Happy New Year!

1 January 2012


We pray that you will have a very blessed new Year.


We begin 2012 in BVP with a simple Family Service; everyone will be either going out for lunch or welcoming family and friends so we plan to keep everything very simple, with a short meditation on the Beginning of Wisdom from Psalm 130.


Our Order of Service will be:

Introit

Call to Worship: Good morning ... welcome to Balshagray Victoria Park. In the Epistle to the Hebrews we read: ‘ ¹ In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. ³ The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. ⁴ So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.’

Hymn 294 On Christmas night all Christians sing

Collect

Gracious Father as we enjoy the first few hours of a New Year we look back to the year that is gone and trace the ways you have guided and blessed us, taught us your word and answered our prayers. As we journey into the New Year grant us we pray a deepening knowledge of the radiance of Christ’s glory to guide us home. In His name we pray; Amen.

Children’s Address: ‘Christmas Memories’

Children’s Prayer / Lord’s Prayer

Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy Kingdom come,

Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven;

give us this day our daily bread;

and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors;

and lead us not into temptation

but deliver us from evil, For thine is the Kingdom

the Power and the Glory forever; Amen.

Hymn 315 Once in Royal David’s city

Intimations

1.       On Tuesday 10th January the Guild will restart at 7.30 p.m. with a speaker talking about the Botanic Gardens. All are welcome!

Offering / Dedication

Prayer of Intercession

Let us think of the best most exciting thing we enjoyed last year and give thanks

Let us think of someone who has been very good to us and give thanks for their kindness

Let us think of someone who is ill and pray that God would help them to get better

Let us think of someone who is very sad and pray for them to find new joy

Let us give thanks for those who serve in the armed forces and are far from home this Christmas who face danger to help make the world safer

Let us pray for those who are precious to us that they would know God’s love

Let us share our own private thoughts with God for a moment.

Amen

Hymn 553 Just as I am without one plea

Scripture Reading: Psalm 130 p624

Address:  ‘The Beginning of Wisdom’

Hymn 511 Your hand O God has guided

Benediction / Sung Amen

Christmas

We look forward to welcoming visitors to our Watchnight Services and Christmas Day Service at BVP.
On Christmas Eve we have two services. At 7.30pm Derek Robertson will be conducting a Christmas Eve Family Service and at 11.30pm the minister will lead a traditional Watchnight Service.
On Christmas Day our service will be at 10.00am  and will finish by 10.45 and will be very informal.
The Order of Service for the 11.30 Watchnight Service is:

Welcome

Call to Worship:

I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.¹¹ Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.

Hymn 301 Hark the herald angels sing

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 6 v6 – 7

Prayer of Adoration

Hymn 285 The angel Gabriel from heaven came

Scripture Reading: Luke 1 v67-79

Poem:

Hymn 309 Still the night

Offering for LHM

Scripture Reading: Luke 2 v8-20

Address

Wish everyone a Merry Christmas – shake hands etc.

Hymn 306 O come all ye faithful

Benediction & Threefold Amen

Sunday 4 December 2011

This morning in BVP we will celebrate the Lord's Supper in the morning, continuing our studies in Matthew's Gospel and in the Evening we will look at Zechariah 6. In the morning our Order of Service will be:

Collect

Children’s Address

Children’s Prayer / Lord’s Prayer

Hymn 55 Safe in the shadow

Prayer of Adoration

Intimations

Offering / Dedication

Scripture Reading: Matthew 9 v18-26


Prayer of Intercession

Hymn 552 O for a closer walk with God

Sermon

Hymn 19 Ye gates lift up your heads

Sacrament of Holy Communion

Hymn 438 The head that once was crowned

Benediction / Sung Amen

Sunday 27 November

This morning we welcome a new member Mrs Anne Aitken to BVP. Then we resume our studies in Matthew 9 considering 'New Wine, New Wine Skins.' Our Order of Service will be:

Introit

Call to Worship:

Hymn 57 The Lord doth reign

Collect

Children’s Address: ‘Van the man…’

Children’s Prayer / Lord’s Prayer

Prayer of Approach

Welcome to Mrs Anne Aitken

Hymn 520 Ye who the Name of Jesus bear

Intimations

Offering / Dedication

Scripture Reading: Matthew 9 v9 – 17 p973

Choir: John Rutter - For the beauty of the earth

Prayer of Intercession

Hymn 483 Father of heaven whose love profound

Sermon:  ‘New Wine New Wineskins’

Hymn 465 be Thou my vision

Benediction / Sung Amen

Sunday 20 November

Our apologies for not keeping the blog up to date during the last fortnight; we were without broadband for a few days.
The minster will be conducting worship in Brora Free Church this weekend so worship in BVP will be led by Derek Robertson.
We will be joining our neighbours in Partick South for the annual Wheel Trust service at 7.00pm.


On Sunday 6 November our studies in Matthew took us to the call of Matthew in Chapter 9:


'Mercy not Sacrifice' 

Matthew has been painting the most beautiful portrait of Jesus for us. Jesus is the master teacher. In the Sermon on the Mount He gives the most wonderful exposition of goodness the world has ever known. Then Matthew introduces the Jesus the healer; there is nobody so diseased, crippled or decrepit that Jesus cannot restore them. Then he introduces us to Jesus the sovereign Lord who commands the forces of nature. At His word the tsunami that rocked the Sea of Galilee is quelled, evil retreats in disarray and is destroyed, He even enjoys the divine authority to forgive sin.

Important though the authority of Jesus the most striking and the most important dimension of this wonderful portrait of Christ is His love. In love He dares to touch the unclean putrefying flesh of the leper. There are no boundaries to His love; in love He heals the son of the wealthy aristocratic Gentile centurion; in love he heals Peter’s mother in law. It is this wonderful combination authority and love that makes Jesus so remarkable. He does so without pretence, He said to young man who acme wanting to make Jesus his teacher, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has no place to rest His head.’ Jesus whole life was one of complete service.

Having completed this wonderful portrait of Jesus Matthew now leads on to the next episode in Jesus’ ministry the calling of the disciples. Well he does and he doesn’t. A new section definitely begins with Jesus calling Matthew but certain themes continue.

The portrait of Jesus was completed with Jesus healing the paralysed man by forgiving him his sin and we saw the paralysis was symbolic of the incapacity sin has brought to the soul of man. But this theme continues as Jesus goes to have dinner with Matthew and talks about healthy having no need of a physician; and of course Jesus goes to Matthew’s home and eats with him. Matthew was a tax collector and because he served the Roman’s, overcharged and made money out of Rome’s occupation of Israel he was considered a quisling, a traitor, someone unclean; no self-respecting Jew would associate with. It is as though Matthew having completed the portrait of Jesus in its general form now concentrates Jesus’ eyes to paint in wonderful detail the exact nature of Jesus’s ministry.

Matthew was a tax collector; but not just any tax collector. Matthew had a wee shop and sold licences to others so that they had the authority to collect tax in that area. Imagine that in the Barrows here in Glasgow you could go and buy an official government approved licence for imposing fines on those who parked in the wrong place in Thornwood, Broomhill and Jordanhill and you could add whatever percentage you liked so long as the council received their £30 they would be happy. This would be e licence to print money. The right to sell these licences would have been worth a fortune, the licences would have to be renewed regularly and imagine the bribes that would be on offer. Matthew was the tax collector’s tax collector. Tax collectors were hated and despised, they contributed nothing to the community they just soaked people for all the money they could. It was not only the ordinary people who despised and hated them the religious authorities had no time for them either – tax-collectors were answerable to their Gentile masters and they handled pagan money and that made them ‘unclean’.

In calling Matthew to be His disciple Jesus was calling someone nobody wanted to know. Matthew was a pariah and so he gathered all his fellow pariahs together to meet Jesus.

The miracle is Jesus attended the party. Now for us having food with someone is a pleasant enough affair but in Jesus’ day eating with someone I have lunch with different folk all the time it is a good way of building friendship and getting some work done at the same time. But in Jesus day going to someone’s home and eating with them implied much more than friendship it implied oneness, unity looking out for each other. Just as traditionally a wedding reception is much more than just a party to celebrate a wedding but two families becoming one. In going to Matthew’s home, in allowing Himself be the guest of honour and reclining at Matthew’s Jesus is pledging Himself to Matthew in a very special way.

So Matthew knows this transformation in his life he goes from pariah to being the friend of this teacher par-excellence, this wonderful healer, the master of the wind and the waves, the one who has ultimate authority over evil the one who has the divine authority to forgive.

Fascinatingly the Greek word Matthew uses for his rising from his booth to follow Jesus, is the word he uses later in the Gospel for the resurrection of Jesus. This was Matthew experience of following Jesus, he knew a resurrection. His old life of living for money, the old life bribery and living to make a quick buck, the old life of despising and being despised was left was dead; Matthew now lived to walk with the this wonderful, beautiful Jesus, taught the Old Testament as no one had ever taught the Old Testament before, who touched the leper, reached out in love to the Gentiles, healed Peter’s mother in law, calmed the wind and the waves drove out demons and forgave.

It is wonderful that Matthew threw this banquet for his colleagues so that they too could know Jesus. Matthew had lived in their skin. He knew that making money by exploiting people made you feel dirty, his was a demeaning life. He knew what it was to bear the contemptuous looks of the Pharisees harden your heart and sneer back at them; he wanted his friends to know this resurrection life he now enjoyed. Evangelism is no big deal; it is knowing what it is like to be in someone else’s skin and showing friendship so that they can share the resurrection life you enjoy in Christ Jesus.

But Jesus’ sitting down at Matthew’s table causes an outrage. The teachers of the law who are always watching always looking to find fault are appalled that Jesus should enter the home of a tax collector and what follows leads to one of the great defining moments in the ministry of Jesus. This is one of the passages from the Gospel that we think we understand but is much more profound than we might at first imagine.

The central issue I think here is a question ‘What is the essence of true faith and discipleship that is pleasing to God?’

For the teachers of the law the answer to that question seemed to be that it was a man’s primary duty to offer sacrifice to God: to go up the Temple and offer to God a bull or a goat, if you were wealthy, or a pigeon, if you were poor, to prove your devotion to Him, to express your sorrow for your sin and to find forgiveness. But you cannot come to God and simply do your religious duty and wander off home again; nobody is as foolish to believe that, so the life of offering sacrifice required that a man or woman devote themselves to keeping God’s law, the understanding the commandments and living to honour God, respect the Sabbath and do one duty to ones neighbour.

When we begin to unravel how the teachers of the law thought I am not sure that we would disagree with them would we? What is true Christian faith? Is it not coming to the Lord’s Table to express our trust in Christ and to find the assurance of forgiveness? We know we must not come to the Table in a casual, offhand way we must examine ourselves and come and so we seek to live by the Sermon on the Mount. What is so wrong with that?

The primary fault with such a frame of mind is that you are at the centre. Your devotion to God, your need for forgiveness, your holiness your faith is all about you, you you; me, me me.

Jesus does not dismiss the importance of sacrifice and of devotion to God, what He says is compassion comes before sacrifice. Sacrifice is vital; Jesus gave His life in sacrifice. Matthew could not know his new resurrection life apart from the sacrifice Jesus makes for Him. Sacrifice is vital; but sacrifice without compassion is meaningless.

Jesus goes to Matthew’s home in crossing the door into Matthew’s home Jesus becomes unclean; the filth of Matthew’s life falls upon Jesus. Jesus forgives Matthew, how can He do that? Matthew has no doubt taken bribes; God hates those who can be bought. Matthew has lived well by exploiting the poor and the vulnerable. How can God forgive him?

It is the sacrifice that Jesus made upon the cross that gives Jesus the freedom to enter Matthew’s home for on the cross Jesus became sin, He became filth in order to take filth away. On the cross Jesus died the death of the most vile tax collector in order that God might be justified in forgiving Matthew.

It is the sacrifice of the cross that sets Jesus free to go to Matthew’s home and bring to Matthew and his friends a new resurrection life. What led Jesus to Matthew’s home? Compassion. What led Jesus to forgive Matthew? Compassion. What led Jesus to share a new resurrection life? Compassion. What led Jesus to the sacrifice of the cross? Compassion.

God asks no sacrifice from us. Sacrifice is something Jesus offers for us. The sacrifice of the cross sets us free from guilt and condemnation that we might without fear, in the full joy of absolute forgiveness so that with Jesus we might say to the Father ‘Not my will but Thy will be done’ and pour our lives out in compassion and devotion.

Fascinatingly Jesus here quotes Hosea 6v6 and in quoting Jesus quoting Hosea Matthew renders the Hebrew in Greek; Matthew does his best but Hosea does not actually use the word compassion he uses the Hebrew word ­hesed. Matthew needed such a friend, a friend who went to his home even though he was a pariah. A friend who would give His life in sacrifice that he might know a resurrection from the old to the new. This is the life Jesus calls us to a life of hesed love the love of a friend who is always, always, always there; a friend who is utterly faithful will do whatever is necessary no matter the cost.

So Jesus came in hesed love to heal sinners Matthew. Did that mean the teachers of the law did not need Jesus that through their religion they were OK?

Two years ago I had a secret plan. In nearly thirty years in the ministry I had only missed two Sundays through illness. My friend in Inverness, Anoghas Iain, always boasted that in thirty five years in the ministry he had never missed a Sunday; then he was struck down with a heart attack and was off for six months. I thought to myself I’ll easily beat his record now, the bragging rights will be mine. In my folly I did not realise two malignant tumours were growing inside me that needed major surgery to remove.

The teachers of the law railed at Jesus for going to the home of the sinner Matthew in their folly they had no conception of the malignancy of their own souls.

We all need to put ourselves under the care of the great physician the lord Jesus Christ.

Sunday 6 November 2011

This morning we continue with our studies in Matthew in the morning and in Zechariah in the Evening. 


Last week our studies in Matthew took us to Matthew 9 v1-8 and to Jesus the Complete Saviour:

Matthew is setting before us the most sumptuous, beautiful portrait of Jesus as the complete Saviour. In Matthew 5-7 in the Sermon on the Mount we encounter Jesus the great teacher. In the Old Testament in Leviticus there is the great call to God’s people ‘You shall be holy as I am holy’ in the Sermon on the Mount as Jesus patiently unfolds what true holiness is we begin to see the real beauty of a godly life. But if all Jesus did was teach we would be despair; the problem with the Sermon on the Mount is not understanding what Jesus has to say, but living the Sermon on the Mount consistently. We need wisdom, we need teaching but we need so much more.

So in chapters 8 into 9 Matthew tells us of six miracles Jesus performed that open up the whole world of Jesus tenderness and healing power. Firstly Jesus heals the leper; Jesus is quite prepared to become unclean to heal someone and restore their humanity. Secondly He heals the son of a Roman centurion; race, creed, culture religious background or want of it is no barrier to Jesus; His mercy is for all. Thirdly He heals Peter’s mother in law; there is no one too old, too insignificant for Jesus to help. Fourthly He stands up in the boat and stills the tsunami that threatened to swap the boat he and the disciples were in; Jesus is greater than the chaos, greater than your worst nightmare even in the wildest storm you are safe with Him. Then last week we came to the story of Jesus casting out demons. If all Jesus could do was teach, calm storms and heal old women but was powerless in the face of all the evil that stalks the earth He would be a very nice and worthwhile chap to know but ultimately ineffective and useless. But no at simply a word from Jesus evil departs and is destroyed.

I am old enough to remember the Rolf Harris Show it was the highpoint of Saturday night. The highlight of the show came when Rolf with some pots of Dulux and the kind of paint brush you would use to paint a door would paint a picture. As he ooed and ahhed slowly he put streaks of paint here and there on what looked like an old sheet slowly but surely a picture would emerge and then Rolf would sing a song with the picture illustrating the song. That was class entertainment when I was a kid. This is what Matthew is doing creating a portrait of Jesus; like all good portrait artists he is taking us into the heart and soul of the character of the subject of the portrait till like Rolf we break into song, not singing Tie Me Kangaroo Down Mate but into great hymns and anthems of praise as we find in v8 the crowd filled with awe worship God.

Now in this great portrait of Jesus that Matthew spreads before us the crowning glory is Jesus healing the paralytic, saying to him ‘Take heart son (= Gk teknon the most tender of words a father can use to speak to his son); your sins are forgiven.’

If all Jesus could do was teach, heal old ladies, calm storms and destroy evil then He would be a great guy to know and pretty handy to have around when things got tough but ultimately He would be useless. If somehow or other Jesus is not able to bring forgiveness to my soul and change me then I am lost.

Let us begin with a question. Why did Jesus say to the man ‘Your sins are forgiven’ rather than simply say to him at the beginning ‘Take up your bed and walk’? It would have been much easier, the teachers of the law would not have been outraged, the effect would have been the same, the guy would have been healed and every one would have gone home happy. Or is the guy’s paralysis somehow related to sin.

The answer to that is no and yes.

No the guy did not do something very wicked and so God as a punishment hit him with some awful wasting disease. That is how many think; something bad happens to them and they think it is God punishing them for something they have done. In fact the opposite is true; the Bible is emphatic that ‘God does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities’ but rather He sends the sunshine and the rain on men and women everywhere. In fact a more common complaint in the Bible and certainly in the non-believing world is that God is far too kind to the wicked. So, no this guy did not do something wicked and his paralysis was divine punishment.

But then yes his paralysis did come as a result of sin. You see this world; the world we live in is not the world God made. The world God created for His children was ‘good’ a King’s garden a place for god to meet with his children. This world we live in today though is a world of rebellion; a world that has declared itself independent of God, a world that has renounced His sovereignty and so it has become a world of evil, fear chaos, tragedy;  a world of pain, disease and death.

Occasionally we see this larger tragedy played out on a smaller scale. Have you see any of these reality programmes on TV when every a group of children get the wish of every child they are to live in a house without any parents no teachers, no authority figures, the kids are to be in complete control. They think it will be bliss go to bed when you want to, eat when you want to, watch TV whenever you like, play computer games for as long as you want to. Heaven! But of course that does not last long. Soon there is fighting and bullying kids ganging up on one another, the signs of chaos multiply around them, the mess the uneaten food, the lethargy.

On a much larger scale that is our world such are our lives when we rebel against God.

A few years ago a read a biography of Stalin and at one point he deliberately created famine in the rich lands of the Russian steppes to teach the peasants there to work for the state and not themselves. People living on some of the richest farm land in the world were reduced to trying to eat the bark from trees. These poor wretches were not responsible for the famine but were living with the consequences of living a land of revolution.

This was the state of the paralytic. He lives in a world that had rebelled against God and his disease was part of that rebellion.

My problem is that when I read the Sermon on the Mount I understand the rightness of what Jesus is saying but I am paralysed by my arrogance, selfishness and cowardliness. Because I am arrogant selfish and cowardly the good I would do I do not and the evil I would not do that I do.

To heal the paralytic Jesus says to him ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ He is setting this man free from all the consequences of man’s rebellion against God.

The teachers of the law are outraged by this. They say quite rightly that only God has the authority to forgive sin – but Jesus knowing their thoughts challenges then in a quite remarkable way.

The thing is, it is easy to say ‘Your sins are forgiven’, for who knows whether you are telling the truth or not? I could easily get one of these sprinkler things that priests use and walk up and down the aisles of BVP shower you all with holy water and say your sins are forgiven but how would you really know you were forgiven or not?

But it is hard to say to paralytic take up your bed and walk for everyone can see immediately whether or not you have the power to heal or are just another fraudster.

The amazing this is that the man does pick up his bed and walk and so the implication is that he knows forgiveness also.

Ultimately this is why Jesus in His parables places such an emphasis upon living a life of grace. It is one thing for someone to brag they have been born again, they are forgiven, a new man in Christ. Talk is cheap. How do we know that claim is true other than they exhibit a life of mercy and compassion? Central to Jesus whole ministry is the Parable of the unmerciful servant. This man had swindled his master out of a fortune; he owed his master vast suns in excess of the entire national debt of Greece; such sums he could never repay. In an act of pure mercy his master forgives him and sets him free from the debtors’ prison. The servant goes out and stumbles across a neighbour who owes him just a few pounds; he attacks the man and has him thrown into jail. His master hears of it and visits judgement upon him. The only way the world will ever know that Jesus has the authority to forgive sins was for that man to take up his bed and walk. The only way your family, your friends, your colleagues, your neighbours will ever know Jesus has the authority to forgive is through you leading a life of grace and compassion. It is not that God forgives us but because we forgive but having been forgiven we live a life of compassion.

The key to this whole passage of Scripture is the title Jesus takes in this debate with the teachers of the law; He calls Himself the Son of Man.

On one level the title son of man means just that Jesus is just an ordinary human being, He is just one of Jack Thomson’s bairns. But then the title means so much more. The Son of Man in the prophecy of Daniel the title given to a great king to whom God entrusts governance of the whole universe. He is one in whom Yahweh finds no fault but only unending pleasure and delight in His wisdom, love of goodness, compassion, mercy and passion for justice.

In this little story for those who have eyes to see, our King has come. He can not only teach the ways of God’s Kingdom there is nothing can stand in His way as He gradually overcomes the rebellion of our world. He can touch the leper unclean and make him clean. He can reach out to the wealthy centurions who come from a wholly different culture. He can take the despised useless old woman and give her back her life, give her hope. He is greater than our worst nightmare. He has the authority to drive out evil. He can forgive and heal so that the rebels can be brought back into God’s family.

The consequence of all this worship: the people see in Jesus the king their weary souls have longed for and they in awe and delight worship Him. We had two ladies in my last charge one sued to say to me I come to church so that I can go home thinking ‘What have I got to do now?’ Another lady used to say to me ‘I love coming here because I go home feeling so unworthy.’ Both were wrong, wrong, wrong. You come to church to behold the glory of God in Christ Jesus and to go home rejoicing, rejoicing in his forgiveness to live in the joy and delight of His goodness.

Sunday 30 October

Hi


On Sunday morning we will be continuing with our studies in Matthew's Gospel when we consider Jesus healing the paralytic in Matthew 9. In the Evening we will look at Zechariah 4.


On Sunday 9 March we looked at Matthew's account of Jesus calming the storm from 4 perspectives:

The story of Jesus calming the storm must be one of the best known of the Gospel stories, the story has an entrancing beauty and I am not sure we know what the beauty of the story is. For me the beauty of the story lies in unfolding of the splendour of Christ Jesus. At the beginning of the story we see His as an ordinary man exhausted after a long hard day He sleeps peacefully. But then this ferocious storm blows up, in fact more than a storm the Greek suggests a storm plus earthquake there has been a tsunami as the storm has raged the bed of the Sea of Galilee has known a fearful convulsion and these terrifying waves threaten to sink the boat; the disciples have never experienced anything like it. They waken Jesus He rebukes the wind and the waves, the whole creation is under His command and all is still. And we are left marvelling Jesus is so much more than just a man, so much more than just another healer and preacher ‘even the wind and the waves obey Him.’ Our hearts and minds are drawn to the mystery and wonder of who Jesus is.

One of the fascinating things about this story is that at different times different people have read the story and seen different things in it; and that is the journey I would like us to take today.

In Matthew’s time the people of Israel feared the sea greatly – they were land lubbers they liked to feel the earth beneath their feet; the sea represented their worst nightmare and for us all a tsunami represents the worst nightmare of all. For the people of Matthew’s time the sea was a wild unpredictable place, storms could come from nowhere, there were hidden reefs of rocks that could scupper a boat and of course who knew what monsters lived beneath the waves. We smile at the story of Jonah but not the people who were there when the Bible was being written; the storm being swallowed by a leviathan was their great nightmare. So when these folk read of Jesus calming the wind and the waves their thought is not of Jesus as the Lord of Creation but of Jesus the one who can control all the strange, perplexing chaotic things that can happen to us; the one who is greater than the monsters in our nightmares.

Two year ago when they discovered two malignant tumours growing inside me I never had a moment’s fear or worry; I might be facing my last Christmas but the basic reality of my life had not changed. I belonged to Jesus not to this world, he had not changed so what was there to fear? Jesus is greater that our worst nightmare.

One of the earliest Christian writers was a man named Tertullian and he lived in Carthage from about 160 to 220 AD and he really laid the foundations of how we understand the Christian faith he was the first to use the term Trinity to try and understand how Jesus and the Father are related. At that time the Christian church was a small persecuted minority. Tertullian read the Bible quite differently to you and me. He saw the great stories of the Old and New Testaments as pictures that illustrate what God is up to. When he read the story of Jesus calming the wind and the waves he saw a series of pictures. He saw the boat as the church and in the boat were a small defenceless band of disciples. He saw the storm as a picture of the forces of persecution that raged around the church at the time and he saw Jesus as the greater defender of His people who rises up to save His people, His very presence assuring them of safety.

We can think of Elspeth working in one of the most dangerous places in world. Osama Bin Laden lived and was killed just sixteen miles from her hospital in the town she goes to do her shopping. But Elspeth has no desire to return home to the relative safety of Scotland; she knows that she is safest in the place where God wants her to be and that He is the master of the storms that rage around her. It is better to be at the centre of the storm with Jesus than on the dry ground on your own.

Ten when we zoom forward some 1 300 years to the days of Luther and Calvin we find that Tertullian’s method of understanding the Bible as a series of pictures had become so overgrown with outrageous interpretations that these two great Bible scholars swept away all the allegorical interpretations and hauled the church back to thinking about the words that are actually written down in the Gospels. When we read the story this way two great thoughts press upon us. Firstly there is the weakness of the disciples. After hearing Jesus turn away the very bright young man who seemed to have only and intellectual interest in the things of God and then the chap who seemed to be formality and keeping the rules did the disciples have big ideas of themselves as they got on board the boat and set sail for the other side of the Sea of Galilee? They were soon reduced to nervous wrecks as an earthquake ripped apart the sea bed beneath them, huge waves came up from the floor of the sea and the storm howled around them. Were they learning the great lesson that it is who our faith is in that matters not how strong or weak we are? Then they see just how great their Lord is the earthquakes, the waves, the winds and the rain all obey His command. This was the understanding they needed as the storm and earthquake of Jesus’ arrest and trial broke upon them. That night too their faith was shattered, they surrendered to their darkest fears self-preservation drove them to desert and deny Jesus but Jesus in the majesty of His being is greater than our failure.

But now as I read the story I begin to see another understanding of the story begin to emerge. Jesus promises us ‘I will never leave you or forsake you.’ He binds Himself to us with an unconditional promise that flows wholly out of His sovereign goodness. It is the same relationship god had with Israel in the Old Testament. Israel finds herself in slavery in Egypt, she cries out in prayer and God comes and delivers her. Here the disciples are in this boat they are in the greatest peril they pray and Jesus rises up and delivers them. He is a mighty friend who is always, always there.

When I was studying Civil Engineering for a year I lived at Heriot Watt University’s campus at Riccarton. During the final term there was an outbreak of dysentery. We were all summoned to a large hall and told that we had to nominate a friend who would look after us should we fall ill. I never felt so low in my life; none of my friends stayed on the Campus they all stayed in Edinburgh. Thankfully I was not ill but I have never forgotten that feeling of abandonment and loneliness. We can face anything in life if we have a friend who promises never to leave us or forsake us at our side.

Four different perspectives on this story, four different views of how Jesus looks after His people; together they tells us Jesus is able. 

Sunday 9 October

This morning we welcome John Goddard to the Kirk Session and dedicate the Guild as they begin a new session.

Way back in July I laid before the congregation my views on schism at this time of dispute and division within our denomination. I do not ask you to agree with me; just to try and understand whre I am coming from.

This morning I would like to address the subject of schism. A number of congregations, I do not know how many, are in such profound disagreement with the recent decision of the General Assembly to explore the possibility of the acceptance and blessing of same sex partnerships they are dissociating themselves from our denomination the Church of Scotland. I have no wish this morning to enter into the arguments for and against the acceptance of same sex relationships I have made my views on that plain elsewhere. This morning I simply want to say where I stand with regard to schism, should the Church of Scotland make decisions I profoundly disagree with. Let me say at the outset I can only foresee two sets of circumstances in which I would leave the Church of Scotland over this issue. The first would be if the Church of Scotland required me to bless a same sex relationship then they would have to put me out because in all conscience I could not bless that which Scriptures teach is unholy. The second set of circumstances I will outline later. I do not ask you to agree with me I simply want to explain where I have come to in thinking about schism and share with you how I have got there.

In thinking about schism why begin with our reading this morning the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats? In this haunting story Jesus taught about the last day that those who will be welcomed into Christ’s Kingdom will be those who clothed the naked, gave drink to the thirsty, fed the hungry, cared for the stranger, nursed the sick and visited the prisoner. One of the main things this parable teaches me is that the holiness that our Father seeks from us is not a form of piety that takes us out of the world and expresses itself in some kind of moral and religious purity but a holiness that does not mind getting dirty in order to bring the compassion of God to others.

This is seen in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the two religious leaders who were concerned to keep themselves clean and so avoided the man in the ditch and passed by on the other side are condemned in the parable; it is the man who in compassion risked uncleanness and went to the aid of his neighbour who is the man who truly loves God and his neighbour.

In Matthew’s Gospel the parable of the sheep and the goats is set down as the last parable Jesus teaches before he is arrested, tried and crucified. This is the amazing thing about Jesus His death upon the cross is set before us the ultimate expression of God’s holy love yet at Calvary Jesus is executed by a church who rejects Him as their Lord, fails to see His glory, think it is good thing that even though innocent He should die the most cruel death imaginable and stir the crowd to seek His death. More than that His disciples fail Him and deny Him and on the cross he bears the guilt of their sin and dies in ignominy, shame and desolation abandoned by His Father.

Now I know there is great deal of teaching in scripture about moral integrity and living by the word of God. I remember a minister telling that he once met one of the business leaders from the stock exchange here in Glasgow and saying to this man that one of the finest members of his congregation worked in Stock Exchange. He then spoke of his shame when the man replied ‘I wish she was one of our finest workers, she seems to spend all her time on the phone to her friends.’ Christians must exhibit uprightness but that does not mean dissociating ourselves from those we disagree with and whose lifestyle we cannot consider conformable to the word of God.

But Christ Jesus did not abandon Israel and His disciples when they abandoned Him. Christ Jesus did not reject His disciples and Israel when they rejected Him. He bore the shame that His disciples might be restored and even the priests who stirred the crowds against Him might experience His saving mercy and grace.

The second reason why I cannot walk away from the Church of Scotland is my understanding of what it is to be a minister. The minister has to have a number of skills. The ability to take a passage of scripture and explain it faithfully in a way that people young and old can grasp what it means. One also has to have some basic pastoral skills in caring for people at different points in their lives. One has to be able to chair meetings and bring a disparate group of people to a consensus and so the list goes on and on.

But undergirding all that the minister, I think, has to live out the covenant love of God; God is a friend who is always, always there. When David all but raped Bathsheba, had her husband murdered and then tried to cover the whole stinking mess up, when he was found out David confessed that there was nothing he could do to put matters right, he was blood guilty he deserved to die for what he had done; yet still he could turn to God and plead for mercy and God in His compassion provided a way of salvation for him. I think in some small measure the minister the elder has to reflect such covenant love to God’s people; to be a friend who is always, always there no matter what has happened or what may have been done.

This love is seen very clearly in the life of Jeremiah. Jeremiah lived at a time when idolatry and immorality was rife in the little kingdom of Judah. The agony of endeavouring to be faithful to Jehovah at such times came to a head for Jeremiah when the men of his home town of Anathoth plotted to kill him. Jeremiah brings a heart breaking complaint to God about the unjustness and unfairness of it all. God listens but then does something extraordinary. He tells Jeremiah things are only going to get worse! but then He opens up His heart to Jeremiah and tells him of His agony over the unfaithfulness of His beloved Judah.

The pain Jeremiah knew was as nothing as to the agony Jehovah knew over the unfaithfulness of His people and the judgement that was to come upon them Jehovah was to be faithful to Judah through all this, throughout her idolatry and immorality, through the days of judgement and exile right to the time 70 years on when Judah would be restored, long after Jeremiah was dead. Jeremiah had to live out that faithful covenant love. I believe God is calling us to the same.

Strangely this leads me to the other circumstance when I would leave the Church of Scotland. If the Kirk Session of BVP were to decide, against my advice and pleading, to leave the Church of Scotland and called a congregational meeting as they have just done in Stornoway and you voted to leave against my pleading and advice then I would leave with you for I must live out covenant love to you. I must remain committed to you in love even though I may think you are profoundly wrong. My thoughts and must come second to living covenant love.

In thinking through rights and wrongs of schism my guide has been none other than John Calvin and the opening chapters of Book 4 of the Institutes.

Calvin lived away back in the 16^th Century at the birth of the Reformation. Calvin had been raised as a Roman Catholic his father was one of the important officials in one of the cathedrals of France. Then as a young man he had discovered the wonders of free grace, that we are put right with God not through our religious practices but through what Christ has done for us one the cross. This meant that as a young man Calvin was hunted across Europe with a price on his head and lived to see many of his friends martyred. But he played a pivotal role in rebuilding the church across Europe and around the world. On the one hand he had to deal with what he saw as the idolatries of Rome and on the other with a myriad of smaller splinter churches grouped under the umbrella title of the Anabaptists.

Calvin understood that wherever the word of God was taught and the sacraments of the Baptism and the Lord’s Supper were celebrated there was the church. Despite Rome martyring his friends and what he saw as the iniquities of the Mass Calvin refuses to anathematise the church of Rome instead he writes: ‘Among the Corinthians, quarrels divisions and jealousies flare, disputes and altercations burgeon together with greed an evil deed is openly approved of which even pagans would detest; the name of Paul is insolently defamed; some mock the resurrection of the dead, to the destruction of the whole Gospel as well, God's free gifts serve ambition, not love and many things are done without decency or order. Yet the church abides among them because the ministry of the Word and Sacraments remains unrepudiated there. Who then would dare snatch the title ‘church’ from these who cannot be charged with even a tenth part of such misdeeds.’

Then in his next chapter Calvin humbles me greatly and painfully. I was greatly exercised by the question of whether or not I could attend a Presbytery meeting presided over by a minister in a relationship declared sinful and outlawed by the Word of God. Calvin writes that whilst the church must make every effort maintain proper order when we come to the Lord’s Table we are not to examine our neighbour, examine the church, examine the person presiding but examine ourselves. That hit me like a bucket of cold water shocking me out of my self-righteousness; we all come to the Table on the same basis the gracious invitation of our Lord we are not to look round about us and weigh the worthiness or unworthiness of others but to marvel that Christ should have us here at all.

Then finally Calvin writes: “that an ill-advised zeal for righteousness is born of pride and arrogance and a false opinion of holiness than of true holiness and true zeal for it and he quotes Augustine who wrote: ‘The godly manner and measure of church discipline ought at all times to be concerned with the ‘unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.’”

So Calvin comes to the conclusion that a true expression of holiness is not to separate ourselves from those we disagree with but to work, pray and preach and teach the Word of God for the up-building of all God's people.

Calvin then writes; “True indeed that Christ gave himself up for the church that he might sanctify her; he cleansed her by the washing of water in the word of life, that he might present her to himself as his glorious bride, without spot or wrinkle.’ Yet it is also no less true that the Lord is daily at work in smoothing wrinkles and cleansing spots. From this it follows that the church’s holiness is not yet complete.’

You will remember that Jesus said to Peter that he was giving to him the keys to the kingdom of heaven and the cross keys remain to this day the symbol of the Romans Catholic church. For Calvin the keys to the Kingdom of heaven is the preaching of the free grace and unmerited mercy of Christ so that the wonders of Christ’s forgiving redeeming love are unlocked for all God’s people to enjoy.

True holiness is no be found not in dissociating ourselves from a spotty wrinkly church but by so praying and preaching the free grace of God in Christ that the wrinkles are smoothed out and the spots healed.

Sunday 25 September

This moring we continue with our studies in Matthew Gospel and will consider the story of Jesus calming the storm from three perspectives to build a picture of knowing the peace of God which passes all understanding.
Last week we learned that discipleship begins not with us and our gifts and dedication but with knowing the hhelaing touch of Jesus.

Matthew 8 v14-22 - 'Healed to Serve'

First there was the leper, the man who was unclean, the man whom people fled from; to the horror of the crowd Jesus does not simply heal him He touches Him Jesus not only cures his leprosy He restores him as a human being. Then there is the non-Jew the Gentile centurion, to the horror of the crowds Jesus offers to go to the man’s home to heal his son. Now there is Peter’s mother-in-law. An older lady, past child bearing years, no doubt she is just a burden on the family, just another mouth to feed with nothing much to give who would bother with her. More than that she is suffering from a fever she too should not be touched, to touch her means becoming unclean but Jesus ministers to her.

All the time Matthew is teaching us that there is no one Jesus considers worthless; it His touch that brings wholeness. He is willing to become unclean; He is willing to take upon Himself the filth and the stench of our guilt that makes us obnoxious to God in order to restore us to fellowship with God.

When you look in the mirror who do you see? Do you see the leper someone whom no one wants to know, a pariah, someone decent people turn away from. Do you the centurion someone who is an outsider, you have no religious background, in your won world people admire you and you have your friends; but amongst those who really matter, those who know what goodness is; you are an outsider you do not belong. Do you see the old woman? Someone who was never worth much anyway, but now way past your best with nothing left to give. It is funny but here in Matthew 8 Jesus restores the leper, befriends the centurion, heals Peter’s mother in law but he turns way the bright you teacher of the law who wants Jesus to be his teacher; He turns away the zealous religious man who wants to follow but must do his duty first.

What Matthew is telling us is that discipleship begins not with us coming to Jesus and laying at His feet our devotion, our gifts and zeal. Discipleship begins with Jesus simply touching us and making us whole.

Fascinatingly Matthew connects Jesus healing of the leper, the centurion’s son and Peter’s mother-in-law to Isaiah’s prophecy about the suffering servant whom he saw as being pierced for iniquities. Matthew sees the leper finding his withered limb restored and going home to his family, the centurion going home and finding his son, or his servant, fit and well and pater’s mother-in-law rising from her sick bed and serving Jesus as being pictures of knowing the healing of forgiveness that flows from cross.

For us guilt is a big thing. We find the past condemning us, so many, many painful memories. We find the great commandments, ‘thou shalt have no God’s before me’ ‘thou shalt not steal, lie, covet’ condemning us. We find Jesus teaching in the Sermon on the Mount condemning us ‘You have heard it said anyone who murders will be subject to judgement … but I say ‘you fool’ will be subject to hell fire.’ There are so many people who make us feel small and inadequate. Guilt is a big, big thing for us. Guilt cripples us in so many ways. I spoke to a lady once who told me that she refused to believe in god because she knew that she would be in hell for all that she had done. Guilt made her turn away from God and the whole possibility that he might just be bigger than our failure. That is what guilt does it. She could not open her eyes to behold the beauty of Jesus for she feared condemnation.

But for Jesus dealing with guilt is easy; all it takes is a word. To the woman caught in adultery, just a word, ‘Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more.’ To the murderer and thief on the cross next to Him, just a word ‘you will be with me in paradise.’ To Thomas who poured scorn on His resurrection ‘Behold my wounds.’ Those words cost Jesus His life, but He uttered them nonetheless.

I used to wonder what was in Jesus’ eyes what was in his voice as He spoke to Thomas in the Upper Room. Thomas is so brash so scornful, ‘Unless I see nail marks in His hands and put my fingers where the nails were; I will not believe it.’ ‘You are credulous fools’ he is saying to his fellow disciples, ‘I’ll not be taken in as you have been.’ All the time Jesus is there; how does Jesus react? What is in His eyes what is in His voice? The one day at the Clydebank crematorium I had put together a series of short readings from John’s Gospel John 1 the uncreated Word, the glory of the Saviour. John 3 – why He came, not to judge but to save; John 17 – His prayer for us in the Upper Room that we should be with Him forever. Then John 20 Jesus appears to Thomas – Jesus greater than our unbelief. I put John 3 and John 20 together and there was my answer. Jesus did not appear to Thomas to sneer at him, or to crush him but that Thomas too would know resurrection life. So it would be with the warmest of smiles and with the most tender, forgiving love in his eyes that Jesus would have said to Thomas ‘Behold my hands!’ It gave Jesus the greatest joy to say these words to Thomas in a way that created faith and trust in Thomas’s heart; it took just a word to restore Thomas but that word cost Jesus His life.

The leper could not heal himself. The Roman centurion could do nothing to help his son. Peter’s mother in law was helpless, delirious with a fever. Discipleship always begins with us knowing the gentle life giving touch of the Saviour.

So the crowds flock to Jesus. We know from other stories that Jesus found healing exhausting; energy strength, life drained out of Him as He ministered to others and so to recover the commentators suggest He sought some time apart on the other side of the Sea of Galilee just to recuperate. A few weeks ago I had to make a routine visit to the doctor and there with him was a student, he looked about 12, and so the student as part of his training had to find out all that had happened to me in the last couple of years and he did it very well and could answer all the questions our doctor put to him. Later another lady I know was visiting the same doctor and the same student was there. This lady had been through a hard time and the doctor said she needed to take things easy and allow her strength return she needed to convalesce. He turned to the student and asked him if he knew what ‘convalescence’ meant and he struggled to give an answer! Whilst I was convalescing last year for three or four months all I read was PG Wodehouse. My brain needed a rest. Sometimes all God the Father wanted Jesus to do was rest and all He wants you to do is to rest.

But as he makes His way to the shore at Capernaum Jesus meets two young men who are both keen to have Jesus as their teacher, one who will deepen their knowledge of the Torah. Both men have their qualities but Jesus perceives that neither really understands what knowing God’s will really means.

It was the practice in Jesus’s times for a young man who was keen to become an expert in God’s law himself to go around listen to various teachers of the law and then choose the one whom he thought he could learn most from. This first young man has, evidently, listened to Jesus discerned that He has an authority the other teachers of the law do not have and that he would learn much from Him. Bjt Jesus turns him away saying, ‘Foxes have their holes and the birds of the air their nests but the Son of man has no place to rest his head.’

Did this young man see the law of God as something very beautiful to be admired? Did he see it as an essential part of the Jewish culture that had to be protected? Or was he a young man that loved an argument and wanted to become skilled in debate?

Jesus is saying to him that knowing the will of God is none of these things; it is a life it is something you live. It is bearing the ignorance of the crowd, not being repulsed by the stench it is allowing life flow out of you and reaching out and touching a leper.

To the second young man who came Jesus said, ‘Let the dead bury the dead.’ According to Jewish custom it was a son’s duty in fulfilment of the sixth commandment ‘thou shalt honour your father and your mother…’ that he should return home and organise his father’s funeral and that he should then remain at home for six days of mourning. For this man knowing the law of God was doing one’s duty.

The trouble with duty is there is no life in it, it is for the dead. Those without the imagination to see the beauty of and old lady everyone else considers useless rising from what all assume to be her death bed to make Jesus some scones and serve them to Him for His tea. Those without the heart to say ‘Your son is dying, take me to him.’ Those without the eyes to see the remarkable faith of the centurion and rejoice that God the Father could allow a Gentile see the glory of the Saviour so clearly. This guy I am sure could have invented a thousand reasons why it was better for the centurion’s son to die Peter’s mother-in-law to fade away it was more than his job’s worth, he lacked the imagination to show compassion and now the law fulfilled with love.

So the gifted and the dutiful are turned away and the leper, the centurion and the old lady get on with loving and serving Christ. Discipleship begins not with the gifts and the dedication we bring to Christ but with the healing touch of the Saviour.

Sunday 18 September

A normal Sunday in BVP when we continue with our studies in Matthew's Gospel. I have decided to rearrange the pages on the blog. I have moved Order of Service to where the Sermons were and am putting the sermons on the first page because the blog then keeps back issues as it were.

On Sunday 11 September we considered the Centurion of great faith ...

Matthew 8 v5-13

'Amazing Faith'

Many, many years ago I worked as a student cutting grass for quite a few summers cutting at Fort George. One chap used to tell great jokes but they were told with rough language that would have made Billy Connelly blush. One day I thought I would be smart and retell one of his jokes as he told it. Instead of getting roars of laughter the other blokes looked stunned and turned away saying they never thought they would hear me speak like that. I learned the lesson the hard way that when you are a Christian people expect you to live as Christian. I have never forgotten the stunned silence that followed my telling of the story.

There would have been stunned silence amongst the crowd and the disciples as Jesus touched the leper; it simply was not done to touch such a man but Jesus did it. Now again as the centurion approaches Jesus and asks him to heal his servant, or as some versions of the story have it, the man’s son and Jesus makes to go to this man’s home, the crowds, the disciples would have been stunned. Jews did not mix with Gentiles and certainly did not visit their homes! A stunned silence would have followed Jesus offer to go to this man’s house.

The willingness of Jesus to visit the centurion’s house anticipates a story in Acts 10. Peter is at prayer and all of sudden he has this weird vision: a large sheet is lowered down from heaven, and on the sheet are all kinds of animals sheep, pigs, cows, horses, donkeys, reptiles, crocodiles, armadillos, alligators and birds of the air, eagles, sparrows, doves, guinea fowl, ducks, geese. Now it turns out this sheet is the menu for the day and a voice commands him, ‘Get up Peter. Kill and eat.’ On this al a carte menu there are animals and birds the Jews considered unclean, and so Peter protests saying he has never eaten anything unclean. But the voice declares ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ Peter is so slow on the uptake this happens three times. Peter is completely bemused.

Then there was a knock on Peter’s door some men had arrived from Caesarea inviting Peter to the home of a centurion there called Cornelius. When he arrives at Caesarea Peter goes to the home of, Cornelius falls in reverence at Peter’s feet; but Peter says to him ‘Get up I am only a man myself!’ The meaning of the sheet descending with all the different animals on it becomes plain and Peter realises that the mercy and grace of God are not just for Jews like him but for Gentiles too.

A great deal is made today of how we are to be free of prejudice and be welcoming to all who would come to worship with us no matter their colour, gender age, nationality culture. For the most part most of us do not have a problem with that; except for one person. I think there maybe just one person you cannot accept as a child of God, you cannot accept that this Christ died for this person and he or she is forgiven once and for all. It is someone you know well; you have suffered at their hands and so have those who are precious and dear to you. The memory of what they have done haunts you. That person is you.

Go home, look at yourself in the mirror, remember Christ giving His life for you, rebuke the accusing voice and say, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’

Our normal practice when studying the Gospels is to concentrate upon Christ and learn more and more about Him. But this morning I would like us to concentrate on the centurion. His great faith astonished Jesus and so I would like us to study this man that we might discern what it is about him that made him so remarkable.

Centurions as the name implies were in today’s terms junior and middle ranking army officers; they could command 100 sometimes 200 legionaries. But they were not backroom staff coordinating a battle from a safe distance they fought alongside the ordinary foot soldiers were expected to lead the charge mortality rates among centurions was therefore high. But more than centurions were to lead by example. Their example of their courage, skill in the arts of war and appetite for the fight was to be an example to the 100 soldiers around them.

The Jews would have been astonished at Jesus offering to go to this man’s home; but how shocked the centurion’s entourage must have been at this warrior, whom they all looked up to, seeking the help of the carpenter of Nazareth.

The first thing that strikes me about this centurion is that he was a man who knew his limitations; he could lead a hundred men in battle, he could lead the men over the top and rouse them to a frenzy of murderous fury but there was nothing he could do for his friend who lay dying; this centurion could destroy and be an angel of death but he could not bring life; s his friend lay dying he was utterly impotent there was nothing he could do. But he does not surrender to despair and give in to the hopelessness of the situation; he comes to the one man who can help Jesus of Nazareth.

Then secondly what strikes me about this man is that even though he is a man of some importance in the Roman army and is used to having people come and go at his command he realises that if Jesus was to enter his home to heal his servant Jesus would be declared unclean and would suffer greatly at the hands of the Jewish religious officials and so though Jesus is willing to come to his home he is not willing to allow Jesus suffer unduly. The centurion in spite of his position is remarkably considerate and kind in his dealings with Jesus. Jesus was subject to so much criticism, so much ridicule and rejection this man’s consideration and kindness must have moved Jesus deeply.

Thirdly, there is his insight. He discerns that Jesus does not use magic spells and the cheap tricks of the illusionists and sham healers to effect His remarkable healings Jesus authority rests not magical incantations and spells but in simple plain authority. Just as he as a soldier has a hundred men at his command Jesus as the Son of God has the created order at His command and just as soldiers obey the centurion so the forces of nature obey Jesus. This man with a clear eye sees through to the true source of all Jesus power.

Then fourthly there is his quiet acceptance of Jesus word. Jesus says ‘Go! It will be done just as you believed it would.’ And the centurion simply accepts Jesus word. There is no flash of lightening in the sky, stars do not come twinkling from Jesus lips as He utter the words, Jesus does not wave a magic wand and a flash of light streams from the end of the wand to the man’s house enters the servant’s room and zaps him to life. No the centurion accepts Jesus word.  Turns and walks home. I find that incredible. I think I would be dragging Jesus to 20 St Kilda Drive ushering Him upstairs and then watching as He placed His hands on my son’s head and listening breathlessly to every word of the prayer. But the centurion simply takes Jesus as His word.

Then there is joy; within the hour the servant, or the centurion’s son, is healed and faith finds its fulfilment and there is great joyous celebration and this centurion quietly in a corner worshipping Jehovah and Christ Jesus.

In the Old Testament we are taught that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and the problem for us is that we think of fear in terms of awe even of dread; whereas we have non word in English that conveys what the fear of God is. One great German scholar Rudolf Otto tried to find a German word that described the Hebrew means by our translation of the ‘fear of the Lord’ and found there was nothing in the German language that could convey the meaning either; so he used the Latin mysterium tremendum.

But the fear of the Lord is all that this Roman centurion experienced in the presence of Christ. Knowledge of one’s absolute inadequacy and incapacity, the desire to exalt Christ, knowledge of His absolute authority, rest in His willingness and delight in doing good, joy in His mercy and compassion. One of the fascinating things about the centurion is that all these thoughts and insights were churning around in His at the one time. One moment he is overwhelmed by his powerlessness, the next he is rejoicing in the greatness of Christ, he is cast in meekness at the feet of Christ, he is receiving the blessing of Christ and delighting in Christ’s joy in his faith. All these things together, each one gaining strength from the other, is what the Old Testament knows as the fear of the Lord.

The amazing thing is that throughout the whole Old Testament period God longed to find such amazing faith in the hearts of His people and found it only occasionally, say, in the great prophets like Elijah certainly not in the ordinary people and most certainly not in a pagan Roman. Here in Galilee Jesus comes across this centurion who exhibits the true fear of God that He has longed for since the opening pages of Genesis.

What can this mean? It can only mean one thing; that God the father heard the anguished cry of this centurion as he cried out to the heavens for his beloved to be healed. God the father then sends the Holy Spirit to open this man’s mind to who Jesus is and the authority and compassion that resides in Jesus. Then Jesus delights in meeting this man’s need and heals the servant. The man then rejoices in the greatness of God.

This whole wonderful movement between the persons of the Trinity is known as the perichoresis. Perichoresis is a Greek word and literally peri means around and choresis means to dance. So perichoresis means to dance around. Perichoresis describes the joy and delight God the Father has in the goodness of Christ the Son and of how the Son takes pleasure and is in complete harmony with the goodness and compassion of the Father; and of how the Spirit delights in honouring the Son at the Father’s bidding.

So what is really happening in this story is God the Father thinking to Himself how can I bless Jesus today how can I make my beloved’s heart overflow with joy. He hears the prayer of the centurion and sends the Holy Spirit to this man to lead him into Jesus presence and open this pagan Roman’s eyes to the splendour of who Jesus is. Jesus then delighting in the Father’s compassion heals the servant rejoicing in the this wonderful fear of God, this mysterium tremendum, the Spirit has created in this man’s heart the knowledge that God the Father is doing a wonderful and new thing in the world that is greater even than all he has done past for His people Israel This wonderful joyous flow of goodness and grace between the Father, Son and the Spirit is perichoresis and the centurion becomes part this wonderful dance as he worships Christ.

This is the joy and wonder of the Christian life that as we know the fear of God, the mysterium tremendum we too become part of the perichoresis.

As we come to the our Lord’s Table today, conscious of how destructive our lives have been, knowing that only Jesus can heal and bring life, as we come conscious of His goodness and wanting Him and Him alone to be exalted, as we come to the Table with a simple trust in his word and quietly give thanks for His goodness; all these things together mark the fear of God, the mysterium tremendum and quiet unconsciously we are caught up in the great dance of the Godhead, the perichoresis.