Jeremiah 31 verses 31 to 34

Jeremiah 31 verses 31 to 34

This morning I’d like to say a few words about today’s Old Testament passage from Jeremiah.

I think in order to understand this passage and see the significance of this prophecy, we need a brief over view of God’s plan of salvation as outlined in the bible.

The bible as you all know starts with the book of Genesis and God creating a perfect world with Adam and Eve to look after it and to populate it.

However it doesn’t take long for God’s perfect creation to be spoilt by the Devil who tempts Adam and Eve to disobey God.

At this point sin and death enter the world and Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden of Eden.

Again it doesn’t take long for Cain to murder Abel and soon the world is full of wickedness.

God’s perfect world has been spoilt and the humans he created to enjoy a relationship with Him have turned their backs on him.

But fortunately God knew beforehand what would happen, and he has a plan to save and redeem mankind.

In fact we are given a hint about this plan in Genesis Chapter 3 where God tells the devil –“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

An offspring of the woman will one day crush Satan’s head.

So, God’s plan is for a saviour to be born into the world – someone to save and redeem mankind - but before he can come God has a lot of work to do in preparation.

The Saviour can’t just suddenly appear in the world out of nowhere as no one would be expecting him and no one would have a clue about his origins or his teaching.

No, the Saviour must come onto a stage that has been prepared and set for him.

So, as we read through the Old Testament, the stage is set, and God’s plan of salvation starts to unfold.

First he calls a man called Abraham who will be the father of a nation of people – a chosen nation – who God will prepare to receive the Saviour and his teaching.

Thus through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the nation of Israel is born.

However this nation must be a distinctive people who are familiar with God and his ways.

So God frees them from slavery in Egypt and then through Moses introduces the Old Covenant which we read about in today’s passage from Jeremiah.

The Old Covenant was basically a two way agreement between God and the children of Israel. 

God gave Israel 603 laws to obey, plus the Ten Commandments, with the promise that if they kept these laws they would be blessed but if they broke them things would go badly.

These laws are recorded in the Torah – the first 5 books of the bible and broadly they covered Israel’s relationship with God and the relationship between people.

The law covered every aspect of Israel’s life from what they should eat and wear, to sexual relationships, debt, hygiene, and justice. The part of the law that related to worshipping God particularly enshrined the idea of sacrifice.

In order for people to be cleansed from their sins animals were sacrificed and their blood was used to make things clean.

The Old Covenant and the Law of Moses enshrined in Jewish thinking what pleased God and what displeased Him. It emphasised the need for sacrifice to atone for sin and it was a major part of the preparation of the Jewish people to one day receive their Messiah.

There was a problem with the Old Covenant though, and this was that the law itself was unable to make people righteous. It could point them towards the behaviour that God expected but it had no power to enable people to obey it.

The law was designed to show Israel how God wanted them to live but the Children of Israel consistently broke God’s law. They intermarried with neighbouring people, forgot God and worshipped idols, and as a result God allowed them to be defeated by their enemies.

As Jeremiah says in this passage, God was a faithful husband to his side of the Covenant but the children of Israel were consistently unfaithful to their side of the Covenant.

God sent various prophets to warn the people that judgement would come if they didn’t repent and remember the Covenant but frequently Israel ignored the warnings and ended up being defeated by enemies.

They’d then reflect on their waywardness and cry out to God in repentance. God would then restore their fortunes and then when things were going well they’d start to go astray all over again, and the cycle was repeated.

One of the lowest points in Israel’s history came at around the time that Jeremiah wrote today’s Old Testament passage.

Jeremiah had prophesied that because Israel had been consistently unfaithful to God they would be overthrown by the Babylonians, and in 587BC Israel was indeed overthrown and the Babylonians destroyed the temple in Jerusalem.

Some of you may remember the Boney M song By the Rivers of Babylon which is based on Psalm 137 and which is about the Jews in exile in Babylon.

Anyway having made this prophecy about the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in the chapters before today’s passage, Jeremiah has some good news for Israel. God is going to make a New Covenant with them

And it won’t be like the Old One with its shortcomings.

This time God’s law will be written on their hearts and each person will know God for themselves.

Under the Old Covenant there was always a certain distance between the presence of God and his people.

God’s presence lived in the temple in a place called the Holy of Holies. Only the High Priest was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies and come into the presence of God, once a year.

He could only do this after having made extensive animal sacrifices to atone for his own sins and the sins of the people, and sprinkling just about everything with blood.

And the Holy of Holies itself was hidden from people’s view by a curtain, so the Jewish people had to look on from afar.

However under the New Covenant God himself, in the person of the Holy Spirit will come to live within the Christian believer and as Jeremiah says, write his laws on their heart, and forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.

There won’t be any need for the complex temple sacrificial rituals any more because Christian believers themselves will become temples of the Holy Spirit.

This is why the curtain in the temple hiding the Holy of Holies from view was torn in two when Jesus died on the cross.

The curtain that separated people from God’s presence was done away with.

And it was at this point that the Old Covenant became obsolete as the writer to the Hebrews puts it.

Access into God’s presence became available to all who put their faith in Jesus’ sacrifice of himself on the cross.

As the writer to the Hebrews says; Therefore brothers and sisters, we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body.”

Under the New Covenant, through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and the blood that he spilt for us, we are made clean in God’s sight as we put our faith in Him.

If you’re a Christian sitting here today, know that the Holy One of Israel lives within you by His spirit so how can you think you are not holy?

As a Christian you carry God’s presence within your heart wherever you go.

Under the Old Covenant anyone who tried to get near the Holy of Holies without the necessary sacrifices would have died immediately.

But if you are a Christian who has put your faith in Jesus, his blood has made you clean and the evidence of that is the fact that God’s spirit is living in you.

If your iniquity had not been forgiven God would not be living in you now.

So rejoice because God has blessed and saved you. You are accepted by him.

And realise that God’s presence is here today – it is within us and among us.

The Old Covenant was a two sided deal based on how well the Children of Israel managed to keep God’s law, and as I’ve said by and large they failed spectacularly.

But the New Covenant is based on what God has done for us in Jesus. Jesus lead a perfect life and fulfilled the Law of Moses and the Old Covenant perfectly. He did for us what we could never do ourselves.

Where we sinned and fell short – he measured up.

As we put our faith in Him, under the New Covenant, God no longer sees us in the light of our failure but in the light of what Jesus has accomplished for us.

Our failure to reach the holy standard God requires is no longer held against us, because God remembers instead his son’s perfect sacrifice on our behalf.

As Jeremiah says “I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.”

So the new Covenant is based on the One in whom we believe – Jesus Christ – the promised Messiah and Saviour, and what he has done.

Our part in the new Covenant is simply to believe and put our faith and trust in what Jesus did for us on the cross.

As Jesus himself puts it in John’s gospel, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."

Isn’t that amazing – all God’s asks of us to enter into the new Covenant is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is why Paul says to the jailer in Acts chapter 16 when he asks him what he must do to be saved –

“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved – you and your household.”

Of course lots of Christians don’t like this. They want it to be harder – more difficult. They want to earn their salvation – to measure up in some way – to deserve it – to strive for it.

But this is not God’s way.

We can never earn the right or deserve to be saved. We can never be good enough as a result of our own efforts.

Our salvation is entirely down to what Jesus has accomplished for us on the cross.

All we can do is to gratefully accept it and then in gratitude to God for what he has done for us 

seek to live in a way that is pleasing to Him.

Of course like the children of Israel we can start to go astray and we will find that just as their lives got more difficult- so will ours.

The bible makes it quite clear that we will reap what we sow and that God will discipline those of his children who go astray.

Just as a loving parent will discipline his own child – so God will discipline us to bring us back on track.

But when we truly recognise the love God has for us and the gift of salvation that we can receive under the New Covenant our desire is to love God and to reach out to others.

The Old Covenant was for the Jews but the New Covenant is for all people – and that includes you sitting here today.

Do you want your sins forgiven and forgotten? Do you want to be pardoned? Do you want the assurance that God has accepted you because His spirit lives within you? Do you want to know God?

If you do, the work God requires of you is to believe in the one he has sent - the Lord Jesus Christ

Let’s pray

If you would like to come under the New Covenant first of all ask God’s forgiveness for those things you’ve done wrong in your life – however seemingly bad they may be.

Now thank Jesus for dying for you on the cross so you can be forgiven and made clean.

And finally in your own words invite God into your life so that you may know Him personally. 

Amen.

Luke 6; 27 to 38 and James 1; 19 to 27

Most people tend to think of Lent as a time for giving something up but it is a season - more helpfully understood - of taking something up to improve our spiritual relationship with God and with our neighbour.

So today I’d like to suggest a few things that perhaps we can take up this Lent to develop our relationship with God and to actively love and serve those around us.

Firstly, do you have a regular quiet time with God – a time you can spend talking to him about your life and concerns but also most importantly a time when you can lift your friends and neighbours to God in prayer?

A quiet time can be at any time and in any place. Some people prefer mornings some evenings. The important thing is that it should be regular.

If you are going to be a fruitful Christian the fruit in your life will grow out of the soil of your relationship with God.

The deeper the soil – the relationship – the more fruitful you will be and it’s very difficult to have a relationship with God if you don’t spend time talking to him regularly.

So this Lent if you’re not already doing so – how about putting aside time each day to spend alone with your Heavenly Father?

My next Lenten suggestion is getting into the habit of reading the bible.

Campbell told me when we preparing this service that the Bible Society's slogan is 'The world's best seller: worth knowing, worth sharing, worth living'?

If you are going to be a fruitful Christian, you need to know what the bible says. You need to be able to tell others about Jesus and you need to be able to answer questions they may have from a biblical perspective.

You also need to know how to live and behave as a Christian – what your Heavenly Father expects you.

There are lots of bible reading aids available from Christian bookshops – booklets like Daily Bread and Everyday with Jesus. These give a daily bible passage to read with a short Commentary.

They normally cover a month or two of readings at a time and cost very little.

There are also specific booklets for teenagers and young people.

I’ve got a couple of examples here which you might like to look at later.

This Lent if you’re bible reading is sporadic or non existent why not go to a Christian bookshop and buy a daily bible reading aid – or take one of these?

Lots of Christians use these booklets as a part of their quiet time, so you could kill two birds with one stone and combine the two.

Giving is a vital part of how the Christian Church survives and functions in this country. Most Christian organisations including this Church rely to a large degree on donations.

The bible encourages us to give generously where we see a need.

I have no idea what your giving is like but if you want to love God and your neighbour, part of the expression of that love should be regular giving, particulalry to Churches and Christian organisations that you feel are doing worthwhile work.

Perhaps this Lent would be a good time to review your giving.

When Jesus called you to be a Christian he called you to bear fruit, to show his love and to serve those around you.

Church going shouldn’t be about passive attendance but rather active service.

Both of today’s passages encourage us to share our faith and love those around us in practical ways.

So another question I’d like you to reflect on this Lent is - what are you doing to love and serve others?

There are lots of things that need to be done for a Church to function effectively and there is a role for you to play in this.

For instance virtually every week Campbell mentions that we need helpers for the Creche. 

This is a chance to serve by giving your time to enable a harassed parent to enjoy a service in relative peace.

There are plenty of other opportunities for service. Perhaps you could help out with the children’s groups and give some time to helping children and young people learn about the Christian faith.

Perhaps your interest is more with helping the elderly. I’m sure Campbell could suggest some ways of helping elderly people in the community.

What is your area of interest ? Who has God placed on your heart to love and serve?

Perhaps your interest lies further afield.

Perhaps you have a heart for Africa, or Persecuted Christians, or Israel, or the homeless, or those with addictions.

I work with a guy who has a heart for Africa. In his spare time he works as a collector for an Organisation called Tools with a Mission who collect unwanted tools, computers, bicyles and type writers, which they send to people in Africa to enable them to earn a living.

There are literally thousands of Christian organisations serving and working with all manner of people and causes.

This Lent why not try and find some area of service you can get involved with – whether it is here at Brenchley or for some other local or national Christian organisation that operates in an area with which you empathise.

If you’re at school – why not join the Christian union or group if there is one. If you’ve joined already – perhaps encourage your friends to come along.

Perhaps you’re more interested in book keeping or administration, which again Christian organisations can’t function without.

Perhaps you have a gift for hospitality and making others feel welcome. If so, maybe you could host a housegroup and help to create an atmosphere where people feel comfortable enough to learn more about their faith.

Alternately if you feel you lack confidence or skills, perhaps a course of study would help you develop and grow as a Christian.

There are literally dozens of courses you can do. Rochester Diocese offers various courses and numerous Training Days for a wide range of Christian vocations.

Several Christian organisations also offer courses or one off training events – which can help to give you the confidence to become more active as a Christian.

If a course isn’t your thing, Christian bookshops stock a wide range of teaching materials including books, CD’s and videos.

I remember when I first became a Christian I knew very little about Christianity or the bible.

I was fortunate to come across a series of tapes by a bible teacher called Roger Price which really built a foundation in my life for starting to understand the bible.

Perhaps if you’d like to understand the bible better, you could buy some books or CD’s to help you. The staff in Christian bookshops are normally very helpful and can point you towards something suitable.

So Lent can be about giving up something –which you may need to do if you are walking step by step towards some addiction or other unhealthy practise.

But rather than giving something up why not take something up to improve and develop your relationship with God and to serve and love your neighbour.

I chose today’s gospel reading partly because Jesus says in verse 38; “give and it will be given to you...for the measure you give will be the measure you get back."

 Think of a big pot containing soup or something, with a ladle in. Well think of a similar pot containing Christian blessings.

What size ladle are you using to pour blessings into the lives of those around you?

Well God will use the same size ladle to pour blessings into your life.

God’s kingdom has certain principles and one of them is that as you give out, so you receive back.

As blessings flow out of your life towards others, so blessing will flow into your life.

So this Lent why not take a step towards deepening your relationship with God and seeking to serve and love those around you. If you do, you’ll be blessed.

First Sunday in Lent Mark Ch 1 verses 9 – 15

St. Mark, in our Gospel reading this morning, mentions only briefly Jesus’ time of preparation in the desert following his anointing by the Holy Spirit and the beginning of his public ministry. Jesus begins with the words you see there in v15 ‘The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.’  Mark has just described this good news in v14 as ‘the good news of God’: it is Jesus, Mark is saying, who is the one who bears it. And this good news, says Jesus, has ‘come near’: a somewhat puzzling phrase, it is Jesus’ indirect but enticing way of saying that he is the one through whom this good news of God is to be discovered. And the rest of Mark’s Gospel is about people  - of all sorts, sometimes the most unlikely candidates, at least in the eyes of the religiously and socially acceptable – ‘coming near’ to Jesus and discovering in him, in his ministry and in his teaching, that God must be working in him in some amazing if as yet incomprehensible way.

So I would like on this first Sunday in Lent just to refresh our memories of the meaning and significance of Jesus’ proclamation here in v15; and then to ask ourselves what this might mean for Christians today in a society that, increasingly, sees neither any ‘good news’ about Jesus, nor any need for him anymore, and most certainly sees no need to ‘repent’.

For his first listeners, the term ‘ God’s good news’ would have conjured up in their minds the twin ideas of rescue and kingship: this was to be the happy ending of their story, the story of the Jewish people, that God would one day return as their rescuer and reigning King. Obviously there were many ideas about how this might come about; and they were largely about the exercise of force and in triumph. But they were all going to be in for a big surprise: their God was going to act not with force and in triumph as the world understands these things but in humility and in grace in order to win people back to him.

‘The time is fulfilled’, says Jesus – it’s what you have been waiting for: the time when God himself would take charge has arrived. This story, this hope of rescue and reign, had sustained the Israelites for 100s of years; it was the story Jesus grew up with; and here he arrives saying that the time, the long awaited time of rescue and of God’s kingly reign, is ‘fulfilled’.  And then he begins, through the chapters of Mark’s gospel to prove it, to ‘come near ’, that is to say God’s kingdom will be discovered in Jesus, in his ministry, in his teaching, in his claims about himself. But they would all be in for a big surprise.

Interestingly - and important for us to understand about the nature of God’s kingdom - is that Jesus’ frequent feastings with people (especially, as we know he was accused of, with society’s dregs and pariahs) were as much ‘signs’ of the kingdom as were his healings: this was part of what it meant for God to become King in the lives of ordinary people. It is as if he were saying in all this, ‘I know life is awful but you are looking for your answers and solutions in the wrong places. You must start by being with me, watching and learning, enjoying my company – and, we would have to add, those people whose company I enjoy but whom you treat as outcasts. But also – and here lies the stumbling block for many, as it always has been -  you will not be able to enjoy, let alone properly appreciate, God’s rescue and rule unless, v15, you ‘repent and believe’. As someone once said, ‘The biggest problem in life you will ever have to deal with stares out at you from the mirror every morning’. And that is why we must repent if we want to be members of God’s kingdom.

So, some action is required by us if we are to participate, to enjoy, the perfect rule of God in our lives; a rule which can set us free from all those things of which we are either rightly ashamed or jolly well ought to be; a freedom we all need – and, especially perhaps, those who think they don’t. 

The ‘Commission for truth and reconciliation in south Africa’ had this slogan.     ‘No future without forgiveness’.  So often we have to start by allowing God to forgive us and by forgiving ourselves, not just other people, if we want to make any progress in the Christian life: we must not let either our shame or our pride prevent us from this vital step. Jesus is always on hand to help: we just have to ‘ask and obey’ as the old hymn goes, ‘cause there’s no other way’. Don’t fight it – ‘let go and let God.’

As you have heard me say on many previous occasions, Christianity is counter-cultural; it is not what everyone wants to hear. Jesus challenged and offended; He upset the apple cart of the status quo; He welcomed legitimate enemies -this good news was for them too! Jesus’ ministry was a poke in the eye to the religious leaders, the social elites, and the politicians; no wonder they wanted to do away with him for a whole host of reasons.

I’m sure I’ve said before that the biggest problem people have with the Gospel is not an intellectual one but the moral one: the one that asks them, challenges them, to this act or action of repentance. Indeed, I would go far as to say that a person cannot understand – however intellectually gifted they are -God’s ‘good news’  unless they are willing to repent, to ask God’s forgiveness and to be willing to forgive others. They cannot. Instead, without this willingness to be forgiven and to forgive, what they believe, what they think is the Christian religion turns out to be little more than an imaginative construct of their own particular social, political, and other personal prejudices,  which usually manifest themselves in quite strong emotionally charged arguments against the plain teaching of Scripture, with debilitating and dangerous consequences for their understanding of Jesus’ teaching, for their understanding of who Jesus was, and for the nature and meaning of his death and resurrection.

This is particularly evident in many comments I come across in the church and the world from people on moral issues today. And I am delighted and encouraged to find myself batting here on the same side as the Chief RABBI even if, at the same time, I find myself facing googlies and dousras from some in the house of bishops. .. but that is the church of England for you today!

The Chief Rabbi, in his refreshingly clear and simple way, explains that we cannot construct the moral life on the two simple popular and vote-catching principles of FAIRNESS and THE AVOIDANCE OF HARM. Life is just not that simple. Our natural British tolerance prefers such a ‘live and let live’ approach to morality, but, as he says, there is more to morality than being nice to people, especially when the tolerating of or indulging of other peoples’ preferences leads to their own diminishment as human beings made in the image of God or, worse still, to the diminishment and even death of others.  The individualistic supermarket approach to morality sounds great but of course inevitably fails because it is just that -individualistic and supermarket. It has no coherence to offer society, no framework for a stable and healthy environment in which all can grow to maturity in love.

So much of what we term today ‘freedom of choice’ is in fact, in practice, and in consequence just an excuse to enslave and ruin the lives of others, especially the weak, the helpless, the impressionable, and the vulnerable.

What is so harrowingly frightening about what is regarded as morally acceptable today is the refusal by ordinary, everyday, decent people and even Christians to act as ‘neighbours’ and to intervene, albeit to their cost. Hard cases make bad law; and when, out of a misguided sense of sympathy for those whom we know or like, we create, by default, by naivety or disingenuousness, a living hell for others, we become responsible. To say that I am not my brother’s keeper or that another person’s moral or religious preference is no concern of mine is no argument in the court of God’s love for all. It may be very British; it may make us popular; but it is something this Lent of which we need to repent. Ignorance is no excuse, whether ignorance of Jesus’ teaching or of the facts and consequences surrounding the popular moral imperatives that run counter to the law of love; the law of love, that is, as defined not by modern secular liberal atheists but by the two great commandments.

Lent is a time to sobre up and toughen up spiritually and morally. If this means that we have to do some honest and painstaking research into some of the moral mazes we face at the moment, then so be it. For such research there are, for the Christian at any rate, but two fundamental guides, two guides by which the integrity, the authenticity, and the health, both individually and socially, of claims within these moral mazes may be judged...and these are, as I have said, the two great commandments. Leave these out of the discussion and our answers will be informed by all those popular but unreliable moral guides that, as the Chief Rabbi so convincingly argues, are failing and, in many cases, destroying family, 

marriage, and the sanctity of life.

The Christian faith once rescued an empire from the destructive depravity of a self-indulgent moral and religious supermarket that thrived on fear, fatalism, and the ultimate futility of human life. Christianity brought the ‘good news’ of the kingdom of God in which love cast out fear, the sure hope of eternal life replaced fatalism, and where every human being, even one’s enemies, were to be seen  as made in God’s image, and therefore valued as equals before him: this is the very heritage that is under attack from the more popular canons of atheist science, of individualism, and of secular libertarianism.

We need to use this season of Lent to refresh our knowledge and love of God and of his Son Jesus Christ, and to make Him ‘Lord’ of our thinking. If we do this honestly and faithfully I will be astonished if we do not find a number of contemporary moral issues that we will be led to view in a very different light and indeed need to repent of if we want to be faithful disciples and active participants and effective, fruitful disciples in the Kingdom of God today.  

St. Paul’s letter to Titus Chapter 3 Verses 8 –end.

If you have been with us over the last few weeks you will know that St. Paul, in this letter of his to Titus – you can catch up on previous talks on our website; the web address is on your notice sheet - has been keen to stress the vital importance of correct belief and correct behaviour in the followers of Jesus. We arrive now at the end of the letter with Paul emphasising the importance of Christians not only believing and behaving as we ought - as those redeemed through faith by the mercy and grace of God demonstrated in the cross - but also being pro-active in good works. Such good works are the fruit of genuine conversion: we demonstrate our faith in God and our love for him best in what we do for others. If we call ourselves Christians and are not engaged in some form of charitable work or other, in something that we do for others without thought of personal gain, then this does raise a question mark over the authenticity, the genuineness, of our faith.

Just to bring you up to speed briefly: at Cafe Church a fortnight ago we discovered two very important reasons why Christians are to set an example in the way that we live and how we treat other people: it not only shows the genuineness of our faith and so honours God and what he has done for us in Jesus, it also acts as an invitation or challenge to those people who do not yet know Jesus; a challenge to question themselves about their own life and lifestyle and, we hope, to ask questions about what it is – or rather who it is – motivates you and me to make a discernible difference in our lives and lifestyle. Last week, in his talk on the verses immediately before this morning’s, verses 5,6, and 7, the truth of which Paul says here in verse 8 is ‘sure’ (or ‘trustworthy’ is another translation), Joe reminded us that ‘READ VERSES.’ This then is the motive, the reason, the joy - I hope we want to say! - that inspires us to obey the two great commandments. 

But it is something that will not make us popular with everyone when we do.

Christianity, when faithfully practised, has always been to some degree or other ‘counter-cultural’; that is to say there have always been aspects of any culture that is based not upon what God has revealed to us to be right and proper, good and healthy, for human beings and for society, that have needed to be challenged if we are to be faithful to him and to our calling as Christians. This is not always easy to do and never has been. 

Why? Well because antagonism and opposition from personal pride and social custom - not to mention commercial or financial interests! - have always been forces to be reckoned with.

Christians in the first three hundred years after the death of Jesus were actually referred to by pagan Roman writers as ‘atheists’ and often persecuted terribly because they refused to kow-tow to the authority of the pagan gods and in particular the cult of the emperor-god, with all the cultural baggage that went with that. 

They did so because of Jesus; because they knew, and were living their lives with, the one true God who had died for them, who had been raised from death, and who was now a present reality in their lives, and not just a convenient or profitable cultural superstition.  And this antagonism and opposition to Christians was not so much on account of what they believed but on account of what they did, on account of how they lived, which was not only for themselves but for others. The coming of Christianity revolutionised the way people thought about what it meant to be human, what true community is like, how the world is – spiritually, philosophically and scientifically. Above all in the living of their lives was the obligation of charity; and this was not popular with all. Here’s Julian the Apostate, the third emperor after Constantine, who tried to stem the tide of Christianity and return his empire to paganism, writing to one of his high priests. ‘The ‘Galilaeans’ – to our disgrace – support not only their poor but ours also; yet we give not even to our own’. And very interestingly, he adds, ‘We must teach our fellow Hellenes (pagans) how to serve others willingly and unstintingly.’

You see, in an empire where the majority of people were slaves, where life was cheap and short for most, where indulgence for the rich was the norm, and where fear of the gods and death combined to produce some very unhealthy social practices, Christian charity and love for your enemies were viewed not only as bizarre religious novelties but also as a threat to the status quo. But can you really ‘teach’ charity, this new religious obligation, without the motivation of genuine love for your neighbour, whoever that may be? And how can we genuinely love our neighbour – put ourselves out, that is, even for our enemies or to the cost of our own lives, if we do not love God? And how can we genuinely love God unless we are sure in our hearts that through faith in Christ we have been saved? I am not trying to be deliberately rude to anyone here; I include myself. I know what I was like before I acknowledged Jesus as my Saviour and Lord, and I am quite sure that I was in much worse a spiritual and moral condition when Jesus found me than any of you lovely people here ever were!   But if you think Paul is overstating the case, just take a look at what Jesus says about human nature in the Sermon on the Mount, that much quoted but much misunderstood central piece of teaching of his!

Being completely honest about our spiritual and moral condition is the first step to progress in the Christian life; and it is only pride that prevents our progress. I remember a man who once said to me when studying this letter, ’Campbell, I was all those things St. Paul says: to my mind and in the minds of others I was a pillar of moral rectitude; but people were confusing the veneer of social respectability with spiritual integrity; and, ashamed as I am to admit it, I was quite happy colluding in the deception.’ 

 Personally, I know there is a lot of room for improvement in me; but at least I now know Jesus and, more importantly, want to become more like Him. I trip myself up constantly; I let him down; but I know that without his help and presence I would have been lost to God forever - not because God did not love me but because I did not know and love God. And this ‘knowing’ has to be an ongoing enterprise lest the ‘world, the flesh, and the Devil’- always a real threat! – gain a foothold. We need to pray – as we do every Sunday morning at the 8a.m. service, that ‘the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, may keep our hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God, and of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.’

Do you see the connection made there in verse 8? Paul tells Titus to ‘insist’ in his teaching of the saving grace of God (just spelt out in verses 5,6, and 7) so that ‘those who have come to believe in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works’: these were not optional extras for Jesus; nor were they for Paul: rather, they are ‘excellent and profitable’, that is, they show that we are taking the two great commandments seriously. And then, having urged Titus to avoid the causes of ‘unprofitable and worthless’ divisions, verses 9 and 10, he again tells Titus, verse 14, to encourage the people to ‘devote themselves’ specifically in this instance, to ‘meet urgent needs’. So what Paul is saying here is that you and I are to be ‘productive’ in good works, demonstrating our love for God, the fruit of our belief, in what we do, selflessly, for others. And ‘devotion’ is the word he uses.   It was this selfless and willing acceptance of the obligation – we could say the ‘rule’, of charity, this new creed, that won the first Christians the renown which, slowly but surely, revolutionised and transformed an empire. I hope that we can all see the difference between the doing of good works out of love for God, and the doing of good works in order to win his favour or the favour of our peers: the motivation is completely different. I would like to end by saying just two more things about the place or role of good works or ‘charity’ in our lives, at least one of which is somewhat contentious – but then that won’t surprise you, I know!

First, it is so much easier doing our good works with Jesus rather than without him. By this I mean that not just any old good works are appropriate for the Christian. We Christians may of course do our charity in many spheres – our place is in the world as salt and light for it; but we should always endeavour to check with Jesus, through prayer, that we are in the place and doing the good works he wants us to be and to be doing. 

This is why it is important to pray about these things before we rush into them. And I would add that if there is Christian work that still needs to be done, then we ought to be praying about and prioritising this rather than just following our feelings or the fancies of others. And secondly, but related to my first point: it is true that a person does not need a religion or an ethical theory to be an upright person: but, in my experience, when it comes to caring for those who inhabit that socially and physically unpleasant world of the dregs of society, or for the disabled, or for the forsaken or those who consider almost everyone their enemy, the ranks of the godless tend to thin out markedly. Yes, there are some glowing exceptions; but the sheer numbers speak volumes. Fashionable charitable work is one thing: being where our Lord wants us may be another thing entirely.

If the Churches did not give the level of aid they do today, literally millions would go unfed, unsheltered, uneducated. And as one Jewish surgeon said to me, ’If the Christian doctors, nurses, and care-workers in the NHS were to strike because they were no longer allowed to pray for people or wear their crosses, the whole organisation would collapse overnight.’      

So let me leave you with this question. Given present needs but also the present antagonism to much Christian work and witness in society today, what does it mean to be ‘productive in good works’? What is required of us today?