Thy Kingdom Come - My Kingdom Treasures (Proper 17)

The readings for the past few weeks (Matthew 13) have been teaching us about the Kingdom of God. In the Parable of the Sower Jesus focuses on how people respond to the Word of God. In the Parable of the Weeds Jesus teaches us how to deal with evil. In the three parables for today Jesus is teaching us how important it is to be included in the Kingdom. He challenges us to be able to bring out treasures from our own experience of the Kingdom to share with others. Let me model this for you by bringing out three treasures from my study and experience of the Kingdom.

1. The treasure of the Bible as 'True truth' – is everyone really included?

My first kingdom treasure is a lesson learned long ago as I was reading the Bible. The Reading was about Isaiah - “setting his face like flint” in the face of opposition. Isaiah helped me understand what I was getting into in my preaching. Christian teachers often have to choose between either trying to please everyone; or confronting people with what the Bible actually says about self-sacrifice, loyalty, holiness and loving God. Biblical Christianity has been under attack for centuries by individuals who do not like this or that Biblical teaching. The supernatural Biblical worldview has often been compromised by academics and clergy who want to be ‘relevant to the modern scientific culture’. The Biblical teachings on sexual morality have also been compromised by clergy who wish to avoid conflict with various interest groups. This is a new thing. Historic Christianity proclaimed the Biblical teachings as a challenge to the culture of the time

Christans Have A Destiny As Children of God (Proper 16)

We live in a time when many people do not know who they are and where they are going. In contrast serious Christians know they are children of God and they are eventually going back to God. They also know that they have an enemy described in the Bible as Satan or the Devil; and a spiritual helper described as the Holy Spirit. Our lives are a struggle to overcome the temptations and deceptions of the enemy of our souls. The good news is that we are protected by God and guided and strengthened by the Holy Spirit. In the Parable of the Weeds, Jesus is giving us both wise advice and hope. The advice is to not get tangled up with evil people. The hope is the harvest, when we will go home to Jesus.

1. Christians have a destiny

Most of us spend a lot of time trying to figure out what we are supposed to be doing. The Parable of the Weeds reminds us of an obvious but important truth. Seeds grow into what they are intended to grow into. If you plant wheat, wheat is what you get. Last Sunday, in the Parable of the Sower, we were reminded how fragile and vulnerable this process is. The idea of an enemy was introduced as one of the many ways in which the seed of the Word of God in the Bible can be lost or prevented from growing. The Readings for today help us understand our destiny and the challenges we face on the way to that destiny. In Genesis (28.10-19) we are reminded that we are not alone. We follow in the tradition of Jacob who had an encounter with God. He was told that he had one God and that that God would protect him and bless him with land and children. His destiny was to live under the spiritual protection and blessings of the Covenant with Abraham. Our destiny is the same except we are also promised forgiveness, the gifts of the Holy Spirit and eternal spiritual life if we live out our Covenant.  In the Romans (8.28) Reading, the Apostle Paul refers to this as "the redemption of our bodies". The seed does not remain a seed. It dies and gives birth to something much greater. It has a destiny and that destiny is to become a child of God. The Good News is that as a child of God, we will inherit what the Father has - eternal spiritual life with God.

2. Christians have an enemy

Our Spiritual Birthright Is Life In-Christ (Proper 15)

A “birthright” is something you are entitled to because you were born under certain circumstances. Esau is the first-born son. He foolishly gives up his birthright of inheriting his fathers’ land and spiritual blessings. Our birthright as “Christians, “born again” in the power of the Holy Spirit, is eternal spiritual life, joined spiritually to Jesus Christ. Our lives are joined to His life by our love – our emotional attachment of faith. Our lives are a constant struggle to understand this and resist the temptations of our ‘natural self’ which can cause us to lose our spiritual birth-right.

1. The Parable of the Sower explains how we get our spiritual birth-right

A parable uses a simple visible activity to explain an invisible spiritual process. In this case the “seed” is the Word - the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ that is explained in the Bible. This good news is scattered everywhere, in every language and in every country. Everyone has an opportunity to read the Bible and make the effort to understand its meaning. Everyone can join a Bible Study group, church or fellowship where the meaning is explained.
·         The key is learning and understanding.
·         Understanding leads to a faith decision and being spiritually “born again”.

Christians Are to Make Disciples of All Nations (Trinity Sunday Readings)

Jesus did not teach His followers to just attend church, be good and hire evangelists. He challenged them – and us to “...go and make disciples of all nations...”. (Matthew 28.19). “Make” is a verb – an action word. As Christians we have been baptized into a new covenant relationship of fellowship with the Father who loves and protects us, Jesus who died in our place for sin and the Holy Spirit who guides, heals and nurtures us. As we grow deeper in this relationship and discover our spiritual gifts we naturally want to share the good news of Gods’ grace, love and forgiveness with others. This is a challenge in our time as the dominant cultural values of liberalism are secularism and not offending the religious beliefs of others – like Jesus did!

 1. We are Baptized to proclaim the “grace of our Lord Jesus Christ...”(2 Corinthians 13.14).

Our Baptism is to strengthen and protect us in the ministry we are baptized into. That ministry is to “make disciples of all men”. “Make” is a verb, an action word that means working with other people to teach them what they need to know to experience the ‘grace’ of our lord Jesus Christ and become committed followers – disciples.
·         By sharing the good news of the “grace” that we have received.
·         By explaining the meaning and importance of grace as a way out of bondage to anger, bitterness and un-forgiveness
·         By being a sign of Grace and forgiveness in the world
·         By helping others understand the importance of being in a right relationship with God and receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit

“Wholeness through Christ” Healing Ministry Model

(from a workshop presented to Diocese of Windward Islands Clergy, 2014)

 

The Good News of the healing ministry in the Christian Church is that when people come for healing, the Holy Spirit will help us work with them to discern the root cause in their sin or some form of inherited sin-guilt or curse, break the power of the sin through repentance, confession and absolution and build them up spiritually through the infilling of the Holy Spirit. The Wholeness Through Christ Healing Model helps us understand this ministry by defining the goals of Christian healing ministry as:

·         Sins forgiven
·         Wounds healed
·         Evil spirits cast out
·         Bondages broken

Pentecost - Welcome to the Healing Ministry of Christians!

In Luke’s Gospel the ministry of Jesus began after two dramatic encounters. In the first He is tested by Satan (Luke 4.1-13) and puts loyalty to God over materialism, earthly power and spiritual authority. In the second (Luke 4.16-21) Jesus claims His destiny as Saviour and His plan of ministry. All of Jesus ministry was related to healing the separation of individuals from God by destroying the power of sin, evil and deception. We need to study and imitate Jesus model of ministry. Praying for healing was a major part of this ministry – and should be a regular part of our ministry. Let us examine how Jesus approached His Ministry:

1. “The Spirit of the Lord is on me because He has anointed me to proclaim Good News to the poor.”

First of all Jesus ministry is anointed and guided by the Holy Spirit. We have in our time many false teachers and self-appointed ministers. These people have no authority or power from God. Unfortunately, the bad news is that Satan does seem to be able to empower his followers to do counterfeit miracles and healing.
·         Christian healing ministry needs to be under Episcopal or Church authority
·         Ministers need to be carefully chosen, trained and supervised
·         Clergy may not have this gift and need training and support
·         Healing Ministry is Holy Spirit led and experience – based
·         Show up, shut-up (listen) and be available
·         All ministry begins with “proclamation”

Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life (Easter 5 Readings)

 This claim to absolute truth was made Two Thousand years ago. Every moment of every day we make choices between this claim and what other voices around us say. Other voices question the truth of this claim by presenting good works, secularism, multi-culturalism and religious pluralism as alternative ways. There is a real conflict between respecting the right of other people to believe in these other ways; and our Baptismal promise to proclaim Jesus as the way, the truth and the life. The cost of silence is our failure to proclaim the Good News of Jesus and the proclamation that other ways are valid. On the surface our silence appears loving. In reality it is unloving. By not proclaiming the Good News of forgiveness and salvation in Jesus we fail to love our neighbors enough to share the Good News and abandon them to ignorance and spiritual death.

 1. Jesus claimed to be" the way" (John 14.6)

In fact the early Christians were known as the people of the Way. What do we mean by "the Way"? It is a short version of way to salvation through belief in the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus. Christians believe their way to salvation or eternal spiritual life is through Jesus Christ. Last Sunday we talked about Jesus being like a gate that people had to go through in order to be saved or to receive eternal spiritual life.