Nurturing a Godly Life (Jude 17-25)

In our reading from the Letter of Jude we have some good advice that can be applied to parents in the bringing up of their children. We can even say that the priorities which are put in place in families can be informed by such teaching as this. We can’t expect children to do as we say, or to grow as we would like, unless we ourselves as parents and adult role models actually walk the talk. We need to live out lives of faith, prayer, love and compassion, if the children we are responsible for are going to be able to firstly connect with God, and then reach their God-given potential. I know a bit about this, because such faith, prayer, love and compassion, as spoken of in the text, was lived out for me.

Let’s firstly focus together on verses 20-21, where there are four clear elements of nurturing Godly lives. As we can see from the context of the passage, such Godly nurturing will be often carried out in difficult circumstances and through various pressures. Yet, it will be persevering with the things that are really important that will facilitate the sort of life orientation that will survive and then thrive no matter how bad external conditions might be.

1. Build Yourselves up on Your Most Holy Faith

This means seeing your faith in God through Jesus as the central dynamic of your life. Everything springs from here. Every decision, every relationship, derives from the centrality of faith – no exception. We then grow in faith, and it gains arms and legs to show faith’s effectiveness in everyday life. The faith we have within allows us to live out the life of Jesus through the power of God’s Holy Spirit. We begin to strongly sense what Jesus was on about in his life and teaching, and then do likewise.

Without a growing faith our life will just go around in circles, like continually driving around a roundabout without having any idea which direction to take. And thus we cannot be in any position to guide the next generation. Our children we have to make decisions for themselves as time goes on, and take responsibility for their own lives, but in the meantime we must have a legacy of faith to pass on to them, indeed a legacy of faith that can survive through many generations to come.

2. Pray in the Holy Spirit

We need to pray for our children by name, understanding their individual personalities, and bringing before God their particular needs. And these are not just words thrown into the air, or wishes before you blow out the birthday candles – these are prayers being placed into the very heart of God. And when we are not sure what to pray or how to pray, the Holy Spirit interprets our heartfelt groanings to God on our behalf.

3. Keep Yourselves in the Love of God

How can we “keep” ourselves in the love of God (such that we can pass on this knowledge of God’s love)???

· Be thoroughly immersed in God’s Word; where lessons for life can be read, interpreted and applied.
· Be a consistent participant in collective worship; to bring our family up in the context of a faithful worshipping community, while being no guarantee, is the best way forward in setting young people on the right track.
· Have fellowship with God’s people; where trials and joys can be shared, and where encouragement and mutual learning brings growth.
· Be a contributor to the work of God in the church; to truly know God’s love requires continual experiences of God … as God moves through the church, community and world seeking relationship with people and disciples to join in the mission.

4. Look Forward to the Mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life

We raise our children in families and in church communities with one major goal in mind … that one day, by their own choosing, they will follow Jesus … that they will accept God’s forgiveness, and declare Jesus to be the Lord of their life; then from here they will lead a life of discipleship i.e. learning to know God’s will and purpose for every facet of their lives.

Sure their education is important, and we need to help our children find their vocation in life. Sure their socialization is important, learning how to interact with a wide variety of people in a diverse number of settings. Sure their physical well-being is important, opportunities to play sport, get fit, and recreate in clubs. But what ultimate value is any of this outside of knowing Jesus! All these other areas are bound to collapse eventually without the solid foundation of faith in Jesus to hold life together.

To “look forward to the mercy of Jesus” is to be desperately committed to seeing the grace of God through Jesus touch our loved ones … in such a way that their life is fully under-girded by faith. This is an experience of the mercy of Jesus that leads to “eternal life”, which is not just a statement about the afterlife, far more importantly it is a statement about the quality and sustainability of earthly life … life here and now the best way it can be lived.


Then finally in verse 22, we have further mentions of ‘mercy’. The fifth piece of advice for parents and carers here is the demonstration of compassion, so that this may likewise develop in our children.

5. Have Mercy on Others

There are many around us who find life very difficult, who do not know Jesus, who have not been guided in the truths of the Bible, who have even been badly affected by false teaching or failed philosophies, who are quite weak, who have had very tragic experiences in life, whose trust has been destroyed. Such people are not to be ostracized even further, nor heartlessly condemned. God loves such people at least as much as us.

Such mercy or compassion is sometimes going to require direct action of us. Other times it will necessitate a quiet sitting beside. But it always will require human solidarity and spiritual intuitiveness (what is God wanting to convey to this person)! All throughout such interaction though, we are to keep our own integrity intact, and not allow ourselves to be attracted to behaviour from the other side.

Our children will only be able to reflect such compassion if it has first been reflected to them. How do we respond to the strugglers and waverers? God loves the prodigals and wants us to do the same. Many people are ‘betwixt and between’, trying to have it both ways and travel on both sides of the street; they have hesitated far too long from really following Jesus. Such people are ‘at odds with themselves’. These people need to be loved into the Kingdom through the compassions of God. Sometimes though, the most compassionate route will require some very direct words, lest it will soon be too late!

"Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to make you stand without blemish in the presence of his glory with rejoicing, to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, power, and authority, before all time and now and for ever. Amen."

Warren's Tribute to His Mother - Cath Hodge - on 26/6/08 at Armadale Baptist Church

Firstly I’d like to personally thank all those who have come tonight to join us in offering thanksgiving for my mother’s life; including those who have come right across from my church at Point Cook to support Raelene and I and Dad. Mum sang at Point Cook last Christmas morning … “Make me a Channel of your Peace” Mum sang, with Raelene joining her on the choruses, and this was such an outstanding contribution to our worship that day. Mum’s singing was one of her crowning glories and came from deep within her heart of love and faith.

My childhood was marked with constant encouragement and belief in my ability to learn, mature and achieve. I was of course blessed to grow up in this Christian family, and again blessed to grow up in this church, watching both Mum and Dad serve their Lord and God’s people, in so doing learning how the Church is the place where faith is nurtured, tested and given arms and legs. Mum followed Jesus into serving others.

It was Mum’s father, Pa Brumby, who indoctrinated me into a love of football. But I didn’t come to follow his team Hawthorn, or Mum’s beloved Essendon, but the Mighty Blues. When Mum & I used to listen to the Essendon/Carlton games on the radio, we could barely stay in the same room, so high did passions rise. But we did listen to the 1968 grand final together in the dining room at Flowerdale Road – Carlton fell in by three points. There we were again in 1993, watching TVs in different parts of the house – however the Baby Bombers beat Carlton by a whole lot more than I want to remember. Raelene and I didn’t stay for tea that night … I wanted to go to the movies to forget the game.

Of course football was not the only thing we discussed over the lunch table, when I still lived at home. The strength of our relationship was shown as we passionately yet peaceably debated politics and theology. Mum loved to get my take on what the women were discussing at Bible Study, or the preacher had said in the sermon. Mum was always willing to take on board another point of view and weigh it up, and with great integrity either shift a little bit or otherwise stand her ground. Mum was inspirational in her love for the Bible; it was always there in various rooms, with notes stuck in it and a pencil nearby. Also you just knew you were being constantly prayed for as well as loved.

When thinking about this I thought about Mum being the epitome of the Beatitudes of Matthew 5 and the ‘Fruits of the Spirit’ of Galatians 5; there was humility, gentleness, strength, courage, faithfulness, purity, patience, kindness, generosity, and a forgiving nature. Mum’s very life was a much greater sermon on God’s grace than I could ever give, than Andrew could ever give, than even F W Boreham could ever give.

One of my most wonderful memories is coming to choir practice here with Mum, and sitting over there in the choir stalls through the 1980’s, with Yvonne and a parade of other singers, and enjoying every moment of the fun and the serious rehearsal involved. Doing crosswords together was always interesting and enjoyable. Mum was also able to endure and hang-in through my down times, and times where I didn’t know where I was headed; Mum’s concern, love and support only increased. And then there was those stunning cure-all “favourite cakes”, which I received another big batch of recently.

Snippets of wonderful memories with Mum will flash in and out for the rest of my life. I got to go with Mum and Dad on a trip round the world in 1971; and despite being an uncooperative 11 year old, we shared times together in many awesome places. I remember being together on the beach in Hawaii, at Disneyland, the Grand Canyon on a really windy day, going up the Empire State Building and the Eiffel Tower, driving through Britain, training through Italy, cruising through Grecian Islands, waiting on a derailed train somewhere in bitterly cold Switzerland. I remember that Dad and I walked through Florence without Mum, because she had to wash her hair that particular day.

Back at Glen Iris, there was the time when Ray badly influenced me and we blew the peg-tin off the washing line with fire-crackers, pegs strewn all around the back yard, with only silly me left when Mum came running out of the kitchen; or the less than positive reception to the footy being kicked through the bathroom window! Then there was the time when Mum prayed so beautifully at my induction at West Melbourne Baptist in 1994. And what about Mum’s love for Raelene, which was remarkable, unconditional, and of course reciprocated; because I loved Raelene, Mum naturally loved her. Despite her fear of dogs, due to having been attacked by one as a child, Mum even found it in her heart to show affection for our two dogs – Brandi & Monty.

Love you, Mum.

Covenant - God's Covenant with Noah - a Sermon on Genesis 9:1-17

If we are to understand God, it is important for us to consider the nature of the relationship that God has sought to have with us, and we can do this by studying the idea of ‘covenant’ contained in the scriptures. We are doing a little overview of the ‘new covenant’ during communion at the moment; now today we’ll look specifically at the covenant God shared with Noah way back.

We really have to grapple with the scriptures, and make sense of them in the context of our everyday lives, if we are going to be able to effectively witness to the wonder of God through our journey of life. We might have heard people question (or even thought ourselves):
· ‘the world is so bad … why doesn’t God end it all’, or,
· ‘how does God cope with all the injustice & cruelty in this world He created’,
· or, ‘why does God allow things to go on like this’??? What answers can we give to such questions!

We’ll have plenty of time for comments and questions at the end (or interrupt if you want to).

We know that God created everything in great hope and optimism. In the early chapters of Genesis, and again in places like Psalm 8, we read that human beings have been made in God’s image, and then given (collective) responsibility for the rest of the created order. The “fall” or the entrance of sin on the scene interfered with this, and still does, yet did not alter the fact that each human is born in God’s image – and thus their life is sacred. And this responsibility that humans have over the rest of creation has never been revoked, God remaining optimistic about the outcomes. Why … because God, as well as being this most magnificent force of creation, is also a very personal relational Being who can transform lives from darkness to light, and from meaninglessness to purpose.

Yet we see that this is not easy for God. God sees the evil and violence in the world, and the inclinations of human hearts toward such evil, and expresses (in Genesis 6:5-6) being sorry for creating humankind; in some ways God wishes that He could start over again. We then see this in the whole Noah story. God looked upon the state of the world with great disappointment; and this disappointment was too much for God. This disappointment would well over into a massive flood over the face of the earth, with dire consequences. But God did find a righteous man, whom he knew would respond well, and gave him the task of preserving the animal kingdom and re-populating the world. Noah would build an ark to provide for such safe continuance of life.

We can see that God could not easily look upon what was happening on earth, it caused God great inner turmoil. Yet when the flood was all over there was still a sense of regret in God about the action He took – such that God committed to never taking this course of action again. We learn here the gravity of sin, injustice and cruelty; at the same time as seeing God’s optimism, hope and connectedness to humanity. Just because God is compassionate, doesn’t lessen the negativity of sin. Yet despite the abuses of God’s creation and gift of life century after century, God remains faithful in His care for us.

Just as well … as we look at history, even the recent history of war, genocide, injustice and localised incidences of violence, abuse and terror! God no doubt looks on this with despair now, yet continues to seek to empower His people to clean up their mess. Following the flood, God made a covenant, not to again destroy humanity from the face of the earth. God put a rainbow in the sky to continually remind Himself of the decision that had been made. And, given what God would observe over and over again, He would certainly need such reminding.

This early ‘covenant’ was an ‘agreement’ that God was making within Himself, you might say within the Trinity or Community of God (inclusive of the Son and Spirit), with Noah as God’s witness, about how God would act in the future in regard to humanity. So much does God love us … that He will put up with a lot on the path of reclaiming us into relationship with the Divine Community!

In this covenant, without any obligation to do so, God is binding himself to humanity. God is unconditionally committed to us. I talk a lot about how we have to be on mission with Jesus, but this text reminds even me that God initially comes to us with a promise without any demands (or performance indicators) attached (other than the preservation of life itself). Later covenantal theology develops implications, but God begins here with pure promise. This is so different to our place of study where we are strictly examined, or to our place of work where our performance is judged against certain criteria, or in the material world where how we look is compared to some artificial ideal.

God is thoroughly committed to our well-being. Perhaps this is why, despite all the terrible weapons of mass destruction man has invented, life on earth continues. Whether people realise it or not, life continues because of God’s covenanted care! As we heard from the early part of Genesis 9, God places huge value on each human life, and wants to see each life maintained until the opportunity for reconciliation with each person arrives.

Following the flood, the call of the creation stories to ‘be fruitful and multiply’, are firmly restated. The beneficiaries of this ‘covenant’ or ‘agreement’ would be the descendants of all those creatures that came out of the ark, right through to you and I and all our descendants. All people of all subsequent times, places, cultures and nationalities are covered, all in the hope that they would truly become part of God’s family. [Also, lest anyone doubt our significant responsibility to the animal kingdom, note the repeated interest shown by God in each species that has been created.]

As we read in verse 16, this is an “everlasting” unbreakable covenant, that God will find ways of maintaining, and as we know, develop in it new directions. There will be future covenants with Abraham and Moses which develop our understanding of God’s relationship with His people; and we know about the ‘new covenant’ through Jesus’ blood – the ultimate offering of God’s grace.

The choice of the ‘rainbow’ as the symbol of covenant is interesting in itself. The Hebrew word used here is simply ‘bow’, and generally refers to a ‘weapon’ used by ancient Near Eastern soldiers. Thus an instrument of war and death is laid aside in the clouds to become a sign of peace and life assured in the everlasting covenant. Here we see a very early sign of God’s heart of mercy and grace … that overwhelms any sense of justice or punishment or revenge. The ‘rainbow’ is God’s cry for peace in the midst of turmoil, and an invitation to relationship in the midst of lostness.

It is not only God who needs to be reminded about His covenant by the ‘rainbow’, we too need to remember when we see the rainbow how much God cares for us … this is the real ‘pot of gold’ at the end of the rainbow. We may fail God, but God will never fail us. Irenaeus taught that God did not create human beings simply for company – God was fully complete in the Three Persons of the Trinity. God created us so that He could show us all His generosity.

'Home Ground Advantage'? A Sermon on Mark 6:1-6

This passage before us deals with Jesus being rejected and how he reacted to that rejection. In thinking through some of the implications of this passage, we are caused to see that the coin which has the world’s rejection on one side has God’s acceptance on the other. Can we also reassess where our ‘home ground advantage’ might lie?

1. The Negative Impact of Rejection

We are taught in the book of Hebrews that Jesus suffered much like we do, and therefore understands all of what we face in life. Hebrews 2:18 reads: “Because [Jesus] himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested”.

One of those things we can experience in life is the feeling of being rejected. Here in our text from Mark, Jesus certainly experienced rejection – from the people of his own hometown. Jesus had already been rejected by the religious authorities (Mark 3) and members of his family (in terms of not recognising who he really was). Jesus was being doubted – people were denying the possibility that he was who he claimed to be; his word or truthfulness was being called into question. How hurtful is this! Just because he was a manual labourer, doesn’t mean that he couldn’t be gifted in other ways. A person can’t be categorised so simply … yet Jesus was being limited to the carpenter’s shop. Just because you have grown up with a person and known them in a certain way, doesn’t mean that they can’t later excel in ways never before dreamed of. Jesus was being seen in purely human terms.

Sometimes our abilities are doubted. Sometimes our word or truthfulness is called into question. Sometimes people doubt our motives. This all leads to feelings of rejection and isolation. We may be rejected because we don’t seem to live up to other people’s expectations (or even because we surpass them). We may feel rejected because the other people around us are too wrapped up in themselves to notice our needs. We can be rejected when others just don’t get us, or don’t seem to have the time to listen and get to know us. We think we’re doing alright, but others just find faults … to the point that we ourselves start focussing on the faults (rather than our potential). We should always remember the scriptural encouragement here: “Because [Jesus] himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested.”

We might have been rejected because of what we stand for, as against what most other people build their life around. People tend to push away what they can’t understand. Jesus was rejected because people of his hometown could not cope with the notion that he was truly the Son of God. Jesus was leading a mission to Gentile peoples and bringing healing to outcasts (Mark 5), and people from Jesus’ hometown wanted nothing of it. Salvation and healing were worthy pursuits, but not the way Jesus was going about it, so they thought! These townspeople had watched Jesus grow up, and probably saw his occasional naughtiness. They knew his mother Mary as a neighbour. They were not prepared to entertain the idea that God was working mightily through Jesus.

Prophets, who speak the words of God to the people, are not usually without honour, but are revered … that is, unless they are taken for granted. Those who have had Jesus right before their faces are the first to reject him. Why – because Jesus was not acting or speaking the way they wanted him too. They would’ve wanted to hear that Gentiles were evil, that the Romans would be overthrown, that God would again elevate Israel, that those who worked hard would be regarded most important, that they could live as they liked under God’s blessing. But this was not what Jesus taught. Jesus taught that people needed to exercise faith … that this was the most important thing, and what mattered most to God. And thus Jesus was rejected, shunned, and sent away packing – just like the errant teenager who has pushed his parents just a little too far!

You would have thought that Jesus would have had a ‘home ground advantage’ in Nazareth … that this would have been worth quite a few goals. Not to be! I can remember the days when Carlton won 20 odd consecutive games at their home ground of Princes Park – you would go there absolutely expecting to win, and be thoroughly dejected if you didn’t. When Jesus entered Nazareth and started teaching in the synagogue, he may have had high expectations for the outcome. Yet, so indifferent was the response to Jesus there in Nazareth, that despite what had happened everywhere else Jesus had gone, nothing seemed to happen there. Jesus’ power still could not be denied, a few people were touched and cured, the potential of miracles was still open; but there seemed to be a spiritual void there in Nazareth … and we know the reason! There was a complete lack of real faith. Jesus is not a showman with a varied bag of tricks, but a redeeming God looking for faith orientated people to work through. Jesus was “amazed” (I think we can read ‘devastated’) at the lack of belief in Nazareth; Jesus needed to move on (even though this would be personally painful).

2. Dealing Positively with Rejection

Jesus was ready for this – he had put a new supportive community together … not based on neighbourhood or family connections, but rather based on the commonality of faith in God. Jesus had said that: “Whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:35). Jesus had called disciples who he would spend most of his time with; this was not a sure bet, and these disciples had their shortcomings, but at least they seemed to be committed to something beyond themselves. Jesus left Nazareth with his disciples and went about among the villages teaching. Jesus was not deterred – he was living out faith.

Back in the previous chapter, when faced with the news of the death of Jairus’ daughter, Jesus said to Jairus, as he says to us … “Do not fear, only believe”. The person of faith only has to touch Jesus’ cloak, and something dramatic and transforming will happen. We might be rejected by some because of what we stand for; there might be derogatory whispers behind our back; we might not get invited to the places everyone else does; but this could be the greatest compliment we are ever paid … at least our lives stand for something. And eventually those who start searching for and discovering the light will be able to ask us questions about the hope we seem to possess.

In the meantime, we will have to live with rejection, but such rejection may help us to focus on the most important things in life. And then we discover the places that we are called to be, and the company that we are intended to keep. We discover the utter indispensability of the Church community … as the place where God brings all the gifts together (for the common good), and builds the basis for relevant and practical mission enterprise. Some will try to go it alone – but they’re not going to make it … this is working against nature (how we have been created relationally). Discipleship is all about comradeship and a shared journey. One person can’t make much of a difference by themselves – but people can as they work together! Jesus was about to send out his disciples two by two to see who would gratefully receive the good news and embrace faith.

It will be an excited surety about God’s power to transform that will see change for the better. It will be recognising God’s presence and participating in God’s plans that will see people’s lives changed. Faith is about no longer seeing things just from a human viewpoint (which is oh so limited), but beginning to see all the wonderful possibilities from God’s angle or viewpoint. People can change – neighbourhoods and communities can change – the world can change. Through Jesus, people have regained their sight, their mobility, their well-being, and their right mind; so the possibilities are endless.

3. Receiving God’s Acceptance

It is ironic that the One who suffered so much rejection, is the same One who represents God’s acceptance of us … if we would just trust in that. This is a reflection of God’s acceptance and commendation of Jesus (at his baptism) in anticipation of the world’s rejection: “You are my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased”. When others get down on us … God loves and accepts us. When we get down on ourselves … God loves and accepts us. When we feel disconnected or sad or weary … God loves and accepts us. We can find a new home in the heart of God, just like Jesus found his home among those who did his Father’s will. God no longer looks at our misdeeds, but rather at Jesus on the cross, bringing reconciliation between us and God. Naturally there is a penalty for our sinful deeds, but so much does God love us, that God pays that price on our behalf through Jesus – and we are set free.

The way out of our feelings of rejection or sadness or hurt is … to throw ourselves wholly into the worship of Jesus, learning about him, and following him thoroughly. Those that lose their lives (into the worship and service of Jesus) will actually save their lives and truly find themselves (Mark 8)! We have discovered a whole new ‘home ground advantage’. We are citizens of the Kingdom of God. This is like when refugees, politically excluded from their countries of birth, come to live in Australia as their new home (and experience a whole new realm of freedom and possibility). As followers of Jesus, although (gratefully) living in the neighbourhoods we live in, our first and foremost allegiance is to God’s Kingdom – the place where God’s will is done mediated by grace. We then bless our community through our own experience of acceptance by God and knowledge of Jesus.

So where are we in this story? Telling Jesus to go away – he doesn’t count for anything, or, allowing Jesus to come alongside our feelings of rejection or alienation and offer us a new acceptance into God? The witness of Mark’s Gospel (and the Scriptures generally) is that Jesus is the Son of God. Can we respond to this in faith, and get ready to follow him wherever he leads? Are we truly taking up our new ‘home ground advantage’? Can we see that God is at work here now? Jesus embraces any feelings of rejection we may have, because he has been there! Yet as Son of God, Jesus can also present us with God’s acceptance, which really flips the coin over, and helps us to choose to kick with the wind right behind us.