Disney's Enchanted/Love/1 John 4:7-12 - 14th December 2008, St Mary's Luton

Disney's Enchanted is billed as a modern day fairy tale. We meet Giselle in her homeland of Andalasia, she's your typical Disney princess-to-be waiting for her Prince to come. The only problem is her prince has an evil step-mother called Queen Narissa, who has been distracting him with Troll capturing duties for the last few years. Finally they meet, Giselle falls, having been inches from the trolls grasp, into Prince Edwards lap. And he declares “We shall be married in the morning!”. Of course Queen Narissa has something up her sleeve to stop that, and pushes Giselle, in full wedding attire, down a well. When Giselle lands she finds herself in Times Square, New York. There she falls on Robert and his daughter Morgan. In this clip we see Robert and Giselle talking about their opposite realities.

CLIP 41:25-50:10

Now I know I'm exactly two months early for St Valentines day, but tonight I wanted to talk about Love. Disney knows a lot about love, the corporation seems to have a monopoly on the romanticised version of Love. Pretty much every Disney character you come across is in love, whether its with someone who loves them back, or something unrequited, or just in love with themselves. They all manage to find themselves in Love. Fortunately for us tonight, Enchanted, as modern day as it seems to be, still has a hint of the classic love story, from the days of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. Boy meets girl, boy helps girl, boy and girl fall in love and live happily ever after.

Love in this sense is lovely, it's nice, its possibly a little bit sacrificial, one of the themes in this movie tells us, True Love's Kiss will conquer all. Nothing can take away from the power of True Love's Kiss, not even a last minute ploy by evil. According to legend “True Love's Kiss” only needs to happen once and then we've found our true love, the one.

Before we go too far into all this lovey-dovey stuff, I feel I have to mention the fact that Enchanted has it's own cynical character. Robert doesn't believe in romantic love, he's not at all spontaneous and is quite seriously dismisses Giselle at the beginning of our clip when he thinks her approach has lost him a massive amount of money. Love, of course, isn't just for girlie girls and it's not for the faint at heart either. If you are cynical about Love, I pray that God will start to show you something of what He knows of Love.

How do we know that He loves Us? We're going to hear our Bible reading now.

Bible Passage: 1 John 4:7-12

To echo a brilliant song, how do I know He loves me? This passage says that “God sent his only Son into the world that we might live through him”. That's the good news, that's the gospel. How do I know that God loves me? He sent his son, to die on a cross to save my life, but not just my life, my family's and my friends. Lillie talked last week about how we personalise our gospel, but we have to remember that God sent his only son so that “whoever believes in him will not die, but have eternal life”. Maybe the cross is your True Love's Kiss when it comes to God, maybe you have found your one.

That's great and all, but I think there's more. Look around at creation, God created a fairytale to begin with, and he asked who is going to appreciate my creation? So he created man, someone in his own image. Don't you think it's funny that we create something and then invite some one similar to us to enjoy our creation too! He had created perfection in the Garden of Eden, a fairytale land. We have to have got this idea of perfection from some where, what about the ultimate perfectionist God? Everything in the garden of Eden worked in balance, just like a fairytale. I was travelling home from the Youthwork Conference with Gill and we were talking about the sunset, something that still happens every single day. It was beautiful. I think we can see God's love through creation. The gospel is a show of God's love for us, it's one symbol. But we are constantly reminded of everything he's done for us in creating earth. We should be looking for God's love in the places which we least expect it. Is that your True Love's Kiss, this are just two examples, there are many more. How does your God show that he loves you? As the song says “He'll find his own way to tell you with the little things he'll do”. That's how you'll know, he's your love.

If you are cynical about Love, I pray that God will show you His love in the little ways. You have to allow God to show you his love.

Another line in the song is “don't treat her like a mind reader”. I think we can do this to God some times, though for our own benefit I think we need to tell God how much we love him and to show our love as well. We often come before God knowing that he knows our inmost being, but by speaking those feelings out we can start to have a conversation with God about how we are doing and how we are being.

So how do we show God that we love him? An author called Gary Chapman writes about the way in which humans show love to one another. These are known as our Love Languages. And there are five. There is Words of Affirmation, Gifts, Acts of Service, Quality Time and Physical Touch. The idea of Chapman's book is that you identify your own love language and the ones of those around you. We can experience love in each of the ways, but we all have a primary love language. At the Youthwork Conference retreat day we used the image of a tree to help us reflect. We, of course, began with the roots. As we were sitting at dinner one person said 'I don't really understand the roots thing, it wasn't explained very well' We had been asked what nourishes us. I rephrased it as, 'what are the things in your week which you cannot go with out?' This helped him a little bit, and then he got out his knitting. How do you answer this question? If you are having a bad week, what have you missed out on? This should give you a hint as to what your love language is.

These love languages translate when talking about our relationship with God. Jesus says in Matthew 25 “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” The doing in this passage is all acts of service. Feeding the hungry and looking after the sick. I think this would apply to all of the love languages, we show our love for God in the way we treat others. We speak our own love language a lot, but we don't speak other's naturally. To help others feel loved we need to show them love in the way they need to be loved. This is how we show our love for God.

So there are now only 11 days till Christmas. So how do we show our love to others because God love us. Do we take time writing our Christmas cards and letter with full of encouraging words to the recipient, rather than just telling them about our year. Do we send a little gift to every one on our street, or do we buy an ethical gift. Do we open up our home, or work over Christmas without grumbling. Do we just demand people time, time for them to get away, have a cup of tea. What can we do to best show our love over Christmas?

If you are cynical about love, maybe you haven't discovered how you give and receive love.

How do we know that God loves us? Creation, the Cross, the bible. God shows us his love in many ways. He'll show you in the little ways. And he loves us each in a unique way, tailored just for us.
My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we love one another, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love!

How do we share our love at Christmas? We do the things which God has asked us to do, we don't hide away, we share the story of the greatest love of all. And we let our light shine.

Love Beyond Reason - John Ortberg

"Love Beyond Reason" is well written and with some very clear thought processes Ortberg puts across the point that though we are 'rag dolls' he has many reasons to love us for all we are and will be.

Ortberg paints a picture very well, he is a story teller. He weaves in Bible passages and illustrations from day-to-day things to help us to explore a God who loves us in the midst of our humanness. He is an encourager, allowing you to discover a loving God for yourself and to enjoy the dicovery with him.

Ultimately we see the love of God in the cross, and to be content and feeling safe in that love, not hiding away or moaning.

I think the last chapter ended quite abruptly, but on a great note about God's glory. God definitely had his hand in me reading this book, our theme this christmas is glory, i'm talking about Love soon and Zaccheaus' story popped up twice in one day. Lots to reflect and contemplate on.

words

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Well Trained - 1 Tim 4:7-8

Hi everybody, how are we feeling now that we are half way through the week? We've learnt quite a lot already. We know for sure that we are running, but not aimlessly, we have our reward in Jesus and what he has done for us on the cross.

These verses in the letter to a lovely young man called Timothy are based around the idea that Tim is in leadership and he has come up against some opposition. The guy who is writing to him is called Paul, he refers to Tim as a 'true son', so we can guess that Paul was getting on a bit and we know that he has had a lot of experience when it comes to dealing with people who are against him, in fact in Paul's earlier life he was known as the bad guy, the one causing trouble for the Christian's, his story is in Acts chapter 9.

So back to tonight's theme, the idea of being 'well trained'. Let have a look at these two verses again.

1 Tim 4v7-8 reads something like this:

Stay clear of silly stories that get dressed up as religion. Exercise daily in God—no spiritual flabbiness, please! Workouts in the gym are useful, but a disciplined life in God is far more so, making you fit both today and forever. (The Message)

I think that the perspective the Message puts on these verses helps us to understand a little bit more, but there are still some things I'm not too happy about. The German version of this uses the word TWADDLE to describe the silly stories. I think twaddle is a much better word, 'avoid the twaddle that goes around'. We can pretty much see when some one is talking utter rubbish, or lying, or making stuff up. You just have to use your head, or someone else's head. You, like me, might be really gullible, you'd fall for anything. If the people around you are constantly trying to trick you they probably aren't very good friends, and it might be a good idea to start avoiding them.

You might be sitting there thinking, Karen that is so easy for you to say! What do I do? How do I do that? I think we all have to make mistakes. Like the first time you are told they've removed gullible from the dictionary and replaced it with a picture of you! We need to quickly learn what is right and what is wrong.

This is where the training part comes in, the second part of verse 7 says

“rather train yourself to be godly”

again, I don't think this is really what Paul meant. Like the athletes who have trained to take part in the Olympics, they did not do their training alone. Here I think 'train yourself' does not mean that we should discard everyone else and be alone, I think our training might look something like this clip from Cars (from 40mins33sec – 43:40).

In this clip we've seen the main character Lightning McQueen taking on a challenge set by Doc Hudson. Later on Doc gives some advice on how to make the corner “if you're going hard enough left, you'll find yourself turning right” We see Lightning test out this advice while he's still in Radiator Springs, and then this happens (clip 1hr37mins – 1:38)

Lightning has learnt so much more than how to drift on dirt, he went from being a one man team to team player in the space of a week. One of the best things about Doc's coaching was that it was in context, it was relevant to Lightning's life.

When I look back at my life I can see some key coaching moments where people and situations have helped my Christian life in leaps and bounds. One of those moments was when I was with a couple friends called Jude and Jeff, sitting in the car outside another friends house and Jeff just started praying out loud. Sadly this was a bit of a revelation to me, and praying had come out of church and the bedtime routine and sprung into life. I don't remember at all what Jeff said, but it was a definite coaching moment.

We all need these kinds of people in our lives. The ones who coach us, encourage us and help us to be more like Jesus. We cannot constantly be by ourselves all the time and expect to be well trained and more godly. This is something we can do daily, we can be surrounded by people who are godly, and it's not necessarily older people who are more godly. So think for a second who are the coaches in your life? Who are the people which give you advice and encourage you, this might be in something formal like mentoring, or something less formal, like a Christian teacher at school, a youth worker, or your Christian friends. They don't have to know they are coaching you, but you might take their advice a little more seriously than other's.

Also we have someone who has been with us from day one. Our own personal trainer who knows what is good for us, what will keep us trim and which parts of our spiritual lives are flabby! This is the Holy Spirit. If you've never heard of the Holy Spirit before that's fine, he/she/it is what we know as one of the three with God and Jesus. It has been around since the beginning of time, and during the Old Testament the Holy Spirit helped a select few people to be better. When Jesus left earth, the Holy Spirit became available to all of us, even here and now. We need to allow the Holy Spirit to train us, there is absolutely no point in having a personal trainer and ignoring the advice they give or trying to make our own way through all the equipment in the gym. This personal trainer is with us wherever we go and what ever situation we are in. However it does take a while to get into a way of thinking like an athlete does. You have to want to be trained, making alive decisions about your life (picture of fishes going against the flow), not just going with the flow. But without the Holy Spirit we run the risk of running a pointless race.

So what do we train in? I know that naturally I am not a musician, it would take a lot of time an effort for me to play an instrument, but naturally I'm quite good with words, and speaking in public. I know that these are the things that I need to train in to become better, taking on challenges and broadening my skills in talking, like I'm doing now. What are you naturally good at? Are you good at sports, or music, or drawing? Where does your talent lie? There is a video clip of Tiger Woods playing golf at aged 2, he continued to train at age 8 he was winning amateur tournaments, and at 21 he was world no 1! That's a pretty extreme example. But do you catch my drift? When we are all naturally talented at something, we can train in that and be doing it for God all the time. That doesn't mean you have to work for church when you grow up, but you can with the Holy Spirit's help, work every thing you do for God. Please believe people when they tell you that you are good at something. Let's be encouraging each other this week in the good things.

TIM AND VERITY STORY

Let's head back to the passage for a minute, we've talked about avoiding the old wives' tales and myths, but what stories can we believe and what is the measuring stick for them? It's something that we all own, but rarely use, it's a gift that we have been given which sits on the shelf at home. It is of course the bible. It's a shame that we have all the resources in the world of the word of God, yet we read those rather than the actual Bible. It has some really good things which can inform us on life,

how about Proverbs 16: 18 Pride will destroy a man, a proud attitude leads to ruin.

or

1 Samuel 4:18 When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backwards on his chair by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man and heavy. Don't lean back on your chair!

Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart

Pretty much the word of God is very important, but we tend to ignore it thinking that the stories are old and irrelevant. If we continue to do this, we will have nothing to stand with when we come up against the old wives tales and myths.

So how do we get the word of God in to our lives more than it is at this exact moment? A fun thing about the bible is that it has been around for years and people are always writing songs about it, so even before you know the bible, you might know some of the songs. FIND SONGS AND VERSES TO MATCH. Then you just have to add the reference at the end...

If you learn easier with pictures, there are some really good videos and story books which can help. Make sure though, that you always go back to the bible to check your facts.

But there is no one way to get the Bible into your head and etched on to your heart. We all have our own ways. You might be a morning person, up at the first sign of sunshine reading your bible and praising God for all the glories of creation. You might hit your peak around midday, so take a bible into school and have a read over lunch time. Or you might be a night owl, and reading the bible before you sleep is the only way to get it in to your brain. Ask the leaders in your group, or your youth leader what they do to get the bible into their lives. They will be able to give you some pointers. But again don't worry if you are not a bible scholar, or if it takes a while for you to get going. God made you, he knows all about you and knows the plans he has for you.

These verses finish by saying about the promise godly training has for the present and the future, however you might not get to the future if you don't do the thing which is of some value, and that's the physical training. Now I am definitely not the fittest person in this room, and I'm not about to find out how unfit I really am, but there were times in the bible where physical training was key to the continuation of the story. If you think of all the things Joseph went through to become the Pharaoh's right hand man. He wasn't the fittest amongst his brothers, but after they chucked him in a pit, you can imagine he'd wished he'd done a bit more training. Then once he's in Egypt, he finds himself in a situation where he has to literally run away. If he wasn't physical fit he wouldn't have been able to run away, and instead of being accused of adultery with Potiphar's wife he might have been caught in the action, and killed. End of story!

Another fine example of physical training is the disciples and early Christians, they wondered from place to place, granted that they did walk every where anyway, but if they hadn't have then the story of Jesus may never have spread.

Today our physical training is of some value, we need to be fit to run away from situations of temptation, or to stand and fight for what is right. I think Paul's warning us against vanity, if you spend all your days on yourself, how are you helping other people? If we are lazy in our physical lives, how will that reflect on our spiritual lives? You don't have to be an Olympian, but you do need to be able to race.

So lets start the training, keep going with the training, allowing others to coach us, and trying out the things which we are challenged about. Verses 9-12 say this “You can count on this. Take it to heart. This is why we've thrown ourselves into this venture so totally. We're banking on the living God, Saviour of all men and women, especially believers. Get the word out. Teach all these things. And don't let anyone put you down because you're young. Teach believers with your life: by word, by love, by faith, by integrity”. Having the bible and the Holy Spirit to be part of our lives so that our spiritual training stays on track.

Boy anointed to be king - 20th July 2008

1 Samuel 16:1-13

Good morning and welcome to the very beginning of our summer series about a guy called David.

You join us right at the start of the story of David's amazing life as someone who's heart was exactly in time with God's. This is quite a long story and there are lots of event's in David's life which we will cover over the summer, some you will know well, other's might surprise you a little bit.

So lets set the scene a little, you are not getting off lightly this morning, I want you to take part in scene setting.

The people of Israel – that's you guys – had asked God for a King, they had had enough of the Judges that came before, so they insisted “We want a king, We want a king”. There was a man called Samuel who was in toucch with God and he said that if the people of Israel choose a king they would regret it, but they ignored Samuel and said “we want a king, we want a king”.

Eventually Saul was placed as King over Israel. He was actually a good king, and defeated a people called the Ammonites in a brilliant military manoeuvre.

Saul's disobedience didn't make God very happy, much like when you refuse to tidy your room, and your mum makes that face, you know you're in trouble then! God is in the process of chucking Saul out and sends Samuel on a journey to find the next king of Israel.

There is a man named Jesse who lives in the little town of Bethlehem. Which you may have heard of before... some one called Jesus was born there on Christmas day! Anyway, one day Samuel came to see Jesse, and they took part in some of the Jewish rituals of the day and then began the procession of Jesse's son's to Samuel to see which one would be the next king.

First we had Eliab, the bible says that Eliab was tall and handsome. Do we have any tall and handsome men around this morning? Brilliant, very tall very handsome... what do we think are Eliab's chances of becoming King? In the bible it says that Samuel thought that Eliab was perfect for the job, he certainly looked it.

God had a different plan, he tells Samuel that he shouldn't look at the outside, but that God looks at the heart. That's what is key to this part of the bible. This story is always picked up on because of the phrase “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart”.

Even with the latest technology we can only look at the physical heart, the one which pumps blood around our bodies, but the heart which we are talking about is how we feel and who we are at our innermost being, who we are when no one is looking.

The story continues and we meet Abinadab and Shammah, there is not description of these two, but they are not the right either. Jesse is so sure of his son's that he sends the next four in front of Samuel. They are not even named in the bible. Samuel has seen seven boys and he hasn't got the go ahead from God yet. He asks Jesse if there are any more, because God isn't the kind of person to send an old man all the way to the little town of Bethlehem to come away with nothing.

Jesse remembers that his youngest is out in the fields looking after the sheep. Samuel says that they will not sit at the dinner table until the youngest has arrived, (get Jordan up) and when he eventually does God says to Samuel

“Up on your feet! Anoint him! This is the one.”

Samuel obliges, pours olive oil over him, and the boy David is anointed to become king in front of his seven older brothers. Anointing simply means “to be dedicated to the service of God”, nothing too huge then.

That is the end of the first part of the story. Can you imagine going from Shepherd boy to king in one day? David probably thought he was being called in to tidy his room, or to have dinner, but nope! He finished the day as the next king of Israel.

I want to go back to the bit about our hearts. We are here today to thank God for Phoebe and Kyle, we remember that God looks into our hearts, he sees who we are, past our words, clothes and actions, right into the very heart of us. And even when He does He loves us. I'm going to come back and talk about that in a minute, now we are going to do the thanksgiving.

SHORT BREAK

We believe that the old stories are still relevant to us today and will have an impact on us wherever we are, whatever we are doing. This story of David helps us to understand the way that God looks at us today.

We live in a world full of first impressions, and people who listen to what we say and wear, more than what we do or how we really act. We put people who have done seemingly nothing in the lime light and praise them, we also put intellectual power at the top of the hierarchy and think that the 'experts of the world' will be able to answer all our questions, in which case our own intelligence is belittled.

This is not the whole truth. Here is a story that proves it, God chose the least of the least. A person who was 'just' a shepherd boy. Nothing of importance, his father actually had to be prompted to call him in from the fields.

God regularly calls the people who's hearts are in the right place. And the jobs which they do are very important to the church.

You should never think you are 'just' a person, and that God would never choose you... that's not how it works. The bible says that we are equal in the eyes of God.

Church around us is a great way of seeing this. We have the littlest of children healing people, seeing pictures and speaking God's words without so much of a blink of the eye. Then we have an amazing set of young people who are supporting each other through tough times and enjoying the good times together. And lots of things for adults to support each other, families getting together to have BBQ's and hang out, and an amazing set of grandparents who are such a blessing to the wider church!

Everyone can be used by God, and David's story will encourage us as we hear it over the summer. He's not perfect, but God still knows him and wanted him to be king even though he was just a shepherd boy.

Five Love Languages - Gary Chapman

I decided to turn my hand to reviewing books - alongside everything else I seem to be doing (or maybe I just want to rant about this one book, we'll see how long it lasts).


Dr Chapman had some success with the predecessor to this particular book, it was called "The Five Love Languages. How to express heartfelt commitment to your mate", it has since expanded to a few different streams including, children, teenagers, singles and a mens edition.

I fall into just one of these categories, at the moment I am single.

Chapman does a fantastic job of identifying the different kinds of single adults there are, including divorced and widowed. He also is quite convinced by the five love languages he has identified;
Words of Affirmation
Gifts
Acts of Service
Quality Time
Physical Touch

The book itself is written in an 'easy to read' way with stories to highlight each point he feels needs to be addressed. This is great if you are drawn in by personal stories and can cope with the same structure of chapter at least five times.

The point that this book makes time and time again is "identify your own love language and that of those around you", if "we begin to speak each others love language" life will be easier. Fantastic, if only it was that simple.

I'm not saying that he's got a bad point, but I am saying that he comes across as a bit of a know-it-all. A man who has a solution to every relational problem you will ever come across, whether its with a new spouse, a room mate, or parents you just don't get. That solution, "go away and read my book".

I know if he relayed, in detail, every conversation he had the book would be ten times longer, but we don't get a little disclaimer that says 'oh, by the way I cut some of the conversations to get to the point I am trying to make', so he comes across as a know-it-all.

He also doesn't draw many conclusions, and leaves with a set of questions and a discover your love language quiz. By the way it's not a scientific quiz at all and the questions are pretty obvious, it just helps to clarify your love language (if you didn't guess it by the fifth question!). If you can't be bothered to buy the book, google "five love languages", find the website and take the painfully obvious test.

I'm happy to buy into the love languages thing, but at the end of the day once you know a person quite well you'd speak their love language naturally. Yes it's that obvious! Good on Gary Chapman for helping us put words to the way we want to be loved.

Wrestling in Prayer - 10th Feb 2008

Based on 1 Kings 18 v 41-46 and James 5 v 13-18


Good morning… how is every one this morning?
This morning we are looking at ‘wrestling in prayer’ - a title that assumes from the outset that we are already praying. Whether you are praying all the time or not, or that you just pray when you feel you need it the most, I am almost certain that something happens when we pray.

As James is writing his letter, he leaves behind a lot of instructions, guidance points, and ties it in with an example of a story that the Jewish people in the congregation would understand. He uses Elijah as a reference point, almost telling the story as if it were legend or fairy tale. But he knows that the people who are hearing this letter either know the story or will lean to a person near them and ask ‘what’s he talking about’.

So what was he talking about?? James’ instructions answer three questions I think we all have about prayer. When should we pray? How should we pray? And Why should we pray?

With James’ help I’m going to try and answer these questions and put them into a language we’ll understand.

When should we pray?

Pray in all circumstances. It’s not only James’ that says this in verses 13-14, but it happens that there are 365 mentions of prayer or prayed in the bible (NIV). 1 Thessalonians 5 v 17 say’s ’pray all the time’. Throughout history people are praying, keep it up!

How should we pray?

James is speaking to church as he knows it, he’s suggesting the ideal way to pray in the context of church. If you are in trouble or happy it seems that you are on your own! But if you are sick, you can tag-team it. Which reminds me of WWF wrestling when I was about ten, if a wrestler was hurt they could tag their team mates to take over. Good tag teaming creates a winning situation.

It’s all there, but I want to pick up on one thing I think that is important. Tag teaming involves strategic planning, talking to each other. Find a group you can team with and “confess your sins to one another”. As much as the Holy Spirit can give us hints as to what to pray, there’s nothing like good old fashion talking it out to help clear up any issues.

Elijah petitioned with God about the rain, he kept praying. We live in an instant society where we have phones we can carry and wireless internet. There is no patience for God. We are supposed to be different to society, requesting, petitioning and staying on God’s case isn’t a bad thing. We have to expect the unexpected when dealing with God, and in today’s society patience is unexpected.

Why should we pray?

Simply because things happen when we do. We have to be willing to fight to see the results. Wrestling is an active word, there is nothing passive about prayer. We have to enter into prayer, an attitude, we are called to pray. References to prayer include doing words, adjectives.

Prayer is powerful, Elijah knows that. And that power is available to us wherever we are.

One question James didn’t answer how can I stop sounding like a Muppet when I pray out loud?
I think this is something I can help with. Use words you know how to use, there is nothing worse than a person who shows off in prayer, Jesus, Matthew 6. Also don’t be afraid to keep your eyes open to see what’s going on, or keep you more focussed. I know I’m not the only one in the room who falls asleep during prayer.

So that is what we are going to do…
Can you please get into small groups, and if you have children and young people around you make sure that they get to pray.

Gather round those who aren’t well, pray for the things you need prayer for. Make sure you share before you pray.

And when we come back together we are going to pray how Jesus taught us.

parable of the persistent friend - luke 11 v 1-10

Good morning everybody. My name is Karen and I’m the Youth worker at St Hugh’s up by the L&D. Some out there may know me from a few years ago when I was a volunteer with the Youth team… I’ve come a long way since then.

What things do you wish you were better at? Feel free to shout at me - I’m used to it.

I could come up with a whole list of things. I wish I was better at going to bed on time, I wish I was better at keeping my room tidy, I wish I was better at switching off the TV. When we think about our spiritual lives we often have one thing that we all wish we could be better at. Prayer…

I don’t know about you, but I regularly think ‘if only I could pray better’ or ‘if only I didn’t sound so silly when I prayed’. Well actually this passage gives us the basis for prayer. It means that we will never sound silly or not know what to pray. I’d like to think that if I only ever prayed one prayer the ‘Lord’s prayer’, as it has become known, would be a good prayer to pray.

I’ve known this prayer for as long as I can remember. I was going to say that everyone who comes to church regularly should know this prayer, but maybe that’s a wrong assumption. We shut our eyes tight to pray, but recently I’ve taken up keeping my eyes open and actually spending a moment to read the words that Jesus taught us.

There are many different translations of the bible, but one that really helps is Rob Lacey’s word on the street, he writes it this way:


Is that easier to understand? So often we say the words that we don’t mean, or that we don’t understand, but because everyone around us is saying them we join in. We say them because it’s the ‘right’ thing to say? I’ve known this prayer for as long as I can remember, but my earliest memory is racing my sister to see who could say it fastest! Possibly quite irreverent, but at least I was saying it!

I don’t want to teach you how to pray, Jesus has already done that. But I do want to encourage you this morning. Don’t worry about the things that you say, God loves to hear your voice. Let me just point a few things out. Jesus knew it was important to recognise God for who He is, “Father”. Jesus wants us to have respect for God - that’s what hallowed means. God can provide for all we need - our “daily bread”. But this is different to what we want. And we do need to be lead away from the greatest temptation, doing things in our own power. We are nothing without God and what Jesus has done for us on the cross. I’m going to stop there and leave you with that thought, and children I want you to keep your eyes open for a game we will play very soon.


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Not so long ago I was in Chelmsford cathedral watching my Dad be licensed as a reader in the church. Sitting with my brother and sister, we were joining in at all the right parts, when it came to saying the Lord’s prayer I took the opportunity to let my eyes wonder around the Cathedral. As soon as the prayer had finished Michael said “a chocolate bar for you both because you said the prayer without looking” It came to light that my dad had rewarded my brother for being able to recite the prayer with a chocolate bar! I went and asked him if he’d done this for all of us. It turns out that he had and that Michael had really persevered with learning the prayer, he really wanted the chocolate!

Obviously the reward for saying the prayer meant a lot to him! I’d like to think that this isn’t the way God deals with prayer. When we pray and ask sincerely, God will answer. But it won’t necessarily be with something to reward us in such a trivial way. I don’t dispute that it is a good thing to using prayer to ask of God but I do want us not to look at God as a sweet shop keeper.

God is available to everybody, through the death and rising of Jesus. Now some where in church I have hidden some chocolate. It might be high it might be low, but children, are you paying attention. Go and find the chocolate. (at which point I pulled out a big tub of chocolate and sat on the steps at the front of the church - one child said "this is the easiest hide and seek ever!")

God is not there to give out treats and all the things we want, just because we ask. In this passage, the friend knows WHERE to go to get a response. We do too, the cross! But he has to get the host to rise form the dead of night, disturbing his entire family, just for a few loaves of bread. Are we beginning to see the connection between the parable and the story of the cross?

One possible interpretation of this parable comes from a book called “Parables of Grace” . God is the host, he is our last and only hope, but we have to recognise this first. God is not hidden from us, he is there plain for all to see, but we have to acknowledge the fact that we are dead before we can even consider asking Jesus to rise from the dead to answer the knock at the door.

This isn’t something that is for a later date. What Jesus says is for now.

So I no longer want us to be worried about the prayers that we pray. I don’t want us to wish that we were better at praying, because by default we are good, we are God’s children. We can boldly approach the throne, because it is a throne of grace, not of judgement.

While I was thinking about this I was reminded of a song that I used to sing when I was little. You may know it, it’s called “Prayer is like a telephone”. The lyrics are self explanatory, but the great thing about God is you never have to talk to the answer machine and you never have to speak to someone who doesn’t understand you, there is no queue and it always works in an emergency!

Over the next week I want you to have a go at writing your own version of the Lord’s Prayer. I had a go and here’s what it sounds like:

Daddy in heaven,
Your name is fantastic, and holy beyond anything else.
May all that is good in heaven, take place here on earth.
All the things that I want, be the things that you want.
Help me today and give me things I need to make through.
Forgive me when I do things wrong and help me to treat others the same way you treat me.
Guide me to you always.
May it be this way forever.
I love you
Karen

So the challenge is this, write your own lord's prayer. Use this prayer, just because we use it as a corporate prayer, shouldn't and doesn't take away from its awesomeness as a prayer. And as I said before if you only ever pray one prayer, this would be a good one to pray.

The Parable of the Weeds

The Parable of the Weeds
Matthew 13 v 24-30, 36-40

When I first read this passage I thought I had such a task on my hands. Jesus had already explained it all. But let’s put it into some context…

As we know Jesus has just told the parable of the sower to the crowd who are listening ask he speaks from a boat. The previous parable is long and repetitive, but it would have hit the right note with the crowd. There may have been farmers in the crowd nudging their mates saying “That really happens, you know”. Then he explains that story … while they are processing that he hits them with a shorter story, but one which had just as much relevance.

I think Jesus might have paused for a second to let the crowd catch their breath and maybe do that “I need to get into a more comfortable position” shuffle.
So go ahead, shuffle as much as you like.

Are we all sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…

When I was little there was this person who always used to follow me around. She used to be wherever I went; some times she copied me and dressed the same as me. When we were really little we looked so similar that my mum had to tell us apart by writing our names on our birthday cakes and putting us in different shoes. In one picture they can only tell us apart because I’m being held by a lady called Karen. ‘She’ is of course my twin, Liz.

When we were growing up, we had our own personalities, but because we looked so similar my mum and dad had to resort to dressing us differently to tell us apart. Now that we are older and hopefully wiser, my parents know us inside-out and can tell the difference 99% of the time.

The identical twin analogy is much like this story. There isn’t a lot in it when distinguishing between wheat and weeds in the early stages of life. They look very similar, as did I and my sister. You may be aware that we now look completely different, even though we say the same things and hold the same posture. Growing up people always used to joke about who the ‘evil’ twin was. I can never imagine my dad casting one of us into the fire just because we’d been an extra be naughty that week. It’s not for him to decide. We’ll both have our moments, but I hope that we’ll be wheat at the end of the day.

We’re lucky in this one we get the story and the explanation to the story, the real insider information. We get to go into ‘the house’ and hear what Jesus says to the disciples about this story. However, even when we have all the information we can still hear what we want to hear. Many times this story has been told as though directed to the Church. We are the field, the wheat and the weeds. I’m not about to disagree with Jesus, who says in his explanation ‘the field is the world’. He never mentions anything about the Church.

Here we have this great communicator, someone who has all the knowledge of the world, yet we disagree, have our own take, and spread it around like it’s something to rejoice in. We talk all the time about the Jesus who came down to earth as a vulnerable baby, but what about Jesus as a grown man showing us a glimpse of the end of time, the kingdom of God and the final works that he will do? How can someone so right be taken so wrongly?

I think that it is mostly down to our humanness on a large scale… here Jesus has painted this wonderful picture AND explained it, but we still misinterpret it. I wonder if you have ever had a moment where you are half in a conversation on a really busy afternoon and as a consequence have forgotten what you are supposed to be doing, or managed to double book your self? Yeah, good, me too!

Even in our silliest and dumbest moments God still speaks to us. Here Jesus has given such a clear story, but the disciples still say ‘can you explain it to us please?’ Later on Jesus says to them ‘do you still not get it?’ I’m not saying that the disciples were stupid, but that Jesus has the skill to explain all the stories we’ll ever come across. Let’s give Jesus the opportunity to explain this and the other parables we’ll hear this summer, not just in the generic way, but in our own hearts and minds.

Pentecost opener

I need one volunteer, just one! We missed out someone when we were singing happy birthday earlier, now I’m sure you know that Pentecost is also known as the birthday of the Church. So you know what’s coming. We’re going to sing happy birthday to each other, as we are the Church! And……… is going to blow out the candles on the cake.

Ok. Now I need all the children… Play musical bumps. There’s a Prize for the winner. Children can stay sitting down.

What else is there at a birthday party? Balloons, food, party poopers etc…

And how long before your birthday happens do you start talking about it, weeks, months? Something very special happens in the run up to the Church’s birthday. A small festival known as Easter, can you believe it Easter was 50(ish) whole days ago! That’s right, you’ve had 50 days since that day where you got all that chocolate, does any one have any chocolate left?

Now the funny thing about Easter is it coincides with a Jewish festival called Passover, and Pentecost coincides with another Jewish Festival called Shavuot. This festival is timed for 7 weeks after Passover, and celebrates the first harvest of spring.

The disciples would have come together to celebrate the festival with Jesus’ words ringing fresh in their ears. Someone must have written it down otherwise we wouldn’t know it today, but you can imagine them chatting about it amongst themselves… or maybe they’d forgotten it totally and had spent the previous ten days just glaring into the sky wondering where Jesus may have gone and why he went there on a cloud.

11th February 2007 Fasting

What have we learned? Context…

Before we start I want you to pair up with a child or young person and tell them what you learned about last week when Ruth talked about Salt and Light. Children and young people you have to listen, because I’m going to be asking you what the adults learnt.

Ok, so we’ve had a bit about how we have to be salt and light where we are, through our actions and attitudes. We skip forward a bit in Jesus’ sermon and we find him telling us to do things in secret, a bit of a contradiction perhaps?

All around Jesus ears would have been pricking up. For years the ‘normal’ people had been subjected to the teachers of the Law making a song and dance about what they were doing to please God. These ‘acts’ included giving to the needy, praying and fasting. Today, we are going to focus on the act of fasting.

What is true fasting?

Before we even delve into it, first I think we should look at how we spend our time. I want you to think for a moment… in the last week, which is 168 hours, how much time have you…

… been at work/school? 40 hours/30hours
… been asleep? 49 hours
… spent eating? 17.5 hours
… spent in front of the TV? 14 hours
… spent on the phone?
… spent doing house work?
… spent on yourself?

Now for a tough question, how long have you spent giving to the needy, praying and fasting? How long have you spent worrying?

Ponder that thought for a bit, we will be heading back there soon.

Compare your times to the time that Jesus and his disciples spent doing things like watching the TV… or the time they spent on the phone. As Christians in the 21st century we face a lot more distractions than the people who were sitting around Jesus as he spoke about these things.

Consequently fasting is something that falls to the bottom of the pile when we talk about priorities and spiritual disciplines. The thought of giving up something barely crosses our minds when we think of getting closer to God. In a few weeks we’ll be in Lent, current Christian culture has developed the idea of ‘I’m going to take something up for Lent, not give something up’. That’s brilliant, but can I ask, what exactly have you gained? Have we missed the point of Lent when we say that? Yes, Jesus did take something up, a fight with the devil!

Often what we don’t realise is that fasting and praying come hand in hand throughout the Bible. The Old Testament tells us the most stories about fasting and praying. We have Daniel, Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego, Esther and Moses (the first recorded fast in the Bible). In the New Testament we have Jesus, Paul, and Barnabas. These people, who are our history, fasted and prayed as part of life. For them it was not something to be ‘acted’ out, like the Pharisees, but it was there in order to make decisions and to have the time to pray about life.

Earlier I asked you how long you spent eating; shout some numbers at me…
Ok. During Biblical times eating took up a large amount of the day. When I say eating, I mean preparing as well, has any body’s time gone up a significant amount? Hold on actually, I mean cleaning away as well. Ok so even in modern day Britain where we suffer at the hands of microwave meals and Pot Noodle, eating can take up a huge amount of time. In Jesus time you couldn’t just go out and ‘do lunch’ there was a massive amount of preparation. No Supermarkets, no restaurants. If you gave up eating it would definitely be a significant chunk of your day.

Ok, so how many hours do you think you spend in front of the Telly, that’s including when it’s on in the background, while you are pottering etc. The average Britain will watch 23 hours of TV a week, that’s nearly a whole day! To be honest I could quite happily spend 6 hours in front of the TV in an evening, though that is excessive! Its quarter of my day, just imagine what would happen if I gave up TV for Lent and focussed on my relationship with God.

What is our true motivation?

Jesus is talking about loving God and wanting to be in relationship with him through giving, praying and fasting and NOT wanting anything back from it. The secret part was aimed at the Pharisees who make a song and dance about these things are abusing their generosity, their God given ability to talk and their discipline to abstain from eating.

Paul and Barnabas were praying in Acts in order to choose leaders for the churches. In the Message it says ‘Their prayers were intensified by fasting’. They were praying with a good and positive motivation, not one of ‘look at me, look what I’m doing’, but coming humbly to God to ask His advice. They entrusted the leaders they picked with their lives!

This weekend we have mirrored the Jewish tradition of taking part in a public fast. Everyone took part and we’ve been raising money too. I would have to say I’m very proud of them all, however ‘fasting’ isn’t a race. Like anything that Jesus asks us to do, we do it at our pace, within our capabilities.

Most importantly when we fast, we need to replace what we WERE doing with God. There is no use in fasting, if you spend that time filling it with other things.

28th Oct 2006 Youth Alpha Dinner

So I back tracked slightly and finally found time to post all my other talks that I've done this term... enjoy!


Firstly I would like to thank all of the young people who have spoken to us tonight. It has taken a lot of courage to stand in front of their friends and guests. I admire them and am very proud of them.

Secondly I’d like to thank everyone who made Youth Alpha happen and especially Carol and Jackie who have really stuck with it throughout.

The young people have already been set one challenge today, and they did amazingly well. There is one final challenge to everyone who is in this room today. Blow out the candles on you tables!

Of course that wasn’t the full challenge. As the clocks go back tonight, we will experience the darkness drawing in dramatically. This happens every year, yet we still take notice of it. How then do we respond? We switch on a light (Light own candle). The Young people heard earlier today how we are the light of the world, an inheritance from Jesus. The challenge to each of us is this, do we keep the light to our selves, effectively turning our back on the world. Or do we spread the light, giving each person we come into contact with the opportunity to have a light in their lives?

Thank you again for coming.

28th Oct 2006 Youth Alpha 2

We’ve already heard about the darkness that Halloween can bring to the world and some people this time of year. And we know that it isn’t all fun and games. I remember being really disappointed when I was little because my parents wouldn’t let me join in with dressing up. But when I look back I realise that there is some thing so much better than the evil that is around.

During Alpha we have been looking straight into the face of the thing that is so much better… Jesus! We have learnt about how Jesus saved you and me by dying on the cross and taking away all of our sins. We have learnt about how we will no longer die, but share eternal life with Jesus in heaven. And we have pondered on why and how we should share our faith. Basically we have covered an awful lot of things about the faith that we find ourselves in day to day.

If you haven’t been practicing sharing what you have learned, now would be a great time to start. In the bible Jesus is referred to as the ‘Light of the world’. While Jesus was on the earth he told us that we are the light of the world too! We need to shine into the darkness, all the bad stuff that happens, which surrounds us. You are not alone, take a look around! There are older people and younger people to help you. If you have any questions we will try to answer them – and by the way, you’ll never stop asking questions.

We hope that you have had a fun day, and just as we light the candles for tonight we will be praying that you can share your faith with your friends, not just on Halloween night, but throughout the year. Tonight we’ll hear some people’s experiences and what they have learnt throughout Alpha, hopefully that will encourage you to go and do the same.

NOW for the challenge!!! Between now and dinner you have the opportunity to compliment, or add to your outfit for tonight. You will each be given 10 glo sticks, with attachers. It is your task to create something, anything with them. They will be judged as you arrive at 6.30pm. Remember its smart casual tonight!! See you at 6.30pm with your guest!!

28th Oct 2006 Youth Alpha Intro

Good afternoon and welcome to the Alpha Light Party. To start off with I want to do a quick quiz with you. So you all need to listen carefully and stand up. We are going to play a quick game of true or false, so listen carefully.

1. The name ‘Halloween’ means ‘Half-Night’, meaning the night when boundaries between the physical and spiritual worlds are lowered. FALSE –actually ‘All Hallows Eve’ 1st November is actually All Saints Day. Hallow means to make Holy.

2. Halloween was originally an ancient Pagan celebration known as “Samhain” (pronounced ‘Sah-ween’) TRUE

3. In parts of Yorkshire, a similar festival to Halloween occurs on November 4th and it is known locally as “Mischief Night” TRUE

4. The purpose of Halloween Lanterns carved from pumpkins and originally turnips is to aid casting magic spells FALSE – they are supposed to scare away evil spirits

5. There is nothing dangerous about Halloween; it’s all just a bit of fun. DEBATABLE

That is part of why we are here. Halloween can be a bit of fun for some but for others it is a very serious festival or a very scary experience.

On Halloween night, people traditionally dress up in costumes, light lanterns and call on people to try and scare them with trick or treating. You don’t need to tell me how popular it is, just take a look in all the supermarkets. From September onwards, the shops are full of broomsticks, pumpkins and witches costumes. Most people don’t think whether it relates to anything real. However, there are others who regard this time of year very seriously.
The Bible claims the devil is real, and that he is powerful. He wants people to be afraid, especially of death. But we as Christians believe that although the devil is powerful, he isn’t anything as powerful as God. The devil was defeated by Jesus’ death, and as a result, the grip he had over people has been shaken off.

The book of Hebrews says this about why Jesus came.

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death- that is, the devil- and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.

The Bible tells us that God sent Jesus to release people from fear and offer them freedom.
On All Hallows Day, or All Saints Day, Christians remember all the saints who had faith in God to help them over come their fears to help others. This Halloween, rather than frightening others, you might consider some of the things that frighten you. With God’s help we can conquer fear. If we could all live free from fear, imagine what a different world it would be.

Christmas Talk

Think of Christmas from Joseph and Mary’s point of view. An unmarried couple, Mary is 14 and Joseph is a lot older. He works as a carpenter; they are struggling to survive. When Joseph hears the news of his fiancée being pregnant he nearly splits up with Mary. But God intervenes.

Then Caesar Augustus, the roman emperor, tells everyone to head back to their home town. This isn’t just a road trip. Joseph has to pay taxes. Christmas has always been expensive, even the first Christmas. They travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, probably on a borrowed donkey, though no where in the Bible does it say donkey. It wouldn’t have been a smooth 60 mile journey. Over hills and on tiny trails, 60 miles would have felt much longer.

Jesus, hope of the nations, LORD, the King, was born in a pig sty (not your bedroom), or possibly a hole in the wall (not the kind you get money from), a cave.

The shepherds left their sheep on the hillside; the cutesy animals were added by a guy call Francis of Assisi, about 1200 years later.

The Wise Men, whoever they were, were a bit late in arriving. There were more than 3 and they weren’t kings. Jesus could have been two by the time they got there. Joseph, Mary and Jesus were living in a house.

The real Christmas story is a complex one. It’s God with us in a tiny baby, fighting the kings of the world from the day he was born.

If Jesus had never been born we wouldn’t understand ultimate love, hope and reconciliation. Without Jesus, Christmas would be about praising the gods of the S-U-N and calling the light to come back. But because of Jesus we celebrate family, giving and joy.

Christingle

Good afternoon. My name is Karen and I’m the youth worker here at St Hugh’s. Recently we’ve had a few festivals about light. Here in Lewsey we’ve had fireworks and candles for Dwiali and you may have had a chocolate from an advent calendar. We’ve already lit our advent candle to signify that it’s 4 Sundays until Christmas. Christingle is another Christian festival that celebrates light. Each one of these festivals has one thing in common; they all want to chase away the darkness.

I’ve got a few questions for you… make sure you put your hand up nice and high so I can see you.

1st Question: How do you get rid of a dark winter’s night?

2nd Question: How do you see in a dark cupboard?

3rd Question: How do you chase away the darkness when a young child is frightened at night?

So we see, there is only one way to get rid of the darkness that is to replace it with light!

As we had already heard, Jesus is the light of the world. Christians, people here, I, believe that Jesus came to the world to replace the darkness of hatred, jealousy, bitterness, wickedness and death with love, forgiveness and life forever.

I’m going to hold up some words and I want you to tell me the opposite of that word. We’ll start with an easy one. (Love and hate)

Ok, LOVE is going on the light pile and HATE is going on the dark pile… we’ll carry on.

Brilliant. So what do we do with al the dark words? The best thing to do is, chuck them in the bin! We have no need for this in a world where Jesus is.

The light words go by the candle, so that every time we light a candle we remember that Jesus is the light of the world. And that is exactly what we will be doing in a moment. When you are scared or afraid of the dark, remember to get rid of it all you have to do is turn on the light.

26th November 2006 - Love others as we ourselves have been loved

Good Morning. It’s nearly Christmas so I brought some presents for you guys. The sweet you got as you came in! I want to know: Why did you choose the sweet you chose?

We choose the celebration we like because we are naturally selfish. We live in a world that is out for its own gain. We are not excused from it. I’ll say it again, we are all selfish. However, there is always hope. Our God loves by nature.

It’s even more than that (read 7 & 8 together). This is a very broad statement, what does John mean? In Greek there are four words for love.

Éros – pagan, romantic
Storgé – parents and children
Philia - friends
Agapé – unselfish love taught by Jesus, explained in 1 Corinthians 13

In this passage Agapé is the sort of love that John is talking about. We have to remember when this was written, to understand a little bit more about the reason why John writes with such urgency and passion. He was writing at a time where the Christians were being mistreated because of their faith and with that in mind, imagine how hard it would be to love others around you when they are intent on killing you.

Agapé comes without condition. We don’t deserve Agapé. We can’t do anything to earn it, yet at the same time if we do nothing with it we get told off. Agapé is shown in the cross, the shedding of Jesus’ blood which makes us clean from sin and enables us to love as God has loved us.

Do we do that though? The final few verses of chapter 4 highlight the importance of loving others. If we love God, but don’t love our family we will be called a liar! John has already said this earlier in his letter 1:10-11. He talks about light and contrasts it to darkness. I’m sure you’ve got up in the night and walked around without the lights on and had bruises in the morning. We worshipped at Soul Survivor in the dark, because of a massive power cut. I distinctly remember the singing getting louder and torches going on. In the dark with 10,000 people! The lights soon came on and there was a massive cheer. Can you really argue with 10,000 people that it’s better to be in the light than in the dark?

John also sees through the reality of being human. How can we profess to love a God we can’t see if we don’t love those we do see? I think this is about building relationships with those whom God has already placed in our lives. We can practice the love we have from God on our family. Jesus talks about lamps and cities shining. A lamp is a strong light, but a city can be seen from space. If in your family you love each other the way God teaches and has shown, then you’ll be more like a city than a lamp.

The challenge of loving your family like God loves you means you have to break bad habits. Back to 1 Corinthians 13, God doesn’t have bad habits when he loves. For years we called my littlest brother by a pet name. Even now, though he’s built like a sprinter and plays a great game of football, we still call him chubby cheeks. A friend of mine has problems with food and eating because for one week many years ago her brother called her fat. The banter between family members can be dangerous ground, especially if it is many years old. Be aware of the way you talk to your children and you siblings.

Loving others doesn’t just stay in our family. Our schools and work places can benefit from the love that God has too. Remember that no-one, not even us, deserves God’s love. What difference would it make in your school or work place if we firmly believed and practiced what God has set before us? Not ‘love’ that gets people into Church, but love that is simply serving. This love can change the world.

God’s love for us also has personal consequences. We had Southfields Year 3 visit on Wednesday, during our time together we sang a song about God’s love being a never ending circle. Somewhere in that circle we are included. The more we realise God loves us the more we want to and can love others, the more we love others the more we realise God loves us… and so on. This is reflected in Revelation 4v8-11. There is a never ending circle of praise in heaven too. One of the young people I know is really scared on heaven, thinking that eternity will be a really boring place. How so! In the glory of God, all we can do is worship. I want to worship God forever and what a better place to start than right here, right now. Not just on Sunday mornings, putting my hands up and singing, but everyday in sharing God’s love with others, without an agenda.

The problem is we are naturally selfish; we choose the sweets we want, we make others laugh at the expense of one person, we keep the light of Jesus to ourselves because it makes us feel warm. It stops us from loving others as we have been loved. God is our hope, He is love and he loves us all. Let our only response be to love others.

28th October 2006 - Disciplined by the Father

Good morning! SLIDE Can some one tell me who this is? Paula Radcliff. What does she do? She’s a marathon runner. Probably the longest race any sane human being would do, and one of the most famous is the London marathon. SLIDE Thousands of people get together each year to run 26.2 miles around some of the greatest landmarks in our capital city. It is also know as an endurance race, to complete it you have to stick with it. There is no hopping on a bicycle and ride to the finish line and although cabbies might try there is no ducking down side streets with the promise of a short cut. If you did that you’d be cheating! You would not have earned the medal the end. Of course the marathon is much longer than 4 hours or more on a Sunday morning in April. The runners start training months before the actual event, running short distances at the beginning to build strength and, that word again, endurance. But even before that there has to be some sort of will-power or discipline to actually want to do the race. Yes we can sit in front of the telly thinking the marathon is a great idea, but what are the chances that we will be on the telly the following year. For me it is slim to none! I lack discipline.

What I need is a trainer! SLIDE Some one who will push me to my limits and give me the encouragement I need to get to the starting line, let alone the finishing line. Some times I get all hyped up and may actually go running, but after a while I wither and start thinking ‘there must be an easier way to exercise than this’ I turn around and head for home at slow walking pace, feeling defeated.

It can often be like this for us as Christians in Luton, whether we have just started our race or feel like we are somewhat nearing the middle or the end, we are all part of it. This passage in Hebrews highlights the discipline that we need to endure the race. With God as our trainer; he is the person beside us encouraging us. And Jesus, well he is the goal. Personal trainers aren’t fat and flabby. How often do you hear the phrase ‘if I can do it, you can do it’? The writer of Hebrews highlights the precedent set before us, the Message writes the first few verses like this SLIDE

“Do you see what this means – all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running – and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished the race we are in. Study how he did it.”

SLIDE Not so long ago I sat my theory test for driving. In a God inspired moment I headed into the Christian bookshop that was next door to the test centre. I shared with the lady behind the counter that I was really scared. She reminded me that Jesus had been before me and seen the test. Of course, I couldn’t ask Jesus for the answers, but I could rest in the assurance that whatever happened was in God’s plan and that God is with me. Months of driving and reading had all accumulated in this one test, and as I sat it I realised I was going to be fine. I passed first time! If I can do it, you can do it! Jesus has already run the race; if he can do it, (and suffer the cross for us) then we can do it too.

Raise your hand if you are a child… Whether you like it or not we are all children and the writer of Hebrews refers to us as children of God. Sometimes we often forget that we are all children. SLIDE My mum and dad remind me constantly and still refer to me as daughter, when I ring home my mum passes the phone to my dad saying ‘daughter 1’. If I want something from my dad I’ll call him daddy and smile lots. Not only does it show an intimate relationship but it also shows an understanding of my place in my family. Just a question to ponder: how often do we call God, Daddy? Not necessarily to get something, but to show our affection and understanding.

SLIDE. I remember when I was little, my sister and I shared a room, we’d only been talking for a bit, but my dad burst in to the room and told us off for not sleeping when we should be. Part of me really hated him, for bursting, for listening to our conversation, for telling me off. But now years later I look back on it and realise that he was concerned because we needed our sleep. We needed to learn the importance of rest. I’m sure that there are stories of discipline that you could share with your family and that when you look at it from the other’s point of view it actually makes more sense. The writer of Hebrews reminds us in verse 7 ‘for what son is not disciplined by his father?’ Discipline happens to be a natural part of growing up and gaining the social skills to live in the world.

A Father’s heart is one of love, growth and protection, amongst other things. Learning to be disciplined is a long process that takes years. From the moment a child can reach out and grab they quickly learn the word ‘NO’. ‘No, don’t touch that it’s hot’, ‘NO don’t go near the edge you’ll fall’. It is used as a way to protect. Usually we see this; with the advantage of hindsight it’s really easy. It is a responsible and loving parent who tells their children ‘no’. SLIDE Programmes like ‘Super Nanny’ and ‘House of Tiny Tearaways’ show us what it is like when children aren’t told ‘no’ and have little structure in their lives. The child behaviourists of the programmes – that have become so popular – spend their time introducing rules and re-teaching parents how to parent.

One such programme showed how a teenage boy was using violence to get money from his mum to get drugs; another showed a four year old ruling the roost because she used her lungs and legs effectively. Rules are used to regain control and structure into family life. It takes time, there is suffering. The pain on the parents face when their child kicks and swears against the authority being asserted. The word ‘no’ can often hurt. But it is part of growing up to become a secure individual. Eventually the children succumb and ‘normal’ family life resumes. I’m sure that the programmes are cut and finished to hook us to watching them where we only see success, but what about the ones we don’t see? What about a few months/years later when the eldest child suddenly turns into a terrible teenager, what happens then? Are the rules still in place; does the structure still work, even when adapted?

SLIDE This isn’t a question for us; the rules and structure of the bible haven’t changed for years, yet some how it is still relevant to how we live. The mystery of God’s infinite wisdom still baffles me. The real question is; are we going to kick against the discipline that God gives to us like the 4 year old who won’t eat anything green? Or do we embrace the discipline like training, taking our strength and encouragement from Jesus who has already run the race that we are in?