The cross (accompanied by the resurrection) is the means by which humanity is brought back into relationship with God, with one another and with our very selves. It is the place of salvation, healing and restoration rescue.
It transforms our human destiny and can transform our lives now..
Read moreWhile there is a place for an appeal to emotions, or reason or conscience - here Paul focuses on a different reason for being generous. In a word it’s what the Bible calls ‘grace’. As you may know grace is underserved favour – it’s getting something good – when you deserved the opposite. Paul thinks it’s at the heart of generosity.
Read moreWe're thinking about church; about the Christian community.
Community, real relationships - to know and be known, to love and be loved is something we all long for. It’s inherent to our humanity. The God in whose image we are all created is in himself a community of loving relationships. The glorious Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
When humanity fell out of relationship with this God - we also lost one another. Community is fractured at every level of existence.
So.. part of God’s salvation through Jesus Christ, his restoration of humanity back to the image of our creator is to bring us back into true community together, Christ is our peace. And the beginnings of that - the full realisation will only be seen when Jesus returns to establish his kingdom - but the beginnings, the first fruits is the Christian church.
So
Church is not a human institution. It’s not an optional extra that you can tick or leave when you become a Christian. As if being a Christian is just about my personal relationship with Jesus which occasional church attendance may or may not resource. No, becoming a Christian means being incorporated into Christ’s body - the church. Becoming part of the new humanity.
Furthermore It is for the sake of the watching world outside that the church exists
The church at its heart has a missionary dynamic. That’s what we’re thinking about today.
Read moreWhat is it that no one else knows about you?
Maybe there are details of your life that you would hate to be disclosed. The idea fills you with dread, with terror. A decision you wish you’d never made; an event you want to forget, a pattern of behaviour that you can’t shake. Maybe it’s not something you did but something done to you. Perhaps you wrestle with tormenting thoughts and feelings that you are convinced no one will understand.
Secrets. We all have them. Human nature seems wired to withhold and tuck away areas of our lives we deem undesirable. The best option seems to be keeping our secrets in check and out of sight.
We dare not come into the light to show who we truly are because we fear shame and we fear rejection.
But there’s great danger in keeping secrets hidden. Secrets have the power to hurt everyone you know and love.
Read moreA small boy was at church with his dad and asked, "Dad what are those names carved into the walls?”
“That’s a list of names of people who died in the services,” his Father answered.
The boy’s eyes widened. “The morning or the evening services?”
We’ve been talking about the centrality in the plans of God of this peculiar thing called church!
The church is the beginnings of God’s New world. Humanity restored in his image.
It’s the community that all people are made for!! Come to church!
Here’s the story we told last week:
God the Trinity.. God who is in himself the perfect community of persons united in love -Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 3in1
Creates humanity in his image - that is, to be in community. Relationships are at the heart of what it means to be human.
That community is lost and broken when humanity breaks contact with God
But is now being restored again by Jesus Christ IN THE CHURCH
Read moreHere’s a radical conviction:
That it is inside the church that is found THE community that we were all made for and that we all long for. All people
Does church matter? Does church have a future?
it is inside the church that is found THE community that we were all made for and that we all long for. The church is where it’s at. It is the showhome of the New Creation!!! It is the trailer for the main event!!!
Read moreThis last week I had the privilege of holding a newborn child in my arms. The first son of my friends Emily and Saadat: Ezekiel Hasan Jesper Mir. Less than a week old. Beautiful little lad. I held him and he cried a few tears. And you know how it is the parents anxiously try and work out why he’s crying: is he hungry? it is wind? has he filled his nappy? is it just Giles’s face? Why’s he weeping?
And it reminded me of part of a Christmas poem written by William Blake to a newborn child entitled ‘A song.’ It goes like this:
Sweet babe, in thy face
Holy Image I can trace;
Sweet babe, once like thee
Thy Maker lay, and wept for me:
Wept for me, for thee, for all,
When He was an infant small.
why’s he weeping? For us!
Read moreThe season of Advent.
Advent means coming and this season exhorts us to think deeply about the coming of God to us..
Did you know that God is not distant; nor is he indifferent to our troubles..
He has come to us in the past - Christmas, the child in the manger.
He does come to us in the present - he meets with us by his Spirit
And he will come to us again in the future - the promised second coming of Christ to judge the world and restore all things.
The advent of God.
In our passage today, 700 years before the first Christmas - the prophet Micah predicts that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem. That this child would be a King who’s greatness and peace will one day fill the earth. And so Micah’s great Advent theme is HOPE. I wonder how is your hope? Your hope for the world, for your family, for yourself. Sometimes in our frailty we can feel hopeless. But Micah says to us God is coming - in your weakness be people of hope.
Read moreIn december before Christmas day it is the christian season of advent
It’s all about waiting
But not just waiting for Christmas day
Advent is all about waiting for God to come
because you always have to wait for God. always
Read moreLast week Greta, my daughter, said La La Land had arrived on Netflix so Saturday evening we watched it. Her for about the 6th time. If you haven’t seen it – I’ll try not to spoil it.
I was struck by how a song in the middle of the film summed up a lot of what was going on. It’s when Mia is auditioning and they say – tell us a story. She talks/sings about her aunt in Paris and how she got her into acting. The chorus is:
Here's to the ones who dream
Foolish as they may seem
Here's to the hearts that ache
Here's to the mess we make
I thought that summed up a lot of the film because it’s all about two people’s dreams. Their hopes and ambitions – to be a film star, run a jazz club. And you see how those dreams – drive them in life. Lead them to do rubbish jobs, make certain decisions about relationships.
I think – those dreams drive them too much and other things get sacrificed. But you get a clear picture of dreams driving life.
I mention that because this passage talks about the future – thinking of advent and God coming – and that raises questions of what we are looking forward to – hoping for – dreaming of.
Or more – if we’re Christians or were to become Christian – what does God say about the future - what should we dream of?
Read moreReformation 500 years on
A chain of events which changed our whole culture, changed the world as we know it.
The reformation wasn’t all good. There were some tragic events. There were some views that we definitely wouldn’t want to sign up to.
But the rediscovery of the gospel of justification by grace alone, through faith alone, in christ alone has transformed the world beyond individual salvation and a changed church.
Read moreWe saw last week that at the heart of the reformation was the rediscovery from the Bible of God’s revelation for how we can know him and how we can be right with him - how we can be justified? - that’s the Bible’s word. And the reformers great rediscovery was that justification being right with God is not a matter of our works and efforts to be holy. no, rather it has to be a free gift entirely from God. Justification is by grace alone, received through faith alone
Because of the depths of our sin, the fallenness of our hearts, we cannot save ourselves. We cannot choose god, we do not want God, we are turned away, curved in on ourselves. And even our good works are not for God but for ourselves. We cannot earn righteousness, neither are we gradually made righteous by cooperating with God’s assistance which was the official view of the church in Luther’s day. No, we must receive righteousness as a gift, totally external to us. Not a gradual change of our state but an immediate change of of our status. When we trust in Jesus God doesn’t remove our sins but he gives us the full righteousness of Christ and fully accepts us on that basis. Full welcome in. We are declared righteous, justified. We can know God, we are right with him. There is no further contribution to be made. there is no condemnation to fear. you are in the clear forever. Even your ongoing sins cannot shake your new status…
But how? How does this work?
We said that it all feels a bit abstract and out there. Can it really be true that God sees me as righteous when let’s face it in my attitudes and thoughts and behaviour - i’m not righteous. And if i’ve been given this righteousness of Jesus that clothes me - well it’s not really me is it that God loves? It doesn’t really work does it? I feel unconvinced
But secondly. If it did work. If i really am seen as righteous and that status never changes so i’m in the clear forever … what’s to stop me just carrying on in sin. Can i keep sinning so that grace may increase? Can i just do as i please? Well in theory yes… It doesn’t sound great does it?
The curial way to answer these concerns and to see that our salvation really works - really sets us in the clear forever AND it really changes us in the here and now. The way to understand this is through the third SOLA. The third of the 5 rallying cries of the reformation. Last week we has Sola Gratia and Sola Fide Grace alone, Faith alone. But the centre of it all is CHRIST ALONE Solus Christus
Salvation is found in no other name than Christ, and Christ alone
Read moreWe are going back 500 years. to the year 1517 October 31st when a german monk called Martin Luther. Nailed a pamplet - 95 theses - to his churches noticeboard - the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg, Saxony. This action is said to have kick started what is known as the Protestant reformation
Read moreLast weekend i was stranded in Ireland as storm Ophelia hit the south coast. - the cancellations, the power cut, the candles, the guiness, the company, the stars. Disruption, danger for many - but for us it was like a gift, an unexpected pleasure, an extra day - when we could do nothing but enjoy each other’s company, amazing conversations… something that changed us a glimmer of grace…
Grace is a central idea of the Christian good news.
It describes a gift that is completely unearned, an unexpected, undeserved pleasure that comes into our lives and changes us forever.
Read moreA while ago I read about a Vietnam veteran Bob Campbell, of Baltimore. After Vietnam, Bob became an alcoholic. However years later – Bob says – quote - “I gave my heart to God. That night the old Bob went away. Up to that moment, I was drinking Scotch from 6.30am until 8pm at night. But after that, I didn’t drink again - and I haven’t to this day.”
I read that simply to raise the question of what we expect God to do in our lives today. For Bob there was very real action by God in his life. Very tangible and immediate effect of knowing God. I wonder what we think of that? If we are Christians – or if we were to become a Christian – what would we expect God to do in our lives today?
Read moreJesus speaks about money and possessions, worry and anxiety, about your security in life
jesus says that knowing him will change your relationship towards your money ..and your possessions.
Read moreThe comedian Eddie Izzard, who has found time in between running back to back marathons to star in this new film Victorian and Abdul, said this last week in an interview with the Guardian
“I have a very strong sense that we are only on this planet for a short length of time, And that is only growing. Religious people might think it goes on after death. My feeling is that if that is the case it would be nice if just one person came back and let us know it was all fine, all confirmed. Of all the billions of people who have died, if just one of them could come through the clouds and say, you know, ‘It’s me.., it’s brilliant, there’s a really good spa’, that would be great.”
It reminded me of the place where Jesus tells a story where people who have died tell God to send someone back from the grave to tell people it’s real and Jesus said, even if someone rose from the dead - they wouldn’t believe..
There’s something in humanity that avoids Jesus, sidesteps his authority. That’s what we’ve been seeing here in Luke 11. People see his miracles 11v? but then always keep needing more proof or it’s evidence for them that religion is dangerous! manipulative! They find a way of staying in the dark, avoiding the light.
And in todays passage Jesus exposes and condemns the classic way that we avoid him - RELIGION, and then offers an antidote - the challenge of GRACE
Read moreWe've been thinking today on our Mission Sunday about reaching out with the message of God’s love. One of the main aims of our church is to be outward looking.
And we need the message of Jesus’ love to be the motivation and the drive for us to love others.
So we’re going to look at these 3 parables of lost things found that Jesus tells.
Read moreLight and Darkness are important images in the Bible. Jesus uses them here in our passage.
Read moreSt Barnabas Church, Shacklewell Row, Dalston, E8 2EA
Our vicar Rev. Nat Charles: nat@stbarnabasdalston.org.uk
Building hire: hire@stbarnabasdalston.org.uk