Acts Chapter 18 verses 1 – 11

As we continue our voyage through the Book of Acts, we come to chapter 18 and Paul’s arrival in 50 AD in the city of Corinth, some 50 miles South West of Athens from whence he had just come. It was a very cosmopolitan centre of commerce and it had a terrible reputation. It was Julius Caesar who had founded it as a Roman colony in 46 BC for its strategic merits; and from that time it had began to grow. It was a now real hotchpotch of entrepreneurs, ex-Roman soldiers, merchants, sailors, slaves, and agents of every – and I mean every - form of vice. It was a rough, tough place and a byword in the empire for debauchery. It is not surprising then that in his first letter to the Corinthians (I Cor 2:3) written around 54AD, Paul talks of his arrival there ‘in much fear and trembling’. Nevertheless, Paul knew that if the love of Jesus Christ could actually take root in Corinth of all places, the most populated, wealthy, commercial-minded and sex-obsessed city of eastern Europe, it must prove powerful anywhere.

And that‘s the reason, whatever else you may hear from other pulpits or in the media, why I do not believe that we should give up on the generation we have been given to introduce to Jesus, or change or waterdown his Good News just because his message seems to many people today to be so strange, and increasingly so socially and morally unconventional. This is the problem when a generation or more of Christianity has been effectively lost, discarded, undermined by so-called ‘new’ cultural, social, and moral mores that have blinded people not only to the truth of Jesus and his love for them but also to the unpalatable truth about themselves and about their love of themselves. Jesus came to liberate people from their destructive preoccupation with themselves and with the various little gods that control their lives and lead them into the slavery to all kinds of ambitions and attitudes that are destructive of self, of others, of community. And we must not kid ourselves that just because we happen to have a circle of nice friends or that what we see on the TV sometimes are just ‘the exaggerations of a minority’: just talk to Mike, our youthworker, or to Rachel, our Headteacher about the kind of attitudes and outlook they encounter in their work. No, this generation desperately needs the Good News of Jesus; and he has called you and me to share it with them lest we drift slowly but surely back into a Corinthian-style society. It’s no good just complaining that the country is going to the dogs morally and socially: we need to stay faithful to Jesus and to act!

Compared with his rough treatment at the hands of the Macedonians, especially at Philippi, Paul had a relatively straightforward time in Athens – the usual combination of mockery and interest, but sadly not many believers that time. At least the church was founded there. He arrives now in Corinth probably feeling weak in every way – physically battered, emotionally deprived of the partnership of Silas and Timothy, and naturally in some fear at the prospect of coming face to face with ‘the city of love’. But as we see in our passage today, God is faithful to those who serve him, providing the support and encouragement he needs.                                                                                First, Paul encounters the warm welcome of Aquilla and Priscilla; then Silas and Timothy turn up; then, when he storms out of the synagogue, he is welcomed to base his ministry right next door; and then Crispus and v8 ‘many of the Corinthians who heard Paul became believers and were baptised’. Not only can Paul see things working in his favour now, reassuring him that he is in the right place, but God himself also confirms  these encouraging developments by reassuring him in a dream that  v10 (Read).

Now it is perhaps easy for us to say to ourselves today, ‘Well, that’s a lovely story; but what relevance is it to me today. I don’t see these things happening in my life and I certainly don’t get dreams from God? ‘ Well I think there are one or two things here that we need to recognise and to ask of ourselves.

First, this burgeoning team and the work around Paul is being blessed by God because it is his work, it is the work of the Gospel, and it is about their being open, willing, and obedient. The Church often and still today can easily get side-tracked into what I call ‘churchy matters, church business, church activities, that often have little to do with our first calling and responsibility - which is to proclaim the love and the truth of Jesus to the generation in which we live. Unless this is our first priority as a church, we cannot expect God to bless and prosper activities or business that detracts from this calling. For different churches, this can mean different things: what each church and each individual member needs to ask themself is this: where do our, where do my, priorities lie, and am I giving my time to the things that really matter to God – not just to me, and how I like to ‘do church’?  All I would say here is that if we open our eyes to what God is already doing around us in regard to establishing and furthering his kingdom, and if we open our minds and our hearts to what he is saying to us – or trying to say through us the competition from elsewhere! - then he will let us know where he want us and what he really wants us to be volunteering for. And another important thing: whilst churches can be sources of comfort, consolation, and community in themselves – because the world so often does not offer these, the strongest, most genuine, liberating and fulfilling Christian relationships are those – like that of Paul, Aqilla, Priscilla, Silas, Timothy, and Crispus, that are lived out together in responding to our calling to share Jesus with others.

It is very pertinent in respect to note in our own day the reasons why many churches have closed though lack of numbers (over 450 Anglican churches in England in the past 5 years!) whilst hundreds more have opened in England in the same period. A very simple comparison demonstrates that the closed ones by and large had not made the sharing of the Gospel their priority. 

(The fact is you can never have enough jumble sales or flower festivals or concerts to keep a church open. Why? Well because churches need members, and members are people, and people become Christians - as opposed to churchgoers - not for sales or shows or concerts but through receiving the Gospel. And that is why so many more churches are opening and growing in England; because those Christians are prioritising their first calling in the life of their church.)

Secondly, we need to ask ourselves some questions about this young church in Corinth that Paul founded and, in the 18 months he was with them, began to grow? Was it a fellowship of superheros? Was it a model Christian maturity? No! Quite the opposite, as Paul’s letters reveal.

It was a large church. But it was full of cliques, each following a different personality. Many Christians were very snobbish: at fellowship meals the rich kept to themselves and the poor were left alone. There was very little church discipline: a lot of laxity was allowed, both in morals and doctrine – an all too common combination experience strongly suggests. They were unwilling to submit to authority of any kind and the integrity of Paul’s own apostleship was frequently questioned. There was a distinct lack of humility and of consideration for others, some being prepared to take fellow believers to court, and some celebrating their new freedom in the most selfish of ways. They seem to have been very keen on the more dramatic gifts of the Spirit and were short on love rooted in the truth.                                         

The picture Paul paints is of a far from perfect church, which is why of course he had to write his letters of which we know, from the two letters we possess, that there must have been at least 4 and not just the 2. But what Paul discovered in Corinth was not only that God supported those who were faithful to their calling but also that he was willing to work with the dregs – those who, in the world’s eyes anyway, had little to offer. Paul discovered that God can work most effectively through the weak when they allow him to do so. Indeed God actually chooses to do so in order to humble or ‘shame’ the proud. You see, money, education, success in life, pride in our ourselves can so easily become stumbling blocks to humility and to service if we reckon them to be our achievements rather than God’s gifts. So in spite of all their shortcomings, shortcomings Paul has to write to them about and reprimand them about, he still loves them and wants them to continue into maturity, a path that can only be taken in humility. Paul is wonderstruck by the grace that God has given to this very rum bunch: he has no blindspots when it comes to recognising their weaknesses; but he knows, from great personal experience, just what God can do in the humble and faithful. Read Chapter 1 of his first Letter and you will see exactly what I mean.  

So, to sum up some lessons for us from this passage:                                               

First, the primary calling of Christians and the work in which we will discover both the faithfulness and grace of God and the joy and encouragement of real relationships with our fellow Christians is in the sharing of the Gospel with this generation. That Gospel does not need to be changed or watered down to fit in with the latest world views and people will find it challenging. 

Secondly, whoever we are and whatever our credentials or lack of them, God can and wants to use each one of us in the service of the Gospel. We just need to open our eyes, our minds, and our hearts to what he is already doing, and then humbly offer ourselves in his service. 

And thirdly, God will provide. He will provide whatever it is we may lack. 

Sometimes this will mean that we have to set aside what we think are strengths because they are in fact weaknesses that actually inhibit our effectiveness as disciples.

Here is a verse for us all to take to heart and to put into practice    I Cor 15: 58

Prayers 260114

Pray for Syria  26/01/2014

In July, a Catholic priest was executed by Islamist forces and in August, rebel gunmen killed 11 Christians in a driveby shooting as they celebrated a feast day. More recently, reports are emerging of 30 dead bodies being found in mass graves in the Christian city of Sadaad after forces from jihadist group al-Nusra invaded the town in October. The victims included the elderly, disabled, women and children who could not escape as these forces arrived. Many were tortured. In addition, the remains of six members of the same family, including a 90-year-old grandmother, were reportedly found in a well. The incident has been described as the "most serious and biggest massacre of Christians" since the conflict began in March 2011.

This week, please pray for Syria:

Pray for the families and friends of those killed in the city of Sadaad, that they would be comforted;

Ask God to comfort and strengthen Christians and other religious or ethnic minorities who remain in Syria;

Pray for the safety of those who have been abducted and kidnapped, and for their families;

Pray that sufficient humanitarian aid would quickly reach both internally displaced persons and refugees;

Pray that the various warring factions would embrace reconciliation;

Pray for wisdom for the international community as it responds to the humanitarian and security crisis the war has caused;

Pray for the peace talks, an end to the civil war, a restoration of peace, and the healing of the nation.

AND A WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT FROM C.S. LEWIS

‘Training the Habit of Faith’

Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has onceaccepted, inspite of your changing moods. For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes. We know that by experience. Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable : but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable. This rebellion of your moods against your real self is going to come anyway. That is why faith is such a necessary virtue : unless you teach your moods ‘where to get off’, you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion. Consequently one must train the habit of faith. The first step is to recognise the facts that your moods change. The next step is to make sure that, if you have once accepted Christianity, then some of its main doctrines shall be deliberately held before your mind for some time every day. That is why daily prayers and bible study, religious readings, and churchgoing are necessary parts of the Christian life. We have to be continually reminded of what we believe. Neither this belief nor any other will automatically remain alive in the mind. It must be fed. And as a matter of fact, if you examined a hundred people who had lost their faith in Christianity, I wonder how many of them would turn out to have been reasoned out of it by honest argument ? Do not most people simply drift away ?

STUDY QUESTIONS FOR ACTS 17 : 1 – 9

1. Read Paul’s two short letters to the Thessalonians which he wrote - the first not very long after he had left them – to encourage them. They give us a good insight into the life of the church in Thessalonica.

2. Why was it (v3) ’necessary for the Messiah to suffer and to rise from the dead’ ? And why both – (clue)Good Friday and Easter Day?

3. Why was a crucified Messiah a stumbling-block to the Jews ?

4. Why is a crucified Jesus for some a stumbling-block to belief today ?

5. Why is the fact of the historical resurrection of Jesus so important for the truth of Christianity ?

6. Why do you think some of the Jews ‘became jealous’ (v5) ? Of what ?

7. What does their ‘jealously’ and their readiness to employ the ‘ruffians’ suggest to you about their religion ?

9. In what way were Christians (v6) ‘turning the world upside down’ and why were the city officials ‘disturbed’  (v8)?

10. What impression do Acts and 1&2 Thessalonians give you of the church and Christians at Thessalonica ? Is all there perfect ? Why do you think the letters became part of the New Testament ?

A Christian Society is not going to arrive until most of us really want it : and we are not going to want it until we become fully Christian. I may repeat, ‘Do as you would be done by’….but I cannot really carry it out untill I love my neighbour as myself : and I cannot learn to love my neighbour as myself until I learn to love God : and I cannot learn to love God except by learning to obey him.

C.S.Lewis

Acts Chapter 17 verses 1 – 9 Paul and Silas reach Thessalonica

Acts Chapter 17 verses 1 – 9      Paul and Silas reach Thessalonica

‘These people have been turning the world upside down’. This was the claim of those who dragged poor Jason and some other believers before the city authorities, as we learn in our passage from the Book of Acts today. And of course they were absolutely right in what they claimed - even if they did not fully appreciate the extent to which the Christian Gospel, when taken seriously and practised faithfully, really can and does ‘turn the world upside down’.            This it does in a number of hugely significant ways; transforming individuals, families, communities in a way which, when taken seriously and practised faithfully, can create the kind of characters and relationships and communities Jesus spoke of in his teaching about the Kingdom of God. Where the principles of God’s kingdom – principles that can only operate where the King is both welcome and obeyed – are allowed to operate in the world, then so much that rules in the world is indeed turned upside down – or to put it better perhaps ‘the right way up’.

But to many this poses a threat. It poses a very real threat to those interests that are vested in the world staying the way it is; the way where greed rather than charity, and division rather than harmony, and envy and hatred rather than joy and love are the order of the day and the principles by which - if we are completely honest with ourselves and not blinded by wishful thinking about human nature, the market, and the state - so much, sadly, of society and the economy, and even foreign policy tend to function. And it does not matter which political party you happen to vote for: this is how things are and that is why human nature, the market, and the state desperately need to hear and to put into practice the principles of the kingdom of God in obedience to the king. As I have said on a number of occasions, the Christian Gospel is seldom opposed or rejected for its lack of reason or reasonableness or absence of moral principles or priorities but because one or more of these in some way or in some measure or other oppose or threaten those whose interests are vested in a world where the king and his kingdom are not welcome.

We have seen this at work already in the Book of Acts wherever the religious or social or economic status quo has been threatened. We see it here again in this episode; and we see it still today in our own country and even, sadly, in the Church of England when the light of the Gospel comes up against the status quo and vested interests of one sort or another.(Ugandan bishop)

One thing the Book of Acts certainly makes clear is this: that Christianity is not a ‘peaceful’ religion - not in the sense that it aims to encourage everyone to be good citizens and to not rock the boat. Far from it: Christian love, when faithfully practised, will always find itself at odds, and sometimes violently so, with the values of the world when such values are not the values of the kingdom Jesus taught and called you and me to implement wherever we can.

There is of course much that is good and of God’s kingdom at work in the world. Sometimes this is simply unacknowledged or unknown; but it is largely on account of the residual effect of Christianity on people and society or as a result of the promptings of the Holy Spirit in people’s lives: however, there is much, and often near to home, that is not of God’s kingdom and which needs the Gospel, the good news of Jesus and his kingdom, to transform, to ‘turn upside down’,  the right way up.

You see our country, as Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali is well known for saying, is heading for social, individual, and economic disaster if we continue, as is becoming increasingly fashionable, to deny our Christian heritage of morality, law, the value and true nature of human life, and discard what Christians have fought for for hundreds of years in order to make this a more just and equitable society, a society more in tune with the values and principles of God’s kingdom. And we would be deluding ourselves, not to mention placing a terrible burden on our children, were we to deny this: the Gospel, when we look at much of the workings of society today, is counter-cultural. Indeed it always has been because of those whose interests are vested in the world rather than in God’s kingdom. Which is why Jesus calls you and me to challenge those vested interests with his Gospel: and if we do that, some, whose hearts are already God-seeking and God-fearing will welcome what we have to say; whilst others will give us anything but a peaceful time. We have to choose sides; we cannot sit on the fence; we cannot serve both God and Mamon. We are, if you like, to be honest, loving trouble-makers for the sake of his kingdom and the glory of his name.

This passage shows us yet again, as I mentioned, that the Gospel was a stumbling-block to those Jews whose preconceptions about God would not  allow them to accept a crucified Messiah; just as it was a stumbling-block to those for whom money or power or the status quo were more important. But in today’s passage Paul introduces us to three vital truths that many modern day atheists or agnostics find a moral and intellectual barrier to belief; which is why we need to pay particular attention to his statements in verse 3.  

In trying to persuade his Jewish listeners, Paul tells them, first, that God’s chosen one, the Messiah, had to suffer and die, and then rise from the dead; and, secondly, that Jesus was that Messiah, albeit a very different one from the one they had imagined.

What do many atheists and agnostics take exception to? Well it this. First, the ‘necessity’ of Jesus’ being killed; secondly, his rising from death; and, thirdly, his uniqueness as the only way to salvation, to reconciliation with God, to heaven.  

Paul explained to the Thessalonians that the Messiah must ‘suffer’, that is to say must atone for Israel’s sins. Now because an essential element of God’s perfect love is his equally perfect concern for justice and abhorrence of sin, the issue of Israel’s sin had to be dealt with. God could not simply, as many would like him to do today, turn a blind eye to sin. But not just Israel: the Jewish Messiah, as Paul had realised, had died for the sins of the whole world, and therefore Jesus’ Gospel of reconciliation with God through faith in his sacrificial death is ‘good news’ for the Gentiles too.

Of course, as we have seen, some of the Jews, because of their favoured status, found Paul’s inclusive Gospel a threat to their vested interests. And atheists and agnostics today cannot think it grossly unfair and immoral and unloving of any God that he should demand that any one man should have to bare such a heavy penalty. But if that man were God, choosing in one of his forms of being God, to become a man in order that he could save all those humble enough to trust and to accept his gracious and merciful deal, then of course it all begins to make sense because love and justice are honoured in all this whilst it is sin and human pride that are affronted. As Paul says, it was ‘necessary’ for the Messiah to ‘suffer’.  

Secondly, Jesus’ resurrection, his ‘rising from death’. Well, so much has been written about this and why it is the cornerstone of authentic Christian belief. Suffice to say here that it is, like Jesus’ sacrificial death, at the heart of Paul’s teaching, just as it was at the heart of Jesus’ teaching And in terms of its being an historical fact rather than some wishful-thinking myth, the evidence is more than sufficient and there for all to see; though it will never be sufficient for those who choose not to see or, we might very well add, for those whose vested interests the facts threaten.

And the thirdly and finally, there is the stumbling-block of the ‘uniqueness’ of Jesus in our pluralistic religious world. This, to many who consider themselves to be reasonable and thinking people, looking around the world and at the practice of religion around the world, seems unreasonable. You’ve all heard, I’m sure, the old relativist argument that ‘Surely all roads lead to heaven.’

But again, if we examine what Jesus claims about himself, and about his Gospel for the salvation of the world, then who are we to argue with him if we realise that he is whom he claimed to be? And again, who are we to argue with the way in which he chooses to save all people? We have to understand that it comes down to a choice. If the relativists (the all religions lead to God group) are right then Jesus is wrong, his coming to his world, his death and resurrection a waste of time: but if Jesus is right, the relativists are wrong. Right? It is actually as simple as that. This is not to say that we do not act lovingly and graciously towards relativists; but we must not short-change them nor withhold from them the liberating and life-fulfilling good news of, to quote the title of Michael Nazir-Ali’s book ‘The Unique and Universal Christ’.

Wherever we turn, wherever we go in the world, people still need to hear the good news of a Gospel of salvation that will, if people welcome it and apply it to their lives, turn their worlds upside down. Jesus has called you and me to believe this and for the sake of all to proclaim it and to put it into practice: it is nothing less than the fulfilling of the Second Commandment, which is after all, the vital evidence that we are genuinely keeping the First.

      

Remembrance Sunday 2013

On 25^th September 1915, the first day of the fighting at the battle of Loos, Captain Anketell Read of the First Battalion, The Northamptonshire Regiment, was killed while leading his men in the most ferocious fighting. For his conspicuous bravery and self-sacrifice, paying no regard to his own safety or well-being but only to that of his soldiers, he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. 

Three times winner of the Army and Navy Heavyweight Boxing Championship, he was known as ‘Widowmaker’ for his devastating jab. He was by all accounts the epitome of the chivalrous English gentleman and also a committed Christian, admired and respected by all who knew him. On the headstone of his grave is a brief but most interesting inscription: it reads as follows. ‘’He won because he never recognised defeat. ‘Christ died for all.’’

Here then was a man - a man of his time and culture sure enough - a man whose selfless sense of duty towards those under his authority led him to put them before himself: he fully understood the very best principle of leadership. On day one when arriving at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, we were presented with a little red book entitled ‘Serve To Lead’. It is a book about and with examples of leadership according to that very principle; the principle practised by Read. It is an excellent and inspiring little book. Later in life I made the naive mistake of recommending to my first bishop and Theological College Principal that it really ought to be mandatory reading for all would-be parish priests!

In Captain Read then, we meet a man who was not only inspired to lay down his life for those who followed him but who was deeply conscious of the far greater, life-changing, sacrifice made by his Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.      Of course, his personal sacrifice that day may have saved the lives of some or even many; but many, many more were killed. Some will look back on that battle, on that war, and on the huge loss of life, and say, quite rightly in so many ways, ‘what a terrible mistake; what a terrible waste’; just as some today will raise similar concerns about our presence in Afghanistan. Now I am not going to raise contentious political issues this morning but I will ask you to consider and remember this: that the men at Loos and in Afghanistan, whatever we feel about the rights or wrongs of both engagements, hugely deserve our respect, our sympathy, and in the latter case, our prayers.

In remembering his sacrifice for his soldiers and his country, Reid’s parents chose not to forget but to remind everyone who would see his headstone       of the far greater sacrifice; the sacrifice that had inspired their remarkable son: ‘Christ died for all.’

Each year we remember and honour those, like Read, who gave their lives in order that we might enjoy a freedom they thought worth fighting for. This service today is a reminder to us and a challenge to, as the Prayer Book says,  ‘use aright the time left to us here on earth, to repent of our sins, of the evil we have done and the good we have not done.’

And so their sacrifice leads us naturally, or ought to, to consider again the greatest sacrifice ever made; the day when ‘Christ died for all’. It was the greatest sacrifice ever made because it achieved some remarkable things; things no ordinary human being could. Let us remind ourselves this morning of just three of them; three that can alter radically the way a person views this life, views others, and indeed views themself; three things that Captain Read’s sacrifice could never achieve, though he himself had lived a life inspired by the knowledge of them.

Those three things, those three remarkable and life-changing things are these. First, in voluntarily giving up his life, Jesus paid the moral debt we owe to God. Secondly, he made our reconciliation with God possible. And, thirdly, he made possible eternal life.

This moral debt we owe God is perhaps these days even more contentious for some than the idea that there is such a thing as eternal life. But if you are someone who believes both in love and justice; indeed that a deep concern for justice is actually an essential part of what it means to love if love is to have any worthwhile meaning at all, then a perfectly loving God cannot simply turn a blind eye to even the least of our injustices, be they sins of commission or sins of omission – the evil we have done or the good we have not done. Personally, I could not even begin to worship a God who simply turned a blind eye or who acted like an indulgent old uncle.

But as we do not have it within ourselves – no one does – to put ourselves right with God, God chose, in one of his forms of being God, to take human form in the person of Jesus and to pay our debt himself. This he did when he laid down his life on the cross at Calvary. But in this case it was not just for the few who followed him, it was for the sins of the whole world. In so doing, in paying the moral debt that stood against our evil deeds and our failure to do good, he made it possible for all who will accept in faith this sacrifice of his to be reconciled to God. This is the second of the three remarkable things his sacrifice achieved. He simply hangs on the cross there and asks us to trust him. ‘It is finished’, he said. ‘I’ve done it for you and for the sins of the whole world.’ But of course we have to trust and to show this by our attitude to him and to others; we have to accept him as Saviour and Lord of our lives; we have to demonstrate that the reconciliation is genuine.

Now what people discover is that to be reconciled with God creates a newfound freedom; I might almost say a carefree freedom, even in the face of danger and death. 

Why? Well, if we know that we have been forgiven for everything – whatever our track record or character – by humbly accepting his offer; and if we know that we are now reconciled to God entirely because of what he has done for us; and if we know too that this life, whatever happens to us and however we go, is not the end of existence because the one who reconciled us has also promised us eternal life, then would that not be a very great weight off anyone’s mind?

But why did Reid believe this? Why could he live as he lived? Why should anyone believe it? The answer lies, I am sure, in verse 30 of our first reading this morning. 

You can see it there, very briefly, on your service sheet. ‘But God raised him from the dead’. This is the cornerstone of Christian belief and the reason why we can trust the person and the promises of Jesus. The evidence for the resurrection is there for all to see but will never be sufficient for those who choose not to see it or who simply do not care.

Jesus taught explicitly that he had come to save sinners, to reconcile us to God, to free us from our pride and sins, and to offer us eternal life. This he did by sacrificing his life for us. Captain Reid’s sacrifice was a most heroic act of selflessness; but his family and friends knew what, or rather who it was, had inspired that sacrifice. ‘Christ died for all.’ Do you believe and trust in this, in him? It is a question we must all of us ask ourselves – and give an answer.

Why Acts all the time?

Acts Chapter 15: 1 – 10

One or two people have been asking why we are continuing to plough through the Book of Acts. Well, the answer, quite simply, is that if we take seriously what we learn from it, then it will help us considerably in our calling, our calling by Jesus Himself to become not just faithful but fruitful disciples. The whole point of being a Christian according to Jesus is ‘to bear fruit; fruit that will last.’

Of course there are many different understandings and interpretations of what Christianity is and how it should be practised: but if such different ideas do not help or, as is all too often the case, actually undermine a person’s or a church’s ability to bear fruit, then we would better do without them altogether. ‘To go and bear fruit’ is our calling, according to Jesus; and in the life of the early Church presented to us in the Book of Acts, we see what amazing things people and whole Churches can do when they choose and determine to set aside their religious preferences and cultural prejudices, when they banish their fears about their own inabilities or of what other people might think of them, when they swallow their pride and self-sufficiency, and, instead, open up their lives to God in order to allow Him to use them. To do what especially? Well, to bear fruit; fruit that will last. And it is quite clear, from the teaching of Jesus Himself, that what he means by ‘fruit’ is people, new people for His kingdom. This is why it shocks and saddens me when I hear people using the word ‘evangelical’ in any kind of derisory or derogatory way: it is a mark of shame, no less, that people within the Church in England years ago had to begin to describe themselves as such precisely because so many others had either forgotten or chosen to avoid their first calling and priority as Christians, which is to ‘bear fruit’ - to bring in the ‘harvest’ - is how Jesus referred to it, to help others to come to know for themselves the love and the truth of Jesus.    

A short while after I arrived here, one lady in the congregation, who is no longer with us now but who had very certain ideas about services, music, and even theology, took me to task. How dare I tell her what she ought to believe about God and what He calls us to do. I have to admit, I was a little taken aback, and gently tried to explain that whilst she was free to believe whatever she wished about God and the Christian religion, I nevertheless had a job description - in my ordination vows and from Jesus and his Apostles to teach faithfully; and that whilst some of my clerical colleagues have and do still do come up with some ideas that, to put it mildly, simply cannot be deduced from the teaching of Jesus, I was determined, as best I could, to teach faithfully. And I have invited people on a number of occasions to check what I teach with the teaching of Jesus and his Apostles. And if they can prove me wrong, then I will apologise, publicly, and correct my teaching accordingly. Because the truth matters; and the truth, for Christians, has to start with the revelation of God in Jesus Christ and the application of that truth in a Christian’s life – the most important application of which is ‘to bear fruit’. Well, according to Jesus it is. Those who wish to make of the Christian faith ONLY what appeals to them philosophically, culturally, or in any other way, will find the teaching from Joe and Kevin and myself at times not only challenging but even probably a grave affront to some of their most cherished ideas. But the truth matters; and Jesus’ truth – whatever some might say to the contrary – matters a very great deal; because without it one tends to get only more religion and less fruit.

 In our passage from the Book of Acts this morning, we are presented with something of a crisis in the local church at Antioch – the arrival of the ‘We’ve always done it this way brigade’. Now I don’t know if you have met any members of the ‘We’ve always done it this way brigade’? They come in various shapes and sizes and with a great deal of religious and social ammunition. They are usually very sincere, forthright, and determined to make a fuss. The problem is that because they have not signed up to or did not read or understand the joining instructions, they tend to emphasise the importance of the unimportant, of secondary rather than primary issues of faith and practice, and of their ‘churchmanship’ rather than their ‘calling’. Much of what they advocate is good and healthy - in the right proportion and in the right place: but it has, always in my experience, a sad tendency to operate by law rather than by grace. And because grace is the defining term of Christianity, and because grace is what law finds unsettling and disturbing because it often seems rather messy and open-ended and inclusive rather than exclusive, and risk-taking rather than safe, and downright unreasonable and seemingly unrealistic - in purely worldly terms, and takes us out of our personal comfort zones and challenges our most cherished ideas, so it tends to cause v2 ‘considerable uproar and dispute’.

Now we ought to be both impressed and inspired by the Church at Antioch: they send a group to the Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem v2 to ‘sort it out’. Unlike the General Synod of the Church of England when warned last week of its impending demise through lack of perceived relevance to the un-churched of this country and especially the young, it does not immediately vote to form a committee. And even this disagreement within the Church did not prevent the group v3 from bearing fruit, I’m sure. They did not waste their time on the journey talking about the Church’s wranglings and disagreements, they told the people along the way of the good news that the Gentiles were coming to know the God, bringing v3 ‘great joy to the Christian communities.’ And what is the second in Paul’s list of the fruit of the Spirit of God? 

The fruit that begins to show in a person’s life when they are sharing the good news of Jesus with others or hearing about it? Joy! (Which, incidentally, is a very different and far, far more rewarding and uplifting thing – joy, that is – than the ‘happiness’ that people talk of and look for today. But that’s for another occasion.)

So they arrive in Jerusalem, still telling everyone v4 of the wonderful things that God, through them, had been doing amongst unbelievers. But immediately they run into the ‘We’ve always done it this way’ brigade again, or their sister regiment, the ‘Religion of our Fathers’ brigade’, another well known constrainer of grace. What do this lot insist on? That they become just like us; that they are not welcome unless they accept our cultural and religious practices.  A fellow clergyperson only last week was telling me that this was why her congregation was not growing; because of this very selfish and excluding attitude amongst her congregation.

At Antioch and Jerusalem the presenting issue was the practice of circumcision. It takes Peter to stand up and explain to them the true meaning or spirit of circumcision and how a faithful or circumcised heart is what is important, not a whole load of religious and cultural practices that are only v10 ‘a yoke on the neck that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear’. Circumcision, which had been a reminder and outward physical sign of the Covenant made between God and the people of Israel, a Covenant in which God graciously takes the initiative, promising freedom and new life, had become for the party of the Pharisees an end in itself, a mark of their culture and nation that served as a barrier rather than an invitation. They had forgotten the teaching in Deuteronomy and in the Prophets that without obedience to God’s calling to live in a certain way and to be a ‘light to the Gentiles’, the sign was worthless.

So what is it in Christianity that saves a person, that is, reconciles them to God?  It is God’s grace; God’s grace as a gift accepted by grateful and faithful hearts that then demonstrates its integrity in fruitfulness. This is what purifies the person, not the keeping of a long list of religious laws and practices.   

Someone once remarked that as far as Christianity is concerned, the difference between religion and faith is that you can do the first on your own but you can only do the second with Jesus; and only the second can produce fruit that will last. On my recent pilgrimage walk in northern Spain, I was astonished and saddened by the number of people who had been put off Christianity by the officers of the Church and their practices, their rules and regulations, that were utterly graceless. Law had been allowed to triumph over grace and not only had no new fruit been grown but good fruit had been lost!

It really is all about GRACE because graceless religion is Christianity without Christ: graceless religion puts things first that ought to be either secondary or not there at all. Indeed, Peter speaks in hardly disguised harsh terms to the Pharisee group. V10 ‘Why are you putting God to the test?’ And then, adding insult to injury in the next verse rebukes them by seeming to imply that the Gentiles who have given their hearts to God by faith – and by faith alone - in the Lord Jesus are already in a place where the Pharisees need still to get to.

That may be inferring too much from the simple text but the point that Peter makes, the point that we must understand about the nature of the Christian faith, the point that must inform our relationships with all and our intentions and acceptance of all, is that our reconciliation with God, our membership of the Covenant, is through faith alone. 

It is grace that must motivate us if we are to be both faithful and fruitful. As one great Father of the Church once said in speaking of grace, ‘If you cannot yet as a Christian find the love for your neighbour to practise it, do nothing to prevent others from so doing so, and make the learning of grace your greatest ambition.’

Let us pray that the learning of grace may be our greatest ambition as individuals and as Jesus’ church here in Brenchley.