Foolishness or Power? 1 Cor 1:10-18

1 Cor 1:10=19 The power of God.

v18 says “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Paul is dealing with Corinthians self congratulation. They do Power and Spectacular. Their services have Tongues, Prophecy, Hundreds of People, A Party! But its all getting a bit Competitive. Who’s being most
right. Pick your teacher. Its probably not just personalities but selective priorities or teachings. Is Paul more happy clappy? Is Apollos more intellectual? Is Peter more Catholic? Is Christ more Gnostic? Come! Join the
biggest and best. Its spiritual Consumerism. Ring any bells with our churches?
How much is church about what I get out of it?
We are brought up with choices. We educate our children to make wise choices. Decide what you want.
List your priorities and goals. Do the research. Look for the right product at the right price. Consider delivery charges, credit options, aftercare provision. Look at the reviews for product and company. Check on ebay. (Buy it from Amazon in the end of course!). It’s sensible. But it is a tyranny. It depends on being rich enough to have those choices. When people are excluded from this they are sometimes driven into the hands of the pay day loan companies, into debt, into despair because society says that being human means making these choices..
How much are we dictated to by what society says is wise?
Another way: Pilgrimage. Pilgrimage breaks with the tyranny of choices. Seize the blessing of the day. God has provided can I accept it? To this is to make yourself intentionally weak. To let go of control. To reject multiple choices. To trust in God. To be foolish. You could come to a sticky end. If I were brave enough I would have undertaken my Pilgrimage without booking anything maybe God will provide a safe place to camp in the middle of Glasgow? But I’m not. So I’ll miss the excitement. That’s my loss. Am I wise or foolish? Jesus walked where the Father told him to go and look what happened to him. it was foolish perhaps? Yet he was not foolhardy. He hid. He bound people to silence. He waited until the times were right in the Father’s plan.
Are we being wise or foolish in our planning?
Offensive gospel. “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing” but only because they do not know that they are perishing. It seems foolish to leave the deck of the unsinkable Titanic for a half  swamped, overcrowded, tossing, miniscule lifeboat. Unless you’ve seen how the film ends. What is the “message of the cross?”
a) Grace, Jesus died for me in a cosmic act that defeated death itself for us all. Corinth got this.
b) Self-sacrifice, Jesus left us an instruction and an example. “Love one another as I have loved you” How much? “This much” says the cross. As for as I can reach. Now we have to love like that. Corinth didn’t get this.
Do we “get” this message of self-sacrifice?
Who are you sacrificing yourself for?
Is it Wisdom or Foolishness?
A new way of thinking is required and enabled by the cross.
A response and change is required and enabled by the cross.
Metanoia (Repentance)  is not just about turning away from the old ways its going forward, empowered, in the new. Self sacrifice not self preservation is the way of love, the way of power.
Are you wanting to walk in power? Then embrace God’s wisdom however foolish it seems.

How do broken people get to encounter Jesus ?

John 1:43-en.  Epiphany 2 2014

How do broken people get to encounter Jesus ?

Other Gospels show the disciples dropping their nets and following Jesus instantly. John describes a more gradual process. When two of John the Baptist's disciples grew curious, Jesus invited them to come and spend a day with him. Soon, they were ready to tell others what they had seen and heard. John the Baptist sees Jesus and says “Behold!” – but he was his cousin wasn't he and he’s been at the baptism. He’s had time to think about it.

So Andrew and John followed. Jesus sees them following …he says, “Come and See”

Andrew gets his brother and so Peter joins in too. Jesus goes to Andrew & Peter’s town where Jesus found Philip. Philip finds Nathaniel and Nathaniel meets Jesus.

There are connections – human relationships – a chain of them.

That is still the most common way that people get to encounter Jesus.

That web of relationships is what is designed to hold the world, society, and the kingdom together. And it can be what holds it together when things get broken.

This world can be a place of brokenness.

Broken bodies, relationships, minds, ethics, hopes and dreams. It's painful. But not inescapable. Not hopeless.

The Bible says that God is one who “forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases” Psalm 103v3.

We believe that Jesus came and lived life here both to demonstrate and to achieve that.

We believe that Jesus is risen and alive today. And He still brings healing through this web of relationships – our relationships - His church. Because we have this web both within the fellowship of the church – but also our families, friends, neighbours, workmates, acquaintances and those we meet almost at random. When we meet with those in need then God is providing them with – a touching place. They may not be able yet to perceive God – but they can meet you.

People often get a bit broken. We're a bit broken ourselves. We'd love to pray with them for our broken world – Body, Mind, Spirit or Society. To provide A TOUCHING PLACE. “God makes with His friends a touching place....”  (see below) Our Healing Team have been asking “What common issues of brokenness affect our community and Church that we can offer prayer for healing for?” A specifically targeted opportunity for people to respond confidentially in prayer.

We must pray for the Spirit to guide us we can identify particular issues for which we can offer prayer and support. Then we can offer an evening for people to come, hear some teaching about God's love, his support and His power to heal in these very situations.

Philip couldn't answer Nathaniel's questions. Peter didn't know that Philip would be at home. Andrew didn't know that his brother would be interested. John was intending to follow John the Baptist that day. The Baptist knew that his job was to make the path straight for Jesus.

They made the network.

Jesus said “Come and see”. Not only “find out” but “have your eyes opened” and be made whole. God calls us to be a touching place. Let us pray....

John L. Bell & Graham Maule.

Copyright © 1989 WGRG, Iona Community.

CHRIST’S IS THE WORLD in which we move,

Christ’s are the folk we’re summoned to love,

Christ’s is the voice which calls us to care,

And Christ is the One who calls us here.

To the lost Christ shows His face;

To the unloved He gives His embrace:

To those who cry in pain or disgrace,

Christ makes with His friends

A touching place.

Feel for the people we most avoid,

Strange or bereaved or never employed;

Feel for the women, and feel for the men

Who fear that their living is all in vain.

Feel for the parents who’ve lost their child,

Feel for the women whom men have defiled,

Feel for the baby for whom there’s no breast,

And feel for the weary who find no rest.

Feel for the lives by life confused,

Riddled with doubt, in loving abused;

Feel for the lonely heart, conscious of sin,

Which longs to be pure but fears to begin.

(From “Love from Below” Wild Goose Publications 1989)

Your Holiness is Within You.

Your Holiness is within you.  1 Corinthians 1:1-9 19/1/14

Natural Church Development: It is natural for living things to grow and to reproduce.

There are “seasons” when things seem to rest, to regather strength even to die back – but new growth springs forth if life and health remain. What phase are we in in Allesley?

Corinth was blossoming. Paul wants to affirm them and celebrate them but also to equip them for the future. They are not to see the hard times that will contrast so much with their present first flush of revival as a defeat such that they will be wiped out. They are to understand about Sanctification and Faithfulness.

1. Sanctified & Called to be Holy v2

At first glance this is difficult.

Some children like to be dressed (boys?) - some like to do it “by my own self” however long ot takes.

Are we “sanctified” that is “made holy” by Jesus? That's what the gospel of grace says. “By his wounds we are healed” . We are made holy by Jesus. This is not just God turning a blind eye, saying that it does not matter, understanding that we are “only human” and that we have “done our best”. We are not “considered holy” despite appearances. As Christians we believe that God has acted in sacrificial love to make us Holy. e.g. Being cleansed, irradiated, disinfected, purged. This is not our outward state - it is a change in our nature, in our status. So why are we charged then to “be Holy”?

Is Paul's constant message in his letters to the saints that we should live as what we are. There is no excuse for Paul. We are not weak, corrupt, lost, sinners bravely making a doomed attempt to live like Jesus secure in the knowledge that our heavenly Father will swoop down when we fall to stand us up again and comfort us in our inevitable failure. He reminds us that we are called to “be Holy”., to live out the truth that is within us. We no longer need to sin. We simply choose to do so because its easier or more gratifying. We give up this fight too easily. Nothing will compensate for a lack of holiness – not success, not growth, not power, not comfort - in fact none of these things will last if we do not pursue holiness. Holiness is within you.

Churches that are alive are Holy. Without holiness churches die.

2. He will keep you firm to the end....God is faithful v8.

Does this sound like tough stuff? Look around and see who is not living a Holy life. Don't look out – look in. You know. I know. We all know. The Church in Corinth was riding the wave of spiritual excitement. They had tongues and interpretation, miracles and prophecy, growing numbers and people to fall out with. They thought a lot of themselves. If something is growing it must be healthy – yes? But look at those old trees which produce a bumper crop just before they fall in the winter storms, as if they knew what was coming. Paul does not want them to fail. He knows that hardship and persecution is coming, they need to be strengthened. They need to be prepared. In their halcyon days of spiritual summer they need to learn that God is with them also when things get tough. When it all seems to be going wrong “God will keep you firm to the end”. Do not be afraid of seasons of retrenchment. It does not all depend on our stamina. It is God who will sustain us until our end is achieved.

We are faithless all too often. We have out Holy days – but we have our relapses too. We have out times of faith – but we lose faith and confidence sometimes, don't we? But God does not. He is faithful. He does not give up on us. He will bring us – dragged kicking and screaming if necessary – into His holy presence. For we are “made Holy” and we are called to “be Holy”. And where God calls he also enables. He won't let go of you.

Your holiness is within you.

Advent 2 John v Jesus in Matthew 3

Matthew 3:1-12


John & Jesus: Similar but Different.


Same Family 
Spiritual Conception 
Set Apart
“Nutter “ locusts & honey /“Nutter” glutton & drunkard
Blunt Northerner
Water Baptism/  Spirit Baptism
Repent!

In 1830, a man by the name of George Wilson was sentenced to hanging for killing a government employee during a train robbery. For some reason, President Andrew Jackson gave the man a full pardon. But the man refused to accept it.

That had never happened before and nobody knew how to handle it. The case went all the way up to the Supreme Court to establish a precedent. Chief Justice Marshall declared that a pardon is an offer to hold somebody not accountable for any crimes they may have committed. But if that person refuses to receive the pardon so, in effect, no pardon was given. So, Mr. Wilson was quickly hanged.

Jesus is offering you a full pardon for every thing you have ever done that is against God. He is telling you that if you will but trust Him as your Saviour, all those crimes will be erased and you will suffer no punishment.

Sadly, too many people make the same choice Mr. Wilson did, and they end up suffering the judgement of their crimes. What are you going to do with your pardon? Are you going to accept it or are you going to reject it? Have you weighed the consequences of each choice?

John was Preaching “Repent or Die”/ Jesus said “Repent and Live – here's how”

With John it was all about response./  Jesus lay down his life first – for us.

Judgement/     Pardon

With John – if you feel you are unworthy you can't receive what God wants to give

With Jesus you can accept God's pardon just because you know there is no other way to life.

That's a bit “theological” isn't it? What about real life, now? What difference does it make?

There are two ways to punctuate John's message (Interestingly it is often presented differently in the Gospel from how it is in Isaiah whom John is quoting).

“The voice of one crying in the desert: Make straight the way of the Lord”

Do you think that we, as Christians, are outside of our society – keeping ourselves pure and aloof from the sins that pervade it so that we can call people out in repentance before the Lord comes in judgement?

“The voice of one crying: In the desert make straight the way of the Lord”

Or do you think that we are completely engaged with our society, in the dry and dusty places of sin and strife like everyone else, and seeking to change it so that the Lord can return?

In a way John the Baptist operated in the first way – calling people out into the desert communities like the Essenes. He was sceptical of those who just popped out for a Baptism.

But Jesus is more like the latter. He is the incarnate God. He comes down to earth from heaven. He ate with sinners. He liked sinners. He changed sinners. He recruited sinners. He trusted sinners.

Both of these are true.

It's not either or. Its both and.

Which bit of the desert are you in?

How are you going to cry out this week?

Can you make a straight path for the Lord into your bit of the desert?

Advent 3 John & Jesus Matthew 11

Matthew 11:1-11

John – Jesus – see – go – disciples are today's Big Five words.


John is about “making a straight path for the Lord”.
When you start moving earth you find that there is a awful of of earth to move.
Many of our canals and railways take a scenic route – not from a concern for natural beauty but because the Lord of the Manor didn't want riff-raff looking over his house or garden. We sometimes do this for SSI sites – but if the need is urgent enough.... HS2 anyone?


Do we want a straight path for the Lord to come into our Church? Or do we want him to take the scenic route? What do we want this Advent: challenge or comfort?
Challenge? Really? Don't I have enough challenges going on in my life, work, relationship, family, finances, health, housing, cell, church......?


“Comfort Food” - what is it for you? Bread and Butter pudding? Lamb stew and dumplings? Spag Bol? Chocolate? It’s good and solid and undemanding. It takes you back to Granny’s fireside, to a time when life was simpler and you had no responsibilities. Those were the days. These are not those days!


Christmas can be spiritual “comfort food” too. The right menu, the family tradition, the familiar stories – these can happen at Christmas Dinner – but also in Church. Memories of Nativities past, Carols sung, Descants leaned. The right 9 lessons. The sweets and poppers on the pews. You know where you are with Christmas. Start, Manger, Animals, Angels, Shepherds, Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. A young woman peacefully holding a baby. Peace on Earth. Goodwill to all. It's the scenic route. But Christmas starts with Christ. The anointed one. Set apart for battle, for confrontation, for death and resurrection. That's the straight road.


John the Baptist. What are you looking for?
A Reed? Are you looking for someone who will adapt what they say to what you want to hear? John refused. So did Jesus. He will not bend to accommodate you. Society may want a gentle Jesus who comes in humility and lives a life of love and peace until cruelly snuffed out by the powerful. But that's not Jesus.
A Dandy? Are you looking for someone who is primarily interested in appearance, comfort and reputation? John lived in the desert and dressed in camel hair. Jesus was an itinerant preacher with no place to lay his head. Your appearance , comfort and reputation are of little concern to Him. Your eternal life is.


A Prophet? Are you looking for someone who will be uncomfortable, disagreeable, provocative, challenging? Who will bring God into places where you were not looking for him – your workplace, family, relationship, finances, internet browser, future? John upset people in authority – and died because of it. Jesus upset people in authority and dies because of it. What are you going to do if he upsets you?


What is there in Advent to bring God into places where you were not looking for him?John – Jesus – see – disciples – go are today's Big Five
Look at John. Look again at Jesus. Really see who they are, what they wopuld ay or do and, if you are a disciple.
Go!
In our world, in our nations, in our church, eschew the scenic route.

Make a straight path for the Lord.

Allesley Bereavement Care and TLC

For: Coventry Evening Telegraph

From Rev Robin Trew

Press Release

Sunday 3^rd November 2013

Allesley Church support for the Laura Trust campaign

A packed church of all ages, met at All Saints Allesley on All Saints day, to remember with thanksgiving relatives and friends who had died in recent years. Over two hundred names were read aloud in the service, Revd Robin Trew, Rector of All Saints said, 'it matters on All Saints day that we live now in the way Jesus wants us to live, because then we live as if in heaven now and we share with those who have died something of what it means to be “with the Lord”. We remember that Jesus gave himself up for us, so we share that life as we serve others'.

A collection was taken at the service for the Laura Trust, a charity supported by the Coventry Telegraph to try and bring an advisory, bereavement, and support service to those whose children have died. The hope is to open a Laura Trust Centre in Coventry. This seems a very appropriate cause by the Bereavement Care Group who hold a coffee morning in Allesley church hall every Friday morning at 10.30. The service raised £310 for The Laura Centre.

Chris Kaye and Robin Trew, Allesley Church

And now for something completely impossible...

And now for something completely impossible....


Mustard Seed – Mulberry Tree 

Disciples request: “Increase our Faith”. Why? To do the impossible? To forgive 7 times in one day. The same person.The same thing? Same injury. Really?


What is faith then? Heb 11:1 says it is the “assurance of things hoped for” - , i.e things that there can be no assurance about. “evidence of things unseen” - i.e. a picture of something invisible. J B Phillips has “putting our full confidence in the things we hope for”. Faith is not something we feel, primarily, it is something we do.

1. Faith does not come in kilograms. One seed will produce a great bush that will produce a million seeds. You can't have more faith than you can use right now. Walking across Spain – you can't carry water and food for tomorrow, its far too heavy. You have to go with just enough for now. There may be 1001 questions that you can't answer about Christianity, about the future. There always will be. It's not more faith that you need. Just say “I don't understand, but I trust you.” “I don't know how I'll cope. But I'll go.”
   
2. Faith is not limited by what's possible. Jesus' cartoon is meant to be nonsensical. Why would anyone ever want to plant a Mulberry Tree in the sea? It would die. It would be a senseless piece of showing off. (I bet someone has tried!!!). What Jesus is saying is that God is not limited. I mean that sounds good, doesn't it? It sounds faithful? You could – but why would you? Its a perturbing truth. If God is not limited; if our prayer is not limited; then why all this mayhem in the world? How do we cope with that “Mulberry Tree” that seems so huge, so fixed an obstacle? Faith is only limited by what we know of the will of God. Does God want the Mulberry tree removed? Do I have a saw? Faith is not an intellectual assent to a proposition about the existence of a supernatural power. Js2:19 It is saying “yes” to God's purposes. Don't be distracted by your own “Mulberry tree”.
   
3. Faith is only seen in action. There is difference between the person who approaches the latest ride a Alton Towers with confidence saying “I'm going on Turbovomit” (or whatever its called) and eggs on those around, pouring scorn on the lilly livered whilst recalled former deeds of derring-do; only to opt out at the last minute “because the queue is too long”. And the person who is dragged along by the new boyfriend saying “OMG I don't want to do it, I'm going to die. Arrgh!” but lets herself be strapped in anyway till its too late. One is full of confidence (well that's one word for it). The other is full of trepidation. But that's faith. It's the stepping out of the boat – as we thought about recently. What is God asking of you? Do you want to wait till you can  move a Mulberry? Or just take one seed out of the packet?
   
4. Faith comes from God – it's not a badge of honour. There are not Christians with a Bronze badge of faith (OK on a good day unless hard questions or difficult situations arise), Silver Badge (able to cope with minor disappointments and unanswered prayers, able to think of get out bible verses for harder cases) or Gold Badges (absolutely unwavering, unquestioning confidence, never knowingly let down by God). For Christians, faith is not like Magic Potion or Antibiotics: more or less powerful depending on circumstances. For us faith is in Jesus Christ. That is, we believe that the one true and only God is fully revealed in Jesus. Nothing more – nothing less. “The fullness of the godhead dwells bodily in my Lord” says Paul. You sometimes hear people say “I believe in Jesus – but not in God” or vice versa. It is nonsense in Christianity. For us Jesus embodies God. Just as the Father does. Just as the Spirit does. At the incarnation, at the crucifixion, in his dying, in his rising again, God is assuming, bearing, overcoming sin and death. God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Otherwise you have the obscenity of a supposedly loving Father sacrificing his own Son to save you and me. It's trinity not modalism or docetism. 1 Cor 15:17 “And if Christ is not risen, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins!” But He is. He is living in you. Don't be blinded by the Mulberry Tree.
   
   Faith means living life as if this were true and that God himself, through the spirit of Jesus, lives in you. Now. Today. Really. He is taking on sin, overcoming sin and giving life back to those who have lost it. And He is doing that in and through you and me.
   

So don't get distracted by the Mulberry Trees.
Use the mustard seed.


“If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.