Clinging to the cross

4th December 2011
7pm ETC, St Hugh's


I opened this talk with Ps 145 v3-7, which is the psalm that will be read at my last service 22nd January. I wanted to say goodbye to ETC with this preach about passing on God's word while they have the greatest opportunity... Christmas.

There’s a song written by Tim Hughes which is called “Clinging to the Cross”. When I first heard this song I was immediately struck by the depth of such an easy to say sentence. When I think of the literal interpretation of this, I imagine myself like this. (PPT) Absolutely 100% holding on; as tight as possible; as though I’m on an out of control rollercoaster. And some days that is exactly how my life feels, and I’m sure that we all have that at some point. On those sorts of days, all I can do is hold on to the one thing I know is solid, Jesus.

When life isn’t so hectic, clinging to the cross isn’t so much of a white knuckle ride, more like a gentle reminder every day that God has done something astounding that is for everyone. Jesus dying on the cross means that God is available to us every moment.

It goes much deeper than that too. Clinging to someone or something isn’t something that can be done half-heartedly. The reality is, you only have two hands, so you can cling to a maximum of two things, but to be truly holding on to something you’d ideally need both hands. That way you can be certain to never let it go or slip or run away from you. The more I simply hold on to the cross the more I realise I cannot do this and be distracted by other things, other possessions, they make it too complicated.

Suddenly the thought of doing something simply means that a whole lot of other things have to disappear.

Conditions

“I’ll cling as long as it’s a happy kind of clinging”

Laws

“I’ll cling, but only on Sundays, whilst I’m in worship”

Pride

“I’ll cling so I look ‘holy’ at church”

These are all things I have to let go of in order to cling to the cross simply and without distraction. Not easily done, we all have things which get in the way, but because of the cross we can drop everything else and know that we will still be ok.

I didn’t think that I would be able to get through today without changing it all up a bit and thinking about Christmas. I know that it’s a radical thought to have this time of year! I thought it would be important to mention the upcoming event which everyone enjoys, but we seem to know so little about.

There’s a famous phrase out there, “Christmas maybe here, but it doesn’t make sense without Easter”. Pretty much everyone you know will be celebrating Christmas in some form or another. Whether you are the person who buys all the presents or the one who receives them all, we all have our traditions and created busyness.

Whilst I enjoy the Christmas lights and the presents, we all know that the meaning of Christmas isn’t about how much you can eat, or about whether you’ve got the most presents. It’s really about the tiny baby Jesus, having the biggest impact ever.

Jesus steps down from eternity, gives up all he knows, to become a tiny human being completely dependant upon the Humans who are to be known as his parents. That’s just part of the amazing story of Jesus, one part of the restoration of the relationship between us and God.

Our last value of ETC is ‘Commissioned’. Commissioned means being sent out to share the news that we have. How many conversations do you think you’ll have about Christmas in the next 3 weeks? It’ll be at least one per week. How about rather than exclaiming how much hate there is for this over busy, over used holiday, you begin to spread the hope of the cross, you begin to talk about Easter.

I don’t mean literally, I mean, cling to the cross, cling to the crib. Spend time used for complaining to open up a conversation of hope and coming light. Throughout the bible people are prepared to share stories as opportunities arise, Jesus always used stories, he never missed a chance. Our task is a little different, but we still have perfect opportunities, this time of year is one of them. The bible says this about our task:

1 Peter 3v15 “Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master. Be ready to speak up and tell anyone who asks why you're living the way you are, and always with the utmost courtesy. Keep a clear conscience before God so that when people throw mud at you, none of it will stick.”

As the stress of Christmas can over take us, we need to be focussed even more on the task in hand, ready to answer the question 'what are you doing for Christmas?' in a way that truly reflects why we celebrate Christmas.

Back To Church Sunday - Genesis 2 v4-25

Hello everyone, my name is Karen and I'm the youth worker here at St Hugh's. We've just started our series right at the beginning of the bible, in the book of Genesis. This morning I will be talking about what it means for us as God's people to be part of a community and how we are called to be a part of God's plan. Before I delve into this, would you join me in praying?

PRAY

When I began to look at this passage, I thought, “why have we got two accounts of creation?” We have the 6 days spelled out before it and a day of rest, and then the picture begins to be filled in a bit more with some more details. It's almost as if the writer of Genesis realises that we need a little bit extra to really get to grips on how God created the earth.

Today we are going to focus on one verse, verse 18 Then the Lord God said “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him”. I believe this verse speaks of a God who recognises the importance of humans being in some sort of community. If we look back at Chapter 1 v27 we find that God has made male and female in his image. Here we see more detail and a hint of the reasons behind God creating male and female, not just one, but two, designed to work as one in partnership.

Lets have a quick look at the rest of creation, and what we have created this morning.

So here we have a magnificent tree. And now comes you doing some work again. Can you think of some of the things trees offer us or other animals?
Fruit/food
Shelter
Shade
pretty colours in autumn
conversion of co2 to o2
resin
place for animals to nest
wood for fire/carpentry
entertainment, something to hang your swing from
Self-sustaining community in itself

Fantastic! It in itself is a community too, the different parts of a tree benefit the entire tree. Can you feel your science lessons flooding back in?! The roots go down into the ground to stabilise the tree and get water, which is sucked up the trunk, to the leaves who spread out to catch the sunlight, to bring the nutrients from the sun, to the branches and roots so they can grow bigger, to find more water.

Earlier on we had the animals who came to be named by Adam. We could have a pride of Lions, or a herd of elephants or a colony of ants or a host of sparrow, or a flock of sheep and a pack of wolves. Each of the animals that God created works in a community to get food, find water, to protect themselves and the young of their own kind.

I think as humans we are also designed to be in a community. Focussing on the phrase God uses “It is not good for the man to be alone” God recognises the importance of giving man a helper. He created us to be His friends, as well as friends with each other. A man who is alone cannot achieve much, but a man who is in community and has the support of that community can do much more. I've noticed over the last three years as I've studied and continued to grow in a community that I certainly cannot live alone, outside of a community. I have come to realise the value of the church community and how individuals often do better when they are part of a community and doing what God wants them to do.

I believe that we are taking up this calling less and less, it's sadly getting more common that we do not know our neighbours. I've lived in my house for three years and I know my neighbours well enough that we can talk for hours over the fence and if I see them in town I'll offer them a lift home. I only know the ones either side of me well, and the people further down the road will wave hi to me. But it's better than being isolated totally. The neighbours cut my grass and will offer to fix broken things me and my house mate can't fix, we'll ask their advice and they'll ask us to look out for their houses when they go away. I am still getting to know them, but they are really good, and it's good to be known too.

One person who was called from a life of possible loneliness back into community was Zacchaeus. His story can be found in the New Testament in Luke 19. Zach was a tax collector, and in Jesus' time they weren't very popular, thought of as swindlers and liars, they were typically quite rich and not many people befriended them. In this story, every one grumbles about him being a “sinner”. Zach is called down from a tree, which he has climbed in order to see Jesus better, and Jesus invites himself for dinner! How cheeky of Jesus?! But by his invite, he brings Zach back in to the community and Zach promises to give away half his possessions and return all the money he's taken four times over. Jesus invites us into community too. Wherever we are there is a church community we can be part of, so I wanted us to think for a bit what is God calling us to do in that community, whether it is church or not.

So what are the consequences of living in community and responding to God's calling for that community? I think we develop better as people, individuals, but as we do that we also have a stronger sense of community identity. Your response might be like Zach's, to give away what you own, or it might be more like Adam's, to work at the earth and look after creation, or it could really be anywhere in between. Maybe you need to hear from God what you are called to be doing, or you need some one else to identify your strengths and abilities. The community performs better when every one is playing to their strengths and not focussing on their weaknesses.

We leave this story in a good place, there is a lot to be done in the Garden of Eden, lots to be worked on, and plenty of getting to know each other from God, Adam and Eve. For a while Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden doing God's work. The man was not alone and he was pretty happy, creation was happy. Everyone was doing exactly as God had asked them to do.

In conclusion I believe that creation can teach us that God wants us to be in community and we can do better! This might mean living and working in a community and rather than seeing it as a burden, we should be seeing it as a way of helping others to grow and develop, to identify strengths and work towards being a stronger community. So get thinking and doing, how can we become more like the community God calls us to be?