St Luke’s View

There once was a woman who set out to discover the meaning of life. First she read everything she could get her hands on–history, philosophy, psychology and religion. Then she set off around the globe in search. But, wherever she went, people told her they did not know the answer. Finally, deep in the Himalayas, she climbed up to a tiny hut and with knuckles so cold they hardly worked, she knocked.

“Yes?” said the kind-looking old man who opened it. “I have come halfway around the world to ask you one question,” she said, gasping for breath. “What is the meaning of life?”

“Please come in and have some tea,” the old man said.

“No,” she said.  I didn’t come all this way for tea. I came for an answer. Won’t you tell me, please, what is the meaning of life?”

“We shall have tea,” the old man said, so she gave up and came inside. While he was brewing the tea she caught her breath and began telling him about all the books she had read, all the people she had met, all the places she had been. The old man listened and as she talked incessantly and placed a fragile tea cup in her hand. Then he began to pour the tea.

She was so busy talking that she did not notice when the tea cup was full, so the old man just kept pouring until the tea ran over the sides of the cup and spilled to the floor in a steaming waterfall.

“What are you doing?!” she yelled when the tea burned her hand. “It’s full, can’t you see? Stop! There’s no more room!”

“Just so,” the old man said to her. “You come here wanting something from me, but what am I to do? There is no more room in your cup. Come back when it is empty and then we will talk.”

Well, if today we can see but cannot understand. If we are desperate to be transformed to faith, vision and life beyond life. Then this lent we must learn the lesson of that overflowing cup. For we must empty ourselves. We must cease the endless internal chatter. We must open our minds’ doors and hearts’ windows. And we need then let the Holy Spirit fill us to the brim. We need let it blow through our character, our flesh and bones and the very being of our souls. And in that moment alone we will be still, we will have our being in God and we will be transformed impossibly. For then, uncomprehendingly, the anger of the past is gone. The miracle of life in all its fullness is restored. And the future is once more a new and inviting page.  Because, that is Christ’s rebirth from night into the brilliance of a brand new day.

Only last week on the radio a commentator remarked that with science every time a door of discovery is opened another lies beyond. She then cited the increasing complexity of atoms. At first research found atoms to be made up of electrons, neutrons and protons, then it was quarks and now its bosons.

Yet do we really need to understand particle physics to sit on a seat? Do we need to comprehend quantum physics to see the light from this screen? In fact, od we need to neurological experts to understand these words. I think not! However,you are doing these things right now.  And we indeed benefitting from these things right now!

 Well, this was Jesus starting point with Nicodemus who came to him in the night (John 3.1-13). For, we may be mystified by the Spirit’s ‘how’ and dumbfounded by its ‘why’. But we can still observe its doing something of infinite value.  Since, it can indeed cool our anger, bitterness and disillusionment. More positively, it can give rebirth to inspiration, faith and hope. There is no problem too in it refreshing a jaded lifestyle, a moribund community or even a dissolute nation. In fact, it has the ability to build contentment even if there is no understanding of suffering and healing, crucifixions and resurrections, living and dying and living again.

The sermons and talks of our minister can be seen at:

www.words4worship.co.uk

There is a wonderful scene in Robert Bolt’s play, A Man for all Seasons which is about the life of Sir Thomas More and his struggle with Henry VIII.  In it, More is confronted by Sir Richard Rich who has just perjured himself.  Now Rich had recently

been appointed  as Attorney General for Wales and was wearing

 the appropriate chain of office –  embossed with a red dragon.

 Sir Thomas More asks Rich  what the chain is for and, on being told says, “For Wales?

Why Richard, it profits a man nothing  to give his soul for the whole world, but for Wales?”

Yet Rich was a young man in a hurry.  As a result,
the end  did indeed justify means.  Since he
would do anything  to get what he wanted most.  
A reminder then perhaps  also of the ‘having temptations’  
that Jesus suffered.

For this alluring world  can offer almost unlimited
power,  prestige and wealth – all that matters
is what people are willing to do for it. Yet we too
on a much smaller scale are tempted by desires
to have this or that. However, some of these things 
 may not be valuable or safe or what God wants us
 to have at this moment.

So this lent let us not just beware  of the easy
and the rapid.   Let us also take careful stock  
of our wants and wishes, our aims and ambitions,
 our staging posts and our destinations.

Then let’s submit each of them
to Christ’s measure.

 And his yardstick  will always be – 
how long will these detain us

in the wilderness  or
how close do these take us  
to his Father’s Kingdom!  

One story I heard in my youth sticks in the memory. 
 

 It is of the best mask maker in the world. One day

 the door of his back street shop  tinged open

and there stood a young politician  who was a rising star

 in the government.  He asked for a mask  to hide his lies with a look of honesty.   This mask must also  hide his back stabbing with a smile  and his duplicity  with serenity. But it is all in a good cause he said.

Of course – replied  the mask maker – it will be ready in 7 days.

Well, that politician rose until he ruled his country. It was with some surprise then that the mask maker greeted this man’s wife.

 She asked for a mask to cover her loathing of her utterly corrupt husband, her derision when he lied to her and her revulsion

when his blood stained hands  touched her.

 Of course said the mask maker – I will fit it in 7 days – it’s a good cause.

Now that takes us neatly to Christ’s temptations in the wilderness.  And the one that comes most strongly to mind

 is the ‘doing temptation’b of turning stones to bread.  For, if Jesus had fallen for it, he would have found a quick way to riches, a lazy way to fame  and an easy way  to reduce world hunger. Becuase this option of the Devil  was all about short cuts. In other words – the end justifying the means.

We too similarly tempt ourselves to short circuits with the words –  it’s in a good cause. It is then we forget  the words

that we usually preface  that phrase with. Because don’t we say –  what the hell, it’s in a good cause! For  the world

often lures into the short cut – to quick riches, to easy success

maybe even to trouble free solutions to a good causes. And any newspaper or TV report of the current financial crisis will illustrate my point.

Yet God’s way is rarely so easy or quick. Nevertheless, it is invariably sure and right and lasting. Therefore, we need to acknowledge  there are few short cut  to our Christian achievement and there is no quick way out  of spiritual malaise.

 In fact, we must also reject  any magic bullet solution

to any faith problem of the moment.  Instead, these will only

come from the willing acceptance and the wholehearted adoption  of God’s plan for us. As only a return

to the relentless work of building our relationship

with God will turn those stony weights  in our hearts

into the very bread of eternal life.

Matthew 6.1-6; 16-21

Romans 8.12-17

It is a staple of reality TV and it’s the gruelling military course. Usually the series starts with interviews with the young hopefuls. It then follows them through various hurdles as they either fall by the way side or learn to fly, command a submarine, become a clearance diver or Royal Marine commando.  And the cliché end is seeing a handful who have braved endless privations gain their wings, badge or Green Beret. The lesson is always clear – only those that preserve win what they covet the most.

Well we say we have nothing like that in religion. But that isn’t true. Jews fast during Passover and Muslims do so during Ramadan. And we, well we have the ancient tradition of lent.

 Because 20 centuries ago, Lent was the primary season for the newly formed communities across the Roman Empire. And it led up to the great Easter vigil service that lasted from sunset to sunrise. Now this included the sacrament of baptism for new believers. A sacrament that no recruit would have seen – for in the early church the first baptism you ever saw was your own. Not surprisingly for those preparing to enter fully into the church and its promised salvation, lent was a time of intense personal preparation.

And at the heart of this profound 40 days of tests, trails and struggles was the concept of leaving behind all of the things of this world that got in the way of their relationship with God.  

So today’s text from Matthew would have spoken clearly to them. For their preparations of fasting, praying and alms giving would not have been in order to be seen by others. In fact, in those early centuries would have been positively dangerous being seen by other. Rather they were striving throughout to empty ourselves. For above all things they desired to be filled by God in Christ. As a result any privations suffered were not causes of misery but inspired by the joyful anticipation of what would soon be won.

 I am sure you have had the experience in finding yourself in the kitchen and can’t remember why your there. Certainly, we all know the times when we have read a page of a book and can’t recall anything about it. Worse still is when we arrive at the shops and don’t remember anything about the drive from home.

Well, we all can get that way in a multitude of activities we do regularly. In fact, we can even go into auto-pilot in our spiritual life. Prayers said by rote, bibles read hurriedly and talks listened too with only half an ear.

Well, thinking of our Christian forebears and what they willingly endured at this time of year, what else can we hope for than this Easter being different?

Let us then prepare ourselves as of old to win the glorious joy of new life in who has newly risen. Indeed this lent, let us journey back to God.

 And we start that walk to our crucifixion and resurrection by doing a bit of inner examination. For as Socrates said the life not examined is not worth living. That means getting down and dirty and doing a spiritual ‘green beret’ course. It means honestly looking at all of the frills and distractions we allow ourselves to be involved with.  It means purging ourselves of all the fears, failures and false desires with as much courage and dignity we can muster. It means fighting through to rediscover the basics of what it means to be Christian. . It means once more purely relying on God’s love and mercy to fill us, to complete us and to save us.

Now, of course, these privations will be painful and there will be no badge of tin or beret of cloth at the end. Yet we do have a coveted prize in sight. For Easter well prepared for wins us the very peace, light and life in Christ that only our distracted self prevents.  

He’s looking to hear your views!

Dear Friends

I don’t know about you but I am thoroughly fed up with this cold weather.  In fact, it is hard to believe that Spring will ever come with its promise of, hopefully, a glorious summer. Yet the year is moving forward and seeds beneath our feet are starting to feel new life.

 This is also undoubtedly true of the Kingdom of God.  Yet with all that is happening in the world, it as if Christ’s plan for this sometimes bleak planet is locked in permafrost.  Moreover, it appears that all our prayers, acts of kindness and works of devotion will never ever break through stony ground and germinate into the ‘green shots’ at Heaven’s gate.

However, such a sense of wintry despondency forgets the story of Mount Grace Priory in North Yorkshire. Now, it had a herb patch that was tended for centuries by the Monks and which provided dyes for cloth and mullein for Candles. But, in the 16^th, Century, this monastery was closed down during the English Reformation of Henry VIII.  Needless to say, the herb garden too went into disuse.

But a few years ago, archaeologists started to excavate that self-same herb patch. The result was that seeds that had lain dormant for hundreds of years felt the sun again and started to grow. So today, some of these very ancient plants stand 6 feet tall providing their gifts once more to changed and better world.

Therefore, we should never despair that even the smallest seed sown in the name of Jesus will ever flower and bear fruit. Because as a newspaper article entitled ‘What small things will I do’ once pointed out:

The smallest crust may save a human life;

The smallest act may lead to human strife;

The smallest touch may cause the body pain;

The smallest speak may fire a field of grain;

The smallest deed may tell the truly brave;

The smallest skill may serve a life to save;

The smallest drop to the thirsty may relieve;

The slightest shock may make a heart to grieve.

Nought is so small that it may not contain

The rose of pleasure or the thorn of pain.

May you walk into the Spring with Christ,

Graham