn’t a part of the plan. Dying would be the easy part; it was Julius Caesar who said “It is easier to find men who will volunteer to die, than to find those who are willing to endure pain with patience.”  And Jesus Christ, the son of God knew that before the sun had set one more time that he would offer up the supreme sacrifice for the world, not just for the world, for you, and you and you.  Because before the day was done he would offer himself up to suffer and die.

And with those thoughts racing through his mind he fell to his knees and began to pray.

This is the prayer of Jesus.

Mark 14:36  “Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

The first thing we discover in this prayer is 1) He Knew Who He Was Praying To.  For Jesus the Father was not some abstract figure, he wasn’t a vague benevolent something, out there somewhere.  Instead he was God the Father, who loves and cares about his children, He was Abba-*.  When we think Abba we think of a Swedish Disco group from the 70’s, and while that may be what Abba means now, it is nowhere near what Abba meant then. 

Instead Abba was an Aramaic word that meant father but more then simply father, it was the diminutive form.  Burton Guptill is my father, has been as long as I can remember, but you know something in 53 years I don’t think I have ever called him father, ever.  When I was younger I called him Daddy, and now I call him Dad, for awhile when I worked for him on the tugs I called him Skipper but I have never to my recollection referred to him as father.

Abba means Daddy or Dad; it is a term of endearment, signifying a relationship.  It’s used only three times in the New Testament.  This was the first.  The other two times Paul uses it to describe the relationship we need to have with our heavenly Father Romans 8:15 So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.”   And again Paul reminds us in Galatians 4:6 And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba, Father.”

And I understand that the concept of God as our Father is not a positive for everyone.  Some people were brought up by fathers who were cruel and vicious, who abused them physically and verbally, and that wasn’t right.  That isn’t what fathers are supposed to do and are supposed to behave like.  Others weren’t abused by their fathers they were simply ignored, it would appear that their fathers had taken to heart the words of Ernest Hemingway who said “To be a successful father... there's one absolute rule: when you have a kid, don't look at it for the first two years.”

But men who abuse their children or ignore their children aren’t fathers they are simply sperm donors.  A father doesn’t just participate in the conception of the child he is an integral part of seeing that child grow up.  He is responsible for loving and caring for his children. Of providing for them and protecting them, first against the monsters who live beneath the bed and then against the world.  And as children we understand that, Sigmund Freud said “I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father's protection.”

And now as Jesus came to the most crucial time in his thirty three years on this earth, knowing as only he could know what was about to happen he cries out to his father, to his dad, pouring out his heart.

When you pray who do you pray to?  A concept, a belief, some vague deity that we find hard to define, kind of like Alfred Jarry who said “God is the tangential point between zero and infinity.”

I don’t think so, but if we are going to pray to God the Father then it better be to God our Father.  There needs to be a relationship, and He only becomes our Father when we become his children. And how do we do that?  Listen to the word of God, John 1:12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.

And our obligation as His Children?    Philippians 2:15 so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.

Our lives then become evidence of that relationship, 1 John 3:10 So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God.

You are a child of God if you have believed in Jesus and accept him and you live clean innocent lives, obeying God’s command.  Then you can call out to Him, Abba.

Mark 14:35-36. “Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

Jesus not only knew he was praying to the Father,  2) He Knew The Father’s Power Abba, Father,” He prayed everything is possible for you.  What’s the use of praying if you don’t believe that God has the power to answer your prayers?  Somehow we need to get our head around the concept that everything and anything is possible for God.  And I know that some of you are out there shaking your head thinking “but God doesn’t always answer my prayers.”  You’re right God doesn’t always answer prayer, but not because he can’t.  We also need to understand that we aren’t always going to be able to understand it.  I can’t explain why God doesn’t always answer our prayers.  Personally I know that there have been some of my prayers that I’m glad He didn’t answer.

The Angel Gabriel summed it up in Luke 1:37 “For nothing is impossible with God.”

Time and time again in the Bible we hear the words “everything is possible for God”, “anything is possible for God”, and “all things are possible for God.”   But understand there are things that God won’t do.  A woman approached her pastor and told him that she wanted him to pray that her daughter wouldn’t move in with her boyfriend like she was planning.  The pastor refused.  Why?  Think about it.  God doesn’t force his will on us so why would he force our will on others?  The better prayer might be that the daughter would seek God and embrace His salvation.  If we have a loved one in the Armed Forces and pray that they are not sent into battle does that mean that someone else might be placed in danger because our husband, son or brother isn’t there?

But God has the power to answer all our prayers, and we need to pray believing that He will answer those prayers, but understanding that if He doesn’t it’s not because he can’t and it’s not because he doesn’t want the best for us, but we may have a different idea then God of what is best for us.  Sometimes we are like little kids and we want it all, but all isn’t what we need.

So he prayed to His Father, believing that His Father had the power to answer his prayer and then Mark 14:36“Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

 3) He Prayed For Himself  You ever catch yourself praying for something for you and feel guilty?  It’s like somewhere along the line we have been told that we should only pray for others.  If we pray for ourselves then we are selfish.

That’s wrong.  When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, that would be the one that Jesus gave the disciples, we pray that God would give us our daily bread, that God would forgive us, that God would keep us from temptation. 

A few years ago there was a bestselling book out called the Prayer of Jabez and it looked at an obscure Old Testament Prayer that is recorded in 1 Chronicles 4:10, do you remember what he prayed?  1 Chronicles 4:10 He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!”

A fairly selfish sounding prayer but listen to the result, And God granted him his request. 

Jesus said this about the Father Matthew 7:9-11 “You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.

Oh sometimes when we pray for ourselves we are praying for selfish things.  You can’t deny that, but for the most part it’s not wrong to ask God to be with us and to take care of us and to provide for us.  And He wants to do that, but you need to trust his judgement.  And here is the kicker.  It’s easy to pray to God our Father, and it’s easy to acknowledge his power, and it’s easy to ask Him to take care of us.  It’s tough to surrender to His will.  

Mark 14:36“Abba, Father,” he cried out, “everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

4) He Prayed For God’s Will  American Poet  Richard Cecil made this comment “The history of all the great characters of the Bible is summed up in this one sentence: They acquainted themselves with God, and accepted His will in all things.”

Think about it, the only thing anyone in the bible got by insisting on doing their will instead of God’s was trouble.  Time and time again it is proved that God is smarter then we are. 

If you are like me, and like most people, at some point in your Christian life you have made a decision that you knew was not what God wanted you to do, so how did that work out for you?

Think about it on one hand we have God, the creator of the universe, this is the God who cast the milk way into space, who imagined platypuses and created you.  On the other hand we have us, most of whom can’t even figure out how to change the digital clock in our cars.  Which isn’t really a problem because it’s right for half the year.     

It’s no contest, and yet time and time again we want to pray to God, “Yet I want my will, not yours.”

When Noah chose God’s will he was able to build an ark that saved him and his family, when Joseph chose God’s will he was able to save his family from starvation.  When Moses chose God’s will he was able to deliver his people out of the slavery of Egypt.  When Gideon chose God’s will he was able to save the Israelites from the Midianites.  When David Chose God’s will he was able to defeat the giant.

And yet when Saul chose his will over God’s he lost his throne, when Samson chose to ignore God’s will he lost his life, when Sarah and Abraham chose their will over God’s, let’s stop and reflect here on the consequences of disobedience, and doing it our own way. 

God promised to make Abraham the father of a great nation, and yet Abraham couldn’t seem to have a child with his wife Sarah.  So Sarah decided to take matters into her own hands and set her husband up with her maid a gal named Hagar who became pregnant with a son.  The boys name was Ishmael, and this is what the Bible predicted about Ishmael Genesis 16:12 This son of yours will be a wild man, as untamed as a wild donkey! He will raise his fist against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live in open hostility against all his relatives.”

Later Sarah and Abraham had a son named Isaac who would eventually have a son named Jacob who would eventually be called Israel. And the descendents of Israel are the people we call the Jews.  We know that.  It was from Jacob’s descendants that a young lady named Mary was born, who would go on to be the mother of Jesus. 

But what about Ishmael?  Well his descendents lived in that same area and more than 2,500 years after his birth was born a descendent of Ishmael’s was born, and this parents named him Mohammed, and almost 1,500 years after that another descendent of Ishmael’s was born and his name was Osoma Bin Ladin and the rest as they say is history. 

What would have happened had Abraham and Sarah taken God at his word, if their prayer had of been “not my will but yours be done.”?  Just asking.   What were the consequences of two people not trusting God’s will 4000 years ago?

Now you might be asking, how will I know the will of God?  Good question.  Paul Little says this “Has it ever struck you that the vast majority of the will of God for your life has already been revealed in the Bible? That is a crucial thing to grasp.”

But you will never know what’s in the Bible if you don’t read the Bible.

What is your prayer today?  God has only your best in mind, are you willing to trust him?

Knowing the Father

I officially declare today the first day of summer, at least for 2013.  For no other reason than today I start my summer preaching series, which wouldn’t really work if it was still spring. 

This summer our theme will be “A Red Letter Summer”  and if you are wondering what that means it’s really pretty simple.  In most bibles that are printed today, if you flip to the gospels, and the revelation you will discover that some, not all but a lot, of the words are printed in red.  And those are the words of Christ.  The term Red Letter meaning something important first came from the practice of printing the dates for Holy Days on Calendars in red.  The first record of this is found in a book written by William Caxton is 1490 where it says, “We wryte yet in oure kalenders the hyghe festes wyth rede lettres of coloure of purpre.”  Obviously Bill learned to spell with Hooked on Phonics.

The idea of printing the words of Christ in Red came from Louis Klopsch who was an editor of the Christian Herald Magazine.  The first Red Letter New Testament was published in 1899 and the first Red Letter Bible was published 2 years later.  And it caught on.  Many of those who use the King James Version find it useful because the King James doesn’t use quotation marks.   

A few years ago a group started that called themselves “Red-Letter Christians”.  Proponents of the movement decided that both the far right and left of Christianity was exploiting the New Testament for their political agendas a response they have endeavored to create an evangelical movement that focuses on the teachings of Jesus Christ, particularly in regard to social issues.

However if we truly believe that the whole Bible is the inspired word of God then we can’t simply lop off the parts we don’t like.  So in highlighting some of the red letter portions of the Gospels we aren’t saying that these are more important than the words that you might  read from other portions of the New Testament, but they are the words of Jesus. 

So where to start?  It has been interesting as we’ve been looking at the summer preaching schedule with the staff to see where each of them is planning on going with this series on the dates they are scheduled to speak.  Most of us have a particular red letter passage that is our favorite.  Whether it be “For God so Love the World”, “Suffer the little children to come to me” or “You must be born again.”    So many scriptures, so little time.  So where do we start?

Well that was easy, it is Father’s day and time and time again Jesus refers to God as Father.  And he tells us that we should approach God as our heavenly Father, in the Lord’s Prayer Jesus even tells us that when we address God we should call him Father. 

And that was a departure because for thousands of years the Jews had maintained that God’s name was too holy to use, and He was some distant deity way out there somewhere that we couldn’t relate to who certainly couldn’t relate to us and that we didn’t communicate with directly. To the Jews of Jesus’ day there had to be an intermediary, you went to the priest and they in turn offered sacrifices on your behalf to God. 

You ever try to connect with someone through a middle man? And it just wasn’t happening?  You know you really had to talk to someone but first you had to go through a receptionist, or secretary or maybe an operator. 

And into this setting comes Jesus who says “Hey, when you pray you need to start by calling God by His name which is Father!”

The problem is that in order for this to work we need to have a decent view of our father.  If your concept of a father is someone who is abusive or distant then this isn’t the best illustrative device. Dads don’t always get the greatest press, and for obvious reasons, you only have to watch the news or read the paper to realize that some fathers aren’t the nicest people around.

When we were in Australia we met a Christian singer by the name of Peter Shirley and he sang a song called “WOULD YOU REALLY MIND”:

“When I was just a child, I didn’t understand

Why my father left my mother with the waving of a hand. 

He told me it was best this way, but I couldn’t figure why.

The solution to the problem made my mother cry. 

Lord I find it hard to call you father,

My memories aren’t real fond of the father that I had,

LORD I find it hard to call you father, but would you really mind,

Would you really mind if I just called you friend.

I know this may be selfish, I know this may be wrong. 

But I’m not sure my father loves me, I haven’t seen him for so long.

Lord you’re so much more to me than the father that I knew,

I know that you won’t leave me; your love will see me through.

Lord help me to understand, and ease this pain inside. 

And help me to forgive, my father’s human side. 

Unite us with your spirit, though in flesh we’re torn apart.

And take away this bitterness that’s wrapped around my heart.”

Somehow, what Jesus meant when he referred to father isn’t necessarily the same association that some people make now when they think of their father.  He’s saying light you’re thinking dark, he’s thinking protective you’re thinking abusive. 

You see, when you’ve been physically or sexually abused by your father, when he drank the family’s food away or constantly berated you and told you that you were no good.  When the memory of your father, makes you angry or brings tears to your eyes then it’s going to be really difficult for you to feel good about embracing a God who is called father. 

You may not even feel like you could pray to someone called father.  You might share Lord Chesterfield’s feelings when he said “As fathers commonly go, it is seldom a misfortune to be fatherless; and considering the general run of sons, as seldom a misfortune to be childless.”

The problem with our language is that we define it by our own experiences.  We can both be talking English, using the same words but thinking totally different things.  If we are talking about cars and the subject turns to Oldsmobiles I would immediately think of my favourite car which was a 1971 Cutlass Supreme convertible that I owned when I was eighteen.  But if your experience with General Motors products in general and Oldmobiles in particular has been bad, like perhaps you owned a 1982 Firenza then you would be thinking entirely different thoughts then I would.  And for good reasons.

And so the picture that comes to mind when Jesus says “Father” may be completely different than the picture that comes to my mind.  And I have a great Dad, but even with that he can’t be compared to my heavenly father.

This morning let’s go back to the scripture that we started with Luke 10:22 “My Father has entrusted everything to me. No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Jesus tells us that we need to approach God as Father, but that will only work if we understand how Jesus viewed his Father.  Jesus said, “No one truly knows the Father except the Son.”  But he didn’t stop there he goes on to say “and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

So, the question is: To whom does the son choose to reveal the father?  And the answer would be those who want to discover the Father.  Because as you read the Jesus story we read the description of the Father’s character from the Son himself.    

And so the only way that we can know what Jesus meant when he referred to His Father is to look at other times that he used the term father and what it says about his concept of a father because remember he’s talking about his view of father not ours.

John 5:20 For the Father loves the Son . . .1) Jesus Knew the Love of the Father  Jesus didn’t have to wonder if his father loved him, it wasn’t a “maybe” or an “if” statement, he knew it, it was fact not theory.  If you look through the parables, the stories Jesus told, you find that the Father is always the good guy.  He’s the one who takes the prodigal son back, he’s the one who gives his children the very best, he’s the one who defends his children. 

In other words whenever Jesus uses a father as an illustrative device it is in a positive sense.  Unlike television where dad is usually the idiot on the show.

We may not know where we stand with our earthly father either because he hasn’t verbalized his love for us or because his actions negate his words, but that won’t be a problem with our heavenly father. 

Hopefully your kids know that you love them, and they need to hear you say it, hopefully this song couldn’t be written about any of us.

Jesus tell us in John 3:16 “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.  I know the world is a big place and sometimes when we think of  God’s love divided 6 billion ways it doesn’t seem like we get a very big slice of the pie, but reality is that God’s love doesn’t divide like a pizza, not only does every believer get the same size piece but each piece is the same size as the sum of the total.  In other words God’s love divided by 6 billion remains God’s love, not 1/6,000,000,000 of God’s love.  Jesus reminds us of his Father’s love for us as believers in John 16:27 for the Father himself loves you dearly because you love me and believe that I came from God.

What type of love is it that God has for us?  Listen to what Jesus best friend John said, 1 John 3:1 See how very much our Father loves us, for he calls us his children, and that is what we are!   We are his children, he is our parent, and not just any parent he is a perfect parent, a parent who loves us.

So what do you think?  Think you could embrace a Father who loved you enough to make the ultimate sacrifice for you?

The first time we see the relationship between Jesus and his Heavenly Father is in Matthew 3:17 and it happened at the beginning of Jesus public ministry, right after John had baptized Jesus, he comes up from the Jordan river and we pick up the story in Matthew 3:17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”

2) Jesus Knew the Affirmation of the Father. Jesus concept of father was someone who bragged on his kids.  I’m 53 years old and it still thrills me right down to my toes to find out that Dad has been bragging me up.  Maybe that’s not something that you can identify with, maybe you can’t remember your dad ever bragging on you with but it’s the reality of God our father.  Time and time again Jesus spoke about the worth that God has attributed to us, as his children. 

Jesus had no doubt that his Father was in his corner and never had to wonder what his father thought of him.  John 6:27 For God the Father has given me the seal of his approval.”

Maybe your earthly father has never told you he thought you were doing a great job, maybe he never said that he was proud of you, but upon your Heavenly Father’s lips are the words “Well done my good and faithful servant.”

So what do you think?  Think you could embrace a Father who affirmed you and thought you were the greatest thing since sliced bread.

And Dad’s you need to affirm your kids.  I have a friend who used to say that we get our children as empty buckets and it’s up to us to fill those buckets with good things.  Way to go, you’re awesome, I love you so much, you are the best kid in the world.

Matthew 26:53 Don’t you realize that I could ask my Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly?  I love this particular portion of the Bible.  Jesus is being arrested and Peter pulls out a sword and cuts off the ear of one of the guys in the mob.  Now personally I think Peter is maligned here because I really don’t think that Peter was actually trying to cut off the guy’s ear.  He was trying to cut off the guy’s head and just had a rotten aim, and Jesus tells Peter to put the sword away and then he makes that statement. In other translations it says Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? 

A legion was a military term which actually referred to a large unit of infantry numbering up to 6,000 men.  All Jesus had to do was say sic em and 72,000 angels with attitude would have been all over those guys, like down on a duck.  You see 3) Jesus Knew the Protection of the Father

Every once in a while you need a really good quote from Freud, and I feel that coming on Sigmund Freud said “I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection.”

Jesus knew that his Father was in his corner, that all he had to do was say the word and his father would be there for him. 

Not only that but Jesus knew that His Father who is also our Father would be there for us as well listen to his prayer in the book of John 17:11 Now I am departing from the world; they are staying in this world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, you have given me your name; now protect them by the power of your name so that they will be united just as we are.

Does that mean nothing will ever go wrong and that you are safe from the consequences of your actions?  Not at all, but it does mean that our Father will always be there to hold us and comfort us.  It does mean that Satan has no power over our lives as children of God, unless we allow him to have that power over us. 

Sometimes as much as my dad wanted to protect me from life and all that could go wrong there were times that by my actions I removed myself from Dad’s protection. 

We talked about this before, the reason God gave us his word, the reason God gives us rules and regulation and guidelines isn’t because he’s a spoil sport and doesn’t want us to have any fun, they are there to protect us, not just from physical harm, but from emotional harm and spiritual harm as well. 

Just like when our fathers told us, “Don’t play on the street, don’t tease the dog and if you keep poking your sister she’s going to smack you.”

God wants to protect us, but he won’t take away our free will to do it. 

We all want to protect our kids, but if we decided that in order to do that we would lock them up and never let them out of their room.  While that might be effective in protecting them society would take a dim view of it and ultimately it would backfire as they became resentful.  Instead we try to teach them to make good choices and hope and pray for the best. 

Which is why the bible teaches us in Proverbs 22:6 Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it.   By the way, proverbs aren’t guarantees, what they are is statements of common sense or general truth.  Solomon is saying that if you want your children to stay on the right path when they are older then you need to show them that path and start them on that path when they are younger.  

God could do that, he could lock us by taking away our free will.  Instead he shows us the right path, through his word and through the preaching of his word.  He wants to protect you, but when you step outside those boundaries and say “I don’t need you or your rules” then you’re paddling your own canoe. 

So what do you think?  Do you think you could embrace a Father who was in your corner and who was always ready to protect you?

So if you’ve never experienced the love, encouragement and protection of God the Father it is available to you today.  Jesus told his followers John 14:6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.

You come to the Father by entrusting your life to the Son.  And what better day to come to the Father than on Father’s Day.

Who is this Man? How Jesus shaped how we think of Education and our Enemies

How was high School for you?  I loved high school, well actually it was a weird time of life, on one hand I couldn’t wait to graduate so I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted.   For me graduation signified freedom.   Wow, was I in for a nasty surprise.  If I had to pick a them song for my grade 12 year it would have probably been Alice Cooper’s “Schools Out”.

On the other hand, I enjoyed the social aspect of high school and academics never really seemed to pose much of a problem for me nor did it seem to cause much stress.  And I discovered that the only way they would let me take part in the extra-curricular activities that I enjoyed so much was if I also took part in the curricular activities that they seemed to think were so important.  Go figure?    

This time of year education is on the minds of a lot of people.  Today we honoured our high school graduates but there are folks in all kinds of transitions.  Little kids are graduating from pre-school.  Elementary kids will be leaving grade 6 and Jr. High students will be looking forward to high school with either anticipation or dread.  Folks are receiving bachelor, master and doctorates. 

But for many people education and the church don’t necessarily go hand in hand.  Some people would actually contend that the church has been a road block to education and science. That the church is threatened by knowledge.   But is that a reality? 

This is week last of our series “Who is this Man?”  Actually it has been a multi-part message, started over Christmas with my message “It’s a Wonderful life” where I started to look at how the world would be different if Jesus had never been born.  And when I finished I promised that we would expand on that thought.  So, with that in mind our theme over Holy Week was “Who is this Man?” and we looked at how people might have viewed Jesus on Good Friday at the Cross and then on Resurrection Sunday at the empty tomb. 

And then over April I preached on the Blessed Life, because it was Money Month.  And you folks responded in an incredible way on Consecration Sunday. 

So three weeks ago we began looking at how Jesus shaped the world that we live in today.  The first week we explored how time has been defined by the birth of Jesus.  Every event in history is described in relation to whether it happened B.C.  Before Christ or A.D. Anno Domini the year of our Lord.  Jesus’ birth drew a line through history.  And there are those who would try to secularize BC and AD and make it CE and BCE.  Common Era and Before Common Era, but the question has to be asked.  What do they have in common?  Oh yeah, the birth of Jesus. 

We went on to say that in our statement of faith at Cornerstone it says “Our beliefs are in line with historic Christianity.”  But what does that mean?  Well, it means that we believe that Jesus was the son of God, we believe that he was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin.  We believe that he suffered and died under Pontius Pilate and that on the third day he rose from the dead.  This we believe. 

And then over the last two weeks we have looked at how Jesus shaped the world that we live in.  And he did that because of what he left behind, the church.  And because there was a Jesus who promised in Luke 6:47 I will show you what it’s like when someone comes to me, listens to my teaching, and then follows it.  And because there were people who came to Jesus, who listened to Jesus’ teachings and then followed those teachings the world is a different place.

Jesus Shaped How We Think of the Poor 

Jesus Shaped How We Think of the Sick

Jesus Shaped How We Think of Slaves

Jesus Shaped How We Think of Children

Jesus Shaped How We Think of Women

Jesus Shaped How We Think of Marriage

And because there was a Jesus and because he left a church that would follow his teachings the world today is a different place.

But, you might be asking what does that have to with education?  Let’s go back to the scripture that we started with.  A religious teacher came to Jesus and asked him “Of all the commandments which is the most important?”  And that is an important question.  And listen to Jesus reply in Mark 12:29-30 Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’

 And Jesus didn’t just make that up and it wouldn’t have come as a surprise to the man who asked the question.  It was a text book answer from Deuteronomy 6:5-6 And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. And you must commit yourselves wholeheartedly to these commands that I am giving you today.

But there is a difference.  Remember those cartoons that used to run in the newspaper, Spot the difference?  They would have two pictures that were almost the same but not quite.  So here is the command from Deuteronomy 6:5-6 And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength.  And here is the command from Mark 12:30 And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.  Did you catch the difference?  Jesus’ command includes the intellect. 

It’s not enough to love God because you always have, or because you are commanded to, you are to love him intellectually as well. 

Do you remember the last command of Jesus?  Sure you do.  It’s found in Matthew 28:19 where Jesus told his followers to do three things.  1) Make disciples 2) Baptize those disciples and 3) They were to teach those disciples.  When the first church was described in the book of Acts it is recorded that they devoted themselves to the Apostle’s Teaching and not just men and boys but women and girls.  Jesus Shaped How We Think of Education 

There had always been education, but it had been reserved for wealthy privileged males.  In AD 150 a man who followed Jesus by the name of Justin Martyr opened a school, and there he taught, men and women, free and slaves.  And because of that the Romans had him beheaded. 

And for the past two thousand years the church has been at the forefront of not only teaching knowledge but also in preserving knowledge.  Why?  Because they remembered when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was his reply was not only to love God with all of our hearts but with all of our minds as well. 

And so learning about everything was seen by many in the church as a means of helping believers know more about the God who created everything. 

Which is why Augustine said “A person who is a good and true Christian should realize that truth belongs to his Lord, wherever it is found, gathering and acknowledging it even in pagan literature, but rejecting superstitious vanities and deploring and avoiding those who ‘though they knew God did not glorify him as God...”

There is sometimes a feeling the church is anti-intellectual and yet when Rome collapsed and the barbarians overran the Roman Empire and the scrolls and manuscripts that contained the classics of ancient civilizations were in danger of being lost, it was in Christian communities called monasteries that those documents were painstakingly copied and preserved by hand.  Because a man named Jesus told his followers to love God with all their minds.

And these monasteries became places of learning and eventually formed schools called Universities all over Europe and Asia.   And within six years of the Puritans landing in the New World they established a school whose motto translated into English was “Truth for Christ and the Church.”  You might recognize the name of the school, it was called Harvard.  As a matter of fact ninety two percent of the first 138 institutions of higher learning in the United States were founded by churches.

Closer to home, of the ten Universities in Nova Scotia four were started by the Catholic Church, one by the Anglicans, one by the Baptist and one by the Methodists.   In New Brunswick of the eight universities one was started by the Catholic Church, one by the Baptist, one by the Anglicans, one was Methodist, one was Wesleyan and one was non-denominational.  Love God with all your mind.  

Most people know about Sunday School, but how many of you know that it was started in 1780 by a Jesus follower, named Robert Raikes,  as a means to teach children of common people how to read and write.  In that day and age children worked 6 days a week and his dream was to give them an opportunity on the seventh day to learn regardless of how much or how little they had.  Five years from it’s beginning it is estimated that there were 250,000 children enrolled And within 50 years we are told that there were 160,000 Jesus Followers teaching 1.5 million children how to read and write and how to love God with all their minds.  

You might be more familiar with the Sunday School movement by what it’s called today “Public School”.

And it was the church which developed alphabets, and dictionaries and developed written music so songs of worship could be shared around the world.  Love God with all your minds.

But Jesus wasn’t content to simply talk about the greatest commandment, which was to love God.  He goes on to say Mark 12:31 The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”   This same story is told in Luke’s gospel as well and in that account it leads into one of Jesus’ great teaching moments.  Because in that account, after Jesus says to love your neighbour, the man asks “Who is my neighbour”  and Jesus goes into the story of the Good Samaritan.  You know the story, a man is travelling along a lonely stretch of road and he is mugged and left for dead.  Three different men come upon him, the first two, a lawyer and a priest, go out of their way to avoid him.  The third man was a Samaritan.  Which doesn’t mean a great deal to us but 2000 years ago in that culture the Jews bore a grudge against the Samaritan’s that went back half a millennium.  And it was that man, the Samaritan who reached out to the victim on the side of the road.  And that was radical. 

Most people have no problem loving their neighbour, if they already like them.  But Jesus expanded our neighbour to mean everyone we come in contact with.  Even people we don’t like and even people who have done us wrong.  Jesus turned the command to love our neighbour upside down when he said in Matthew 5:43-44 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!

And those early lovers of Jesus were reminded of this over and over again while they were being taught.  And so we get radical over the top teachings like 1 Peter 3:9 Don’t repay evil for evil. Don’t retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will bless you for it.   And remember that this church was a church persecuted under the Romans, whose members were imprisoned for their faith, and tortured and killed.

Jesus Shaped How We Think of Our Enemies   In Jesus day most of the world subscribed to a philosophy called Lex Talionis (lex talin-o-nis).  What we would know as “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”  but it might have been more aptly referred to as the “law of tit for tat” It appears in the earliest code of law and that was the code of Hammurabi, who was a Babylonian King who lived 1800 years before Christ.  The main principal is clear; if a person inflicts an injury then he would receive the same treatment.

There are some who would call this harsh and blood thirsty, but in reality it was the beginning of mercy, for two reasons:  The first is that it limited Judgement, if someone knocked out one of your teeth then you can't knock out all of his.  Secondly it took judgement away from the individual and gave it to society.  Probably the greatest example of the why and how of this law was capital punishment.  If someone killed your child they would be sentenced to death, that was their punishment, you couldn't go out and kill their children and their spouse.  This type of law was indicative of the society in which Christ lived.  It was very much a retaliatory society. 

And it still is through much of the Middle East, Iran does it, Syria does it, Lebanon does it, Iraq does it, Libya does it and if you want a real lesson in retaliatory justice then just watch Israel.    But then again we support Israel so when the do it we don't call it terrorism.

If’n you want to stomp out evil by stomping out the evil doer then the law of Moses is fine.  But if’n you want to destroy evil and salvage the sinner then you need a completely different approach.

The law tells us to react in kind, and that suits our human personality.  We are quite willing to kill the killer, hate the hater, and be close minded to the close minded.  But Christ isn't content with those who call themselves by his name reacting in the same way as the world.  Instead of reacting in kind, he commands us to react in contrast.  So when someone strikes you, turn the other cheek.  When someone demands your coat, give them your shirt as well.  When someone makes you carry their bags for a mile, offer to carry them two miles.

If we are going to change the world it will happen through forgiveness, it was Martin Luther King Jr. who wrote “That old law about "an eye for an eye" leaves everybody blind. The time is always right to do the right thing.”   Martin didn’t think that up by himself, he was remembering the words of the Jesus whom he followed.

If you don’t forgive when you’ve been wronged eventually it will consume you and turn you into a hateful resentful person.  And that isn’t who Christ called people to be.

Do you remember the school house shooting that happened in the Amish Community of Nickel Mines Pennsylvania back in 2006?  A gunman opened fire in a school and killed 5 girls?   Did you know that the community publically declared their forgiveness for the shooter and raised money to help out his widow and orphans?  Why would they do that?  Because they remembered the teachings of Jesus who said in  Matthew 5:43-44 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!

In 2007 I sat with a group of pastors under a tree in Sierra Leone and they told me of the atrocities that had happened during the civil war, of friends and loved ones who had lost their limbs and lost their lives.  And I asked them now that the war was over what their reaction was to their neighbours who had committed those atrocities?  And they said, “We will forgive them.”  Why would they do that?  Because that’s what Jesus told them to do.  And Jesus not only taught it he lived it and ultimately he proved it to the world when he was hanging dying on a cross and prayed “Father, forgive them.”

When the overriding motivation is displaying the love of Christ the rest of the pieces will fall into place.  When you seek to love others in the way that Christ loves you then you won’t have to worry about whether you do this or don’t do that. 

But as we said last week, the most important question that can be asked isn’t “how has Jesus shaped the world?”  but “How has Jesus shaped you?” 

Have you come to Jesus?  Because you are here you at least come to hear his message.  Most of you, I hope, have paid attention and heard his teachings.  But are you following him?  Are you allowing his teachings to shape who you are and how you live? 

Listen to the end of the scripture we started with, Mark 12:32-34 The teacher of religious law replied, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other. And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.” Realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.”

When you understand why Jesus came, and what he requires then you are not far from the Kingdom of God.  And it is a choice that you will make for yourself.  Will you follow Jesus and embrace what he taught?  When you allow Jesus to shape you, then you will shape your world, which will ultimately help to shape the world.