| New Book now Available Here is an anthology of over 1100 brief prayers and thought-starters, for each day of the year, with almost 400 original prayers by Bruce Prewer. Included is both a subject index and an index of authors-- an ecumenical collection of about 300 different sources. |
 |
| Title: Brief Prayers for Busy People. Author: Bruce D Prewer ISBN 978-1-62880-090-6 Available from Australian Church Resources, web site www.acresources.com.au email service@acresources.com.au or by order from your local book shop or online on amazon. |
JANUARY 14-20
Sunday 2
John 1: 29-34 (Sermon 1: “Lamb of God”)
1 Corinthians 1: 1-9
Isaiah 49: 1-7
(Sermon
2: “The joys and frustrations of those who are called”)
Psalm 40: 1-11
PREPARATION
What offering do we need to bring to God?
God does not look for sacrifices or offerings,
but for open ears, like channels for the truth.
Grand gestures and
offerings are not required,
but a heart-felt delight in doing the will of
God.
My friends, behold the Lamb of God
who takes away the sin of the world.
God has put a new song in my mouth,
placed a new melody on my tongue.
The love of Jesus, the Lamb of God, be with you always.
And
also with you.
OR -
The Lord be with you.
And
also with you.
God has given us a Light for all nations,
that salvation may reach every corner of the earth.
Behold the Lamb of
God,
who takes away the sin of the world!
Rulers shall see him and rise up to honour him,
parliaments shall bow down before him,
because God is always faithful,
the Holy One has chosen this person.
Behold the Lamb of
God,
who takes away the sin of the world!
PRAYER
Most wonderful God, most faithful
Friend, please remove from us the rowdy chatter of the world, and open our ears
to the still small voice of your Spirit as you witness to the truth of Christ
Jesus. Enable us to hear clearly, to understand profoundly, to respond freely,
to serve lovingly and to worship delightedly. For your name’s
sake.
Amen!
CONFESSION AND ASSURANCE
We face up to the presence of evil in all our own lives.
Let us pray.
Holy Friend, Joy of the Universe, we seek you in the confidence granted to us in Christ Jesus. We are here to come clean; to confess that we are mixed up beings who need radical therapy .
Each of us is like an arena where goodness and evil struggle for supremacy. At times the goodness breaks through for a resounding win. But frequently it is the evil that seems to come up trumps. Occasionally we lose the fight over a really big issue, and our fall hurts and shames us badly. Yet more often we give ground on a host of hardly-noticed small issues, and then one day we get a shock to discover how far we have retreated for the light and happiness of Christ.
Loving God, how greatly we need you! We need to hear you calling for us, we need to hear you breaking through our barriers, and we need feel your hand stretched out to us where we crouch either sorry and bruised, or defiant and self justifying. We need the saving graces of the Christ who is both the Lamb of God and shepherd of the lost.
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world,
have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world,
have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world,
grant us your peace.
Sisters and brothers in Christ: Do not be anxious, do not be timid. Trust and welcome the unconditional forgiveness of God into your mind, and heart and soul. You are a forgiven family with a future that makes even the angels in heaven marvel and rejoice.
Thanks be to God.
PRAYER FOR CHILDREN
Dear God,
when people call Jesus
“the Lamb of God”
it sounds odd to us.
Lambs are okay
when they are gambolling
on green grass in springtime,
or if we have one for a pet.
But you know, God,
they are not very smart,
and they can’t do tricks and things.
Jesus isn’t like that.
He is so smart
in what he says and does
that he leaves even
the cleverest men and women
far behind;
like at the bottom of the class.
And yet,
he wants children like us
to come up front, close to him,
and he places loving hands on them
and blesses them?
We really, really like that,
God, you know?
Thanks.
Amen.
PSALM 40:1-11
I waited and waited for some action;
at last God bent down and heard me.
I was pulled out of the pit of despair,
lifted above the mud and slush.
My feet were set on solid rock
and I could walk with certainty.
God has placed a new song in my mouth,
put a new melody on my tongue.
Many will be surprised by this
and put their own lives in God’s hands.
If you want to know true wealth,
then it’s time to trust God,
who does not favour the arrogant
or those who chase after vanities.
You have heaped grace upon grace,
God, our very own God.
The joys you plan and do for us
cannot be matched anywhere.
If I tried to list and name them all,
they would blow the
mind.
You do not look for sacrifices or offerings,
but ears open like windows to the truth.
Grand gestures and gifts
are not required,
it is
enough that I come to you, God.
It’s as if the
Scriptures were written for me:
“From the heart’s depths, I delight
in your will.”
I have published the gospel of liberation
in the presence of the great congregation.
You can see that I cannot keep quiet,
you are well aware of that, God.
I have not kept it all to myself,
but spoken out for your healing truth.
Your unfettered love is not kept under
wraps,
in the congregation your true-love is known
For you, God, have never held back,
your mercy is always there for me.
Your unfettered love and faithfulness
will look after me forever!
Ó B D Prewer 2000
LAMB OF GOD
The Word as the Lamb,
God as a mere
child,
the
wounded healer
left
out in the cold.
Where else is such strength
so
gently supplied,
or
so much glory
so
quietly displayed?
Despised and rejected,
acquainted
with grief;
Man of our sorrows
bridging
the gulf.
The loving beauty
without
shade or sham.
The wisdom of God
bearing
our shame.
Wounded and bruised
by
the tough-willed;
denied and forsaken
yet saving the world.
Vulnerable then,
up
there on skull hill.
Love without limit
vulnerable
still.
Ó B D Prewer 2000
COLLECT
Lamb of God, for ever taking away the sin of the world,
please visit this congregation with your salvation.
Come with your almighty gentleness and lift from us the burden of everything
that discourages, bewilders, or makes us anxious. Come with your beauty and
induct us into your peace, strength and holy happiness. Lamb of God, evoke in us the want and the will to be the people you wish
us to be. To the praise of the Creator,
the Redeemer and the Inspirer! Amen!
SERMON 1a “LAMB OF GOD?” (longer version)
1
John: 29
“Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the
sins of the world.”
John the Baptist calls Jesus “the Lamb of God.”
It’s a strange phrase, if you stop and think about it. For most of us it is so familiar in Christian tradition that it does not surprise us. But for an outsider, it sounds definitely odd.
That goes for its pictorial representation also. Often Jesus is represented as a woolly sheep with a gentle face, and the base of a cross held between its front feet, or lying across its shoulder. Even for me, after years of familiarity, there is still something jarring about such pictorial representations of my Lord.
Why is this so?
Maybe it stems from the lack of affection that Australians, in general, have for sheep. We usually regard sheep as stupid creatures, following one another lemming-like across paddocks or into trouble. When driving along a country road and we encounter a flock, we proceed extra carefully, for although as we approach the whole flock may be located on one side of the road, it only needs one idiot to decide to cross in front of our motor car and whoosh! The whole mob will follow it!
Sheep appear to be over-endowed with the herd instinct, and are “intellectually challenged”. I have come across sheep that have blindly followed the leaders into a bog, and were trapped. They did not have the brains to stop when they saw the leaders get into trouble.
How does that fit Jesus? Lamb of God?
Was Jesus a creature governed by the herd instinct, blindly following others?
A simplistic and intellectually challenged guy?
Not likely!
Jesus of Nazareth defied the pressure from the “herd” and its leaders. He broke new ground, opened up new paths, and when necessary went on ahead all alone.
What is more, he was certainly “not intellectually challenged” but was a genius, creating a new way of understanding God, and talking about faith.
WHY STICK WITH THE PHRASE?
Why then do we stick with this archaic pastoral language of another culture and era?
!/ Because it is in the Bible; a valid part of our Scriptural resource.
2/ Because it has been a continuous part of Christian worship since early days. Woven into the fabric of 2,000 years of Christian devotion.
Lamb
of God, you take away the sins of the world,
Have
mercy on us.
Lamb
of God, you take away the sins of the world,
Have
mercy on us.
Lamb
of God, you take away the sins of the world,
Grant
us your peace.
Yet we must ask the hard question: “What does John mean by the phrase “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world?”
Frankly we are not sure. The meaning is not obvious. I was once in attendance at a seminar for ministers, being led by a New Testament scholar. He put the question to us: “What are the Old testament antecedents to describing Jesus as the Lamb of God.” It soon became apparent that we had many suggestions, but no clear front runnier. It sounded as if it has to do with sacrifices, made on an altar. Three possibilities were first aired.
1/ There is the story of Abraham, willing to offer his son as a sacrifice in obedience to God, who is forestalled by God providing a ram instead. Not a sin offering in this case.
2/ There are the thousands of lambs killed, and eaten, by Jewish families at the Passover Festival each year. This was a commemoration of the liberation of the Jews from slavery. But not in any way an offering to atone for sin.
3/ There was the once-a-year Day of Atonement, when a beast was driven into the wilderness, symbolically bearing the sins of the people on its shoulders. But this was not a lamb but a goat. Hence the phrase which is still used: “a scapegoat.”
4/ At the seminar those ministers present agreed that the most likely connection was in the famous 53rd chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah. This is the best known of the so-called “servant songs” of Isaiah. Here God’s special Servant is depicted as suffering on behalf of his people. You recall the words easily:
He
was despised and rejected of men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
Surely
he has born our griefs
and carried our sorrows.
But
he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities.
Upon
him was the chastisement that made us whole,
and with his stripes we are healed.
Like
a lamb that is lead to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers his dumb,
so he opened not his mouth.
That this Scripture was in the mind of John seems possible, mainly because Jesus himself definitely identified himself with the writings of Isaiah.
OUR EXPERIENCE OF THIS “BEARER OF SINS”
Certainly the later apostles of Jesus came to see their Christ as bearing the sins of the world on his shoulders, as he suffered on that terrible Cross at Golgotha. The various doctrines of “the atonement” that subsequently emerged throughout Christian history, treasured this phrase “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
Those of us who these days find many such theories of atonement historically conditioned and unhelpful for the current setting, nevertheless believe that in some remarkable way Christ Jesus does take away the sins of the world. Millions experience a sense if awesome release and peace as we say the ancient prayer:
Lamb
of God, you take away the sins of the world,
Have
mercy on us.
Lamb
of God, you take away the sins of the world,
Have
mercy on us.
Lamb
of God, you take away the sins of the world,
Grant
us your peace.
I cannot offer you any neat interpretation; no new theory of the atonement. But I can testify that in the presence of Jesus, our crucified and risen Saviour, the burden of sin is still lifted away and we experience liberation.
Somehow sheer love, that perfect love such as Jesus alone gave, is the sure way that the evil of the world is tackled and its oppressive power removed.
SIN-BEARING PRECEDED THE CROSS
Of course, it began to happen long before he was arrested and killed. Jesus was good at releasing people from their sin and guilt.
When Jesus went to dinner with tax gatherers and other sinners, his very identification with them and loving respect for them. lifted the burden from their shoulders. In the case of those people like Zacchaeas, he set them free to live an open and generous life.
In the face of criticism, Jesus dared to speak direct words of forgiveness, and break the vicious circle of evil. He could say to a crippled man, and to a repentant harlot, “your sins are forgiven you,” and they really were forgiven. The crippled man standing up and leaping with joy testified to this forgiveness.
Jesus took the burden of sin on to his own shoulders. In a world where people are out to blame someone for evil, passing the buck constantly in condemnation of one another, Jesus said “Let the buck stop here. Once and for all, let the buck stop here!” If that is what it takes, then I will give my life on a horrible cross to set you free.
Jesus was ready to take frustration and the anger and the blame.
THIS WAS GODS DOING
This was God’s doing. Not just Jesus, but God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. Jesus was not acting to change God’s mind, but to express God’s mind. The Lamb of God is the one Person in whom the very essence of God chose to dwell in remarkable totality. God is the redeemer. Jesus, the Lamb of God, is the Holy One’s closet, most intimate, entry into our human predicament. And by that event we are healed.
The cross is the place where God bears the sins of the world.
Since then the “gallows” of the Lamb of God, although displaying human evil at its most depraved, has become for us the sign of love, healing and peace.
Those gallows now crown the apex of many of our houses of worship.
They are carried on gold chains and worn around our necks.
In countries where believers are persecuted, they are worn secretly next to the heart.
These gallows adorn the vestments of clergy and are placed on our most precious altars.
We chisel the sign of the gallows on to the tomb stones of our dear and holy dead.
On ambulances the gallows are painted as a sign of mercy.
We even name them in a constellation of stars in the Southern skies.
The phrase “lamb of God” may indeed sound odd to the uninitiated, especially to sheep despising Australians.
The words may give a headache to New Testament scholars trying to track down its origins in Old Testament Scriptures.
But to those who have met this Holy Lamb, they know they are at the point where the Creator of all things is also become the Redeemer of all. Therefore, no person is hopeless, and “all things are being made young again and are returning to their perfection."
SERMON 1: LAMB OF GOD? (shorter version)
1 John: 29
“Behold the lamb of God, who
takes away the sins of the world.”
John the Baptist calls Jesus “the Lamb of God.”
It’s an odd saying, if you stop and think about it.
That goes for its pictorial representation also. Jesus is represented as a woolly sheep with a
gentle face, and the base of a cross held between its front feet, or lying
across its shoulder. Even for me, after years of familiarity, there is still
something jarring about such pictorial representations of my Lord.
Why is this so?
Maybe it stems from the lack of affection that Australians, in
general, have for sheep. We usually regard sheep as stupid creatures, following
one another (lemming-like) across paddocks or into trouble. When driving along
a country road and we encounter a flock, we proceed extra carefully, for
although as we approach the whole flock may be located on one side of the road,
it only needs one idiot to decide to cross in front of our motor car and
whoosh! The whole mob will follow it!
Sheep appear to be over-endowed with the herd instinct, and
under-endowed with brains.
How does that fit Jesus? Lamb of God?
Was Jesus a creature governed by the herd instinct, blindly
following others?
A simplistic and intellectually challenged guy?
Not likely!
Jesus of Nazareth defied the pressure from the “herd” and its
leaders. He broke new ground, opened up new paths, and when necessary went on
ahead all alone.
What is more, he was certainly “not intellectually challenged”
but was a genius, creating a new way of understanding God, and talking about faith.
WHY STICK WITH THE PHRASE?
Why then do we stick with this archaic pastoral language of
another culture and era?
!/ Because it is in the NT ; I refuse to
ignore any NT texts. T hey may
not always suit me, but one must reckon with them
2/ Because it has been a continuous part
of Christian worship since early days. Woven into the fabric
of 2,000 years of Christian devotion.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world,
Grant us your peace.
However, we must ask the hard question: “What does John mean
by the phrase “Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world?”
Frankly we are not sure. The meaning is not obvious. There are various
possibilities.
1/ There is the story of Abraham, willing to offer his son as a
sacrifice in obedience to God, who is forestalled by God providing a ram
instead. Not a sin offering in this case.
2/ There are the thousands of lambs killed, and eaten, by Jewish
families at the Passover Festival each year. This was a commemoration of the
liberation of the Jews from slavery. But not in any way an
offering to atone for sin.
3/ There was the once-a-year Day of Atonement, when a beast was
driven into the wilderness, symbolically bearing the sins of the people on its
shoulders. But this was not a lamb but a goat. Hence the phrase which is still
used: “a scapegoat.”
4/ The most likely connection is in the
famous 53rd chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah.
He was despised and rejected of men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with
grief.
Surely he has born our griefs
and carried our sorrows.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities.
Upon him was the chastisement that made us whole,
and with his stripes we are healed.
Like a lamb that is lead to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its
shearers his dumb,
so he opened not his mouth.
That this Scripture was in the mind of John seems possible,
mainly because Jesus himself closely identified with the writings of Isaiah.
OUR EXPERIENCE OF THIS “BEARER OF SINS”
Certainly the later apostles of Jesus came to see their Christ as
bearing the sins of the world on his shoulders, as he suffered on that terrible
Cross at Golgotha. The various doctrines of “the atonement” that subsequently
emerged throughout Christian history, treasured this phrase “Behold the lamb of
God, who takes away the sin of the world.”
These days I find many such theories of atonement historically
twisted, and unhelpful for the current world. Yet in some remarkable way Christ Jesus
does take away the sins of the world. Millions experience a sense awesome
release and peace as we say the ancient prayer:
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world,
Have mercy on us.
Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world,
Grant us your peace.
I cannot offer you any neat interpretation; no new theory of the
atonement. But I can testify that in the
presence of Jesus, our crucified and risen Saviour, the burden of sin is still
lifted away and we experience liberation.
Somehow sheer love, that perfect love such as Jesus alone gave,
is the sure way that the evil of the world is tackled and its oppressive power
removed.
THIS WAS GODS DOING
This was God’s doing. Not just Jesus,
but God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.
Jesus was not acting to change God’s mind, but to express God’s mind.
Jesus, the Lamb of God, is the Holy
One’s closet, most intimate, entry into our human predicament. And by that
event we are healed.
The cross is the place where God
bears the sins of the world.
Since then the cross, those
bloody gallows, although displaying
human evil at its most depraved, has become for us the sign of love, healing
and peace.
The phrase “lamb of God” may indeed
sound odd to the uninitiated, especially to sheep- ignoring Australians. Also
the words may give a headache to New Testament scholars trying to track down
its origins in Old Testament Scriptures.
But to those who have met this Holy
Lamb, they know they are at the crux of all things, where the Creator of all
things is also the Redeemer of all. Therefore, no person is hopeless, and “all things are
being made young again and are returning to their perfection."
SERMON 2 a :
CALLED AND EQUIPPED (longer version )
Isaiah 49: 1b & 6
God called me from the womb,
from the body of my mother he named my name.
Isaiah 49:1b
God said: It is not enough for you to be my
servant and revive the tribes of Jacob, and bring home the survivors of Israel.
I shall make you a light for all nations, so that my liberation and healing may
reach the remotest places on earth. Isaiah 49:6
Called. Isaiah was a called man. Called to be a prophet to his nation.
Friends, do not envy those who are called by God to prominent tasks.
I well know it is easy to fall into envy; I have found myself in that situation at times. We know how the sneaky voice of envy whispers: “Why are they in the limelight, their names well known, people hanging on their words, while we give of our best and rarely get any recognition?”
Maybe we should count ourselves fortunate if our calling is more modest. The bigger the task, the bigger the discipline, the self sacrifice, the responsibility, and larger the wear and tear.
I think of a joyful man like Desmond Tutu; the very essence of fun and laughter. Yet he is also the leader who weeps copious tears. When he chaired the “Truth and Justice Commission” in South Africa, (or was it the Truth and Reconciliation Commission?) the tears he shed with and for people brought before the Commission, were not gentle little melancholy trickles, but scolding tears that flowed up from the agonising travail of his spirit.
I repeat: do not envy those whom God has called to special and powerful work.
CALLED AND EQUIPPED
Back to the book of Isaiah, and to that remarkable prophet responsible for chapter 49, who predicts to coming of a unique servant whom God will send.
In this poem (Yes poem ! Isaiah is a major poet) you will notice that when God calls a person, that person is then equipped for the task. Often this means that the Spirit of God enhances and hones those gifts which the person has, or in some cases adds new gifts appropriate to the calling.
The person described in Isaiah 49 is well equipped. His capacity as a speaker is trained. In the secret times of meditation and prayer, God teaches him what to say:
He
made my mouth as sharp as a sword,
he worked secretly with me in the shade of his hand,
He
fashioned me into a smooth arrow
and concealed me in
his quiver.
We are not called by God to any particular task without being given the necessary equipment. God knows us better than we know ourselves. We may not think we are up to it. But we are. If we are called, we are up to it.
That applies to the person who is called to be an elder in the church, as to the person nudged by God into visiting a new arrival in the street. It applies to those who are called the preach sermons as well as those who are called to take office in the Trade Union movement. If God calls you to be a nurse, you can do it, and if God calls you to teach in Sunday School, you can do it. Most importantly, if God calls you to be a Christian then you will be equipped to be a Christian.
Jesus was equipped. Prior to these words being spoken of him, “Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” there had been many years of preparation.
We hear of Jesus at the age of 12. When we next hear of him he is about 29-30 years. What had he been doing in that time?
We have no details of the so called “hidden years”.
Maybe he spent all those years working as a carpenter. Maybe he was an elder in his local synagogue. Maybe he studied with the monks in the monasteries of the wilderness. Maybe he visited Egypt or Greece.
However, wherever Jesus was in those hidden years, whatever he was doing, God was equipping him for the most remarkable ministry this planet has seen. The Lamb of God was wonderfully ready for his ministry.
Those whom God calls are equipped.
WASTED EFFORTS?
That does not mean that everything will be easy, or that things will turn out exactly as we expected. To be called does not mean an armchair ride to success.
Listen to
Isaiah’s voice: But I said:
“All my efforts have been useless,
I
have exhausted myself for nothing but hot air.
Yet
I thought my cause was God’s,
and that God would give me some success.”
Does that ring any bells with you? When you have given your very best for God, but all your sweat and tears seem to have come to nothing???
There are times when our best efforts appear wasted. It’s as if there is somewhere hidden in the midst of life, a big black hole, down which many of our endeavours disappear, sometimes without so much as a gurgle.
We will often be disappointed, don’t allow yourself to get disheartened. Success is not at all obvious. Sometimes we do our best and we see some fruits. Other times we do our best and there seems to be no harvest whatsoever.
You are in good company with people like Isaiah, Moses, Jeremiah, Elijah, and John the Baptist. Take heart. Or as Jesus said to his friends when he was facing imminent execution: “Cheer up, you lot!” No effort for God is wasted. Nothing is lost.
A SUFFERING MESSIAH
The prophet may have felt he had failed, but he hadn’t! This Isaiah achieved a major break-through in the understanding of salvation. He came to see that suffering could be redemptive.
Most people want to sing of a mighty, conquering hero, coming to save the people. A military Messiah, a Superman. But hit on the idea that God’s servant messiah might in fact be “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” Who “like a lamb led the slaughter, does not open his mouth” to curse his assailants.
Uncannily
Isaiah anticipates Jesus. Jesus in turn nurtured his spirit on Isaiah. I
believe it helped him understand the path he must tread when mass popularity
gave way to malicious rumours and death plots. “The son of man came not to be served; but to serve and give his life as
a ransom for many.”
When we hear Isaiah protesting about his own uselessness, remember Jesus. Remember how in the never-wasteful economy of God’s kingdom, the work of Isaiah became an agent of the future. There was never a cosmic plug hole that swallowed up Isaiah’s efforts; they rested in the hands of that remarkable providential Power we call God. And in God’s hands all was woven into the redemptive future.
NOT ENOUGH
There is one other thing I want you to notice in this piece of Scripture. The reward for the prophet’s faithfulness, for his exhaustion, was more increased responsibility:
God said: It is not enough for you to be my
servant and revive the tribes of Jacob, and bring home the survivors of Israel.
I shall make you a light for all nations, so that my liberation and healing may
reach the remotest places on earth
Light for
Israel was not enough. God’s called a nation, and God’s called the prophet, so
that the entire world should receive the light.
Too often the Hebrew people misinterpreted their calling. They thought to be God’s chosen people was a sign of favouritism. They preened themselves and thought themselves superior to the Gentiles.
Isaiah was given the unpopular message that the Jew was called to be the servant of other people.
The mind and soul of the Isaiah was stretched to the limit. God’s holy Servant would be for everyone. The Lamb of God takes away the sin (not just of the chosen people) but of the world.
To enjoy being the people of Israel, was not enough. Just as for us, to lap up being the church is not enough. We are called to share the light with others.
OUR CHRISTIAN MISSION
The same
applies to us as Christians. William
Temple, that most wonderful Archbishop of Canterbury in the middle of the last
century, made a stunning claim: The
church is the only organisation which exists entirely for non-members.”
It is not
enough to have a comfortable and comforting church, where we preach to each
other the grace of God in Christ, pray for each other, serve each other, and
share each other’s joys and sorrows. That is not enough. Like the Jews, we exist to bring the Light of
God to the world.
To paraphrase the text from Isaiah:
God said: It is not enough for you Christians to be my servants and revive the church, and bring back the backsliders. I shall make you a light for all nations, so that my liberation and healing may reach the remotest places on earth.
Called. We are called.
Today, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Look on him and rejoice. ou have a million reasons to be happy. But that is not enough. Remember the love of your Awesome Friend belongs to the world.
SERMON 2b
(shorter version.) CALLED AND EQUIPPED
Isaiah 49: 1b & 6
God called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. Isaiah 49:1b
God said: It is not enough for
you to be my servant and revive the tribes of Jacob, and bring home the
survivors of Israel. I shall make you a light for all nations, so that my
liberation and healing may reach the remotest places on earth. Isaiah 49:6
Called. Isaiah was
a called man. Called to be a prophet to his nation.
Friends, do not envy those who are called by God to prominent
tasks.
Maybe we should count ourselves fortunate if our calling is more
modest. The bigger the task, the bigger the discipline, the
self sacrifice, the responsibility, and larger the wear and tear.
I think of a joyful man like Desmond Tutu; the very essence of
fun and laughter. Yet he is also the leader who weeps copious tears. When he
chaired the “Truth and Justice Commission” in South Africa, (or was it the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission?) the tears he shed with and for people
brought before the Commission, were not gentle little melancholy
trickles, but scolding tears that flowed up from the agonising travail of his
spirit.
I repeat: do not envy those whom God has called to special and
powerful work.
CALLED AND EQUIPPED
In this poem of Isaiah (Yep, poem !
Isaiah is a major poet) you will read that when God calls a person, that person
is then equipped for the task. If you are called to a task you are enabled
The ‘suffering servant” described in Isaiah 49 is well equipped.
His capacity as a speaker is trained. In the secret times of meditation and
prayer, God teaches him what to say:
He made my mouth as sharp as a sword,
he
worked secretly with me in the shade of his hand,
He fashioned me into a smooth arrow
and
concealed me in his quiver.
God knows us better than we know ourselves. We may not think we
are up to what God asks of us, But we are. If we are called, we are
up to it. That applies to church elder or priest, pastoral worker, or member in
a Trade Union. If God calls you to be a nurse, you can do it, and if God calls
you to teach in Sunday School, you can do it.
Jesus was equipped. We hear of Jesus at the age of 12. When we
next hear of him he is about 29-30 years.
What had he been doing in that time? We have no details of the so called
“hidden years”.
However, whatever Jesus was up to in those hidden years, God was
equipping him for the most remarkable ministry this planet has seen. The Lamb
of God was wonderfully ready for his ministry.
Those whom God calls are equipped.
NOT ALL ROSES
That does not mean that everything will
ROSES. To be called does not mean an armchair ride to success. Hard toil,
abuse, rejection and
maybe a feeling of wasted efforts can come with the package.
Listen again to Isaiah’s voice:
“All my efforts have been useless,
I have exhausted myself for nothing but hot air.
Yet I thought my cause was God’s,
and that God would give me some
success.”
Does that ring any bells with you? When you have given your very
best for God, but all your sweat and tears seem to have come to nothing?
Please, don’t allow yourself to get disheartened. Success is not
always obvious. Sometimes we do our best
and we actually see some fruits. Great! Other times we do our best and there
seems to be no harvest whatsoever. That is still great!
You are in good company with people like Isaiah, Moses, Jeremiah,
Elijah, and John the Baptist. Take
heart. No effort for God is wasted. Nothing is lost.
NOT ENOUGH
There is one other thing I want you to notice in this piece of
Scripture. The reward for the prophet’s
faithfulness, for his exhaustion, was more increased responsibility:
God said: It is not enough for
you to be my servant and revive the tribes of Jacob, and bring home the
survivors of Israel. I shall make you a light for all nations, so that my
liberation and healing may reach the remotest places on earth
Light for Israel was not enough. God’s called a nation, and God’s
called the prophet, so that the entire world should receive the light.
Too often the Hebrew people misinterpreted their calling. They
thought to be God’s chosen people was a sign of
favouritism. They preened themselves and thought themselves superior to the
Gentiles.
Isaiah was given the unpopular message that the Jew was called to
be the servant of other people.
The Lamb of God takes away the sin (not just of the chosen
people) but of the world.
To enjoy
being the people of Israel, was not enough. Just as for us, to
lap up being the
church is not enough. We
are called to share the light with others.
It is not enough to have a comfortable and comforting church,
where we preach to each other the grace of God in Christ, pray for each other,
serve each other, and share each other’s joys and sorrows. That is not
enough. Like the Jews, we exist to bring
the Light of God to the world.
To paraphrase the text from Isaiah:
God said: It is not enough for
you Christians to be my servants and revive the church, and bring back the
backsliders. I shall make you a light for all nations, so that my liberation and
healing may reach the remotest places on earth.
Called. We are
called. We are called to be little Christ’s; agents of the the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
Look on him and rejoice. You have a million reasons to be happy.
But that is not enough. Remember the love of your Awesome Friend belongs to the
world.
THANKSGIVING
We thank you, most wonderful God, for your providence in
calling Abraham and Sarah to be the beginning of a chosen Hebrew people:
The joys you plan and do for us
cannot be matched anywhere.
If I tried to list
and name them all,
they would
blow the mind.
We thank you that when your people were slaves in Egypt,
you planned their liberation by providing the child Moses and his sister Miriam
to watch out for his safety.
The joys you plan and do for us
cannot be matched anywhere.
If I tried to list
and name them all,
they would blow the mind.
We thank you for caring for outsiders like the Caananite woman Rahab, and the
Moabite woman Ruth, and for giving them a place in the family tree of
salvation.
The joys you plan and do for us
cannot be matched anywhere.
If I tried to list
and name them all,
they would
blow the mind.
We thank you for poets like David and prophets like Isaiah,
who witnessed to your loving kindness and pointed your people to the glory that
was to come.
The joys you plan and do for us
cannot be matched anywhere.
If I tried to list
and name them all
, they would blow the mind.
We thank you for John the Baptist, who in a moment of
Spirit-given insight pointed others to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin
of the world.
The joys you plan and do for us
cannot be matched anywhere.
If I tried to list
and name them all,
they would
blow the mind.
Most of all we thank you for Jesus, the unique Lamb of God.
For all that he was, for all that he did, and for all that he still is and does
among us today. He is the great love of our lives and the life of our love.
Thanks and praise be you for your unspeakable gift!
The joys you plan and do for us
cannot be matched anywhere.
If I tried to list
and name them all,
they would
blow the mind.
PRAYERS FOR OTHERS
God’s love is for all people.
Let us pray.
Lamb of God, please enable us to co-operate with your ministry in the lives of people around us.
Let us be your ears, eyes and hands:
With the friends whom we have taken for granted.
With enemies whom we have ignored or derided.
With
work colleagues of whom we have been jealous.
With
the folk we forget to thank in shops, garages and banks.
Lamb of God, help us to share your respect and love:
With
ethnic groups whose differences make us feel uneasy.
With
politicians whom we elect then endlessly criticise.
With other churches for whom we might have shown little respect.
With
the sorry millions whom we will never meet
yet whose poverty,
hunger, disease, and oppression
cry out for our
compassion.
Jesus of Nazareth, Lamb of God, may those who cry to you be willing to accept the help you offer, even though it comes at a cost.
May those who do cannot seem to believe in you, or do not want to believe in you, receive your blessing unawares.
May those who, deeply hurt and angry, curse their God, find themselves this very day embraced by your grace.
Lamb of God, you share the pain and bear the shame of the world, continue to have mercy on us all, and grant us your peace. For your love’s sake.
Amen!
SENDING OUT
Look on the Lamb of God and be at peace, my friends.
As you go from this sanctuary, do not go as slaves, fearfully obedient to a hard master.
Go as the free children of God, who are loved with a depthless and everlasting love.
Serve God gladly,
serve your neighbour lovingly,
serve your loved ones thankfully,
and serve yourself most kindly.
Amen!
The love of the Holy God surround you,
the love of the Holy Christ redeem you,
and the love of the Holy Spirit indwell you,
now and evermore.
Now
and evermore.
Amen!
THREE BOOKS BY BRUCE PREWER
THAT ARE CURRENTLY AVAILABLE
BY ORDERING ONLINE
OR FROM YOUR LOCAL CHRISTIAN BOOKSHOP
